Shadows

Chapter Ten: Checkmate

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." - Marcus Aurelius

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Ginny woke and rolled to her side, and noticed Shikoba sleeping peacefully on her pillow. Her eyes widened, and she jumped out of her bed. The bird slowly opened an eye to look at her, and then fell back asleep. But the shaken girl could feel her body trembling. She'd slept with that thing in her bed. She didn't know what it was...or, a much scarier thought, who it was. She had decided not to trust it, but then...last night...

Riddle had tricked her.

How have I tricked you?

"You convinced me to trust it..." said Ginny, gasping for air. It felt as though her anger was fiery enough to burn off her oxygen.

I simply told you to trust yourself. If your judgment was incorrect, then it was you who tricked yourself.

"You convinced me," Ginny insisted. "I don't know how you did it, or why, but somehow you got into my mind and made me trust it."

It would seem I am already inside your mind, Ginevra.

"Shut up," Ginny muttered. "Just leave me alone, okay? Just for one day. Leave me the hell alone."

She threw open her dresser, grabbed some clothes, and then moved it back to the side of the room it normally belonged. Then she left her room, not even glancing back at the bird inside it. Riddle said a few more cryptic things to her, but she ignored the comments and took a bath.

The steam that was rising up from the bath smelled sweet from the salts she'd poured in, a floral scent that was part rose and part lavender. She let the heat seep into her body and relax her constantly aching muscles. She closed her eyes and just...breathed. All she did was breathe.

She'd been lucky that thus far Riddle hadn't tried talking to her when she was bathing, or changing. Ginny wasn't sure if she could deal with anything like that. It was already obvious he had more power over her than she thought; she didn't want him to gloat about it while she was nude and vulnerable.

Once she was finished bathing, she changed into fresh clothing. She'd been wearing the same sort of clothes over and over again. But now she put on a clean set of olive robes. She braided her long, red hair and then twisted it into a bun. And then she began down the stairs for breakfast.

It wasn't as though Ginny felt any better than she had the last few weeks. But practicing with George had somehow pulled her out of her repetition. She still couldn't bring herself to smile or feel any sort of hope of escaping Riddle, but she could wash and dress and eat. She wasn't sure what else she was capable of. Perhaps she could ask Hermione to bring her some books for research, but it felt as though that would be completely in vain. Ginny had already done the research and nothing had come of it.

But then, she had never looked up anything to do with someone leaving part of their soul in a person. Maybe if she looked up something on possession...but then, possession was different from Horcruxes, wasn't it?

Was that what she was? Was she a Horcrux?

Of course, she was, or at least...something like it. That was why Riddle had pointed out the fact that she'd killed the chickens, wasn't it? Maybe he'd turned her into some sort of...miniature Horcrux. He'd left part of his soul in her, after all.

But that meant that the only way to be free was to stab herself with a basilisk fang, or the Sword of Gryffindor.

How poetic it would be for a Gryffindor to end her life with his sword.