Darkest Desire - English

14

"I'll put a sticky curse on you if you try to slip away from us again," Ginny threatened with her wand raised. Surrendering, Liz dropped back into the chair. Her friends had tracked her down in the library and were taking her to task. "What's going on between you and Riddle?"

Ginny sat down on the table, pushing all the books aside as Luna pulled up a chair.

"I don't know either, okay?" Exhausted, Liz hung her head.

"You're not getting away from us that easily," Ginny insisted. "I've heard such a variety of rumors that it's absolutely unacceptable not to know the truth! Is there something going on? Is he blackmailing you with something?"

Liz eyed the serious face of the youngest Weasley. Ginny was clearly right in Gryffindor with her courage and brash manner. There was no point in avoiding her any longer. In the end, more evasion would only make her more curious.
"Remember how I was talking about that weird pen pal thing?"

"That was him?" squeaked Ginny a little too loudly and immediately leaned down further, repeating "That was him?" again more quietly.

"At least I thought it was." Liz grew meek. She had to be careful not to give too much away. "But it was someone else. Only I didn't know that when I confronted him, well and of course I thought he was messing with me when he said he had no idea and," she sighed. Her friends were hanging on her lips in anticipation. "I threw the book at him."

"You threw it at Riddle?" Luna moved closer. "That was pretty stupid of you."
"That wasn't just stupid, that was life threatening!" Ginny almost slid onto Liz's lap, so close she was now. "How could you do that?"

"I thought it was him in the book, that we were friends. If I had even suspected it was someone else, I never would have dared do something like that," Liz defended herself. It was true. If it had even occurred to her that it wasn't Mattheo she was writing with....
"I guess he just enjoys teasing me? After all, I was the first one who dared to treat him like that."

"And why has he been so strange after the ritual?", Luna wanted to know.

That was the only question Liz had already thought of an answer to. "He saw in the memory that I thought he was the person from the book. It rubbed him the wrong way, how silly I acted that weekend, all the while thinking I was writing to him."

"What did you write to him?" asked Luna but a realization began to show on Ginny's face.

"You were flirting with him."

Liz kneaded her hands in her lap. "It looked that way to him, at least."

"And he didn't like that?" wanted to know Luna, who didn't understand the problem. Ginny, after all, kept flirting - or at least tried to.

"Is it because you're not like the rest of your family?" poked Ginny further.

Liz had to be careful how far she stretched that lie. Too many details always carried the risk of her forgetting or confusing something.

"I'm not sure exactly what it was. We were interrupted by Peeves."

"You're really lucky there. Who knows what Riddle would have done to you otherwise," Ginny growled angrily.

***************And Timejump for Christmas, because I'm a Lazy Bitch(TM).

The pub was musty warm and so packed with people that you couldn't see all the way to the bar. But Liz didn't need to reach the bar, either. Sitting at a table in a windowed alcove were the usual suspects.

"Princess!" the old man with the gold tooth called out. Edwin Roames had lived in Hogsmeade since birth and was something of a plumber. Next to him sat his brother Roland. The local exterminator with his wife Simone, who made sure Roland didn't blow up a house one day after all.