In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 201: Fixer Uppers

GINNY:

"Just one more time," he said with a charming, disarming smile. "Just one more. Come, tell me more about Harry Potter while we walk."

I shook my head. "No. No, I don't want to. I don't want to, you can't make me."

"I'm afraid I can, darling. When I make you, though, you don't really get to see what you're doing. Why be the one to carry out Salazar Slytherin's noble work when you don't even get to witness it firsthand?"

"I don't want to," I repeated.

"What you want or don't want is of no importance to me." Tom Riddle was still smiling. "You invited me in. This is about what I want. And what I want... well, you'll just have to find out what I want. Come along, Ginny Weasley. I want you to see this."

I tried to resist, but he tugged me along, a grown man leading a little girl by the hand into something horrific. The scene came into focus around me a little at a time.

Lucy — a younger, happier Lucy — was walking down one of the castle's corridors with Harry — a younger, happier Harry — at her side, both in rain-soaked Quidditch robes, both laughing. Neither one seeing us, or the basilisk behind us. Neither one stopping, neither one aware of the death lurking just at the end of the corridor.

"But why?" I asked, watching helplessly as Lucy stepped closer, closer, closer to her doom. "Neither one is Muggle-born. Why Harry? Why Lucy?"

There was no answer from the man beside me.

"Why Lucy?" I demanded.

"You tell me," he replied in a sickeningly casual tone. "This is your nightmare, after all."

I turned, throwing punches at the Slytherin robes, too small to reach his face, too small to do any real damage, but wanting — no, needing — to try to fight anyway. "I want to wake up! I want to wake up!"

"Haven't I told you, Ginny Weasley?" He placed two fingers on my forehead and pushed me away, just far enough that none of my blows could land. His smile was still firmly in place. Still maddeningly calm, cool, collected, in control. "This is about what I want."

"No," I moaned, still struggling against his two-finger trap, still trying to hit him, to break through. "No. Not her. Don't you dare. No. No. Stop."

"I think you're telling the wrong person to 'stop,' Ginny darling."

I whirled around and started frantically waving my arms at Lucy and Harry. "Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!"

But they didn't see me. They didn't hear me. They just kept coming, closer and closer, to certain death. Certain death that I brought.

"I'm sorry." Sobs tore from my throat as I crumpled to my knees on the stone floor. "I'm sorry. Please. Please stop. I'm sorry, I didn't want this, I'm sorry — "

With a sharp jolt, the dream disappeared and Lucy — older, less happy, but very much alive — was in front of me, one hand clutching mine and the other hand shaking me.

I choked out a sob and launched myself forward, burying my face against Lucy's neck.

"Shh, it's okay, it's alright, just a nightmare, you're safe," Lucy whispered as she held me to her. "You're safe, Gin, you're safe."

I couldn't find the words to tell Lucy that it wasn't the threat to my safety that terrified me so. I couldn't bring myself to even speak that danger into existence. Lucy was safe with me, she was safe from me, I had done so much to try to make that the reality. It was my Animagus form, my Beater's bat, my willingness to follow her anywhere into anything, my determination to find the good in every situation and create it where I couldn't find it, even just my proximity to her that protected her at school. I didn't even want to confess the fear that plagued my nightmares, just in case a malicious or mischievous cosmic entity was listening and decided it was a good idea to turn that fear against me, against her.