Riddled

|10| Roommates and Howlers

When Ginny awoke the next morning, she instantly searched with her hand under her mattress for the diary. But when her fingers closed around the leathery material, she felt an uneasy sensation bubbling in her stomach. Tom had frightened her last night. How could he know those sorts of things, like what had happened to Ron and Harry? Maybe "Tom Riddle" was just someone at Hogwarts messing with her, using magic to write to her in a diary. It was probably Fred and George. They would've been able to interrogate Ron and Harry when they arrived last night in the boys' dormitories. It would be easy for them to make an enchanted diary; they were much more advanced in magic than Ginny and they were clever pranksters. And the "favor" that "Tom" need to ask her was probably some clever trick that Fred and George had fabricated that would end up with Ginny locked in a closet somewhere, a fool. Ginny got out of bed and dressed, deciding to never write in the diary again. If whoever was messing with her couldn't communicate with her anymore, they'd eventually give up, and the whole thing would blow over.

Ginny saw Wendy Abbot sit up in bed and yawn.

"Morning," said Wendy. "You're Ginny Weasley, right?"

Ginny nodded. "And you're Wendy Abbot?"

Wendy nodded and her curly hair bounced. "Yup," she chirped. "And that's Natalie Bates," she said, pointing to the girl on the other side of the room, who was rummaging through her trunk.

"Hi," said Natalie, looking up at Ginny under a curtain of black hair. "Sorry. I'm a little preoccupied. I've got Transfiguration first, but I can't find my book."

"Here, I'll help," offered Ginny, crouching next to Natalie.

"Thanks," said Natalie. "Oh, and Wendy's the only one who calls me Natalie. Everyone else calls me Nat.

They looked through the contents of the trunk. Ginny came across a framed photograph of a younger Nat wearing pigtails. Beside her was a boy with the same olive skin and jet-black hair as Nat.

"Oh!" said Ginny. "He came after you at the Sorting, right? Is he your brother? You have the same last name."

Nat shook her head. "He's my cousin, and my best friend. His name's Rufus," she said.

"I thought I was supposed to be your best friend," said Wendy.

"Well, yeah," said Nat. "But Rufus and I are really close too... But," she said, her tone more serious as she turned back to Ginny, "I'm in Gryffindor and he's in Hufflepuff, so I guess we won't be seeing much of each other." She let out a sigh.

"Natalie's in love with him!" Wendy blurted. Nat blushed furiously.

"No I'm not, Wendy, shut up!" said Nat.

"Whatever. Hey, Ginny?" said Wendy.

"Yeah?" said Ginny, looking at Wendy.

"Your brother's cute."

"Ummm..." said Ginny, feeling awkward. "Which one?"

"The one with the red hair."

"They all have red hair."

"Well then all of them. All of them are cute."

"Ewww!" said Nat, perched on her bed. "Wendy, you're gross!"

"What about you, Ginny?" asked Wendy. "Do you fancy anyone?"

"Ummm..." said Ginny again. What was she supposed to say?

"Like... I don't know, maybe... Harry Potter?" said Wendy. Ginny's heart pounded.

"W-what?" she stammered. "I-um-" Wendy burst into laughter.

"I'm only joking!" Wendy's voice was lost in giggles. "He's a complete toad!"

"Oh, yes!" said Nat. "I've seen photographs of him- like that one of him with Gilderoy Lockhart in Flourish and Blotts, that was in the Daily Prophet, front page! Potter's a troll!"

Ginny let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't thrilled that Wendy and Nat spoke nastily of Harry, but it was better than if they knew her secret. She laughed along nervously with them, hoping she didn't sound fake. Wendy and Nat seemed a little dramatic, but nice enough. Besides, she didn't want to have any enemies in her dormitory, where she'd have to see them every day and sleep in the same room as them...

"We'd better get down to breakfast," said Nat, after falling off her bed laughing.

When they descended down the stairs that led out of the girls' dormitories, they saw that the Gryffindor common room was full of people.

"What's going on?" asked Ginny.

"Look!" said Nat. "Isn't that your brother, Ginny?"

Sure enough, what seemed to be the entire population of the Gryffindor house was gathered around Ron, who was basking in his limelight moment. Beside him was Harry, who looked uncomfortable. When Ron spotted Ginny, he ran over to her, pushing through the crowd.

"Ginny! Guess what?" he said. "Yesterday we couldn't get to platform nine and three quarters because it wouldn't open, so we borrowed Dad's car and flew all the way here! Only we crashed the car into the Whomping Willow and we almost died because it attacked us, but we got away! Then Snape found us and tried to get us expelled, but then we talked to Dumbledore and we only got detention!"

"Mum's going to have a fit, Ron," Ginny snapped. She'd already heard this story from "Tom" last night and she felt exasperated.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Don't be so uptight, Ginny," he said. "It's unbecoming." Then he sauntered back to his adoring fans.

"Sorry about him," said Ginny, turning back to Wendy and Nat. "He gets a little bigheaded sometimes..."

"I still think he's cute," sighed Wendy.

"Ew. Gross. Stop," said Ginny. "Let's just go have breakfast, okay?"

Wendy and Nat nodded.

But breakfast was worse. Everything was going well, until the post arrived. The Weasleys' owl, Errol, flew clumsily into the Great Hall, and instead of landing gracefully like the rest of the owls, he simply flopped down with a great thud as though he was dead. He was holding a red envelope in his beak- a Howler. Ginny cringed and tried to hide under her crimson hair as Ron peeled open the letter. The room exploded with Molly Weasley's shrill yell. Ginny was thankful she wasn't the one in trouble, though it was still embarrassing. Everyone knew she was a Weasley, everyone knew she was related to Ron...

"...STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW THAT IT HAD GONE..."

Silverware clattered on the table. Mrs. Weasley's voice shook the walls of the Great Hall. A few people looked scared, others were pointing at Ron and snickering. The Howler continued, Mrs. Weasley's screech intensifying.

"...LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED..."

Ginny clapped her hands over her ears, though it wasn't much use.

"ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED, YOUR FATHER'S FACING AND ENQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."

The Howler hissed and became a small cluster of flames before it died down and became ashes.

"Well," said Ron, "I think I'll stay at Hogwarts this Christmas." A few people laughed and gradually the Great Hall regained its usual noise of chatter, as though the Howler was something that had happened a very long time ago, though Ginny could still feel her face burning.

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author's note

The Howler message is a direct quote from Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, page 69. I could've recreated the message but I can't do better than Queen Rowling, I guess. Thanks for reading! Vote if you like what you see and let me know what you think in the comments!

xoxo zoe