Riddled

|21| Percy's Secret

"Everything out of my trunk, all over the floor!" said Harry. The usual group was seated in the Great Hall eating breakfast. He and Ron were telling Hermione about how Harry had found his dormitory ransacked the night before. Ginny stirred her oatmeal around with a spoon, pretending not to listen. She was racked with guilt.

"Was anything stolen?" Hermione asked, wide-eyed and curious. Ginny's stomach churned.

"Nothing, except for-" Harry leaned over to Hermione and whispered in her ear. Ginny could see the shapes of the words Harry spoke: Riddle's diary.

Hermione gasped. "Who would take it?" she asked. Harry shrugged.

"Dunno," said Ron.

Hermione shook her head back and forth. "None of this makes any sense!" she groaned. "I've got to go to the library..." She stood up, slinging her overstuffed book bag over her shoulder, and left.

Nat sighed beside Ginny.

"I'm bored," she whispered to Ginny. "Your brother and his friends are always keeping secrets, it's so annoying!"

Ginny said nothing in reply.

"Say, where's Percy?" said Fred.

"Bathroom, maybe?" said George.

Ginny rolled her eyes. The joke really was getting old.

"I'll see you later," she said to Wendy and Nat, and left.

The corridors of Hogwarts were empty. Ginny was grateful for this; she had a few moments of solitude before everyone left breakfast.

"Flibbertigibbit," she said to the Fat Lady, and the portrait swung open.

Alone at last, she thought. She just couldn't deal with people right now.

But she wasn't alone.

On the large couch by the fireplace were two figures, kissing madly. They broke apart when they heard Ginny's footsteps and faced her. She gasped.

One of the figures was Percy. The other was a Ravenclaw girl with curly straw-berry blonde hair. Ginny recognized her because she was a Ravenclaw prefect: Penelope Clearwater.

"Ginny!" said Percy, breathless.

"Who's she?" asked Penelope, getting up from the couch, smoothing her hair. Her cheeks were pink. She looked like a startled fawn.

"I'm his sister," said Ginny.

"Shouldn't you be at breakfast like everyone else?" Percy asked her. He looked outraged. Ginny wouldn't have been surprised if steam had started to pour from his ears.

"What about you?" Ginny asked coyly. She couldn't help but grin, she couldn't believe what she'd just walked in on.

"We're doing very important work!" Percy declared. Ginny burst into laughter. It was the worst lie she'd ever heard.

"Important work?" she teased, giggling helplessly. "What kind of important work?"

"Ginny," Percy snapped. "A word in the corridor, please." Then he turned back to Penelope: "Sorry, sweet, I'll only be a moment."

Once Ginny and Percy were in the corridor he crossed his arms and looked down at her, fuming.

"Oh, come on, Perce," Ginny groaned. "The common room is open to everyone, you know. You didn't exactly choose the most private place for snogging."

"We weren't- don't say snogging! It wasn't like-" Percy's face was growing more and more red by the second. "You should have been at breakfast!"

"I finished and thought I'd come up and do some reading in the common room, Percy. At least I actually went to breakfast at all; you never even showed up."

"Fine!" said Percy. "You win! But please, Ginny, don't tell anyone about this! You can't!"

"What do I get for keeping my mouth shut?" asked Ginny, hoping to bargain with him.

"I..." said Percy, thinking. He dug around in his pockets, pulled out a Sugar Quill, and handed it to her.

"Here," he said. "I got it in Hogsmeade. Happy now?"

"Sure," said Ginny, "Just never snog someone in the common room ever again."

They shook on it and went back into the common room. Percy grabbed Penelope's hand and said, "Come, let's go somewhere more private." Ginny took the stairs up to her dormitory and reached under her mattress for Tom's diary.

Now that I've gotten your diary back, do you need me to do anything for you? she wrote. She just wanted to get this over with...

Well... Tom wrote. It has come to my attention that your brother Percy has been romantically involved with a mudblood girl. We simply must take care of that. And I'm getting a little tired of that know-it-all mudblood girl your brother Ron is friends with. So we'll have to take care of that too.

Her vision went fuzzy and Tom's voice slithered through her head. Blindly she returned once again to the chamber. No, she pleaded. Please... Cold hands grabbed at her neck... You're a disgrace, a blood traitor. Get the job done.

The next thing she knew, she was standing over the Petrified bodies of Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger.