Wandless - A Harry Potter Fanfic

Chapter 16 - The Battle In The Chamber

//Most of the first part is a copy and paste, but I have added some of my stuff in it\\

"Ginny, please wake up!" Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.

"She won't wake," said Tom watching from the sides. He was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching with slight amusement in his eyes. The slightly covered up hole was behind him.

"Tom—Tom Riddle?" Harry asked warily.

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately, "She's not—she's not—?"

"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."

Harry stared at him, unsure of what to make of the older boy.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.

"A memory," said Riddle quietly, "preserved in a diary for fifty years."

He pointed toward Ginny, just under her robes, barely visible, was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"How did Ginny get like this?" Harry asked slowly, "and where's Vincent?"

"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly, twirling a wand that Harry recognized as Ginny's, "And quite a long story. Vincent is, preoccupied for the time being. As for her, Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about?" said Harry.

"The diary," said Riddle, "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes—how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how—" Riddle's eyes glinted, "—how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her..."

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's ever understood me like you, Tom. I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in. It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket..." Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hair stand up on the back of Harry's neck.

"If I say so myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..."

"What d'you mean?" said Harry, started glaring at Tom now.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly, "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

"No," Harry whispered.

"Yes," said Riddle, calmly, "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries... far more interesting, they became... Dear Tom," he recited, watching Harry's horrified face, "I think I'm losing my memory. Here are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. Vincent keeps worrying about me, I tell him I'm fine but in truth, I feel like crap. There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad... I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!"