Riddled

|12| Tom's Mind

Ginny continued to fall through nothingness until she landed on her feet on a black and white checkered tile floor. She was in a large room with white walls that stretched towards a high ceiling. The room was decorated with black and white furniture. In the corner where she stood there were two black armchairs and a coffee table. To her left was a black couch, and over it hung a portrait of a teenage boy, around sixteen, Ginny guessed, with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes, so deep they were almost black. Ginny looked up into the portrait's eyes and couldn't help but gaze up at the young man. He was extremely attractive.

The young man in the portrait came to life.

"Ginevra, at last," he spoke.

It was Tom Riddle.

"Tom?" Ginny asked.

"Of course," he said. His voiced echoed off the walls of the room.

"W-what is this place?"

"You're in my head, Ginevra. I invited you here."

"Why?"

"To show you that I am real. To ask a favor of you. To gain your trust."

"What do you want, Tom?" Ginny felt slightly angry and defensive. She couldn't believe this was happening. She didn't understand why Tom thought that she could help him, of all people.

"As I told you, through my diary, I have been weakened by a great force of evil and my soul has been torn into too many pieces. I am weak. This form, my teenage self- this is a mere memory. I cannot stay like this forever. I will fade away to dust."

"I- I don't think I quite understand," said Ginny.

"I have to regain power to regain my true form."

"How will you do it?"

"There is a chamber that lies deep underneath Hogwarts. It is called the Chamber of Secrets. I need you to open it for me. Will you promise to help me?"

"Why should I?"

"Ginevra-"

"Don't call me that!"

Tom sighed. "Okay. Ginny. Ginny, there is a weapon hidden in the Chamber of Secrets, and I can use it to regain my true form. But I need you to retrieve it for me. I exist only in the diary. I cannot open it myself."

"But why should I help you, Tom?" asked Ginny.

Tom furrowed his brow, as though deeply considering her question.

"I guess there really is no reason," he said finally. "It's just that there's nobody else, and I don't want to... Die. And I think that you are brave. But I suppose you could just walk away and throw away my diary."

Ginny was tempted to decline. To leave. (All though how do you leave someone's mind?) But there was something so alluring about the mysterious Tom Riddle... His voice rang in her ears, got into her head...

"Okay," said Ginny. "I promise."

"Thank you," said Tom. "Write to me, will you?" he smiled a sly fox smile. Then the room dissolved and Ginny fell through white nothing again, the way she had came...

Somebody was shaking her. Her eyes flickered open. It was Nat.

"Ginny!" said Nat. "Have you been asleep this whole time? You told us you were going to the library, and you skipped an entire afternoon's worth of classes and missed dinner!"

Ginny's mind felt foggy. She thought she'd only been in Tom's mind for a few minutes... How had hours passed? She sat up on her bed and looked out the window. The world outside was black, except for the stars.

"I- I- guess I fell asleep," said Ginny. This didn't make Nat looked any less concerned. "After I finished at the library, I came back up here, and I had a little time before afternoon classes, so I thought I'd read... And I suppose I fell asleep reading."

"Reading what?" asked Nat. "This?" she picked up Tom's diary, which had been lying next to Ginny and flipped through it. "Ginny, this is empty."

"Um... No...." said Ginny. She spotted a copy of Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart on her bedside table and picked it up, showing it to Nat. "I was reading this."

"Oh," said Nat, raising an eyebrow. "Okay. I guess you're just really tired, maybe you need more sleep. Anyway, you're not in trouble for missing any classes, Wendy and I told the teachers that you were feeling under the weather and that you went to see Madam Pomfrey. They all seemed to believe it."

"Thanks, Nat," said Ginny. "Sorry you had to cover for me. I won't sleep on the job anymore," she joked.

"Okay," said Nat, and she walked off to her own bed and undressed. "Goodnight, Ginny."

"Goodnight, Nat." But Ginny didn't get to sleep until  the early hours of the morning. She was wide awake for hours on end, clutching the diary in her hands and thinking of nothing but Tom Riddle's broken soul and the Chamber of Secrets.