Riddled

|19| Escape

Christmas holidays soon came to an end and students returned to flood the corridors once again. The usual chatter returned to the school.

After a long day of classes and assignments, Ginny trudged up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room after dinner, exhausted.

"Ginny!" called Nat, who was sitting on the couch with Wendy and Violet. "Come chat with us!" Ginny shook her head.

"Sorry," she said. "Long day; I'm exhausted."

She went up to the dormitory, which was empty. It was only seven o'clock and she was ready to go to bed. Until she spotted Tom's diary, open on her bed, with a note written in his spidery writing waiting for her. She shivered.

Haven't forgotten about me, have you? We have a job to do, you know.

Ginny wanted to scream. She was too tired for all this. She scrawled a reply:

I don't want to.

You know you have to, you blood traitor. Come with me tonight and we'll find a few mudbloods to kill off. It'll be fun.

You're sick, Tom. Leave me alone. Ginny slammed the diary shut, ran back down the spiral staircase and tore through the common room, ignoring the calls from Nat and Wendy. She didn't stop running until she reached the girls' bathroom. Then she flung the diary into the bathroom, ignoring the high-pitched screams of Moaning Myrtle, the ghost who haunted the bathroom. Then she ran back up to her dormitory.

It was like a cleansing. Days past by and Ginny didn't hear Tom's voice in her head, not once. It was finally over.

But it wasn't. She woke up one morning in early February and Tom hissed in her head:

Thought you could run away, did you? I'm still in your head. And you'd better get my diary back. It's fallen into the wrong hands.

What do you mean? Ginny thought. She immediately felt feverish and panicky.

Harry Potter's got it. Get it back. Now.

~~~

author's note

This story's coming to a close soon! I plan to do seven more chapters.

Question for the readers: What's your favorite song? Let me know in the comments.

xoxo zoe