Ginny and Tom, Together Again

I'd like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed. Thank you for your comments on the last chapter. I appreciate your kind words. I've got another chapter, as you can see, which I hope you enjoy.

All canon characters belong to JKR.

Thanks to June for her help.

Chapter 13 – Ginny and Tom, together again

Lucius awoke to find himself in a dark room. He quickly sat up in bed and looked over to his window. Instead of just a nap, he'd slept the entire day away. Cursing himself as he got out of bed, Lucius hoped that Ginny would not think he'd just forgotten about her.

"Dari!" he called his house-elf, and a small purple elf with pink freckles appeared. Lucius had learned several years ago that it was wrong to treat the little creatures the way he was accustomed to when he was a young wizard. While he wasn't planning on giving any of his staff clothes, he did provide them with lovely patterned tea towels and pillowcases.

He also made sure they were taught proper speech etiquette. After Narcissa and Draco were killed, Lucius spent so much time in his home. He found he couldn't stand the normal speech patterns used by house-elves.

"Yes, Master?" Dari asked.

"How long have I been asleep?" wondered Lucius.

"Master, you slept for ten hours," she noted.

Lucius opened his blue eyes wide in shock.

"Ten hours! Dari, why didn't you wake me sooner?"

"Master, you were so tired. He called you twice in less than a day." Dari looked on as her master walked to his armoire. He began to look at his clothes, as though he were having trouble deciding on what to wear. Her master never had a hard time with his clothes.

"Are you going somewhere, Master?" she asked.

"I was to meet a young lady earlier. I hope she won't be too upset with me at missing our meeting." Lucius decided he would wear something casual. Well, casual for him. He chose a dark grey suit and a beige shirt with a Muggle necktie.

Dari smiled and rushed to her master's side.

"A young lady, sir?" she clapped her hands. It had been so long since there was a woman in her master's life. He'd spent the last years so lonely and sad.

"Yes, a very pretty and intelligent young lady." Lucius placed his clothes on the bed and went into the bathroom. He showered quickly, then got dressed and went downstairs. As he walked out the door, Lucius wondered if perhaps he should Floo Ginny first. He needed to make sure she wasn't upset with him. If she was, then picking up some flowers before he stopped by her parents' home would do the trick. He stopped himself then thought perhaps some chocolate might help too. He sat in front of his fireplace and called into the Floo for Arthur.

"Lucius, good evening. Is there something I can do for you?" asked the Minister of Magic.

"Good evening, Arthur. I was actually wondering if I might speak with Ginny."

"I'm sorry, she isn't here. She left here to go back to Grimmauld Place about two hours ago," Arthur said as he looked behind him. "She and the twins got into an awful row. Ginny left, Fred and George are still here, and Molly and I were only just now able to break the hex Ginny placed on Fred. We can't figure out, though, how to break the hex on George. He might have to learn to walk backwards and not sit down for a few days."

"What did she do to him?" wondered Lucius.

"Oh, she reversed his... um...bottom and his face," Arthur said with a chuckle. "I guess he'll just be talking out of his ass for the next few days."

The two men laughed for a while, then Lucius ended the connection. He was relieved that Ginny was angry at her twin brothers, not at Lucius, and that he still had Arthur's favor.

At his home, Lucius took his walking cane in hand and his own traveling cloak, then walked out towards the gates. He would Apparate to Grimmauld Place and pay Ginny a visit. He smiled. It was nice to have something to smile about, to have something so happy and beautiful now in his life to look forward to. Lucius thought he would enjoy courting Ginny. He wanted to fall in love with her, have a child with her someday, and grow old with her. He would do everything within his power to make sure she would want the same things as well.

Unfortunately, Lucius would not see her anytime soon. It wouldn't be until later that evening that those inside the oddly-shaped house known as the Burrow would find Ginny's traveling cloak and wand. Ginny never made it to Grimmauld Place – she had disappeared.

Back in his own estate, Voldemort sat on his throne. His eyes were closed as he was deep in thought. He knew that all of the Horcruxes he'd scattered around the country had been destroyed. There was nothing but one part of his soul left – the part he carried himself. He was troubled, very troubled. One of his most faithful of servants recently tried to assassinate him. Peter Pettigrew had been able to produce the poisonous potion right under his very roof.

Voldemort needed something or someone to serve as a channel – a channel for more power than he'd ever imagined having. It would be easy to tap that magic and take it for himself. Voldemort had taken his first steps towards achieving his goal just a few hours earlier. As he sat on his throne with his eyes closed, he heard his Death Eaters approaching with his new vessel. When he opened his eyes he saw her standing in front of him. She had grown up beautifully. If it wasn't for the fact that he abhorred sex as much as he did, he would have easily taken her to his room and had his way with her.

"Ginny, how nice it is to see you again," said the Dark Lord.

Ginny trembled at his familiarity with her.

"Why am I here?" she asked. He'd changed so much from the young man she remembered. His evil had morphed him into some hideous half-man, half-serpent. When she was in her first year at Hogwarts, he came to her in a dream at first. When Ginny sat in her new dorm room and put her books away for the start of her school year, she didn't realize that one of the books she'd placed on her nightstand was Tom Riddle's diary, something Lucius had slipped into her bucket while they were at Flourish & Blotts. At the time she thought Tom was just a handsome young man, and at first she held a bit of a crush on him. But he quickly became abusive and made her do terrible things; until he released her the next morning, she did not even know she'd done them.

"Aren't you happy to see me? It's been so long after all. I remember such a sweet young girl. You are quite a beauty, Ginny, quite a beauty." His eyes scanned her body. He wondered just how he would use her. Would he allow her to remain aware of his use for her? Or should he hit her with a Sleeping Curse and take her powers without her knowledge, have her serve as a sort of human battery? Voldemort rose and walked towards Ginny.

When he approached her she took a step back, not sure if she should just stay put or take her chances and run. More than likely, she thought, he would kill her before she even got to the door; that is if she even knew where the door was. The room was dark but for the circular area they were both standing in.

"Why should I be happy to see you?" she shouted. "You almost killed me that last time I saw you, and more than likely that's what you are planning to do to me now."

To her surprise Voldemort laughed.

"My my, you have become a feisty one. But then, you always did have that in you," he said as he leaned towards her slightly. "I could always feel that inside of you." Voldemort was close enough to touch her now. He lifted a finger and traced her collarbone with it, then slowly went down her arm. "You do remember when I was inside of you, don't you, Ginny." He took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. He could smell fear on her and smiled.

Ginny shuddered when she realized the double entendre in his statement. She'd hoped he was only talking about being inside her head and not anything else. If there was a horrific memory of him invading her body in any other way and she'd suppressed it, Ginny only hoped it would remain suppressed.

Voldemort whispered, "I think the time has come for us to become closer."

Ginny's head snapped towards the serpentine face of the Dark Lord.

He grabbed her by the throat and dragged her to the floor. He smiled as he looked down on Ginny who was struggling to breathe.

"Sleep, my pet, sleep."

Ginny's vision was quickly turning black. Before her mind succumbed to the blackness, she thought of Lucius and how she wished she'd seen him one last time.

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I hope you liked the chapter. Don't worry about the cliffy. I've got another chapter all finished and off to June. I should have that one up soon.