Ginny Weasley and the Heir of Slytherin

A Bittersweet Victory

Most of the school wasn't too happy to be back when term resumed. Kimmy Seong was an exception, cheerfully telling the other girls about her Christmas with her family in New Malden while Fleeta Fleece naturally made a show of not listening. Even though she was Muggle-born, Kimmy didn't seem too worried about the Chamber of Secrets and was able to slip right back into her bizarre role as Lorelei's constant confidant.

Luna Lovegood was also happy to return, eagerly running up to Fleeta just after they got off the Hogwarts Express.

"Fleeta, guess what?" said Luna. "I talked to my father over break about what's happening here and he believes me. Maybe you'll believe me too now that it's in print."

With that, Luna held up the latest issue of The Quibbler. The headline "MINISTRY AGENT PERPETRATES 'CHAMBER OF SECRETS' HOAX AT HOGWARTS" was accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart's smiling photograph from the cover of Magical Me.

"Let me see that," said Fleeta with maliciousness which no one but "Loony" Lovegood could fail to miss. Luna passed the magazine over and Fleeta immediately proceeded to tear out every single page, tossing them behind her like large pieces of confetti.

"That wasn't nice," said Luna vaguely as the last of the Quibbler pages settled on the ground. Fleeta's only response was to throw the empty magazine cover in Luna's face and strut away, leaving Luna looking mildly surprised.

Hermione, meanwhile, had been in the hospital wing since Christmas. Apparently, whatever she had been planning with Harry and Ron to discover the Heir of Slytherin had somehow resulted in her being turned into a cat-girl. Ginny decided it was best not to wonder about this. There was no reason to think Madam Pomfrey wouldn't cure Hermione soon enough, but this still left Ginny unable to talk to her for a time. Ginny wasn't sure whether Madam Pomfrey would let her into the infirmary, but that was a moot point — she didn't trust herself to go near the Petrified students.

"It's bad enough having Hermione in the hospital wing for the cat thing, but what if she's Petrified?" Ginny wrote in the diary as she sat on her unmade bed one evening. "Then I won't have anyone to tell my secret to and it'll be all my fault. And what if she dies?"

Ginny had not told Tom Riddle that she suspected him, which often made it quite difficult for her to explain her guilty feelings to him. She was sure at times that he must see through her words and realize what she was really thinking, but he never asked her about it. Why would he? She no longer sought his advice, knowing he wouldn't tell her anything useful, instead relying on him purely for emotional support. And he was still good at that.

"Oh Ginny, I hate to repeat myself, but you have no reason to believe you're doing this and Hermione would tell you the same thing. It tears me up inside knowing that you're blaming yourself for something so horrible and so beyond your control. Besides, I still don't understand why you think you need to share your fears with Hermione. You hardly know her and you can tell me anything. I'll always listen to your —"

"Hey, Ginny! What've you got there?"

"Nothing," Ginny lied quickly, slamming the diary shut as she looked up to see Kimmy had just entered the dormitory.

It was only a second later that Ginny realized what a pathetic lie this was — Kimmy could clearly see she had something there. This was exactly the situation Ginny had so worried about in the days before the opening of the Chamber — one of her dorm mates walking in on her using the diary none of them knew about. Whenever she used the diary, Ginny always closed the dormitory door so that the sound of it opening could serve as her warning that someone was coming in, but by now she had become too comfortable and had stupidly forgotten to do that.