A Trio of Serpents

14: Lending a Hand

Summary: Between the voices and Lockhart, Harry doesn't know what's worse. Probably the Bludger.

Over the next few days, Ginny couldn't concentrate. Well, she was already having difficulties doing so, but after Halloween, it became even worse. Why couldn't she remember where she had been? And why did the writing on the wall appear not even twenty minutes later? Tom had reassured her that it was probably just a coincidence. An eerie and frightening one, but a coincidence nonetheless. Ginny was not sure she believed him.

Her dormmates, all of whom she was lucky enough to get along with and even be friendly with, did not seem to take any notice as they went about their lives as normally as they could given the circumstances. That was fine. Ginny didn't need any prying questions, especially when she didn't even know how she'd answer.

"Morning, Gin!" one of them greeted as she trudged into the Great Hall.

"Morning," Ginny mumbled back automatically.

She didn't expect her dormmate to peer at her more closely. "Are you all right? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine, Paisley." Ginny forced herself to smile, but it mustn't have been very convincing; Paisley was still eyeing her dubiously.

"You might want to take a break from writing," was all she said in the end, nodding to the diary peeking out of Ginny's bag. "You've been glued to that since the beginning of term."

She said this very lightly, yet Ginny could feel her face grow hot. "Yeah, y-you're probably right."

But as she took a seat a distance away, she couldn't help but take it out and look it over. Same shabby black cover, same blank pages yellowed with age. Same unpleasant feeling that she had been friends with it for years and not a mere couple of months.

"Hey, Ginny."

She jumped as if she had been given an electrical shock and whirled around to see worried green eyes looking down at her. "Oh, hi, Harry! I, um — I didn't see you coming."

Harry glanced at her diary, which she had clumsily shoved back into her bag. "Is something wrong?"

"N-no. Of course not." But she couldn't look him in the eye. She pushed the diary further into her bag, jumped up, and ran back to her dorm without eating anything.

Classes would be starting soon, but Ginny took the time to open the diary, a quill poised above the pages.

Hi, Tom. I'm back, she wrote.

The morning of the first Quidditch match of the year was like a breath of fresh air. Even the horror of the mysterious Chamber of Secrets faded to the background for at least the time being.

Harry and the rest of the school headed to the stands to enjoy the Gryffindors and Slytherins flying about.

There was no denying the Slytherins' broomsticks were superior. The Slytherins were all just small green blurs as they flew back and forth, quickly taking the lead in points. Even still, the Gryffindors were putting up a good fight.

Something dark caught Harry's eye. It was a Bludger and it was...

... heading his direction.

Harry and the nearby Slytherins leapt out of the way, hearing it slam into the stand.

"Harry!" Ron shouted over the screams. "Are you okay?"

Harry didn't get a chance to reply for the Bludger had circled back over and was now diving toward him again.

Luckily, one of the Slytherin beaters,
Lucian Bole, was close by and managed to hit the Bludger back into the game.

It worked... for two seconds.