The Potions’ class had ended and Ginny was packing her bag, trying to decide if she should skip Transfiguration or not. She had promised Hermione she would go with her, but the day was perfect to practice Quidditch.
She left the classroom, her mind elsewhere, dodging the other students on her way out of the dungeons without really looking where she was going.
There was a corridor to her right, not particularly well light. Her mind coming back to focus, she recalled it was the path to the Slytherin’s common rooms, there was a couple of them walking down the route, the girl laughing to what her friend was saying.
She holds her breath, shook her head and frowned, confused. The guy walking in front of them had a move to his shoulders that made her think she knew him from somewhere.
He came to an abrupt stop under a torch and the two Slytherin girls walked right through him.
Ginny rose her eyebrows in surprise, letting the air she had be holding loose in a sudden gasp. Her mind started to race to remember this ghost name to only arrive at a sudden stop when he half turned around, as if feeling eyes on him, to look at her.
She froze right there, her mouth slightly open in shock as she recognized who he was.
He turned around and continued to walk as she watched him, disappearing in the curve down the hallway.
Ginny did not stop to even consider what she was seeing, she simply started after Tom Riddle’s ghost, decided to speak with him.
She reached the next part of the hallway right in time to see him further down the path.
“Hey!” she called, but he did not look back. “Tom!?” he took a turn on his left and she started to run. Slowly in the beginning, but when she spotted him right at the end of the corridor, further away than he should, she increased her speed.
He took another turn, calmly, continuing to ignore her calls.
Then another, then around a curve, through a room with broken chairs piled in a corner. After that, she had to illuminate the way with her wand.
Her breathing grew faster, but not from the fast steps he was forcing her to keep, but from growing nervous. She was getting deeper and deeper in the dungeons, with the ghost of the Dark Wizard of the century.
As the hem of his robes disappeared once again in another turn, she stopped, catching her breath. As she took deep breathes she questioned what she was actually doing, but there in the darkness, she heard his footsteps.
Did ghosts had footsteps?
“You stopped.” His voice, sudden by her side, made her jump. She almost fell, pressing her fingers to the ground as she fought to regain balance. Her face flushing to the sound of his laugh.
“I thought it was impossible for you to become a ghost…” she said bluntly, she wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
“Since when there is something impossible for me?” Tom Riddle asked with a smirk, challenging her to contradict him. “Well, there was that moment when you died, this Summer.” she answered with victory in her tone.
Ginny felt suddenly frightened, there was something bigger she was not seeing.
Tom stepped in her direction, making her step back enough times for her back to rest against the nearest wall. He did not touch her, but when Ginny reached to keep him at distance, her hand went through his chest, making her gasp.
“My sweet little Ginny...” he smiled, cruelly, looking horrible in the faint light of her wand, towering over her, making her knees weak as that expression induced memories she thought she had long forgotten. “You will do as I say or you are the one I am going to kill,” he tilts his head, looking down at her with disdain, “and then I will kill every single person you love.”
