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Making Rent

Chapter 2: in which bakura really likes secret tunnels

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At the end of the week, Ginny travels by floo to an old witch’s bed and breakfast to meet with the Lovegoods, and they spend the morning there before heading on to their field site by side-along apparition. Xenophilius pitches the tent and Ginny and Luna unpack their lunch.

 

Her visit with her family had been good, Ginny tells Luna. Her father loved the vacuum, and her mum was too distracted by Ron’s friends to do too much motherly smothering, even if Ginny’s scalp ended up sore more mornings than not.

 

Xenophilius lets her and Luna do whatever they want most days, which generally means donning the “spectrespecs” he’s invented and then wandering into the woods. They don’t see any wrackspurts, but Luna tells Ginny about all sorts of unrelated things.

 

Ginny brought her broom, and she spends most afternoons practicing Quidditch moves. Luna watches her from the ground, chin in hands.

 

“I might try out for the new Quidditch commentator, now that Jordan’s graduated,” Luna says. “It’s very important I practice watching.”

 

On the second to last night, they still haven’t seen any wrackspurts, and Xenophilius sighs a lot over dinner.

 

“Well, ladies,” he says sadly, “we’ll just have to do our best tomorrow.”

 

Ginny feels bad for him. She feels worse for Luna, who’s pushing her food around on her plate without eating much.

 

In the morning, Ginny offers, “Do you want to try aerial observation?”

 

Her quidditch practice was supposed to be that, but she didn’t even bother to wear the spectrespecs half the time.

 

Luna beams at her and climbs on the back of her broom, wrapping her arms around Ginny’s waist. Ginny dutifully puts on her spectrespecs and takes off.

 

She takes them across field and forest at a lazy pace, dropping low over a lake so Luna can drag her bare feet in the water.

 

How romantic, Bakura mocks. He hasn’t said anything in days and it takes Ginny by surprise; her broom drops half a foot in the air. Water floods her boots as her legs splash through the water and Luna lets out a soft oh .

 

Jealous? Ginny thinks back, righting her broom. Or are you just afraid of heights and want me to land?

 

Hardly , Bakura answers. Then he says, Why don’t you give the lady what she wants?

 

Ginny doesn’t know what to make of that statement, so she doesn’t say anything. She keeps flying over the lake, and Luna leans forward and points toward the shore.

 

“What’s that?” she asks, a strand of Ginny’s hair caught in her mouth and pulling at Ginny’s scalp.

 

Ginny frowns at the shore, where a piece of the ground directly in front of them is bubbling up, forming a large mound. Luna urges her to check it out, and Ginny doesn’t change direction, heading straight forward.

 

The mound bursts when they’re right on top of it, and a creature leaps forward and bites at Ginny’s broom with sharp teeth.

 

Ginny yelps and rolls the broom out of the way. Luna slips behind her and tightens her grip but doesn’t fall. Ginny shoots ten feet straight up and hovers over the creature. It’s dark green and insectoid, as large as a human man. It’s got two terrible horns on its head and rows and rows of terrifying teeth.

 

More mounds start swelling below them, and Ginny rises several more feet.

 

“What are they?” Ginny asks, bewildered. She’s taken two years of Care of Magical Creatures and she’s never heard of anything like that, and her class was taught by Rubeus Hagrid.

 

“Oh,” says Luna, leaning dangerously off the broom. “Ginny, what if they’re wrackspurts?”

 

No one has ever seen a wrackspurt because they’re invisible, but if Ginny understands them correctly, they’re supposed to be small enough to crawl in your ears. These things are huge.

 

Luna sounds elated, though. Ginny wants to just leave, but she lowers the broom at Luna’s request. There’s a dozen or so of the strange insect-things now, and they’re crawling around below and biting at each other. One of them angles its head upwards and screams inhumanly at them.

 

They watch them for a long a time, Ginny feeling restless and nervous while Luna mutters theories in her ear. The things start eating each other, which Ginny finds disgusting, but Luna doesn’t seem bothered.

 

Bakura is laughing at her.

 

“Father did think only the young would prey on the mind,” Luna says, nodding to herself. “They get all their nutrients before reaching sexual maturity. They must have to; look at how big they get.”

 

There’s one bug left, and it prowls in circles below them, screaming up at the broom occasionally. Then it shivers, and lacy wings grow from its back.

 

“You have to be kidding me,” Ginny mutters, and Luna gasps in delight.

 

“It can fly!” she says. “It is a wrackspurt!”

 

Ginny grits her teeth and dodges as the thing flies at them. It’s not very fast, and she dodges around it easily and zooms into the trees. It gets a few of the sticks of her broom, but not enough to throw off her balance, and she zig-zags through the trees expertly.

 

They lose the wrackspurt or whatever it is easily in the forest. Luna laughs happily.

 

Luna tells the whole story in full detail to Xenophilius, once Ginny has made sure the thing is gone for good and they haven’t led it back to their camp.

 

Ginny doesn’t mention the thing was from the spirit of the ring. He’s right in that it was exactly what Luna wanted.

 

I didn’t know you could summon monsters, Ginny thinks at him warily.

 

It’s one of my many talents. He’s smug. Ginny wonders what his other talents are. It makes her stomach churn with nerves.

 

They leave camp in the morning, and Ginny stays at the Lovegood house for three days while Xenophilius runs around and prints the finalized issue of the Quibbler, complete with free samples of his spectrespecs and a hastily written addendum about the wrackspurt’s lifestyle, based on observation.

 

Ginny shares Luna’s bed. On the last night, Luna curls up to her, her nightgown’s sleeves tickling Ginny’s bare arms.

 

“I hope we have lots of classes together,” Luna whispers. “I’ll miss you if we don’t.”

 

“We definitely will,” Ginny promises.

 

--

 

Ginny’s plan for the semester is to dedicate a lot of time researching ancient magic. Bakura is not a wizard in the way she understands magic, but he is without a doubt a magical being. His magic is… basic in its form, but strong, and frightening. She’s still not sure what he did to the Knockturn Alley shop owner and his employee.

 

Bakura is older than Hogwarts. He’s older than most European magical traditions. She’s not sure what that means for her, except that it’ll probably be difficult to research.

 

She chats with Ron and his friends a bit on the platform, but he and Hermione have to go to the prefects’ car. Harry grins sheepishly at her and Luna and suggests they all find a car together. Neville joins them, and they entertain each other with stories from their holiday.

 

All in all, Ginny is having a great start to the semester, until Zacharias Smith corners her coming out of the bathroom after changing into her school robes.

 

“Ginny!” he says, grabbing her arm. Ginny yanks it away from him immediately. “Heard Potter convinced you all to do something stupid.”

 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Ginny snaps. She’s never liked him.

 

“You know,” Smith presses, leaning into her personal space. “His normal theatrics. Is it true your brother is still recovering from a department of mysteries experiment?”

 

“You better watch your mouth, Smith,” Ginny seethes. Bakura twitches at the controls to Ginny’s arm. She considers letting him punch Smith.

 

Smith backs off, hands in the air like she was the one being creepy and aggressive. “I just think,” he says, “you should all come clean before the rumor mill starts, you know? You and Granger and Loony–”

 

Ginny hexes him. Bats explode out of his nose. Bakura bursts into raucous laughter, his form flickering into existence at her side. He’s holding his stomach.

 

Smith flounders out of the car, on the verge of tears and leaving a cloud of dissipating bats behind him.

 

“I’ll admit,” Bakura says, wiping tears from his face, “most of your magic is shit, but that’s hilarious .”

 

Ginny smirks at him and turns to find a professor gaping at her.

 

“Um,” Ginny says. The professor is a wide man, and his face quickly clears into a welcoming smile.

 

“That might be some of the finest hex work I’ve ever seen,” he says. “Miss Weasley, is it?”

 

He invites her to a “get-together” lunch in his car, promising her other students will be there too. He doesn’t seem to be able to see Bakura, who yawns at the man’s blustering.

 

“I wouldn’t bother going,” Bakura tells her before disappearing again. “That man’s the worst type of collector.”

 

Ginny doesn’t care for Bakura’s opinions. She accepts the invitation.

 

--

 

Bakura yanks at Ginny’s neck four times to make her look around Hogwarts where he wants to see. He seems irritated about it every time.

 

The ceiling gets very boring very quickly, she says the last time he does it. Especially since it’s overcast here more times than not.

 

Ginny catches Luna’s eyes over at the Ravenclaw table a few times and smiles awkwardly at her. No one at her own table seems notice her being jerky, probably distracted by Harry showing up to the banquet fashionably late with a purple nose.

 

It figures. No one noticed her being possessed by an evil diary either.

 

The new professor lineup is interesting. Ginny doesn’t particularly like Snape, but he doesn’t single her out in class like he does some other students, and he’s a more competent teacher than some of their previous ones. If they can make it through this year, she whispers to Neville, maybe the curse on the Defense class will take him out.

 

Neville giggles nervously.

 

The first years are herded away and the Hall starts to empty. Ginny moves over to the Ravenclaw table and sits down next to Luna.

 

“Professor Slughorn seems interesting,” Luna says mildly. “Do you think he’ll have many opinions on the use of wimplesnore mucus in medicinal potions?”

 

Ginny makes a face. “I don’t want any sort of mucus in my potions.”

 

“That’s too bad,” Luna says, yawning. “The preliminary tests seem very promising.”

 

Ginny excuses herself when she sees the last of the Gryffindor fifth years leaving, and heads with them up to the tower. Bakura has stopped pulling at her neck, and she brushes her teeth and changes into her pyjamas without giving him much thought.

 

--

 

“Oi, Ginny, you’re going to miss breakfast!”

 

Ginny wakes with a start. The dorm room is flooded with light and empty except for one other girl, fully dressed and shoving supplies into her book bag.

 

Ginny feels much more tired than she should, given she went to sleep directly after dinner. She gets dressed in a rush and hurries down to the Great Hall just in time to get her schedule and shove a piece of toast in her mouth before running off to class.

 

Her first class, thankfully, is History of Magic, and Professor Binns doesn’t even acknowledge her sitting in the back of class and summoning her school supplies one by one as she thinks of them. She tried the same thing with McGonagall, once, and had gotten detention.

 

She has three classes with Luna: Transfiguration, Potions, and Care of Magical Creatures. The last two are good classes to have with friends, as they allow lots of talking time.

 

“Are you doing alright?” Luna asks when Ginny nearly slices her finger off while chopping roots for potions. It’s their second Potions class since the start of term, and they’ve both decided they like Slughorn much more than Snape.

 

(Snape, on the other hand, is an alright Defense teacher, even if he started his first class with a speech about how they were all incompetent from having incompetent teachers.)

 

“‘M fine,” Ginny says. “I’ve just been really tired lately, is all.”

 

Luna makes a sympathetic sound in the back of her throat and suggests they go to Madam Pomfrey and ask if she has any suggestions.

 

“It’s probably just school changing my sleep schedule,” Ginny says. “I’ll adjust soon.”

 

--

 

I don’t think I like this man, Bakura comments in the middle of a Defense class. Ginny nearly jumps out of her seat. He had been very quiet since the start of classes.

 

I don’t either, Ginny replies. He’s a huge bully. Have you heard any of Harry’s stories about him yet?

 

Bakura’s quiet for a while, and Ginny scribbles notes on nonverbal defensive spells. She doesn’t think those are supposed to be standard until sixth year, but the concept is useful despite the difficulty.

 

What happened to your other professors?

 

Hmm? Ginny asks.

 

You said there was a curse.

 

Oh yeah. Ginny puts down her quill and pretends to leaf through her textbook. She’s in a good mood and open to conversation. No one has been able to last more than a year. Last year we had this awful woman, she got chased off by centaurs– and then before that, Professor Moody was a good teacher, but it turned out he was an escaped prisoner in disguise.

 

Bakura doesn’t interrupt her with any sarcastic comments like she expects, and she gets to talk all about how Professor Lupin is actually a great person, and how discrimination against werewolves is unfair.

 

It occurs to Ginny, as she starts on about how hilariously incompetent Lockhart was, that from an outsider’s point of view, all of her stories sound like complete madness. No wonder she’s captured Bakura’s attention.

 

Anyway, she finishes, he accidentally erased all his own memories when he came to save me.

 

She picks her quill up and goes back to her notes, expecting the conversation to stop there. Bakura doesn’t usually ask a lot of questions, unless they’re designed to tease her. He prefers to observe and make his own conclusions.

 

She doesn’t anticipate him prompting: Save you?

 

She diligently writes what Snape is saying, verbatim.

 

Save you from what? Bakura presses. When she continues ignoring him, he reaches out and stops her hand from writing. Ginny lets out an annoyed hiss between her teeth.

 

The more she refuses him, the more annoying he’ll get, and the more likely he’ll try to use it against her somehow.

 

From my old tenant, she says.

 

Ah, says Bakura, and drops it.

 

--

 

It’s two days before Quidditch tryouts and Ginny is still exhausted.

 

Are you talking my body on midnight strolls? Ginny demands of Bakura. She’d ignored the possibility at first because she didn’t want to face the possibility that she didn’t have as much control over Bakura as she’d thought.

 

It’s not like you’re using it when you sleep, Bakura says.

 

Ginny resists the urge to bang her head against the table. She’s blatantly skipping History of Magic to sit alone in the Great Hall, surrounded by a handful of upperclassmen with free periods.

 

It makes sense, given what she knows of Bakura. He’d rather just go off exploring on his own than ask her for information outright.

 

I don’t like it, she warns him. I don’t like not being aware that someone else is controlling me.

 

That’s fair, Bakura says eventually, and she doesn’t actually get the impression that he cares what’s fair and what isn’t. I’ll wake you up next time.

 

Thanks, Ginny answers sarcastically. And don’t do it until after Quidditch tryouts.

 

I won’t, Bakura says, if you tell me what happened with your last tenant.

 

Ginny stares at her empty plate for a few moments, then gets up and trudges up to the library.

 

I think it’s only fair, Bakura says, that I know the history of the place I’m renting–

 

It’s really none of your business, Ginny fumes. She ignores Madam Pince snapping something about staying quiet and heads directly for the pre-Hogwarts history section. She’s had to research Hellenistic magic before, and she knows there’s a shelf of books on Egypt in specific.

 

She’d been putting off starting research because the idea wasn’t as exciting as anything she really wanted to be doing, but if Bakura was going to start being annoying again–

 

I think it’s related to why you’re my new Landlord, Bakura says. Since my other one was my reincarnation.

 

Ginny pauses in front of the shelf, glaring at book titles. This is the first piece information Bakura has shared about himself with her– excluding what he told Luna. She knows he’s dangling bait in front of her. But she also knows this is important to learn if she wants to get rid of him.

 

I’ll tell you what, she says. We can make a trade.

 

--

 

Ginny makes Bakura go first, because she doesn’t trust him to keep his end of the deal otherwise.

 

My soul and the pharaoh’s soul were stuck in a reincarnation cycle, but not, Bakura says. I resided in the Ring, but occasionally a related soul was born that was linked to mine. Eventually the Ring made its way into the hands of my previous Landlord, who was one of those souls.

 

He stops talking then, as if that were all there was to the story.

 

Well? says Ginny. Surely that can’t be it. Was he a wizard?

 

No, says Bakura.

 

Ginny just stares at the book she’s chosen at random. He doesn’t elaborate.

 

Well, she says, reshelving the book and picking another. I don’t think that’s enough for a trade. You haven’t quite made rent this month.

 

Bakura snorts. He had magical potential, Bakura clarifies. But he wasn’t a wizard.

 

Okay, Ginny says and puts the book away. What happened to him?

 

He’s alive, if that’s what you’re getting at, Bakura says. I imagine he graduated school and went on to whatever boring life he wanted.

 

Ginny bites her lip. And how did you get separated?

 

Bakura snickers at her. So we get to what you really wanted to know. Landlord, this is a very roundabout way of asking how to evict me.

 

You said you’d tell me his story, Ginny reminds him. This is part of it.

 

It’s not something you’re going to be able to duplicate, Bakura says. He sounds bitter, suddenly. The pharaoh broke my bond with my former sweet landlord. I think he thought he killed me.

 

Ginny continues to chew at her lip. Could she replicate the magic of an ancient pharaoh? Maybe not, but surely someone had figured out something similar. It seems like the wizards of olden times were constantly casting out evil spirits.

 

Obviously he was wrong, Bakura continues, and he’s dead anyway. Your turn.

 

Ginny sighs. The only other person to whom she’s talked about this in length since her disastrous first year is her mother, who she suddenly misses and regrets cutting out of her life this summer.

 

She tells Bakura about Tom Riddle slowly, running her finger across the spines of books as she does so. She tells him about finding the diary and being surprised when it wrote back to her. She tells him about how she, a lonely eleven-year-old, grew to trust the voice. She tells him how she started having lapses in her memories, and how Tom had been so thoughtful and soothing as she panicked about it. She tells him about waking up covered in blood and chicken feathers, about her classmates turning up frozen and lifeless, about trying to throw the diary away when she realized what was happening.

 

She tells him about realizing Harry had gotten the diary, and how she was terrified she’d be caught and expelled.

 

So I stole it back, like a coward, she says. I wasn’t worried about Tom hurting Harry; I was worried about myself. And then when Tom came out of the diary, I thought maybe I deserved it. And then he took me down into his Chamber of Secrets, and I knew I was going to die. Harry saved me, though– he and Ron came down to save me. And here I am.

 

But who was Tom Riddle? Bakura asks. How did his soul end up in a book?

 

Ginny steps back form the books shelves, trying to look at all the titles at once. Not that she can read them while talking about this.

 

He grew up to be the Dark Lord, she says. You’ve heard people talk about You-Know-Who, right? He put a piece of himself in his old diary.

 

Why? Bakura sounds unimpressed with the entire notion.

 

I don’t know. He’s supposedly obsessed with immortality. That must have been the start of it.

 

Ginny picks a book at random and takes it over to Madam Pince to check out. Her next class is Charms, which she really shouldn’t skip. Bakura doesn’t bother her at all until after Quidditch tryouts.

 

--

 

Quidditch tryouts go fine if a little chaotic, and she makes the team as Chaser. Luna congratulates her at the beginning of Transfiguration and passes her a slightly mushed cupcake she must have stolen from the kitchens.

 

Ginny eats it in class. McGonagall doesn’t say anything even though she undoubtedly sees it. McGonagall always goes soft on her students after she gets good news on Quidditch.

 

“I didn’t make commentator,” Luna says sadly after class. “That Zacharias Smith got it.”

 

Giny frowns. “You were robbed then,” she says. “Only terrible things come out of Smith’s mouth.”

 

They make plans to meet up after class, and that afternoon Luna helps her research Bakura.

 

Ginny has barely cracked the book she took out of the library, and she’s not even sure why she picked that one in particular. Luna shows up to the empty classroom they met in with a pile of eccentric books that have titles like The Conspiracy Behind the Library of Alexandria and Nefertiti: Vampire?!

 

Ginny shares what Bakura told her, and nothing in any of the books seems to be at all related to it. They inevitably end up making out.

 

“That was quite nice,” Luna says when they break to go to dinner. “We should do it again sometime.”

 

“Y–yeah,” Ginny says, her cheeks pink.

 

--

 

Classes continue as usual. Bakura stops exploring every night, and she manages to stay awake for History of Magic. Slughorn spends a lot of time praising Ginny’s potions, even though half the time she’s partnered with Luna for them.

 

When she’s not studying or practicing quidditch, Ginny spends time with Luna. A lot of that time is supposed to be dedicated to researching ancient amulets and pharaohs, but they frequently end up… distracted.

 

On their first Hogsmeade weekend, Luna takes Ginny by the hand and leads her to a squat building at the edge of town, which houses a shop that claims to sell over a thousand types of tea. It also has a handful of rickety tables and an assortment of sandwiches that contain things like pickled newt and frogs’ legs. Ginny orders something called “imitation dragon egg salad” and hopes that it’s just regular egg salad dyed strange colors. It’s very spicy.

 

Luna picks their tea. It tastes like berries and pine needles.

 

“My mother used to order from here,” Luna says. “She wanted to try all one thousand and eight types.” She picks up the kettle to top off both their cups. “This is tea number four hundred and seventeen.”

 

Ginny feels her heart break a little, and she leans over to take Luna’s hand.

 

Afterwards, they walk aimlessly through the village, despite the blistering cold. Bakura decides to be obnoxious and appear next to her.

 

“I want to go there,” he says, pointing towards a hill.

 

Ginny rolls her eyes and turns to Luna. “Bakura wants to go to the Shrieking Shack.”

 

She had meant it as a “Can you believe what I have to put up with?” sense. Luna blinks at the shack a few times, then shrugs and walks in that direction.

 

The Shrieking Shack, at least, provides them with some cover from the harsh wind, which rattles the boards of the walls. The wind also makes strange noises come from the fireplace, perhaps giving the shack its name.

 

Once they’re inside and confident the creaking floorboards aren’t going to collapse beneath them, Luna bends over and says to where the ring is hidden under Ginny’s coat, “Supposedly the shack is haunted, but I think it’s much more likely invested with Silver-Banded Scream Bees–”

 

“Scream Bees?” Ginny repeats, amused. Beside her, Bakura frowns in distaste at Luna hovering over his ring.

 

The Shrieking Shack is indeed creepy, and Bakura seems to like that about it, his ghostly figure leading them through the rooms.

 

“There’s supposed to be a secret passage to get here from Hogwarts,” Ginny says. “My brother was dragged through it by convicted murderer Sirius Black.”

 

Luna, who’s heard this story and knows at least vaguely of Sirius Black and Harry’s relationship, just smiles sweetly back at her. Bakura turns to her with interest in his eyes.

 

“Secret tunnel?” he asks. “Where?”

 

Ginny shrugs at him. “Don’t know.”

 

Bakura disappears and he takes control of her arms, pulling out the Ring. The decorative spikes dangling from it twitch, and then all point in the same direction.

 

“Oh good,” Ginny says as Bakura starts moving her feet in that direction. “He can do whatever this is.”

 

The ring leads them to the entrance to the tunnel easily enough, and once Luna’s uncovered it, Bakura takes full control of Ginny.

 

“I’m going in,” he says with her mouth, sounding more excited than she’s ever heard him. Luna, who seems to recognize her girlfriend has been replaced, smiles at him and agrees to follow.

 

The tunnel is actually fairly boring, if not a little uneven, right until they find the exit, which is guarded by the whomping willow.

 

No! Ginny yells as Bakura makes to casually step out of the tunnel. She manages to wrestle her legs from his control and stop him. Luna similarly grabs the back of her coat.

 

“It fights back,” Luna says mildly. Bakura looks at her for a few moments, clearly amused.

 

Then her smacks Ginny’s control away like a naughty child and hops out of the tunnels. The tree groans and flails its branches at them, and Bakura dodges and side-steps with ease.

 

What about Luna? Ginny demands when they’re out of the tree’s range.

 

I don’t particularly care, Bakura responds. He makes to go back to the castle.

 

Ginny fights him. She’d been confident once that she could win, but as he growls at her and pushes her consciousness away, she’s less sure.

 

What about your rent? Ginny fumes at him. You’ll lose your deposit if you don’t fix things you mess up.

 

Bakura does an exaggerated eye-roll and dives back into the whomping willow’s branches, zigzagging through them like they’re a simple obstacle course. He picks Luna up and throws her over his shoulders with a strength that Ginny didn’t know her body had.

 

“Oh my,” says Luna.

 

As soon as they’re clear of the willow, Bakura retreats from Ginny’s mind, muttering about how she’d better be grateful.

 

“Sorry about that,” says Ginny sheepishly. “He’s, um, not really a people person.”

 

“We’re safe,” says Luna, “so I don’t really mind.”

 

Once they’re back in the castle, McGonagall descends upon them, sternly lecturing them about the parameters of Hogsmeade visits. She seems slightly panicked. The trip had been called off early and all the students made to come back.

 

Apparently, Katie Bell had been attacked.

 

--

 

Bakura takes her body on a stroll early one Monday morning. The sun hasn’t quite risen yet, and the sky is a dismal grey. He wakes Ginny up for it, as promised.

 

I hate this weather, he says. He’s paused at a window to watch the grounds, which are frosted over.

 

Is it the cold? Ginny asks. He was from a very warm part of the world; she remembered getting heat exhaustion on their trip to Egypt. Or the rain?

 

No, Bakura says. It’s like… the sky is too close. It makes you feel trapped.

 

Ginny supposed that was the general feel of an overcast sky. Since Bakura’s in an agreeable mood, she asks him if he wants to see her favorite room in Hogwarts. He lets her lead him to the Room of Requirement.

 

Think about what you want, Ginny says, and then pace in front of this wall three times.

 

That sounds stupid, Bakura says, his tone saying that he loved it.

 

When they enter, the room is vast and filled with random junk arranged in towering piles. At their feet, Ginny recognizes a muggle radio, an expensive looking necklace, and several damaged textbooks.

 

Bakura wolf whistles and pulls out the Ring. The spikes glow and point off to their left.

 

What are you looking for? Ginny asks.

 

I wanted to find the most valuable thing in Hogwarts, Bakura says. He seems incredibly pleased and takes his time to pick up and examine things as they head deeper into the room. He pockets several items, including a jewel-encrusted pocket watch that was missing a hand, and a single diamond earring.

 

They pass a mountain of various types of alcohol, some of which are hundreds of years old, and Bakura stops to sort through them and eventually open a bottle of whiskey and take a swig. He carries it with them.

 

The Ring eventually leads them to a… tiara. It’s silver and a bit underwhelming compared to some of the other things the room has to offer. Bakura picks it up and examines it.

 

That’s Luna’s favorite saying, Ginny says, recognizing the engraving.

 

Bakura doesn’t respond, turning the tiara over and over in his hands.

 

What a nice find, his says eventually. His thoughts have an oddly dangerous edge to them, which makes Ginny uneasy.

 

What do you mean? She asks. What makes it so valuable?

 

Instead of a real answer, Bakura says, Come along, Landlord. You’ll be late to breakfast.

 

--

 

At that, Ginny finds her relationship with Bakura gets easier. He listens to her suggestions on places to explore, and together they going poking through things Ginny’s always wanted to but never has for various reason.

 

Bakura breaks into Filch’s office and they find the entire drawer dedicated to the twins, which gives them all sorts of ideas of places to sneak into.

 

Bakura even breaks her into the Ravenclaw dorms one night– he loves the concept of riddles as passwords– and they collect Luna to go find the secret tunnel into Honeydukes. Ginny gives herself a stomach ache from gorging on candies, and Bakura complains about it for days.

 

On her first Quidditch match of the season, after she scores for the second time and the Slytherin keeper mouths swears at her, Bakura comments, I see why you like this now.

 

Zacharias Smith’s commentary, however, fills her with rage that makes her passes too violent. Smith spends too much time wondering if Ron made the team fairly and too little time describing the actual game. When they win, she crashes into the commentator’s booth, and Bakura howls with laughter.

 

After they shake the losers’ hands and pretend to be civil, Ginny triumphantly kisses Luna full on the mouth and then drags her back to the afterparty in the Gryffindor common room. She brings down the whiskey Bakura stole– hidden under her mattress with the tiara and pocket watch. It’s a good night.

 

She wakes up to Bakura pouring them both a glass of water in the bathroom. She momentarily thinks that’s a sweet gesture– she’d had a lot of that whiskey, after all– but then she realizes her shoes are on.

 

Are we really doing this tonight? She whines. She doesn’t want to wake-up hungover and tired.

 

You don’t have class tomorrow, Bakura says and walks her out of the dormitory.

 

Bakura stops at the gargoyle that guards Dumbledore’s office. He leans forward and whispers different brands of candies until it moves.

 

Ginny has no idea how he knew to do that. She asks.

 

This was one of the first places I came, Bakura says.

 

Ginny has only been in the Headmaster’s office when awful things have happened to her and her family, and it’s sort of nice to be able to look around while relaxed. Bakura is silent on her feet, and the phoenix that sleeps in the corner doesn’t stir.

 

Bakura hovers over the bird for a few moments, then moves on, brushing his hands over the strange instruments whirring at Dumbledore’s desk. Then he moves to a bookshelf.

 

I thought I’d give you a victory present, Bakura drawls in her mind, running her hands over the books. I’ll give you the only book in this building that mentions me.

 

Ginny perks, not recognizing the danger in Bakura’s words. She’d read through all the books on Egypt, specifically– and she thinks Bakura would be self-important enough to snap at her if she missed mentions of him.

 

Bakura pulls out a thick book bound in black leather. It’s titled Secrets of the Darkest Arts .

 

He leafs through the pages slowly, and some of the illustrations make Ginny’s stomach tighten. There’s all sorts of evil things in this book.

 

Bakura finally stops turning and Ginny reads the passage.

 

The first known precursor to the Horcrux is the massacre of the village of Kul Elna, in which the sacrifice of ninety-nine souls birthed a power so great as to reverse death itself.

 

The passage went on the describe the bodies being melted into gold, their souls and flesh melded into seven ‘Thousand-Year Items’ to feed the greed of the Pharaoh. Its tone is loving, gentle and detailed. Ginny feels sick.

 

It is said, the passage continued, the pharaoh’s successor sealed a piece of his soul into the Puzzle, thus gaining immortality. It is also said another soul was sealed into the Ring, and either of these souls will grant the wielder immense power. Some sought the Items for this power, but other, more clever men, looked to this story as an inspiration.

 

This author posits that these two beings, whose bodies perished but whose complete souls remained, are the first dabble in the art of using the death of another to bless one’s soul with immortality…

 

There was more about murdering people to bind your soul to an object, but Ginny didn’t care to read on.

 

So this, Ginny says. Her hands would be shaking if she had control of her own body. This is you? You killed all these people–

 

I did not, Bakura snarls at her, suddenly furious. Those souls were my people . I saw them desecrated . And your people– your people took their sacrifice and turned it into this– this atrocity–

 

Oh, Ginny thinks back in a tiny voice. Her body is trembling with Bakura’s rage as he raves at her. Oh.

 

I have more for you, Bakura says, his anger dissipating and something mean and sadistic entering his voice. He moves on to a stone basin that’s filled with swirls of silver. Ginny vaguely recognizes it as pensieve. He’s been collecting memories on Tom Riddle.

 

Ginny tenses, and then suddenly she’s toppling into a memory with full control of her body back.

 

--

 

Ginny has only the vaguest notion of how pensieve works, but she’s not expecting to find herself on the second floor. A few of the paintings are different, but otherwise, Hogwarts looks exactly the same.

 

She spends couple moments looking around her in bewilderment before a man turns the corner, looking very troubled. He doesn’t acknowledge her at all.

 

I didn’t know Dumbledore was a redhead, Ginny remarks to Bakura. The spirit stays silent, and Ginny follows the younger Dumbledore. They head down a stairwell into the Great Hall, and then–

 

“Tom,” Dumbledore calls.

 

Ginny freezes. He looks exactly as he did, all those years ago when he’d come out of the diary and dragged her down into the belly of the school. Her hands curl into fists and she doesn’t even hear the conversation between the two.

 

Tom Riddle looks handsome. Cleancut. Nice. She would trust him if she didn’t already know him. It’s not fair.

 

Dumblr walks away, and Ginny doesn’t want to follow him. She doesn’t like this memory. But the confines of the pensieve are tied to Dumbledore’s memories and nothing else, and a strong force pulls her after him.

 

There’s a loud bang, suddenly, and Ginny catches a blast of light from the corner of her eyes. Dumbledore spins on his heels and runs toward the direction of the chaos. He barely dodges something black and huge and hairy bolting past, and stops to follow the thing’s path with wide eyes.

 

The thing passes through Ginny’s legs, as if she were a ghost. It’s a spider.

 

There’s wailing, and Dumbledore seems to decide the cries of a student are more important than whatever monster just ran by them. They keep going down the corridor and find a young Rubeus Hagrid kneeling on the floor and bawling, Tom Riddle towering over him.

 

“I caught him, Professor,” Tom says. “I caught the one who’s responsible for the attacks.”

 

Dumbledore says something back and Tom responds, but Ginny’s too distracted by the one rush in her head and the tears on Hagrid’s baby face.

 

The room fades a bit then, and Ginny briefly worries she’s having some sort of an attack before it all comes back into focus as the headmaster’s office. She staggers like she’s made a harsh landing, even though she hasn’t been jolted or moved at all.

 

There’s three other adults there, besides Dumbledore and the wizard sitting behind the headmaster’s desk. Ginny vaguely recognizes the only witch in the room– she must have gone on to be someone important.

 

“You must admit, Albus,” the headmaster is saying in clipped tones, “Tom makes a very compelling case.”

 

“As it is,” Dumbledore says, “I truly do not believe Rubeus is responsible for any of the attacks in this school.”

 

“But didn’t you say yourself,” the witch says, “you saw the monster fleeing?”

 

“I did see a monster running from the boys, yes,” Dumble agrees.

 

“And doesn’t this Hagrid have a history of keeping dangerous pets?” a wizard asks.

 

“Young Mr. Hagrid has a fondness for creatures others shy away from,” Dumble says. “But a juvenile acromantula–”

 

“–is as capable of killing as an adult,” the headmaster finishes. “No, Albus, I’m sorry– all evidence points to Mr. Hagrid. He’ll have to be punished.”

 

The others present all murmur in agreement, and the room fades into a sunny hallway. Tom is in the distance, haloed by the light as he looks out a window. Two girls pass, giggling, and Dumbledore waits for them to turn before approaching Tom.

 

“How was your summer holiday?” he asks.

 

“Good,” says Tom. “I got to spend a lot of time in the library, and I discovered some new rooms here.”

 

“Aah,” says Dumbledore, “Hogwarts is a wonderful place to explore.”

 

They both stare out the window a bit, and Ginny’s eyes dart back and forth between them with suspicion. Surely Dumbledore knows. Surely he knows he’s chatting with a monster in the shape of a boy.

 

Through the window, they watch an old man showing Hagrid the shed behind the greenhouses where the lawncare equipment is kept. Hagrid is as tall as a man, but his face is childish and nervous and humiliated.

 

“Tom,” Dumbledore says softly. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

 

Tom inclines his head in askance. “I’m not sure what you mean, Professor?”

 

“There’s no shame to admitting a mistake, Tom,” Dumbledore says.

 

A mistake? Ginny clenches her fists so hard she can feel the tension up through her shoulders. All that Tom Riddle has done– all he will do– a mistake?

 

“I can’t think of any mistakes,” Tom says idly, eyeing Hagrid as he sorts through rusty tools. “Was there something wrong with my homework? I’m sure I got everything right…”

 

Dumbledore sighs. “Your essay was impeccable,” he says. “But, Tom,” Dumbledore leans in and waits for Tom to turn to him fully. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Tom.”

 

Tom smiles. “Whatever for?”

 

--

 

When Ginny comes back up, she’s shaking. She doesn’t know if it’s fear or rage.

 

He knew. Dumbledore knew what Tom was doing, and he just let him. He let him close the chamber back up, to peacefully graduate, to murder poor Myrtle and leave behind that evil diary even though Dumbledore knew

 

The passage about Horcruxes Bakura had made her read comes back into her mind, and Ginny nearly vomits.

 

Do you like your gift? Bakura asks. Isn’t this all you wanted to know?

 

“Shut up,” Ginny seethes. “Shut up.”

 

She rips the ring off her neck and banishes it. The spell does nothing and she casts it again and again. She tries reducto . The ring stays in tact. She picks it up and throws it out the window, watching in fall into the darkness of the grounds outside with satisfaction.

 

--

 

The ring is back on her neck in the morning, and she shoves it under her mattress with the spirit’s stupid precious tiara. She goes to breakfast in a foul mood and it is not improved by receiving an invitation to Professor Slughorn’s Christmas Party in the mail.

 

When she goes to the library to work on her homework, she finds the Ring sitting on her usual table. She ignores it and settles down somewhere else.

 

Luna finds her and asks what’s wrong.

 

“I’m mad at Bakura,” Ginny says, simplifying the situation because she does not feel like explaining the details right now.

 

“Oh, that’s a shame,” Luna says. “What do you think of this for an essay topic…”

 

Ginny zones out listening to Luna babble about Defense essay topics, and it calms her down. She given bursts into giggles at one point, imagining Snape reading about wrackspurts attacking them.

 

Eventually Ginny remembers the invitation, shoved into her pocket and wrinkled. She smoothes it out on the table.

 

“Do you want to go to this?” she asks.

 

“Harry asked me to go as friends,” Luna says lightly. “I told him yes. I think some girls want to poison him. Hermione’s very worried about him, you know.”

 

Luna asks if Ginny would rather her tell Harry no afterall and go with her, but Ginny tells her to just go with him, if Hermione’s worried. Luna gives more details: Hermione’s mad at Ron because apparently she likes him (ew), and Hermione’s worried about Harry for a myriad of reasons, including that girls are gossiping about love potions. The reason Ginny focuses on is “obsessed with a book that keeps teaching him strange spells.”

 

“I have to go,” Ginny says, gathering up her things. The Ring is in her bag now, because of course it is. She pulls it out, because if she’s going to be stalked by it, she might as well use it.

 

“Take me to Harry,” she whispers to it, and it does.

 

--

 

She corners Harry coming down from Gryffindor Tower and shoves him into a classroom.

 

“What’s up with this book you’ve got?” she demands.

 

“Er,” Harry says.

 

“You’re just trusting a mysterious book?” Ginny continues. “You never stopped to think, ‘Gee, a weird book, where have I seen this before–’”

 

“Ginny,” Harry interrupts, “It’s just a book with some notes in it. It’s not– it’s not talking to me or anything.”

 

Ginny glowers at him. “Just,” she says, voice tight. “Just. Be careful.”

 

Harry agrees, and she goes back to her room feeling oddly hypocritical. The ring is heavy around her neck.

 

--

 

Bakura doesn’t talk to her for weeks, which Ginny considers a positive.

 

She eventually tells Luna what Bakura showed her, and Luna strokes her hair and tells her it’s okay. Ginny wants to believe her.

 

Slughorn’s party happens and nothing of note occurs at it. Luna shows up dressed in all silver with Ginny’s sequin vest on top, and Ginny spends most of the party giggling into her girlfriend’s ear. Harry doesn’t seem to mind at all.

 

When they’re leaving, hand-in-hand, they run into Zacharias Smith, who oggles at them. Or at least, he oggles Luna.

 

You got invited?” he asks her. “Dressed like that?”

 

Ginny scowls and reaches for her wand.

 

Allow me, Bakura purrs into her ear and Ginny’s so mad she lets him.

 

She regrets it almost immediately, when all the lights in the corridor go out and everything turns cold. It feels like being in a room full of Dementors, and Luna steps closer to Ginny’s body.

 

“Let’s play a game,” Bakura says, and Zacharias turns to run. He doesn’t get very far. The corridor has been replaced by darkness, and no matter how much he runs, he stays in one place.

 

“How about…” Bakura pretends to think about it for a while. “Exploding Snap?”

 

He raises Ginny’s wand and summons the cards. Smith has tears in his eyes. Luna has gone very still. Bakura keeps Ginny’s fingers laced with hers, and Ginny doesn’t know what that means, but it keeps her from fighting him. She watches in fascinated horror.

 

He drops Luna’s hand to deal the cards, and Smith is shaking too much to hold any. Luna casts the patronus charm, and a silver hare circles them. Everything gets a bit warmer.

 

It only helps Smith a bit. He fumbles everything and loses pathetically.

 

“That wasn’t very fun,” Bakura says mockingly. “I almost feel bad for you. What should his punishment be, Miss Lovegood?”

 

Luna is taken aback. The hare flickers but keeps circling them.

 

“That’s fine,” Bakura assures her. “I always have ideas.”

 

He summons “Harry Potter’s potions book” and then something happens with Smith– he screams, horrifically, and Ginny screams as well and shoves Bakura out of her body.

 

It’s too late, though. Smith goes limp before them. The book in her hands is vibrating with something awful.

 

There, says Bakura. Now the book is exactly what you warned Potter about.

 

What do you mean? Ginny asks. Luna is kneeling over Smith, checking his pulse.

 

I put his soul in it, Bakura says, sounding bored. It’s not so hard– I don’t know why your Dark Lord had to murder people for it.

 

What do you mean? Ginny demands. She clutches the book to her body. This is just like before, and she let him do it, just like let she let Tom into her mind.

 

Bakura gives an impression of yawning. It’s not as uncommon as that book made it seem, he says. I know people who do it all the time. Hell, I’ve found two of these so-called ‘horcuxes’ here–

 

Ginny thinks Luna is telling her something, but she can’t hear. What do you mean?

 

What did you think the tiara was? Bakura asks. And that boy, Potter–

 

Ginny collapses.

 

--

 

She wakes with her mother stroking her hand. Molly Weasley has tears in her eyes.

 

“Oh, Ginny, my sweet Ginny,” she cries when Ginny opens her eyes. She hugs her.

 

Ginny hugs back, weakly. She’s in the Hospital Wing. Her father is hovering over both of them, and Smith is in the bed next to hers.

 

When her mother lets her go, she sees Ron seated on the empty bed to her other side, and the ring on her bedside table.

 

“Mum brought your Christmas present early,” Ron says after everyone’s given her hugs. He’s got one of the twin’s pygmy puffs clutched in his hands.

 

“Oh,” says Ginny softly, “I love those.”

 

“I thought you would,” her mother says, squeezing her hand.

 

She’s only been out for a little over a day, but since it’s so close to the holidays, she has permission to go home early.

 

“No,” she says. “I want to keep up my classwork. I’ve got OWLs this year, remember?”

 

“Well,” says her mother, melting a little. “If you insist…”

 

“Mum,” says Ginny, “I’ll see you in a couple weeks. I’ve gotta be there to get my gift, right?”

 

She presses the pygmy puff into her mother’s hands.

 

“Right,” her mother replies, accepting the puff as tenderly as if it were Ginny’s hand when she was a little kid. Molly starts crying again.

 

“Oh, mum,” Ginny and Ron say in unison. “You’re so embarrassing.”

 

Her family stays the rest of the day, and eventually Luna shows up and talks to her father for a very a long time about… some type of muggle conspiracy about the moon. It’s made of cheese or something.

 

She’s cleared to go back to class the next day, as Madam Pomfrey declares her ailment to be “nothing but simple stress.” This is, perhaps, accurate.

 

Her mother covers her in kisses before leaving. Ginny doesn’t even have the energy to be offended and hugs her back.

 

“Mum,” she says after Ron’s made plenty of faces at them and been pinched lightly for it. “Over holiday, I have, um–”

 

Ginny means to say “I have something to tell you,” but her mother interrupts.

 

“Oh, you can have Luna over, of course,” Molly says, waving her hand. “She’s a very sweet girl.”

 

Ginny just grins.

 

Smith shows no sign of waking anytime soon. Luna told everyone they found him like that, and Ginny plays along. It’s a cold weight in the back of her mind as she hides the book– which Luna recovered– in the Room of Requirement. She puts it where the tiara was and checks that it’s okay everyday.

 

--

 

On the last Sunday before winter holidays, Ginny pulls the tiara out from under her mattress and takes Luna up to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. She asks her if she could try to speak snake to the sink.

 

Luna, being Luna, doesn’t even question this request, and leans over the sink to the tap that Ginny indicates. Her dirty blonde hair falls into the basin as she makes all sorts of strange noises.

 

Ginny feels bad asking Luna for help in this, but she’s not sure who else could convincingly make realistic snake hisses.

 

(Well, Harry can, obviously, but then she’d have to look him in the eye after stealing his now possessed potions book.)

 

After several minutes of trying, the sink lets out a mechanical moan and moves to the side. Bakura stirs in the back of her mind, interest piqued by the revealed passageway. He wisely stays silent, though, as she and Luna climb down it.

 

The main hallway is filled with bones that crunch underfoot. They both illuminate their wands.

 

“Is this–” Luna starts, and Ginny nods. Luna is quiet for a few minutes as they walk down the corridor. Then she asks, “Are you okay with this?”

 

“I’ll be fine,” Ginny promises, even as her heart races.

 

They have to climb over rumble where the tunnel caved in. Ginny helps Luna scramble over it. The corridor continues for another ten minutes, and then opens up into a huge chamber, just as she remembers. The remains of Salazar Slytherin’s statue are still there, along with the skeleton of a massive snake. Pieces of its shed skin litter the room around them.

 

Luna gasps. Ginny can feel Bakura practically vibrating with excitement.

 

She approaches the snake’s head cautiously, as if its decayed form might still be able to hurt her. She pulls the tiara out from under her robes.

 

“Ginny,” Luna says. “Ginny, what–”

 

Ginny impales the tiara on the basilisk’s fang. The tiara shrieks, and Luna yanks Ginny away. The tiara falls to the ground, screaming, its voice echoing through the chamber.

 

What did you do ? Bakura asks. His form solidifies before her, staring at the wailing tiara in horror. Luna’s grip is steel on her arm.

 

“I destroyed it,” Ginny says. She stands tall before him. “I want you to know, Bakura, that I can destroy whatever you are.”

 

Luna’s grip tightens even more. Bakura narrows his eyes at her.

 

“I can and will destroy you and your ring,” Ginny says, her voice hard and even. “And you will pay rent.”

 

She and Bakura stare into each others eyes for a very long time. The tiara stops screaming and leaves the chamber quiet and still.

 

“Will the rent be high?” Bakura asks.

 

Ginny sneers. “Of course.”

 

“I thought so,” Bakura says. Then he smirks at her. “Such a demanding landlord. How would you like this month paid?”

 

Ginny has a lot of ideas. She wants Smith back to his regular terrible self, obviously, and she wants more information about Harry being a horcrux or whatever. She wants selfish things, too, like money to shower Luna in gifts, and something really nice for her mother for Christmas.

 

“First,” she says, “you can start by getting Luna and me out of here. Unharmed.”

 

Bakura laughs. “As you wish, Landlord.”

Notes:

This was meant to be a one-shot, but it got very out of hand so I've split it into two parts. The second should be up some time this weekend and features Bakura being a Giant Jerk.

Questions, comments, complaints? Please leave a comment. :)