discontinued, re-write titled "Mind Over Matter".
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❞𝐘𝐨𝐮❜𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞. . .❞
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Liliana Granger never sought out the adventures of life, she'd grown comfortable in what she knew and applied...
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"Just you and me, Harry Potter . . . you and me . . ."
They were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.
Their hearts beating very fast, Liliana and Harry stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadow corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny.
Liliana pulled out her wand and began to move forward between the serpentine columns, Harry, following close behind. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls.
Liliana kept her eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following her and Harry. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, she thought she saw one stir.
Then, as they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall. Both had to crane their necks to look up into the giant face above:
It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin bear that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming red hair.
"Ginny!" They muttered at the same time. Liliana and Harry sprinted to her and dropped to their knees.
"Oh, Ginny," Liliana said, her eyes watering at the site of the young Weasley.
"Ginny 一 don't be dead 一 please don't be dead 一" Harry said, flinging his wand aside. He grabbed Ginny's shoulders ("Be gentle Harry," Liliana whispered) and turned her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be 一
"Ginny, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopleselly from side to side.
Liliana whimpered, "Please, Ginny, you've got to wake up."
"She won't wake," said a soft voice.
Harry and Liliana jumped and spun around on their knees.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though they were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him 一
"Tom 一 Tom Riddle?" said Harry.
Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not 一 she's not 一?"
"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."
Harry and Liliana stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.
