Characters: Tom Riddle, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter

Pairings: Tom/Ginny

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

He dressed her in pearls. White pearls that gleamed elegantly in the dim light. When she visited him she wore perfume and nylons, her lips rouged a deep red. She was a child masquerading as a lover. He did not mind. The corners of his mouth would lift fractionally when he gazed upon her and he would speak her name, 'Ginevra.' It sounded rich and dark coming off his tongue, a shattered piece of the night. She would shudder hearing him speak a name that others had written off as being odd and quaint. She was Ginny to them, forever little Ginny.

When he would bend down and claim her lips as if it were his very right she would feel a tingling, an awakening, in her very body. No mind that the chest that pressed against him was flat, the change of womanhood still yet in a deep sleep with fractured dreams. No mind that her hands were small in his, that they trembled when he touched his lips to her neck. She was his and his alone.

When she killed the roosters her small hands were painted in blood that dripped and stained. Afterwards, the area underneath her fingernails was dirty with it. She would press her fingernails into her mouth and suck the taste of dirty copper and salt out. It reminded her of the taste of Tom's mouth.

Painting the words, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware," on the wall left her painted with excitement. The excitement had the sharp metallic taste of fear. It left her hollow until the next time she saw him. He smiled at her and the world became taut with anticipation. His mouth was soft and beguiling, his words like honey that had hardened and grown dark with age. He whispered of Harry Potter into my ear and her smile was sharp with understanding. This dark haired boy with eyes that captured her very being.

In her dreams she saw him. Tall and straight, his head lifted in defiance. He defied them all, he ruled them all. His mouth was a straight line that whispered of the deep, dark black of things. Of the sharp edge she would fall over. She would fall into the mist where beasts with teeth lurked and roamed. She would fall over the edge for him. Only for him.

She wrote his name in red ink along her arms. Etching him into her very flesh. When she saw Harry Potter she thought of those scrawling red ink words and smiled secretly. Harry thought she was smiling at him and walked away very quickly. Her eyes were dark on his retreating figure. when she sees him she thinks of blood. blood dripping out of her fists like rain.

That silly rhyme she sent to Harry Potter was written by Tom. He smirked at her and handed her a parchment with the words written in black ink. When she pressed her fingers to his face and said she loved him his eyes were tunnels that she could fall into. His smile was deep and triumphant. When he took her hand she did not tremble. She slithered out of the green dress she wore and presented her prepubescent body to him. His kiss was hard and it was cold.

When she threw the diary into a toilet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom she was lost. In her room she drew the blankets over her head and wept. The tears were bitter and they tasted of despair. She imagined Harry Potter writing to Tom, being fed lies and being the gullible fool he was, believing them. Tom had told her his plan. His mouth had been hard and his eyes had been dark with imagined scenarios. She wondered if Tom's mouth would be cold on Harry's. She wondered if his eyes would be like tunnels in which the serpent lurks. A green serpent with teeth that gnash and tear flesh like paper.

She wrote those words, 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' She wrote them with his face in her heart, feeling an ache that could not be filled. It was time. After so much preparation she would give her very soul over and bring him into the world. She would be both mother and lover. Both savior and destroyer. Her smile was quick and bloody. It tasted of triumph.

In the Chamber the serpent lurked. It waited, for it would taste of boyflesh before the night was through. Tom told her he would awaken her after Harry Potter was dead. He would bring her back to life with his will. When blackness overtook her vision she cried and he held her. His fingers dug into her flesh and she could not see. Could not see. His voice went down with her in a sleep where dreams with serpents haunted her. Serpents with Tom's eyes and his soft voice. She slipped into a sleep so profound it was like death. It tasted of decay.

When she awoke Tom was gone. There was nothing left of him, only a serpent with eyes that were bloody holes. Not even his robes were left. She would have buried her nose into them to savor his scent and think of his hands on her body. Harry Potter was there, his eyes green and filled with a profound relief. He comforted her as she cried. He did not know she cried for another dark haired boy that had stolen her will, had stolen her mind. She did not have to pretend fear and despair. Only her words were lies and they felt heavy in her mouth.

Her mother pressed Ginny's face against her and held her as she wept. For she would weep often. They thought it was because she had almost died. She did not correct that assumption. She would watch and she would wait.

He dressed her in pearls. They gleamed around her neck as she presented her naked body to him. In her dreams she saw him, His voice whispering darkness to her, and it came as no surprise when she started hearing that voice when she was awake. She would smile secretly and see death when she saw Harry Potter. She saw Harry's death and it widened her smile into a grin with sharp teeth. They gleamed in the light.