Difficulties of Avoidance

by dead2self

A/N: Hello to anyone still along for the ride! It's always fun to come back to this. Special thanks to everyone who reviewed in the past few years, I appreciate you and you remind me to keep plugging away at this little story that I enjoy.

The next morning the Slytherins who had harassed Natalie were missing from the Slytherin table. Rumor had it that they were in the Hospital Wing missing memories and some bones, but nothing that could not be grown back. Fortunately for the smug-looking fifth years surrounding Natalie at the Gryffindor table, the memories were lost for good.

"Think we ought to expand the D.A.?" murmured Demelza.

Ginny glanced down the table. "We have to be sure they're trustworthy, but I think it's a good idea. Talk to Dennis."

Burke glowered at her from across the hall. If the awed and furtive glances she was receiving from other tables was any indication, the rumors of her Dark outburst had spread further and to more positive reception. To Burke, she gathered, it did not matter that he had already paid her back the curse manifold. It seemed all the school could talk about was a Gryffindor taking down a Slytherin in an extraordinary fashion. She vowed to keep watch for him, because everything in his glare said the he planned to find her alone in a corridor.

What frustrated Ginny was that her graffiti had provoked no reaction at all. When she passed the stone gargoyle statue on her way to breakfast, the graffiti was already gone. While she was initially pleased that it had warranted such quick action, at breakfast it went unaddressed. There was not a hint of it on the faces of the Carrows, who had spent weeks trying to sniff out the perpetrators of the D.A.'s original message. Snape watched the room with the same dispassionate gaze, hardly eating his food.

He had to have seen it. Flitwick had his offices on the seventh floor, and so did Trelawney, but the Divination professor rarely descended from her tower and Flitwick's office was in the west wing, far from the Headmaster's office. No one else had reason to come to the seventh floor so early in the morning, so Snape had to have seen it. Had he erased it because she flagrantly named them as Death Eaters?

Puzzled, but feeling as though she ought to tug on that string, Ginny packed up food to take to Riddle during her free period. Gingerly, she stood from the bench. Though still a bit tender, a night's rest had made a world of difference. The tremors seemed to have passed.

She scanned the room for Luna, curious about the late meeting with Snape.

"Ginny, walk to class?"

The Head Girl had located Ginny first, but the haunted look on Luna's face quieted Ginny's enthusiastic greeting. Instead Ginny took her by the arm. "Are you alright?"

"I am quite sad," answered Luna, her head cocking to one side. And indeed, her wide eyes were pink from crying. "Shall we go?"

"Is this about Snape's meeting last night?"

"Oh, yes. I'll tell you on the way."

As they made their way to Charms, Luna explained that Snape was making some changes to discipline. Rather than practicing the Cruciatus Curse in class, they would now do so on students serving detentions.

"He said it's becoming out-of-control in class, that continuing its use puts valuable students in danger."

"I take it he meant Purebloods," Ginny gritted. "Or rather, Pureblood supremacists. I certainly didn't see him jumping to my rescue yesterday."

"I think I have to resign as Head Girl. Harper will be pleased."

Ginny opened her mouth to protest and then just as quickly closed it. Who was she to tell Luna what she could or could not handle? Besides, perhaps it would be safer for them to put some distance between themselves and Snape.

"You think I ought to stay, don't you?"

"I didn't say anything because I don't know. They can't expect you to torture people – I don't expect you to torture people just to be in a position to get us information."

"That's what Professor Snape used to do," said Luna, fiddling with a strand of hair. "Or rather, that's what we thought. He must have done terrible things and Professor Dumbledore must have known."

"But Snape is a miserable git. You, on the other hand, are perhaps the kindest person I know."

Luna went faintly pink. "All the same, suppose it's worth it?"

"Luna, we've been at it in class for week now and neither of us has managed to—" She cut off, suddenly going red. For a brief, beautiful moment she had forgotten that yesterday she successfully cast the curse. Luna peered at her, seeing far too much, and Ginny stumbled over her words. "That is, you haven't managed a Cruciatus. I don't think you could. And you shouldn't."

Taking her hand, Luna paused in front of their classroom. "That was quite a nasty thing he did to Natalie McDonald."

"Luna…"

"You didn't know it was going to work."

Her voice came out a whisper. "You have to really mean it."

"And to really hold it, you need to enjoy it. But you dropped your wand."

Warmth blazed through her, such sharp fondness for her odd friend. Wordlessly, she tugged Luna into a fierce hug. Luna's arms remained trapped at her side until Ginny released her.

"Would you believe you-know-who nearly comforted me over it last night? He's got nothing on you, of course, but—Oh!" Ginny slapped her hand over her mouth. She had forgotten to tell Luna about the night before, but their classmates were streaming in around them and now it was too late.

Desperate she pulled Luna into another hug and whispered urgently into her ear. "Tom did something strange last night. Scary. We need to talk about it, but there's too many people around."

Luna made an overlarge show of wiping her eyes when they drew apart, but only Flitwick was paying them any attention, waving them into class. Luna cast a Muffliato Charm to cover their conversation as they hurried to their seats.

"The library after classes. We should talk about Snape too." As using a Charm under the Charms professor's nose was ill-advised, they did not talk further than that.

Ginny hurried off on her own after class with an unwanted feeling of trepidation. Lately she had almost enjoyed her morning free periods with Tom because the extra time allowed them to practice Occlumency. The night before did not change that, she told herself. If anything, it spurred her to forge a deeper connection with Riddle, if such a thing were possible. If he had a plan laid out, if the timing of it meant that he would not even take advantage of her incapacitation, then the clock was ticking. Their attempts to sway him to their side had a time limit on it.

Ginny shivered and then frowned at the involuntary response. Once more she told herself that, if anything, this was an advantage. He would try to escape, but if it had not been yesterday it was unlikely to be today. She knew to be on her guard, but she was free from clutching her wand to her chest at his slightest movement. Whatever his plan, stealing her wand because she slipped up wasn't part of it, else he would have left her to bite off her tongue and been on his way.

As she mounted the stairs from the fifth floor landing, the back of her neck began to prickle. A sly glance over her shoulder revealed exactly what she had expected: Burke following her with a fixed look. Hefting her bag, she took off at a sprint, veering off into the sixth floor. After a year of dodging Harper, Burke was nothing. She was through a hidden door and climbing to the seventh floor before Burke had even turned the corner.

Nonetheless her mood soured, Tom booted from her thoughts. Every bully in Slytherin was getting worse by the day, emboldened by the knowledge that the current regime would do nothing to squelch them. As she walked, she pulled her D.A. galleon from her pocket and charmed it to say Library 7pm. That would give her enough time with Luna beforehand, but it was time for Dumbledore's Army to take action.

Ideas swirled. They could certainly do something to the corridor outside the Slytherin common room. If only she could get her hands on one of Fred and George's Portable Swamps. They could coordinate striking back at all the bullies individually as well. Between them and Snape, the Slytherins would probably be the easier problem to tackle. But all of this was Snape's fault. He was the one they needed to strike.

Why had he ignored the graffiti in front of his office? She gritted her teeth, stopping in front of the troll tapestry. If Snape did not want the school knowing they were Death Eaters, she would shout it from the rooftops. She let herself into the Room, still fully embroiled in her plans and handed Riddle his food without a word.

"Sulking is not becoming of you, Weasley."

She looked up at him, dragged from her thoughts. It took her a moment to realize his train of thought. "For last night? I'm not sulking." A smiled curled on her lips as she took pleasure in tilting her voice towards condescension. "I've learned not to be surprised by your little outbursts."

His face darkened like she knew it would, so she adjusted quickly. "If you must know, I was thinking of how to deal with those Slytherins from yesterday."

"You found the Cruciatus Curse too paltry, then? You ought to throw them in a room and subject them to your company for a year."

"Sulking isn't becoming of you, Tom."

A whisper of a smile curved on his lips. "I seek only to be helpful. Perhaps you would like me to teach you a handful of curses for your Slytherin friends?"

"Only if I can practice on you."

He raised his brows at her and she smirked as he conceded. "Perhaps not. I believe you have a free period, yes? Shall we return to Occlumency? Potions? After all, they require N.E.W.T. students to take the exam without their potions manual."

She felt a stab of horror, but it was short-lived. Surely Slughorn would have mentioned. "Blimey, I should think not!"

"What sort of potioneer must make constant reference to a book?"

"The modern, safety-conscious one, I reckon."

"Come now, you must have memorized at least one. Polyjuice Potion?"

Slipping into her armchair, Ginny studied the ceiling. She recognized the professorial air in his question, but he was rarely this congenial and she had better go with it. "You've got to stew lacewing flies for twenty-one days, haven't you? It's a right pain."

"One ingredient. Astounding."

"Hang on, give me a minute." The Order brewed the stuff often enough. She ought to know it by now. It took a few minutes of fierce concentration, but the ingredients came to her. She listed them off on her fingers.

"Fluxweed picked at the full moon, also a pain. There's the expensive stuff, bicorn horn and boomslang skin. Then knotgrass and leeches, and of course a bit of the person you want to impersonate." Riddle inclined his head to her and she grinned. "I'm slightly more shaky on the brewing instructions. I know it's got two parts and it takes about a month altogether."

"Perhaps you could just toss random handfuls of ingredients in a cauldron and hope it congeals together correctly."

"Which is precisely why I'll use potions manuals, thank you. Besides, I doubt they'll make us brew a month-long potion for our N.E.W.T.s. Shall we do something more practical?" She curled a strand of hair around her finger and narrowed her eyes. Something he'd like. And would not expect. "I was thinking Legilimency."

His eyes lit, giving him the appearance of something feral. Quickly, she amended, "I'm certainly not practicing on you. But I'm curious."

"Not, strictly speaking, practical then."

"How would you know?" And she gave him her most mischievous youngest-sister grin.

"What brings about this change of heart?"

"You're so keen on it, I thought I'd oblige. Call it a thank you for last night." He watched her steadily, not accepting this answer, and so she shrugged. "I'm curious, Riddle. Is it so hard to imagine?"

What she could not tell him, purely because he would then refuse her, was that she was curious about him. She wished to hear him speak about his life in his own words, and Legilimancy may be a way to do it.

"Very well. As with most magic that concerns the mind, wand movements and words are not so important as intent…"

The books had said as much, but as Tom described the spell in its rudimentary form, it began to make sense. He spoke to the spell's most basic iteration, the form she would likely have to practice for years before moving on from it. With deep focus on some base emotion, she might be able to sift memories associated with it to the surface. There would be no control, no direction – in fact, trying to seize such things before she was skilled at the subtleties of Legilimency was what could turn the spell dangerous. Tom's ability to suss out lies without even speaking the incantation aloud, she realized once again, was in a class of its own.

She was simply itching to try it for herself, but Tom would not be her first attempt, or twentieth for that matter. Luckily, her free period was over before he got the chance to suggest it.

"Does Lovegood share your interest?" he asked as Ginny Vanished his dishes and shot off her Patronus. "In Legilimency?"

She met his gaze, practicing Occlumency for all she was worth. "You want to talk about Luna, do you? Can't you just be decent to her?"

"Because I noticed in the midst of all her prattling, Occlumency has not yet come up."

"I know more about the Order than she does. I need it more."

He tapped his lips for a long pause before he tilted his head. "Ah. Discord in the ranks?" His gaze shifted to something rather patronizing. "You realize Occlumency becomes rather telling if you employ it only when lying."

She scowled and dropped her eyes. Of course she knew that, but she had not been thinking. Merlin—! She snapped her gaze back to his. "I'm shocked you haven't brought up Luna before, made some threat. Yes, she doesn't know we're practicing Occlumency. We had some disagreement on whether or not it would be safe. I suppose we'll see, won't we?"

He flashed her a pleasant, false smile. "Of course it is not safe."

Ginny could not help it; she laughed as she shot off her Patronus. "When am I ever safe with you?"

He inclined his head to her. "In any case, she'll hear nothing from me."

Luna's Patronus took some time. She must have been far from the Room, or otherwise occupied. While they waited, Ginny's mind wandered to the Polyjuice Potion. She probably could remember the whole thing if she tried hard enough. Perhaps the potion could figure into their plans – there was certainly mischief to be had in appearing as someone else. As N.E.W.T. students they even had access to the more expensive ingredients, common as they were in advance potions.

Glancing at the Marauder's Map to ensure the hall outside the Room was clear, Ginny ducked out for class when Luna's Patronus hopped through the door. She hurried because Potions was in the dungeons, but when she reached where the forbidden corridor intersected with the great staircase, her heart jolted.

Standing at the mouth of the corridor was Burke, laying in wait for her. As soon as he spotted her, his eyes glinted and he stalked forward. He had his wand in hand. She scrambled backwards, glancing about, but of course the corridor was deserted. It had been off-limits the whole year. Instinct took over and she did not raise her voice – he was too intent, too warlike to bring anyone younger into the fray. Instead she sighted down her wand as he brandished his own.

Ginny dodged low and shot off her own jinx first. She was faster than him, but his wandwork was good, deflecting her spell at the last second. Still moving backwards, she kept distance between them. He was so much bigger than her; she could not risk him getting close and pinning her down.

A spell seared past her head as she dodged, casting a powerful Shield Charm to ward off the next. It rocked Burke back a few feet, but he still raised his own shield to block the curse she followed with. She ducked another searing spell, something she didn't recognize, probably something Dark, and her resolve hardened. Enough. She would not deal with petty schoolchildren while wrestling the Dark Lord and a school of Death Eaters. Planting her feet, she stopped backing away. He surged towards her.

Shame, she thought, and concentrated deep on it, pointed her wand and focused. "Legilimens!"

Flashes passed before her mind. It was different than being hit with the spell herself, as the corridor stayed firmly in view while cloudy ideas, rather than visions, came to her. They swam atop each other, probably the spell sloppily done. A broken mirror, stuttering out half-insults at his mother's feet. Rejection by Daphne Greengrass. Not enough O.W.L.s for his father. Deep, sharp attraction to a Mudblood. Fantasies. Natalie.

It felt as though she received a sharp kick in the head, and he repelled her. The memories lost their potency, but he stood frozen. Moving first, Ginny caught him with an Incarcerous Spell and he toppled to the floor bound with thin cords. She crossed to him and crouched next to his head, peering down into his wide eyes. There was no one around, but she whispered.

"Really, Burke? Peeling fingernails is a far cry from pulling a girl's pigtails."

His lips curled, but his eyes stretched wider. "Piss off, Weasley."

"No, Burke, I think we ought to come to an understanding. I don't want to deal with your petty revenge attempts the rest of the year. So let me be clear. If you send so much as a Stinging Hex my way, I will paint your secrets on the Great Hall. If you get your friends to come after me, they'll be the first to know. They'll see exactly what I saw. Understand?"

She had no way of doing so, but she saw the fear light in his eyes. She ought to ask Riddle if it were even possible.

"Do we understand each other?" she repeated.

"I understand," he grunted. She watched him, looked deep into his eyes, until finally he looked away. "I understand," he murmured. "I won't do anything."

Satisfied, she waved her wand over him and the cords fell away. He sat up, watching her warily.

"Bloody hell, you're mad."

"Madder than a bloke who curses the girl he's in love with?"

He went red and his hand clenched around his wand before he shoved it fiercely into his robes. "I swear, if you say anything—"

"Not if you keep your end." She held out her hand, which he regarded with distain.

"And if Carrow pairs us up in class?"

Leaning in, she let her hand drop. "Then your aim better suffer."

She held his eye until he nodded and then beat a sullen retreat. She rose from her crouch.

There's that sorted, she thought with a tiny thrill. Belatedly she realized she was standing once again in front of Riddle's door. As she turned to hurry from the corridor, she remembered what he had said about power and shivered. But they were still different – Legilimency was not torture.

Throughout the day she fielded guarded, eager glances from the rest of the D.A. It would have been obvious except for the fact that whispers now followed Ginny wherever she walked. She had always been known in the school – beyond the ease with which she made friends between houses, she had six older brothers and had dated the Boy Who Lived – but this level of notoriety was new. The Slytherins she matched glare for glare, but the others she measured carefully. Did she note more looks of admiration than derision, or did she just hope so?

It became clear they were not the only students lashing out. Ginny overheard Slughorn complaining that a cauldron had gone missing in the space of a class period and arrived to her afternoon Defense class to find the entire classroom painted yellow.

"I wish I knew who it was," Colin remarked under his breath. "We need to be together."

"Maybe it's better this way. They can't catch us all at the same time." It had been so much easier when they could meet in the Room of Requirement. How were they going to organize in the library, where anyone could walk up on them? With just her classmates and Dennis, they could make a convincing enough study group but if Dennis brought half the Muggle-borns down on them… Perhaps they could wander from the library to find an empty classroom, walk in groups.

By the time her meeting with Luna arrived she was still worrying over the details of the D.A. meeting. She wandered into the library weighing the danger of unlocking a classroom and meeting there. Winding her way through the stacks, she spotted Luna near the restricted section. She trotted over, pitching her voice low.

"Good, we need to talk fast, before the others come. You—"

Luna spun on her, pale hair flying and her face red. "I am quite upset with you, Ginny Weasley. You've been lying to me about Tom and practicing Occlumency."

Ginny's blood rose, her first thought sharp indignation. But abruptly she found herself laughing. She was mad at Tom! For telling Luna, because she had trusted him not to tell. Too late she realized that Luna's mouth had tightened to a line.

"I'm not laughing at you," she hurried to say. "It's Tom—no, you're right. I'm sorry, I should have told you. But it's working."

"It isn't safe."

"We're never safe with him." Luna's mouth opened, but Ginny held up her hands to stop her. "Luna, wait, I have to tell you what he did."

Quickly, glad to distract her, Ginny told Luna about her episode the night before, and what Tom had done. "Luna, he has a plan that he's sure about. It's a year coming; he's definitely worked out any problems by now. That means we only have a short time to change his mind. Yes, Occlumency is a risk, but we need to take risks, even dangerous ones. If we don't we could lose everything."

"He could have killed you last night."

"But he didn't." She swallowed carefully and put a hand on Luna's shoulder. "But from here on out, we should expect that he could make his move at any time. We need to pull out all the stops. If he's certain his plan will work, what can we do to stop him? We need to change his mind altogether."

Luna's eyes trailed to the books on her left. Her voice got smaller. "Before the end of term Ginny? Is that really possible?" Something like shame crossed her face, utterly unfamiliar on her features, but then she met Ginny's eyes once more. "We need to think about how we're going to move him. And then maybe the Order will know what to do with him."

Ginny's heart jolted, first with protest that anyone could make further progress with Riddle than she already had, and then with surprise at the feeling.

"And if he's planning something, the sooner the better," Luna continued. "We will need to interrupt his plan and introduce new variables he can't have planned for."

"Right, you're right," Ginny answered, still stuck on her reaction. Whatever she thought about Riddle's chances to fight with them, they could not leave him in Hogwarts after they finished their exams. "But suppose us moving him is part of his plan? Ever since he found out that Dumbledore is dead he could have surmised that we would eventually have to give him over to someone else's care or move him."

Luna's brow furrowed. "Perhaps we should tell Professor McGonagall after all."

"We might have to when it comes down to it." But not yet, she thought, for McGonagall would not likely let them in to see Tom again if she knew. She could not shake the feeling that if Tom changed hands then all her work, all her pain, would be for nothing. "But the less people who know, the better. We need to know who is running the Order now. My parents? Professor Lupin? Maybe they should decide."

Blinking, Luna seemed to read that Ginny was stalling the decision. "I do not know if Riddle will ever side with us, Ginny. We may have to accept that in the end, but this is our mission. Dumbledore gave it to us. Whoever we tell, we will make sure they don't take him away from us. Riddle needs you and if he changes sides, it will be because of you."

Something tight in her chest released. "Because of us."