¥ All characters, places and incidents you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling, or Oscar Wilde.

Summary: 14 years old Ginny Weasley is finally sick of worshipping 'The boy who lived' from afar. She decides to bring some adventure into her life and goes for Tom Riddle instead. An ancient prophecy at the library's fireplace holds the key to everything.

The Hogwarts' Riddle

Prologue

Blanching, her throat tight with fear, the red-haired girl backed away, steadying herself against the wall. Frantically she glanced along the dark corridor in both directions. They were all alone up here.

All alone with – him. There was no one around beside the three of them. No one to come to their aid.

In the weak light of dawn it was barely possible to recognize any more than silhouettes. Dark shapes against a slowly-approaching dawn. Nonetheless she was sure who the tall, black-robed man with the hood was and what he had come for. With tortuously slow strides he stepped closer, until there was no more than an arm's length between them. She couldn't recognize his hooded face against the faint light of the grey winter morning. But his voice, barely a whisper, cut the silence like a whip as he spoke.  

"You shouldn't have mixed into matters that aren't yours, little Ginny Weasley-" The hoarsely whispered words sounded strangely hollow in the deserted corridor.

Then, slowly, as if he had all time imaginable, he raised his wand.

At this the black-haired boy snapped out of his state of shocked immobility. Determinedly he stepped in front of the quivering girl and reached for his own wand.

"Don't hurt her-"

With an annoyed clicking of his tongue the dark-robed man turned his hooded head to face him. "Stand aside you silly boy …stand aside, now …" he growled.

Quivering himself the black-haired boy took a hesitating step into the man's direction.

"No!" he shook his head in attempt to stress his words, but his voice sounded incredibly young and frightened, nonetheless. "What do you want with her?"

"I said 'Stand aside!'" the man snarled, not bothering with an answer, raising his wand once again. 

"And I said 'No!'" the boy snapped back, his voice louder and more determined now. "I won't step aside. You .. you'll have to deal with me first, if you want to get her!"

This made the other wizard stop in mid-movement. "Are you insane, boy?" he hissed. "Why would I possibly do this? Stand aside, now and let me finish what I've come for!"

With a furious hiss he conjured up an angry wave of sparks to drive the boy out of his way, but he stood his ground. The next curse hit the boy's right side with sharp biting pain and this time he fought back, sending a rush of white-hot sparks in his opponent's direction. This one responded with another attack and within a few moments they were truly duelling.

Furious, forceful curses criss-crossed around them, cutting off bits of sandstone whenever they hit the walls. Others hit each other in mid-air, causing showers of gleaming red and bright orange sparks to spray up. Pale white smoke hung across the scene and the air literally sizzled with electricity and smelled slightly scorched.

Horrified, Ginny stumbled backwards out of their reach. Tripping over her own feet, she fell and landed in a crushed heap at the floor. But while she was still struggling to come to her feet again, she suddenly froze in mid-movement. All she could do was pinch her eyes shut and hide her face with the sleeve of her robe, when both opponents bellowed Avada Kedavra at the same time and a bright flash of green light filled the corridor.

With a dull sound a body hit the floor – then – there was nothing but silence –

Too afraid to open her eyes, terrified of what she might see, she listened to the unmistakable

sound of footsteps approaching her.

Chapter 1                        -PERTH- 

Ginny Weasley had a problem. 

She was 14 - and she had a crush. At the moment, this crush was probably sitting at some table in the 'Three Broomsticks', with Cho Chang.

It wasn't easy, being 14. And it was certainly not easy to have an unrequited crush on 'The boy who lived'. Ginny Weasley sighed in frustration. It simply wasn't fair.

With a loud flump she closed the old, well-thumbed copy of 'Hogwarts - A History', ignored the stern look she got from Madame Pince, and turned her eyes towards the window.

Thick showers of cold February-rain fell in heavy blows out of a dark-grey clouded sky. The wind rattled and swept around the old castle. The icy water pattered against the windows and kept the world outside in a haze of watery blurriness.

It even increased her foul mood.

Bored to death she gazed around the almost deserted library. Just a handful of students was seated at the dark, wooden tables, working in silence. Her gaze slipped across the high bookshelves, packed with hundreds and thousands of books of every age and size, before coming to rest at the fireplace.

Like countless times before, she let her eyes wander across the ancient stone pictures at its white mantelpiece.

There were seven prominent stone shields, depicting various images of an old prophecy from the days of the Founders Four. An equally modulated stone chain led the viewer's gaze along the shields in the supposed succession.

The first image was a bolt of lightning, shaped just like the one of Harry's scar.  

The next stone shield showed a phoenix with impressive tail-feathers.

In the third one, a slender unicorn was pictured, looking at its own long, bushy tail.

The fourth image was that of an opened book with a feather-quill inside.

The fifth shield showed closed folding doors with a snake wrapped around its handles.

The next image was that of an hour-glass on a long, fragile chain.

But the last one was her favourite as it showed two entwined wedding-bands and a single rose.

Smiling, Ginny opened the old copy of 'Hogwarts - A History' that still rested at the table in front of her.

The images of the stone shields were also pictured at the old book's first page. In ancient, entangled, scarlet red letters the words of the prophecy were set.

She didn't know how often she had read and reread the lines on the thick, yellowish parchment. She loved them, even if she wasn't sure about their meaning.

Far in the future that lies ahead

When darkness and fear torture the land

A maiden who reads what herein is said

Will know what I speak of – she will understand

The wand of phoenix-feathers and yew's wood

Wielded by the dark-haired one, forlorn

Will, if he meets that lass - sweet and good

Not fight the apple's wood - and unicorn.

If cunning slyness - used for reasons dark

Gives strength to the brave one - to conquer her fears

She might bring to their hearts - that magical spark

If she dares to travel - through all those years. 

Love as the one thing no Dark Magic can fight

Will defeat the evil with kindness and light.

Ginny released a sigh of satisfaction at the poem. She had always had a sense for romance. Maybe that was her problem.

She had read those lines over and over again. It seemed to be written for Harry, she thought.

The bolt of lightening, the part about the dark-haired boy, who was all lost and forlorn in the world and the description of his wand -

Well, except for that part about the kind of wood it had been made of. The prophecy said, it were yew tree and Harry's wand was one of holly's wood instead. But certainly the seer, who had made this prophecy about happenings so far in the future, couldn't have known of every little detail, and he had been right about the phoenix feather at least. This had to be written for Harry, everything else fit so perfectly.

And his mother's love had saved him from Voldemort. Or wasn't that what was meant by those last lines?

Her elder brothers had told her about the prophecy, long before she had started at Hogwarts. She had been overjoyed, when her own wand had turned out to be one of apple's wood and unicorn-hair. It somehow sounded as if Harry would still fall for her in the end. It had given her a lot of comfort in hours of  unrequited longing.

She had spend lots of time at the library, just to read and reread the prophecy and to look at the pictures in the stone shields.

She had tried to figure it out.

The image of those closed doors with the serpent, might be referring to the incident when he had rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets.

She loved the idea that, the prophecy might be referring to her and Harry. It was so very romantic. She just wasn't sure what the image of the hour-glass and the book and quill were supposed to mean.

Finally, Ginny drew her eyes away from the fireplace and clapped the book shut once more. If  no-one had solved the Hogwarts' riddle up to now, she certainly wouldn't do so today.

The whole room smelled of dust, furniture polish and old books, mixed with the scent of some coffee Madame Pince had obviously brewed for herself.

Ginny sighed in frustration again. This day certainly couldn't get any worse. She doubted anyone besides herself would be stupid enough to stay at school on a Hogsmeade weekend - the first of the year, to be precise - of their own free will.

All of her friends were down there. Only she had stayed behind. Not because of a detention, but out of  - well, she was simply sick of watching Harry running after Cho Chang all the time.

He wouldn't notice her at all. As hard as she might try, he simply wouldn't. He was friendly to her, she couldn't deny that, but he never saw anything else in her than Ron's little sis.

She had shed many tears over this. It had taken her many endless nights of crying, until she had finally reached the state of frustration she was currently in.

She was deeply, utterly annoyed and bored to death. And she was certainly at the point to do something drastic.

She wasn't considering to take her life or something like that. In that way, she was still completely healthy. But the tears she had shed in a state of  lover's grief, had awoken a great deal of strength in her and the desperate wish to prove herself. She had discovered a sense of adventure she didn't know she possessed.

Her friends didn't seem to understand her anymore. Recently, she wasn't even sure if she did so herself. She had even briefly considered making a move on Draco Malfoy, just for a challenge. Just to shock her friends. To wipe the knowingly pitying look off of their faces. They felt so damn superior to her. She could almost hear their thoughts.

'Be nice to Ginny, she has had a crush on Harry for ages, but he won't ever notice her. Poor, stupid little girl.'

It would get them the shock of their lives if she dated Malfoy. But she had quickly dropped that idea again. He was just an arse. She couldn't stand him.

There was no one she could tell about her confused feelings. But she needed to word them in some kind of way to sort them out. And so she had finally started to keep a diary again, like she had done back in her first year.

Only now, there was no one to respond to her entries. No one to comfort or encourage her, when she was depressed, like the kind, good-looking sixth year, who had once listened to all her worries.

She missed him, she noticed, thunderstruck. Even if his kindness had been no more than a farce. She missed him badly. Maybe she had far more of a crush on him than she had ever realised.

She didn't want Draco Malfoy, nor any other boy she knew.

She was so sick of all of this.

Maybe she really hadn't seen through the glory of Harry's name. After all, she had worshipped him, before she even knew him.  She had been stuck on her crush on him for so long, just because of the idea she had of his personality.

If she had fooled herself about him all that time, wasn't it possible that she had been mistaken in other judgements also? Was it possible that the other boy, who's diary she had once shared, had at some time really held the goodness inside himself that he had shown to her in his diary?

She wasn't sure if those thoughts made any sense. Even to herself the idea sounded strange. But in her current state of confusion, she didn't really care.

She felt lost, even in a crowded room, surrounded by her friends.

Especially there.

She felt as if she were missing something – something important – something, worthy of seeking and fighting for. It was neither fortunes nor glory she was searching for - as was Percy's or Ron's ambition.

She hungered for something far deeper and rarer than that. For something special. She didn't want to just be – dear little Ginny for everyone – anymore.

She wanted to be someone's whole world. Someone's destiny.

She wanted to experience a kind of love that was able to ease any pain, to change wrong to right, evil to good and darkness to light. Just like that old prophecy above the fireplace said.

And suddenly she realised, what was wrong with her ever since she had left the Chamber of Secrets.

She missed him.

Not Voldemort, certainly not him - but the kind, understanding, dark-haired boy he had once been.

She missed Tom Riddle. 

And with that, a plan started to form inside of her mind.

A/N: The 1st Chapter's title refers to PERTH, the rune of initiation. It also stands for hidden aspects in a relationship and for a secret destiny. My little knowledge of runes and their meaning is a result of various sources. I hope no one feels offended, if I'm playing around with runes in some parts of this story. I try to keep my interpretations as close to their original meaning, as possible.

What do you think? It's certainly strange. I'm aware of that. But somehow, I suppose it might become a lot of fun.

Thanks to SilentG for revising this chapter.

Serpentina