[Fic] "Secrets" chapter 12 -- Harry Potter

[edenfalling]

It has been more than a year and a half since chapter 11 (in other words, I suck), but here, at last, is chapter 12 of "Secrets"!

Chapter 12: Into the Dark. In which Ginny wrestles with moral dilemmas and fails to reach any satisfactory conclusions. Attempting to protect Harry and claim responsibility for what she unleashed, she recovers Tom's diary, but that proves a nearly fatal mistake.

(I'm not sure if I still have queue bypass status over at FictionAlley, but I will try uploading there tonight as well. ETA: The FA version is up now.)

Comments

[askerian]

Woohoo! ^___^ *read read*

I like the awkwardness with Neville and Xanthe. Mm consequences.

"I'm lying," she whispered after a minute. She didn't want Tom to die. She wanted him not to be evil.
Oh Ginny. ;__;

Ginny agreed. Then she made Xanthe explain telephones.
That little scene about the classes was cute from thart to finish, but this line really amused me.

If she wanted to be free -- if she wanted to keep everyone safe -- she'd have to kill him.

Ginny tried not to think about that.

... Oh Ginny. ;__; Even with her fits of childish selfishness and other bad sides I still love her so much more than the book Ginny, who in that book at least is an empty, empty trophy-thing. She's thinking about doing it herself, and she's scared of it but she still knows it! prrt. ♥

She wasn't even lying; if and when she got revenge on Daphne, no one would be able to connect it to her.
Haha, so vengeful. She might not have been a bad fit for Slytherin either. >D

Her life felt like that. Nothing she did mattered.
;___; *squishes*

And if you don't care about that, you're stupid, too. So there."
... Aww. XD She's still such a kid in a lot of ways. Poor girl.

That first dream was really sneaky and manipulative. Prrr. I love the whole scene where she keeps slipping between the castle dream and reality. Go Ginny go!!

Ginny couldn't bear to confess to anyone else. Snape or Professor McGonagall might be able to deal with Tom, and Professor Sprout might forgive her, but she didn't trust anyone besides Dumbledore to do both.
;_____; oh poor kid. *squishes*

I love how everything keeps going wrong in the end and she's so trapped and yet still looking for a way out. Oh Ginny. *;___;*

Ahh, this chapter was good. *___*

[edenfalling]

The thing about Xanthe is that in some ways, she and Ginny have become quite good friends, but in other ways Ginny keeps throwing up walls. She's mostly doing it in a misguided attempt to protect Xanthe, but all Xanthe can see is Ginny withdrawing, which is hurtful. But she keeps on trying. (I'm honestly not sure I'd still be trying to be Ginny's friend at this point, but Xanthe is a nicer person than I am. And Apple, I think, mostly just wants to understand what the hell is going on and therefore also keeps reaching out now and then.)

I find Neville adorable and I try to work him into the story whenever it seems feasible. :-)

The bit about choosing classes is mostly me taking advantage of having a closed canon (and also Ginny's greater familiarity with Hogwarts and the wizarding world) and letting people notice things when they ought to notice them, instead of being effectively blindsided the way Harry so often is. (Harry is shockingly incurious about any number of things. So is Ron, come to think of it; I wanted to have Ginny behave more sensibly.)

My mental Ginny is, in many ways, a mirror version of Draco Malfoy. It would not at all surprise me if the Hat had seriously considered dropping her into Slytherin! (It wouldn't surprise me if the twins had ended up there either, come to that. They're certainly sneaky enough, and they definitely have ambition, though it's a bit sideways to what Mrs. Weasley considers acceptable life goals. *grin*)

I had a lot of fun with the dream sequences in this chapter. They're so much more interesting than complete blackouts!

I think the real point of "Secrets," and especially of the chapters once Ginny discovers Tom's true nature, is that Ginny is NOT an empty, helpless damsel in distress. Instead, she's the heroine of her own story, doing her best to solve a problem she thinks is her fault. And yes, she's not perfect, she jumps to conclusions, she makes stupid mistakes, and she's going about it entirely the wrong way -- this is not a battle anyone can win alone -- but she's taking responsibility and she's trying.

I honestly think this explains canon much better than complete possession and loss of will, because otherwise the lengthy gaps between attacks make very little sense. Tom has no real reason to wait before going after Harry. Ginny, on the other hand, has every reason to stall him as long as she can.

[smokyglass.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid to read this chapter... It sounds like it's very emotionally charged.

[edenfalling]

Chapter 12 covers, roughly, mid-March through to the climax of CoS (when Tom possesses Ginny, leaves a message proclaiming her death, and takes her down to the Chamber). So yeah, there's a lot of emotionally fraught stuff, especially related to Ginny's theft of the diary, Hermione's Petrification, and Ginny's failure to confess to Harry right before Tom posesses her that final time. But there are quieter and sillier moments as well, most of which deal with Neville, the twins, or Ginny's OC classmates.