![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingSummary: "Chamber of Secrets" from Ginny's point of view. 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.
Aka, the chapter in which anything that could possibly go wrong, does.
In other words, welcome to the climax of the story... at least inasmuch as the story has any traditional adventure climax, which is somewhat arguable. It definitely has a struggle between good and evil, but the ultimate victory is not Tom's destruction (that's Harry's gig) but Ginny's refusal to let him define her life and her sense of self. Anyway, this chapter deals with Hermione's Petrification and Ginny's final possession, the one that ends with her lying alone in the Chamber, her life draining away to feed Tom.
We open with the immediate aftermath of Ginny performing Occlumency to shut Tom out of her mind and her magic; there is a backlash to interrupting that bond, but it passes within a day. Alas, this does not actually improve Ginny's social life. Her brothers manage to scare Neville off (he really does seem to have a tiny crush on her, weird!) and her refusal to tell Xanthe any details about her "accidental" spell is a big, awkward elephant in the middle of their friendship.
The second-year students get to pick their electives, which gives me an opportunity to insert a little Neville character moment and also to have Ginny & company look over the list of available subjects so they won't be caught flat-footed next year. (The HP series is full of moments where Harry really should have known something years before it's introduced in the books, which has the unfortunate side result of making him seem deliberately incurious about the strange new world he's been tossed into.)
Daphne continues her fight/rivalry with Ginny outside of Potions lessons, even though Ginny has quit actively striking back. (Huh, she also specifically thinks about the pumpkin juice incident. Yeah, it's good that I've edited chapter 15 to mention that!) A brief conversation with Apple leaves Ginny stewing, and after a session of throwing rocks into the lake in hopes of working off her temper, she marches into the Gryffindor boys' dorms without bothering to be sneaky, rifles through Harry's things, and steals the diary. Random fits of bravado work better than attempts at stealth, apparently. *wry*
She flees to Myrtle's bathroom (the destination is not intentional, just habit) and tries to talk herself into burning the diary, but she can't quite bring herself to try. It feels like stabbing Tom in the back rather than fighting him openly. And she still desperately wants to know WHY he's been ruining her life, framing Harry, and Petrifying people.
Even though she knows it's stupid, she opens the diary for a chat.
She tells Tom she would have let him borrow her body if he'd just stopped to ask, that she would have done her best to get him out of the diary, that he didn't have to trick or hurt anyone. She tells him she was his friend. She asks him why.
Tom laughs and says, "Because I can, and because I want to. It's not a question of good or evil, just power and will. I take what I want; the desires of the weak are irrelevant." This is a pretty good summation of sociopathy, I think, and also a good summation of why Tom is/was so easy to write. He then makes an oblique reference to Voldemort (which flies right over Ginny's head, of course) and threatens Harry. Ginny protests, but Tom tells her she was stupid to talk when she knows he can control her and read her mind. He starts to make her black out, but Ginny retains just enough sense to slam the diary shut, which forces him to dissipate. (He is bound by the physical limitations of the book, you see, and books can't be read when closed.)
But she forgets to redo the Occlumency exercise to close the link, which lets Tom possess her that night. The next scenes alternate between dream sequences -- the princess, the dragon, and the dark man -- and Ginny surfacing for brief intervals and fighting against Tom's control. They go down to the Chamber to wake the basilisk, then search the Great Hall for the Trio, then inquire after Hermione in the library. Ginny manages to get control of her voice just in time to warn Hermione that the basilisk is coming around the corner, and then manages to shut Tom out.
(I am very proud of that sequence, by the way. It's a little melodramatic, sure, but it resolves a bunch of niggling plot oddities from CoS, it lets Ginny fight Tom tooth and nail and win, and it also brings back the fairy-tale dream symbolism and shows Ginny learning to use that to her own ends. The princess gains agency, dammit! The princess can be her own fucking hero!
...
Yeah, back to summary stuff now. *climbs down from soapbox*)
When she wakes, Ginny has a brief panic attack, then runs to the library to see if Hermione is alive. She overhears Snape questioning Madam Pince about Hermione's actions and thinks she should go confess everything. She doesn't, though; instead Snape notices her and takes five points from Gryffindor, though he doess inform her that Hermione and Penelope Clearwater are alive (albeit Petrified). Ginny returns to Gryffindor Tower and runs into her classmates who are speculating over the cancelled Quidditch match. Ginny ends up in her dorm room, alone, feeling horribly guilty over the whole affair.
Hogwarts goes into lockdown -- nobody is allowed anywhere unaccompanied -- but at least now the Gryffindors are convinced Harry isn't the Heir. That's less comfort to Ginny than one might think, since she's now feeling directly guilty for Tom's actions. She decides she will confess to Professor Dumbledore and nerves herself up to do that on Sunday morning. But though she manages to guess his password, the door to his office is locked.
She goes to Professor McGonagall's office to ask for her help in finding Dumbledore and reads a book while she waits. When McGonagall finally arrives, she tells Ginny that Dumbledore has been removed as Headmaster and Hagrid has been sent away. (She doesn't mention Azkaban by name, probably in an attempt not to upset Ginny any further.) Ginny tries to nerve herself up to confess to McGonagall (which is a worse thought than confessing to Dumbledore, since McGonagall seems much less understanding of human failings), but the strength of her focus clues Tom in to her intentions, and he scares her into silence. (Guilt does the rest.) Once again, she concludes that Tom is HER problem -- her responsibility -- and she has to defeat him all on her own.
To summarize the next part: tension in the castle ratchets up and everyone is stressed and on a hair trigger. Brief scene with Daphne, Apple argues with the other Gryffindors, Xanthe and Ginny are awkward together, the twins enlist Ginny to distract Ron and Harry, Xanthe makes Ginny take a nap, Susan and Ruth earn all the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years detention, Ginny thinks briefly about suicide, and finally Ginny and the twins play cards with Ron and Harry until Ginny makes them all go to bed. (This is the lead-in to Harry and Ron visiting Aragog, btw, though Ginny knows nothing about that.) It's basically a long string of short incidents that mean little on their own but hopefully add up to a sense of desperate claustrophobia.
This brings Ginny to attempt another confession of her guilt (and Tom's identity as the Heir). She asks Apple's advice (and gets some, which is predicated on the assumption that she wants to confess her crush to Harry, but is good advice nonetheless) and goes down to breakfast with the intention of revealing Tom before he can stop her. She gains additional resolve when McGonagall announces that the Mandrakes are nearly ready to free the Heir's victims from their Petrification; she HAS to confess before they wake and implicate her. But she thinks too hard about what she's planning to do. Tom tries to grab hold of her voice (via that spell link), and then Percy interrupts just when Ginny is trying to force herself to talk despite Tom's control.
She flees, deciding that she'll just take the diary to McGonagall as physical proof. Tom is finished either way -- this will just speed up the process and make Ginny look more like a victim and less like a willing accomplice. But though she tries to protect herself, she accidentally touches the diary with bare skin and that gives Tom just enough leverage to beat down her mental defenses and drag her under. Into the dark. Like the chapter title says.
Look, I never claimed I was a particularly subtle writer. *wry*
(Two more chapters to go before I can figure out how to finish chapter 15!)
Bechdel Test = PASS
Aka, the chapter in which anything that could possibly go wrong, does.
In other words, welcome to the climax of the story... at least inasmuch as the story has any traditional adventure climax, which is somewhat arguable. It definitely has a struggle between good and evil, but the ultimate victory is not Tom's destruction (that's Harry's gig) but Ginny's refusal to let him define her life and her sense of self. Anyway, this chapter deals with Hermione's Petrification and Ginny's final possession, the one that ends with her lying alone in the Chamber, her life draining away to feed Tom.
We open with the immediate aftermath of Ginny performing Occlumency to shut Tom out of her mind and her magic; there is a backlash to interrupting that bond, but it passes within a day. Alas, this does not actually improve Ginny's social life. Her brothers manage to scare Neville off (he really does seem to have a tiny crush on her, weird!) and her refusal to tell Xanthe any details about her "accidental" spell is a big, awkward elephant in the middle of their friendship.
The second-year students get to pick their electives, which gives me an opportunity to insert a little Neville character moment and also to have Ginny & company look over the list of available subjects so they won't be caught flat-footed next year. (The HP series is full of moments where Harry really should have known something years before it's introduced in the books, which has the unfortunate side result of making him seem deliberately incurious about the strange new world he's been tossed into.)
Daphne continues her fight/rivalry with Ginny outside of Potions lessons, even though Ginny has quit actively striking back. (Huh, she also specifically thinks about the pumpkin juice incident. Yeah, it's good that I've edited chapter 15 to mention that!) A brief conversation with Apple leaves Ginny stewing, and after a session of throwing rocks into the lake in hopes of working off her temper, she marches into the Gryffindor boys' dorms without bothering to be sneaky, rifles through Harry's things, and steals the diary. Random fits of bravado work better than attempts at stealth, apparently. *wry*
She flees to Myrtle's bathroom (the destination is not intentional, just habit) and tries to talk herself into burning the diary, but she can't quite bring herself to try. It feels like stabbing Tom in the back rather than fighting him openly. And she still desperately wants to know WHY he's been ruining her life, framing Harry, and Petrifying people.
Even though she knows it's stupid, she opens the diary for a chat.
She tells Tom she would have let him borrow her body if he'd just stopped to ask, that she would have done her best to get him out of the diary, that he didn't have to trick or hurt anyone. She tells him she was his friend. She asks him why.
Tom laughs and says, "Because I can, and because I want to. It's not a question of good or evil, just power and will. I take what I want; the desires of the weak are irrelevant." This is a pretty good summation of sociopathy, I think, and also a good summation of why Tom is/was so easy to write. He then makes an oblique reference to Voldemort (which flies right over Ginny's head, of course) and threatens Harry. Ginny protests, but Tom tells her she was stupid to talk when she knows he can control her and read her mind. He starts to make her black out, but Ginny retains just enough sense to slam the diary shut, which forces him to dissipate. (He is bound by the physical limitations of the book, you see, and books can't be read when closed.)
But she forgets to redo the Occlumency exercise to close the link, which lets Tom possess her that night. The next scenes alternate between dream sequences -- the princess, the dragon, and the dark man -- and Ginny surfacing for brief intervals and fighting against Tom's control. They go down to the Chamber to wake the basilisk, then search the Great Hall for the Trio, then inquire after Hermione in the library. Ginny manages to get control of her voice just in time to warn Hermione that the basilisk is coming around the corner, and then manages to shut Tom out.
(I am very proud of that sequence, by the way. It's a little melodramatic, sure, but it resolves a bunch of niggling plot oddities from CoS, it lets Ginny fight Tom tooth and nail and win, and it also brings back the fairy-tale dream symbolism and shows Ginny learning to use that to her own ends. The princess gains agency, dammit! The princess can be her own fucking hero!
...
Yeah, back to summary stuff now. *climbs down from soapbox*)
When she wakes, Ginny has a brief panic attack, then runs to the library to see if Hermione is alive. She overhears Snape questioning Madam Pince about Hermione's actions and thinks she should go confess everything. She doesn't, though; instead Snape notices her and takes five points from Gryffindor, though he doess inform her that Hermione and Penelope Clearwater are alive (albeit Petrified). Ginny returns to Gryffindor Tower and runs into her classmates who are speculating over the cancelled Quidditch match. Ginny ends up in her dorm room, alone, feeling horribly guilty over the whole affair.
Hogwarts goes into lockdown -- nobody is allowed anywhere unaccompanied -- but at least now the Gryffindors are convinced Harry isn't the Heir. That's less comfort to Ginny than one might think, since she's now feeling directly guilty for Tom's actions. She decides she will confess to Professor Dumbledore and nerves herself up to do that on Sunday morning. But though she manages to guess his password, the door to his office is locked.
She goes to Professor McGonagall's office to ask for her help in finding Dumbledore and reads a book while she waits. When McGonagall finally arrives, she tells Ginny that Dumbledore has been removed as Headmaster and Hagrid has been sent away. (She doesn't mention Azkaban by name, probably in an attempt not to upset Ginny any further.) Ginny tries to nerve herself up to confess to McGonagall (which is a worse thought than confessing to Dumbledore, since McGonagall seems much less understanding of human failings), but the strength of her focus clues Tom in to her intentions, and he scares her into silence. (Guilt does the rest.) Once again, she concludes that Tom is HER problem -- her responsibility -- and she has to defeat him all on her own.
To summarize the next part: tension in the castle ratchets up and everyone is stressed and on a hair trigger. Brief scene with Daphne, Apple argues with the other Gryffindors, Xanthe and Ginny are awkward together, the twins enlist Ginny to distract Ron and Harry, Xanthe makes Ginny take a nap, Susan and Ruth earn all the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years detention, Ginny thinks briefly about suicide, and finally Ginny and the twins play cards with Ron and Harry until Ginny makes them all go to bed. (This is the lead-in to Harry and Ron visiting Aragog, btw, though Ginny knows nothing about that.) It's basically a long string of short incidents that mean little on their own but hopefully add up to a sense of desperate claustrophobia.
This brings Ginny to attempt another confession of her guilt (and Tom's identity as the Heir). She asks Apple's advice (and gets some, which is predicated on the assumption that she wants to confess her crush to Harry, but is good advice nonetheless) and goes down to breakfast with the intention of revealing Tom before he can stop her. She gains additional resolve when McGonagall announces that the Mandrakes are nearly ready to free the Heir's victims from their Petrification; she HAS to confess before they wake and implicate her. But she thinks too hard about what she's planning to do. Tom tries to grab hold of her voice (via that spell link), and then Percy interrupts just when Ginny is trying to force herself to talk despite Tom's control.
She flees, deciding that she'll just take the diary to McGonagall as physical proof. Tom is finished either way -- this will just speed up the process and make Ginny look more like a victim and less like a willing accomplice. But though she tries to protect herself, she accidentally touches the diary with bare skin and that gives Tom just enough leverage to beat down her mental defenses and drag her under. Into the dark. Like the chapter title says.
Look, I never claimed I was a particularly subtle writer. *wry*
(Two more chapters to go before I can figure out how to finish chapter 15!)
Bechdel Test = PASS
