Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 99: One Last Remnant
"Whoa…this is huge!" Ginny leaned over one of the guardrails. She could see an endless set of stairs going down and getting lost in the distance. And when looking up, it was just the same endless stairs.
All around her were nothing but corridors with filled bookshelves on the sides.
She had no idea where she was supposed to go from there. It all looked the same, like a labyrinth.
Ginny looked at the spines of some of the nearby books. There were words written on them, but the titles sounded a bit strange.
There were things like:
"The Brewing of Alihotsy Draught."
"I Create the Light Feather Enchantment for the First Time."
"The Perfect Way to Fold Your Robes."
"Study Session at the Library with Hermione, Part 136."
She gently touched the last one, and as soon as she did, images and sounds began to enter her mind. Ginny was suddenly in the Gryffindor common room, looking at Hermione as she was explaining something about Charms.
Ginny was then pulled out from there and returned to the library. She took her fingers off the book. "These are all…memories?" The number of books was immense.
She knew that Harry had experienced a very long life, but this really put it into perspective.
"Hmm?...hold on, what's going on there?" While looking around, something got her attention. In one of the corridors, the bookshelves appeared to have become damaged, and some of the books had fallen to the ground.
"That can't be good, right?"
Ginny got a bit closer to the damaged shelf and noticed a black substance stuck to it. It was doing something to the shelves and attaching itself to the books. "It's…consuming them? What is that?"
"Don't get any closer to it, unless you wish to die."
"Who?!" She got startled and tried to reach for her wand, only to realize she didn't have it. This was not her real body.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. But if you touch that black substance, it will consume you, just as it's doing to Harry's memories."
Ginny saw a tall figure walking from behind a bookshelf. "Who are yo—...no!" Her eyes went wide, and she screamed when she saw who it was.
It was a handsome young man with short dark hair. He was dressed in a Hogwarts uniform and looking at her with a pair of intense black eyes.
"Tom Riddle!" Ginny shouted, pointing her finger at him. "W-what are you doing here?!"
"Oh?...right. I should have seen this coming." Tom made a troubled face. "You had a bad experience with the diary fragment during your first year. Harry told me about that."
Ginny narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean? That was you!"
"No, no. That was a different version of me." Tom hurried to say. "I am the one you used to call…V."
"V?! But…V is a talking hat."
Tom shrugged. "This is not the real world, so the physical aspect is just a mental construction. And it would be difficult to move around as a hat, you know? Having legs is much better."
"You really are V?" Ginny still sounded suspicious.
"Do you want me to prove it?" Tom asked. "I was there with you and Harry when you went on your first date to Paris, remember? I was also there during your first official date. You went to a place near your house with a giant boulder and had a peaceful picnic. Harry told you a lot of important things that day. I was also there during your first snogging session at th—"
"Okay, okay!" Ginny stopped him. "I believe you. You are V."
"Hey, I didn't ask to be a voyeur. But such is the life of a hat," Tom responded.
"But I don't understand…Harry said that you were taken away by Voldemort. That was the whole reason for…"
"I know. I know that." Tom frowned. "I'm not the actual V. Just a sentient memory left behind by the real one."
"A memory?"
Tom nodded. "Memories can exist in this place. To me, this is as real as it gets."
"Why would V leave behind a sentient memory?" Ginny asked, trying to understand the situation.
"I was supposed to serve as a safety measure. In case the real V was taken away from Harry. He needs his mental anchor…without it…"
"Yes, I know. The Obscurus began to consume his mind." Ginny suddenly turned around toward the black substance eating away at the books. "Is that what…"
"Indeed." Tom looked at the black goo with disgust. "That thing is part of the Obscurus. It's corroding Harry's mind. Making him lose what made him…himself. And that's just a small piece. They are all over the Mind Library."
"Then we need to do something about it! If this continues…will Harry forget everything?" Will he forget about her?
"It's worse than that. If the corruption spreads too far, then Harry's mind will completely disappear, and the Obscurus will gain control over his body and magic. That would be a much worse catastrophe than you can imagine. Worse than anything Voldemort could do."
"Then…" Ginny turned around. "Let's get rid of it."
Tom shook his head. "Impossible. I have already tried, but this dark creature cannot be destroyed by us. Only Harry can do it. Unfortunately, his consciousness is no longer in the library. And I am unable to leave this place…a memory is not strong enough to move around the mind and reach its deepest parts. I am trapped in here. Meaning that I can't save Harry, but…" He pointed at Ginny. "Perhaps you can do it."
"That's what I came here for. If you know what to do, then please tell me," Ginny said without hesitation. She had finally found some guidance and was not going to let it go to waste.
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