Re-reading The Very Secret Diary

Harry will notice you, Virginia.

 

Don't say that.  No he won't.

Oh yes he will.  I promise… that by the end of this year… everyone will have noticed you.

- September 6

Oh, that's so creepy.  That - is so - creepy.

Arabella is so amazing in this story. 

 

ETA: Some parts of it are hard to catch, because there's no narration, and you're simply trying to discern what Tom really means or is thinking when he writes certain things. For example:

What happened to make you not naïve, then?
What…
Did someone hurt you?
It … You …

(no subject)

More excerpts.  Arabella is fecking amazing.  I mean, even besides everything, she also provides insight onto what happens in the books from an outsider's point of view.

A scar that hurts him whenever there's something bad about to happen, Ron says. A warning scar. It burns him whenever anyone is about that wants to hurt him.
Does it really. What a marvel. Then tell me, has it burnt him much this year? Fire is a very painful element. Has it given him ridiculous, horrible, nasty, shooting pains? Does it torment him every hour of every day?
I don't think so. Goodness me.
So much for scars.

He destroyed two fully grown wizards and then set the Killing Curse on an infant. The infant survived. And the Dark Lord did not.
He did. But no one thought he did, at first. They thought he died, but he just disappeared for ten years.
Ten years.
Yes, and then he came back for a minute, but Harry sent him away again straight away.

But Harry told Ron that Quirrell told him that the Dark Lord convinced him that there is no good or evil. Just power, and those too weak to seek it. That's what Ron said. Isn't it a horrible thing to believe?
But Quirrell believed.
Well, he believed it enough to let the Dark Lord share his body.
What? Share -
Yes, because the Dark Lord was so weak, even after ten years, that he couldn't do anything on his own. He needed the Stone to restore himself to full strength. So he took over part of Quirrell's body and tried to work through him to find the Stone. Harry told Ron that You Know Who's face was sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head.
And no one noticed this odd physical trait.
No, because Quirrell kept a turban wrapped around the Dark Lord's face all year.
All because of Harry Potter… the Dark Lord was made to join another body and suffocate for a year…

And how did they manage the enchantments?
Oh, they got right through.
Shocking. It certainly does say something about the decline of Hogwarts' security.
No, it was excellent security, but Harry's brave and Hermione's clever and Ron's the best chess player in school.
An indomitable triad of talents, to be sure.

Dear Tom,
I failed my first Defense Against the Dark Arts test.
I'm so terribly sorry to hear it.

I'm going to be the worst Weasley ever to go through Hogwarts.
Let's not go that far.

Well it's not the nicest place to curl up and moan about things, but Myrtle seems to like it fine, so I thought I might as well.
Myrtle.

Moaning Myrtle. She's the ghost in there - she always sobs her eyes out in there and has tantrums and floods the whole place. It's been out of order all year because of her. Poor thing, she must really be upset about something.
She's still… she lives… exists… in the toilet.
It is an odd place to want to haunt, isn't it?
Virginia, are you certain that a ghost named Myrtle haunts the first floor girls' toilet?
Yes, why would I make it up?
You couldn't - but it's fabulous - the funniest thing I've heard in - and for fifty - God, the hilarity - she stays in the toilet -

...am suddenly thinking about another what-if.  What if Ginny had let her diary be seen during Potions, and Severus had picked it up with a snarl, and he confiscated it...then looked at the front cover and saw the name....

It has been so long since I have had a truly captive audience. Thank you, Virginia.

But Harry caught the Snitch on his first try! Ron says he swallowed it! Can you believe that?
A most unique approach.

I am positive. I want this to be ours. And when I am finally free, Virginia, I want you to have the happiness of knowing that you alone have brought me back.

...There is no way Ginny went through all of this and is still the mischevious girl in the fifth book.  No way.

That's when they started to suspect Snape of being after the parcel, and that's why, when Harry nearly got cursed off his broom at the Quidditch match, Hermione set fire to Snape to make him stop saying the jinx.
She set fire to a professor.

And about December, it stops being funny at all.

If there was one story I could recommend to Ms. Rowling, it would be this. Forget Cassie's trilogy. It would be this.

(no subject)

Ms. Rowling doesn't give Ginny's story enough credit.

Consider her roommates.  After this experience with their dormmate in their first year...I would imagine they all had a connection.  Think about it. 

And Percy.  Even in canon, it's clear he came the closes to suspecting the truth.  How did that affect him?

Oh, God, Ginny is a Gryffindor.  No matter what Tom tells her, she is.  She's so brave.

( Don't read this unless you've read the whole thing.  Major spoilers. )

How could this brilliant Arabella write something so shitty as the ending of Rising From Ashes?

It must be entirely that other girl.

Recommendation to Yes, Ginny, There is an Orgasm

I think even before I read VSD, I found a short story on restrictedsection.org titled...Yes, Ginny, There Is An Orgasm.  Um.  The author (Nancy) recommends VDS in her author notes, and I think it's from there that I was directed to the light that is VDS.  The quality of this short story isn't quite up to what VDS is, but it is amusing.  It's not as dirty as you might think, either - basically, Tom gives Ginny a few sex-ed lessons.  It's amazing how mature he is - how he explains and defines everything so clearly.  Heh, it made me blush.  There is a particularly funny parts:

Well... once, I was riding Fred's broomstick and I leaned forward and I hit some spot and it felt kind of good. It sent a sort of shock through me.
You rode your brother's broomstick. Q.E.D.
What?
Nothing, dear. Go on.

Oh. Well, remember how I told you about the time I rode Fred's broomstick?
I'll never forget that.
Well, I did it again today.
You rode your brother's broomstick?

And then, also, there's Disenchanted, an epilogue to VDS. By Arabella, naturally. It's a one-shot from Dumbledore's perspective where he comforts and talks to Ginny right after she's rescued by Harry. Very intriguing.

ETA: I'm reading it over again, and I take it back. Not intriguing. AMAZING. Every bit as amazing as VDS.