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Ginny Weasley was like many other children; she enjoyed playing games, was teased often by her older siblings, had a celebrity crush or two, and was very happy to make friends. Ginny Weasley was also unique, for she was a witch, the only girl out of seven children, and the only one in her whole family to be tricked and possessed by a murderous book. She was 11.
This book was unusual, even in the magical world, and Ginny was just unfortunate enough to come into contact with it. You see, this book was a diary that had mysteriously appeared after she had gone school supply shopping that replied when she wrote in it. While often warned of objects like it ("Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain!"), Ginny Weasley was lonely and friendly, and easily manipulated. The diary introduced itself as Tom Marvolo Riddle, a memory of a 16-year-old boy preserved in a diary for 50 years. Only later would she learn that Tom was not a memory but a soul shard of Lord Voldemort, a Dark Lord so terrible that few dared to speak his name even after his death.
Ginny found a sympathetic ear and a kind friend in Tom, and so she told him everything. Tom listened when she wrote of her crush on her brother's famous friend Harry Potter; he comforted her when she told him of her fears and sorrows, and he even vowed to keep her secrets! Ginny poured her heart (her very soul) into her conversations with Tom. She was 11.
When things began to go wrong her first year at Hogwarts, Ginny couldn't connect it with Tom. Why would she? Even as a young boy, Tom Riddle was charismatic and highly intelligent. He treated her so kindly that even once she suspected he was controlling her, she felt guilty for leaving him. Then she felt fear, for she realized that Tom knew everything about her and could quickly get her in trouble. Frantic, she stole him back from Harry Potter, for surely Tom couldn't be worse than the disappointment of her family, a snapped wand, or everything and anything else she could imagine. Unsurprisingly, fear is a great motivator, especially in children, though not necessarily a motivator in the direction you want.
Compelled to walk to her death, Ginny Weasley felt nothing. Sure that she would die with the bitter taste of betrayal on her tongue and the ice of hate in her heart, Ginny felt the last of her hope fade ("Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever").
And then, Tom was gone. Harry was there, bruised and bloody and so, so happy that she was alive. Her father implied it was all her fault.
She would never keep a diary again. The thought of Tom would bring bile to her throat for years to come.
Much later, Ginny would lay in bed with her husband with eyes and throat burning and confess that she missed Tom. She would stare at the ceiling and whisper, "I was just a kid. I thought he liked me, I trusted him, I think I almost loved him. Harry, Harry I hate who he was, but I think I loved him-" and "Lucius Malfoy should have died, I wish he died. He did this to me, he caused it and didn't even care. I was only 11, Harry".
And Harry, her sweet Harry, would hold her hand and let her pour her soul out to him. Harry would not use the whispered words to hurt her nor would he blame her for her trauma (it wasn't her fault). Harry would never love her less or judge her for falling for the lies Tom Riddle told her.