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Ginny has worked hard for this day, had spent countless hours deciphering dusty books and hunting down obscure items. She has anticipated this day basically as long as she remembers, starting out as vague dreams and fantasies and solidifying over the years. And yet here she stands, doubting.
She doubts everything, this plan, the books, her sanity. It’s a crazy story, something everyone would write of as the overactive imagination of a little girl, feeling lonely and cast out by her numerous brother, making up a secret, a friend.
But in the end, there only is one option - Ginny has to know. Taking one deep breath, she lights the first candle.
The well looks like it came straight out of one of those fairytales her mother is so fond of, ivy grown over old stone and the bucket covered in rust. It has a certain allure, promising mysteries and beckoning her closer, pulling her in. Ginny wants to explore it, know all there is to know about it. Staring with how deep down it goes, if it ends at all.
After finding the perfect stone - Ginny is going to do this right and not just use the first stone she finds - she perches herself on the well. She can’t make out anything in the endless darkness, swallowing the light and hiding who-knows-what. Ginny drops the stone, watches it disappear and counts the second.
She counts for a long time until she hears a shout, someone swearing up at her. Scared, Ginny forgets all about measuring the well and runs, runs away from the voice and back home.
It doesn’t take long for her curiosity to overcome her fear, and the next time she throws a stone she is prepared.
“Who are you?” Ginny has her notebook ready, ready to write down everything and analyse it later, collect proof because no one would believe her without.
“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you, dear. The real question is; who are you?” The voice is smooth, a little rusty from disuse but no less enthralling for it. It doesn’t take long for Ginny to tell her everything, things everyone knows and secrets she didn’t even know she had, all spilling out with a sudden rush and leaving behind a warm contentedness.
“Names hold power, little one, you shouldn’t trust anyone with that kind of limitless control. Believe me, I learnt that lesson the hard way.” The voice holds too much for Ginny to decipher - anger, vindictiveness, nostalgia, derision.
“I once trusted my name to someone, it was stupid, foolish. See where it landed me.” Her laugh holds no joy, cold and blank, sending shivers down Ginny’s spine. “I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Ginny doesn’t understand, doesn’t quite see what she is telling her, but she knows that she doesn’t want to hear that laugh ever again. Desperately she looks around for inspiration, trying to make her happy again and turn her thoughts to something more pleasant. Her eyes land on the colourful flowers growing all around the well, making her smile.
“I’ll call you Pansy then.”
It takes Ginny an embarrassing long time and one very angry tirade to understand that Pansy doesn’t live in the well, she is incarcerated here.
When Ginny first discovered Pansy, she thought she found a mermaid. Maybe she would have been more scared if she had known back then that she actually woke an ancient goddess full of wrath and thirst for vengeance.
“Is there no way for you to ever get out of there?” Ginny has been wanting to ask since she finally found out the truth about the well. Pansy doesn’t deserve to be bound in there, the eternal darkness around her and no one to talk to for centuries until Ginny stumbled upon her. She might not be human, but she is her friend and Ginny won’t accept it.
“Of course there is, but it’s complicated, the knowledge almost lost and impossible for me to do alone. It needs a sacrifice, true love, yearlong dedication - it might as well be impossible. Curses don’t get weaker over time, they grow, and this one was strong from the very beginning.” Pansy sounds defeated, nothing from her usual charm and wit shining through, leaving behind someone Ginny doesn’t recognise. And she doesn’t like that.
“I will get you out of here, I promise.” And once Pansy is free, she will take her revenge, and Ginny will be right beside her.