Tame
It's amazing, really, how trauma stays in the brain. The diary was years ago now, enough that Ginny really feels like she should've already healed. That frustrates her sometimes; of all the magical maladies that St. Mungo's takes on, so many of them can be fixed with a tricky spell or a foul-tasting potion. But the nightmares? The memories? They're part of her, something that no healer can ever take away, and she's railed against the psychomediwizards of the world for their complete incompetence more than once.
If they can't fucking fix her, then what the hell is the point of them?
But Ginny's mostly learned how to cope, these past few years. Flying helps, and on really bad days, she'll play beater instead of chaser and take out her frustrations on any bludger she can find. Swimming can help, too; it's a trick she picked up from Krum, actually, and the shock of frigid water really does chase away the worst of her thoughts.
(Hermione had suggested journaling once, and only after she'd caught the awful look on Ginny's face had she realized why that wouldn't work.)
Sex can help... but sometimes she winds up too inside her own head, the pleasure not quite enough to take the edge off the intrusive thoughts and the self-talk that taunts her in a voice not even her own, and that's the opposite of what she needs. She needs active engagement, heavy distraction, and something to focus on besides the worst of what she's been through. Besides the worst of what she sometimes, at her weakest, thinks she is.
And Delphi? Well, Ginny likes to joke that Delphi's face doesn't help. The Tom Riddle that Ginny had known, the Tom Riddle from the diary... he had been gorgeous and sixteen, frozen forever in time with a face handsome enough to make a sinner out of any saint. The actual Dark Lord, that snake-faced fucker, had been nothing at all like him, by the time he'd come back; his handsomeness had been lost to Dark magic and insanity, and the only trace of it left in the world now is Delphi herself.
Ginny stares at her sometimes, marveling. At eleven, she'd wanted nothing more in the world than to kiss (Tom's) pretty lips, to run her fingers through (Tom's) dark hair, to have (Tom's) piercing eyes look at her with affection.
Ginny has that now in Delphi. Ginny has everything she wants, in her. Her girlfriend is gorgeous and powerful and makes her feel loved, and she lets Ginny comfort her through her own nightmares about Tom.
And she'll probably never admit it -- doesn't think Delphi would like it much -- but Ginny has perhaps a favorite part.
After another nightmare, there's nothing at all that Ginny likes better than to wake up, to grab her girlfriend, and to reassure herself that it doesn't matter what Tom did to either of them.
There's something very lovely about seeing the Dark Lord's daughter so tame.