Of Dragons and Dungeons
Plink. Plink.
Somewhere, there was water dripping on the cold, bare floor of the Chamber. The drops may have been miniscule, but they echoed throughout the cavernous space, sounding ten times larger than life.
Her vision was blurred as she attempted to focus on the all too familiar cave, her eyes falling on the statue of a man that was terrifying. A man she would later come to know as Salazar Slytherin, founder of the least-liked house at her school.
For now, the redhead darted out of the way as a great stream of fire hit the ground where she'd been standing just minutes before.
"Ginny!" a voice called after her, and she looked up, just in time to see a flurry of golden wings flying directly at her. And then a pair of arms had scooped her up, easily tossing her behind him. She held onto the boy, who was perched atop the creature as easily as though he had grown up riding one. The creature was recognizable as a Griffin, from the golden wings, to the lion's hindquarters, which she was now perched upon.
"Harry, what are we doing?" Ginny shouted to him as they flew around the dragon, drawing blasts from it, and only narrowly missing the stream of fiery breath several times.
"Slaying the dragon," he informed her, and she realized that he had now pocketed his wand-which was good, as he'd thrown out a few spells, and all of them had been deflected by the dragon's scales-and was now wielding a sword.
"Harry, you can't-I mean, that's crazy. You do realize that's a dragon you're facing, don't you?"
"It's not a dragon. It just looks like one," Harry informed her, before leaning forward on the Griffin, which dove directly towards the dragon's head. Ginny shrieked and buried her face in Harry's back.
And then, a second later, there was a loud screeching noise, and then, she looked up, just in time to see Harry's sword slice clean through the dragon's neck, beheading it. She screamed as the head fell towards the ground, but the dragon's body dissolved into ashes, falling away, instead, the figure of a boy of fifteen was falling.
"Tom!" Ginny shrieked involuntarily, watching as the boy who'd communicated with her over her first year fell to his death.
And then, just as she'd begun to find peace with the idea, flames erupted from the ground. A moment later, a small dragon emerged from the flames, rapidly aging, swelling to the size of the dragon they'd just faced earlier-and then swelling even larger.
She turned to Harry, horrified, to see what he had up his sleeve, but Harry seemed completely unconcerned, instead steering the Griffin towards a golden snitch.
"Watch out for the dragon!" Ginny shouted.
The last words, had been shouted loudly enough, to jolt her awake. As she came to, they were punctuated with a resounding thud. The youngest of the Weasley clan sat straight up in bed, her hopelessly knotted red hair falling onto her shoulders as she glanced at the floor next to her bed, spotting the title of the book she'd been reading when she must have drifted to sleep last night- Furnunculus, Finger Removing, Tarantallegra, Bat-Bogeys: More Hexes to Confound Your Friends and Perplex Your Enemies. It had been Charlie's, once upon a time, and since she'd found it concealed under one of the floorboards in the room that used to belong to Bill and Charlie and now belonged to her, she'd been reading it at night, hiding it under the floorboard during the day, practicing the incantations and wand movement involved for some of the more interesting hexes.
"Dragons? Dreaming about Charlie at work again?" her eldest brother's voice broke through the panic that always followed these sorts of dreams. He smiled sheepishly, his head just appearing in the doorway. "Sorry, Mum wants you down for breakfast."
"Oh," she said quietly, getting out of bed quickly and pulling her dressing gown around her pajamas.
"Hey, princess, I thought you outgrew that," Bill said gently, pulling her into a quick hug.
When Charlie had first decided to go work with the dragons, Ginny had cried for a week straight. She'd also cried the first time a month passed without an owl, convinced that he'd been eaten by a dragon. But she'd been nine at the time.
She didn't have the heart, or perhaps was just too stubborn to admit it, but the things that plagued her nightmares went far beyond things that an ordinary child feared. So, instead, she lied.
"I am, mostly. I just have nightmares about it every once in awhile. How's Egypt?"
Bill grinned at the change of subject. "Not too bad. Enjoying your summer holiday?"
"Of course," she said, giving him a slightly mischievous grin, before her gaze traveled over to the book that was now sprawled on her floor, half considering if it was safe enough to shove it into the hiding place. Of course, Bill wouldn't really care. And he was most likely aware of the loose floorboard anyway. At any rate, he wasn't about to go off and tell mum. So, she picked up the book, lifted the floorboard, and stowed it safely underneath, replacing the floorboard.
For his part, Bill laughed. "I see you've found Charlie's old hiding spot. I'll make a note to check under there for love letters," he teased, reaching over and tugging her ear.
"For-what?" Ginny asked, looking up at him in surprise. But it was too late. With a loud yelp, Bill had tackled her, commencing the tickling war that was now standard whenever the two saw each other.
Ginny shrieked with laughter and reacted quickly, fighting back with all she had, finally resulting in the two of them breaking apart, both shaking with laughter as they caught their breath on her floor.
"So, princess," Bill asked as they finally began to breathe normally, the laughter slowing. "Tell me, what's new with you?" He looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. "Any boyfriends I need to hex?"
"No," she said quickly, jumping to her feet as her mum's voice was heard from the bottom of the stairs, calling them both to breakfast.
"No boyfriends? Or no boyfriends I need to hex?" Bill asked.
"Guess," Ginny said, springing to her feet with a laugh and darting out of the room, down the stairs, and settling herself into a spot at the kitchen table, arranging her face into an innocent expression, smiling at her mother as though she'd been there the whole time, accomplishing all of this well before Bill could react and catch up to her.