Innocence
Chapter 1: Guardian of the Woods
"At dawn, your skin speaks to me through my skin like a drum-beat.
Tawny creatures of fur and feather dance your dawn names
In onion-skin colors across my sky.
And the ripples in water say your day names
In endless knots of light and shadow.
At evening, your dusk names echo in my chest
Like a savored breath of ocean air.
Pale sea creatures in colors of shell and tears
Swim-dance your dark names in the corners of my eyes,
And all my steps feel a slippery pull,
As though there is a tide that runs north to you.
All your names are in me.
Your names are in the fibers of my weave.
Your sun and moon are making a tapestry of me each day.
My threads seek you even across infinite,
Microcosmic gulfs of electrons and light,
Come to you even in the guise of common words,
Hinting at the song of you and me,"
Ginny Weasley turned to her muggle friend, Alicia Lempke as she finished the final verse of a poem written by Nicholas Seigal "so what do you think?"
"It's nice." Alicia Lempke was a person who found that poetry had no particular meaning at all and who simply rolled her eyes every time Ginny recited one of her favorite poems. It seemed that Ginny had a new favorite poem every week and this one just happened to be the lamest one Alicia had ever heard.
"Nice?" is that all you can say?" Ginny asked incredulous. She had never been able to understand Alicia's loathe of poetry especially when poetry meant so much to herself, "Wouldn't it just be lovely to have somebody who loves you rehearse that for you? I simply adore it!"
"Ginny, you know that I have no apparent love for poetry. I could never love poetry as much as you. Heck, I could never love poetry as much as your brother and he doesn't even know how to spell the word 'poetry'," Alicia rolled her eyes. She found Ginny so confusing and complicated. Of course, she was nothing compared to her crazy family. As a matter of fact Ginny was most likely the most normal one out of the bunch. What with Mr. Weasley asking stupid thing like what was 'eceltrikity' and how to use a 'fellytone'. Honestly, Alicia wasn't sure how his family had been able to support themselves. When a telephone was old news to most humans. Sometimes she even wondered if the Weasley's were human.
"I don't understand how you can not love poetry!" Ginny sighed, "Just the words and the way it flows out of your mouth like song is simply beautiful!" Alicia was a nice girl but sometimes Ginny found her annoying, unimaginative and.boring.
"You and I have different views on what's beautiful and what isn't," Alicia crossed her arms over her chest; praying, that this trip to the Weasley's would be more fun then the last. Ginny's brother's always snuck off -brooms in their hands- whenever she came near and Alicia hated that and the whole brooms in their hands part was awfully queer.
"You simply have no imagination!" Ginny huffed flopping onto her bed with an exasperated sigh. She could not wait until Hermione got there! Especially since she wouldn't have to be careful what she said around her. For Ginny's family had a secret. A secret they shared with many people including Hermione and not including Alicia.
"Oh, I have plenty imagination." Alicia let her voice trail off her eyes twinkling with mischief. She just loved teasing Ginny like this.
"And what do you imagine?" Ginny rolled onto her stomach and propped her red head on her hands; fully expecting the things that Alicia imagined to be boring and simple to her imaginative and complex mind.
"I imagine things about your brother, Charlie," Alicia smirked at the groan escaping Ginny's mouth. This was very disturbing for Ginny, She loved Charlie dearly but not in that way.
"If you say one filthy thing about my brother I will hex you for life!" Ginny threatened. Reveling in the delight of knowing that she could do what she had threatened.
"Please, you so could not hex me for life. It's impossible. What do you think you are a witch or something?" Alicia rolled her eyes and Ginny's twinkled with mischief and the unknown. Alicia was so naïve.
"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not!" Ginny snapped childishly and she bit her lip for it. She was NOT a child!
"Don't be childish! You know that there are no such things as witches!" Alicia flipped her blonde hair behind her stubbornly, "plus if there was such things as witches and you were one I would so not be aloud to come here! You know perfectly well what my father thinks of witches! He is a very respectful man you know. He thinks that witches are no good pieces of shit! He said that too, he never says any bad things you know. He makes an exception for witches of course; they make his blood boil!" Alicia finally finished her long, annoying statement.
Sometime during Alicia's assault on witches Ginny had grabbed her pillow and she suddenly realized that feathers were popping out pf it. She was holding the pillow rather tightly with white knuckles. Mentally forcing herself to let go of the pillow was a very hard job indeed. After a long hard struggle with her fingers she finally decided to keep holding the pillow for fear of grabbing Alicia's neck instead.
"I'm sure witches aren't all that bad," Ginny forced herself to sound calm even though she was a raging inferno inside. She simply loathed it when Alicia brought up her father and then stupid nonsense about witches being evil and how her 'respectful' father would pound any witch that came five hundred feet within range. Witches may make Mr. Lempke's blood boil but he had absolutely know idea how Ginny's blood boiled at the thought of Mr. Lempke! Oh, how she hated him! Mr. Lempke was an evil, evil man. So, evil that Ginny once compared him to Draco Malfoy and she found the Draco was more evil by merely a single blonde hair.
"Of course there'll all bad! There isn't a witch in the world that is respectable," Alicia huffed stubbornly a tad bit angry that she hadn't been able to talk about Charlie. Alicia adored Ginny's older brother Charlie and loved tormenting Ginny with how cute she thought Charlie was.
"Okay, so if witches are all bad what are wizards?" Ginny demanded cooling down somewhat. Alicia could argue all she wanted but Ginny knew that witches, wizards and magic existed.
"Wizards are juts as evil, if not worse!" Alicia snapped rolling her eyes. Ginny was the most stubborn person in the world and Alicia hated arguing with her because Ginny always thought that she had some point to make which of course she didn't.
"Oh, I quite agree," Ginny grinned slyly and Alicia was taken aback -Ginny had just agreed on something! She hardly ever did that-, "I heard that wizards come out at night and sneak into non-believer's bedrooms. You know what they do?" Ginny raised her eyebrows and looked around warily; praying that she looked scared on the outside which was quite hard to imagine because she was simply roaring with laughter on the inside.
"W.What.d...d...Do.They do?" Alicia gulped. Ginny had the oddest habit of scaring the living daylights out of her and it gave her a queer feeling that spread from the nape of her neck to the back of her knees.
"They grab a dirty sock and stuff it in the non-believer's mouth, then he binds their hands," Ginny scanned the room again as if looking for eavesdroppers, "but that's not all." Ginny knew that Alicia hated dirty things and the girl had always had a fear of being tied up.
"No?" Alicia was trembling now; why did Ginny always scare her like this?
"No, they cast a spell and hang the non-believers on the ceiling form their toes and the locks don't unlock until the non-believer's toes fall off and they fall to the floor; hard," Ginny knew she was being mean but Alicia had asked for it; indeed she had. Alicia made as if to open her mouth and scream but Ginny quickly lunged and covered the girl's mouth.
"No, no, you mustn't' scream. The wizard's will hear you," Ginny whispered and the girl clamped her mouth shut; tight.
"What do they look like?" Alicia finally managed to open her mouth and get her voice to work. She trembled all over; what if her father was wrong and wizards were real? What if they came and. and. Oh! The thought was to much to bare!
"The most common description of them is raven haired and emerald eyes," Ginny nodded her head and her stomach twisted in pain from not being able to laugh, "when you look deep into their emerald eyes you are immediately lost and dragged into their murky depths." This was so much fun.
Alicia stared out the window for a minute or two; not daring to blink; not daring to even breathe. Words failed her; all she felt was a fear and dread. Finally; she cleared her throat and managed to speak:
"It's about time I left; mum wants me to help with dinner," Alicia gulped just as the Weasley's car pulled into the drive with a splutter and a 'put- put' noise. Snagging her purse off of Ginny's bed post she left the room. Ginny waited a second and then leaned over to peak out the window.
Sure enough a raven haired, emerald eyed boy stepped out of the Weasley's car alongside Ron. Ginny smirked and mumbled:
"Right on time," Ginny scrambled off of her bed, out the door, down the hall, down stairs and just managed to reach Alicia's side as she reached for the doorknob. Before Alicia could even grasp the knob the door swung open to reveal a muscular, tall, raven haired, emerald eyed boy. Alicia stumbled back in shock and Ginny quickly coughed to hide a giggle. Mrs. Weasley eyeing her suspiciously. Harry stood in the doorway dumb-struck at having somebody cower away from him. A red head appeared from behind Harry.
"Harry, mate, would you please move out of the way; it's bloody hot out here," Ron grumbled and Harry bent down and offered his hand to Alicia who shook her head and helped herself up.
"Harry Potter," Harry smiled warmly at Alicia and Ginny's stomach twisted with envy.
"Alicia Lempke," Alicia didn't return the smile and darted passed Harry and running away at full speed almost knocking down Mr. Weasley as he cam up the walk.
"What on earth got into her?" Mr. Weasley watched the blonde scurry away confusion etched in every corner of his face.
"Who knows," Ginny shrugged too innocently and caught her mother's eye. Ginny quickly looked away; her mum knew everything that went on in her house. Nobody got away with anything; she knew her children to well.
"Hi, Harry," Ginny smiled brightly at him before turning around and walking through the house to the backyard.
Thank God, she had been able to get out of there. Ginny was positive that if she had stayed there for one more second her mother would have seen right through every inch of Ginny's fun and no-matter what Ginny said terrifying Alicia wasn't a very nice thing even if she had insulted every magical being in the world. The spoiled brat!
Ginny walked, bare-foot, through the small woodland behind The Burrow, her home. As a child Ginny had loved to play here and wonder through-out the woods. She had talked to the trees, plants and animals as if they all had voices of their own. Of course she hadn't told anybody this because even for her that was odd. But she just couldn't help it. There were so many splendid trees that seemed to whisper in the wind. They did speak to her; she was sure of that.
Ginny stepped o twigs and dry leaves as she went, her baggy jeans rustling the leaves as she went. She remembered pretending to be a unicorn and for a single minute let herself pretend to be a unicorn once more:
She was running like the wind, a blur of shiny white prancing among the fairies and the elves. Drinking splendid, pure spring-water and munching on the greenest leaves one would ever see. She was the guardian of the woods; they were her home, her palace, her treasure.
Chapter 1: Guardian of the Woods
"At dawn, your skin speaks to me through my skin like a drum-beat.
Tawny creatures of fur and feather dance your dawn names
In onion-skin colors across my sky.
And the ripples in water say your day names
In endless knots of light and shadow.
At evening, your dusk names echo in my chest
Like a savored breath of ocean air.
Pale sea creatures in colors of shell and tears
Swim-dance your dark names in the corners of my eyes,
And all my steps feel a slippery pull,
As though there is a tide that runs north to you.
All your names are in me.
Your names are in the fibers of my weave.
Your sun and moon are making a tapestry of me each day.
My threads seek you even across infinite,
Microcosmic gulfs of electrons and light,
Come to you even in the guise of common words,
Hinting at the song of you and me,"
Ginny Weasley turned to her muggle friend, Alicia Lempke as she finished the final verse of a poem written by Nicholas Seigal "so what do you think?"
"It's nice." Alicia Lempke was a person who found that poetry had no particular meaning at all and who simply rolled her eyes every time Ginny recited one of her favorite poems. It seemed that Ginny had a new favorite poem every week and this one just happened to be the lamest one Alicia had ever heard.
"Nice?" is that all you can say?" Ginny asked incredulous. She had never been able to understand Alicia's loathe of poetry especially when poetry meant so much to herself, "Wouldn't it just be lovely to have somebody who loves you rehearse that for you? I simply adore it!"
"Ginny, you know that I have no apparent love for poetry. I could never love poetry as much as you. Heck, I could never love poetry as much as your brother and he doesn't even know how to spell the word 'poetry'," Alicia rolled her eyes. She found Ginny so confusing and complicated. Of course, she was nothing compared to her crazy family. As a matter of fact Ginny was most likely the most normal one out of the bunch. What with Mr. Weasley asking stupid thing like what was 'eceltrikity' and how to use a 'fellytone'. Honestly, Alicia wasn't sure how his family had been able to support themselves. When a telephone was old news to most humans. Sometimes she even wondered if the Weasley's were human.
"I don't understand how you can not love poetry!" Ginny sighed, "Just the words and the way it flows out of your mouth like song is simply beautiful!" Alicia was a nice girl but sometimes Ginny found her annoying, unimaginative and.boring.
"You and I have different views on what's beautiful and what isn't," Alicia crossed her arms over her chest; praying, that this trip to the Weasley's would be more fun then the last. Ginny's brother's always snuck off -brooms in their hands- whenever she came near and Alicia hated that and the whole brooms in their hands part was awfully queer.
"You simply have no imagination!" Ginny huffed flopping onto her bed with an exasperated sigh. She could not wait until Hermione got there! Especially since she wouldn't have to be careful what she said around her. For Ginny's family had a secret. A secret they shared with many people including Hermione and not including Alicia.
"Oh, I have plenty imagination." Alicia let her voice trail off her eyes twinkling with mischief. She just loved teasing Ginny like this.
"And what do you imagine?" Ginny rolled onto her stomach and propped her red head on her hands; fully expecting the things that Alicia imagined to be boring and simple to her imaginative and complex mind.
"I imagine things about your brother, Charlie," Alicia smirked at the groan escaping Ginny's mouth. This was very disturbing for Ginny, She loved Charlie dearly but not in that way.
"If you say one filthy thing about my brother I will hex you for life!" Ginny threatened. Reveling in the delight of knowing that she could do what she had threatened.
"Please, you so could not hex me for life. It's impossible. What do you think you are a witch or something?" Alicia rolled her eyes and Ginny's twinkled with mischief and the unknown. Alicia was so naïve.
"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not!" Ginny snapped childishly and she bit her lip for it. She was NOT a child!
"Don't be childish! You know that there are no such things as witches!" Alicia flipped her blonde hair behind her stubbornly, "plus if there was such things as witches and you were one I would so not be aloud to come here! You know perfectly well what my father thinks of witches! He is a very respectful man you know. He thinks that witches are no good pieces of shit! He said that too, he never says any bad things you know. He makes an exception for witches of course; they make his blood boil!" Alicia finally finished her long, annoying statement.
Sometime during Alicia's assault on witches Ginny had grabbed her pillow and she suddenly realized that feathers were popping out pf it. She was holding the pillow rather tightly with white knuckles. Mentally forcing herself to let go of the pillow was a very hard job indeed. After a long hard struggle with her fingers she finally decided to keep holding the pillow for fear of grabbing Alicia's neck instead.
"I'm sure witches aren't all that bad," Ginny forced herself to sound calm even though she was a raging inferno inside. She simply loathed it when Alicia brought up her father and then stupid nonsense about witches being evil and how her 'respectful' father would pound any witch that came five hundred feet within range. Witches may make Mr. Lempke's blood boil but he had absolutely know idea how Ginny's blood boiled at the thought of Mr. Lempke! Oh, how she hated him! Mr. Lempke was an evil, evil man. So, evil that Ginny once compared him to Draco Malfoy and she found the Draco was more evil by merely a single blonde hair.
"Of course there'll all bad! There isn't a witch in the world that is respectable," Alicia huffed stubbornly a tad bit angry that she hadn't been able to talk about Charlie. Alicia adored Ginny's older brother Charlie and loved tormenting Ginny with how cute she thought Charlie was.
"Okay, so if witches are all bad what are wizards?" Ginny demanded cooling down somewhat. Alicia could argue all she wanted but Ginny knew that witches, wizards and magic existed.
"Wizards are juts as evil, if not worse!" Alicia snapped rolling her eyes. Ginny was the most stubborn person in the world and Alicia hated arguing with her because Ginny always thought that she had some point to make which of course she didn't.
"Oh, I quite agree," Ginny grinned slyly and Alicia was taken aback -Ginny had just agreed on something! She hardly ever did that-, "I heard that wizards come out at night and sneak into non-believer's bedrooms. You know what they do?" Ginny raised her eyebrows and looked around warily; praying that she looked scared on the outside which was quite hard to imagine because she was simply roaring with laughter on the inside.
"W.What.d...d...Do.They do?" Alicia gulped. Ginny had the oddest habit of scaring the living daylights out of her and it gave her a queer feeling that spread from the nape of her neck to the back of her knees.
"They grab a dirty sock and stuff it in the non-believer's mouth, then he binds their hands," Ginny scanned the room again as if looking for eavesdroppers, "but that's not all." Ginny knew that Alicia hated dirty things and the girl had always had a fear of being tied up.
"No?" Alicia was trembling now; why did Ginny always scare her like this?
"No, they cast a spell and hang the non-believers on the ceiling form their toes and the locks don't unlock until the non-believer's toes fall off and they fall to the floor; hard," Ginny knew she was being mean but Alicia had asked for it; indeed she had. Alicia made as if to open her mouth and scream but Ginny quickly lunged and covered the girl's mouth.
"No, no, you mustn't' scream. The wizard's will hear you," Ginny whispered and the girl clamped her mouth shut; tight.
"What do they look like?" Alicia finally managed to open her mouth and get her voice to work. She trembled all over; what if her father was wrong and wizards were real? What if they came and. and. Oh! The thought was to much to bare!
"The most common description of them is raven haired and emerald eyes," Ginny nodded her head and her stomach twisted in pain from not being able to laugh, "when you look deep into their emerald eyes you are immediately lost and dragged into their murky depths." This was so much fun.
Alicia stared out the window for a minute or two; not daring to blink; not daring to even breathe. Words failed her; all she felt was a fear and dread. Finally; she cleared her throat and managed to speak:
"It's about time I left; mum wants me to help with dinner," Alicia gulped just as the Weasley's car pulled into the drive with a splutter and a 'put- put' noise. Snagging her purse off of Ginny's bed post she left the room. Ginny waited a second and then leaned over to peak out the window.
Sure enough a raven haired, emerald eyed boy stepped out of the Weasley's car alongside Ron. Ginny smirked and mumbled:
"Right on time," Ginny scrambled off of her bed, out the door, down the hall, down stairs and just managed to reach Alicia's side as she reached for the doorknob. Before Alicia could even grasp the knob the door swung open to reveal a muscular, tall, raven haired, emerald eyed boy. Alicia stumbled back in shock and Ginny quickly coughed to hide a giggle. Mrs. Weasley eyeing her suspiciously. Harry stood in the doorway dumb-struck at having somebody cower away from him. A red head appeared from behind Harry.
"Harry, mate, would you please move out of the way; it's bloody hot out here," Ron grumbled and Harry bent down and offered his hand to Alicia who shook her head and helped herself up.
"Harry Potter," Harry smiled warmly at Alicia and Ginny's stomach twisted with envy.
"Alicia Lempke," Alicia didn't return the smile and darted passed Harry and running away at full speed almost knocking down Mr. Weasley as he cam up the walk.
"What on earth got into her?" Mr. Weasley watched the blonde scurry away confusion etched in every corner of his face.
"Who knows," Ginny shrugged too innocently and caught her mother's eye. Ginny quickly looked away; her mum knew everything that went on in her house. Nobody got away with anything; she knew her children to well.
"Hi, Harry," Ginny smiled brightly at him before turning around and walking through the house to the backyard.
Thank God, she had been able to get out of there. Ginny was positive that if she had stayed there for one more second her mother would have seen right through every inch of Ginny's fun and no-matter what Ginny said terrifying Alicia wasn't a very nice thing even if she had insulted every magical being in the world. The spoiled brat!
Ginny walked, bare-foot, through the small woodland behind The Burrow, her home. As a child Ginny had loved to play here and wonder through-out the woods. She had talked to the trees, plants and animals as if they all had voices of their own. Of course she hadn't told anybody this because even for her that was odd. But she just couldn't help it. There were so many splendid trees that seemed to whisper in the wind. They did speak to her; she was sure of that.
Ginny stepped o twigs and dry leaves as she went, her baggy jeans rustling the leaves as she went. She remembered pretending to be a unicorn and for a single minute let herself pretend to be a unicorn once more:
She was running like the wind, a blur of shiny white prancing among the fairies and the elves. Drinking splendid, pure spring-water and munching on the greenest leaves one would ever see. She was the guardian of the woods; they were her home, her palace, her treasure.