Entry for Myths and Legends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Task: Write about a Damsel in Distress. The Damsel can be male.

Entry for the Greek Mythology Competition

Atalanta: Write about Ginny Weasley

Entry for the Chocolate Frog Card Club

(Silver) Jarvey; Challenge: Include a lot of profanity in your story.

Entry for the Bad Movie Tuesday Competition

Glen or Glenda: [dialogue] "It's not hard for you to believe, it's hard for you to accept."

Entry for the Gringotts Prompt Bank

Thanks a lot to Dina, who betaed this for me! :)

(2500 Words)

Forbidden Territories

It was a rather warm winter so far; no real frost had come over Scotland yet and snow never stayed for longer than a few minutes. Many trees hadn't even lost their leaves yet, and so the great, old forest on the territory of the Malfoy clan was the most inviting hunting ground that Ginevra could have imagined. The territory of the Weasley clan didn't have as many forests filled with game, and their fields, of course, had been harvested already. It would be enough to bring everybody through the hard winter that would surely come, but they wanted to make sure that they had some meat to spare.

Of course, the forest was a forbidden place for everyone who belonged to her clan, but she wasn't a person to say no to an adventure, and she'd never been detected. Therefore, she definitely felt some kind of security during her little hunts; she never stayed at the same place twice, and she constantly moved around, careful not to leave any tracks behind. She was becoming one of the secrets of the forest, so to speak.

Grey clouds were visible between the branches of the high trees as Ginevra followed the tracks of a boar she'd just discovered. A light drizzle was coming from the sky, the rain dampening her red hair and her wool cloak. She was holding her bow in her hands, an arrow at the ready, while she silently made her way through the undergrowth. Above her head, little birds were singing peacefully, using the light of the early afternoon to search for food.

Stopping behind a broad tree stump, Ginevra grabbed her knife and cut some of the edible roots she'd spotted out of the soil. Freeing them from the clots of earth clinging to it, she put them into the small leather bag dangling from her leather belt; her father had taught her and her brothers very early how to survive in the nature. If you only knew what you had to look for, it was easy to find food and shelter, even if you were far away from any civilization.

Pushing herself into a standing position again, Ginevra's eyes scanned the slightly muddy soil for more tracks, and soon she was on the trail of her prey again. Her mouth was watering upon the thought of the freshly grilled meat...

A rustling of leaves caught her attention, and she held her breath, listening into the forest. She could tell that it was her boar, and it wasn't far away. Every single step she took to get closer was made cautiously so she wouldn't disturb the animal. Spotting the dark brown boar digging through the soil at the foot of a pine tree, she knelt down and spanned her bow, breathing calmly to slow her heartbeat down. It didn't seem to be aware of her presence, didn't suspect that the point of an arrow was aimed at it...

Ginny held her breath and released the arrow; it soared through the air, but in the same moment, a loud scream broke the silence of the forest.

The boar immediately ran away and the arrow drilled into the bark of the tree; Ginny lowered her bow and glared at the place where the boar had stood only a few moments earlier.

"Shit," she cursed under her breath, hanging her bow over her shoulder just as another loud scream echoed through the air; some birds flew away in panic. They alerted her that something was really wrong; when the animals fled, it meant danger.

Her first instinct was to leave as well; the scream had definitely been human, and she would be in a lot of trouble if someone saw her – as the daughter of Arthur, the clan chief of the Weasleys, many of the huntsmen of Malfoy knew her. They'd seen her during the meetings of the clans, which probably just had the purpose of arguing about which land really belonged to whom by now.

But on the other hand, she couldn't help but ask herself if this scream was coming from someone who needed help. Intruder or not, she couldn't imagine not helping someone whose life was in danger, and so she started to run into the direction the birds had come from.

The scream sounded another time, indicating that she was running into the right direction. Stopping behind a big tree, she spotted the source of the screams; on the clearing right in front of she could see five men gathering around a sixth one. He was hanging upside down; ropes were slung around his right leg, obviously from a trap. For a moment, Ginevra thought that the blond man must have stepped into the trap by accident, but as she saw how the other men drew their swords, she realised that he was the victim of an ambush.

She cursed inwardly, and it got only worse when she realised who the helpless blond was: Draco, son of the chief of the Malfoys.

"Shit, shit, shit," she mumbled and grabbed her sword, which she had been carrying on her back the whole time. Of course, she just could have left to go home, where she was safe and where nobody cared if the son of their worst enemy was killed.

But she knew exactly that she would never be able to forgive herself if she left a human being, regardless if that person was a friend or a stranger. And so her decision was made fast – she would rescue him, and then hope that she would get away before men of his clan could arrive and show her how much they tolerated Weasleys on their territory.

Cursing her own bravery and benevolence, she raised her sword and stepped onto the clearing, shouted with a determined tone: "Let him down!"

At the sight of her, the men started to laugh; she guessed that a young girl nearly two heads smaller than them didn't look too intimidating to them. One of them eyed her with a gaze that made her shudder in disgust, and another one grinned, showing rotting teeth as he cooed: "Oh, look at this, how sweet. What do you want?"

"I'm not going to let you murder him," Ginevra declared, glaring at them, only earning more laughs.

"Oh, darling, what do you want to do, huh? Fight us? You have no-"

"You brat! Don't underestimate me," Ginevra interrupted him, spitting the words out like bitter berries. She took a step towards them, and the men finally seemed to realise that she was serious.

Of course, she knew perfectly well that this was reckless and that she would probably get herself killed in this heroic and yet insane attempt to save someone, but it was way too late to back out now.

Metal hit metal as she warded off the attack of one of the men, only to instantly have another man come towards her from the other side. In her head, she could already hear her mother screaming at her in anger and despair, asking her what she'd been thinking...

Ginevra grit her teeth and kicked one of the men into the groin with all her strength, an angry grin flashing across her face as he fell onto the ground, screaming in pain. She swung her sword, somehow managing to cut the rope around Draco's leg, causing him to hit the ground. His grey eyes were wide in shock, but she didn't have time for this now; she'd been grabbed by the hair and thrown to the ground by the one that had looked at her with this pervert expression.

"Hey, stop staring! Help me!" Ginevra exclaimed, and the young man, who'd looked like he wanted to run away only seconds ago, now grabbed a little dagger from his fancy brown leather boot. While Ginevra managed to hit one of the men in the side, Draco clumsily jumped her previous attacker from behind; he'd probably aimed his dagger for the man's shoulder, but he accidentally stabbed it into his eye. The scream he made made her feel sick and she quickly turned around, engaging in a duel with one of the two remaining attackers.

"That is an excellent practice," she laughed mirthlessly, her eyes fiercely gleaming as she glared at the man she was fighting with.

It took some time to defeat him, and there were several occasions on which she nearly lost her sword, but she somehow managed to turn the situation around. Draco had managed to knock the last one out, and Ginevra didn't hesitate for a single second.

"Come on, we need to go," she panted and grabbed him by the wrist, pulling him with her as she started to run, knowing that at least two of the men would chase them as soon as they were over the pain they'd inflicted on them.

She had no idea for how long they'd been running through the forest, trying to bring as much distance as possible between them and the men. Only as they reached a part of the forest that Ginevra had never seen before, she allowed them to slow down right next to a small stream. Draco immediately fell to his knees next to the stream, splashing water in his red face and panting so hard that Ginevra thought that he would cough out his lungs any minute.

It took some time until he'd caught his breath; in the meantime, she drank some water herself and washed the blood off the blade of her sword in the clear water, only now realising what she just had done.

She'd saved the life of her family's most dangerous opponent... it didn't sound like such a good idea now, that she saw how her hands were shaking. What would he do if he found out who his saviour was?

As if he'd been reading her thoughts, he suddenly raised his head, stared at her and asked rather harshly: "Who are you?"

She didn't like his questioning glance and the slightly arrogant attitude he showed while looking at her, and she couldn't stop her tongue.

"Is this how you thank someone who just saved your life?" Ginevra asked sharply and stood up, hands on her hips.

"Thanks. Really. I'm Draco," he replied curtly, not sounding really apologetic at all, but she didn't care anymore.

"Jane."

She offered him her hand and tried to behave as casually as possible as she introduced herself with the wrong name. Draco shook her hand, but only very shortly, as if he was above her and didn't feel like he had to thank her a lot for saving his ass from being sliced open.

"Who were these men?" Ginevra asked – as far a she knew, it wasn't too common that people appeared out of nowhere and tried to kill heirs.

"I don't know, but I'll find them and my father, when he hears about this, he will punish them for this betrayal!" He exclaimed while her gaze wandered over the trees, and suddenly, she grasped his arm.

"I guess first we'll have to keep them from finding us!"

Before he could say anything, she pulled him with her; without thinking about it a lot, she directed him towards a giant bush that seemed to be evergreen. Ignoring his attempts to protest, she pushed him into the bush, knowing that it would conceal him perfectly; behind her, she could hear at least one man coming closer.

She could tell that she wouldn't have too much time to hide herself before he was there, and so she pressed her back against the thickest tree nearby, holding her breath. Twigs snapped right behind the tree, and she closed her eyes for a brief second, hoping that she would be able to do this.

The man appeared to her right, looking straight ahead, not noticing her at all, even though she was sure that he could hear her racing heart.

It all happened within a second; the man was dead before he could even realise that he was being attacked from behind. With all the strength she could muster, she jumped him, slung her arm around his neck and snapped it, just like she'd learned to do it with game that hadn't been killed by her arrow.

The lifeless body hit the ground and Ginevra knelt down next to it, taking a few deep breaths. She suddenly felt sick and had a headache; she didn't even register how Draco came out of his hiding place and stared at her. As she raised her eyes, she felt unsettled by his expression, and his next words made her feel horror: "You're that Weasley girl."

Even though he obviously wasn't armed, she jumped to her feet and her hand wandered to the handle of her sword; she hadn't thought that he had ever payed enough attention to anyone than himself on the clan meetings to know her face.

"Is this some sick plan of trying to abduct me? Where are your other men? Kill me now, don't hesitate, I'm here," he babbled in panic, and she stared back at him, her eyes wide in surprise. Blinking a few times, she could suddenly hardly suppress a giggle.

"I'm not here to fucking kill you! I just couldn't walk away and leave you with those assholes!"

Draco laughed mirthlessly, always keeping an eye on her sword as he whispered: "Do you seriously think that I would believe this?"

"It's not hard for you to believe, it's hard for you to accept. Because you're an idiot, it seems!"

"You're calling me an idiot for being careful?"

"Paranoid."

"Cautious!"

"Not able to believe that someone actually has a heart and would help someone without having a look to which clan he belongs first!"

Ginevra and Draco both folded their arms in front of their chests and glared at each other after this heated exchange, and then Draco pressed out: "Thanks, then."

"I'm not sure anymore if it was a pleasure to help."

"I guess we'll see each other at the next clan meeting?" Draco asked, and Ginevra cocked an eyebrow about the slightly hopeful undertone in his voice.

"Feel free to ignore me."

"I might surprise you, as you surprised me today."

A nearly charming smile lit up his features, and she was unable to keep herself from smiling back.

OoO

Ginevra threw her pack across the river separating the clan territories. At this time of day, the current wasn't too strong, and she would be able to cross it without problems. As she jumped into the water, she could feel Draco's gaze on her, and she really felt a little bit of excitement about their next meeting.