Die to Live
Chapter Two
By Mell8
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"Look Weasley, you have to stir counter clockwise three times and then once clockwise. If you don't the potion will spoil," Malfoy snarled at Ginny. They were sitting in a back corner of the library during the beginning of Ginny's second year. School was in full swing and studies were harder than ever. Professor Snape seemed to take particular joy in giving large, tedious assignments to his students.
Ginny had asked Blaise to help her with the foot long essay that was due the next day. He had agreed but when she gotten to their previously agreed upon table in the back of the library, she had found Malfoy waiting for her instead.
Although Ginny and Blaise had become close friends after her first year, Malfoy refused to have anything to do with the young Gryffindor. At times Blaise would drag the blond with him when Blaise wanted to meet with Ginny but Malfoy always went under protest. This was the first time Ginny had been alone with him since their eventful meeting in her first year.
"So I stir clockwise three times and once counter clockwise?" Ginny asked as she hid a smile behind her schoolbook.
Malfoy actually growled at her before sighing. "I always knew Weasleys were dim but you take the cake!" he snarled.
"Mmmm, cake sounds nice. Do you want to go down to the kitchens and get some chocolate cake?" Ginny asked. Her smile grew when she saw Malfoy's interest fix on her at the mention of chocolate.
Malfoy quickly packed up his books, grabbed Ginny's hand, and pulled her all the way down to the kitchens. He sneered absentmindedly at her as he tickled the pear and went in.
Ginny followed in happy silence. She knew that Malfoy's dislike of her was hurting Blaise and was straining their friendship. Ginny had spent most of the last week devising a way to get herself onto Malfoy's good side. The only thing she could think of was Draco's love of chocolate.
Ginny sighed, shook the memories out of her head and quickly apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. It was the summer after Draco had helped to kill Dumbledore and she was meeting Blaise so they could discuss her plan. Her mother did not know she was out and in such dangerous times Ginny doubted that her mother would ever let her youngest child out of her sight. Instead of asking for permission, Ginny had waited until she knew that her mother would be occupied for most of the day and had jumped on the opportunity to get together with Blaise. Ginny had learned to apparate from watching her brothers and, even though she was underage, she knew she could get away with illegal apparition because of the constant threat the wizarding world was under from Voldemort. The ministry was too busy looking for Death Eaters to be bothered with illegal apparition.
Blaise was waiting for her when she walked into the pub. He pulled the redhead into a tight hug and led her to a table where they could talk in private.
Ginny studied Blaise's appearance in shock. It looked like he had lost a lot of weight and was very stressed. The boy had dark circles under his eyes and was very haggard. Ginny winced in sympathy. Maybe Blaise needed to die too?
"What do you have for me little cub?" he whispered.
"First tell me how you've been," Ginny hissed back in a worried voice.
Blaise closed his eyes and took a deep steadying breath before answering. "My mother wants me to become a Death Eater. Her last rich husband just died of mysterious causes," Blaise took a second to sniff in disbelief, "and she wants someone from her family to serve Voldemort."
Ginny nodded. "Then my idea will work for you too. Look both you and Draco need to die."
Blaise opened his eyes again and stared at Ginny. He lifted one eyebrow into his hair and asked, "We need to what?"
Ginny giggled at his incredulous expression and started to explain her plan to Blaise.
"Potter's godfather is out to kill Potter! Can you believe the irony!" Draco laughed. "Its brilliant!"
"No its awful," Ginny snarled. "Would you like it if your godfather was out to get you?"
"She's got you there Draco," Blaise smirked. "I'd be horrified if Snape were to come after me."
"Still, it is ironic," Draco sniffed. Ginny grumbled and threw a pillow at the laughing blond.
"Hey! Watch the hair," Draco gasped as he flung his arms out to guard his precious hair from being crushed under a pillow.
Ginny grinned evilly at Blaise and Blaise grinned back. They both grabbed a pillow and attacked a screaming Draco. Draco grabbed a pillow and counter attacked. The fight didn't end until Blaise's pillow split along the seam and feathers flew everywhere.
Ginny dropped her pillow and gasped for breath between giggles.
"What's so funny?" Draco sniffed. Ginny looked up at Draco reproachfully and couldn't keep her eyes from widening. "What!" Draco gasped. "Is it my hair? I knew my hair would puff up with all the pillows!"
Ginny giggled louder and Blaise couldn't keep his own laugh hidden. Feathers had plastered themselves to Draco's head making it look like his hair was made up of feathers instead of hair.
Draco grabbed a mirror and screamed girlishly before running into the bathroom to fix his ruined hair.
"Ginny what are you doing here?" Fred asked, surprised, as Ginny dusted the soot off her robes. She had just flooed into the back room of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with the hopes that the twins would have or could make what she needed for her plan.
"I have permission from Mum, if that's what you're asking," Ginny grumbled. "I need you to make something for me."
"What do you need Ginny?" George asked as he came over to join his twin.
"A special type of knife," she answered with a cold smile.
Ginny spent the next half hour privately explaining why she needed a knife and, without saying any names, she told the twins her plan.
"Mum's going to kill you!" the twins gasped in unison.
"I expect that she'll have to wait in line," Ginny sighed. She was going to have more people than her mother after her hide. The Ministry and the Death Eaters would want her too for what she was going to do.
"Look," Ginny sighed and rolled over onto her stomach. Ginny had stayed the night in Draco's room as she often did whenever she was between boyfriends. All they did was sleep in the same bed and talk about their problems. It never went beyond that until now. They were having an argument instead of a nice chat. She pierced Draco with a hard glare and used her arms to push herself further off the bed so she could glare into Draco's eyes. "I'm going out with Michael Corner and I really don't want to hear why you dislike him so much."
"Trust me Ginny," Draco hissed, "That boy is a bad egg. He just wants to get closer to the fame that your brother gets from being friends with Potter."
"He cares about me! Let me make my own mistakes Draco." Ginny stood up and walked out of Draco's personal room before she really lost her temper with the blond.
For the rest of that year Draco refused to speak with her. Ginny guessed that she had hurt his ego by refusing to acknowledge his advise. Ginny was as stubborn as Draco. Even when she broke up with Corner she declined to tell Draco that he had been right about the boy. Of course Ginny told Blaise everything. Ginny knew that Blaise told Draco everything so Ginny knew that Draco knew how she felt. Still, it was frustrating to be separated from her friend for so long, especially because of their pig headedness.
It wasn't until she bat-bogeyed Draco in her flight to escape from the Inquisitorial Squad that they reconciled their differences. Draco had joined the squad to please his father and, even though Blaise had tried to talk Draco out of it, Blaise could not stop Draco without Ginny's help.
Draco had pulled Ginny away from the Slytherin girl that was holding her captive and forced Ginny into a separate room after saying something suggestive to Ron. Draco quickly pulled out her gag and tossed her Harry's wand.
"Look Ginny," he whispered, aware of the fact that there was only a door separating his voice from the rest of the students in the other room. "I didn't have a choice."
"You didn't have a choice about whether you were going to go around the school terrorizing people?" Ginny snarled in an equally quiet and dangerous voice. "You should have said no! Or gone to Dumbledore for help!"
Draco sniffed contemptuously. "Just because I'm friends with you does not mean that I'm friends with that fool Dumbledore. You are just a fluke; someone who I never would have become friends with if Blaise had not forced me."
Ginny's face and ears went bright red as her anger skyrocketed. She whipped out Harry's wand and pointed it at a now cowering Draco. Ginny studied him for a moment as her anger cooled before sighing.
"You really are a coward. You can't say no to your father because you are too afraid of the repercussions and now you can't say no to me because I'm pointing a wand at your face." Ginny shook her head sadly and started walking towards the door. "If you don't come talk to me before this school year is over I will jinx you even worse." She bat-bogeyed him and ran out the door.
Ginny hoisted her bag back onto her shoulder and looked up at the huge mansion in the middle of the sprawling grounds and smiled. Today was the day that Draco and Blaise were going to die. Blaise had planned all of the financial parts and Ginny had planned all of the physical parts. All they needed to do was convince Draco that the best thing for his family and himself would be for the blond to die.
Ginny's smile grew as she started up the driveway. By this time tomorrow the entire wizarding world would know that Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini and Ginevra Weasley were dead.