I acknowledge that I do not own any of the characters or ideas, except those of my own creation, and I give full credit to the true mastermind J. K. Rowling!

Without further ado I give you…
Chapter 10: Unlocking the Future

'You understand now, don't you?' Dorian's gaze was piercing as he surveyed Ginny, his voice slow and penetrating. Ginny nodded numbly, looking down at her chaffed hands, biting her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood; it tasted bitter and salty. 'You realise how he betrayed you, how they all betrayed you.'

'I understand,' she whispered harshly, her hands shaking slightly as she raised them to her face.

'And you remember don't you?' he pressed her. 'You remember everything now.'

'Yes,' she replied, now running her fingers along the cracks in the stone floors.

'Can you forgive them?' Dorian inquired softly, his head cocked to one side in delicate interest.

Ginny raised her head to meet his gaze for the first time, 'No.'

Dorian smiled, evidently satisfied as he swept out of the room. As he reached the large wooden door, he paused to turn back. 'You're free to go now, if you please,' he said as if it were an afterthought. Ginny looked at him incredulously, wondering if she'd imagined the words coming out of his mouth. He smiled in amusement at her expression. 'Did I not say from the start, we never wanted to hurt you, only help you.'

'I can go?' Ginny choked out, getting to her feet in a dazed manner.

'If that's what you want,' Dorian asserted gently, 'of course, you are most welcome to remain.' Ginny swept her gaze over the mangy dungeon cell she'd occupied for the last week. 'As my guest of course,' Dorian added.

'Stay?' Ginny asked her mind spinning.

'Why, yes,' Dorian continued, 'after all, where else are you going to go? And we'd be so happy to accommodate a witch with your skills.' Ginny paused, noting the careful flattery and the ominous way he outlined any other alternative; he wanted her to stay. 'What do you say?' he asked.

Ginny paused, but only for a second, 'I'll stay.' Dorian smiled.

…

Blaise Zabini had a knack for breaking into places. It was one of the reasons Draco considered him such a valuable asset and had turned to him above all others. It was one of the reasons he'd been accepted by a notorious wizarding agency for the monitoring and apprehension of war criminals. But he was also very good at reading people and he'd known, almost immediately, there was more to this mission than the return of a member of the Order of the Phoenix; Draco was personally invested in the outcome of their operation.

Blaise's eyebrows contorted in concentration as he studied the photograph of the Weasley girl Draco had given him on their first meeting, a week ago. She had certainly grown up since their days at Hogwarts, with long titan curls, a full mouth, a soft cream complexion and deep green eyes that caught flecks of gold from the sunlight. But he could still make out the cheeky youngest Weasley; the slight upturning of her mouth and the way her eyes shone both hinted at mischief. If Draco was mixed up with her, Blaise couldn't fault him; she was beautiful and if what he'd heard was true, she was exceptionally smart and exceptionally talented. There had been rumours in his line of work that she'd been accepted as a Circe, an elite rank of aurors, something he liked to keep tabs on for personal reasons. If the rumours were true then she was one hell of a lethal girl.

But Blaise also had an uncanny feeling Draco wasn't the only one with close ties to the Weasley girl; the boy Arrow had proved on more than one occasion his willingness to enter the line of fire to retrieve her. Blaise was finding it harder and harder not to invest anything of himself in the mission; he was there for Draco, but no more than that.

Arrow walked into the sitting room, his face shadowed by the darkness of the room; all the blinds were pulled down to avoid nosy neighbours. 'It's in place,' Arrow said quietly.

Blaise lent forward, tucking the photograph into his inner pocket, abandoning his previous line of thought. 'Then we're ready,' he said softly.

'When do we go?' Arrow asked, biting into an apple as he strolled around the perimeter, ensuring all their security spells were still in place.

'Tomorrow,' Draco said from the doorway where he had just appeared, his blonde hair dripping with water having just stepped out of the shower. Arrow grinned and nodded in agreement. Blaise on the other hand sat forward, concern written across his expression.

'Draco-'he began apprehensively, but Draco cut him off before he could continue.

'I know,' Draco said, nodding, 'we haven't covered all the angles, but if the intelligence Arrow collected is correct then they'll plan to move her soon and we can't risk her slipping through our fingers.'

Blaise watched his friend's expression as he spoke and with a jerk of his head indicated that they should speak outside.

Draco turned back to Arrow, 'Take the first night watch.' Arrow nodded and turned to leave but Draco spoke again, this time with a note of amusement. 'Try not to use too many illegal spells this time, yeah?' Blaise chuckled and Arrow smirked as they remembered the incident from the night before. They'd narrowly avoided an incident with the Ministry of Magic after Arrow attracted the attention of passing muggles by setting fire to an alleyway.

'I make no promises,' Arrow replied, his smile was bad boy to perfection.

Blaise and Draco wandered out onto the balcony of their apartment, the night air was warm and sweet as it rushed out to meet them.

Blaise broke the silence first, 'I need to know, before we do this, that you understand something,' he said seriously, Draco turned to face him, his body and expression relaxed as he lent back across the railing. 'We might not be able to get her out, and if we can't then-'

'I don't expect you to sacrifice anything for this mission, Blaise,' Draco interrupted him calmly.

Blaise shook his head, his eyes filled with concern as he looked back at his friend, 'I've known you for a long time now,' he said, 'and in all that time I've never known you to offer up this much.' Draco turned away from him, leaning over the railings to look out across the rambling pattern of houses and apartment blocks.

'We've been playing this game for a long time now, Blaise,' he said quietly, 'we both know the job. We do what it takes, we don't cut corners but sometimes you have to cut your losses.' Blaise nodded. 'Except this time, I can't do it, I can't cut her off.' Blaise opened his mouth incredulously, but Draco continued. 'I did it once before, I sacrificed her own memory to save her and I can't do anything like that again.'

'But..,' Blaise began, but his sentence drifted off as he realised what his friend was saying. 'The Czechoslovakian mission.'

Draco nodded, 'It should have been a simple operation, get in, liberate the agent and get out, but we had a mole in our sources, our intelligence was incorrect and we were left outnumbered ten to one.' Blaise let out a low whistle. 'She wouldn't leave, I tried to get her out of there, but she wouldn't go, I begged her, but she's just so stubborn,' he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

'So you erased her memory,' Blaise said quietly, finally understanding. Draco nodded slowly. 'And now she doesn't remember you, or any of it?' Blaise asked confused, 'how powerful was the spell?'

'It was an original,' Draco explained and Blaise's eyebrows shot up, 'I had it there from the beginning.'

'You knew then,' Blaise said, 'you knew one day you might have to.'

'I put it in her mind from the first day in case one day it was too dangerous to go on, all I had to do was activate the spell and it erased every memory of me from her mind,' Draco said in a low voice. 'But then she never got back to the safe base, she'd just disappeared…for three years I searched, all the time believing I'd killed her.'

'But she came back,' Blaise said softly, 'she's alive.'

'I'm going to kill them,' Draco said calmly, 'all of them, every last one, for every day they kept her, I'll kill them.'

'And what about you?' Blaise asked carefully.

'Then I'll disappear, ' Draco said coldly. Blaise raised an eyebrow. 'She's gone, Blaise, when I erased her memory I erased that part of me, and this new Ginny reminds me of the old one, and it hurts…but that part of me is not coming back.'

Silence fell between the two which was broken only by a rhythm of three knocks on the apartment door. Draco turned to face Blaise, pressing a finger to his lips and motioning that the two should take defensive stances by the door. Blaise opened his mouth to speak, his eyebrows knotting together slightly but Draco was already darting towards the apartment entrance, wand drawn. With a lightening quick motion Draco unlatched the door, disarming the protective spells and allowing it to swing open to reveal a slightly dazed Arrow leaning slumped against the frame.

'I thought he was going my way,' said a coy voice as a girl with short cropped dark hair, perfectly arched eyebrows stepped out from behind Arrow. Draco was caught surprised by the sly smile that played across her lips as she toyed with her wand, blowing off sparks from its tip. 'Hello lover boy.'

'Pansy?'Draco demanded incredulously as he lowered his wand, his eyes scanning her face in disbelief.

'The one and only,' she said with a smirk, clearly relishing in Draco's state of shock. 'Are you going to let me in, or what?'

Draco stood back so that she could enter the building, shooting a wary glance at the still stunned Arrow. 'What did you do to him?'

'Oh nothing much, I've been experimenting with varying forms of hallucination charms,' she replied in a blasé tone, winking back at Arrow. 'He'll rouse soon enough, put up an excellent fight I must say.'

'You just enjoy playing dirty, don't you?'Blaise said his voice full of laughter as he stepped out of the shadows.

'Ah so you are here,' Pansy commented with warmth as she blew an air kiss across the room to him, 'the ever faithful sidekick.'

'You got it all wrong, girl,' Blaise chuckled, 'I let poster boy here think he's in charge, but really I'm the brains.'

Meanwhile Draco had dragged Arrow into the small living area, depositing him gently on the couch and was now coolly assessing the newcomer from the kitchen counter, his expression somewhat wary. He'd known Pansy a long time but he wasn't foolish enough to let that convince him of her loyalty; she was always a wild card in his books.

'So Blaise called you,' he remarked, breaking up the banter, eyebrow raised. Blaise shot him a somewhat guilty look but it was Pansy who replied.

'He told me you needed a few allies,' she explained slowly, hoisting her lean figure up onto the counter opposite from Draco. 'I hear your planning a break-in.'

'What part of the word discrete don't you understand?' Draco demanded wearily of his unperturbed friend.

'Oh don't worry, my lips are sealed,' Pansy responded with a laugh in her eyes, 'except maybe for the sweetheart on the couch,' she added provocatively.

'Some things never change,' Blaise remarked under his breath.

'That's not the problem,' Draco replied, ignoring both with his usual cool demeanour. 'How do I know we can trust you?'

'You don't,' Pansy replied casually, examining her nails. 'But that's never bothered you before.'

'Did Blaise tell you…,' Draco began warily, shooting Blaise a piercing look.

'Oh, practically nothing,' Pansy remarked with disdain, 'you'd think he didn't trust me. All I know is you want in and you need a code breaker.'

'I went over the plans,' Blaise explained, 'looks like they have top of the range security, even if we can get past the guards it would take weeks to break into the vaults,' he said tiredly.

'So you called her,' Draco added, 'without clearing it with me.'

Blaise shrugged, 'You said collateral damage wasn't a problem,' he reminded Draco with the hint of a smirk.

'Oh come on, boy,' Pansy said, sliding off the counter and coming towards Draco's tense figure. 'I'm the best out there and you know it.'

Draco raised an eyebrow, 'How good?'

'When I was eleven I broke through a Clarity Labyrinth in one hour,' she said without hesitating, 'I recall my sidekick whining the entire time, he shut up once I did it and we found the Malfoy family heirlooms.'

Draco allowed a small smile to grace his cold features, 'Malfoys do not whine,' he said disdainfully. Blaise grinned as Pansy leaned up and whispered seductively in Draco's ear.

'Only when they want something bad.'

…

'Ever held a gun before?' Mordred asked from the doorway to the armoury. Ginny swivelled around to face him, quickly shoving back the case she had opened,. 'You know, breaking and entering into someone else's home isn't the best way to introduce yourself.'

'I would have thought it would be rather fitting,' Ginny quipped sarcastically, 'given where we are.'

Mordred smirked, 'You're the one who decided to stay.'

'Yeah, well I like to keep the enemy in my sight,' Ginny replied, watching him closely as he took a couple of steps closer.

Mordred shook his head, 'You keep insisting that we're the enemy, but we're really on the same side,' he said running a hand tiredly through his perfect hair.

'Remind me then.' Ginny said bitingly, 'who was it that locked me up in a dungeon for seven days and stole my wand?'

'You got what you wanted in the end, and so did we,' he said unperturbed by her anger. 'Besides I'm actually here to show you your new rooms.' Ginny raised an eyebrow.

'No,' she said slowly, 'I've never held a gun.'

'The Circle doesn't take well to training their apprentices in the use of muggle weaponry,' Mordred said as he approached a large case hanging from the wall. Ginny shot him a dark look which he chose to ignore. 'We on the other hand, like to give our trainees a good handling on everything.'

'That being the only distinguishing factor between you and them.' she commented under her breath, again he chose to ignore her, undoing the strapping on a small hand held gun and holding it out to her.

It felt cool and light in her palm, but there was an underlying weight, a sense of destruction about it. 'We only use guns if there is nothing else at our disposal,' Mordred explained as he instructed her how to hold it.

'If you're relying on it to save you, it's probably too late for you anyway,' Ginny remarked coolly, and Mordred nodded.

'Exactly.' He breathed the last word out onto the nape of her neck, having positioned himself behind her to demonstrate how to hold it. Ginny moved quickly out of his grasp, holding out the gun for him to take off her. He took it back into his own hand and she felt an inordinate weight lift off her chest.

'Come on,' he said slowly, 'I'll take you to your rooms.'

Ginny stood her ground, her eyes piercing into Mordred's, 'Why does the case down the end have a girl's name on it? Ismene Trillian?'

Mordred shot a quick look to the case at the end of the room, it was locked with a protective layer of the highest security spells, and it had taken decades to form an impenetrable layer. 'How do you know that?' he demanded, his voice deadly like ice. 'That box is charmed only to open for one person.'

'You used a Seer bond?' Ginny asked her voice riddled with fear and awe.

'I asked you how you know its inscription.'

'I was curious, it just opened for me, I swear,' Ginny said, raising her hands in a gesture of innocence.

'I'm taking you to Dorian.'

…

A dark hooded figure hurried along a darkened corridor, pausing briefly before a large engraved door to disarm the protective charms. Once inside they swept a respectful bow to Lord Voldemort who sat at the head of a long table, surrounded by but a few of his closest servants.

'Ah, Roule,' Voldemort murmured softly, 'you bring news.' It was a statement rather than a question for Roule was never seen except in times of the utmost importance; he was the secret keeper.

'My Lord,' Roule began, his breath slightly ragged from his hurried journey, 'my lord, it is the freedom fighters, they've opened the Seer bond, and they have the weapon.' A hushed whisper circulated the room, but Voldemort remained expressionless.

'So,' he said quietly, 'they must have her now. That is the only way to break the bond, she need only have touched the box for it to have opened. And they will believe themselves greatly advanced, but that is good. They must not realise the trap until it is too late.'

In the corner behind him sat the girl whose name lay in the inscription, her wrists were manacled and there was a deep scar running down her left cheek. Punishment was severe for those who disobeyed orders; it had not taken long for her master to learn about her expedition to the Black Dragon Market. But the scars would fade and at last she knew where her loyalties lay, this table of hooded figures were the only family she had left. She despised the others, the pretenders, the ones who had abandoned her.

'We are not far now,' Voldemort spoke his voice sliding across the walls, 'not so far at all.'

Hullo my faithful readers! What a wait that was and I am eternally grateful for your continued support! I know this chapter was a little shorter than usual and not a whole lot happened but I had to get that out of the way before leading into the next one, which is going to be action packed! I know you're probably very confused but please IM with any questions you need clearing up, I can't give away the end but I can clarify a few bits and pieces. Another big thankyou to you all! Till the next chapter…