Horcruxes
Both Draco and Ginny were separately surprised the next day when they saw no trace of Harry, Ron, or Hermione in the Great Hall at breakfast. Ginny turned to Neville, "Where are they?" She gestured at the empty spaces typically occupied by the trio.
"Ron and Harry crept out in the middle of the night, didn't notice that I was awake," replied Neville, shoveling eggs onto his plate.
"Do you know where they went?"
"No. They kept mumbling something about 'horcruxes,' but blimey, Ginny, I don't know what a horcrux is."
"Thanks, Neville," said Ginny, suddenly no longer hungry. She stood up and tried to catch Malfoy's eye, but was instead successful in catching the eyes of both Crabbe and Goyle, who cracked their knuckles menacingly. Ignoring both of them, she marched over to the Slytherin table and whispered in Draco's ear.
"Not now, Weasley," he drawled. "Can't you see I'm busy here?" He gestured to the other Slytherins with whom he was sitting. They all were giving Ginny a dirty look, as if she'd interrupted a meeting. "I'll catch you after your first class." Pansy looked affronted that Draco had even given Ginny a response, and scooted closer to Draco, who, to Ginny's disbelief, did not appear to have minded.
"Uh, Draco. It's kind of important. Regarding our most recent conversations," stated Ginny, crossing her arms and vowing not to leave the Slytherin table until she had Malfoy with her. Dragging him if she must.
"I said not now, Weasley!"
Either he was talking about something really important with the Slytherins, or he was still very mad at her about their conversation the other night, thought Ginny. Ginny was trying to pick her words wisely, so that she would not expose herself or Draco to all of Slytherin. She bent down and stage-whispered into Draco's ear, "I have information on the whereabouts of Harry Potter that might be useful to your Master."
The small group of Slytherins sitting with Draco stared at the two of them. Crabbe and Goyle looked interested, though not any less dumb than usual, and Pansy looked aghast. "She is working for the Dark Lord?"
"I'll thank you to keep your mouth shut on this one, Pansy. The Dark Lord would be very upset with you if you blow her cover," Draco improvised. "Come, Weasley. Let us find somewhere private to talk." Draco escorted Ginny out of the Great Hall and back to the room of requirement, which remained just as cozy as it had been two nights before. Draco shut the door securely and then exploded. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BLOODY MIND?"
"I needed you to leave the table," said Ginny, coldly, irrationally finding herself angry at Malfoy for being angry with her and simultaneously being grateful to Malfoy for taking her cues in the Great Hall.
"You've gotten us into a really big mess, now. Pansy couldn't keep her mouth shut if a two thousand kilogram rhinoceros was sitting on top of it. You can be sure that You-Know-Who is going to hear about your little act! And then you had better had some information to tell him because no matter how hard I try to prevent him from seeing you, telling him it's unnecessary, or the information is old, he is going towant to hear it from you. I've spent this whole term trying to devise a way for you to be safe from him and you practically go running into his arms!" ranted Draco.
Ginny looked at the fuming Draco. She frowned. "Well somebody has to get into You-Know-Who's good graces if the Order wants to receive any information at all."
Draco stared at her. "You think…you're going to try…oh, could you be any stupider?"
Ginny glared at him. "It's not like you're being much of a help. I'm sorry I used you at the beginning of the year, but I don't need your help anymore. I can do it on my own." Ginny huffed. "Thanks for trying to protect me," she added sarcastically.
"Oh yeah, sure you can do it on your own. The moment You-Know-Who sees through your pretty little lies you'll be dead on the floor," Draco yelled.
"Well you can be the one to do the honors! I'm sure You-Know-Who wouldn't lower himself to actually use his wand on a Weasley. He'll leave that job to his loyal Death Eaters," growled Ginny before storming out of the room, leaving Draco behind, shaking with fury, but also surprised at the outburst of anger that he'd elicited from Ginny, and scared for whatever she planned to do next. He had to stop her.
Ignoring the fact that he was supposed to be heading for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Draco ran out of the room of requirement looking for Ginny, who must have started running as soon as she left the room, for she was nowhere in sight. Draco ran to the nearest staircase and looked up and down, but didn't see Ginny there either. Angry, he banged both fists against the wall, scaring two first years who were late to Transfiguration. This did not succeed in making him feel any better and certainly did not help him find Ginny.
Ignoring the throbbing in his hands that was radiating up through his arms, Draco headed for the owlery, hoping that Ginny wasn't stupid enough to try to send a letter to You-Know-Who, telling him that she wanted to reject her family and divulge every secret of the Order.
He was heading in the wrong direction, for Ginny, fuming, had headed for the library, intent on discovering the meaning of the word 'horcrux.'
Ginny decided that she didn't want to waste any time browsing the library, for who knew how long she was going to remain on the Hogwarts grounds, and headed straight for Madam Pince. "I need to know where I can find information on horcruxes," Ginny stated, staring the librarian in the eyes.
"I beg your pardon?" squeaked Madam Pince. "That is restricted information and unless you have a signed note by a professor, you will be unable to access any books in which that information might be found."
Pissed off and tired of fighting with everyone that she came across, Ginny struggled to keep her voice calm, "If I can't see the book, then the Order of the Phoenix is going to be very unprepared for their upcoming interaction with You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters. Now if you want the world to be a horrible, terrifying place to live, that's just fine and dandy, but I don't, so if you'll please, get me the book, I will leave you alone."
"Well, of course…of course I want to help. Dumbledore would've wanted me to help any student in need," muttered Madam Pince, scurrying away to the restricted section of the library in search of the dangerous book.
She returned several minutes later with a book that looked like something that Hermione would keep on her bedside table for bedtime reading. It was at least fourteen hundred pages long and covered in dust and cobwebs. As Pince handed the book to Ginny, a spider fell off of the binding and scuttled across the floor in search of a dark place to hide. She went back to her place behind the check-out desk without a word, leaving Ginny to find a table in a deep corner of the library where she wouldn't be disturbed.
The title of the book wasn't as horrible as Ginny could've imagined, Reaching Immortality. She flipped to the back to find the index and discovered that all of chapter four was about horcruxes. She started reading.
When one is wishing to reach immortality it is possibly to separate a part of the soul and hide it within a receptacle of the owner's choice. This 'horcrux' as it becomes, is now a storage container for a part of the soul of the owner. By having a horcrux, one is unable to die unless both the horcrux and the owner's body are destroyed. However, when the owner's body is destroyed and only the horcrux remains, the owner will still remain alive but will not have a corporeal form or body. If a horcrux is destroyed but not the owner's body, the owner will continue to live as he does every day but is unknowingly more vulnerable and will be able to die a normal death if the proper blow strikes.
Additionally, the soul that is contained within the horcux has the ability to take control of an entirely different person if the person happens to become emotionally connected to the horcrux. This-
"Say, for instance, a diary," drawled a voice behind Ginny.
"What the hell are you doing here, Malfoy? I don't need your help with anything," whispered Ginny harshly. "And that diary was an accident!" The wheels in Ginny's mind started turning. "Oh my God. Draco you are a genius. I could practically kiss you!"
"Who says I'd like that?" asked Malfoy, pulling up a chair to the table where Ginny was hunched over Reaching Immortality. "Why are you reading about horcruxes anyways? They're horrible items."
"Well if we hadn't had such a row this morning, you would know the answer to that question," said Ginny, her anger dissipating as Draco talked to her.
"So, why are you looking them up?" Draco repeated.
"You saw how Harry, Hermione, and my brother were missing from the Great Hall this morning?"
Draco nodded.
"Well Neville says that they snuck out in the middle of the night and kept talking about horcruxes. What you just said about the diary makes total sense. You-Know-Who must have split his soul and created horcruxes so that he would become practically immortal." Ginny paused, trying to formulate her thoughts. "I think that Harry, Ron, and Hermione have left Hogwarts to find You-Know-Who's horcruxes because only once they are destroyed will Harry even have a chance to kill him."
Draco nodded. "Makes sense."
"But that's why I was trying to tell you this morning! If they've left campus, we don't have to worry about making Harry hate me so that You-Know-Who can't use me to his advantage to lure Harry to him because Harry won't even know if I go missing."
"Yeah, but now you've gone and made it so that all that doesn't even matter anymore. All of Slytherin thinks that you are gathering information for the Dark Lord about Harry Potter and the Order. You're in a tight spot now."
Ginny pouted. "Well you didn't look like you were about to say 'yes' to anything that I suggested. So like they always say, it you want something done right, do it yourself. And that's precisely what I intend to do."
"I think that's a really dumb idea. You're going to get yourself killed," whispered Draco.
"Well you no longer have to be a part of it!"
"Of course I do. I can't just let you go wandering into a Death Eater meeting all by yourself, can I?"
Ginny's heart fluttered at this promise. "Thanks, Draco. I'm going to make it up to you somehow if we both survive."
Draco shuddered and clutched his wrist. "Well," he said through teeth gritted in pain, "we're going to find out soon enough whether or not we do survive."
Ginny's jaw dropped at the sight of the wriggling Dark Mark on the underside of Draco's wrist, the black of the tattoo contrasting with the pure white of Draco's flawless skin. "Oh, Draco," she breathed.
Please review! It's really helpful!