DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except the story.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written in response to the "48 Hours" challenge thrown out by Cheelalaucha in the forums. This story is quite AU, as I have omitted the fact that the Wizarding World is threatened by Lord Voldemort. The students are just leaving a quite ordinary life- well, as ordinary as magic can be.

Here's another quick follow-up. Please take note that I have never played with Tarot cards before and this chapter was entirely made up from stories I have read or heard. The meanings of the cards were adapted from Paranormality dot com, used to suit my ideas for where the story will be heading. So please excuse me if there are blatant, horrendous mistakes in the card readings. Enjoy.

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Chapter 11

"Bloody hell!"

Malfoy could not take it anymore. He sat up on the armchair, glaring in the semi-darkness at Ginny, who was still sleeping peacefully. Feeling extremely warm, he tossed the cloak off himself, trying to contain his fit of temper. He really wanted to throw a tantrum just then.

'That girl's a bloody menace!'

He got up from the chair, making sure that Ginny was still covered by his cloak and headed towards one of the windows in the room. He hoisted himself onto the sill, resting his back and head against the cold glass of the window. Feeling the cold seep into his heated skin, he shivered, but it gradually calmed him down. Closing his eyes, he took deep breaths to bring his racing heartbeat down. He had barely gotten any sleep since the night before. Opening his eyes, he looked out the window, seeing the line of sky above the horizon getting brighter, indicating dawn was breaking.

Throughout the entire night, Ginny had been shifting in her sleep. And she was quite violent in her moves, too. He had woken up from his deep sleep when he felt someone smacking him across the face, just to see Ginny lying on her back, the back of her left hand on his cheek. Although he had shifted throughout the night to accommodate her as well, it was all in vain. Ginny was just too active in her sleep- spreading her legs until they were uncomfortably, dangerously close to touching something they should not have been touching; her hands grabbing for something nonexistent, resulting in her grabbing something she really should not have been grabbing; and sometime in the night nearly pushing Malfoy off the armchair.

'Merlin knows how a pixie-lookalike like her can manage to sleep like a friggin' monster,' Malfoy thought grimly. 'She didn't have to wake up to throw me off the chair. She did it in her sleep!'

He continued to stay where he was, until the sun was halfway above the horizon. He then got up, grabbed his wand from under the armchair Ginny was sleeping on, before disappearing behind the doors of the washroom. He ignored the magical reflection in the mirror that was scowling at him from within its confinements, relieving himself first. Then realising his current appearance really was not something he would want to show Ginny, he quickly cast a few spells to freshen himself, and his clothes, up. He immediately felt better, grinning at his now-insanely good-looking reflection, in his own humble opinion of course. Satisfied with his appearance, he quietly opened the washroom door and let himself out.

Unable to return back to the land of dreams, Malfoy started walking around the room. Seeing that the fire in the fireplace was about to die, he threw in a few more logs, bringing it back to life. Bored once more, he stood up and looked around. Spying a deck of Tarot cards on a shelf, he reached for it. Fanning it open, he realised that the deck was thin because it was a deck containing only the Major Arcana cards. Satisfied, he reached for a book on the next shelf, a book to translate the meanings of the cards.

Sitting himself on the floor by the fireplace, he shuffled the cards slowly. He had taken Divination in his third year, though he had later transferred to Arithmacy classes due to the fact that he did not understand the nonsense spouting from the insect-like Trelawney's lips, and neither did he have the patience to try or time to waste trying. One of the topics covered while he had still attended Divination classes, had been cartomancy. Focusing his attention onto the cards, he blocked other thoughts out of his head. Taking a deep breath, he laid five cards down, in a star pattern. The five cards were the five points of the star. He reached for the top most card first, flipping it to show its face.

"The Fool," Malfoy murmured, flipping through the pages of the book.

It was upright, signifying that there will be a beginning, most probably of journeys which may be possibly mental, physical or spiritual, for Malfoy. There was to be a beginning of a new life-cycle, to be exact. The card was of energy, force, happiness and optimism. It also meant that there will be an overturning of the status quo or existing states by unexpected happenings. There will be innocence, naivety, and spontaneity. He was about to have important decisions that he must make.

"What decisions?" Malfoy asked himself, staring blankly at the card.

The next card was the upright Lovers. It was an answer to the Fool. It signified harmony and union, his choices were to be made using intuition and not intellect. He will soon have difficult decisions to be made, but it was not necessarily about love. Malfoy frowned when he saw that the card meant he was to face some form of test and consideration about commitments. The card was of abstract thought, internal harmony and union, and the second sight. There was a possibility of facing a struggle between two paths.

"This just looks better and better. Doesn't tell me what I have to do," Malfoy muttered sarcastically. "And next we have... The Hanged Man?"

He will have devotion towards a worthwhile cause. However, there will be a temporary suspension of progress. He needed flexibility of mind and a willingness to adapt to changes to solve this problem. He was supposed to sacrifice something in the present to reap benefit in the future. There will be a waiting period before a rebirth and transformation. The circumstances will literally turn on his head.

"What? I'm supposed to lose my head? Or have my head used as a platter?" Malfoy was smiling wryly at the card. "Why on earth am I going to be facing this problem? I'm a Malfoy! Malfoys hardly ever face problems! Yeah, let's see what it says if I refuse to face them."

It was the Reversed Tower. It was a card of negativity. Malfoy's refusal to his problems would mean a restriction of desires and imprisonment. There would be drastic change that may rob the individual of freedom of expression, perhaps even bankruptcy and imprisonment- an imprisonment within a set of circumstances which cannot currently be altered, if Malfoy refused to face the problem. There would be sudden changes out of his control.

"Bloody hell, what is this?!" Malfoy grumbled, sulking. "And if I face my problems I will have... The World?"

An upright World meant that Malfoy would have accomplishment, fulfilment, and a completion of a personal cycle, series of events or chapter in life. He would then have a sense of repleteness.

"So I'm supposed to face this bloody problem that is coming my way so that I will have a sense of completion or I'm doomed to imprisonment?" Malfoy looked at his cards sourly. "Alright, one more then, to show me what I need to solve my problems."

He reshuffled the deck and laid a single card in the middle of the five cards. He flipped it over to see an upright Temperance. He needed a combination of co-operation and co-ordination to have innovation; diplomacy and maturity in dealing with certain matters to have successful negotiations; a placid and balanced temperament, as well as a good outlook, or literally having a temperance of harmony and balance; good management and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

"It keeps mentioning changing circumstances," Malfoy muttered as he tapped the cards thoughtfully. "So something big is about to happen and change my circumstances... I wonder what it is."

"Malfoy?"

Ginny was awake.

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To be continued...