Of Blood and Bone

We'll never walk alone (Image of the invisible – Thrice)

Chapter 14

Padma shook her head wryly as they made their way out onto the grounds when she caught sight of the crowd that was either following them and the one already outside waiting on them. After the little show in McGonagall's classroom none of the other professors had dared say a word, at least not yet. Not about the puppies, the falcons, the weapons, or that two Ravenclaws and a Gryffindor went to class with the Slytherin seventh years. Hells, there wasn't even a word said about their robes either. She and Mandy were not usually the confrontational sort, so they had made it a point to wear anything but the school robes. It was their little 'screw you' to everyone that was still displeased in any way.

They had gone almost three weeks without any confrontations at all. While she was not dim enough to think the rest of term would go smoothly, she was aware that it simply stressed the Slytherins of the group more and more as each day passed. That was why they were taking the day to relax outdoors. Only, for them relaxing (at least of the public sort) meant that the falcons and weapons were the order of the day.

She pulled off her robes and tossed them aside. It was amazing how freeing, how empowering it was to have a weapon. As the weeks passed, she and Mandy were leaning towards joining the battle. The Slytherins had become friends, almost family to both of them. Why just yesterday, Draco had complimented them on their skills. She smiled wryly at the memory, because in the next breath he had handed them each a bow and sent them to Ginny and Blaise to train on them.

"You with me?" Mandy called teasingly.

"Of course." She stepped up next to her girlfriend and faced the targets. "I am determined to get this right!"

"I have no doubts that you will have it down within a matter of weeks." Blaise stepped up with them and smirked. "There, was that a challenge enough?"

Padma stuck out her tongue childishly. "Yes! Weeks? Ha!"

-DGB-

Ginny watched Mandy and Padma being teased by Blaise. Chuckling, she turned to see Pansy trying to best Draco at hand-to-hand and decided to simply watch today. All around them students, theirs and curious ones from other houses alike, had spread out on the grounds. Apparently, not as many had forgone tradition as had been thought if the number of them with weapons of some sort was any indication.

"We should thank you."

She turned, having sensed the blonde's approach. "I never say no to a thank you, but what for this time, Morag?"

The blonde Ravenclaw gracefully sat down with her. "For this. Most of us found empty classrooms and such to practice in, fearing that the Headmaster would ban us from practicing, but now…well you can see."

Ginny snickered. "I can indeed. In fact, if the rumours are true you are in top form. Did you really soundly kick Neville's arse last week?"

Morag preened. "Hells yes I did! Poor bloke needs more confidence and being soundly thrashed by a girl in hand-to-hand may just get him motivated."

Laughing outright, Ginny shook her head, scanning the crowd to find the two Morag was never far from. "Are you and Talon Moon really engaged?"

"Yes. It is really too bad we can't get my brothers and Lils' here, Miles too."

"So that rumour is true as well? Lilis and Miles Bletchley, I mean?" Ginny had found she rather liked gossip. Well gossip not aimed at her and that wasn't malicious at least. It was something new to her. Oh sure, she and Luna had gossiped a bit…but she was finding that the gossip from the high society set was much more interesting.

Morag nodded. "I have to say that if Potter gets too terribly stupid…well Dumbledore will find himself overrun with overprotective brothers and fiancés. Our boys have never been ones to sit back. Something I am sure you are now well acquainted with."

Spotting Anthony, Ginny nodded absently, watching as he soundly defeated the Ravenclaw he had been sparring with. To call Draco and Blaise 'overprotective' was rather underestimating the situation, but she took it in the spirit which Morag meant it. "I never expected Anthony to be so…vicious. Is that your influence?"

Morag laughed. "Yes, yes it is. I am damn proud of that too. I am sure that you have heard the story of how my Mum decided his parents were fucking useless and all but took him in with Lils' mum right there with her."

Ginny shrugged. "I did, Pansy explained. I think your mums should be given some sort of medal for it actually. It used to make me jealous, if we are being all open and honest here, seeing the close friendship you three had. I wished someone had stepped in with me the way you did with him."

Morag leaned back and propped herself up on her elbows. "If someone had, who is to say you would be here now or with Draco and Blaise though. Would you change that?"

Ginny all but gaped at her, not really having thought of it that way before. "Hells no."

Morag chuckled. "Everything happens for a reason. Now, my original intent was to see if you wanted to practice with me."

"What weapon?" Ginny was already getting to her feet. She would have to remind herself to not overdo since Morag was quick, talented, and well downright vicious, but still quite human. Nevertheless, the woman was very, very good and that was not to be discounted either. It was a fine line.

"Claidheamh mòr."

Ginny just shook her head. Morag was Scottish to the bone, no doubt about it. Really she should have known better than to ask. Together they walked over to where her, Draco, and Blaise's weapons were collected. Spotting the distinct v-shaped cross guard that marked the great sword as a 'claymore', she picked it up and turned to see Morag had hers in hand already. "Why do I get the feeling I am about to get my arse handed to me?"

Morag just laughed and they walked together to an open spot.

-BGD-

Blaise caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Ginny and Morag MacDougal with claymores. Good gods, he couldn't help but watch as their lovely girlfriend fought well against a woman he knew to have had a sword in her hand from approximately the moment she could walk. The sword was nearly as big as Ginny, which clearly was not stopping her from wielding it with a great deal of grace and expertise. Normally anyone going up against Morag would have been soundly beaten by now. It was with a great deal of pride that he watched Ginny back Morag up. His brows rose, she might actually take her.

"Blaise?"

"Hmmm?"

Padma stepped in front of him, blocking his view. He merely stepped over, his total attention on Ginny. Good gods, she was perfect. Gorgeous, talented… and all theirs. Then again, they were hers as well. With that in mind, keeping one eye on their girlfriend, he went to retrieve Draco. His mind was on a completely different sport now.

-DGB-

Padma and Mandy shared an amused look before they burst out laughing. They simply sat down, laughing too much to go any further. It was utterly amusing to see how quickly one of the three of them could be distracted by the other.

When she had finally calmed herself, Mandy shook her head and wiped the tears off of her face. "I think it is lovely."

Padma nodded fervently. "Oh yes. Yes it is. Pansy and Theo are the same way."

"So are Daphne and the twins." Mandy snickered. "Though what is the betting pool up to now for when they will finally clue in?"

Padma snorted. "The twins or her? Fred and George seem to be sitting back and letting her figure out in her own time."

"True. Tracey and Bill seem to have owned up… though has either of them actually said it in public?" She looked out over the crowd to see that Blaise and Draco had Ginny tucked between them and they were heading for one of the courtyards. She sniggered. "Oh gods, they had best hope no one catches them."

"In the interest of claiming no knowledge why don't we head inside?"

Mandy all but smirked. "Have I said yet today how amazingly brilliant you are?"

"You can tell me all you want once we are locked in our room, unable to give over any information about what those three may or may not be doing."

With that in mind, they collected up their belongings and all but ran back to Slytherin.

-BDG-

"Auntie Cissy?"

Narcissa poked her head out of the room she and Marguerite had set up as an office while at Hogwarts. "In here."

Nymphadora grinned. "I am not interrupting, am I?"

She sighed, leading her niece into the room and closing the door. "How many times do I need to tell you, darling, that you are never interrupting?"

"As always, at least once more," was the teasing reply.

Settling them both in on the divan, Narcissa snickered. "Picking up the heathens bad habits are you?"

"Perhaps. What I wanted to tell you was that Mummy wants to visit. The paperwork arrived a bit ago and she was, according to Daddy, speechless for almost an hour. She says that she simply must thank you and Draco in person and that she never imagined he would do this."

Narcissa was grinning now. "Oh, he is a constant surprise isn't he? He— we – wanted to do this for you both. It was selfish really, he knew I wanted our family back and this seemed the best way to go about it."

Nymphadora just speared her with a knowing look. "Uh huh. Sure. It had nothing to do with further irritating the Chosen One, now did it?"

Shrugging, she adopted an innocent expression. "We merely wished to magically as well as publicly acknowledge you two and your father of course."

"The fact that doing so will nullify Sirius' will didn't factor in?"

She couldn't help but smirk. Sirius never should have done what he had. It wasn't right on any level, most especially magically. "Well, it could not be discounted. Draco and I have no need of the house or vault and what better way to welcome you back into the family, but with gifts such as that?"

Nymphadora laid her head on Narcissa's arm. "You two and the rest of the heathens bring me endless amounts of amusement. You know that right?"

Laughing and feeling very happy at the moment, Narcissa grinned. "As do you two for us. I despaired for so long over it, my sister so close and yet unable to even see her or watch you grow up. I plan on making up for every moment now that I need not despair over it any longer. Will you bring Andie here for dinner?"

Nymphadora grinned, hugged Narcissa, and raced out with that same sense of boundless energy the heathens had. Laughing, Narcissa picked up the paperwork she had been going over feeling quite content.

-DGB-

Theo held out both of his arms for Abnoba and Pansy's Ma'at to land on. The training was coming along, though they had decided it was far easier to train the birds two at a time rather than all at once. Tracey would be joining him soon to take these two into the forest to hunt as a treat for their patience with the training.

He turned at the sound of Severus' voice, puzzled as to what the ruddy hells he could want with them. Sending both birds back up to the mew where he knew Tracey would secure them, he wandered over, as did most of the Slytherins. Even Draco, Blaise, and Ginny joined them looking rumpled and irritated about being interrupted.

Severus looked displeased. "Arthur Weasley is here and would like to talk to you seven. He seems remorseful and upset. He was also wise enough to know that Ginny wouldn't go unless you all went."

"Why should we?" Ginny all but snarled.

Theo nearly laughed as everyone except Draco and Blaise took a big step back, himself included. Apparently, the mere mention of her father sent her into an anger so deep and all-encompassing that her eyes had already changed and she was flexing her hands as if best deciding how to kill the man. Though, if memory served, it was that crazy bint mother of hers that had caused the most problems. Not that he was going to do anything as stupid as tell Ginny that.

"Because," Severus explained with a sigh, "apparently he has stepped away from Molly, permanently."

Now that hadn't been expected. Theo watched as it sank in, shaking his head and moving up to stand with Pansy. He slid his arm around her waist and leaned in to whisper, "Am I the only one insanely curious now?"

Pansy shook her head lightly, not looking away from Ginny, Blaise, and Draco. He could feel how tense she was and really couldn't blame her for it. For months now they had been watching how much it hurt Ginny to have part of her family against her and now it seemed as if one more had come around. But, they wouldn't believe it until they saw it.

Ginny finally nodded, her eyes still distinctly leopard but at least the aura of malice had begun to lower slowly, but at this point any sign that she wasn't going to snap would be a good one. Draco and Blaise, on the other hand, still looked as if they were fully prepared to rip Arthur Weasley's head off and shove it in the most uncomfortable place possible if he said even one thing to upset Ginny.

He breathed a sigh of relief as they scattered to collect their weapons and moved as a group towards the castle. The day had just become interesting and more than a bit possibly fatal. Ah well, a normal day for them in a string of abnormally calm ones. It was probably wrong of him, but Theo actually liked the way the day was going. Normal was far better in his opinion.

-DBG- -

Ginny wasn't sure she liked this, but the man deserved to at least have a chance to give his side…before someone ripped his head off and tossed it to the puppies to play with. Thankfully Aradia and the other three sixth years had taken most of their weapons down to the house for them. She wanted to get this over with, the sooner the better.

She focused on that, not bothering to worry over anything else as they stalked through the castle, most moving well out of their way, even the few that seemed to want to hang on to hatred and bigotry like tots did security blankets. Her mood was one that she hoped even Potter understood: there was simply no give and take right now. At this point she wouldn't even bother with a wand to express her displeasure and given the malice all but rolling off of her boyfriends, she knew that they were feeling the same.

When they reached Dumbledore's office, Severus was waiting for them. How he'd managed arriving before them was one of those things she just didn't want to think about any more than Severus wanted to think about the information gathering methods of her boyfriends.

"Dare I warn you against maiming and killing?" Severus asked dryly.

She sneered. "It would be a waste of time, Severus. Are we going up now or do we stand in the corridor like simpletons?"

He didn't bother to glare, merely turning and whispering the password and motioning them up when the staircase was revealed.

She didn't object when Blaise went first, knowing them well enough by now to know that they were simply reminding those in the office of just who was in charge and what they would do to any fool that dared upset her. Overprotective Slytherin bastards. Grinning fiercely, she stepped onto the stairs next with Draco right behind her, his hand resting lightly on her hip.

When they stepped into the office, with Pansy, Theo, Daphne, and Tracey moving to immediately flank them the silence was almost painful, and not in the good sort of pain way. Arthur was standing over by the windows, silently watching them, his nervousness and slight fear were weighing down the air.

Dumbledore finally stood, looking sad and weary. "Thank you-"

"Oh, I would save that for after this little meeting," Bill said as he all but stormed into the room with Charlie and the twins right behind him. "You know, until we see how this goes and if there are any bodies to hide and all that."

Ginny nearly laughed aloud at the wide-eyed look on Arthur's face, though she applauded his composure. She could feel Bill moving to stand behind Tracey and the twins Daphne even as Charlie did the same to her. Hail hail the gangs all here, was all she could think. Then she amended it with, unless Aradia, Chris, Tristan, and Arturo figure out how to join us.

"I truly hope that such an outcome does not come to pass." Dumbledore gave them what Ginny assumed was supposed to be a disapproving look, but it really didn't faze them at all. Really, did the man think he had more skills than Narcissa, Marguerite, or Severus? Hells, she could do better half asleep and hung-over.

She shrugged negligently. "Well, we should get on to the explaining part of the meeting to see about that, shouldn't we?"

Arthur cleared his throat and stepped forward a few steps. "I finally spoke my mind and was told to leave my home and not come back until I had regained my sanity."

Ginny's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, do keep going then."

"Molly is convinced that she is correct and everyone who has told her the truth is simply in need of a few shock charms and time in the closed ward."

Draco snorted. "I do believe that is her cure-all. Move on to the why you are here part."

Ginny elbowed him in the ribs, more out of a need to seem upset than any real upset. Arthur never had been one to get sarcasm, even the milder form she and her non-idiotic brothers possessed. She and the twins had actually made it a game years ago seeing just how sarcastic they could be without their parents or Ronald catching on to it.

"She is insane, Molly I mean. I had thought, given time that she would come to realise just how wrong she was. Sometimes she does that."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "If by sometimes you mean never than sure she does."

"Miss Weasley," Dumbledore interjected in a soft, almost warning sort of tone.

"You might want to stand down," Blaise replied in his 'oh you are one word away from having something non vital removed' tone. She slid her hand into his in hopes of keeping him from actually moving to make good on his unspoken threat. Thankfully, he sighed and leaned into her and Draco.

Not taking her eyes of the two men she wasn't sure weren't attempting some sort of weird power game with them, Ginny simply waited for whatever would be said next.

"I filed for divorce and formally requested that she and Ron undergo mental evaluations," Arthur whispered, ducking his head and blushing bright red. "I didn't want to…but it had to be done. It was the right thing to do."

If Draco and Blaise hadn't been there, Ginny would have fallen over in shock. He was telling the truth, all of them could sense that. But, oh good gods, he'd really, really done it! Wide-eyed, she leaned back against her boyfriends chests and simply gaped, not knowing what the hells else to do.

"Well," Theo drawled in a dangerously deceptive tone of indifference. "At least you are being honest."

"What do you want from us?" Pansy snarled, literally.

Arthur raised his head, tears tracking down his face. "I just want a chance to make things right with five of my children, if it isn't too late."

Ginny stared, unable to form any sort of coherent answer. If this was him being honest, why had he waited months? It made no sense, not unless Molly and Ronald were plotting again. That brought her out of her shock enough to mutter, "Just what are they plotting now?"

Everyone, well except Arthur and Dumbledore, tensed at her softly spoken question. That was likely because only they could possibly have heard it. She knew it was bad when Bill stepped around Tracey and stalked over much looking much like a leopard who had just found a very tasty morsel and who wished to play with it a bit before devouring it.

"What have they done now?" he asked in a slow, cautious drawl not unlike her boyfriends utilized regularly.

Arthur all but stuttered. "They-they have decided that you lot are using some sort of control over the Ministry. Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt specifically and that you are plotting to…well wait until Harry removes the threat of You Know Who and then stage some sort of coup so you can run the Wizarding World…as in all of it eventually. According to them, that was why those three," he motioned to Draco, Blaise, and Theo, "had made such public shows of power."

The collective, "WHAT," had Ginny covering her ears in hopes of lowering the pain level it caused. She really hoped that their usual 'kill the messenger' policy would not be happening. So, she carefully lowered her hands and said, firmly and in the tone that left no room for objections, "He did the right thing, do not touch him."

"Ginny," Draco all but hissed.

"No. It isn't his fault that the other two are batshit crazy, now is it?" When no one dared object, she grinned mercilessly. "I will not, however, object to anyone making certain that those two idiots are locked away for good."

"Excellent," Blaise murmured gleefully. "So, if that is all…"

Dumbledore looked as if he really wanted to step in or object or something, anything. But, he didn't. He simply nodded and said, "Arthur will be staying here for the time being, I do hope that will not cause problems."

Ginny snickered as she turned to leave, comfortable doing so because Draco and Blaise were still standing there glaring at Arthur. They weren't livid enough to attack him, well … at least not at the moment. "Sure, now won't that be an enlightening experience for him. We should go; Cissy and Marguerite are going to love this."

She ignored the Slytherin snickers and the lone gasp of horror.