For the second time in two weeks Ginny woke up in the hospital wing, with no idea how she got there. This time, Professor Dumbledore was sitting by her bed when she woke up. He waited patiently, without saying a word, as Madam Pomfrey helped Ginny sit up. hat was when Ginny noticed that just like the last time she had woken up in the hospital wing, her hands were bandaged up too tight to be able to do anything with.
"What is the last thing you remember before passing out?" Dumbledore asked, and Ginny told him about what she had seen in her vision. Steepling his fingers as she described the various feelings, Dumbledore's blue eyes glanced at her only once or twice, preferring to spend their time on the empty bed opposite hers.
"And what does that make you think?" Dumbledore asked, and Ginny looked up quickly at the Headmaster. She knew what he was talking about, without need for clarification.
"My animagus is a phoenix." She said, and Dumbledore nodded, looking through his steepled fingers towards her.
"You feel ready then, I assume, to transform?" He asked, and Ginny thought about it for a moment before nodding. Dumbledore returned the nod, his face contemplative as he studied the redhead. "There is a book, in the restricted section..." He said slowly, and Ginny watched him as he seemed to be thinking over his words, how best to say what he was trying to say. "A book about a prophesy." He said, and Ginny nodded.
"I've read it." She said, her voice catching in her throat despite herself. Before either could go on, Madam Pomfrey bustled past, and poured a table spoon of thick amber coloured fluid for Ginny to swallow. Having taken this the last time she was here, Ginny was prepared for the sweet, nutty taste of the remedy, to be fullowed by a horrible after taste which burnt her throat, and made it feel raw.
"Same rules as before." Madam Pomfrey said. "No talking for an hour." She cast a quick glance at Dumbledore, as if trying to tell him something with her eyes that she didn't want Ginny to know, before heading back to her office, leaving the headmaster and student together alone.
"Don't worry, she's letting you go to dinner tonight." Dumbledore whispered under his breath to Ginny, who couldn't help but smile at him, as his eyes twinkled at her. "And if you'll come to my office Monday next week, I'd very much like to ask you not to transform until then?" Ginny nodded, kowing how much her troat would hurt if she spoke she smiled at Dumbledore, who returned her smile with twinkling eyes. "If you'd like to, I can ask Poppy to let you go now, as long as you don't talk or eat anything until the hour's up." He suggested, and Ginny nodded eagerly.
Soon enough her hands were free, and she found herself hugging the frail old man. Smiling, and patting Ginny's back for a bit with his good hand, Dumbledore pulled away eventually, and left Ginny to go to the Slytherin Common Room.
Ginny glanced at her timetable as she sat down on a comfortable arm chair by the fire. Tomorrow was a day she would spend working with students who needed help, in their spares. She yawned, and found herself sleeping by the fire for a while, until a hand on her shoulder roused her.
"Gin. I've missed you." Draco said, pressing his lips against Ginny's forehead. Ginny glanced at the clock, glad to see that the hour was up, and caug Draco up on what had happened that day. When Draco asked why she had been in the hospital wing, Ginny shrugged.
"I don't know." She said. "One momentI feltlike I was on fire, the next I was awake in the hospital wing." Draco frowned, but accepted this. It wasn't until Ginny dropped her bag on the way to the Great Hall and had to bend over to retrieve it that Draco noticed the mark in the small of her back.
"Gin, what's this?" He asked.
"What's what?" Ginny asked, trying and failing to see her back. Draco handed her a mirror from his bag, and Ginny used it to see the wings of flames in the small of her back. She was so shocked when she saw the mark, she dropped the mirror.
Ginny instantly dropped to her knees, and began scooping up the glass, completely forgetting about her wand. Draco was startled into dropping beside her and helping her trying to pick up the sharper bits to stop Ginny accidentally cutting herself.
When Ginny deposited the mirror fragments in the bin, Draco swept the rest up with magic, and added them to the bin, sothere wasn't a tiny shard that a little boy or girl could injure themselves with.
"So what is it?" Draco pushed, an Ginny looked at him.
"Born in a time of great need,
The impossible child will be born,
Greatly will she live her life,
With flames of wings upon her back,
She'll help those in sufferance,
She'll light up the end of the dark,
With magic unknown to us,
Her will much like iron,
Nothing will stop the phoenix,
Who's tears will heal all wounds." Ginny said, reciting the prophesy she had read, word for word. Draco stopped walking and stared at her, his grey eyes studying her violet ones. "There's more to it as well," Ginny said, and continued walking, just wanting to break the silence between them. "But those pages were torn out. The very last line's the only other thing that was there. 'When all else is gone, she will start the world anew."
Draco opened his mouth as he followed her, and was about to ask her something before Ginny spun to face him, and kissed him passionately. Surprised, Draco kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her waist, letting him feel her body against his.
"Please, don't ask me anything else." She whispered as she pulled away, and Draco agreed, despite his yearning to understand what else she knew.
When they got to the Great Hall, Ginny was about to sit down with Draco at the Slytherin table when she saw Hermione waving her over to the Gryffindor table, and went to join them instead. Ginny had joined them a few times for dinner in the last term, and had found that the professors actually encouraged it except for Professor Snape.
"Heya." Ginny said, smiling as she sat down next to Ron.
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked, and Ginny noticed Hermione shooting daggers at Ron.
"Fine." Ginny said. She decided not to mention anything about the prophesy. She knew Draco as already worried about it, she didn't want them to be aswell.
"So you had a good Christmas?" Ron asked, and Hermione swore at him vehemently, and Harry even reached across the table and slapped his best friend.
"Umm..?" Ginny asked, confused, and Hermione bit her lip.
"Obliviate." Hermione whispered under her breath, and Ginny's eyes unfocused for a moment, before refocusing.
Hermione's attempt at wiping Ginny's memory, what she had been told to do incase someone mentioned Christmas, or something that could have brought up her memories of the last time she saw the family she had grown up with was the catalyst. Ginny's memories came flooding back, of a fantastic Christmas holiday, followed by a terrifying return trip to Hogwarts.
"Chris!" She screamed out, re-living the memory. The entire Hall was looking at her, and at the top table, where the Professors sat, Professor Dumbledore sighed. He had been hoping to slowly let her remember everything, carefully and safely.
Ginny felt everyone's eyes on her, and ran out of the Hall. She was up in her lonely dormitory before anyone could so much as think of following her.
"Don't let anyone in." She told the portrait of a young man, who she had hung up at the bginning of the year, after enchanting it with the spells she knew would make him guard her dormitory from anyone coming in except for herself.
"What if they know the password?" Ginny had painted the young man herself. He was, in every way, shape and form, exactly like the Chris she had remembered, a young boy, barely a man, who was full of eager smiles and joyful expressions. She had painted several canvases, and enchanted them all so they were linked, and so that there was only one Chris. She kept the smallest portrait of him in her bag, and it was there for her to use for whenever she wanted to get into bed partcularly fast, like after light's out. It had been difficult enchanting that one, seeing that she wanted to be able to take the portrait thrugh the portrait, but she had managed it, and given a portrait to Ron.
As well as allowing other people and herself quick access to her room, the portraits of Chrs allowed the people with the password to go through to any of the other portraits, which allowed Ginny to visit her brother, Harry, and Hermione late at night, or sneak into Draco's lonely dormitory... Unlike her dormitory, which was lonely because she was the only Slytherin girl in her year, Draco's father had given a substantial donation o the school for his son to have a private dormitory.
"Especially if they know the password." Ginny said, before turning her portrait of Chris over. She couldn't look at him. It's her fault he's dead... It's all her fault.