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Weapon (Possession Chapter LXXII)
Chapter XXI - Rogue and Pawn
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Narcissa sat in the drawing room. The light from the sun flooded in giving her sculptures an ethereal air. She wasn't watching though. She couldn't watch. Usually she would. Usually she liked just watching the light hit the sculptures she had gathered over the years, as the water they were in reflect the light. It was calming, it was joyful and it reminded her of the light she saw when she used her tenshi form.

She could still remember his words, words she wasn't meant to hear. 'Good-bye child. If you fight him, do not rely on your blood.'

He had been her last hope but he refused...

No... she shook her head... This isn't the end. I'm not going to lose him!

She had lost her husband. It was painful but she would not lose her son.

"Draco!"

The magic of the manor would convey her voice to her son. If he would not help, then she would have to make the arrangements.

She was not going to lose her son as well, not to this petty Dark Lord.

"Mother?" His voice was soft.

Narcissa smiled as she looked over at his blond elegance. He had inherited his father's looks. Pale blond hair and pale, almost translucent skin, and startling grey eyes. High cheek bones formed the base of a seemingly fragile but handsome face. Her son wasn't fully a man yet, but he was beginning to fill out and she could see the grace and handsomeness he would possess, from both sides of his blood.

"Come in, come in," she motioned him close, patting the divan beside her to indicate where he should sit.

"Mother," Draco smiled and she was pleased to see that he looked less tense. "You wanted to see me."

"I did."

After Draco had seated himself, she rose, restless and moved to the windows, looking out at the perfectly manicured estate gardens. Like everything about the Malfoy Estate they were beautiful, ordered. That was perhaps their weakness, there was nothing spontaneous there. But that was the way of magic, the way of life.

What humans saw as coincidence, as random events were all part of a larger pattern, one their minds could not grasp and so they called it fate.

There was no such thing.

There was power. There was light. There was dark. There was good. And there was evil.

There was no fate. There was no destiny. Those were created of the other five.

There was magic and implicit in the ability to use magic was the ability to control what muggles called destiny. And it was that now, she would teach Draco the true extent of his magical abilities.

Then the two of them could plan, for without a plan they could not defeat the Dark Lord. And her son was... destined - Narcissa hid a smile - through his blood to be superior, to rule. It was his right. He was not a pureblood, no matter what he believed, he was more, through her and because of that heritage... that was all he needed.

And no half Muggle Dark Lord was going to take that away.

Only one with the blood of a tenshi deserved it all.

Only her son.

"Mother?" Draco questioned her quietness.

Narcissa turned and smiled. "Tell me about magic," she instructed.

"Huh?"

She smiled again at his confusion. Her mother had started much the same way with her when explaining this. But it was necessary. "Tell me about magic," Narcissa repeated. "Tell me where it comes from and why a wizard can use it."

Draco frowned, "But..?"

"Just tell me."

There had been a question like that on his OWL. He hadn't been able to answer it. No one in Slytherin had been able to answer it and from what some of the others had heard from the other Houses, no one there had been able to answer it. Mudblood Granger had supposedly been in a foul mood about it for days.

Magic just was...

"I don't know."

"I do."

"Huh?"

"I know what magic is. You know as well, you know. It's in your blood, my child because it's in my blood. This is knowledge not known to wizards but only to our kind. Your father does not know, Dumbledore doesn't know, the Dark Lord doesn't know for they do not have our blood."

"Blood?"

"You aren't human, my son. It's that simple."

"What!" Grey eyes stretched wide in disbelief.

"It's nice to know you inherited a bit of me," Narcissa chuckled. "That was my reaction as well. You are not human, not completely my son, because I am not human. You are more than human. You share in your very being the origin of magic."

"You're lying," Draco said, his grey eyes wide as he looked at the woman he thought he knew. He couldn't move. There was something holding him in place.

"No, I'm not. Let me show you." With a shrug she shed her outer robe and moved her hands to her waist, stripping off her shirt. She liked this blouse and there was no need ruin it. "Look!" Narcissa said forcefully as Draco averted his gaze from her now naked chest. The Dark Mark seemed mocking on her elbow but she ignored it. It had been causing her pain, but not so much that she couldn't deal with it.

She half closed her eyes as she concentrated, willing her wings into existence. They had healed since Ollivander had disciplined her and she felt them wrap around her, warm and comforting. They were the main thing that marked her as a tenshi. There were other less obvious marks but most focused on the wings.

Draco gasped when he saw the reality, his grey eyes somehow stretching wider at the proof that she was not human.

"I am a tenshi."

"A... a... a tenshi?"

"Well, a half tenshi."

Narcissa locked her wings around her, covering her body as she moved to sit back with Draco. He just watched her move. She reached out to take his hand, and brushed it against her wing so that he could feel that it was real. There were other changes, they just weren't so obvious. Her eyesight for example was now so beyond perfect that it defied description. She couldn't see what her mother had seen but she could see so closely that she could see charms move through the air. Her strength was improved and if necessary she could transform further, becoming almost intangible, almost pure magic and thus immune to physical and all but the most powerful magical attacks. Because of her father's blood, she couldn't transform fully, she would always be tied to some physical body but it was enough.

There were other things... Battle adaptations. Tenshi were the keepers of the peace in their realm but she had never really been able to manifest those, except when extremely stressed. The magically poisoned claws, and fangs and magically hardened skin was not something that came easily to one with human blood for they were pure magic. Right now though, she was going to demonstrate one more ability, the ability to manipulate magic.

"There are many realms of existence. When humans die, they become what the Muggles call spiritual energy. It isn't spiritual energy though, it's magical energy. It's amazing what they will believe. In their effort to disavow the existence of magic, they allow the existence of the soul, of spirit, never realising that the two are the same - magic is spirit. That what the ghosts you see are, magical energy that isn't quite in the right realm, that's why they are visible here, the interference between the two realms keeps them visible and why when they are ready, they can move on. They can't use magic though, even if they were magical in life because they are not aligned properly in either existence.

"A tenshi though is a natural inhabitant of that magical plane. And it is in that plane that magic originates... No, magic doesn't originate there, that plane is magic.

"Magic is after all intangible, brilliant and powerful. It is spiritual, or what the Muggles would call a miracle. All living things are in some way connected to this other realm, the magical realm, that's why sometimes a Muggle can do magic..."

"I..." Draco gulped, his grey eyes wide. "I never believed Pritchard when he told me..."

"He told you?" Narcissa was surprised. She would have known if there was another like her.

"He told me that their family has a legend about all the powerful wizarding families. That we are all descended from... from something more than human and that is why we alone have the right wield power. And that is why we are more powerful. Of course the blood has been diluted through the generations but it is our right to rule and it is why we must strive to keep our blood pure."

"Pritchard? I believe my father was distantly related to them... I am only a half tenshi, my son, my mother was a pureblood and my father a wizard from the Clan of Slytherin."

"The Clan of Slytherin? They haven't existed for centuries, Mother!"

"I know, but I am quite a bit older than I look. It's one of the advantages of tenshi blood. Tenshi's are eternal. As a halfling, I can look forward to an extremely long life, and as for you, my son you will begin to see the effects of your tenshi inheritance soon. Magic, physic, life span, these will all be affected."

"I'll grow wings?"

"If you are going to, it won't be for a few years yet," Narcissa smiled. Draco was taking this well. "Tenshi are born with wings, halflings have to grow them later and not all of them do. It makes sense though since I physically would not have been capable of giving birth to you if you had been born with wings. Wings come with maturity, and while you are nearly of age for a Wizard, you are still a child in terms of the tenshi."

Draco looked faintly sick at the reference before he shook his head slightly, blond hair flicking around him. "Does... did Father know?"

"No. I... I could never tell him. The Dark Lord does not know either."

The blond boy nodded his eyes downcast.

"It... it will be all right my son," Narcissa said soothingly. "I mourn the loss of your Father every day, and I will for the rest of my life however that situation is a travesty of justice which unfortunately we can do nothing to rectify. The travesty that is the Dark Lord though...

"You are part tenshi, my son, you are part what the original wizards were and so you alone have the right to rule.

"It is your heritage, it is your right, and it is your blood.

"I never met Salazar Slytherin but he was a great man. His direct descendant though... You are not quite as directly related, but your blood is purer and that is what will tell in the end over blood polluted by Muggles."

"Father said he had become weak."

"He has. But even in his weakness he is formidable. You would not be able to take him on for years. Your power is greater than his, Draco but it will take time for that power to develop, time he will not grant. The Dark Lord is not foolish. I will teach you everything I know, Draco, and that will reduce the time... but we cannot fight him as your Father did. He has too much support.

"But that does not mean we cannot destroy him. All it means is you cannot take control immediately. There will be a time of chaos."

"I will not side with Dumbledore," Draco said firmly. He wasn't sure why... but he would not side with the Light, no matter how much of a sham that might be on his part. He could not go to Dumbledore.

"I do not want you to," Narcissa reassured him gently. "That would not serve our purpose. You will though, maintain that you are not loyal to either side. You are loyal only to yourself."

He nodded.

"Good. Then this summer we will begin and when you return to Hogwarts you will have the basis upon which you can build, and from which you can bring others to your side. The Dark Lord's actions are not universally accepted, not even with the dark forces and you will be the beacon of hope that they are looking for, the alternative.

"But that is why, once he is felled, there will be chaos. The more intelligent ones will support you immediately. The others will need time to see what their Dark Lord truly was, a mudblood pretender and to accept the reality he is gone. Those fools will be useful though as we can direct them into the final destruction of the Light."

With a shrug of her shoulders she ruffled her feathers, pulling her wings back and replacing her blouse as Draco nodded slowly, thinking about what she had said. "My son, you will have it all."

"And I will give it to you."

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Ginny looked up at the ceiling as she flopped back on to her bed. The oak beams and boards hadn't changed. They never changed and their familiar pattern was comforting.

She needed that.

It was only a week into the summer holidays and she needed all the comfort she could get. Her eyes glanced towards the window but it was dark outside so there was nothing to see. She didn't need to see though, right now she needed to think.

She'd already said good night to her family, turning in early so it was unlikely that they would bother her. No. At the moment everyone was waiting for Ron's OWL results or speculating on how the twins had managed to afford the lease in Diagon Alley.

Right now no one really cared about her.

Well, that wasn't true. She knew they all cared but this wasn't something she could speak with them about.

Near the end of semester she'd woken up one morning to find the bond with Harry gone. It wasn't completely gone, she could feel the echo of it, and knew he had kept his word. If it came to it, her life force would be drained to replace his. That wasn't really what she wanted but it was the only protection she could give him.

Ginny closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, forcing herself to try to see the whole situation as Harry obviously had.

Look at the facts. Draw conclusions from there.

That's what logic dictated but logic was a cold substitute for the heart.

Look at the facts, she reminded herself.

She loved him. It hurt but she loved him. She'd always loved him.

It had been a childish, stupid obsession at first, an infatuation based of nothing more than puppy love and rumour. But then came Ron's first letter home from Hogwarts telling them that the scrawny but messily attractive boy at the station had been the Harry Potter and it had become so much more. It had been fate, obviously that had meant that of all the girls her age, she had actually met their obsession. It had been the confirmation of her love.

No, no! Look at the facts!

It wasn't fate, it was chance.

She loved him.

He loved Him.

Those were two facts she knew to be true.

Other facts...

No one else knew that Harry hadn't been kidnapped but instead had willingly gone to the Dark Lord. No one she knew that she could talk to. Sirius obviously knew but the dog animagus was no in a position where he could talk to her, and he probably didn't even sympathise with her.

Harry had returned because... Why had Harry returned?

Think.

Because of her..? No...

Because... Because with Lucius' rebellion the Dark Lord's forces had lost too much ground. Harry had returned because it was the best way to help his beloved. He could be a spy that they would never suspect.

Ginny nodded, gulping as some of the implications became clear. It was neat now, but when Harry showed his loyalties... that was going to be messy.

But that didn't help her.

In the battle for Harry's heart... It hadn't really been a battle. They'd lost, every single girl who had fantasised over Harry had lost... she'd lost.

Hadn't she?

That's what Harry had said. He loved the Dark Lord.

But... He'd said something else... With everything else he'd said she didn't want to cling to it... but maybe that's why he said it. He'd been trying to explain to her, trying not to hurt her... trying to make her see it from his perspective.

His perspective..?

It should never have happened!

No part of Harry should love the man who had killed his parents, who had tired to kill him, who had tortured him, who had hated him, who had pursued him, who had saved him, who had tortured for him, who had killed for him, who had loved him...

No part of Harry should...

But he did.

And he always would.

"But I love you," Ginny whispered willing the words to enough. "I love you so much...

"Give me a chance."

A chance, that's all she wanted and it was more than many... heh... any others would get...

"That's what he's given me," she said softly wondering why it still hurt.

Harry had given her the chance. He'd said it himself. 'The possibility exists for me to love you as something more.'

Something more than a friend.

He had hurt her. He knew that. It had hurt to take away what she had but he was doing it not because he loved Him but because in the end he loved her, as a friend... not yet a lover...

Ginny smiled, opening sapphire eyes to look at the ceiling again. "Not yet a lover," she repeated...

But the possibility was there.

And she would show him the sweetness of what she could offer. She was not like the others. She wouldn't be dependant on him for every thing, she would not just be for show. Harry didn't need a lover who was just for show, he needed a partner, and she would grow to be that partner. Somehow, she'd find something to offer him, something to make him take up the possibility.

"You can love Him Harry, you can love Him for all time, I don't care, just as long as you let me love you, just as long as you love me."

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