Racing along the cobbled floor way of the transfiguration courtyard, Eris kept her head low, her hair hiding her face from view as she desperately tried to calm her breathing. The rumours flying around the school had made life very uneasy for the Slytherin girl, being branded as a murderer's girlfriend could really put a downer on what was mockingly turning out to be a bright, rain free end to the term. Eris had learnt long ago that it was often better to say nothing when faced with scorn but how she longed to tell people the truth about the man they were mourning. "Yes, the Headmaster is dead, but isn't our world better for it? Do they even know what he had been capable of?" She muttered to herself as she searched fruitlessly, she knew her answer was no. The public didn't know about Dumbledore's misdeeds, he had hid them well after all.
"Have you found her?" Eris was broke out of her musings by Theo's steady deep voice appearing from corridor she had just turned onto.
"If I had Theo do you think I'd be wondering around like this?" she bit out, quickly falling into step with his long strides, "Her family are still here so she must be."
"She was talking to Potter after the funeral." Eris stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at Theo in horror.
"Do you think…?"
"No I don't, if she was going to out us for what we are Eris, she'd had done so the night it happened." Nodding Eris resumed walking, uncertainty racing though her. Ginny hadn't even been able to look at her after that night, let alone given her the chance to explain what had happened.
"We need to be smart about this Theo. She knows enough to ruin us and while she is still bound to me via the contract, I have a strong feeling that having an active part in the headmasters demise may cause her to activate her get-out clause."
"I wonder if her loyalty to Draco will out weigh that to her family."
"In theory? Them being promised to each other should hold her loyalty."
This time it was Theo who stopped to stare at Eris. "When did that happen?"
"The night it all happened. Although I don't know how she sees it, we didn't have a chance to talk it over properly. From what I gather it was hardly the most romantic of promises but romance doesn't infringe upon validity. She holds his ring for the time being. Our Draco never stood a chance though."
"Eris…" Theo's voice dropped and hardened as he looked at her thoughtfully, "Have you considered what Our Lord is going to think about this? He asked for the girl, and I for one don't fully believe that he wants her just to take down Potter."
Eris sighed and rubbed her eyes, she had deliberated within herself everything Theo had just implied, and while she wanted to believe it was just coincidence that two of her friends had fallen for each other, her instinct told her otherwise, "it doesn't matter right now. We just need to find her."
Ginny pressed her forehead against the cold windowpane and enjoyed the relief from her pounding headache, which she had been unable to get rid of for days. She was sure that her guilt was written all over her face, and yet no one knew. When do they ever pay attention to you?The traitorous voice in her head whispered, you helped kill one of the greatest wizards of our time... I didn't know, she shouted in her head, Draco never told me exactly what he was doing. And you never asked did you? You never once questioned them about why they needed to do those things, you let it happen. Her stomach retched at that thought, I didn't question them, why should I? They were my friends, I trusted them… Should I trust them? Look at what they did.You knew what they were months ago. You danced with them and laughed with them and helped them. She groaned and slid down the wall pulling her legs up to her chest, all of the mental back and forth was making her head swell and ache.
Sitting against the cold stone she wondered just how much she had really known. She knew in her heart that she hadn't been as ignorant to their plans as she wished she had been but she couldn't allow herself to admit she knew, even on a subconscious level what they had planned. She could clearly list what they had told her; Draco had been assigned a task. Draco and Eris were Death Eaters and had to get more Death Eaters into the castle, but for the life of her she couldn't work out where what she knew and what she suspected separated. She had sat in that corridor with Eris waiting for the Death Eaters to arrive, she had even helped, in a small sneaky way, stop the order from making their way up the astronomy tower to defend Dumbledore. She had helped. She couldn't lie to herself about that any longer.
As the minutes slowly slipped by Ginny thought over all of the emotions and thoughts which had crossed her mind both before and after Eris had made the offer to help her become a Death Eater. And as she sat there reliving those memories she reached her decision.
"Are you sure you wish to do this up here?" Eris asked Ginny having finally found the red head sat on top the steps leading to the astronomy tower.
"Seems as good a place as any." The girls fell into silence, both unsure about what the other was thinking or how they should go about asking what they needed to. It was Ginny who finally broke the silence, "why didn't you tell me?"
"We were ordered not to. Only those who were to partake in the attack were to know."
"I was there! I helped."
"Yes you did." Eris looked across at Ginny with a questioning look, "and now we are at a impasse."
"Which is?"
"A stalemate. In which the finial play rests with you. You still have an escape clause. One spell and all of this guilt you seem to be harbouring would just slip away."
Silence fell over them for a second time, each girl lost in her own thought and feelings. It seemed an age before either one spoke, and again it was Ginny who broke it.
"My brother's wedding is this summer and now I'm officially no longer with Harry I need a date." Eris raised a eyebrow and smiled for the first time that week.
"I do love a good wedding."
AN: SO That's it! The last chapter. But don't worry there will be a sequel which will be up very soon. Things start to get even more complicated for everyone involved and certain reasons for things become clear. Like what does the Dark Lord want with Ginny? What does Theo really think about everything? What's going to happen at the end of the War?
But until then we've uploaded some sneak peaks of what's happening next on our Deviant Art Page. Including an illustration for this last scene.
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Peace and Cake xx
