A/N: SORRY. I just realized that I accidentally posted chapter 14 twice. My bad. Heh. –awkward- I have fixed it now, not to fear!!

Disclaimer: I am not lucky enough to as smart as to invent these characters myself. They are not mine. Too bad. –pout-

The Stone Speaks

Fifteen: How A Mind Works

GINNY

"Ron, I was fine!" Ginny snapped, sitting up in her Hospital Wing bed. "You had no need to interfere!" Her wrist had been mended, and her elbow was in a tight cast to help the Healing Charm on it work faster. Though she was mostly mended, save for a several bruises and cuts that were insignificant enough to not need special Medical attention, she was still thoroughly coated in mud from the match, and now closely resembled the Abominable Mudman from Muggle fairy-tales.

"I had every right to interfere, Gin. It was Malfoy, and he had his disgusting Slytherin Death Eater hands on you!" Ron spat. "If I hadn't gotten in the way, who knows what he might of done to you!"

Ginny coloured with anger as she lurched forwards to try and hit Ron. "He wouldn't have done anything!" she said defensively, "he happens to be my friend!"

There was a stunned silence. "Your… your friend?" Ron echoed sceptically. "Malfoy – is – your friend?" He gave a shallow, harsh laugh. "You can't be serious!"

Ginny gave her sibling a hard, stony look, showing him that she was deadly serious.

"Oh my God, you're actually not joking," said Ron flatly. "You like Malfoy. WHY? He is a Death Eater, he killed Professor Dumbleore, he's going to try and kill you next!"

"Draco did not kill Dumbledore," said Ginny, shielding the Slytherin from abuse, "and he would never try to kill me. I've known him a while, and he would never stoop to that level. Never."

"A while?" Ron shouted, "Hell, Ginny, you've known him this 'new' Malfoy since September! Two months! He has been a Death Eater for two years, Gin! How do you know he wouldn't kill you? How?"

Ginny opened her mouth to yell the response back, but remembered her sincere vows to Draco that she would never tell anyone about anything he'd told her or Myrtle. She fell silent and dropped back onto her pillow, staring angrily at the ceiling. Ron took his sister's response as defeat, and, with an angry glare, and an "I'm telling mum about this", stomped away.

Ginny sighed. Ron was becoming increasingly difficult as time went on, because of his theory on Hermione being in love with Harry, which everyone, except Ron, knew was totally untrue. She inspected her elbow carefully, for want of something interesting to do, but found nothing of amusement.

As she lay back in her boredom, waiting for Madam Pomfrey to finish with the other Gryffindors and heal her, she found herself wishing that Draco would come, give her something to smile about, or tell her something to cheer her up.

Sleep pulled at her eyes, and when she woke up, Madam Pomfrey still hadn't even visited her once. Ginny moaned, and rolled out of bed. I'm sick of just being here, she decided, forget the stupid matron-check, I'm leaving.

Three beds from the door was Harry. He was still totally coated in all mud imaginable, and he looked terribly limp in his bed due to the lack of having any bones – he had to have them all regrown again for the second time during his education at Hogwarts. Ginny touched her fingers to her lips and then to his forehead, before smiling sadly at her poor, unconscious boyfriend and continuing from the Hospital Wing.

She had her Muggle Studies test now, so she wouldn't need her books. I can borrow a quill from Luna, Ginny supposed as she turned into the classroom. Professor Wyling was passing out the test papers as Ginny sank into her usual seat beside Luna.

"What've I missed?" Ginny whispered to Luna.

"Nothing, really," said Luna dreamily. "Though I'd be careful… Heliopaths have an intense dislike for redheads this month. Warn Ronald too, and don't eat any aubergines."

Ginny stared at her friend, trying to comprehend exactly what it was that Harry saw in her. Sure, Luna was tall (she'd always been quite taller than Ginny, but now she had to tilt her head right back to see her face) and had fabulous grey eyes which seemed to have hidden depths… but she was just so weird.

"Thanks," Ginny said wryly. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Silence!" cawed Professor Wyling across the classroom, scowling. "Begin your tests."

Ginny picked up one of Luna's quills, dipped it in black ink, but before she had even formed her name on the piece of parchment, a phoenix swooped in. She looked up, distracted from her exam, and watched the fiery crimson bird make its flight to Professor Wyling, and land on the teacher's desk.

The Professor looked peculiarly at the large bird, and then uncoiled a strip of parchment from its short leg. Ginny watched as Wyling's eyebrows rose higher and higher, before the Professor of Muggle Studies lifted her gaze and said, "Ms. Weasley."

Startled, Ginny blinked at Professor Wyling, before standing, and crossing to the front of the chamber, aware of the other's students giggles at her muddy Quidditch attire. "Yes, Professor?" she said, puzzled.

"The Deputy Headmistress wants to see you in her office immediately."

Ginny's confusion only deepened. "Er. Okay," she said, and left the Muggle Studies chamber, trying to guess why on earth Professor McGonagall wanted with her, and why she couldn't simply be sent to see Professor Umbridge, who was, after all, the Headmistress. It's probably something that Umbridge would disapprove of, like the Order. Maybe dad's been hurt again! With this concept now lodged in her brain, overruling all others, she hurried faster to the Transfiguration mistress' office.

A broad, maple-wood door with McGonagall carved into it came into view beside the Transfiguration classroom door, and Ginny rapped on it nervously. "Hello? Professor?" she called through the thick wood.

The door swung open, and Ginny stepped in, standing uncomfortably in front of Professor McGonagall. "Ms. Weasley," she said smartly, though she looked quite concerned. "Sit down."

As Ginny did so in the hard-backed chair, she noticed two identical nineteen-year-old men and a small, pink-haired woman standing against the far wall. "Tonks! Fred, George!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Usually her elder twin brothers would have made some wisecrack then, but an unnaturally solemn and fearful look was on their freckled faces. "Hey Gin," they said quietly, with Elma Tonks (key member of the Order of the Phoenix, Auror, Professor Tonk's eighteen-year-old daughter, and Fred Weasley's girlfriend) following, late, with a, "Hello Ginny."

"What's wrong? Professor McGonagall, what's going on?" Ginny demanded, feeling panic rise inside her. "Is dad hurt again?"

"No, no, don't worry about your father," Professor McGonagall said sharply. "It's – it's you we have to worry about. The Order of the Phoenix has found devastating news concerning He Who Must Not Be Named."

Ginny gulped, and hugged herself tight, burying her short nails into her arms, feeling old scars burn again. "What about him?" she asked, keeping calm for her brothers' sake. She was always the one would could never be scared; if she broke down, then they'd all be in trouble.

"We invented a new product for the shop," Fred said, "a new version of Extendable Ears."

"They were more Extendable than ever. They could hear everything for miles, and you had to change the settings on the Ears until you found the conversation that you were looking for," George explained.

"Otherwise," Fred joked, "you might listen to something that you didn't want to hear." He winked at his sister, a devilish smile emerging, before remembering something, and becoming sincere again.

"We were testing it, in the Burrow, and… we heard something," George said, "something that we weren't meant to hear. Him. And his followers."

Ginny's round hazel eyes widened. "What did you hear?" she whispered.

Fred and George looked down, ashamed. Tonks took a deep breath. "They heard his plan. He… we don't know why, Ginny, and we don't know when or where he plans to carry out his plan," she said, "in fact, there's only one thing that we do know."

Professor McGonagall chipped up sombrely, "Ms. Weasley, He Who Must Not Be Named intends to kill you."

All of Ginny's breath rushed out of her lungs, and for one heart-stopping moment she thought that she might die, in Professor McGonagall's chair, before Lord Voldemort could even get to her. "Well," Ginny said, fighting to keep her voice from trembling, "now that we've got that understood… what now?"

Tonks rushed to stand beside Ginny's chair, knocking over a second chair as she did so, and hugged Ginny tight. "It's okay," she said comfortingly, "you know that none of us are going to let him get you."

This didn't make Ginny feel any better, but she reminded herself that Voldemort had tried to kill her before. If I can escape him once, I can surely escape him again, she thought defiantly. "Where did you hear the meeting was?" she asked Fred and George.

"I don't know. The Extra-Extendable Ears don't range that far, so they would have to be meeting within … I'd say about twenty-five miles," George guessed.

Ginny's mind flickered over everything she knew about geography and Lord Voldemort, fitting together everything that she could… - "Bellatrix Lestrange," she said suddenly. "They were meeting in the Lestrange castle. It's ten miles from the Burrow… north-west, I think. Bellatrix is Lord Voldemort's most favoured Death Eater, so if we can -"

Ginny abruptly halted her line of speech. Ohmigod. Draco. What if Draco wasn't as white as she had thought? What if Ron was right? "Who was at the meeting?" she demanded.

Fred and George exchanged glances, unsure of why their sister was suddenly so fierce when she had been so scared a moment ago. "I have no idea. I just heard Lord Voldemort, Pettigrew, and Lestrange. Maybe Rodolphus as well. I can't be sure," Fred said.

Ginny exhaled sharply through her nose. If Draco is involved in this, he'll have his head ripped off my all of my friends before he can even draw his wand to curse me. "When was the meeting? When did you hear it?"

Again, Fred and George turned to each other. "About… two o'clock today, I'd say. We owled McGonagall and flew here as soon as possible," they agreed.

Two o'clock. "That's… an hour after the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor!" Ginny exclaimed. "He was with me!"

"Who was with you? What's Quidditch got to do with – Ginny, concentrate, damnit! You-Know-Who is trying to do you in, I'd think you could try a little attentiveness," Tonks retorted.

Ginny frowned. "I am paying attention," she told the older girl. "I happen to know a lot of things that you don't, and I also am the only one here who knows exactly how Lord Voldemort's mind works. I have been inside it, lest you forget. So I think that we can all relax – I can work this out. Give it time."

Professor McGonagall nodded; Fred, George and Tonks embraced her tightly before letting her leave the Transfiguration office. Damn. Looking at her watch, Ginny realized that Muggle Studies was over. She had missed the entire test. I'll apologize during my lunch break, and ask when I can take it at some stage in my free time.

Ginny was free at that particular moment, but she didn't feel like going to see Professor Wyling just then. She had a lot on her plate, and the plate probably wasn't even big enough. It was times like this that Ginny wondered why it was that suicide didn't appeal to her.