Disclaimer: same as always.

A/N: nothing to say, really. Here is chapter two of The Return of Salazar Slytherin.

Chapter Two

Mysterious Rocks

There was a letter from Ginny waiting for Draco when he got home the next day. Personally, he was kind of flattered that she couldn't even wait twenty-four hours for his owl. But he took it from his butler and pretended to look irritated. He didn't know why, but he felt the need to act uncaring about Ginny even when she wasn't around. Even in front of his butler, Marcus, who hadn't spoken a word since before Draco was born. He wouldn't tell anyone if Draco gave away his feelings for Ginny. Marcus wouldn't even tell his own mother if Draco suddenly ripped off all his clothes and did an exotic dance on the dining room table.

He took the letter from Ginny into his room and shut the door. Without taking off his cloak he sat on his bed and unfolded the parchment.

Dear Draco,

I did it. I told my parents about us. I really didn't have a choice – Ron kind of gave me away. Anyway, they're going ballistic even as I write this. They might even ground me, or forbid me to see you or something like that. But Harry has an Invisibility Cloak, and I'm sure I could use it any time I wanted. Meaning I could sneak out, unnoticed, and meet you somewhere. We managed to fool everyone at Hogwarts. Why can't we fool my family, too?

I'll feel bad if I deceive my parents, but really, I shouldn't. They're just being stupid. They don't really know you – they know your father. Your father's in Azkaban and he won't be bothering us anytime soon. Maybe if they spent time with you they'd get to know you and realize that you're nothing like him (no matter what you say).

Draco smirked. He wasn't so sure the Weasleys would agree to meet him and just have a little session "getting to know him". The family was ninety-five percent male. Ginny was the youngest and the only young girl. Obviously everyone would be protective of her. They wouldn't believe a Malfoy was good enough for her. If they did meet, Draco would walk away with a disfigured face. Which is something he did not want.

I know I just saw you this morning but I can't stop thinking about you. This is going to be a long two weeks. Don't have too much fun without me.

Love,

Ginny

Draco placed the parchment on his desk. No one had ever signed a letter to him "love" before. Even when his mother sent him sweets at school, she always would put a little dash and then Mum.

It had been a day since he'd seen Ginny, and the truth was, he was beginning to miss her, too. No matter what she thought, no matter how nonchalant he tried to act, he really did want to see her soon. Not in two weeks. That would be too long.

But if he arrived at the Weasley house then her brothers or her parents would be sure to curse him away. It would be like having a death wish – knocking on their front door and then asking, "Is Ginny home?"

Draco was tired. The night before he hadn't gotten any sleep because he'd been alone in the Slytherin dormitory, being the only student there. Since Peeves didn't have anyone to pick on, he'd decided that it would be fun to bring pots from the kitchen and bang them like crash cymbals in the dormitory, right next to Draco's ear, every half hour.

He took off his cloak and fell into bed, and without peeling back the covers, fell asleep almost immediately.

A few hours later, he woke up suddenly. Someone was in his room. He sat up and twisted around and saw his mother by his desk.

His heart dropped into his stomach when he saw she was reading Ginny's letter.

"Hey," he said angrily, gracefully jumping off the bed and crossing the distance between them in two strides. He snatched the parchment out of her hands, causing her to jump and smile at him. "What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry, dear," Narcissa Malfoy said, not sounding sorry at all. "I came in to tell you it was dinner time, but you looked so adorable asleep –"

"Spare me."

" – and I saw the letter on the desk. Ginny? I don't think I've met her before. You've never mentioned a Slytherin by the name of Ginny."

"That's because she's not a Slytherin," Draco snapped, stuffing the parchment in his pocket.

"Ginny . . ." Narcissa appeared not to have heard him. "Isn't that the name of the girl who was Portkeyed to New York with you?"

"Yes." Draco never had an urge to yank his mother's hair as badly as he did at that moment.

Narcissa Malfoy always was a beautiful woman, even though she was nearly fifty years old. She was a bit shorter than Draco, with long legs and skin almost as pale as his. She had yellower hair than he did (his was more white). But she had his grayish-silverish eyes that always seemed like they were smirking or amused about something. And when she smiled, it never quite reached her eyes.

"If I remember correctly that would mean she's a Weasley," Narcissa said carefully, picking a piece of hair off Draco's black shirt. He brushed her hand away irritably.

"Is it dinner time or what?" he demanded, pushing by her and leaving the room.

Great. He hadn't wanted his mother to know. She'd probably tell Lucius Malfoy on her next visit to see him in Azkaban. Of course, it wasn't like Lucius didn't already know that Draco liked a Weasley. Still, it would be annoying to get a Howler from him reminding Draco about how having feelings for someone made him weak. If he heard that one more time he'd rip his hair out.

No, not my hair, he thought, walking down a flight of stairs. I like my hair. I'll rip out my mother's. And shove it down my father's throat.

Actually, Draco didn't hate his mother. She just bothered him. Sometimes, she attempted to act like she cared about him, when honestly she would sell him easily for twenty Knuts.

The morning after Ginny sent the letter, both Ginny's mother and her father came up separately and asked if they could speak with her. Ginny agreed, but didn't really listen to them going on and on about how Draco wasn't right for her.

"He's a Malfoy, dear, and he doesn't care about himself, much less another person . . ."

"You deserve so much better, Ginny. Besides, I thought you fancied Harry. . . ."

"If you want to date a blond, Mr. Jager's nephew is visiting for the week. Would you like to meet him . . .?"

"You really are a beautiful girl – uh, young woman – Gin, and I can't blame the boy. But a Malfoy . . . ?"

Ginny stayed in her room most of the time that day. It was boring, but it was better than facing her family. If her parents weren't lecturing her, then Fred and George were poking fun at her. Ron and Hermione seemed relieved since the spotlight was off of them. And Harry seemed to sulk around. Ginny knew why – he didn't like hearing anything about how she was with Draco.

Ginny felt guilty about what she was doing to her family and to Harry. But she couldn't help it. Even if she wanted she couldn't break up with Draco. She would be miserable and she knew it.

She was miserable just being away from him. And the way everyone around her was acting didn't help her mood.

On the third day of vacation, Ginny was lying on her bed reading when someone knocked on her door.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. Probably her mother trying to convince her how Draco would end up breaking her heart.

"Come in," she said, trying not to sound exasperated.

Instead, Ron came in. "Hi," he said. "Haven't been seeing too much of you. Are you going to start demanding that food be pushed to you under the door?"

Ginny placed the open book face down across her stomach. "That's a good idea," she said smoothly. "I just might do that."

To her surprise, Ron grinned. "Well, you can arrange that later. We were just about to go swimming. Wanna come?"

Ginny knew where they were going swimming – there was a large pond about five minutes from their house. They had a pond in their backyard, but it was full of algae and it was only about five feet around and two feet deep. The swimming pond was larger and got as deep as ten feet in the middle. And it had a large rock overhang about six feet above the surface that was great for jumping off of.

"Who's we?" she asked.

"Hermione, Fred, George, Harry, and me."

Ginny thought a moment. She was dying to get out of the house. And who knew – maybe Fred and George would lay off the Draco subject.

"All right. Give me a minute to put my suit on," she said.

Ginny knew she had about a million bathing suits in her closet, but could only find three. Two were way too small. The only one that fit her was a two-piece. She had been hoping on a regular one piece because she'd feel more comfortable around Harry.

Frowning, Ginny got into the dark blue two-piece. Then she fished out her biggest T-shirt and pulled it over her head. A second later, she was downstairs and beginning to wish she'd declined Ron's invitation.

The walk to the pond was brief, and Fred and George joked among each other and actually left Ginny alone. For that she was grateful and enjoyed being outside, some of her earlier worries melting away.

When they reached the pond, Hermione and Ron went off into the nearby woods by themselves. Fred and George jumped right in off the rock into the water, while Ginny decided she would try to get a tan first. Of course, whenever she did lay out in the sun she either got burned or more freckles.

As she arranged her towel on the rock, Harry sat down beside her. Ginny tried to ignore the fact that his shirt was off.

"You're not going swimming?" she asked without looking at him.

"Eventually," he replied.

A thought occurred to her and she forced herself to look at his face, not his chest. "You know how to swim, don't you?"

He smiled. "Yes, I do. Remember fourth year, second task? If I hadn't known how to swim I would've been out of luck."

Ginny then felt stupid and mumbled, "Oh." She tried to think of something else to say as she leaned back on her elbows. "What do you reckon Ron and Hermione are doing in the woods?"

Harry's expression darkened and he frowned, looking towards the trees. "I don't really want to know."

Ginny studied him. "Are you mad at them?" Does he like Hermione? she wondered. She'd never really thought of that before.

"No," he said to her question. "Well – yes. I mean, I think it's great that they're together and all. But they aren't the only two human beings on this earth. It's like all they need is each other and not me anymore."

"That's not true," Ginny contradicted warmly. "I'm sure they don't even realize what they're doing."

Harry didn't reply.

Ginny rolled onto her stomach and looked over the rock at the pond. Fred and George were splashing each other and dunking each other under, making a lot of noise for only two people. She rested her head on her folded arms and closed her eyes.

She was just drifting off when she heard Fred and George coming back up on the rock. Since the rock was so high from the pond, they had to walk around and up a slope to get there.

Ginny sat up when they reached the rock.

"Aren't you two going in?" Fred asked, grinning.

"I'm not yet," Harry answered.

"How about you, Gin?" George asked.

She smiled tightly. "No thanks."

"The water's fun," Fred said, stepping up beside her and grabbing her arm. "Come in with us."

"No thanks," she repeated.

But she knew what they were going to do. They were going to throw her in. If she hadn't wanted them to, she would've fought them and they would've left her alone. But it was sort of fun to be thrown in, so she didn't struggle too much as her older twin brothers grabbed each of her arms and yanked her to her feet.

"Ready?" Fred asked, grabbing her by the waist.

"No," she said, trying not to laugh.

And then he heaved her over the side of the rock.

What happened next happened quickly and yet slowly at the same time. Fred had tossed her in with her back to the pond, facing everyone on the rock. She sailed down towards the water bottom first.

Since she wasn't totally stiff, the surface didn't sting much when she hit it like it would've if she'd done a belly flop. But there was something else that hurt a lot more.

Just a few inches below the surface, the back of Ginny's head struck something sharp. And it struck it hard.

It hurt so much the pain spread through her body. It felt as if whatever she hit (obviously the top of a sharp rock) had sliced right to the skull.

How can there be rocks? she thought, dazed, as she surfaced slowly. The bottom is too far down.

Ginny somehow managed to keep her head above water. Everything seemed far away and her vision was blurred. Her head throbbed while her whole body was searing with white-hot pain.

Someone was calling her name.

"What," she said thickly. Or at least she thought she did. Her lips didn't seem to be working.

She reached a hand up to the back of her head and felt something warm and sticky in her hair. Pulling her fingers away and glancing down at them, she found they were covered red blood.

My hair is leaking, she thought deliriously. She was losing consciousness. She tried to blink repeatedly, hoping she'd be able to see clearly, but it didn't work. Everything got darker and darker.

She let herself slid into unconscious. It hurt too much to stay awake and be aware of everything. The last thing she felt was someone pulling her from the water, and then everything went black.

A/N: Terrible place to leave off, I know. But hey . . . this is the stuff that keeps you interested! Keep reviewing cuz if you don't chapter three won't come out for a long while! Oh, and I have a new email address if anyone wants to email me: mochabutterfly22@hotmail.com.