Disclaimer: It all belongs to JK Rowling, okay?!!!
When Ginny woke up the next morning, her bed
empty, and went downstairs for breakfast, Ron thrust The Daily Profit into
her face. Ginny grabbed it and looked at Lucius Malfoy's picture, scowling at
her and every now and then glaring maliciously.
"The
news is out," Draco said, somewhat cheerfully, from the kitchen table.
Ginny
read the article quickly.
Sometime late last night on the outskirts of London, Auror
Mark Bastinson woke up to screaming from the house next door, the home of Bill
and Cindy Jackson. He quickly contacted the Ministry when the screaming did not
cease, and hurried over to his neighbors.
Three men from the Ministry arrived and went into the house
where the shouting was reported. They found the entire Jackson family,
including three kids between the ages of five and thirteen, murdered. When they
tried to find Bastinson, they ended up in the back of the house, and found once
well-respected Lucius Malfoy standing over Mark Bastinson's body. Malfoy then
made one remark: "I am Salazar Slytherin, and I will kill more innocents."
Then, he Apparated before the three men could do any more.
It went on to say how the Ministry had covered up Lucius's escape from Azkaban and how crazy he was about claiming to be Slytherin. Ginny got bored of it after the fourth paragraph and dropped the paper to the table.
"How
come you never told me it was Lucius who was trying to kill you?" Mrs. Weasley
asked her, looking up from the breakfast she was making.
Ginny
shrugged and slid into the seat beside Draco.
"I'm
going to the library this afternoon," Hermione announced.
"What
for?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but Ron jumped in. "Mum, you know
about Hermione and libraries. Why else would she go if not to check out a book
on A Thousand and One Ways to Transfigure Cotton Balls?"
Everyone laughed but Hermione, who huffed and crossed her arms.
After lunch that afternoon, Hermione came back
with her arms full of heavy books. Ginny was keeping her mother occupied in the
kitchen so she wouldn't see the books on Dark Magic, and then joined everyone in
her room as soon as she could get away.
They
all sat on the floor around the books. "I checked out every one that I thought
would come in handy," Hermione said. "So I guess we should start learning,
shouldn't we?"
And so
they did. Hermione was the unofficial teacher because she understood what most
of the spells said. Stopping only for dinner, they worked well into the night.
Finally, at midnight, Ron was the first to suggest they stop.
"I'm exhausted,"
he complained.
"Poor
baby," Draco sneered.
"Besides,"
Ron continued, shooting him a death look, "we've learned a lot today. Can't we
finish it tomorrow?"
The next day there was another report of attack,
once again done by Lucius Malfoy.
The
autopsy on the Jacksons' bodies revealed use of extreme magic, magic that only
few could master. People were beginning to wonder if maybe Lucius really was possessed
by Salazar Slytherin.
As the
days went by, Ginny began to look forward to returning to Hogwarts. At least
there I'll be safe, she thought. I won't have to worry about Slytherin
popping up from nowhere and killing me.
Five
days before they were to return to school, Mr. Weasley came home from London.
Over dinner he explained the situation with Lucius. Nearly twenty people were
dead because of him, and now the Ministry was getting desperate.
"They
have no doubt that Lucius is Slytherin," Mr. Weasley said. "It's not really my
department, but I've heard that they know all they have to do is manage to get
Slytherin's spirit out of Malfoy – er, I mean Lucius – and then he will be
harmless again, and they can throw him in Azkaban once more."
"How
can they get the spirit out?" Ginny wondered.
"Well,
there are Dementors," Mr. Weasley said wearily. "But they have to catch him
first. They're beginning to think it's unlikely, so they've thought of an
alternate way. They'll use something called the Blood Skull. It's a human skull
made out of dark red crystal. Very valuable and it can suck the soul out of
anyone, sort of like a Dementor. But they can charm it so it'll only suck the
life out of who they want it to. They just leave it in the room where they
predict the person will be, and when that person comes they won't have a soul
for much longer. They don't want anyone to know about it, of course, because
then Slytherin will be careful of where he goes in case the Blood Skull will be
there. But practically everyone at the Ministry knows about it."
"Well,
then why don't they just use it?" Harry asked.
"There's
just a little problem with that," Mr. Weasley replied. "They don't know where
it is."
"What?"
Ron said.
"They
can't find it," he said. "The last time it was spotted was in 1587, during one
of the Goblin Wars. Many witnesses say that the world seemed to open up and the
Blood Skull fell into it. Now, that's probably just superstition because the
world doesn't just open up. Besides, people have been digging for it for
centuries and haven't found it yet. So more than likely it was hidden by
someone somewhere."
"Perfect,"
Ginny cried. "The only way to stop this is to catch Slytherin and put a
Dementor on him? No way anyone's going to be able to do that."
"He's
too powerful," Draco put in quietly.
Mr.
Weasley shrugged. "That's just what I've been hearing. One thing's for sure,
though, the Blood Skull is real. And that's probably the best bet on stopping
Slytherin from killing anymore."
A/N: Sorry this chapter was so short, but I'll be
sure to have the next one out soon!!!! Please review and thanks to all those
who did!
