Second Thoughts
Ginny decided to ask Hermione before she attempted anything further on the map. She managed to pull her away from her make out session with Ron and talk with her privately in the kitchen.
Hermione eyed the map curiously as Ginny explained her dilemma. When she flipped it over, she scanned the words on the back and was silent for a mere minute before she spoke.
"Only who seek good of the
Blood Skull shall find it," she read.
And to Ginny's surprise, and
happiness, when they flipped it back over the lines were labeled with black
words. Before she could inspect it, she asked Hermione, "How did you get that?"
Hermione grinned. "Look,
it's easy. The words are scrambled. That's all. I'm sure you would've figured
it out if you'd spent a little more time on it."
"Thanks, Hermione," Ginny
said. "I've got to show this to Draco."
"Wait," Hermione said,
grabbing her arm. "How did you get this map?"
Ginny shrugged and did not
reply. She pulled free with one more grateful smile and hurried upstairs to her
room. Draco was laying in her bed, flipping idly through one of her romance
novels. He smirked and lowered the book when she came in.
"You actually read this
trash?" he asked, holding up the novel.
Ginny blushed. "Not
anymore," she replied, and sat on the bed beside him. She held out the map for
him to see. "Look. It's labeled."
Draco's smirk faded into
seriousness as he stared at it. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do
anything," she replied. "Hermione helped me. It really is quite obvious. I feel
kind of stupid for not finding it first."
"Find what?"
Ginny explained it to him,
and he grinned. "Well, I'm sure I could've figured it out if you had let me
look at it for a little while."
She stared at him,
openmouthed. "I beg your pardon," she cried. "If I recall correctly it
was you who couldn't concentrate on the map. I tried to show it
to you, but you were too full of racing hormones to even acknowledge –"
She stopped when she
realized he was laughing at her, one of his rare laughs that reached his eyes.
"God, you're cute when you're pissed."
Ginny tried to hide her
smile but she couldn't. "The most important thing is now we have a map," she
said, snuggling into the nook of his arm. "A labeled one. We can get the Blood
Skull ourselves."
She felt his muscles
stiffen. "Why don't we just give it to the Ministry?"
Ginny tilted her head up to
look at his face. "Because. I can't say that I got this map in a dream.
No one will believe me. You don't even believe me –"
"I never said –" he started.
"So we'll have to go after
it ourselves. Come on, let's look at it," she said, and returned her eyes to
the map.
"Right. When we get the
skull we'll give it to the Ministry," he said.
"Why can't we do it
ourselves?" Ginny asked, directing her attention back to him. "We can somehow hint
that I'm still alive, and when Slytherin comes here, the skull will be waiting
for him."
Draco shifted uncomfortably,
but he didn't contradict her.
Ginny studied the map for a
moment. "It looks as though it's a maze," she said. "Look." She traced the
lines with her finger. "See how they cross each other?"
"What sort of maze ends like
that?" Draco asked, pointing at the top right corner where it said the Blood
Skull was to be found. "Don't they usually end in the middle?"
"You're right," she said,
frowning. "It's a weird maze. Instead of going through the whole thing, why
couldn't you just walk around to the end where the skull is?"
"See, this is why we should
leave it to the Ministry," Draco said. "They could figure stuff like that out."
"Where's your sense of
adventure, Draco?" Ginny grinned. "We can do this. And at least while we're
gone, Slytherin has less chance of finding out that I'm alive. Look where it
starts." She pointed at the bottom corner. "Hogsmeade. It starts at the edge of
Hogsmeade. I don't think he'll be hanging around there, do you?"
"You never know."
Ginny sighed. "If we're
going to go, I suggest we go now. Before Hermione gets the chance to tell Ron.
I know he means well and all, but I'm not sure I could put up with him coming
with us, do you?"
"Ginny, look who you're
talking to. The farther from your brother I am the happier I am."
She grinned. "So are you
coming with me?"
"Didn't I say I would
earlier?"
"Good." She jumped off the
bed and began to rummage through her closet. "It takes about a day to get to
Hogsmeade, and then saying it'll take another day to get through the maze . . .
we'll only need about three days worth of stuff, wouldn't we?"
"Sure," he replied absently.
"We'll have to take your
broom," she said, shoving clothes into a bag. "With our Cleansweep Sevens it'll
take us about four days to get there."
"Fine."
"What's wrong?"
"What gives you the idea
that there's something wrong?"
She paused and stared over
at him. "Well, when you're mad you normally answer in one word phrases."
"What else am I supposed to
say? What if I just don't have much to say to what you're telling me?"
"Then you just won't answer
at all," she said. "I know you – I'll talk and talk and you won't reply, so
therefore it's like talking to myself. And I feel like an idiot, but then
again, I never shut up when I'm on a roll. So . . . where was I? Oh yeah, when
you're annoyed you want it known. You answer everything in one-word sentences
and sulk at the same time."
He shrugged.
"I kind of got off subject
there," she said, sighing. "Back to the original question – what's wrong?"
Ginny didn't expect him to
answer, but to her surprise he sat up and stared at her seriously. "I don't
think it's safe going to find the skull."
She gaped at him for a
moment. "Are you afraid, Draco?" she teased.
"No!" he said heatedly, and
jumped to his feet. He crossed over to her and looked down into her face. "I'm
not afraid. But . . . well, Ginny, let's face it. You died just a few days ago.
And . . ."
He looked furious with
himself. Ginny was touched. He wasn't afraid for himself – he was afraid for her.
He was worried she'd get hurt again. She grabbed his hands and kissed him on
his nose.
"Look, we're now the new
masters of Dark Magic," she said gently. "We can handle anything that comes our
way, can't we?"
He smirked. "Okay."
"See, there you go again.
Answering with one word."
He shook his head. "I'm not going
to argue with you. You'd better hurry up and pack before I change my mind."
They left after dinner, so it would take everyone a little to realize
that they had left.
Since Ginny hadn't gotten
much sleep the night before, she drifted off against Draco's back before it was
even totally dark. He flew on through the night, and when she woke up it was to
realize that they were already at Hogsmeade.
"Aren't you tired?" she
asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Not really," he replied.
But Ginny knew he was. They would need to rest before they attempted to find
the maze.
So they stayed at an inn and
Draco slept until later that afternoon. It took awhile for Ginny to get him
awake, but when she finally did, they set off towards the edge of Hogsmeade.
"It looks as though it's to
the east of the town," Ginny said, studying the map.
"Don't you think it's rather
odd that we've never seen a gigantic maze here before?" Draco asked as they
made their way towards the edge of the village. "I mean, it's got to be pretty
big, considering it's guarding one of the most sacred tools in wizarding
history –"
"That's what I was
thinking," Ginny said. "But then I realized they probably used the Hidden
Charm."
"Well, that makes sense. But I'm sure many people have come close to the maze itself and it should've appeared when they got close to it. But how are we going to see it if everyone else in the world can't?"
"You didn't let me finish,"
Ginny said calmly. "The Hidden Charm is a little different then you're probably
thinking. You see, it's hidden to all those not looking for it. But since we're
looking for it, it'll probably show up for us. No one has probably ever seen
this map – at least, not anyone from our generation. So therefore why would
anyone look for a huge maze outside the town? It's really the perfect deception
– unfortunately, only really, really powerful wizards can perform the spell."
They came to the last row of
houses and stores. Hogsmeade really was built in the middle of nowhere – from
where they were standing, the land seemed to stretch on forever without another
sign of civilization.
"Well," Draco said, "we're
looking for the maze, and it's not here. Maybe it's on the other side of –"
No sooner had he spoke, a loud
ripping noise came, cutting him off. The ground jolted slightly and Ginny took
an instinctive step back into Draco. He dropped the broom he had been carrying
and grabbed her arms, gripping them hard as the trembling of the ground became
more noticeable.
And not two inches from
Ginny's feet did something shoot up from underneath the grass, causing her
stumble back even more. Draco's legs tangled with hers and they both fell
backwards, her landing hard on top of him. Neither of them seemed to notice as
they stared upwards. Something very wide and tall was growing from the ground,
and it took a full minute before the movement ceased.
A huge wall made of shrubs
now blocked what had been miles and miles of nothing before. It went so high it
disappeared above the clouds, and stretched left and right as far as Ginny
could see. There was an opening directly in front of them, just high enough for
them to walk through.
"Well," Draco said, sounding
slightly amazed. "That solves our problem, doesn't it?"
Ginny allowed a grin to
spread over her face and got to her feet. "This is the maze, Draco," she said,
turning to help him up. "You found it!"
"I didn't find
anything," he grumbled, wiping the grass of his leather pants. "It just sort of
grew out of the ground."
"Come on," she said,
grabbing his hand and going through the small entryway. "Let's go."
The minute they stepped
through, the environment changed. The sky wasn't blue any longer. When Ginny
looked up she saw the top of the maze vanish into dark, angry clouds. Instead
of a floor of grass, it was of hard dirt. It felt humid, as if a storm was
coming on.
"Are you sure we're not
going to get rained on?" Draco asked, looking upwards.
"We should probably bring
the broom," Ginny said, biting her lower lip. "The tops are too high for us to
fly over, but we might be able to fly over anything that gets in our way –"
She stopped when she turned
and found that the little square they had walked through was gone. It was pure
shrubbery. Panicking slightly, she looked up and down, searching for the exit.
"Uh, Draco . . ."
"Great. We're trapped in
here," he said, running a hand through his hair.
"Well, there has to be some
way out," Ginny said, and pulled the map out of her pocket. "I guess we'll just
have to make our way to the Blood Skull and hope there's a way out from there."
"Maybe this is the point of
the maze," Draco mused. "For the seeker to just wander through it days on end,
and die of starvation. D'you reckon maybe that somebody planted the map in your
hand for a reason?"
Ginny fixed him with a
confused stare. "How do you mean?"
"Slytherin's not an idiot,"
he began, looking frustrated. "He might have planned this. You know,
pretend to kill you and know very well that you're alive. Then he can
disappear, making us think that he thinks your dead. And then give you this
map, making you think you got in a dream and knowing that you'll try and stop
him by finding the skull. This could all just be some way to get us killed. A
never-ending maze. It's really quite brilliant, if you think about it."
Draco immediately felt sorry
for what he said when a look of utter horror crossed her face.
"Of course, I could be
wrong," he corrected rather quickly. "I could be blowing this way out of
proportion –"
"But what if you're right?"
she asked, her voice rough. "I didn't think of it like that."
She looked as if she was
going to cry. Draco sighed, trying to look impatient. "You've brought us this
far – we might as well try and see if we can get the skull," he said, snatching
the map from her hands. To his surprise there were two dots in the lines, and
it took him a minute to realize they were there to represent them. "Let's go
this way," he said, pointing to their right.
He started to walk, and
Ginny grabbed his hand and tried to keep up with his long strides. Neither of
them spoke, both wrapped in their troubled thoughts, wondering if they would
ever make it out of the maze alive.
A/N: awful place to stop, I know. But it took me this long to write
this dinky chapter that I decided I had to post it or else I'd feel guilty!
Well . . . I have Thursday and Friday off (teacher workdays, yippie!) so I have
a four-day weekend to produce more chapters! And please review!!! I would thank
peeps who have reviewed now, but I'm tired and I should be going to bed . . . .
