Disclaimer: JK Rowling

Chapter Seventeen

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 . . . .