Now, Then and Forever
A/N: Only a couple of chapters more to go. I'm so excited. :) Then there's the sequel. Review, if you will. Bringing BadGirl!Ginny back, she disappeared for a couple of chapters there. Remember that Snape isn't Severus; it's the bad one mentioned in the past two chapters. I can't hate Sev now, what with all the great Snape fics out there. :) Slightly longer chapter, 3000 words give or take a bit. I'm making myself lengthen them. Whee!
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters belong to J.K., and she belongs to herself.
Chapter 7 – Arise
"Mmmfffttt," Ginny groaned groggily, as she felt a cool hand resting on her shoulder. "Sleepy... tired... hinklepoof...le...ftp..." She snuggled deeper into the blankets and scrunched her eyes tightly shut. The weight of another hand rested on her other shoulder. "Arrgghhh!" she groaned, and on impulse, her stray leg shot out and hit her "attacker" in the most delicate place on the human anatomy. Assuming, of course, that the "attacker" was male. "Go. Away!"
"Bloody freaking hell, you sodding idiot!"
She gave up trying to return to her dream-which she couldn't remember much of, just Draco and chocolate ice-cream...-and snapped her eyes open angrily. "Ooooo..." she whispered, sorrowfully, the change of mood evident.
Draco was glaring at her, gray eyes pain-filled. He was bent over, half crumpled on the ground, clutching his stomach. "What the hell you have to go do that for?" he growled.
"Sorry, oh, I'm so terribly sorry. I thought... I thought..."
"You thought I was a bloody punching bag, that's what you thought! You're one crazy woman!"
"I thought you were Ron!"
His eyes glittered, amused-though still painful. "I suddenly have a new found respect for your brother."
"Actually, it's because he knows to stand back when waking me up. Don't smirk at me!" He smirked anyway. "Draco, Draco! You are alright, right?"
"Mmmm..." He grinned evilly. "You have to make it up to me..."
"Oh, of course!" she smiled innocently. "I'll get you the "I love Voldemort!" shirt you always wanted next time we go out." She choked on her laugh when he tackled her on the bed.
"Promise?"
"Mmm hmmm." He let her up.
"Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to go out today. I noticed a park on my way back yesterday. We could go out for breakfast, go for a walk..."
"With the Muggles?"
"Hey, you managed. If you can do it, I can. It's not like we have to talk to them."
"Wait outside for me." Ginny pointed to the door.
***
Draco went to the box Ginny had previously taken the wand from. They had both decided to put it back there after the whole "Kissing-and-getting-mad-and-join-us-or-die" incident.
He twisted the code number, undid the three curses, four hexes, and stopped the Alarm charm from going off. The wand was still there, untouched. It did a little to assure him on its safety.
On a sudden brainwave, he charmed a piece of cloth over the top, and placed some Muggle money on it. It looked just like the moneybox of a very cautious person now.
He mixed up the number, re-cursed the three curses, re-hexed the four hexes, and charmed the Alarm charm on.
Ginny came out. "What exactly are you doing?" she asked, looking over his shoulder.
"Just checking," he told her quickly, and placed the box back in the drawer. "Let's go." He held out his arm.
The wand was safe...
***
"They just left," Quillan reported. "It's safe to go in now." The group of three-Mock, Nott and Quillan-shed their Invisibility Cloaks and went up to the door.
"Alohomora," Mock said, pointing out his wand. The door sprung open. "Quick!" he commanded, "Search the place for the wand. They must have hidden it somewhere.
"Found it!" Nott cried out, after a while of creating chaos in the house. "I think," he added a moment later. "It's a box. They could be keeping it here." He put his hand into the drawer and picked it up, before dropping it like he would a hot poker. Green and red warts had sprung out from his hand. "They hexed it, the bloody idiots!"
"My god," Quillian muttered angrily. "Whatever did I do to get stuck with such idiots? Here, I'll do it." He pushed Nott out of the way and grabbed the box himself. Instantly his hand grew hedgehog quills and turned the most awful shade of purple. He screamed like a girl.
"Ahhhh!"
"Who's the idiot now?" Mock smirked. "They took better care than we expected. That Malfoy's smarter than I thought he'd be. Leave the box to me." He transfigured a cup into a heavy hammer, levitated it over the box and let it go. The box fell apart as he watched, satisfied. "Whoever said violence wasn't useful was wrong."
He turned to look at his two companions. "So much easier than having to undo however many hexes they put on it, and they wouldn't think we'd do that, right? And any spell or charm on it wouldn't work since it's no longer in one piece. It's the easiest way out."
"Look," he snapped suddenly, worry that Snape might use the Cruatious Curse on him again finally catching up. "Get rid of those hexes now. It won't do much good if you go back that way." He pocketed the wand "We're getting out of here right now."
***
Ginny opened the door, and stopped suddenly. Draco bumped into her from behind. "Whaaa..."
The place was in disarray. Things tossed from tables. Fallen ornaments. But both their eyes shifted to the same place. The open drawer. The empty, open drawer.
"Damn," they said together.
***
"Sir, I-we have the wand." Mock presented the wand to Snape, who grinned.
"At last!" He turned to look at the group of followers. "You are going to be witnesses to the rising of one of the two most powerful wizards ever! Heir of Slytherin, our Lord is once again going to be among us!" A cheer arose from them.
Snape turned to a person standing by. "Is the potion ready?" When he received a nod, he went to stand on a small platform by a black cauldron with gray smoke pouring out of it.
The snake by his side, Nagini, hissed and twisted itself around his legs, before rising up, coiling partially into a spiral and looking inside the cauldron.
"Soon," he whispered to the snake, hissed even. "Soon, lovely, and your, our, Master shall be back. Soon..."
He pointed the wand and commanded,
"Witness to the ruin
Now bear witness to the rise
Give back life you saw taken
Master, master, hear our cries!
Sonos Arisiie! Sonos Arisiie!
Arise!"
A loud "boom" sounded, huge clouds of black smoke appeared, and the force pushed Snape away and slammed him into a tree.
Then all was still.
***
As he saw it, Draco could do one of two things. He could contact the Head Auror in his department, or he could go off and look for the wand himself, then call for back up. Option number one involved a great deal of shouting, then a lot of facing-You-Know-Who-and-running-the-risk-of-dying. Option number two involved a great deal of sneaking around, then getting shouted at, then much of facing-You-Know-Who-and-running-the-risk-of-dying. Either way, he supposed, he was getting the blunt end of the stick. This particular stick had two bloody blunt ends. He heard a loud thump coming from Ginny's room. He grabbed his wand and rushed there.
An open suitcase was lying on the floor, clothes were scattered every which way, and Ginny was looking very sheepish.
Draco glared at her. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Packing," she answered curtly. "I'm getting out of here." She stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She flicked her thumb and lighted her cigarette.
"I've let you screw me over for too long already. I like who I am now. I like the girl I am. I hated the "listen to everyone, be the model daughter" Ginny. And I don't know why the hell I told you all that stuff that night. You try to come along, waltz right in and change the person I've spent five bloody years trying to create. Maybe I let you for a bit, but I'm not going to anymore. So I'm getting out of here." She took a deep breath after her short speech and looked at him fiercely. "Don't you dare try to find me." She looked straight at him and added, "again." She grabbed a random bunch of clothes and tossed then in the open suitcase.
"You can't just leave!" he protested. "What about the wand? We have to find it! You have to come along with me and tell the Ministry about those people."
"You go alone," she muttered, "I can't go back now."
"You really think they would believe me?" he growled. "Sure, maybe one or two, but do you really think most of those snobs would take my word for such a load of rubbish? In case you didn't know, I am a Malfoy. My father is stuck in Azkaban. Maybe you have to work out your issues, but I have mine too. People hate me. They seriously hate me from the bottom of their heart. It doesn't bother me, but it does get in the way sometimes."
"In case you didn't know, me and my family aren't exactly under speaking terms either. Considering that more than half of them work for the Ministry in one way or another, it doesn't look good for me too."
The silence took over for a while as they each tried to out glare the other. In the end, Ginny snapped her eyes away and returned to throwing clothes back in the suitcase.
"According to you, they were the ones who tried to abandon you, five years ago, right?" Draco received a curt nod, and a fiercely thrown T-shirt in the bag. "So why do they seem a combination of upset and mad every time someone tries to ask about your disappearance? There was a whole uproar about it for a while, but no one was really told anything specific about it, just that You-Know-Who was gone and that Potter beat him. And no one there said anything else. Shouldn't you be upset, not them? Granted, I hated them all then, and even now, but you seemed like such a bloody perfect family!"
Ginny thought for a second before shaking her head and tossing in another shirt. "I don't want to bother thinking and reminiscing now, because then we could be here for a while, which I don't have. You either help me pack then get out, or just get out. 'Coz I'm sure as hell getting out."
The doorbell rang.
***
Ginny strode to the door and flung it open. "What?" she snapped, exasperated.
The shocked-and quite honestly frightened-delivery boy jumped back a step and held out a small package and a clipboard at arms-length. "Miss, I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but if you could only sign this I'll be off..."
Ginny gave him a look.
And the boy realized that this was a perfect example of his future. Scary gorgeous women snapping and glaring at him. Then he realized that might not be such a bad thing...
"Hello in there?" Ginny snapped. "Don't disappear off into some insane land of your own now."
"S...sss... sorry," he stuttered nervously. "If you could only sign here..." he beckoned to the clipboard.
"No," she muttered, before seeming to make up her mind and raising her voice. "No, I won't sign your bloody forms. I've just found out that a cold-bloodless murderer who everyone thought was dead could actually be coming back to life right about now, and even though I don't think it's my bloody fault, I know that everyone-and that's everyone-is going to think it is-was, whatever-anyway, and I really don't think I is, but I know hey will, because I really think they hate me, but why should I, since it's there bloody fault for all this stuff, one way or another." She paused from her seemingly endless sentence, and took another breath to begin again.
"Do you think it's my fault? Do you? Urgh, sometimes family makes me so mad you know, and now there's other issues, and..." She growled a real, actual growl, "but hell, anyway, I don't think that anyone I know would be sending me stuff, so, no, I won't sign. You can go away now." She turned to shut the door on him.
He, who was now lamenting on ever agreeing to take this dead-end, opportunity-less, cheap-paying job. Even if he was completely broke.
The door swung open again.
***
Draco smirked as a quaking delivery-boy boy took a jump backward. He had watched as Ginny rambled on without stopping at the boy, but finally decided it was time to step in after she closed the door on the Muggle.
He swung the door open and gave the boy a smirk. "Hello."
"Um... Hello?"
Draco held out his hand. "I'll sign that, if you want. Gin's in a bad mood at the moment. You just happened to be in the firing range." He took the pen the boy was holding out and signed leisurely. It wouldn't hurt to instill a little more fear in the boy. For all he cared, he would have instilled even more. Though that didn't seem like a very hard thing to do. He was thrust a box and blinked as the terrified boy ran off, faster than he'd ever seen anyone run before.
He went back in, looking at the back of the box. No "From" name or address. Actually, nothing at all.
"Ginny?" he called. "Are you going to open it?"
"No," she muttered as she whirlwinded past him. "You open it for all I bloody care. Like I said-"
"-You're getting out of here. I know. Come up with something new, that bit's going stale. And while we're at stale, I told you too, you can't just leave. It's not going to be safer anywhere; everywhere's going to be hurt, you know. And you can't run away from yourself either, Ginny." While he was talking, his hands were busily opening the small package.
She started towards the door. He reached out and grabbed her arm with one hand, as the other was full with the item from the box he'd finally opened. "Do you not understand the words 'Voldemort is bloody back?'" he shouted. "You-"
He was interrupted by the immediate, familiar feeling they both knew. They were both jerked forward roughly, banging into each other; pulled into a swirling mess, sucked fiercely into a whirlwind force. Then it stopped, they hit the ground with a heavy thud, and landed in a heap at someone's feet.
A someone with a snake.
***
Ginny
I knew it right away
There are times when you just get a feeling, a sort of knowledge, that something is going to happen, that something will happen.
And the minute Draco shouted... the minute he said what he did, I just knew. Unexplainably, indescribably.
I simply knew.
***
Draco
I should have suspected something, I really should.
Huh. Call myself a bloody Auror. Potter could have done a better bloody job than I could if he had gone to get the damned wand.
I swear, I didn't mean any of this to happen... Meeting her, talking to her... falling in...
I don't know if I'm really 'falling in...' How am I suppose to know if I'm 'falling in...' when I've never 'fell in...' before?
But even if it's not that, there's something.
Because when that portkey took us to god knows where, I would have normally wondered how to get me out. Or how I got into this bloody mess. Or who I could blame for getting me in this mess.
Me. Me, me, me.
Normally.
But when we fell from that damned portkey, all I really could think about, was how to get Ginny out.
***
Before...
"My Lord?" Snape asked. He got up from his slumped position and cautiously went to where the smoke was slowly clearing. To where the cauldron had been. Had once been.
"It didn't work," he muttered to himself. "It didn't work!" he repeated, roaring at the Death Eaters. "Why. Didn't. It. Work!" The others there shrunk back, and Quillan went to a small pile of old books.
"The pages were stuck together, sir," he mumbled. "We missed a part."
"What was wrong?"
"It says here, 'In the event of the rising of a powerful dark wizard, the owner of the wand must say the incantation, to fully revive the wizard. Beware that in some-'"
"Enough." Snape held up a hand. "Get me a Portkey. Get together the potion ingredients. We still have time. We're going to be meeting with a certain redheaded witch." He looked around at the still bent heads. "Now!" The Death Eaters snapped into work.
***
Draco felt the sticky sensation of liquid trailing down his left arm and forehead. He groggily raised his right hand and swiped the liquid off his arm.
He didn't have to look to know what it was, but somehow, everything up till then had been so surreal, that he found a need to reassure himself that this, was, indeed happening, and not just another dream, or rather, nightmare.
It was blood.
He blinked; and blinked again, willing the blood to go away. Willing the ever moving, never ceasing, snake to stop swishing and hissing. Willing for his head to stop its bloody throbbing. For the new surroundings and the two feet resting in front of him to freaking well disappear.
But most of all, willing, with all his mental power, for Ginny to disappear and go to a safer place.
Nothing happened.
He could have blinked for minutes, hours, days, even, and nothing would have changed.
Nothing.
Then suddenly something inside him just... snapped. 'Ginny, you freaking idiot!" Every cell in his whole entire body seemed to be screaming. 'Ginny!'
"Ginny?" he whispered softly. Hoping... "Ginny? Please, Ginny."
He looked to his side, where her face should be. He could feel part of her body draped over him, but didn't move for fear that he would knock her off and hurt her. He met with her eyes. Her closed eyes.
"Gin?"
He felt his heart thump so hard it hurt. But her eyelids flickered and opened. Her beautiful chocolate-brown eyes looked straight at him. She smiled softly, but her eyes widened as she noticed the thin trail of blood running down his face.
"Draco?"
They stared at each other for so long, so long. Then they were interrupted.
"How sweet," the drawling voice came. "How bloody sweet! Romance in this filthy, reeking air. Sorry to burst your bubble of hearts and roses, but you actually are here for a reason. Well, one of you, at least."
Ginny's eyes were wrenched from his as her hair was roughly grabbed and her head yanked up. Draco growled in anger-and... possessiveness?-but he pushed everything away but Ginny.
Ginny, Ginny, and only Ginny. A little like he wanted the rest of his life to be like.
Ginny, who at the moment was being painfully hurt by some stupid damned sodding git.
Draco stumbled to grab her, hold her, do bloody something, but the man snapped his fingers.
"Quillian," he snapped sharply.
Draco's movements stopped as he was hit by the full body-bind. He lay on the ground, unable to do anything but watch.
Just watch...
***
A/N: The Portkey thing (to clear it up), they both got jerked because Draco was holding on to both Ginny and the box. Like Harry was holding on to the Cup and Cedric. I did plan to make this chapter a little longer, but I aimed for 3000 words and I got there, so I decided to stop. The cliffhanger I had planned was going to be a lot worse, anyway. But it looks like there might be more chapters after all. Goes to show I can't plan very well. :)