Chained To Fate

Chapter One: Unspoken Words

It was late August, less than one week remained of the summer holiday that the Hogwarts students were now on. In five days, on September the first, students would be heading with their families to King's Cross Station and to Platform nine-and-three-quarters. There they would end up boarding the Hogwarts Express and off to the school the would be going for another ten months.

Ginny had been sitting under a willow tree near to her house when her mother had called her in for supper. She finished the paragraph in the book she was reading, dog-eared the page, and headed inside. She entered the house, placed the book on the stairs up to her room and saw her brother, Ron, and his two friends Harry Potter and Hermione Granger enter the house from the front door.

"Home, mum," Ron announced as the trio entered the kitchen, the scent of spaghetti was wafting lazily in the air.

"Good just in time for supper," came the voice of Mrs. Weasley and a short, plump woman came into the hallway, a paled orange apron tied around her waist. She had shooed the three out of the kitchen, ushering them away to wash for supper. She then looked to her only daughter and beckoned her into the kitchen to set the table.

Ginny followed her mother into the tiny kitchen. Tying her long auburn hair into a mess knot on the back of her head, Ginny went on getting out plates and cutlery to prepare the table. "Are Fred and George around, mum?" she asked, wanting to know if her twin brothers would be around for dinner so she could know if she had to set a place for them.

"I don't believe so dear, they won't be back until you've all left for Hogwarts. Percy'll be back tomorrow night however." She continued to bustle around the kitchen and soon she placed the meal on the table, Ron, Harry and Hermione having returned.

After supper, Ginny found her way to her room, she picked up her book on the way. She shut her room door and lay on her bed, her arms underneath her head. She lay, staring at the ceiling, for sometime, wondering what the new year would bring and wondering if it would be any different.

Eventually she picked up her book again and submersed herself in the text of the author. She jumped into the world of Middle-Earth, where a little creature, called a hobbit, held the fate of his world in a ring around his neck. She wondered if the Muggle author, Tolkien, ever knew about wizards and magic, and perhaps it was this that had inspired his writing. Or, she wondered if Middle-Earth had been the place in his head that Tolkien would run to when he needed escaping. None the less Ginny enjoyed the tale of the Ring Bearer and returned to her reading to discover what had come to the two hobbits known as Merry and Pippin.



The second Harry had stepped into the Burrow, the first thing he noticed was Ginny. She had come in the back way at the same time he, Ron and Hermione had come in the front. A book was nestled under one of her arms, her deep red hair poured over her shoulders, her cheeks and nose were lightly dotted with freckles due to an afternoon spent under the summer sun.

He had run upstairs with his two best friends to tidy up for supper, and when he returned to the kitchen, following behind Ron, he noted Ginny, her hair now tied messily up in a knot, holding cutlery in her hand, laying it on the table. She was in light conversation with her mother, a tiny smile present on her face.

Harry had sat across from her all supper and had barely spoken a word to her. He was now heading into his seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ginny was about to start her sixth year. He had known about the infatuation Ginny had had with him for the first while she had known him. But that, like any infatuation had come to pass and Ginny, like all other teenage girls had moved on from her school girl crush. He, however, had just noticed Ginny when she had stopped noticing him. She was an amazing girl, bright, caring, intelligent, beautiful and she had the most amazing smile he had ever seen.

Unfortunately for Harry, he didn't feel it right to act upon his feelings for Ginny, especially now that he knew she no longer liked him in anyway more than a friendship. Asides from that fact, she was also the kid sister of his best friend and Harry thought that kind of odd.

After supper had ended, and the table had been cleared of all dishes, he watched Ginny walk from the cozy eating area, pick a book up from the staircase and head to her room. Later when he and Ron had passed, going up to Ron's room, leaving Hermione to help Mrs. Weasley with the dishes, he saw that her room door was closed. He couldn't see the lovely girl that was on the other side.

Harry feel asleep that night with thoughts of Ginny in his head, how her shy smile played jovially on her face, and how her golden eyes lite up with every laugh and chuckle. He sighed heavily before finally slipping into darkness.



It must have been at least two o'clock in the morning when Ginny woke up from her sleep. She sat up in her bed, and lite the candle beside her bed, her room now glowing eerily. The watch on her bedside table read that it was just about that, one fifty-three to be exact. She yawned and scratched at the itch behind her ear, she then picked up the book once more and began reading. She didn't get far before she once more dog-eared the page she had stopped on and put the book back to its spot on the table. Drawing her legs into her body, she rested her chin upon her knees and breathed deeply.

An awkward thought of Harry Potter had come into her mind, and she couldn't really explain why. She had once liked him, a long time ago, when she was only a girl, but that crush exsisted no more. Finally, after five years of infatuating over the Boy-Who-Lived, Ginny had finally gotten over him by the mid of last school year.

Now, however, she found out that Harry had just gotten those same feelings for her. A little too late if you asked Ginny Weasley. He had to start liking her after she had gotten on with her life. Things just always worked out that way, or so they seemed.

It had been no accident that Ginny had found out how Harry felt about her, he had come right out and said it. Ginny remembered the day, it must've been only five or six days into the summer holiday, and it had been a day much like today. She had been sitting under the same willow tree, reading the first installment of Tolkien's series, when Harry had approached her. She had put down the book and looked to her brother's best friend. He had then begun to talking to Ginny, and told her all about the emotions he now had for her.

She had flat out turned him down, explaining that she was no longer interested in him unless it was in the fashion of being friends. She had felt awful about doing it, but she couldn't lie to him, that would've surely been worse. So, Harry had nodded, accepting Ginny's feelings and left, returning to the house.

Yawning, she shook her head and came out of her dream world. She retied the mess of hair and wondered if Ron knew about the way Harry felt about her. Harry was Ron's best friend, but Ginny was his sister. She had no idea if Harry would tell Ron about something like that.

She dwelt on her thoughts for awhile longer. Still not able to sleep, she pulled a black hardcover book out, a simple quill and black ink and began to write, until finally near three o'clock she put the book away, blew the flame of the candle out and fell back into a mindless sleep.

* * *

On the first of September, around ten o'clock, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Harry and Mrs. Weasley headed to King's Cross Station with all the luggage to send the students back to the castle for another year of schooling. Mr. Weasley had been unable to go for he had been suddenly needed in the office first thing that morning.

"Bye Ginny dear, do behave yourself," Mrs. Weasley said as her only daughter stepped onto the scarlet Express.

"You don't have to worry about me mom," Ginny smiled leaning from the train steps and kissing her mother lightly on the top of her head. "It was Fred and George you needed to worry about."

Mrs. Weasley let out a soft chuckle and then Ginny disappeared off into the compartment of the train, her trunk having already been brought to the back.

Ginny passed the compartment where her brother and his two friends were sitting, she said a quick, brief hello and passed on her way, in search of the Gryffindors from her year. Finally finding Quinlan Messing and Lynda Smithies in a compartment much further up the train she took up a seat.

"Hi Ginny," the brunette of the two greeted with a smile. She had two long braids of chestnut brown hair, olive tanned skin and dark brown eyes.

"Morning Quin," Ginny greeted in return, having sat across from the brunette. She then looked to the other girl, who had sandy coloured, blonde hair, fair skin and hazel eyes. "Lynda."

"Hey Gin," Lynda said, and the three sixth year Gryffindors engaged in a small talk conversation about their summer holidays.

Silence feel amongst the three girls. Quinlan left to find her younger sister and check up on her. Lynda feel asleep, curled up on the bench across from Ginny. This left Ginny to herself, wide awake and with nothing to do, but read her book.

A timeless seeming hour had passed before Ginny looked up again, folding in the corner of her book. Lynda was still asleep, breathing light and soundlessly. Quin had not returned and Ginny had assumed that she had found Colin Creevey, another Gryffindor sixth year who Quin had been dating off and on for the past year. Ginny looked out into the hallway around her compartment. Many of the younger students were running around, excited about being back with their friend and returning to the castle. The compartment across the aisle from the one she was sitting in held three Slytherins and she shook her head as she saw silver blonde hair.

It could only be Draco Malfoy, and his two bullies Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. She glared pointlessly through the glass doors as she knew Malfoy hadn't seen her. He was presently the Slytherin Quidditch Seeker and Team Captain, had some of the top marks in his year and was the nemisis of her brother and his friends.

Ginny was about to pick up her book when a fourth party came to the compartment of the seventh year Slytherin males. He was a tale boy, taller than her brother, but less gangly. She noticed he had dark, spiked hair, even darker eyes and deep olive tanned skin. In the cartilage of his left ear was pierced a thick silver hoop. A smirk roamed the corners of his mouth and he chuckled at whatever it was Malfoy had just said.

"Blaise are you going to come in or just stand there with the door open?" she could her the voice of Malfoy question. She realized then that that fine looking boy standing outside the compartment was Blaise Zabini, none other than the best mate of Malfoy. Of course things hadn't always been that way, because Ginny had never seen Blaise around when Malfoy was teasing her or her brother, Harry and Hermione. But one day, sometime in November of last year he had sort of appeared as Malfoy's new best friend, and for awhile even Ron didn't know exactly who he was. That was until Hermione pointed out that he was Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin in their year. She then had to continue to explain that Blaise was generally a quiet boy, who she saw many a times in the library doing his studies. When Malfoy had discovered that Blaise was talented on the Quidditch pitch as a Keeper and Blaise had apparently spent summer at the Malfoys the two had become near to inseperable, always creating more havoc then either could handle.

"Gin?" came the sudden questioning voice of Lynda, snapping Ginny out of her thoughts.

Ginny looked over her shoulder to her friend who was now sitting up and stretching out her tired knees. "Are we almost at Hogwarts?" Lynda asked with a yawn.

"I believe so," Ginny nodded and yawned herself.



Blaise Zabini had been walking from the very back of the train in search for other members of his Slytherin year, namely Draco Malfoy. He had passed just about everyone else, save the people who he was actually looking for, but finally he came to them and opened the sliding glass door causing Vincent Crabbe to jump slightly from his seat.

"If it isn't Zabini," Draco drawled with a grin on his face. Blaise chuckled and nodded in reply. "Blaise are you going to come in or just stand there with the door open?"

"Good question," Blaise said and entered the compartment. He sat in the empty seat next to Vince, across from Draco. He shut the door behind him, blocking out most of the noise from the busy aisle.

"We were wondering when exactly you were going to come around," Gregory Goyle said, looking from out of the window over to Blaise.

"I had been way at the far back of this bloody train," Blaise explained. "I think I passed half the damn school on my search for you all."

"As you walked more than half the train length that makes sense," Draco said sarcastically and rolled his gray eyes.

"Yes well ... " Blaise trailed off, dropping the other half of his sentence. The four Slytherin males then engaged in conversation, sticking primarily to the topic of Quidditch and the odds of Slytherin winning the Quidditch Cup this year.

"We do have a strong team this year," Blaise pointed out, he acted almost as Draco's team co-Captain, helping him make and strengthen the team. "We only need to replace what, one Chaser this year?"

"I think that's it," Draco agreed, "I think we only lost one last year. We'll just run our tryouts early on, get our team together quick and we should have a good shot at the Cup this year."

"Slytherin needs to win it for our last year here," Greg voiced, hopeful for a Slytherin win for his final year at Hogwarts.

"In both Quidditch and the House Cup," Vince put in.

"Slytherin hasn't won since Harry Potter decided to come to Hogwarts," Draco loathed, enraged that his House's winning streak had been broken the year he had come to Hogwarts.

"All will change my friend, all will change," Blaise said, a sly, devious smirk evident on his face. "I think a good win is due for Slytherin this year, and I find that we are just the year that will bring our House that win."

"You scare me when you plot," Vince said.

"Yeah," Greg agreed, "you get this glazed over, evil look that's not a normal look for even you and it's rather scary."

"You plotting is almost worse than Draco plotting," Vince concluded, a somewhat paranoid look upon his face.

Both Blaise and Draco exchanged looks, then looked back at Vince and Greg, chuckling and laughing as if it were the funniest thing one could've said. But then Vince and Greg did have the right mind set, for both Draco and Blaise came up with seemingly horrible plot concotions on their own, but put the two of them together and there were bound to be some fairly frightening things about to take place.



The train suddenly came to stop, and the students had arrived in Hogsmeade station just outside of Hogwarts Castle. Ginny stood up and followed Lynda from their compartment, she had accidentlly knocked into Malfoy on the her way through the busy aisle. He turned and glared heavily at her. "Watch it weasel," he muttered, almost inaudibly under his breath. He then continued on his way with the other three Slytherin males.

Ginny and Lynda got into a horseless carriage along with Quin who they finally met up with again off the train.

"Sorry," she began to explain, "after I found my little sister, I ran into Colin. I hadn't seen him all summer and there was much to catch up on. Sorry I never came back." She got into the carriage before either Lynda or Ginny got in.

"And I'm sure all you had to do was 'catch up' on your summer vacations," Lynda said sarcastically, and gave Quin a very fake angelic grin.

Quinlan tossed her head to the side, and with it followed her two braids. "Ha, ha, aren't you just the most funny thing ever?" she replied and the carriage took off, bumping along up the path leading to the castle.

When Ginny took a seat at the majestically set Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall, she found herself sitting across from no one other than Harry. She gave him a small, sheepish smile, and avoided any talk, turning to Quin who sat on her right. Ginny wanted to tell both Quin and Lynda about her summer, and her moment with Harry, but this was definitely not the time nor the place, and besides the first years had just been gathered to the front of the Hall and the Sorting Ceremony was about to begin.



Draco looked up from the table as the young, newcomers entered the Great Hall and proceeded to make their way to the front, up by the High Table, where the Ceremony would take place. Dreading the yearly song from the Sorting Hat and the long, pointless speech given by Dumbledore, he began to scan the Hall, spying on what everyone was doing.

He had been thinking of Quidditch potential and trying to come up with a game plan, but that failed when his eyes came to the Gryffindor Table. He found Potter and glared at him. There would be no way in all the wizarding world that Potter and his damn team of Gryffindors would beat the Slytherins this year, Draco silently promised himself that.

McGonagall must've been near to the end of the Ceremony when Draco finally pulled out of his thoughts. He looked up to the Ceremony and watched the final student, a short dumpy looking boy, run to an empty seat at the Ravenclaw Table. The Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, rose from his chair in the middle of the High Table and rapped three times on the goblet set in front of him .

"And if it isn't the feared Dumbledore welcome back speech," Draco said quietly to Blaise with a roll of his grey eyes.

Blaise chortled. "They do seem to be getting shorter and shorter with every year."

"Oh, yeah, and last year's was only what, ten minutes?" Draco reminded the boy sitting next to him.

"Okay, okay, so perhaps last year's wasn't all that short, but the speeches seemed to be somewhat shorter in previous years."

"So, with that," Dumbledore's voice overpowered that of Draco and Blaise, both turning to look at the old man, "I welcome you to yet another year at Hogwarts School, and the Feast may begin."

Blaise looked triumphantly at Draco, "See, short."

"Oh, and you're always right, aren't you?"

"For the most part, yes I am always right. Glad to see that someone's finally got it straight."

* * *

It always took a little while, but by the second week of return the school was back into its formal system of classes, all the students now falling back into schedule. Friday's last classes had ended only a few short minutes ago and Ginny walked from the Charms classroom with Gabrielle and Lynda. They didn't get far before Colin joined along with them.

"Gin, do you know if Harry's having any Quidditch tryouts this weekend?" Colin asked, looking over to her.

Ginny shrugged, why was she going to know? Everyone seemed to have this crazy idea that she and Harry were some sort of best friends, when in actual fact she rarely talked with him. "I have no idea Colin, why?"

"We were going to run a pre-Quidditch type of article in the school paper this year, being in Gryffindor I'm supposed to talk to Harry."

"Aren't you just the photographer Colin?" Lynda asked. "I thought Jenna from Ravenclaw had started it because she loved writing and had asked you to help her get the paper going because you like taking pictures."

"Well, that's how it was last year, but she asked a member from each House to talk to their Quidditch Captains and see what they felt about the upcoming season. I'm supposed to have talked to Harry by tomorrow afternoon."

"I suggest you talk to him then," Quin said, flicking her long dark hair over her shoulder.

"The seventh years just had Transfiguration," Ginny informed. "You could try to find him now, if you wanted."

Colin ran off, presumably heading for McGonagall's classroom where he might possibly come across Harry. Gabrielle shook her head after him as he left without saying goodbye, both Ginny and Lynda giggled.

The three girls continued their way down to the main level of the castle, where they could then get to anywhere they wanted to be, right now the Gryffindor Common Room to set down their belongings. Nearing the staircase heading to the dungeons, Ginny looked down the hallway to once again see Blaise Zabini, who she hadn't seen since the train ride back. She looked him over, from head to foot and sighed inwardly. She couldn't believe that she might actually be falling for a Slytherin.

"Gin?" Gabrielle said, causing Ginny to quickly turn her head towards the two girls she was walking with.

"Yeah?"

"Were you paying attention at all?" Lynda asked.

"Not really."

"Then what, my friend, were you paying attention to?" Lynda gasped then as Quin jabbed her hard in the side. She then nodded her head in the direction of the group of seventh year Slytherins. Rubbing her side, Lynda looked over to them.

"Gin, you better not like Malfoy," Quin said scornfully as if she were Ginny's mother. "I mean, sure he's good to look at, but he has such an attitude and a high class appeal about him, it's almost repulsive." She then glared over at the four males, the female portion of the Slytherins having just walked away.

"I do not like Draco Malfoy," Ginny said, hushed slightly as they rounded the corner, heading away from Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins. "Honestly, where do you get an idea quite like that?"

"You were watching him Miss Weasley."

"Oh pish-posh Lynda, I was not. You have no idea who or what I was looking at, or what was going through my head. I had just fallen into aimless thought, I do not like Draco Malfoy."

"Then why do you keep saying that? Denial?" Quin teased, a grand smirk across her cheeks.

"No, I'm getting my point across. Now, if you both wouldn't be so kind as dropping the subject matter." Ginny walked away from her two friends then, not allowing them to continue pestering her about Malfoy. Her, liking Draco Malfoy? That'll be the day.

"Gin, we didn't finish with our conversation!" Lynda said, coming into their dorm to find Ginny sitting on her bed, deeply immersed into a book.

"Yes Lynda, we did."

"No, I really don't think we did," Quin followed the dirty blonde into the dorm and shut the door behind her. "You do have a thing for him, don't you?"

Looking up over the pages of her book, Ginny gave them both a very blank look. "I do not like Malfoy, end of discussion." She looked back to her book and continued to read, not really absorbing the words.

"Are you really going to tell us that Gin?" Quin demanded, taking a seat on the edge of Ginny's four poster bed. "We saw you watching him, you were ignoring us completely, you were too absorbed in Mister Draco Malfoy."

She shook her head with out looking up from the book, "That is not what it was Quinlan, it was not that at all." She gave a satisfactory 'hmph' at the end of her statement, and with that she added, "And you know that."

"I don't know that," she hissed through barely open lips and received a glare from Ginny.

Ginny decided then she was going to drop the conversation, she did not want to have to listen to her two friends' false accusations about the idea that she may be attracted to that slimy git, Malfoy. What absurd idea was that? Ginny, possibly being attracted to someone such as that - never. She could admit that he wasn't a shabby looking guy, but the second he opened his mouth ruined just about anything he had going for himself.

"Suit yourself Gin," Quin shrugged and she left the dorm with Lynda, heading down to the Common Room, where there was most likely a gathering of other Gryffindors for them to mingle with. Ginny, on the other hand, stayed in the dorm, and moved from her four poster, to the armchair by the fire. She curled in it, bringing her knees to her chest, and once more, like usual falling into the world of Middle-Earth.

'Draco Malfoy,' she found herself thinking, 'what are the two of them even thinking about?' She rolled back her shoulders in discontempt, and gave a quick head shake. 'Where did Gabrielle even come up with that remote thought?' she asked herself, holding her page between her thumb and index finger. Her thoughts then drifted to earlier that afternoon, when Gabrielle and Lynda had first come up with the idea that she was swooning over the Slytherin Quidditch Captain.

Then she realized, they had mistaken who it was she had been eyeing. Malfoy had been standing next to Blaise at the time when her two friends had spotted her checking over who they thought was Malfoy, but they indeed had been wrong. Another thought then hit Ginny, she had been looking over Blaise, she hadn't admitted it at the time, but now that she was thinking back to it, she had been eyeing a Slytherin. Her friends had assumed she had been scanning Malfoy, but no, it was Blaise who she was interested. 'Oh God,' Ginny thought, she hadn't even been interested in any other guy since Harry. 'Why Slytherin? Why? And older at that too. My Ginny you do pick out the interesting guys.' It wasn't that she wanted Blaise, more that she found him to be very exciting eye candy, but that was still not the point here.

Try as she might Ginny could not sit there, alone in that warm dormitory, and put those thoughts for her mind. She had tried to jump into her book, but even the adventures of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn couldn't keep her mind off the previous hours, off Blaise, and off all of what Gabrielle and Lynda had accused of her. 'Dammit,' she said, finally giving up and put the book back in her trunk, ontop of her texts. She exited the dorm and turned to head to the Common Room.

It was still early in the night, the sun just starting to set now, and she was thankful that she had grabbed her cloak, for she couldn't stand the idea of staying inside the castle much longer. She headed out to the yard, passed Hagrid's hut, and stood near the lake, looking out over its waters. '

"Hey Gin," came a voice from behind her.

Ginny turned with a jump and looked up into Harry's emerald green eyes. "Oh, Harry ... hi." Harry nodded and stroked a hand through his messy, untamable hair. "What are you doing here?" she asked, tucking a strand of auburn hair behind her ear and crossing one foot behind the other, in a sort of nervous fashion. Ever since that day, early in the summer vacation, she never liked being alone with Harry. Anytime it had happened at the Burrow, she had been able to avoid it with out too much suspicion, but now she couldn't easily get out of this situation.

"I was heading in from the tryout when I saw you coming down here. I thought I'd come and not leave you all to your lonesome."

She smiled weakily and looked to the ground beneath her feet, it was damp from the evening moisture that lingered still in the air. "How did that go?" she asked after a moment's quiet.

"The tryout? It went well, Gryffindor has only two positions to fill, but they still are important positions, like all the rest. We shall see what it comes down to." Harry looked out over the lake, the sun now only minutes from setting below the treeline. "I think it is time I should be escorting the young miss back to the castle before it gets late and passed curfew." He looked down to Ginny.

Still feeling awkward about the situation that was force upon her, she did all she could and smiled courteously, not knowing exactly what there was she to say. She headed back to the castle with him, and in turn to their House Common Room, neither speaking all the way.

"Look Gin, there is a reason as to why I came out to see you," Harry started, his voice sounding cracked and nervous.

Ginny's gut dropped about three feet, as she knew exactly what conversation this was leading to. "Harry-"

"Let me talk," he interrupted, the two standing at the bottom of the staircase leading to the dormitories. "You may think you have an idea of what this is about, but I don't think you do. You're probably thinking that this relates back to what I said to you during the summer holiday, and in a way it does. I know you've been avoiding me because of what I told you, and I realize now that I should've never said anything to you-"

"No, it was good that you came forward with what you needed to say."

"Yes, but it still didn't get me what I wanted. It did, however, get me to thinking, and ..." he trailed off, trying to gather his thoughts and place them in some sort of order he could say to her.

"Harry, we don't need to have this conversation now," she started to head up the stairs. "Goodnight."

"Night Gin," he wished as she headed up the stairs to her dorm.

Standing on the second stair, she turned around and looked at him, giving him an odd, comforting sort of smile. She finished her flight up the stairs and went to bed, lying there, staring up at the ceiling. She didn't really care what it was that Harry had had to say to her, she simply couldn't be bothered with him anymore, she just couldn't. Nor did she really want to deal with her two friends who thought she fancied that prat of a Slytherin. Sometimes Ginny wished that life would deal her hand of cards that she actually wanted to play, not the usually riff-raff that she was often stuck with. Sighing heavily, she closed her golden eyes and feel almost immediately into a deep sleep.



A/n: New story on the go here, I think it's a fair improvement from the last, and might actually have a plot this time, quite frankly I really can't say if I knew where that other story was off to. I still am a fan of Blaise Zabini, and always will be, and I guess we shall just have to see exactly where it is this fic is going. Blaise will become an important character and he will start to develop later one.

If you read this, drop me a line and tell me all you thought, be greatly appreciated. Thanks then

-Lizi