Title: Jaded
Disclaimer: yeah yeah, sure sure.
Er..this is a slightly stranger chapter, cos I had to touch on happy and unhappy bits..thanks again for reading, love you!
"Shut up, Vincent."
Draco frowned as he remembered his first year at Hogwarts, and smiled slightly at the way the world was back then. Back before..
He shook his head and put down the photograph he had been holding. It had been taken three days into the school year, and it had himself, Crabbe, Goyle and a childhood friend name Pansy Parkinson folding their arms imperiously just outside Slytherin Tower. He blinked. Pansy was gone, too.
He had snagged the picture from the album before giving it back to the Weasley girl, along with another, rather more embarrassing one. Or so he thought.
He took a sip of his tea, but did not manage to swallow it. He grit his teeth as his body convulsed and shuddered violently, sending the warm brown liquid splashing onto the small dining table
The wave passed nearly as quickly as it had come. Draco picked himself up and wiped his face. As he surveyed the damage, he realized that the picture had not suffered any drops of tea. He was surprised at that.
He turned the other photograph over, and was pleasantly greeted by a smiling and waving Ginny Weasley. A feeling of dread swept over his stomach. Oh dear.
As it happened, that was not the only photograph that the Spy had kept of his protégé and his friends.
In her bedroom, Ginny stared. She put a hand up to her mouth to stifle a giggle. Anybody around would have thought this extremely strange. She was feeling uncharacteristically cheerful. Granted, she was not about to get up and tap dance, but she had found a slight source of peace. She knew that once she closed the album she would return to being her sullen self, and part of her knew that she should not torment herself this way.
She was not to blame. Draco Malfoy, aged eleven, in nothing but polka dotted boxer shorts? Who could resist?
The Malfoy in the photograph was glaring irritably at the camera. In a section of pictures of her, one of them had gone missing. She wondered why.
Ginny had scarcely turned the page when she was brought out of her little holiday in the worst way possible.
Reality.
"Virginia!" called Colin.
"Oi! We've got a meeting with the Prefects in five, are you coming for breakfast?"
Ginny sighed and shut the book. Here it goes again.
"Alright, I'm coming. Make sure that ponce Flint doesn't try to assassinate us," she called back. Lucas Flint was the Head Prefect this year, and, while considerably more honorable than his brother before him, was the epitome of Slytherin ambition..
There was a short silence. Colin appeared in her doorway.
"You just make a joke, Gin?" he asked suspiciously.
She glared at him.
Colin shot her a suspicious but good natured look before he left her alone. Outside, he was worried. He hoped that his friend had not finally cracked.
Ginny reviewed her schedule for the day. Meetings, meetings, meetings. Then..Arithmancy, Transfiguration, Magical Creatures..oh, none of that. No flying or Quidditch either. First classes of some subjects for the whole year. No Potions, thank goddess.
This year, the raging wars had gotten worse. It seemed that the Dark Lord had gained control of Wizarding France, and the Muggle government there was steadily getting more suspicious.
The meeting with the Prefects had passed without a single problem. Nobody really worried about school regulations. Life had seemed so simple for them in the earlier years. The Golden Age.
But not for Ginny, of course. Life had never been simple for her.
She contemplated this as she walked to her Transfigurations class. She stopped at a girl who was crying in a desolate corner. It took a few seconds for Ginny to recognize her.
Flame Zabini, a Fifth Year. Ginny vaguely remembered seeing her running out of the Great Hall when she had gone down late for Breakfast. The girl's eyes were red, and her head was in one hand, while the other clutched a small piece of parchment. Ginny paled.
She recognized those notes. We regret to inform you……
Wordlessly, Ginny put her hand on the Slytherin's shoulder. Flame, still wailing, flung her arms around Ginny's neck.
"Ssh.." she murmured.
Two of Flame's classmates arrived at that moment. They, too, were weeping. They immediately knelt down beside their sobbing friend. One of them, Elizabeth, looked up at Ginny, slightly apprehensive at the fact that her friend was being comforted by a Gryffindor.
Ginny noticed this, and handed the sobbing Fifth Year over to her friends.
"Take her back to her dormitory," she told Elizabeth. "Tell your Head of House that she is excused from school for a full week, accounted for by the Head Girl."
Elizabeth nodded and got Flame up. She and her friend walked on either side of Flame and they made their way in the direction of Slytherin tower.
As soon as they had left, Ginny's shoulders slumped. She wished that she could have had the luxuries of worrying about simple, stupid things, such as what dress robes to wear, or perhaps a broken quill. Certainly not the deaths of siblings.
She suddenly remembered where she was going, and looked about her.
Before her was a staircase leading downwards. Why was she heading for the dungeons?
Confused, she turned around.
Alright, so it was really short. I had no time at all! And I think this one was a little badly planned, cos I have almost no idea what else this is going to have. I know in this sequence both of them are kinda ooc, and I guess it might continue so. This one was mostly background stuff, too, so forgive me for the plotlessness, but I have to emphasize how bad the war actually is. Suggestions? Requests?
Well most of all, review. And happy lunar new year (I'm not nuts, only slightly. Promise!).
