A/N: Ah, the joys of writing in school. Oh, the joys of writing when I should be doing homework! Oh, the joys of being able to write at all and not having writer's block!
Chapter 7 ~ Enter the Dragon
Ron and Hermione gaped at them as if both of them had suddenly sprouted leaves for hair and put down roots in the infirmary floor. And Ginny seemed just as astonished. Harry had to suppress a grin. He felt supremely confident, motivated, like nothing could stop him from achieving his goals. And Ginny's hand in his made him feel as if he could fly in reality as his dream-self had in the night.
Hermione was sputtering incoherently. It was the first time Harry had ever seen her completely discomfited and without an answer. Ron's mouth had simply fallen open as if his jaw had come unhinged. And Ginny gripped his hand tightly, caressing it as if to assure herself that it was real and would not dissolve into mist, and smiling incredulously up at him. He felt a smile tugging at his lips in response, and let it. She deserved so much more than a smile.
"All right, it's time for a serious planning session," Harry said assertively. "I'll tell you everything I've figured out so far, and you can help me come up with a plan." Hermione had stopped babbling and now was gazing speculatively at Harry and Ginny's clasped hands. Ron glanced at her, followed her gaze, and narrowed his eyes.
Ron looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow and asked in a voice thick with restrained laughter, "I think the first question that needs answering is 'What are your intentions toward my sister?'" All four of them burst out laughing, and some of the tension in the room evaporated.
"I've been thinking about that quite a bit myself," Harry replied, once he'd composed himself, "and I think I've come up with a fairly good course of action." Once again, all eyes were riveted on him and there was no trace of levity now.
"Resurrection."
It was as if a bomb had exploded within the room and all of them were recovering from the explosion. Hermione's eyes were very wide, and Ron looked confused, but hopeful.
"Harry," said Hermione slowly, "You're not contemplating any...dark magic, are you? I don't know of any spells of resurrection that are anything but evil, and they don't produce the kind of results that any of us would want for Ginny." She said it hesitantly, as if she didn't want to crush anyone's hopes, but felt compelled to point out the realities of the situation.
But Harry simply nodded. "I know. The first couple spells I found were nasty things. I even found a copy of the spell Voldemort used for his rebirth, and that, of course, was the nastiest of all. But I found something else cross-referenced from that, and I think we should be able to use it."
Hermione shook her head in annoyance. "I don't know what you're talking about, so hurry up and enlighten me before I explode of frustration!"
Ron grinned. "You'd better hurry up, Harry! I don't particularly want an exploding girlfriend." Hermione mock-glared at him, and he pretended to take cover behind the bed covers.
Harry's face split into a huge grin, but all he said was, "Finally!" Both Ron and Hermione grinned back at him, and Hermione looked rather relieved.
"All right, all right, back to business," Ron said, apparently rather uncomfortable with the attention. Harry nodded, not at all averse to returning to his explanation.
"So what was the other spell?" Hermione asked insistently.
"It was the alter-ego, so to speak, of the spell Voldemort used. It was almost the exact opposite. It used love instead of hate to enact the resurrection, but there's a catch. It has to be a very special type of love which ties the ghost to the living person, and the living to the ghost."
"Harry," Hermione said, "tell me you're not talking about what I think you're talking about..." She leaned forward and looked closely at him. "Oh my god..."
This surprised even Harry, and he looked at her peculiarly. "What? Do I have dirt on my nose or something?"
Hermione looked at him hesitantly. "Your hair...it's turning gray. And so are your eyes. Gray...and transparent."
"What?!" he yelped in surprise. Ron's eyebrows jumped upwards, and he leaned forward to get a better look.
"Bloody hell..." Ron whispered. Harry looked from one to the other, still confused, and then looked at Ginny. That was when he joined in their gaping.
Her hair had faint reddish streaks in it. Her eyes were a very washed out brown, as if she were a pencil sketch which had been tinted with watercolors. And the hand which clasped his own had color; the color of a corpse, perhaps, but it was still worlds better than rest of her skin. "Bloody hell..." he echoed Ron.
"I never would have guessed…" Hermione whispered. "Oh my god. We can do it. We can bring her back. Ginny, you can live again!" Her eyes shone and Hermione looked as if she would have jumped up to hug Ginny if she could have.
"How?" Ginny said urgently. "Please tell me how!" She looked between Harry and Hermione, clasping Harry's hand in both of her own.
"Harry?" Hermione said, "You know the spell. Tell us."
"Well, it starts off with a potion which I'm hoping you'll be willing to make, Hermione, since you're the best of us."
"Of course!" Hermione cut in, and Harry shot her a smile before resuming his recitation.
"The next part is the ceremony. We need a piece of bone from Mrs. Weasley. I don't quite know how we'll get it out of her, but I'm sure she'll be willing to donate it for her daughter's sake. The next part could be tougher, since we need flesh from Ginny's master. We're actually kind of lucky, since she actually has a master in the first place."
"She has a master?" Ron said doubtfully. Ginny flushed, a delicate wash of transparent pink creeping up her pallid cheeks, and looked at the ground, avoiding her brother's eyes.
"Yeah. We've made a new discovery about Avada Kedavra. The caster can control the spirit of their victim. So the person who cast the spell is Ginny's master.
Ron groaned. "How many black-robed freaks are there out there who could've cast that spell? We can't even figure out who the Death Eaters are, so how are we going to find a particular one of them? It's never gonna happen."
Ginny looked up. "I know who it is. We don't have to search. I know who killed me."
Ron's face grew red. "Tell me, and I'll go out and kill that murdering bastard, I swear I will!" Hermione held Ron down when he looked as if he was about to jump out of bed and go hunting that very moment.
Ginny shook her head violently. "No, Ron. I made Harry promise not to go after him for revenge before I told him, and I want the same promise from you."
"Like hell!" Ron exclaimed. "I'm gonna kill him for what he did to you!"
"Then I won't tell you. Harry can take care of that part of it."
"Ginny Weasley! You tell me right now!" Ron said, trying to sound severe.
"Look at it this way, big brother. Do you want revenge for my death, or do you want your little sister back alive?"
"Awwww….sisters." Ron said in a tone of deepest disgust. "Fine, I won't skin that thing alive, like he so richly deserves. Now tell me."
Ginny shuddered a little. She whispered, "Lucius Malfoy." Hermione had to restrain Ron again, while Ginny shouted, "You promised!"
Finally Ron subsided, still muttering imprecations under his breath. "When we get a hold of him, I want to be the one who carves off a piece of his flesh!" Ron said vehemently.
"Sorry, Ron," Harry said. "I called it first."
Ron grimaced at him. "I don't see how you should get him first. I'm her brother."
"Oh, stop it, both of you! You're being absolutely ridiculous. Obviously, the one who performs the spell will be the one who gets the privilege of cutting up Malfoy." Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust. "And furthermore, before one of you can carve him up, we need to get him in the first place. And how are we going to capture Lucius Malfoy?"
Harry's shoulders slumped a little. Put like that, he didn't see what chance they had. How could three teenagers and a ghost go up against Lord Voldemort's most powerful supporter and win? His confidence took a severe hit, but his determination continued undiminished. He would find a way because he had to.
"We'll deal with that later. Let's get an idea of the whole thing before we work on the details. Go on, Harry." Ginny urged, trying to ignore the skeptical look on Hermione's face and the hopeless look on Ron's.
"The third element of the ceremony is blood. It has to come from someone who loves Ginny. No, Ron," Harry said with a smile as Ron immediately motioned to himself, "It has to be romantically. And it also has to be someone tied to Ginny with the Contineo Amor."
"Contineo Amor? What's that?" Ron asked, his brows furrowing.
"It's true love," Hermione answered for him, "taken out of fairy tales and put in the real world. It binds the spirits of two people together…and that," Hermione proclaimed triumphantly, "must be why Ginny became a ghost in the first place! She was tied to life by her bond with Harry." Hermione nodded decisively and looked thoroughly pleased with herself.
"Do you really think that's true?" Ginny said, sounding doubtful. "I mean, it's not as if there was anything between us."
"I believe it," Harry said, gazing at her intensely. "And there is something between us." He took her incorporeal hand in both of his warm living ones and brought it to his lips, placing a gently kiss on its back. Ginny flushed transparently, but couldn't seem to taker her eyes off of Harry. His were equally glued to her. They stood there for a long moment, simply looking at each other, before Ron spoiled the moment by bursting out laughing.
"Aw, look at the lovebirds! Aren't they so cute?!" Ron squealed in a falsetto voice. Harry looked away from Ginny to glare at him. Hermione elbowed him in the side and he yelped in mock-pain.
"Ow! This is all the thanks I get for being nice?" he said innocently. "Some friends you are!"
"Yeah, some friend you are!" Harry said with heavy irony. "I've been nice enough not to comment on all the time you and Hermione have spent together, all alone in this private little spot here…" His voice trailed off suggestively. Ron flushed crimson. "Anything you can tease me for, I can tease you right back!" Harry laughed.
Ron laughed weakly. "Ok, you win. I can't even tease you and Ginny since…hang on! How're you two holding hands?"
"Oh, that," Harry looked a little embarrassed. "It was another spell I found that brings the caster closer to the spirit world so that they can affect things in it. Kind of a present." He said, glancing at Ginny. She smiled warmly.
"Thank you."
After some more idle chatter, they were about to get back to business when Madam Pomfrey bustled into their conference and shooed half of their number out. She grudgingly allowed Hermione to stay, though she glared and muttered things like, "Don't know how he's going to heal," and "What is this world coming to?" Harry and Ginny were herded into the hallway where they scampered away giggling. But after they'd left, they had nowhere to go. They wandered the halls aimlessly, chattering about nothing, until Harry spotted a broom closet.
"Ginny…" Harry said with a wicked gleam in his eye, gesturing toward the closet. "It's a time-honored tradition, you know."
Ginny chuckled. "Well, then who are we to break tradition?" She floated toward it, pulling him grinning behind her.
Their kisses were tentative and shy at first, but became more and more passionate as years worth of suppressed emotions came to the fore. They were wrapped up in the wonder of each other, completely oblivious to the outside world, until….
The knob on the door turned and Ginny zipped away through the back wall, leaving Harry alone in the closet as the door swung open. Professor McGonagall's stern face was confronted him from the bright hallway, and he inwardly cringed.
"Mr. Potter! I must say this is the first time I've found a student alone in here. Would you be so kind as to give me an explanation?" She peered behind him through her spectacles as though she expected to find someone else lurking behind him. Harry thanked Ginny's foresight in getting out quickly, but couldn't seem to think of an excuse to get himself out. His mind raced as he stared at his feet, and finally he settled on something that at least had a smidgeon of a chance of getting him out unscathed.
"Professor, I…know that this isn't a very normal place for anyone to be, but…I needed to get away from people. They're all so upset about…" he put a little catch in his voice, "Ginny that…I just can't stand to be around them."
McGonagall's eyes softened infinitesimally, and Harry knew he'd chosen a good angle of attack. "Well, Mr. Potter, I suggest that you find somewhere else to haunt in the future. There are plenty of places that are not quite so…disturbing to people like Neville Longbottom who continuously believe that there is a boggart in every closet. I'd advise you to return to your common room for the time being." Harry grimaced at the mention of the fearful, clumsy Neville who had cut short his precious time with Ginny.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall." Harry said obediently and edged out of the closet around her. As he walked away, he noticed her searching in the closet, undoubtedly for anything dangerous that the "mentally unstable" boy could have gotten his hands on. He almost laughed, but restrained himself since it would spoil his ruse. He ducked around a corner and walked right through Ginny.
She grimaced. "I guess that means that the spell wore off."
"Yeah," Harry replied regretfully. He had really wanted to continue their interlude from the closet, but there had been warnings in the spell book about using the spell too often. Apparently, a person could cross over entirely to the spirit world and not be able to come back. Though it had occurred to Harry that, if they were unsuccessful in resurrecting Ginny, he could join her instead.
"Oh well. If your plan works, we won't have to worry about any stupid spell," Ginny said happily. She floated up and planted an insubstantial kiss on his lips before mournfully backing away. "Is there anything we can do to speed up that plan? I'd really like to be alive again…" she trailed off wistfully.
"And I would like that, too. You have no idea how much…" Harry averted his eyes from her and, for the first time, contemplated failure. What if it didn't work? How could he bear to disappoint Ginny after giving her such hope? But….it was better to try and fail than to never try at all. "Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything we can do at the moment…"
At that moment, someone barreled around the corner and skidded to a halt a few feet in front of them. Draco Malfoy shook silver blonde hair out of his eyes and stared at Ginny with shock.
"Where did you spring from, Weasley? I thought you were gone for good." Draco sneered.
"Nah, you can't get rid of me so easily, Malfoy. We Weasely's are into revenge, didn't you know? I decided to come back and haunt you for the rest of your life," Ginny shot back.
Draco turned dead white. "I had nothing to do with it, I swear! I'm not in with that crowd, and I had no idea what they were planning. Otherwise, I swear I would've warned you." Some of his bravado cracked, and Ginny could see just how upset he was by seeing her.
"Huh, if I didn't know better, I'd say the heartless Draco Malfoy was developing a conscience. What a strange thing," Harry mocked.
"Listen Potter, just because I'm a heartless bastard doesn't mean I'm a murderer. Go shove a snot-flavored jellybean up your nose if you don't like it, but I am sorry about what happened," Draco replied heatedly.
McGonagall strode around the corner then, her heels clicking firmly against the stone floor. Her eyes raked over them, stopping on Ginny and widening. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but she finally seemed to decide to take comfort in normalcy and simply continue with what she had come here to do.
"Have seen anyone come this way? Someone has just set off a set of Filibuster fireworks in Filch's office, and the culprit must be caught. I trust you will help me?" She looked severely around at them through her glasses while they all slouched and avoided her eyes.
"No one's come this way, Professor McGonagall. We've all been right here, talking." Ginny said unexpectedly.
The professor nodded and continued on her way, apparently not noticing the incongruity of two Gryffindors and a Slytherin "talking" in her distress over Ginny.
Draco looked at Ginny with a raised eyebrow after McGonagall was safely out of range. "Since when have you covered my back, muggle-lover? Or were you just too dim to realize that it was me you were covering for?"
"I knew quite well who I was covering for, Malfoy!" Ginny hissed. "Apparently you don't recognize a favor when you see it. But I'm not surprised, with the family you have."
"And what would you know about my family? You don't know anything about the lifestyles of the rich and famous," Draco smirked.
"What I know," Ginny said wish deadly quiet, "is that your father is a murderer."
Draco's pale skin grew white again. "No…." his voice trailed off in horror. Then he shook himself out of it, and continued, "You don't know what you're talking about. You're just making something up to irritate me. You're just a filthy, lying, little muggle-loving Weasley." He put his nose in the air and swaggered away. Harry and Ginny exchanged ironic glances.
"That's what's wrong with snakes," Harry said ironically, "If you pick one up to help it, it'll bite you in the hand, and you'd better hope it doesn't have poisonous venom."
A/N: I love Draco. I had so much fun writing this chapter, and I'd like everyone to take it as proof that I will continue posting at regular intervals. Kai, have a blast, no more teasers!
I'd like to thank all my wonderful reviewers now:
Mike: Well, no more waiting! And am I gonna have to beat you over the head to get you to review this one, too?
Amaya: Thank you very much!
Frax: Thanks! Here it is….ta da!
Lioness: Believe me, if I wish I could get my hands on the next books! It's driving me crazy! Thanks for reviewing.
Temporary Insanity: Thanks for coming back! I'm glad you didn't abandon my story. And no, he's still very much alive. Hopefully your question was explained in this chapter.
Domino84: Thanks for reading, and I'm glad you decided to give it a try. I'm working on it.
RedPaws: And heeeeerrrreeeee it is, as requested! Thanks a lot!
Veldan: Hey, you shouldn't make my other readers jealous by telling them that you get advance info! S'not nice, y'know. Hehehehe.
