A/N: It took me a while to get motivated to write this…help me keep going by writing reviews!  Thanks!

Chapter 9 ~ Into the Serpent's Mouth

            Ron, Harry, and Hermione sat eating breakfast dejectedly, each wracking his or her brain to figure out a path to the illusive Lucius Malfoy.  Ginny floated in the background, unsure whether to smile in triumph or frown in defeat.  Draco Malfoy was a very slippery character and he might yet decide to have nothing to do with them.  She kept sneaking glances at the Slytherin table where Malfoy sat sulkily between Crabbe and Goyle, staring fixedly at his plate.  When he still hadn't looked up by the end of breakfast, she began to doubt. 

            A swarm of owls descended on the Gryffindor table carrying the daily post.  A sleek silver owl with ebony and ivory highlights streaked toward Ginny, much to her surprise, but then hovered uncertainly, not sure how to deliver a letter to a ghost. 

            "Give it to Harry," Ginny instructed the owl.  It landed majestically and dropped the letter in front of Harry before flying away.  She floated closer to look at the mysterious letter.  Who would be sending post to a dead person? 

            Across the front of the letter, "To Ginny Weasley" was scrawled messily in silver ink.  It was clearly a boy's handwriting and Harry gave Ginny an odd look.  She shrugged.

            "I've no more idea who it's from than you do, Harry," she said.  He shrugged as well and smiled warmly at her.  She couldn't resist smiling back and for a moment neither of them wanted to move. 

Then Ron broke in, "Oy, are you going to open that letter or not?  The rest of us are dying to see who it's from and you two are sitting there staring at each other like love-struck loons!"  Harry elbowed him in the side and Ron wheezed a laugh. 

Harry turned back to Ginny and asked, "Well, shall I?"

"Sure," she replied noncommittally, though a sneaking suspicion had entered her mind as to the identity of the sender.  If it was from whom she thought…she sneaked another glance across the room at the Slytherin table.  He was still staring at his untouched food.  Something was definitely up.

Harry ripped open the envelope and unfolded the parchment inside.  The same untidy scrawl ran across the parchment in crooked lines. 

"Dear Gryffindors," it read.  "I believe we have matters of some importance to discuss.  Meet me tonight in the Slytherin common room at midnight.  I trust that you know where it is and can reach it unseen."  It was signed, "From a Slytherin."  As soon as they had finished reading, it crumbled into ash in Harry's hands.

Ginny was ecstatic.  Draco had taken her bait and made the first real move in the dance of alliance.  Now they had to do their best not to stumble or tread on anyone's feet.

~*~

            All four of the Gryffindors sat in the common room that night, fidgeting nervously.  Harry had taken out his sword and was polishing the knots on the handle handle idly.  Ron had bullied Seamus into joining him in a game of wizard's chess, and was letting off some steam by beating Seamus spectacularly seven times in a row.  Seamus had gotten fed up at least three times within that period and stormed off, but always seemed to come back with fresh determination.  Hermione was plowing through a hugely dull book on the afterlife which compared Christian conceptions with those of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures.  She had read about half of the seven hundred and eighty-two page book in the past two hours and had never once lifted her head during the entire time.  Ginny was occupying her time by popping out of walls to scare Parvati, Lavender, Neville, and any available first years.  Neville screamed shrilly as Ginny flew through the fireplace and right into the marshmallow he'd been toasting.  The marshmallow dropped into the flames and withered away as he glared reproachfully at Ginny.  She only giggled and zoomed up through the ceiling.

            Gradually, the other students went to their beds and Seamus got so sick of Ron beating him at chess that he tossed the board and pieces across the room and stormed up to bed.  The chess pieces landed in a tangled heap on the carpet and immediately started a brawl.  Harry and Ron had quite a time separating them, and get several bruised fingers for their efforts.  Hermione watched with veiled amusement as they scrambled across the carpet and Ginny giggled openly, earning her a look of reproof from Ron.  Harry just flashed her one of his wonderful smiles and went back to breaking up the black and white queens' catfight. 

            As midnight tolled throughout the school, Harry solemnly brought out his invisibility cloak and swirled it across them.  When he, Ron, and Hermione were covered, they opened the portrait hole and slipped outside, Ginny floating just behind. 

            "D'you remember where the Slytherin common room is?" Ron hissed at Harry.  "It was four years ago that we were there last and it's all fuzzy for me."

            "Honestly, don't you boys ever plan ahead?" Hermione scolded softly, apparently forgetting that she too could have participated in planning the venture.

"I think I've got a fairly good idea, but I don't see how we're going to find out the password." Harry hissed back at Ron, ignoring Hermione's rebuke.  "For all we know, Malfoy could be setting a trap to get us caught sneaking around at night!"

            Ginny slipped inside the cloak and whispered directly into Harry's ear, "No, he's not, I know exactly where the Slytherin common room is, and you can leave finding the password to me.  And be quiet!"  The three looked sheepish and obeyed. 

            Ginny took the lead and floated down the corridors toward the dungeons, doing her best to look aimless and bored.  When they reached the door, she whispered, "Wait here!" and drifted inside.

            Draco had seated himself in a throne-like chair before the fire.  His pale hands curled over the carved wooden snakes of the armrests.  He had dressed in a black velvet robe and wore a thick silver necklace about his neck with a matching bracelet on each wrist.  He had done his best to make himself imposing and had succeeded fairly well. 

            "Draco," Ginny said quietly, "Draco, we're here.  Tell me the password and I'll let the others in."

            He nodded curtly and said, "Basilisk."  Ginny shuddered and floated outside again.

            Harry went white with rage when he heard the password refused to say it.  Hermione sighed heavily and said it for him.  A huge stone column carved to resemble a serpent writhed away from its place on the wall to reveal an ached walkway barely wide enough to admit one person at once.  After looking around carefully to make sure there were no watchers, the three removed the invisibility cloak and entered the Slytherin common room with trepidation.

            Harry eyed Draco's prepared finery coldly.  He was not impressed by the display of wealth.  Ron's lip curled with disdain and he seemed about to comment, but Hermione gripped his arm tightly and he subsided, glaring daggers at Malfoy's impassive face.  Ginny floated forward again.

            "Well, Draco, we're here.  What was it you wished to talk to us about?" she said calmly.

            "You know very well what I wanted to talk about, Weasley.  A deal."  Draco was ill at ease, despite his efforts to appear serene.  His hands kept clenching on the chair's arms until he consciously relaxed them and his face was a stiff mask.

            "What deal did you have in mind?" Harry said, projecting a calm confidence which seemed to make Draco even more uncomfortable. 

            "You want something of me." Draco stated imperiously.  "Tell me what it is and I will consider it."

            Ginny laughed, the sound echoing through the still room like ripples in water, leaving everything unsettled behind it.  Everyone else looked at her in surprise. 

            "Always the diplomat, my friend.  Drop the pretenses.  We both know the truth."   She smiled benignly at Draco as he gaped at her.  Then his face darkened and he made an obscene gesture toward her.  To his immense shock, she laughed again.  "That's not you, my friend.  Remember?  I know you, and I won't deal with an imposter."

            For a moment, Draco's mouth opened and closed in shock.  His eyes were wide as he stared at Ginny.  Very obviously, he had no idea what to make of the situation, and that in itself seemed to decide him. 

            Draco slumped forward in his chair and then propped his head on one of his hands, massaging his temples as if his head hurt him.  When he looked up again, he had lost his cold hauteur and merely seemed very tired.

            "So?" he said in a defeated tone of voice.  "Are you gonna tell me or not?"  Ginny smiled. 

            "But of course!" she said and led her group toward him.  They took seats on a plush green couch which had been positioned to face Draco's chair.  Draco leaned forward and rested his head in both hands.  Hermione kept a tight grip on Ron's arm, as he was still looking murderously at Malfoy.  Harry was looking curiously at Ginny, not having understood any of what had just taken place.  He resolved to get her alone and find out later.  At the moment, there was more important business at hand.

            "So?" Draco asked again once they were all seated, and looked instinctively toward Harry for answers.

            "Well," Harry said slowly, uncertain how to best frame their request, "we're working on a very important project right now and we seem to have run into a dead end.  You would be the perfect person to help us out."

            "Stop beating around the bush and tell me what you need from me.  I already know that you need my help.  Now tell me what for."  Malfoy sounded weary more than impatient.

            "Ok." Harry said, a bit surprised by Draco's manner.  "Here's the deal.  We're gonna resurrect Ginny and we need some of your father's flesh for the spell to work.  We were hoping you could help us get close enough to him to get it."

            Draco's mouth was hanging open.  "You people are crazy!" he said, his voice cracking.  "There's no way you could get that close to my father without him knowing…there's no way you could restrain him, and there sure as hell is no way that you could cut him up against his will!" 

            "As to the first, well, that's what you're for.  As for the second and third…we're still working on that.  We were kinda hoping that you could help us out with brainstorming on that too.  After all, you must know about his protections and safeguards.  You'll know his habits and weaknesses." Harry replied calmly.

            "He doesn't have any weaknesses," Draco said shakily, hiding his head in his hands again.  "I can't believe you're even contemplating this."

            "We're more than contemplating it.  We're going to do it, with or without your help," Hermione chimed in.  "Ginny is our friend, and we're going to do whatever it takes to give her back the life that was stolen from her by your father."

            "You know for sure then?" Draco said, lifting his head.  "It's definite?"

            "Yes." Ginny whispered.  "He's the one who controls me.  He is my master."

            "Your master?" Draco sounded shocked and betrayed. 

            "No, no, no!" Ginny exclaimed, seeing his distress.  "Not like that!  It's just that sometimes…he can control my actions."

            Harry spoke up.  "It's something we just recently found out.  If a ghost is killed by Avada Kedavra, the caster of the spell can control the ghost and force it to do his bidding.  You can tell when a ghost is controlled because the eyes turn the same green as the death spell."  Harry shuddered a little with his own memories and then regained control of himself.

            "Ok," said Draco, "I can see why you need me, but," he continued with a touch of his usual asperity, "what am I going to get out of it?"

            Harry looked clueless and just shook his head helplessly, but Ginny floated forward until she was only inches in front of Draco.

            "Freedom," she whispered to him.  "The chance to prove that you are not your father's son.  The chance to reclaim that sunlit valley in your mind.  Freedom."  She saw his eyes light with her words and knew that he was with them.  She floated back to her place beside Harry.

            Draco leaned toward them, his pale cheeks flushed with excitement.  "Alright," he said, "Lucius has pretty extensive protections on the mansion and even more on himself,  Our best bet would be to catch him away from home, but he's put protections on his ministry office too, so that's no good.  I'd say we should go for sometime he's en route to the club where he meets with his cronies."

            Harry nodded.  That made good sense to him.  "So what are his personal protections like?"

            "That's going to be the hard part.  I'd say that you, Weasley, and I could deal with him physically, but as for magically…well, he's pretty formidable.  He never got around to teaching me even a quarter of the dark spells he knows, probably so that I'd have no defense against them if he ever had to cast them on me." Draco's mouth twisted with cynicism.  It was all Harry could do to keep from looking sympathetic.  But it was Malfoy…how could he ever be sympathetic to him?  Harry turned his attention back to Malfoy's words. 

            "First off, he's got a sensor spell that detects anyone with hostile intentions within a ten-foot radius.  That…well, I can get past that since I always have hostile intentions, and he knows it.  He also regards me as harmless.  So if you guys stay just behind me until we get close enough to attack, the spell should only pick up my hostility.  Next off, he has a pair of demon bodyguards who can break the spine of any attacker faster than you can say 'snitch'.  Lucius likes to reward them with the dead assailants entrails on a platter.  And he likes to make me watch them eat." This time, Harry didn't bother to hide his sympathy, and Hermione made a sound of disgust.  Even Ron neglected to look enraged for a moment.  Draco looked surprised at their reactions and his icy demeanor thawed a bit.

            "Well, the one weakness about that is that if we actually manage to take a demon out," an eloquently lifted eyebrow indicated how unlikely this was, "then Lucius will likely collapse.  The spell isn't set to include its breaking and it'll backlash."  He looked skeptically at Harry, who was grinning broadly.  "Are you not hearing what I'm saying?  It's fairly hopeless unless you have some way of magically killing demons tucked up your sleeve."

            "Well, not up my sleeve, but back in my dorm, yes, I do," Harry replied jauntily and enjoyed Draco's dropped jaw.  "I just recently came into possession of a sword which can either kill or capture demons."  Draco's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

            "You mean, you're…?  You've got the damned sword?  You're the one all the Death Eaters were hunting?" Draco started laughing, almost hysterically, and had to be saved by Hermione from falling off of his seat.  He regained his composure and waved her away, still chuckling.

            "It's been so quiet lately because the Death Eaters have been distracted from trying to kill you," and he pointed dramatically at Harry, "by their search for this mysterious person who suddenly surfaced with the last of the four Spirit Blades.  And here I find out you're one and the same!  How many reasons does the Dark Lord want you dead for now, Harry Potter?"

            "Too many to count probably.  Why not add another one?" Harry said gloomily.  Ginny floated closer and placed an ephemeral hand on his shoulder.  He looked up as he felt a breath of wind by his neck and smiled at her wanly. 

            Draco frowned and looked at the huge clock above the mantel.  "You should all be going back to your common rooms.  Meet me here again night after next?"  It was more a question than a command, and all four of the Gryffindors nodded their assent.  They stood and filed out of the room through the narrow doorway, Harry waiting until last.  Just before he exited, he turned to Draco and nodded slowly, once.  Draco nodded wordlessly back, and Harry slipped beneath the invisibility cloak with his friends to make the journey back to Gryffindor, the unspoken accord lightening his heart.

~*~

A/N: Thank you to my reviewers, I love every one of you.  And I'm not going to say anymore because it's 1:00 in the morning and I should by all rights be asleep.  I hope you all appreciate the effort I put into writing this!

Pseudonym Sylphmuse: Well, thanks a bundle, and I would just like to quickly apologize for mistyping your name as Pseudonym Sylphmouse….ummm, oops?

Veldan: Yeah, I had to get in a few good digs at the Slytherin girls.  This'll be waiting for you to read when you get back!

Silver Witch: Thanks!  Hehehe, I'm always obsessed with things…it's interesting to think I might inspire obsession in another.  I hope the wait wasn't too agonizing!

Bessorla: Thank you, thank you…*takes a bow*…and as for the larger plot thing…well, I could or I could not.  I guess it depends on how motivated I am.  So motivate me!

Your boyfriend: Well, I made you wait on this one.  I know, I'm evil.  :-P