Author's Note: Well, I'm back. Not in the way some of you would like, but I'm back and I'm better than ever. I really hope that you read the prelude; it's important. For the newcomers, this is a D/G. So…yeah, I'm nervous about how this'll do, like I said the first time I did this. Alright, let's go.
Straight From the Witch's Eye
chapter one
Draco Malfoy was not happy. It was around midnight and he stood outside of Hagrid's small wooden house, bathed in lantern light, tapping his foot impatiently. That afternoon, he had received a detention from Professor McGonagall for "disturbing the peace" in the halls.
So what if he had gotten in a fistfight with Potter? He had deserved it this time. He deserved it every time. That stupid boy whom everyone loved just because of a stupid scar on his stupid forehead. Draco wished that once, just once, people would look at him with the same admiration in their eyes as they did Harry. He wished that just once, people would look at him with real respect.
Sure, he was respected, but it wasn't the kind that he wanted. His was tainted respect—the kind that people threw at him out of fear. Yes, Draco was powerful, but that was not what he wished for. He wanted pure respect, the kind that Harry had.
It wasn't fair.
Of course it was. It was his own fault that he acted the way that he did, that he treated people the way that he did. Or was it? His mother and father had never shown any sort of love to him, preferring to shower him with material things instead of their actual company. The few times that he did spend some real "quality" time with his parents, they were always so snobbish and arrogant towards others; how was he to know how to treat people—
"Malfoy?"
"God!" exclaimed Draco, jumping and clutching his chest. He immediately felt his now pounding heart trying to fly out of his ribcage. He turned to see who it was.
It was Ginny Weasley.
"What are you doing here?" Draco demanded, defensively. He was embarrassed about jumping the way he had and was trying to cover up the fact that she had just startled him.
Amused, Ginny said, "I was just about to ask you the same question."
In the lantern light, Ginny's twinkling eyes revealed her amusement. Draco saw this and looked away, crossing his arms over his chest in annoyance.
Just then, Hagrid's door flew open and he bounded out holding a lantern in each hand. Its luminosity made Hagrid's usually warm and welcoming face look even warmer and more welcoming. To Ginny. While she greeted him with a smile, Draco glared at him as if it were his fault that he had gotten a detention in the first place.
"'Ello there, Ginny. Malfoy."
"Hello, Hagrid!" replied Ginny, cheerily.
A bit too cheery for Draco's taste. He turned to glare in at her in disgust. He hated the peppiness in her voice right then.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Ginny remarked.
"That it has. You'd be the las' person I'd suspect gettin' into summat that'd get ya into detention."
Ginny just grinned.
"Now," continued Hagrid, "the two of you'll be helpin' me out tonight."
"Don't you mean, this morning?" grumbled Draco, under his breath. He was tired and wanted to go to bed.
"Professor McGonagall asked me to make to two of ya garden or summat like that but I'm not about to make ya go diggin' in the dirt. So, we'll be goin' into the Forbidden Forest instead."
Draco, who had been yawning rudely, trying as hard as possible to indicate that he was bored, suddenly inhaled sharply in the middle of his yawn. What had Hagrid just said?
Ginny looked at Draco and giggled, seeing the look of horror on his face. Ron and Harry had told her about when they had gone into the Forbidden Forest their first year. Draco had "nearly pissed his pants," Ron had said.
Hagrid went on. "A few of the locals have been reportin' a creature that's misbehavin' in there. I want to go and see if I can handle it before it gets a lit'l too cozy and thinks it can come here and mess with the chickens," he said, looking towards the chicken coop.
"Can't you just ask Professor Dumbledore if you can put a charm around the chicken coop?" asked Draco, slowly.
Hagrid looked uncomfortable. "Well…ya see…last time I asked if I could charm summat, I made a mess of things. I don't use magic on a regular basis anymore, you know," he said, blushing a bit at his mistake. "Now," he said, quickly so that the two students would not have the chance to ask him what he had done. He gave Ginny one of the lanterns, "I'll be just a minute."
After he stepped into his house, Ginny glanced at Draco. He looked as if he were trying to calm himself down. She just shook her head. She was scared too, but she was determined not to show it, especially not to Draco Malfoy.
"Alright, then," said Hagrid, coming out of his house again. He had his crossbow in his hands along with the other lantern in his other hand. "Let's be off."
Ginny and Draco followed Hagrid silently. It seemed that Draco became more afraid with every step that he took. He kept trying to settle himself down, but he could not help but think that something was going to jump out at them any second. With that in mind, he gripped his wand in his cloak pocket tightly. He was so sure that his knuckles had turned white long ago.
Suddenly, they heard a wailing in the distance. As Hagrid armed his crossbow, a black and white rabbit made its way into their lantern light. Normally, they would have thought nothing of it, but slowly, it stood on its hind legs and looked indignantly at Hagrid.
"Have you got something to say, lit'l one?" asked Hagrid.
It pawed at its ear and then asked in its surprisingly smooth voice, "You are seeking the "It," I suppose?"
"If you're talkin' 'bout an "It" that causin' trouble out here, then I am."
"Follow me." It hopped off a little and then turned around, waiting for Hagrid expectantly.
Hagrid turned to the pair. "Look. I want you two to go back. This is far enough and I think the two of ya have learned your lesson. Stick to the path and go straight to bed. You've served your detention." And then, he ran after the talking rabbit.
"A babbit," said Ginny after a shared silence.
"What?"
"A babbit. That talking rabbit that we just saw was a babbit."
"So? Give me that lantern." Without another word, he snatched the lantern away from Ginny and marched off in the direction that they came. His fear had not worn off and he wanted to get out as fast as possible.
Ginny saw this. "Scared, are we?" She walked next to him, making sure that he saw her broad, taunting smile.
Ignoring her last comment, Draco asked, "Why did you get detention, Ginny?"
Ginny gasped.
"What?" demanded Draco, suddenly alert.
"You…you know my name?" she asked in mock amazement.
"Oh, shut up, of course I know your name!" he cried over her giggling. "But seriously. Why did you get detention? You're such a goodie-goodie. I'd never imagine you in detention."
"I'm not a goodie-goodie," said Ginny, a bit defensively. Then she went on to say, "In Potions, I made Snape's goblet disappear while he was drinking from it…and left whatever he was drinking."
Draco laughed. "I bet it got everywhere."
"It did," confirmed Ginny. "And he was standing over his desk with his scrolls and everything on it."
"Are you mad?" he was imagining whatever that Snape had been drinking spilling all over his desk, leaving his work sticky. That would definitely send the perpetrator to detention.
Ginny nodded. "Yes, didn't you know? Insanity runs in my family."
"Why did you do it?"
"Because I'm tired of him always criticizing me. It's not my fault that I wasn't put into Slytherin like all his other favored students. It's not fair that I have to do extra ass kissing just to still be at the bottom where I started. I guess today I just stopped caring all together. I figure he'll hate me either way, so why not?"
Draco was amazed. Ginny was not at all the girl that he had thought she was: a mousy, scared little girl who was constantly hiding behind Potter, the Mudblood, and her brother for protection. She actually had a backbone.
But it was true. Snape did favor him and his housemates. He had never really thought about how unfair it must be to everyone else. Until now.
Ginny gasped again.
"What is it now? Did you see something?" asked Draco in a loud whisper, gripping the lantern and his wand.
Ginny ran towards a tree, skipping over its thick, visible roots and knelt before it, lighting up her wand in the process. She shone her light over it, examining it. "Do you know what this is?" she called behind her to Draco.
"I don't really care…" murmured Draco, walking towards her.
"This is a Hythorium Blossom. I learned about it in Herbology two days ago. It emanates—"
"What makes you think that I want to know about a Hythum Blossom? Don't go all Hermione Granger on me."
"Oh," she said, a little embarrassed. She was tempted to say "It's Hythorium, not Hythum," but instead she just mumbled a "Sorry."
"See that it doesn't happen again."
Face burning with annoyance, Ginny stood up and faced him. "Malfoy, you are such a—"
"Now there are a number of word choices that you can choose to end that phrase. You could opt for the more popular route, including names like jerk and git, or adjectives such as conceited and supercilious—"
"You forgot prat," said Ginny, extremely irritated.
"Ah, but I had yet to come to that. You interrupted me, which is rude. Rudeness is only exuberated by people who fit the description of one of the word choices I just gave, meaning that it is not you, but rather it is I who should be doing the name calling."
Draco smiled, seeing how hot with aggravation that he was making Ginny. He normally only tried to sound smarter, using big words and such, when he was being a prick. He loved it.
"Oh, don't start sounding all philosophical on me!" Ginny exclaimed, quickly striding towards him with her long legs. "You fucking—" She did not finish because she tripped over one of the Hythorium Blossom's many roots. "Ow!" she wailed, gripping her ankle in pain.
"What happened?"
"I tripped, idiot!"
"How could you have tripped?"
"Well, the roots are huge and I wasn't looking. I could use a little help, please."
"Oh, you and your family could use more than just a little—"
"Not now, Malfoy! Help me up. I've twisted my ankle."
Draco sighed. "Alright. Keep your hair on." Approaching her, he grabbed her arms and hastily pulled her up. She fell into him and he looked down at her with a mask of annoyance. Her face burned and she pushed herself away from his chest, careful not to fall again.
He didn't know what made him look down at the moment that he did and later he would think about it and brood over it, but he did look down at that moment and had to look twice. The tree root that Ginny had tripped over was moving. The end of it waggled at him, as if inviting him to come closer, which he did. He came closer and it rippled, the ripple traveling closer and closer to the body of the tree.
Ginny hopped on one foot, arms out, turning so that she could see him. "What are you doing?"
But he ignored her, intent on following the ripple in the tree root. It was not every day that tree roots rippled as this one was, or at all, for that matter. This tree root had a purpose, a goal, and Draco was determined to find out what it was.
When he reached the tree's trunk, he stood there, waiting expectantly. Suddenly, the tree seemed larger and more menacing that he originally thought. Something compelled him to touch it.
"Malfoy!" Ginny called. "We need to go back right now!"
Ginny was right. They did need to head back. Just as soon as he turned around to walk away, he felt something. Draco couldn't label it any better than to say that it was power that he felt. But the question was what sort of power was this?
Draco turned back to the tree and saw that in the place where he had touched on the tree's trunk was an eye etched into the wood. But, this was not any ordinary eye. It had this design that made it difficult to realize that it was an eye at first, but it was most definitely an eye. It was very intricate. Gradually, it began to glow, dimly at first but then it grew brighter and brighter.
"Ginny," mumbled Draco. "Are you seeing this?"
"Come on, Malfoy! What are you doing?"
But Draco did not move. He was in a trance. He could not look away from the eye if he tried. It was as if it were hypnotizing him. And it felt wonderful. That was when he began to hear the voice that accompanied the newfound wonderful feeling that he was experiencing. Actually, it sounded like multiple voices whispering in such a way that made it sound almost melodic.
Draco looked down to find his hand hovering over the glowing eye. Funny, he thought, I didn't even know that I moved my hand. He was so close…all he had to do was extend his fingers…
And he did. And there was electricity. Electricity surged through his veins and he was so sure that what he was feeling was the exact feeling described by the three Hufflepuff girls that he had overheard in the library a few days ago. They were reading from one of those sappy romance books that he hated and though he had not been particularly listening word for word, for the most part he remembered the phrase "…a beautiful feeling like he'd never felt before that left his heart thumping and his breath caught in his throat…"
This is exactly what he felt. They had been describing love but this, this was not love. It was something else, something so fantastic, so rich that he didn't know what to call the feeling. So he settled on good. It was a good feeling.
And all from touching a tree trunk.
The feeling died down and the whispering, melodic voices faded away and with them, his trance. He shook his head a bit and looked around, a bit dazed. Then, he realized that he had something in his hand. It was the eye that had been etched onto the tree except it was silver. He saw that it had a chain attached to it. It seemed much more beautiful and appealing now that it was in his hands.
Draco turned around to show Ginny, but then, in mid action, something stopped him. He strongly thought against it for some reason, but did not know why.
Ginny stared at Draco, hard. She was trying to figure out what was going on. The strangest thing had just happened. She had been calling his name over and over and suddenly, he just began to…glow. There was a faint white light around him. It was very faint, but she had seen it, she knew she had. And then he had just turned to her and he had something in his hand that sort of glimmered…and the look in his eyes…
"Malfoy?" she tried, lightly. She concentrated on repositioning herself without putting her weight on her hurt ankle, and then tried again. "Malfoy?"
As if startled, Draco looked at her, sharply jerking his head. His eyes glimmered with a new found discovery.
Ginny was truly frightened.
End Note: See, that wasn't too bad. It was actually pretty good, wasn't it? Lemme know. You know what to do. Thanks for reading.
