SUMMARY: The Burrow is attacked by Death Eaters and Ginny recieves a power that she never had before.
DISCLAIMER: Anything you recognize, I don't own.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes this is a very, very, long chapter, and it took forever to get out, so I hope you enjoy it!
THE SEER—CHAPTER TWO
A certain gray-eyed boy was sprawled out over one of his father's plushy, leather, evergreen armchairs, half reading the book in his hands, half staring at the fire in the hearth across from him with a raging anger. He recalled the wonderful conversation he had had with his father the night before, on the joyous occasion that his father was back from hell, or in other words Azkaban.
Oh yes, his father had come home expecting a graceful welcoming, of which he did receive, and what else would top it off, but to release some of his pent-up anger? And who else would be perfect to release that anger on, but his own son? The gray-eyed boy twirled the book: Quidditch through the Ages in his hand, mesmerized by the fire in the hearth. His mother had cried last night, his father had laughed.
Everything from the night before ran through his mind endlessly, over and over, as if it were being played on a broken Wizarding Wireless –
**
"You will never be anything Draco!" said Lucius, "Nothing! Nothing at all! You are a failure, a disappointment, a letdown!" he spat and continued, "You can never do anything right, you can't even play a decent game of Quidditch! Always – you always let the Potter-boy win! What is wrong with you boy?"
Draco stared at his father, horrified. He didn't know what to say, but he felt saved, for his mother had just chosen that moment to enter her husband's study.
"Lucius," whispered Narcissa as if she could barely muster up any courage to speak with her husband, "let him alone. You're tired. You need rest, come, let's go."
"I want to speak with the boy!" raved a slightly mad Lucius, insanity acclaimed half from Azkaban, half from birth, "Leave woman!"
"Please, Lucius, please," begged Narcissa, a fresh batch of tears streaming down her face.
Her shuddering cries tore at Draco's heart, encompassing him with a sense of guilt.
But Lucius wouldn't take such weakness from a Malfoy, he glared at his wife, then raised his wand and yelled, "Stupefy!"
"Mother!" Draco began to rush over to his mother's side, but was stopped by the pointing jab of his father's wand.
"Leave her," growled Lucius, "we will talk now, without your mother's pathetic insolence."
Draco glanced up at his father, not knowing which he was feeling more, hate or fear.
"Sit," instructed Lucius nodding his head at one of the evergreen armchairs.
Draco did as he was told, and sat in the armchair.
Lucius walked over to a desk, where upon it sat a bottle of Ogden's Firewhisky, he poured two glasses.
The first glass Lucius raised to his lips and drank within a second, he placed the glass back down and refilled it, then brought it back to his lips, drank, and refilled it again, he did this a few more times, and then stopped.
He turned to look at his son, who had remained mysteriously quiet, and then remembered what he was trying to do in the first place. He grabbed the second, still full glass and stumbled his way toward Draco.
"Drink," ordered Lucius, as he shoved the glass in to his hand.
Draco looked at the glass, and without a moment's consideration, he gulped it down. It felt as though he had just swallowed fire, and he coughed quite a bit afterward, which only made his father frown.
"Weak, that's what you are, weak," Lucius' words were now slurred and he shook his finger at Draco, "Our Dark Lord won't accept weak. Especially, not from my son. Do you hear me boy?"
"Yes," said Draco, wishing his voice didn't sound so croaky.
"You will stop being useless, and you will beat Potter – at everything. Including Quidditch." Draco flinched, but Lucius continued, "Anything Potter wants or needs, you will take, you will make his life a living hell."
"Just like you've done to my life?" mumbled Draco, not thinking that Lucius would hear, but he did.
"Hell? Hell, my boy? You do not know hell – the Weasleys, aww, yes, the Weasleys will know hell by tomorrow, when the Death Eaters attack, just like the good old times," in his quite drunken state, Lucius began to reminisce, but had he been sober, he would have realized that he had just given away top-secret information to a boy he considered a failure.
But Draco kept silent. He stared up at the drunken man, who he called father, but Draco did not feel as though this man was a father, he was just an evil, bloody bastard. A man Draco only respected in sheer terror.
Lucius turned back over to his son and continued from where he left off, "But we will have good times again, and you," he started, waving his finger, "my worthless son, will join us, but it is not all fun, oh no, don't even let it run through your silly, little, mind for a second, that being a death eater is easy and fun. It is very, very, painful, too." A tiny glimmer had appeared in Lucius' mad eyes and he grinned, "Would you like just a little taste of that pain, Draco?"
Draco's knuckles had turned a bright white colour from gripping the arms of the chair so hard, and his face was very, very, pale. He didn't know what to say.
Lucius laughed, "You stupid, idiot boy," he raised his wand and then did the unthinkable, "Crucio!"
The pain was beyond anything Draco had ever experienced in his life, his very bones were on fire, white hot knives were piercing every inch of his skin, his head was surely going to burst with pain, and his eyes were rolling madly in his head…he wanted it to end…to black out…to die…
But then it was gone, his body was lying limply in the large armchair and his father's laughing face was coming back in to focus.
"You will remember that next time when you are against Potter, right boy?" cackled Lucius.
Draco stared at his father, but it had seemed as if something, something inside Draco had just finally snapped, and he loathed the man that was his father, he had never hated someone so much in his life, and this wasn't the same hate that he had for Potter, the Weasel, and the Mudblood, the hate he had for them couldn't even compare with the hate he had for Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius was still laughing; he picked up a book and chucked it at Draco's head.
"Study it, boy."
Draco looked down at the book, it was Quidditch through the Ages.
And with a 'pop' Lucius had apparated away.
Lucius did not return, and a couple of hours later, some house elves had entered the room and dragged away the body of his mother, they did it so nonchalantly it was as if they were dragging away a bag full of dirty laundry.
Draco had stayed in that chair for the rest of the night.
**
Rage still coursed through Draco's veins, and the shock of the night before still hadn't left him. It seemed as though once Lucius had put the Cruciatus Curse on Draco, Draco's mind had switched from being the ever-loyal, obedient son, to a young man seeking secret revenge.
Draco thought about what his father had revealed to him last night, and wondered if all the Weasleys were already dead, not that Draco would really, even care, but it made him wonder. Surely, his father…no, not his father…surely, Lucius and the Death Eaters, had already begun their attack on the Burrow, but…how long have they been there? How far have they gotten? Had they already killed them all? These questions ran through Draco's head and then a thought had occurred.
Surely, it would at least annoy Lucius if a bunch of Aurors came to the Burrow, and ruined their fun?
Draco grinned.
*Part Two*
A young, sixteen year old boy, with jet-black hair and bright green eyes, paced the tiny length of his room. He was a very, very, livid young man at the moment, seething with anger. But in a way, it was almost nice, nice to be angry, at least he was feeling a different emotion from the melancholic depression that had been growing in the pit of his stomach since the death of his godfather, and to think, it was all thanks to Dudley's fat arse!
What had happened that morning, was that Dudley Dursley, in a temporary demonic craze from his 'grapefruit diet,' started to have a craving for sweets. Dudley had decided that he would thrash the house in search of anything sugared, sweetened, baked, artificially flavoured, or frosted in icing. And despite Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's everlasting attempts to change his mind or at least stop him, Dudley, the Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast, had his mind set, and nothing was going to change it.
And so Dudley began to rip things apart, topple furniture, and break containers, which was no hard task for him. And finally going through about every room in the house with no success Dudley was in anguish, and desperate. The time had come to go in to his cousin's bedroom, and being deprived as he was, it made Dudley almost crazed, and so he broke down Harry's door.
Harry couldn't do anything, because a purple-faced Uncle Vernon was right behind Dudley, making sure Harry didn't do anything. And so Harry had to stand there while Uncle Vernon shot him death glares, as if this was his entire fault. Dudley made his way towards Harry's trunk, and then with his two large chubby hands, began to rip the cheap leather off Harry's trunk, which would have been very hard for Harry to believe if he hadn't seen him do the same before --- Dudley was a master at destruction.
And what seemed to have taken an eternity to Dudley, had really only taken a few seconds until he had broken in to Harry's trunk.
Dudley tossed away the trivial things first, clothes and books, and Harry silently thanked his lucky stars that Dudley didn't read the cover of those books or destroy them and that all of Harry's really valuable things (invisibility cloak, broom, wand, etc.) were under…
"FOOOOD!" Dudley had yelled, and a giant grin appeared on his face. Harry had to admit this was one of the most pathetic and funny scenes he had ever witnessed in his life, this and the Amazing Bouncing Ferret from two years ago.
And so Dudley explored this hidden treasure with much happiness, but the first thing he did was chuck a large box stuffed full of sugar free snacks away from him as if it were on fire, those were from Hermione, Harry remembered, (her parents were dentists or orthodontists or something like that), then Dudley got to the enormous fruitcake and assorted mince pies from Mrs. Weasley, he set those aside on the floor for later, then he found the sack full of homemade rock cakes from Hagrid, he placed that next to Mrs. Weasleys pies and cake, and alas, Dudley found what Harry had been saving, saving for a special moment, a time for when he was really depressed, when he needed to be cheered up…
Dudley took Harry's birthday cake sent from Mrs. Weasley and smashed it in to his face with no remorse, half of it plopped in to his mouth, half of it smeared on to his chunky cheeks, he chewed and swallowed for exactly two seconds and then moved on to the next. He grabbed the sack of rock cakes, and Harry would have warned him, but that would have been like warning a mosquito not to fly in to a bug zapper at night, and so all Harry could do was watch as Dudley took a large bite of the rock cake and had his two front teeth knocked out of his mouth.
"DUDDIE-KINS!" Aunt Petunia had screamed, while Dudley shrieked like a little girl.
"Dudley!" Uncle Vernon yelled, as his face went from purple to crimson to purple again, and then he rounded over to Harry as Aunt Petunia gathered Dudley's teeth and took him out of the room, "BOY!" Uncle Vernon pointed his finger in Harry's face, "this. Is. All. Your. Fault."
Uncle Vernon emphasized each word as he stomped his foot.
"But I –"
"YOU WILL STAY IN THIS ROOM FOR THE REST OF THIS SUMMER! DO YOU HEAR ME, BOY?" roared Uncle Vernon.
Harry clenched and unclenched his hands, but decided against socking him in the face, because, frankly, the man was huge and Harry couldn't take him without magic, so Harry gritted his teeth and said, "Yes."
Uncle Vernon gave Harry a second look and then stormed out of the room, but not before he slammed the door, really hard.
And so that was what happened, and now Harry, who had just finished cleaning his room and sort of fixed his trunk, sent a letter to Ron with Hedwig, Harry was pacing in anger and silently cursing the Dursleys under his breath, but was brought out of his reverie by a tapping on his window.
Harry looked up and saw Ron flying outside his window, and in broad daylight. Harry rushed over and opened it.
"Ron!" said Harry in a hushed whisper.
"Harry, I had to come to get you, I couldn't let you stay
here and suffer with them." He said
as he flew in to the room.
Even though Harry knew it was wrong, and that he and Ron would probably get in to a huge amount of trouble, he couldn't help grinning despite himself. And Ron, seeing that Harry was grinning, grinned back at him.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Harry said with some excitement.
And then the two of them took Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage, and strapped them with some sort of harness on to Harry's firebolt.
They flew out of the room and Harry didn't look back.
"We've got to make sure that we fly high Harry so that the Muggles don't see us," said Ron.
"Right," said Harry, and as the both of them flew upward Harry's eyes watered in the chill; every thing was getting smaller and smaller, until he was so far up that it all looked like a tiny toy model set, his hands that were gripping the broom were going numb from the cold. He couldn't believe the déjà vu he was having right now, thanks to last year.
Last year, last year was different though, but…but he didn't want to think about last year. He wanted to forget about it, forget everything about his fifth year at Hogwarts, it was bad enough that it haunted him in all of his nightmares, along with his nightmares about Cedric and the Triwizard Tournament, it seemed that all he had were nightmares now a days, so that was just more of a reason not to think about, if he already had to deal with it at night, he didn't want to have to deal with it in the day time too.
Harry and Ron had flown for what seemed to be like an hour and a half, until they had finally reached the Burrow and…
"No. No. No! No! NO! NO! NOOO!" Ron was yelling in hysteria at what he saw.
Harry looked in the direction that Ron was looking and saw what caused his reaction: the murky emerald-green Dark Mark of Voldemort emblazoned the sky above the Burrow.
Harry felt nauseous and started to tremble, the boggart that Mrs. Weasley tried to destroy last year popped in to his mind, he remembered seeing them one by one, the Weasleys-- dead, but there weren't any boggarts now…
Harry and Ron flew to the ground with such a speed that they had never used before, Harry flew faster then as if he were flying for the winning snitch in a Quidditch game.
When they got to the ground Harry could feel silent tears streaming down his face, he didn't even feel them coming, he wiped them on his sleeve very quickly.
And for some reason Malfoy's damn voice kept ringing in his ears, "Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first Potter…"
Harry was snapped out of his trance when he heard Ron yell and then charge it towards his home, but thanks to Harry's quick Seeker reflexes, he caught Ron's arm and pulled him back.
"LET ME GO, HARRY! GINNY! GINNY!" Ron was raving like a madman, and Harry was struggling to hold him back, but thanks to Ron's commotion and rant ravings, some people had noticed and seemed to be running towards them.
But they weren't cloaked figures, thank Merlin.
They were three of many people running towards them, an older looking man with many scars and large magical blue-eye sticking out of his head, a younger looking woman with bright bubble-gum-pink hair, and a man with a pale face and graying hair.
"Harry, Ron!" the three of them called in unison.
But Ron paid no attention to any of them, he was still struggling to get away from Harry, and still calling for his little sister.
"GINNY! GIN-NY!"
"Ron, Ron, stop," the pink haired woman said softly, "trying to go in to the house will do you no good."
"B-but my s-sister, Tonks, MY SISTER!" Ron was trembling, braking, before Harry's eyes.
"The mediwizards are doing everything possible for her Ron, we don't even know how she is right now…" said the man with graying hair.
"What's happened?" asked Harry, shaking a bit himself, but definitely not as bad as Ron, "What have you guys heard?"
"Well, Moody, Tonks, and I," Lupin began, "were at the headquarters, Harry. And somebody sent in this anonymous letter, saying that Death Eaters were going to, or were attacking the Burrow, we tried contacting the house by floo fire first, to see what was going on, but then the floo gate to the Burrow had been shut off." Lupin rubbed his head and continued, "At that point we knew something was up and I went to go and tell Dumbledore, while Moody went to try and contact the other Weasleys…"
Lupin was cut off by more 'popping' sounds.
A large group of people had apparated right next to Harry, Ron, Tonks, Moody, and Lupin. And only two of those people did Harry recognize from the rather large group. The first was a rather chubby-looking older man, who Harry knew to be Cornelius Fudge, and the other was a tall, thin, red-headed young man, who Harry recognized as Percy Weasley.
Percy's face turned an unhealthy shade of white as he looked at the Burrow, and the quil and clipboard he was holding in his hands had dropped to the ground, he was gaping and shaking in disbelief at what he saw, against every rational thought that ran through Percy's mind, at the moment he couldn't care less, and he ran to his childhood home, he ran not looking back.
"Stop, Percy stop!" Everyone yelled (sans Ron) and ran after Percy.
"Weatherby! I m-mean Weasley! You stop this instant, I say! You stop!" Fudge yelled as his face turned shades redder from before.
But Percy didn't care, for the first time in his life, Percy did not care about rules or restrictions, all that was running through his mind was his family, and he slammed the half-hinged door of the Burrow open.
What was inside the Burrow was a complete mess, a disaster, everything was broken, torn, ripped down, shattered, cracked, smashed, ruined, and destroyed. Nothing was recognizable as to what it was before, everything Percy had grown up with was destroyed with a vengeance, but even that couldn't compare to what he saw as he walked a few more meters.
A group of mediwizards were surrounding what looked like to be a lop-sided sofa, and lying lifeless on that couch was the fifteen year old body of Ginny Weasley.
Percy shoved one of the mediwizards aside and went to the body of his little sister, Ron was standing behind him, staring in disbelief. Percy gently grabbed the upper arms of Ginny and gave her a calm shake, tears were flowing openly down Percy's face now, as was Ron's.
"Ginny," whispered Percy, "come on wake up. Don't do this to me Ginny. Don't do this. Please. Please, wake up."
But Ginny just laid there inert, not responding to anything.
A great big whole was growing in Harry's heart, and he held the back of an already smashed chair, just to keep standing.
Everybody was crying in that room, everybody, not a single face was left unstained without tears. They stood there for what seemed to be an eternity, just watching Ginny's angel-like face, looking for any sign, any sign of life at all. But nothing came, until finally a man walked in to the room, which Harry recognized as Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Percy, Ron," he said quietly, "your parents are here, but we're not letting them inside, so I was wondering if you could…?"
Percy and Ron nodded, their eyes still hadn't left Ginny's face, but they stood up, and they started making their way towards the door.
"Wait," said Percy, still in his delirious state, "she'll get cold. I don't want her to get cold." He walked over to a torn blanket on the ground and picked it up, he laid it gently on Ginny, "That should warm you up," he whispered to her.
Tonks tenderly grabbed Percy's arm, "Come on Percy," she whispered as if she were speaking to a child.
Percy nodded, and then they left, and then one-by-one everyone started leaving the room, until no one was in there but Harry, Harry just couldn't leave that room, he couldn't leave Ginny.
He walked over to her and just stared at her face, Harry couldn't believe it, why did Voldemort have to do this, why?! Cedric, Sirius, and now…Ginny?! Harry couldn't handle it, he shook his head in disbelief.
Every moment that he had ever spent with Ginny ran through his mind, the Chamber of Secrets, him asking her to the Yule Ball, her acting terribly clumsy when she had had that silly crush, her insisting on going to the Department of Mysteries with him, that valentine she sent him a long time ago…that valentine…Harry remembered that valentine very clearly, how did it go again?
Harry started whispering what he remembered of that singing valentine, "His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, His hair is as dark as a blackboard…"
Harry tried to remember the rest, but couldn't for the life of him remember.
"…I wish he was mine, he's really divine, The hero who conquered the Dark Lord." A soft voice had finished off.
Harry looked down at Ginny's face in disbelief, she was smiling at him! And—and she was alive! Harry's eyes became very round and he gaped at Ginny.
"What's wrong Harry?" she asked.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, the reviews I got for the first chapter are really the reason I decided to post this up, so remember! If you review I'll continue, if you don't I won't! Hey! That rhymes! Lol. Also if anyone would like to beta read my chapters, since I do need a beta reader…just e-mail me at MHGirl503@yahoo.com and also, another thing, I want this story to sort of be interactive, and the first thing I want to ask you guys is who should Ginny get in to a relationship with? Draco? Harry? Marvolo? Neville? Anyone? No one? Tell me in your reviews! The amount of reviews I get for this chapter will decide how fast I post the next one….so do your thing and click that purple button! : )
