"Well, I was...I don't know...I..." Ginny tried to explain. She noticed Ron, Harry and Hermione were all in their pajamas, and appeared quite sleepy, but their expressions changed when they saw the state she was in. Colin Creevy came tearing down the stairs after them.

"What happened?!" they cried, rushing to her side. Ron pushed Dennis aside and took Ginny into his arms.

"We should get Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested hurriedly. "That cut is bleeding kind of bad."

"I'll go!" Colin volunteered, breathing heavily. "Come on, Dennis!"

Both brothers took off like lightning bolts towards the hospital wing. Hermione frowned after them. "I wonder what they were doing out of bed?...Harry, give me your shirt."

"OK. Well, I'm glad Dennis and Colin were out," Harry replied, taking off his Gryffindor T-shirt and giving it to Hermione. She pressed it to Ginny's forehead to try and slow the bleeding. Harry scratched his messy, black hair and adjusted his glasses. "They did find Ginny, after all."

At that moment, Ginny burst into tears.

"What happened, Ginny?" Harry asked, taking her hand, even though it was covered in blood. He noticed a good deal of blood beneath the nail of her index finger, as well as some flesh. "Did someone do this to you?"

"I...don't know..." she sobbed. "I was dreaming."

"I'm sorry," Harry apologized. "We never saw you after meeting with Professor McGonagall. I guess we just assumed that you had gone to bed."

"I never made it," she told them, her eyes red and teary looking only at Harry. "All I know is that I woke up here. I can't explain anything else, except..."

"Lift her up!" a voice called to them. Madam Pomfrey was scuttling down the hall with Dennis and Colin in her wake. "Can you walk, Ms. Weasley?"

"I...I think so," Ginny replied. Hermione lifted the blood stained shirt from her forehead, as Harry and Ron helped Ginny to her feet. She swooned a bit.

"Watch her..." Pomfrey commanded.

"I'm OK," Ginny assured her.

Harry and Ron guided Ginny to the hospital wing as they followed Madam Pomfrey. Hermione took off to make sure Colin and Dennis went back to the dormitory. The halls were quiet and shadowy, only a few lights faintly glowing, illuminating the stone and snoring paintings with a dim yellow.

When they reached the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey thanked the boys for helping her, but she had a lot of work to do to heal Ginny's cut, so she excused them. Harry turned to take a last look at Ginny, who looked frightened, bloodied and confused. There was a darkness in her eyes as she returned his gaze, as though she had just done something terrible.

"It was just a dream, Ginny," he called softly to her.

She bit her lip and nodded, her eyes tearing up again. Harry smiled at her and left the hospital wing with Ron.

"Maybe it was a dream," Ron said. "But that doesn't explain why she was cut. How did that happen?"

"We won't know for sure until she tells us more," Harry responded, rubbing his chilly, bare arms. "I saw a lot of stuff under her fingernail. It looks like she may have done it to herself."

"Weird," Ron said. "Why would she do that?"

"Who knows? Something strikes me as even more odd, though."

"What's that?"

"Malfoy had a scar aboved his left eye. Did you notice it on the train?"

"Yeah," Ron answered. "Do you think there's a connection?"

"Maybe."

Mist swirled in the darkness of the graveyard as the last of the Death Eaters vanished into blackness. Lord Voldemort walked to the foggy edge of the lake, and in the shadowiness, he seemed to glide ethereally. Bellatrix flashed an excited grin at Lucius, a cold gleam in her eyes. Lucius, still feeling weak from the earlier torture did not return the expression, but frowned at her, taking a deep breath as they approached the Dark Lord together.

"Do not expect an apology from me," his cold, high voice floated to them through the mist. They waited behind him as he faced the gloom of the lake. "A cunning play it may have been, but you deserve no less for being caught by children and members of the Order."

"I live to serve, Master," Lucius answered monotonously, then bowed to kiss the hem of his robes. His eyes shifted up maliciously at Bellatrix.

"Lucius," his voice cut the air like a blade, "Bella has also been punished for destroying the Prophecy. Is that what is upsetting you?"

"You always know, Master," Lucius replied, a tremble in his voice as he rose nobly to his feet.

"Now, let there be no more mistakes, and no more animosity between allies. It was your struggle for power over one another on the mission which put my goal in jeopardy. Bella understands that you command, Lucius. She will not question it again."

Bellatrix shivered.

"My faithful Death Eaters now believe your son to be a traitor, and so my plan is set into action. Your son, Draco...his loyalty..."

"Unfaltering, Master. I would trust him with my life," Lucius replied swiftly, his chest stuck out proudly.

"You do trust him with your life, for if he fails...well, that will not happen. I will summon him in three days, by way of his scar I have marked him with, for a first report. By that time, Ms. Weasley will have had her first nightmare."

Bellatrix sniggered wickedly.

"Yes, perhaps that was the only decent outcome from the event at the Ministry. I realized my one way in to Harry that could not fail...the daughter of the blood traitor, Arthur Weasley."

At this, Lucius smiled slyly, but something was nagging him.

"Speak, Lucius. You have a doubt," Lord Voldemort spoke, turning around now so that his flaming eyes bore into Lucius's very soul.

"You know, Master, that Bella and I would never compromise your plans through treachery, but what of Wormtail? Suppose he should betray you with his knowledge of Draco's deception?"

The Dark Lord's spindly, white fingers delicately stroked the wand in his grasp. "I would kill him if he had the thought, for his weak mind is no match for me."

"Besides," Bellatrix added, "would someone who murdered his friends to save his own neck really go out on such a dangerous limb?"

Lucius pursed his mouth, raising his eyebrows suspiciously. "I would venture that is the reason he may not be trusted."

"We shall see," Lord Voldemort answered. "Now, leave me."

"Yes, Master," Lucius and Bellatrix replied, Disapparating.

The Dark Lord stood alone in the darkest moment of the midnight hour, turning once again to watch the fog swirling over the tenebrous, glassy lake. He ran his pale fingers along the smooth wand.

"We shall see," he spoke to the darkness.

The halls were busy as students were going to and from breakfast on the first day of classes. Harry walked with Ron and Hermione, happy to be back at school and to get back into the routines, glad that Professor Lupin had returned. The past year had been somewhat chaotic, and there was a feeling already that things were perhaps going to be more normal this year. Well, except for the mystery surrounding Ginny. He hoped that the meeting with Professor McGonagall would not take too long so that they could go and check in on her before going to their first class. Harry shuddered. First class of the year--potions with Severus Snape.

When they arrived at the door to Professor McGonagall's office, Draco was leaning along the stony wall beside it, his hands in his pockets.

"You're late," he complained.

"Well, we were tired this morning," Ron spoke, annoyance apparent in his voice.

Harry approached Malfoy and looked him over, noticing a small scar across his left eyebrow.

"What are you staring at, Potter?" Draco sneered.

"Where did you get that scar?" Harry interrogated him. He noticed Draco go a little white, a look of extreme hatred mounding in his eyes. "Trying to go for the Harry look, eh? You missed the lightning bolt shape, though..."

"Harry!" Hermione protested.

"For your information, Potter," Draco seethed, ignoring Hermione, "I got this in a fight with my father. Do you think he would let me go that easily?"

Harry noticed Ron and Hermione's eyes go wide. "Sorry," Harry answered quickly.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're all torn up about it," Draco replied, whipping around to knock on the door, which opened, revealing Professor McGonagall, waiting with her arms crossed.

"You're late," Professor McGonagall greeted the four students sternly, who entered her office sheepishly and took a seat. She peered at the four of them over her spectacles, before speaking again. "You are here so that we may discuss your orders. As Professor Dumbledore explained to you yesterday aboard the train, you will each have a task to complete for the Order of the Phoenix during your apprenticeships at the Ministry of Magic. As you also know, many sixth year students who have signed up to shadow a professional wizard or witch will also be working with you at the Ministry. It is of the utmost importance that they do not learn any of your underlying priorities, despite if they are close friends of yours. Is that understood?"

------------------------------------
and the jigsaw piece...

All four nodded. Harry, Ron and Hermione did so a bit lethargically after losing sleep over the night's events.

"Very well, let me give you the details then..."

By Cosmic Potter

A/N: Our Beta, Zim, is experiencing computer problems and Cosmic has taken over the position until further notice. -AddisonRae