Draco watched as she slowly dressed. The home was as empty as it got according to Charm, With all the ambassadors gone to see to their troops. They were going to be having a meeting With Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix.
They'd all taken extra care with their looks. Virginia most of all. In the style of all her robes, with a dress corset and robe. Where normally Her cloths would have contrasting colors, today it was contrasting fabrics. The Corset was made of a brocade with embroidered white roses. The dress was a shiny silk and the robe was light velvet that was luminescent. It was trimmed with a line of silk ribbon. It was a sharp contrast to the blood red hair that spilled down her back. Her lips were the same blood red color, and her eyes were at their best in the amber. Her pale skin looked even paler than that of all the white fabric, and yet it still looked excellent. He smiled and pulled out the ring he'd seen purchased earlier in the week.
"Virginia?"
Virginia smiled into the mirror she stood before and looked at Draco. He looked amazing in his gray robes she'd seen made for him. They were made of silk and velvet like her own, and brought out the blue hidden in his gray eyes. His hair, tied at his nape, looked even lighter, like spun moon light, The pale skin, so much like her own was, beautiful, a light red blush on his cheeks made him look so much more alive than normal. She turned to him and headed to her vanity.
"yes Draco?"
"You look beautiful…" He said. It wasn't what he was planning on saying but he couldn't help it. She gave him a smile through her vanity mirror again. He swallowed and watched as she put on a shiny silver eye shadow.
"Thank you Draco, You look, handsome too."
"Thanks… there's something, I wanted to ask you.. Virginia."
"What?" She said. She turned her chair to him, Draco was never nervous, It wasn't in him to be. He said what he had to say.
"Wi- Would you do me the honor and joy of becoming the next Miss Malfoy?"
Her eyes got large as He opened the box that held her ring. It was a ruby, Surrounded by emeralds, the band was a gold and silver interlocking band.
"I hope you like it, because even if you say no it's yours…. Diamonds are too bland for you."
Virginia swallowed looking at the ring…
"You might well say yes, after all you love me, and who'd want your brothers blackening my pretty little face when they find out that I haven't slept in my own bed since-"
He was trying to cover up his nervousness on the fact she hadn't said yes yet…
But he couldn't continue with her mouth firmly pressed against his.
When the kiss broke, Virginia looked into the pale eyes.
"Yes." She said. And he grabbed her to kiss her again before slipping the ring on her finger.
"I can't thank you enough for saying that one word Virginia."
"Good, you can pay me back for it, by being nice tonight, If I know my family, which I unfortunately do, All of the brood will be there, From Bill, the oldest, to Ron."
"ugh, but Virginia-"
"Draco"
"I'll be good." He submitted sadly. "Bloody everlasting hell, We haven't even set down a date and already, I'm letting you tell me what to do…"
"Good, get used to it, hun." Virginia said winking at him.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix were port keyed straight into the building, and Harry palled when he landed and darkness enveloped them.
"Lumos!" was screamed by mostly everyone. The room lit up. They were in a long room, The walls, were hung with thick tapestries, depicting amazing scenes. In the middle of the room was a long table that was engraved with symbols about it.
"Draco! Virginia." Snape called out. The words echoed about the room.
"Could we be in the wrong place?" Hermione questioned.
"I highly doubt it, Miss granger… but, keep wands drawn, and gather about, don't wander. Stay together." Dumbledore ordered.
Suddenly, with out a sound before it.
"Draco Armand Malfoy, I shall kill you if you don't get off my robe." The voice was harsh.
"Dear God Carolina, I didn't mean too."
"Be quiet both of you." The Voice of Virginia Weasley washed over them all. " Carolina, you'll see Harry momentarily, and Draco, just because you said you'll be nice to my family doesn't mean that you can be an ass to Carolina, and by the way, Harry and Hermione are included in my family."
"But Virginia that will give me nothing to do-"
"Were here to discuss business Draco, not attack you fiancé's family." Blaise said.
"All of you be quiet their probably already in there, listening to us bicker" The voice of Virginia echoed. Suddenly 2 large doors were thrown open, tossing light into the dark room.
" Alight!" Virginia's voice echoed and the lights in the room, the thousands of candles lit up the room. The Beautiful tapestries that decorated the wall lit, showing scenes of both battle and love. The Order of the phoenix all stood close together near a corner, around the beautiful tapestries, One of the walls, was full of long windows that went from the huge vaulted ceilings to the ground. They showed a snowy mountain side. Causing all of the order to wonder just where they were… That wonderment only lasted a few moments before they tuned and saw a sight that was both amazing and startling.
They stood their, Virginia and Draco's hands clasped together, Her robes more pristine than the snow that blanketed the mountain side, and his, gray robes setting off his hair and the blue in his eyes. Next was Charm and Blaise, Their robes both a Crimson color, that made them both look important and stand apart. Charms eyes were distant looking to the snow. Carolina stood alone, Her robes were a startling emerald that looked jewel like it was such a startling color. In front of them all was a very young girl.
"I am the watcher, May I present to you all, Queen Virginia, and her court, Draco, Charm, Blaise, Carolina, and Harry, and her military leader, Antoinette."
Everyone's heads turned to the shocked Harry, who's own robes were suddenly the same jewel like color of Carolina's. The cut was the same as Blaise and Draco's robes.
"Next time, Young one, keep your mouth closed till the poor soul who doesn't know what is going on has been informed." Charm said, Her voice light in speaking to the small girl.
"Yes" She said, and then moved off to the side of the room.
Everyone watched as Virginia moved to the table and to the Head seat. The chair moved back automatically and she took a seat, it pushed in. Draco took her right hand, and Charm her left. Next to Charm went Blaise, and Next to Carolina went Draco.
"Harry, Please take the seat next to Carolina" Virginia said. Harry hurried and took the seat. Immediately with each of them sitting along the table, The carvings, that were before each of them connected to each other to form an immense pattern before them.
"Please take a seat." Virginia said, Directed to the remaining members in the room.
Dumbledore, Tonks, Bill Charlie, Percy, Ron, Hermione, George, Fred, Molly, Arthur, Severus, McGonagall, Hagrid, and a number of miscellaneous Aurors took seats. Mad Eye Moody was the last one.
"Thank you. All for coming." Virginia snapped her fingers and immediately goblets appeared before everyone full of a crimson, blood colored wine, another snap and plates of pastries, cookies, and other treats and snacks. "I've never believed of seeing to business as such were discussing tonight with out wine." Virginia said before taking a sip of the liquid. Molly and Arthur stared at their daughter.
" I assume, Professor, you haven't seen to explain things to your order?" Charm questioned.
"ugh, no, I haven't as yet broached the subject."
"Good, It will give our new girl a bit of practice. Watcher…"
The small girl who had settled herself in the corner shot a look of supreme annoyance to Charm.
" The queen and her court are totally pure souls, who are resurrected-"
"Reincarnated."
"you say it next time then- Reincarnated at times of importance to see to the safety and well being of both magic and muggle. It is a ancient power that unites those you see before you, and though you may not realize it, their order of souls has been since the beginning of time. Documentation of this order resides in each and every place of Magical democracy, In the ministry, and the exploits of this order are documented from other sources with half truths, and in crumbling ancient texts for you all really haven't mucked it up this much in a long time. Those who sit before you, The order of the Home, hold more power than any set laws and such. They are the controlling in the world as of now. What they choose to come about will come about. The ministry and all other magic republics and Democracies bend to the will of this order." The small girl said it, Turned to Charm, Pulled a face and then sat back down.
"Very good… next time refrain from pulling a face." Charm said. Her voice airy.
"So were like in the presence of a ledged…" Tonks said. Her eyes lit with mischief. "Well I expect autographs."
The other auror gave a withering glance to the mischief full Tonks.
"well, at least one of them retained a sense of humor. Antoinette said.
"yes, well humorous be it, I believe, we should get on with what's going on. I mean it's apparent why you all res- reincarnated at this moment, I mean Voldemort and all, but why a meeting, and why the cloak and dagger, You all just disappeared off the earth, mind you young Miss Weasley that you left with 3 Slytherin children with Death eater parents. How are we to-"
Virginia held up her hand silencing the paranoid Moody. "I understand very well your concerns. Believe me, If I was you I'd be concerned, but the key is, who do you know who owns this."
Virginia snapped her fingers, and floating in the air, about the middle of the table the Sword of Fortune appeared. Virginia raised her hand and the sword flew into her hand.
"Try to remove it, any of you." She said holding it loosely. "It was created by Merlin, you all know the tales, and the fact that no one can remove it from the soul that truthfully owns the sword. That is me, and I can guarantee none of your, brute force or your magical strength combined can remove this from me." She looked at them, and not surprisingly they turned to Dumbledore.
"Well, are you going to try to remove it?" an auror demanded.
"I have no reason to-"
"Headmaster, please so we can get this over with, we have much to discuss, and I fear not much time, I have left the Home half staffed, and locked to the brim. I am due to be having a number of troops arriving very early in the morning, I have not the time to dally, with people questioning all I put forth." Virginia said. "Though it does me highly proud that you have no doubts about what we speak of." Virginia said.
Dumbledore nodded his head before shouting accedo iam.
The sword didn't move an inch. Dumbledore shouted again, a new string of Latin words. Their was still no movements, of the sword. Not even a breeze.
"Does this satisfy your need of proof, Mr. Moody?" Draco drawled.
"Yes, by god, a Malfoy, and a Snape that aren't evil, Albus I must be dying of Sho-"
"Their will be none of that." Virginia said. Her amber eyes bright. " I will not allow prejudice in this room, I'll cast you out, before I'll allow you to continue, and by the way, this is the future Miss Malfoy Mr. Moody." Virginia's words were chastising, and even Snape got a small blush on his cheeks as a scathing comment about Moody's own family had danced on his tongue
"Really?" Molly questioned. "Oh baby! I'll have a son and law!" Molly said with the enthusiasm of any mother who was finding out that her baby was getting married.
"Thank you mum. But we do have things to discuss, Antoinette, their yours." Virginia said.
5 hours later.
"but what of these Children you plan to bring in, are their lives not important and innocent?" Tonks asked. They'd been laying cards out on the table, followed by strategies for the first battle, and as thus far they always returned to the Courts plan…
"Children of the home, are trained to fight. If they are not battle ready they do not stay with us." Charm said. She stapled her fingers together. " as much as I hate to say this but there is no better alternative that will see to the safety of Hogwarts."
"I don't want to pull rank on this." Virginia said. She slowly stood. "but I will if I must. You all understand certain aspects of this perfectly, and that is, that lives may be lost. Children of the home are no way indispensable, but the key to it is, that they are trained to do battle, Hogwarts students are trained to become journalists, and accountants, our work source. A five year old from the Home can use unforgivable curses, and throw them off with no problem." Virginia moved to pace about the table, and everyone altered their seats so to see her in full view.
"I will not have Hogwarts taken, understand this. I will lock you all into cells and face death eaters on my own before I allow Hogwarts to be taken. The school. Is a crucial point. Own it, Own the students, own the parents."
"She right, think about it.. Half the school would be bathed in blood before the first auror got their, and all that would happed to bring that auror down would be to see their child in the arms of a death eater…" Harry Pulled a hand through his hair.
"Only the students who can produce a patronus should be aloud out of the school on the day…" Hermione said. "They can then at least protect against the dementors." Hermione sucked her bottom lip. " All muggle born students with the exception of myself should also-"
"No." Draco said. It caused a lot of mouths to open, and Moody began to say something, but was cut off by the look Virginia shot him, "Listen, to death eaters," Draco stood at this, and began pacing like Virginia. " you all are the same as a muggle born, and worse, you all don't seem to understand this, a person who sides with them is painted with the same, or worse brush, look at Mr. Weasley. My father would rather kill him off than Granger, All who can meet the requirements, and can hold a wand should be aloud to fight, after all, what's better than-"
It was at this moment that a loud pop was heard.
The slim girl who appeared beside Virginia startled them all. She had huge eyes, that were highly unsettling.
"My queen, It's been sent from…" Her eyes cut to Antoinette who gave her a nod. "our informant… It's said to be urgent, and came, by a fox." She said. Hading her a rolled parchment. Another Pop was herd and she was gone.
"What is it?" Antoinette asked.
Virginia opened it and un rolled it.
Queen- court~
Time grows dim, and death has occurred. Peter Pettigrew died last week, screaming his friends names. It seems his heart was restless… but it seems the man owed a high price debt of his life that was never paid to boy wonder, and I fear that I soon will no longer be here. As a matter of due course, mayhap I will flee with this letter… I'm beginning to be recognized, and I do not wish to be…
Till we meet again,
Armando Black.
Virginia felt her lips press. Everyone stared at her.
"It seems, Peter Pettigrew passed on last night haunted by memories of his childhood friends…It seems but at the same time, It seems he owed a debt to mister Potter, Draco, do you detect a certain hand in this?" She asked.
"Of course Lucius would have loved to kill Pettigrew but as he'd helped Voldemort… He would have had to use a back handed way… and yes he would probably get off on killing a man with juvenile tricks." Draco said.
" mm." Virginia rolled the parchment and slipped it into a pocket.
Her eyes headed towards were Remus Lupin sat, his head in his hands. Antoinette who sat beside him was lightly rubbing his back.
"We don't have much more time here, decided to say yes to my plan, or let me pull rank, your choice." Virginia said. She took a deep swallow of wine.
"as the Muggles say, My way or the Highway."
"Very well Virginia, Do you not think that the Death Eater Children will not notice that their enemies are not amongst those in the town?"
"Simple illusion charms can be placed on the children of the home." Virginia said and took another sip. " We have but few choices here, and I truly don't wish to even try and pull rank, but the point of it is that none of us can manage this, putting forward innocents that know how to fight is more preferable to me that putting forward our Hogwarts innocents." Virginia gave a long drawn sigh. " agree with me now, an lets get this part of the business through with so we can get onto more important parts of this…" Virginia slipped back into her seat, with Draco fallowing her. Whispers of voices were talking a windstorm up down at the other end of the table.
"We have no choice in the matter in truth, but what you presented us with, as such we will fallow your lead." Dumbledore said.
"Good. As we see it…."
Virginia sat with Draco. They were back at the home. " Charlie said we'll have the dragons by tomorrow." He reminded her
"yes… what if it doesn't work, what if our illusion charms fail, what if the children from here are slaughtered in a blood bath, what if…"
"There is no use in pondering the what if's Virginia until after everything goes down… pondering it all now will do nothing but give you one hell off a headache.
Gail Carden of Hufflepuff picked up her pumpkin juice and palled when she saw the writing appear in the juice.
Miss Carden- Do not head make a sound- Don not make a face, every thing is normal DO NOT head to Hogsmede, Walk up the stairs and to the Hufflepuff dorm, Professor Sprout will await you, and others. Be calm and do as your asked to.
Albus Dumbledore.
At the head table, all teachers watched goblets, if after 5 drinks the person had yet to read their message the goblet turned a light orange. Then they, before breakfast was over, on their way out, stopped those kids who had not read their messages, and whispered quickly and quietly "Common Room NOW"
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington waited patiently for the sign, which was a small bell Dumbledore would ring in the great hall, that would sound in the ante chamber. He looked about at all the mimics of the children he knew, their robes were larger though, and that was, as a tall 8 year old girl had showed him, to hide their weaponry… really, they started with their wand when attacked, if the wand was taken away from them, each student had a very scary looking sword to draw out, and a small dagger that was hidden by their sleeves. Each child also had a portkey necklace to pull on if they got hurt or in over their heads, though a number of the students had already declared that this was not going to be used, to die in battle was much more noble than to portkey out, and in the corner, something very odd was happening. A tall girl looked at a picture of those dead, and was, doing a number of illusion charms to make a few kids look like them, Cedric Diggory, Bertha Jorkins, Lily Potter, James Potter, and a few that he didn't recognize…
"Seeing his victims will damn well scare the bastard." the woman transfiguring them said. "Remember well portkey you all in when we want you." The girl smiled. And then, grabbed her own necklace and left…
The first bell sounded and Nearly Headless Nick directed the first lot out slowly… they blended in evenly, and made a crisscross, from one side of the hall to another, wile their parallels, the students they mimicked crisscrossed and slipped up the stairs, without any being the wiser..
The Queen, the court, Antoinette, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Remus Lupin, Tonks, and Minerva McGonagall all sat upon the back of the riding dragons. They were hidden with spells in the clouds and were circling slowly looking down.. The horseless carriages were arriving in Hogsmede, and it was im possible to figure out which students were the mimicked… It was only when they began falling into positions, near strategic buildings and acting inconspicuous, and teen like could you tell, and that was only because the kids were doing as they were told…
"Our friends have arrived, Draco said into her ear, it was a spell that carried ones voice to another. Virginia looked to him, and he smiled, a sure sign that their friends were the ones to have arrived, rather than death eaters, sure enough, down in the woods, a huge congregation of creatures were gathering that could only be seen from the clouds.
"it shouldn't be long now." was whispered into everyone's ears, and everyone nodded.
It was said too soon, for almost as soon as it left the lips, a few figures appeared around the woods, in the new little cabins and tents… Too soon, they were not invisibly flying through the white fluffy clouds, but an ugly green smoky apparition of a skull with a snake coming through the mouth.
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AN~ ok, I couldn't resist the proposal, because to me, if you knew their was a chance one of you could die in the up coming events, and you loved each other, well, that would just HAVE to happen, you can pelt me with tomatoes if you wish to.
I hope you enjoy, this chapter was really hard to write, I've had this singular chapter wrote for a wile, and lets just say it's changed a lot! From it's original because I am temperamental. So It's been re wrote a number of times, I wouldn't even allow myself to re read this because I fear I'll delete something again…
Thanks to all of you who review, you all really make my day believe me, I'm struggling through correspondence Spanish that I just got and oh boy! I'm beginning to wonder if French would have been better… but anyways that depressed me and you all made me happy! So a new chapter.. In really really short time compared to my usual wait.
smiley to you all
GoddessTeasha