Disclaimer: All the characters you recognize here from Harry Potter are
not mine. They are J.K. Rowling's creations and I take no credit for these
ingenious characters. So please don't sue! I'm making no money with this
and that means I only have three pennies and a sack of beans! So there's
really no point in suing me anyhow.
A/N: I have written this SO long ago and I never bothered to post it. So thanks to my very pushy beta reader, Rachel, here's my story. So thanks to both of my beta-readers Rachel and Lily (no, not me.) :) Please review! Enjoy!
Chapter One- Everyone knew their love was wrong. Their love had begun because of Lucifer's message itself.
Lucifer's Message
Harry Potter awoke drenched in sweat and shaking, his scar throbbing. He pushed his palms against his forehead in a feeble attempt to stop the pain. There were few reasons why his scar would hurt so much. He knew that some thousand miles away, or not, Voldemort was angry, very angry.
*
'What is the matter now Wormtail!?' Voldemort's red serpent eyes burned a hole into the cowering man's head.
'My Lord, there was a problem with the spell.' Wormtail shielded his face with his hands as he said this, as though it would actually shield him from the Cruciatus curse if Voldemort would decide to punish him.
Voldemort turned sharply towards the fire. At this movement, the short man fell onto his back from pure fear. Voldemort hissed in disgust at this sheepish reaction.
'WHAT Wormtail, WHAT has gone wrong!?' Voldemort's patience was wearing thin. 'The spell should have worked. It would have made me more powerful than ever, more powerful than even.Dumbledore.' Voldemort hid a shudder and continued, 'Lucius himself confirmed the dark spell would work. We have all the ingredients; we have killed the sufficient number of people and spilled more than enough blood.' He paused for a minute, watching the dancing flames in the fire and heard Wormtail's whimpers. 'So, my dear Wormtail, could you tell me what could have possibly gone wrong?' Voldemort kept his red eyes glued on the fire as Wormtail managed to scamper off the floor like the rat he was.
'My Lord. The spell from the ancient tombs is correct. We have done all, there was just one thing missing.' Voldemort gave a scowl and Wormtail continued quickly in hopes of escaping a rather painful curse. 'What the spell does in enforce the soul-'
'I KNOW WHAT THE CURSE DOES YOU DUMBSTRUCK IDIOT! WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHY IT DID NOT WORK!' Voldemort looked away from the fire now into Wormtail's unworthy eyes. 'My patience is wearing thin Wormtail. And consider yourself lucky to be warned, I have more than half a mind to use the Cruciatus curse on you right now.' His voice had gone dangerously low.
Wormtail whimpered. 'SPEAK!' Voldemort had already drawn his wand from his pocket and was pointing it at Wormtail, his long skeletal fingers gripping the handle hard.
'Master! Please! I beg mercy; I say all I know to you! I am loyal to you! The reason that the spell did not work my lord is because you do not have all of your soul. Some of your soul is not within you.' Wormtail cowered against a corner now as Voldemort turned back to the fire and sat in a black arm chair. A large green snake had slithered onto Voldemort's lap and he was now stroking his head as he spoke, 'Do you mean to tell me I do not have all my soul in my body? I have never given my soul to anyone, nor shared it.' He hissed and Wormtail advanced slightly from the corner.
'Six years ago, my Lord. When the young Virginia Weasley had passed part of her soul to you as she wrote in your diary, you passed her an extremely small portion of your own by writing back. But the spell will not work if even the smallest fraction of your soul is missing.'
Wormtail's words seemed to melt into the air. Voldemort stared hard into the fire. His eyes reflecting the flames as well as his mood.
'Can you not think of a simple way to get it back, Wormtail?' Voldemort spat at Wormtails stupidity. It wasn't common knowledge to most of the wizarding world. But the most powerful wizards knew that the soul a person possessed flowed through their veins in their blood, in their heart. All he would have to do is kill the girl and drain her heart of its blood. It would not be one of his hardest tasks.
'Sir. It is not as easy as it makes out to be. The curse is protected by a very weak counter curse placed by powerful wizards. They did not manage to stop the spell completely but they did make it a lot harder to complete. There can be no other magic except for the spell itself used to achieve this. Magic can't even be used on the people whom console with her. That is why the blood shed had to be done the muggle way.'
Voldemort could see the problem with this. He would not be able to put the girl under the Imperius curse to get her to the graveyard where he needed to make the slaughter, as the spell had to be made where the remains of his father lay. Another annoying condition of the spell. He would not be able to Stun her or control anyone in contact with her. But he could simply send one of his Death Eaters to get the girl. There would be no need for magic; just strength. Voldemort voiced this to the small rat-like man beside him.
'The girl,' Wormtail's voice was even more cowardly as he was about to upset his Dark Lord very much. 'The girl must want to go to the graveyard. She has to be willing to go.'
Voldemort did not see how this could be done. He could not use magic so he could not make her want to come. She surely wouldn't take the word of anyone loyal to him and he could not use a spell to make someone close to her convince her. Also, they would surely not agree to this under a threat without magic when they could use magic themselves. Voldemort glared angrily at Wormtail, his wand in his right hand up and about ready to take some of his frustration out on Wormtail. He was about to mutter 'crucio' when he was struck with an idea.
'Malfoy's boy,' he demanded of Wormtail who was now on the floor expecting the worst. 'He goes to Hogwarts does he not?' Wormtail squeaked in agreement.
'He must get close to the girl, befriend her, seduce her, and make her love him. Then she would trust him. He could lead her to me. I would need to use no magic; I know I can trust the Malfoys. They have been loyal to me. Yes.this will work out just fine,' Voldemort smirked in satisfaction, and seeing this, Wormtail had the courage to stand and slightly smirk as well. As soon as he did Voldemort turned.
'CRUCIO!'
Wormtail screamed and lay twitching wildly on the floor as Voldemort walked through the threshold of the door into the musty hallway.
* * *
iGinny lay on a cold stone floor, she was shivering and hurt. Tears trickled down her bleeding cheeks. A tall dark figure stud in front of her, arms raised. A long skeletal hand grasped her on the shoulder and she let out a scream of pain. It was not the hand causing the pain, but a harsh, hot pain on her chest. It hurt so badly, she twitched in pain and her breath sped. A red light was glowing beneath her robes. She reached and grabbed a crystal connected to a white gold chain that she apparently wore around her neck. The crystal was clear and tear shaped with a liquid centre which at the moment glowed red and exposed extreme heat. Ginny could not hold it any more, the pain was starting to numb her and she wished it would stop, she wished she was dead.
'No!' a voice hissed from somewhere in front of Ginny and there was an explosion of white light.
Darkness sped into every corner of her mind./i
Ginny awoke, gasping like a fish out of water. Her chest burned incredibly and her breathing was rapid and unusual. Everything was blurry and for a few moments Ginny had no idea where she laid. As the pain subsided and the blur in her eyes retreated, the top of her four-poster came into view. She lay on her bed, Ginny now remembered, in Hogwarts. Her sheets were tangled and drenched in sweat.
Ginny sat up in her bed, her back against the backboard. She peeked her head from inside her bed hangings and saw Liz, Michelle, Stephanie and Emma, her roommates, sleeping peacefully in their beds. Something told Ginny that it was too late to go back to sleep but too early to be awake. Ginny quietly stumbled from her bed, the dream still vivid in her head but fading quickly. She opened the chest at the foot of her bed and rummaged through it for about a minute until she retrieved a small black box from a hidden compartment. She sat back down on her bed with the box, using the palm of her hand to clean away the dust that had settled atop it. She lifted the lid form the box and laid it gently upon her bed. From the box Ginny extracted a rather pretty looking necklace - in fact, the very same necklace from her dream. The clear, drop-shaped jewel hung from a fine white gold chain. The only difference was that the liquid centre in the crystal was not a dangerous red, but a cool silver liquid. Even as Ginny wrapped her hand around the jewel a cool tranquil sensation broke out through her body and relaxed her.
This necklace had been given to Ginny when she was twelve, only two months after her aunt had died. Adrian Sivilus, Ginny's aunt had once been a great Auror. She had defeated countless evils and had even served the Order of the Phoenix many times. It had been on one dreadful October afternoon that Adrian had been killed by a Death Eater. But Ginny had never been close to her aunt and had only seen her as a small child. It had been two weeks later that a large and powerful bird had swooped through Ginny's window and laid a black box and a note upon her bed. The box had contained this very necklace and the note had simply read:
iMy dearest Virginia,
This is a gift for you. If you are receiving this before your coming of age I have indeed passed away. I would like to present you with this gift in hopes that one day it may come of some use to you. It is a spirit stone; it tells the wearer if the spirit of those around her is stained. The instructions are included inside the box. Use it well.
Best wishes,
Adrian Shane Sivilus. /i
Unfortunately, the instructions seemed to have been lost in the delivery but Ginny had pretty much figured it out. When Fred and George had lied about putting fizz bombs in Ron's bed, the stone that Ginny hid from the rest of the family under her cloaks (she preferred to keep her belongings to herself) had turned red and given off slight heat. And as when anyone lied, including herself the liquid within the stone would turn red and give off heat. It was a sort of lie detector. It made sense as the note had said it would detect a stained soul, and a lying one was definitely a stained one.
Ginny looked around her dark dorm. She could hear her roommates breathing softly in deep sleep. Ginny decided that since she probably wasn't going to go back to bed she might as well take a shower and maybe even take a quick ride on her broom down on the Quidditch pitch. Not many people knew she liked to fly. She would usually do this at odd times of this day when it was very early or late. She liked the feeling of being alone and free, the wind in her face and how her hair flapped in the wind as she soared and glided on her broom. Ginny would often fly to high up places where there weren't any people and write her poetry and journal entries. Although don't be mistaken, Ginny still didn't like Quidditch very much, it was a brutal sport really. She glided silently back over to her trunk and took out a towel, a pair of muggle jeans and a light baby blue tank top. She had recently started experimenting with muggle clothes and rather liked how it looked on her. Some teachers objected to this though, so during classes, she would wear her robes and skirt. Ginny put the necklace back in her trunk and went off to the girls' washroom to take a shower and ponder over the strange dream she had had.
Ginny was now in her sixth year at Hogwarts. She had recently had her sweet sixteen and she looked the part too. Ginny was taller than she had been back in first year although compared to the average Hogwarts student she was still relatively short. Ginny's flaming red hair, which she had refused to cut short as her mother wanted her to, reached her lower back. Her looks had changed immensely over the summer. Instead of childish and cute she was now slim, curved and gorgeous, which of course, all of the boys in Hogwarts had noticed. Including a certain Draco Malfoy.
* * *
A glinting flash of gold teased the blond boy as it passed right above his head. Draco noticed this and went into a quick dive. He stretched out his hand in hopes of catching the Snitch, and succeeding without any trouble. He held the Snitch tight in his palm for a moment before releasing it once more and giving it a 10-second head start. Draco Malfoy was now in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Draco had become, over the years, a very skillful Seeker. His eyes were sharp and his reflexes more so. His father had finally caved in and bought Draco a Firebolt, so this year, it would be a fair fight against Potter. Draco had, as a result of his extreme improvements in Quidditch, been made the Slytherin Quidditch captain.
His final year at Hogwarts also meant other changes and events would soon take place. Draco was to take his proud place as a Death Eater in the summer to come. The truth was that Draco Malfoy was no longer crazy about the idea of becoming a Death Eater. He had recently turned 17 and he was starting to mature and form his own opinions. Draco had never been fond of his abusive father but had always thought himself taking after Lucius as a Death Eater. He had never had a second thought about it until recently. He had started to think Voldemort's ideas were a bit out there. A little too, 'oh look, I'm the evil villain trying to take over the world,' sort of thing. He had also never really taken in the seriousness of the situation. He had never really thought what it would mean to be a Death Eater until recently when he started to feel Death Eater blood in him. All Death Eater children were born with Death Eater blood, better known as black blood. It wouldn't really affect the child until the coming of age (eighteen) when it would be used to give the child the Dark Mark, just another way for Voldemort to keep track of his followers really. But now that Draco was approaching this age, he could feel the blood. It gave him a thirst to kill, made him angry and raged. And he didn't like to be controlled like that. He was definitely not looking forwards to becoming a Death Eater as so many of his fellow Slytherins were. Draco shook the thought out of him and went back to looking for the Snitch. He immediately saw the flash of gold above the right hoop on the opposite end of the field. He arched his broom slightly and sped towards the Snitch.
He had just about reached it when a red blur raced across the field and caught the Snitch! Draco had just reached that end of the field to find none other than Ginny Weasley holding the Snitch in her hand. He noticed she was rather good, as she had played Seeker for a few months while Potter had been banned from playing Quidditch, but nothing compared to himself, of course.
'Did you know that someone has let the Snitch out?' she said, obviously not noticing who flew behind her.
'Yes Weasley, I did know. I let it out. And if you wouldn't mind I was practicing.'
Ginny swiveled her head and looked at Draco's cold grey eyes. He now only realized that she was wearing muggle clothes.
'What are you doing out here so early in the morning?' she looked at his annoyed expression but held the Snitch tightly in her hand which was struggling hard to get free. It was still relatively dark and the sun hung about halfway to a full sunrise. It must have been about 5:30.
'I told you Weasel, I was practicing!' Draco was annoyed at her presence. He wanted her to go away and leave him alone. Flying and practicing at odd times of the day had become Draco's getaway from thoughts of his father and Voldemort. He liked the time he spent alone flying through the crisp morning (or night) air. Now she was intruding on him.
'Now if you don't mind leaving-'
'Excuse me Malfoy! But I'm not going anywhere,' Ginny did a little half spin on her broom, letting the slight breeze push back her hair which was down at the moment. 'This isn't your field, I don't happen to see your name on it.'
Draco sighed, annoyed, and got his wand out of his robe pockets. He flew over to the closest stand, which happened to be Hufflepuff's, and wrote his name in big dark glowing green letters.
Quidditch Field - Property of Draco Malfoy.
'There. See my name? Now go, shoo little Weasley, shoo!'
Ginny stared at him in annoyance but she seemed slightly interested. She tilted her Cleansweep slightly as to appear taller than Draco and flew closer to him with only inches apart. With the hand in which she held the Snitch, she punched him lightly so it wouldn't hurt him, but would knock him backwards anyhow. She then let go of the Snitch. Still looking straight into his eyes, a mischievous smile crept onto Ginny's face.
'Tell you what; I'll race you for it. First one to catch the Snitch.'
Draco looked at her. One eyebrow raised, an annoyed smirk upon his face. He didn't want to deal with a Weasley, especially this Weasley. But it seemed quite obvious that she was not going to leave if he didn't do this, so he groaned in acceptance.
'Fine, but you have to leave after I catch it,'
'Hey! Who said you were going to catch it?' And with that, Ginny flew higher. Her head swiveled from side to side in search of the glittering gold. Draco sighed and took his place on the other end of the field, looking around. He immediately spotted the snitch near the Slytherin stands, but he did not dive for it. He looked at the youngest Weasley with interest, as she swerved her head from one place to another. He was amused watching her, he knew where the Snitch was and she didn't.
Draco didn't know what had happened to Ginny over the summer but she looked absolutely gorgeous. She had grown taller, curvier and slim. Her skin was soft and her hair shone brightly under the rising suns rays, and if he said so himself, she looked quite stunning in muggle clothes. He for one knew that she had smitten most of the boys in Hogwarts, including many of his fellow Slytherins. If he hadn't been a Malfoy, and she hadn't been a Weasley he might have been caught staring at her in the hallways and in the Great Hall. But Draco's hate for the Weasleys went deeper than looks.
The young Weasley went into a dive headfirst, and Draco noticed he had been staring at her, distracted from the Snitch. He too went into a dive. Even though Ginny was a lot closer to the Snitch, it would be no competition. A Firebolt against a Cleansweep was something to laugh about. But he was a Malfoy, he didn't laugh. Draco knew he would reach the stands a lot quicker than she would and so he did. He grabbed the Snitch in his right hand. He was about to turn and smirk at the girl when he felt a sharp pain in his side. Ginny had no idea why she had done it. She didn't think of him as Malfoy, just a guy who had what she wanted in his hands, so she dove. Draco's eyes filled with tears, but they weren't from the pain, they were of laughter. Ginny had taken to tickling his side and grabbing for the Snitch in his right hand. It wasn't a good idea to tickle someone on a broom while in the air, which Ginny discovered as they both fell onto the ground below, luckily only about a meter from where they had just been flying. She still did not give up. Ginny had found this a good way to deal with her brothers when they had taken something of hers. She was sure she had heard Malfoy laugh, it was strange but it stopped immediately as he loosened his grip on the snitch and she grabbed it from his hands.
Malfoy lay on the ground, gasping for air. It had been a long time since he had laughed and it seemed his lungs were not used to the idea. His side ached and he groaned, wiping the tears from his eyes. Draco wished with all his might that no one had just seen that.
'What the-'
'I WIN!' Ginny pronounced proudly as she held the Snitch up for him to see.
'No you do not. I caught it first. I win.'
'You caught it first but I have it now don't I?' Ginny grinned and Draco couldn't help but grin himself. As fast as that grin had come though, it was gone, replaced by an annoyed smirk.
'You cheated,' he stated, holding his aching side.
'Since when are Slytherins concerned with cheating?' she looked at him.
Draco suddenly remembered that he wanted to be alone and frowned.
'Since I wanted you to go away,' he said in a cold voice that sent chills down Ginny's spine. She finally acknowledged what had just happened. She had tickled Malfoy, MALFOY of all people! Was she going insane? She blushed madly as she watched Draco's disgusted expression.
'Fine,' she stood and glared at him. 'I didn't want to use this stupid field anyway. I don't even like Quidditch.' She took hold of her broom and swung her leg over it, with more hatred towards Draco than ever before. She kicked off the ground and glided upwards; until she was nothing but a speck in the sky and flew in the direction of the lake where Draco lost visibility of her.
Draco sat there for a second, looking at the spot where Ginny had just been. His side still ached a bit so he still hadn't gotten up. Draco was angry at the little Weasel. What nerve did she have to tickle him, touch him and make him laugh out of all things? What if someone had seen them? They would have told his father for sure and then what?
Draco got up, brushing the dirt off of his robes. He grabbed his broom and the Sn - damn! Ginny had taken the Snitch! Well he wasn't about to chase after her after what she had done. She could keep it for all he cared. He didn't want to see that face, those eyes, those lips.right at this moment, he was more annoyed at the Weasley than usual. 'I should have hexed her when she did that to me.' he thought to himself. Why hadn't he hexed her? If it had been any other Weasley he would have done a bit more than yell at them.
He had just gotten off the Quidditch pitch and was walking back to the castle when he spotted a large shadow circle him on the ground. The next second, a large reptile-like bird had landed in front of him. Its wings were those of a dragon, as well were its claws and tail. The rest of the bird was covered in feathers and it had a sharp eagle-like beak. The bird brought an essence of great importance to itself.
'Get out of the way Lucifer,' Draco warned the bird. Lucifer was his father's bird. It was half dragon, half eagle. He had never gotten along with this bird. It was extremely faithful to Lucius, but once with Draco, it would claw and bite him wildly. The bird circled Draco slowly, extending its neck and pecking at his robes threateningly. It then dropped a black envelope in front of Draco that it had been holding in its beak. Lucifer gave a loud caw and snipped at Draco's arm violently before taking off again. Draco stared at his bleeding arm then at the letter. He took it off the ground and took out a long piece of fine parchment which had an 'M' on the top. It was from his father. His hands flinched as though the letter was burning him as he read it. His eyes widened in shock, eyebrows raised. He put the letter on the ground and used a spell to burn it to ash as the letter instructed him to do. Clutching his Firebolt hard he walked back to the castle in hopes of some breakfast, the last few words of the letter still rummaging in his brain.
.You have until graduation. It all depends on you boy. Do not fail the curse, do not fail me and do not fail the dark lord. Virginia Weasley must trust you. She must love you. Do anything in your power to make her love you.
The letter went on to tell Draco of the spell and what he had to do.
i ... Do anything in your power to make her love you. /i
'This,' Draco thought to himself, 'is going to be one interesting year.'
_________________________________________________________________
A/N: There's more to come, I'm halfway done the second chapter. Just a hint, reviews make me write faster! ;)
A/N: I have written this SO long ago and I never bothered to post it. So thanks to my very pushy beta reader, Rachel, here's my story. So thanks to both of my beta-readers Rachel and Lily (no, not me.) :) Please review! Enjoy!
Chapter One- Everyone knew their love was wrong. Their love had begun because of Lucifer's message itself.
Lucifer's Message
Harry Potter awoke drenched in sweat and shaking, his scar throbbing. He pushed his palms against his forehead in a feeble attempt to stop the pain. There were few reasons why his scar would hurt so much. He knew that some thousand miles away, or not, Voldemort was angry, very angry.
*
'What is the matter now Wormtail!?' Voldemort's red serpent eyes burned a hole into the cowering man's head.
'My Lord, there was a problem with the spell.' Wormtail shielded his face with his hands as he said this, as though it would actually shield him from the Cruciatus curse if Voldemort would decide to punish him.
Voldemort turned sharply towards the fire. At this movement, the short man fell onto his back from pure fear. Voldemort hissed in disgust at this sheepish reaction.
'WHAT Wormtail, WHAT has gone wrong!?' Voldemort's patience was wearing thin. 'The spell should have worked. It would have made me more powerful than ever, more powerful than even.Dumbledore.' Voldemort hid a shudder and continued, 'Lucius himself confirmed the dark spell would work. We have all the ingredients; we have killed the sufficient number of people and spilled more than enough blood.' He paused for a minute, watching the dancing flames in the fire and heard Wormtail's whimpers. 'So, my dear Wormtail, could you tell me what could have possibly gone wrong?' Voldemort kept his red eyes glued on the fire as Wormtail managed to scamper off the floor like the rat he was.
'My Lord. The spell from the ancient tombs is correct. We have done all, there was just one thing missing.' Voldemort gave a scowl and Wormtail continued quickly in hopes of escaping a rather painful curse. 'What the spell does in enforce the soul-'
'I KNOW WHAT THE CURSE DOES YOU DUMBSTRUCK IDIOT! WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHY IT DID NOT WORK!' Voldemort looked away from the fire now into Wormtail's unworthy eyes. 'My patience is wearing thin Wormtail. And consider yourself lucky to be warned, I have more than half a mind to use the Cruciatus curse on you right now.' His voice had gone dangerously low.
Wormtail whimpered. 'SPEAK!' Voldemort had already drawn his wand from his pocket and was pointing it at Wormtail, his long skeletal fingers gripping the handle hard.
'Master! Please! I beg mercy; I say all I know to you! I am loyal to you! The reason that the spell did not work my lord is because you do not have all of your soul. Some of your soul is not within you.' Wormtail cowered against a corner now as Voldemort turned back to the fire and sat in a black arm chair. A large green snake had slithered onto Voldemort's lap and he was now stroking his head as he spoke, 'Do you mean to tell me I do not have all my soul in my body? I have never given my soul to anyone, nor shared it.' He hissed and Wormtail advanced slightly from the corner.
'Six years ago, my Lord. When the young Virginia Weasley had passed part of her soul to you as she wrote in your diary, you passed her an extremely small portion of your own by writing back. But the spell will not work if even the smallest fraction of your soul is missing.'
Wormtail's words seemed to melt into the air. Voldemort stared hard into the fire. His eyes reflecting the flames as well as his mood.
'Can you not think of a simple way to get it back, Wormtail?' Voldemort spat at Wormtails stupidity. It wasn't common knowledge to most of the wizarding world. But the most powerful wizards knew that the soul a person possessed flowed through their veins in their blood, in their heart. All he would have to do is kill the girl and drain her heart of its blood. It would not be one of his hardest tasks.
'Sir. It is not as easy as it makes out to be. The curse is protected by a very weak counter curse placed by powerful wizards. They did not manage to stop the spell completely but they did make it a lot harder to complete. There can be no other magic except for the spell itself used to achieve this. Magic can't even be used on the people whom console with her. That is why the blood shed had to be done the muggle way.'
Voldemort could see the problem with this. He would not be able to put the girl under the Imperius curse to get her to the graveyard where he needed to make the slaughter, as the spell had to be made where the remains of his father lay. Another annoying condition of the spell. He would not be able to Stun her or control anyone in contact with her. But he could simply send one of his Death Eaters to get the girl. There would be no need for magic; just strength. Voldemort voiced this to the small rat-like man beside him.
'The girl,' Wormtail's voice was even more cowardly as he was about to upset his Dark Lord very much. 'The girl must want to go to the graveyard. She has to be willing to go.'
Voldemort did not see how this could be done. He could not use magic so he could not make her want to come. She surely wouldn't take the word of anyone loyal to him and he could not use a spell to make someone close to her convince her. Also, they would surely not agree to this under a threat without magic when they could use magic themselves. Voldemort glared angrily at Wormtail, his wand in his right hand up and about ready to take some of his frustration out on Wormtail. He was about to mutter 'crucio' when he was struck with an idea.
'Malfoy's boy,' he demanded of Wormtail who was now on the floor expecting the worst. 'He goes to Hogwarts does he not?' Wormtail squeaked in agreement.
'He must get close to the girl, befriend her, seduce her, and make her love him. Then she would trust him. He could lead her to me. I would need to use no magic; I know I can trust the Malfoys. They have been loyal to me. Yes.this will work out just fine,' Voldemort smirked in satisfaction, and seeing this, Wormtail had the courage to stand and slightly smirk as well. As soon as he did Voldemort turned.
'CRUCIO!'
Wormtail screamed and lay twitching wildly on the floor as Voldemort walked through the threshold of the door into the musty hallway.
* * *
iGinny lay on a cold stone floor, she was shivering and hurt. Tears trickled down her bleeding cheeks. A tall dark figure stud in front of her, arms raised. A long skeletal hand grasped her on the shoulder and she let out a scream of pain. It was not the hand causing the pain, but a harsh, hot pain on her chest. It hurt so badly, she twitched in pain and her breath sped. A red light was glowing beneath her robes. She reached and grabbed a crystal connected to a white gold chain that she apparently wore around her neck. The crystal was clear and tear shaped with a liquid centre which at the moment glowed red and exposed extreme heat. Ginny could not hold it any more, the pain was starting to numb her and she wished it would stop, she wished she was dead.
'No!' a voice hissed from somewhere in front of Ginny and there was an explosion of white light.
Darkness sped into every corner of her mind./i
Ginny awoke, gasping like a fish out of water. Her chest burned incredibly and her breathing was rapid and unusual. Everything was blurry and for a few moments Ginny had no idea where she laid. As the pain subsided and the blur in her eyes retreated, the top of her four-poster came into view. She lay on her bed, Ginny now remembered, in Hogwarts. Her sheets were tangled and drenched in sweat.
Ginny sat up in her bed, her back against the backboard. She peeked her head from inside her bed hangings and saw Liz, Michelle, Stephanie and Emma, her roommates, sleeping peacefully in their beds. Something told Ginny that it was too late to go back to sleep but too early to be awake. Ginny quietly stumbled from her bed, the dream still vivid in her head but fading quickly. She opened the chest at the foot of her bed and rummaged through it for about a minute until she retrieved a small black box from a hidden compartment. She sat back down on her bed with the box, using the palm of her hand to clean away the dust that had settled atop it. She lifted the lid form the box and laid it gently upon her bed. From the box Ginny extracted a rather pretty looking necklace - in fact, the very same necklace from her dream. The clear, drop-shaped jewel hung from a fine white gold chain. The only difference was that the liquid centre in the crystal was not a dangerous red, but a cool silver liquid. Even as Ginny wrapped her hand around the jewel a cool tranquil sensation broke out through her body and relaxed her.
This necklace had been given to Ginny when she was twelve, only two months after her aunt had died. Adrian Sivilus, Ginny's aunt had once been a great Auror. She had defeated countless evils and had even served the Order of the Phoenix many times. It had been on one dreadful October afternoon that Adrian had been killed by a Death Eater. But Ginny had never been close to her aunt and had only seen her as a small child. It had been two weeks later that a large and powerful bird had swooped through Ginny's window and laid a black box and a note upon her bed. The box had contained this very necklace and the note had simply read:
iMy dearest Virginia,
This is a gift for you. If you are receiving this before your coming of age I have indeed passed away. I would like to present you with this gift in hopes that one day it may come of some use to you. It is a spirit stone; it tells the wearer if the spirit of those around her is stained. The instructions are included inside the box. Use it well.
Best wishes,
Adrian Shane Sivilus. /i
Unfortunately, the instructions seemed to have been lost in the delivery but Ginny had pretty much figured it out. When Fred and George had lied about putting fizz bombs in Ron's bed, the stone that Ginny hid from the rest of the family under her cloaks (she preferred to keep her belongings to herself) had turned red and given off slight heat. And as when anyone lied, including herself the liquid within the stone would turn red and give off heat. It was a sort of lie detector. It made sense as the note had said it would detect a stained soul, and a lying one was definitely a stained one.
Ginny looked around her dark dorm. She could hear her roommates breathing softly in deep sleep. Ginny decided that since she probably wasn't going to go back to bed she might as well take a shower and maybe even take a quick ride on her broom down on the Quidditch pitch. Not many people knew she liked to fly. She would usually do this at odd times of this day when it was very early or late. She liked the feeling of being alone and free, the wind in her face and how her hair flapped in the wind as she soared and glided on her broom. Ginny would often fly to high up places where there weren't any people and write her poetry and journal entries. Although don't be mistaken, Ginny still didn't like Quidditch very much, it was a brutal sport really. She glided silently back over to her trunk and took out a towel, a pair of muggle jeans and a light baby blue tank top. She had recently started experimenting with muggle clothes and rather liked how it looked on her. Some teachers objected to this though, so during classes, she would wear her robes and skirt. Ginny put the necklace back in her trunk and went off to the girls' washroom to take a shower and ponder over the strange dream she had had.
Ginny was now in her sixth year at Hogwarts. She had recently had her sweet sixteen and she looked the part too. Ginny was taller than she had been back in first year although compared to the average Hogwarts student she was still relatively short. Ginny's flaming red hair, which she had refused to cut short as her mother wanted her to, reached her lower back. Her looks had changed immensely over the summer. Instead of childish and cute she was now slim, curved and gorgeous, which of course, all of the boys in Hogwarts had noticed. Including a certain Draco Malfoy.
* * *
A glinting flash of gold teased the blond boy as it passed right above his head. Draco noticed this and went into a quick dive. He stretched out his hand in hopes of catching the Snitch, and succeeding without any trouble. He held the Snitch tight in his palm for a moment before releasing it once more and giving it a 10-second head start. Draco Malfoy was now in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Draco had become, over the years, a very skillful Seeker. His eyes were sharp and his reflexes more so. His father had finally caved in and bought Draco a Firebolt, so this year, it would be a fair fight against Potter. Draco had, as a result of his extreme improvements in Quidditch, been made the Slytherin Quidditch captain.
His final year at Hogwarts also meant other changes and events would soon take place. Draco was to take his proud place as a Death Eater in the summer to come. The truth was that Draco Malfoy was no longer crazy about the idea of becoming a Death Eater. He had recently turned 17 and he was starting to mature and form his own opinions. Draco had never been fond of his abusive father but had always thought himself taking after Lucius as a Death Eater. He had never had a second thought about it until recently. He had started to think Voldemort's ideas were a bit out there. A little too, 'oh look, I'm the evil villain trying to take over the world,' sort of thing. He had also never really taken in the seriousness of the situation. He had never really thought what it would mean to be a Death Eater until recently when he started to feel Death Eater blood in him. All Death Eater children were born with Death Eater blood, better known as black blood. It wouldn't really affect the child until the coming of age (eighteen) when it would be used to give the child the Dark Mark, just another way for Voldemort to keep track of his followers really. But now that Draco was approaching this age, he could feel the blood. It gave him a thirst to kill, made him angry and raged. And he didn't like to be controlled like that. He was definitely not looking forwards to becoming a Death Eater as so many of his fellow Slytherins were. Draco shook the thought out of him and went back to looking for the Snitch. He immediately saw the flash of gold above the right hoop on the opposite end of the field. He arched his broom slightly and sped towards the Snitch.
He had just about reached it when a red blur raced across the field and caught the Snitch! Draco had just reached that end of the field to find none other than Ginny Weasley holding the Snitch in her hand. He noticed she was rather good, as she had played Seeker for a few months while Potter had been banned from playing Quidditch, but nothing compared to himself, of course.
'Did you know that someone has let the Snitch out?' she said, obviously not noticing who flew behind her.
'Yes Weasley, I did know. I let it out. And if you wouldn't mind I was practicing.'
Ginny swiveled her head and looked at Draco's cold grey eyes. He now only realized that she was wearing muggle clothes.
'What are you doing out here so early in the morning?' she looked at his annoyed expression but held the Snitch tightly in her hand which was struggling hard to get free. It was still relatively dark and the sun hung about halfway to a full sunrise. It must have been about 5:30.
'I told you Weasel, I was practicing!' Draco was annoyed at her presence. He wanted her to go away and leave him alone. Flying and practicing at odd times of the day had become Draco's getaway from thoughts of his father and Voldemort. He liked the time he spent alone flying through the crisp morning (or night) air. Now she was intruding on him.
'Now if you don't mind leaving-'
'Excuse me Malfoy! But I'm not going anywhere,' Ginny did a little half spin on her broom, letting the slight breeze push back her hair which was down at the moment. 'This isn't your field, I don't happen to see your name on it.'
Draco sighed, annoyed, and got his wand out of his robe pockets. He flew over to the closest stand, which happened to be Hufflepuff's, and wrote his name in big dark glowing green letters.
Quidditch Field - Property of Draco Malfoy.
'There. See my name? Now go, shoo little Weasley, shoo!'
Ginny stared at him in annoyance but she seemed slightly interested. She tilted her Cleansweep slightly as to appear taller than Draco and flew closer to him with only inches apart. With the hand in which she held the Snitch, she punched him lightly so it wouldn't hurt him, but would knock him backwards anyhow. She then let go of the Snitch. Still looking straight into his eyes, a mischievous smile crept onto Ginny's face.
'Tell you what; I'll race you for it. First one to catch the Snitch.'
Draco looked at her. One eyebrow raised, an annoyed smirk upon his face. He didn't want to deal with a Weasley, especially this Weasley. But it seemed quite obvious that she was not going to leave if he didn't do this, so he groaned in acceptance.
'Fine, but you have to leave after I catch it,'
'Hey! Who said you were going to catch it?' And with that, Ginny flew higher. Her head swiveled from side to side in search of the glittering gold. Draco sighed and took his place on the other end of the field, looking around. He immediately spotted the snitch near the Slytherin stands, but he did not dive for it. He looked at the youngest Weasley with interest, as she swerved her head from one place to another. He was amused watching her, he knew where the Snitch was and she didn't.
Draco didn't know what had happened to Ginny over the summer but she looked absolutely gorgeous. She had grown taller, curvier and slim. Her skin was soft and her hair shone brightly under the rising suns rays, and if he said so himself, she looked quite stunning in muggle clothes. He for one knew that she had smitten most of the boys in Hogwarts, including many of his fellow Slytherins. If he hadn't been a Malfoy, and she hadn't been a Weasley he might have been caught staring at her in the hallways and in the Great Hall. But Draco's hate for the Weasleys went deeper than looks.
The young Weasley went into a dive headfirst, and Draco noticed he had been staring at her, distracted from the Snitch. He too went into a dive. Even though Ginny was a lot closer to the Snitch, it would be no competition. A Firebolt against a Cleansweep was something to laugh about. But he was a Malfoy, he didn't laugh. Draco knew he would reach the stands a lot quicker than she would and so he did. He grabbed the Snitch in his right hand. He was about to turn and smirk at the girl when he felt a sharp pain in his side. Ginny had no idea why she had done it. She didn't think of him as Malfoy, just a guy who had what she wanted in his hands, so she dove. Draco's eyes filled with tears, but they weren't from the pain, they were of laughter. Ginny had taken to tickling his side and grabbing for the Snitch in his right hand. It wasn't a good idea to tickle someone on a broom while in the air, which Ginny discovered as they both fell onto the ground below, luckily only about a meter from where they had just been flying. She still did not give up. Ginny had found this a good way to deal with her brothers when they had taken something of hers. She was sure she had heard Malfoy laugh, it was strange but it stopped immediately as he loosened his grip on the snitch and she grabbed it from his hands.
Malfoy lay on the ground, gasping for air. It had been a long time since he had laughed and it seemed his lungs were not used to the idea. His side ached and he groaned, wiping the tears from his eyes. Draco wished with all his might that no one had just seen that.
'What the-'
'I WIN!' Ginny pronounced proudly as she held the Snitch up for him to see.
'No you do not. I caught it first. I win.'
'You caught it first but I have it now don't I?' Ginny grinned and Draco couldn't help but grin himself. As fast as that grin had come though, it was gone, replaced by an annoyed smirk.
'You cheated,' he stated, holding his aching side.
'Since when are Slytherins concerned with cheating?' she looked at him.
Draco suddenly remembered that he wanted to be alone and frowned.
'Since I wanted you to go away,' he said in a cold voice that sent chills down Ginny's spine. She finally acknowledged what had just happened. She had tickled Malfoy, MALFOY of all people! Was she going insane? She blushed madly as she watched Draco's disgusted expression.
'Fine,' she stood and glared at him. 'I didn't want to use this stupid field anyway. I don't even like Quidditch.' She took hold of her broom and swung her leg over it, with more hatred towards Draco than ever before. She kicked off the ground and glided upwards; until she was nothing but a speck in the sky and flew in the direction of the lake where Draco lost visibility of her.
Draco sat there for a second, looking at the spot where Ginny had just been. His side still ached a bit so he still hadn't gotten up. Draco was angry at the little Weasel. What nerve did she have to tickle him, touch him and make him laugh out of all things? What if someone had seen them? They would have told his father for sure and then what?
Draco got up, brushing the dirt off of his robes. He grabbed his broom and the Sn - damn! Ginny had taken the Snitch! Well he wasn't about to chase after her after what she had done. She could keep it for all he cared. He didn't want to see that face, those eyes, those lips.right at this moment, he was more annoyed at the Weasley than usual. 'I should have hexed her when she did that to me.' he thought to himself. Why hadn't he hexed her? If it had been any other Weasley he would have done a bit more than yell at them.
He had just gotten off the Quidditch pitch and was walking back to the castle when he spotted a large shadow circle him on the ground. The next second, a large reptile-like bird had landed in front of him. Its wings were those of a dragon, as well were its claws and tail. The rest of the bird was covered in feathers and it had a sharp eagle-like beak. The bird brought an essence of great importance to itself.
'Get out of the way Lucifer,' Draco warned the bird. Lucifer was his father's bird. It was half dragon, half eagle. He had never gotten along with this bird. It was extremely faithful to Lucius, but once with Draco, it would claw and bite him wildly. The bird circled Draco slowly, extending its neck and pecking at his robes threateningly. It then dropped a black envelope in front of Draco that it had been holding in its beak. Lucifer gave a loud caw and snipped at Draco's arm violently before taking off again. Draco stared at his bleeding arm then at the letter. He took it off the ground and took out a long piece of fine parchment which had an 'M' on the top. It was from his father. His hands flinched as though the letter was burning him as he read it. His eyes widened in shock, eyebrows raised. He put the letter on the ground and used a spell to burn it to ash as the letter instructed him to do. Clutching his Firebolt hard he walked back to the castle in hopes of some breakfast, the last few words of the letter still rummaging in his brain.
.You have until graduation. It all depends on you boy. Do not fail the curse, do not fail me and do not fail the dark lord. Virginia Weasley must trust you. She must love you. Do anything in your power to make her love you.
The letter went on to tell Draco of the spell and what he had to do.
i ... Do anything in your power to make her love you. /i
'This,' Draco thought to himself, 'is going to be one interesting year.'
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A/N: There's more to come, I'm halfway done the second chapter. Just a hint, reviews make me write faster! ;)