Disclaimer: JK Rowling still owns everything, except for Lori. (Except I excluded her in this chapter because she is severely annoying me.)
A/N: I have a feeling I'm backing myself into a corner with this story. Must…break…author's block… D/G fans will like the end of this chapter, I'm thinking. I know that because I love D/G as well and I had a whole lot of fun writing it. ;)
Chapter Five: Carry Me Not
Ginny and Hermione hurried down the corridor in search of Dumbledore's office. Only Hermione had been there before, but faulty recollection of that night caused her to forget the location. Lori apologized and said she had promised Seamus a lunch date earlier that afternoon, and scampered off to the Great Hall. Meanwhile, Hermione and Ginny searched the castle for the familiar entrance to his office.
"I know it was in a hall or something…" Hermione muttered.
"Gee, that's helpful," Ginny said sarcastically, arbitrarily tapping things with her wand, as if she could open anything.
"I'm only trying to help!" Hermione shrieked nervously. "We don't know what's wrong. For all we know Harry could be having random mood swings, and we're overreacting."
"I know." Ginny stopped abruptly. Hermione noticed a few steps later, and turned.
"What's the matter?"
"What if we are overreacting?" Ginny asked. "What if we go to Dumbledore, and he has Harry checked out, and then, there's nothing wrong, and he gets all mad or something? And do we really need to bother Dumbledore about it?" She fiddled with her wand for a moment and added, "I just don't want to react wrongly."
"We aren't, Gin. If Dumbledore thinks everything is fine, then at least we've checked," Hermione reasoned.
Before Ginny could respond, a force hit the back of them and the two girls were shoved forward, nearly falling. They caught themselves in time, but were startled nonetheless. They spun around simultaneously and gasped at who they saw standing before them.
Harry.
It couldn't have been him though; he was standing so formidably, darkness cast over his features. The shine of happiness in his face was gone, and his eyes – his eyes, perhaps his second most famous feature, an emerald, sparkling green – noticeably different. Black pools filled their absence; black pools laced with anger and hate, vengeance-seeking rage and a lust for violence. Hermione and Ginny stared into his soulless eyes, openmouthed and shocked.
"H-Harry?" Ginny whispered hoarsely.
Harry merely glared. Hermione and Ginny slowly backed away, their eyes locked on him.
"Where do you think you're going?" he growled.
Hermione gulped. "We're…going to the library, Harry. Why don't you...go back to your dormitory?"
"No, I don't think so. I don't think you'll be going to Dumbledore either," he rasped. He stepped closer to them, as they backed away. Within a second he was an inch in front of their faces. "Want to know what I think?"
Hermione and Ginny shook their heads. "No – no, we know…we're gonna–" But Harry cut her off.
"I think that you need to learn to stay out of people's way. If I find out you've seen Dumbledore – you will be very, very sorry. Now…get back to wherever you belong." With that, he shoved past them and disappeared behind the corner. Ginny and Hermione stared at the corner for a few seconds before they both came to an unspoken agreement and started running in the opposite direction.
After a few minutes of running, they found themselves in the front of the castle, near the entrance hall, panting. Ginny went to say something, but Hermione held her hand up, signaling her not to speak. She had apparently heard something, and tried to muffle the sounds of her frenzied breathing. A voice was muttering off in the distance, coming from the entrance of the castle.
"Slimy git…make your own damn potion…see if I care…bloody Potter…acting all funny…" Draco was mumbling to himself, striding along at a quick pace with his head down. He didn't notice Hermione or Ginny huddling behind the corner. Being yelled at by two pissed off boys didn't appeal to them.
"Maybe it's hormones," Hermione suggested.
Ginny laughed and shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Malfoy is always like that. Harry, though – that's just odd. Should we go to Dumbledore?"
Hermione fidgeted with the edge of her robes. "I don't think so, Ginny. Something tells me that he meant his threat. Maybe we should just let him alone for a little while, you know, allow him to cool off."
Sighing, Ginny agreed. "I suppose. What do you think Malfoy meant by that potion business? He mentioned something about Harry. Did you hear him?"
Hermione looked confused. "No, I wasn't really listening. My heart was thudding too loudly!" She chuckled and stepped out from the corner. "We should get to the Great Hall. Dinner should be starting soon."
Hermione and Ginny, forgetting their troubles for a moment, walked to the Great Hall, talking happily. They spotted seats near Ron and sat with him, eyeing Harry's empty seat. Ron shrugged grudgingly, apparently still miffed about the fight with Harry. No one else acknowledged Harry's absence. It seemed as if no one noticed his strange behavior except the people he'd verbally (or in some cases, physically) attacked. Neville was still cowering from anyone. His experience with Harry threw him off, and he was afraid that anyone nice was going to go off on him, despite the persuasion of Hermione and Ginny.
Hermione and Ron became immersed in a conversation about something that only they knew about, leaving Ginny to quickly lose interest. Playing thoughtfully with the mashed potatoes on her plate, she gazed around the Great Hall. Her eyes stopped on the Slytherin table, strangely enough, and she looked up and down the table before realizing that Draco too, was absent from dinner. Merely thinking it was a coincidence, Ginny excused herself from the table. Hermione and Ron tried to stop her from leaving but she dismissed their pleas and walked away, leaving her food untouched.
Ginny was just heading up the main staircase when she saw Draco suspiciously sneak down to the dungeons. She knew that no one was allowed down there without a teacher, and no teacher was away from dinner. Draco was sneaking down into the dungeons, to do who knows what. Ginny was ready to think no more of this, but her curiosity of Draco overwhelmed her and she slipped into the open dungeon door.
Ginny hated the dungeons. They were dark, moist, and smelled of rotting mice. Rickety though some of the castle was, the dungeon was by far the most dilapidated and sinister. Ginny knew that the Slytherin common room was somewhere by the dungeons – which, of course, fit them very well. The Slytherin common room was not in this entrance to the dungeon so Ginny had already written that notion off in her head. No, Draco was up to something – and she would definitely catch him.
Her footsteps tapped noisily as she continued down the corridor. She was terrified Draco would hear her, but his heavy footsteps were far too thunderous to hear anything over. A door creaked open at the end of the hall and Draco entered. Ginny felt her heart speed up. She could enter the room also, and possibly get caught, or she could leave now. Deciding on a whim, she followed Draco's lead and crept into the room.
Instantly her eyes were overtaken by darkness. A candle shimmered in the corner, but the small flame was much too dim to brighten the entire room. Draco was muttering to himself in the corner (a habit he had recently picked up) and shuffling through books. Ginny stayed quiet and watched with interest. She could not see clearly what he was looking through. Suddenly, he stood and approached a fireplace. If he were to light it, Ginny would be seen. She felt her way across the wall and found a table, hiding behind it. It was scarcely enough to cover her, but she needed to hide. Draco never lit the fire; instead, he waited and tapped his watch impatiently for several minutes. Ginny waited for something to happen with baited breath. Then, something happened. The fire roared to life and a face emerged within the flames, sounding with a faint "pop." Draco didn't seem the least bit alarmed at the sudden arrival, but Ginny was caught off guard and nearly lost her balance and toppled into the table. Thankfully, she didn't.
"Father," Draco said, nodding towards the head in the fire. Ginny recognized the face – it was that of Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father.
"Draco," Lucius greeted emotionlessly back. "How is the potion working?"
"Perfectly fine, Father. He's changed. More…volatile than before," Draco said carelessly. It sounded as though he particularly didn't want to be there.
"Excellent. Now, you know what to do next. Don't fail, or it will be your ass, not mine."
"I know that," Draco said, irritated. "You have made the antidote, haven't you?"
"That would be my business, Draco. I must go; report back when you've completed your assignment." With that, Lucius's face disappeared and the fire died down. Draco sighed heavily and extinguished the candle. He walked to the door and opened it quietly, letting a small sliver of light leak through the crack in the door.
Ginny stood silently and contemplated whether or not to confront him. She was sure Lucius was talking about Harry. So Draco was in on whatever they were doing, and she was the only person who knew. Draco walked out of the room as Ginny followed. While in the corridor, Ginny mustered up enough courage to call out his name.
"Malfoy!" she yelled down the hall.
Draco turned around slowly, glowering. "What are you doing down here?" he asked menacingly, advancing on her.
"I saw you come down here and I followed. What the hell was that about?" she asked furiously, gesturing to the door they came from.
A spark of alarm flickered across Draco's usually impassive face. "Nothing you would be concerned with."
"It is if Harry is involved. And I know he is," Ginny said threateningly, stepping closer to Draco. She knew she was getting herself into trouble by provoking him, but she was livid.
"Oh, so you're going to protect your precious Potter, are you? Well there's nothing you can do. Do you hear me, little Weasel? Nothing." Draco turned around and attempted to continue down the hallway, but Ginny grabbed his arm and spun him around, catching him off guard.
Ginny had whipped out her wand and held it up to his throat. "What is going on, Malfoy?"
Draco laughed. "Don't dare threaten me, Weasley." He shoved her arm off of his and took out his wand also. "Why don't you try me now?"
Ginny glanced to his wand. He may be powerful with his wand, but she was quick. Ginny glared for a moment and without warning, shouted a curse – at the exact moment Draco shouted one as well. The curse bounced off each other in midair, one red, one yellow, and ricocheted off the walls. Draco and Ginny were shoved backwards from the force of the colliding spells and skidded down the watery floor of the dungeon's hallway. Ginny's scream echoed off the walls, causing even more chaos in the already frenzied corridor.
Then, silence. Only Ginny and Draco's heavy breath could be heard. Ginny moaned in pain and looked down at her ankle. It looked bent in an unimaginable way, and it was definitely broken. Attempting to stand, she cried out in pain and fell once again. A little ways down the hall, Draco stood without a problem and sneered at the struggling Ginny. He moved towards in a swift motion and bent down to inspect her ankle.
"I think it's broken," he said shortly.
Ginny looked at him. "Uh, thanks, Doctor." She struggled to get up again, but the weight on her ankle caused her to fall in pain. "Care to give me a hand?"
Draco scoffed. "Oh, please. This must be like your home. Get comfortable." He started to walk away, but Ginny knew she'd be stuck down there for hours unless he helped her.
"You can't leave me down here! It's getting dark; I'll be down here all night!" Ginny yelled after him. He kept walking. She grew desperate and shouted, "Please, Draco!"
At the sound of his first name, he stopped and turned around. "What did you call me?"
"Draco," she said warily, secretly pleased she caught his attention.
He sighed heavily and went to Ginny again, reaching his hand out. When Ginny failed to stand with just his hand, he sighed again, even more agitated. Much to Ginny's surprise, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to Madam Pomfrey.