Cast Away

~* I know it's been a while, but I had to get settled into school again, and then my Internet was stuffing up, sorry everyone. Here's the next chapter. *~

Chapter 19 ~ The Faded Light

Sigma's funeral had been a real eye opener to most people in Hogwarts. There were some who considered her evil and repulsive, but others just thought she was a quite girl who stayed out of trouble. Ginny's confession gave everyone new light on Sigma's character. People passed Ginny in the halls and gave her strange looks, quickly passing her, considering her not one to be associating with.

Ginny, however, was far too used to being passed over to even give it a second thought. She had gone from quiet and unseen to popular by besting Draco Malfoy, and then to an outcast. People now knew about Maria's death, and those who didn't know, knew that she was carrying a baby, and that it was stolen from her.

An air of fear hung over the school as students and teachers tried to carry out their duties. So far, nothing was being done about Maria's stolen baby. Dumbledore had known that Voldemort could do nothing with the baby while it was still growing.

Julia and Cassandra wandered aimlessly around the school, completely placing the blame on Ginny. They blamed her for Maria's untimely death and the horrendous kidnapping which occurred.

So Ginny fell back to the shadows, no-one noticed her, or worried about her, save one.

Ginny was up in a small, unused classroom on the second floor at midnight, studying for an upcoming potions quiz, when she felt someone else's presence. At first, she thought it may have been Sigma's Projectile Duplicate, but then she was corrected as the person spoke.

'What are you doing up so late, Weasley?' Draco Malfoy stepped out into the lantern light.

'Sorry, I didn't know it was a crime to escape from civilisation,' Ginny replied quickly. He walked around to the other side of the table, pulled over a chair and swung his legs over it, sitting to face Ginny.

'It's not,' He said.

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'That's supposed to mean that I know how you feel, okay?' Draco said haughtily. Ginny looked confused.

'Look, you have to explain, I can't understand your riddles,' Ginny said. Draco took a deep breath.

'Long story, do you have time to listen?' He asked solemnly, waiting for a reply.

'Sure, why not,' Ginny said, putting down her quill.

'Well, it was a long time ago, when I was four years old. My mother was cooking something that smelt really disgusting …

'Mum, what are you making?' A small four year old Draco Malfoy asked, scrunching his nose.

'Nothing that concerns you,' Came the reply.

'It's food, you're cooking, it means that I'm going to have to eat that gross stuff, I don't want to eat that gross stuff!' Draco whined.

'You'll do as you're told,' His mother scowled.

'NO!'

It was at that moment that young Draco realised his mistake, his mother grew suddenly angry, grabbing his tender arm and yanking him towards the oven. Draco screamed openly for his father to help, no such luck. Narcissa Malfoy held him over the oven, finally bringing him down, his stomach burning on the hot plate. A strong aroma of burning flesh was what drove Lucius Malfoy into the kitchen. Immediately seeing the situation, he grabbed young Draco away from Narcissa and locked him in the pantry, leaving him to sob over his aching burns.

'What were you thinking woman?' Lucius screamed.

'He annoys me, Lucius, that child has to go,' Narcissa replied.

'We're not giving away my son,' Lucius replied, and Draco listened as he heard fist connect with jaw-bone. Narcissa let out an ear-piercing scream. 'Now you know what it feels like!' Roared Lucius.

Finally, Draco gave in to his subconsciousness from the pain he was receiving from his burns.

… I woke up in St. Mungos three weeks later,' Draco finished. Ginny looked horrified.

'How could she do something like that?' Ginny asked.

'She wasn't all there upstairs, father sent her to councelling but she'll never be quite fine,' Draco said.

'So, this is why you're such a jerk?'

'In a sense,' Draco told her. 'I just don't want to ever feel that again, not the burns, but the pain of having a trusted loved one hurt you,'

'Look, Malfoy… no offence, but I don't want to hear some sob story, I have my own problems to deal with, without having to worry about you as well,' Ginny said. Draco's face turned stone cold.

'This is what happens when I open up to people, thanks for opening my eyes to how much of a bitch you really are,' He got up and left, leaving Ginny alone. However, she wasn't going to let this be the end of the conversation, leaving all her books and quills, Ginny got up and sprinted after Draco.

'Malfoy!' She yelled, he didn't stop. 'Stop being such a coward!' This got him to stop. He turned around to face Ginny as she approached him. 'So what, you've had a bad experience, no need to let it affect your whole life,'

'You're one to talk,' He said sarcastically. 'You haven't been in my situation,'

'No, I haven't, but that was over ten years ago, move on with your life!' Ginny cried, frustrated.

'It's easier said than done, okay?'

'Look, I'm going through a rough time at the moment -'

'Which is why I thought you'd understand, obviously I was wrong,' Draco said softly. Ginny's eyes immediately lost their fury.

'I'm sorry, but you have to understand that I'm a bit snappy lately, with the death of my best friend, and now the whole school blaming me for Maria's death, it's just not a good time for me to be worrying about anyone else's problems, especially someone who's hated me for all of my school years just because of my family,' Ginny explained. Draco had nothing. He couldn't find words to say. Ginny sighed and turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm.

'It seems to me that we have a mutual understanding,' He said, looking into her eyes.

'And that would be…?' Ginny questioned. Draco leant down to kiss her, but she turned her head and his lips landed on her cheek. He pulled away and looked at her questionably, Ginny avoiding his eyes.

'What?'

'The whole school is hounding me already, I don't need to give them another reason to hate me,' She said. 'I can't date the enemy,' Ginny quickly added.

'Fine, your choice, not like the whole school can possibly hate you even more than they already do, but whatever,' Draco said.

'Don't think of it that way,' Ginny said. 'Think of it as, I'm not attracted to you,' She concluded, and walked off, leaving a very stunned Draco.

~***~

'Hermione, we can't just leave her to be tortured by the whole school, they all think that Ginny is responsible for Sigma and Maria's deaths, and Maria's baby being stolen, we can't let them keep on believing this,' Harry argued.

'They have to blame someone, it'll all blow over in time,' Hermione replied.

'No, Hermione, I don't think this will blow over sometime soon,' Ron said. 'She's my sister, I have a responsibility to make sure she's okay,'

'Hermione, you're telling us that you're prepared to let Ginny deal with the whole school alone?' Harry asked.

'She's got to learn,'

'WHY?' Ron exploded.

'It's not like she's actually done anything wrong,' Harry explained. 'All that happened was she told the school the truth about Sigma, and now they probably think she's in with Voldemort,'

'Which is stupid,' Ron said blankly.

'She got in cosy with Sigma, that gives her two degrees of seperation from Voldemort, which makes her evil to the school,' Hermione said bluntly.

'Oh, and I suppose that means I'm Voldemort's right hand man? Seeing as I've been up against him over four times?' Harry said sardonically.

'And don't forget that you've seen him in flesh too, Hermione,' Ron added.

'Yes, all well and good, but Sigma was working for him,' Hermione replied.

'Why do you have to be so cold?' Harry snapped suddenly.

'He's right you know, just lighten up Hermione, if you won't help us, me and Harry'll do it ourselves,' Ron said.

~***~

'Dude, I heard that the chick Sigma died, that's not cool, she was a groovy chick,' Hank said to Voldemort, who lifted his hands in exasperation from having to listen to Hank's surfer talk.

'Wait a minute, she's dead? Ah, I had no further use for her anyway,' Voldemort looked over at the small filter tank which held Maria's tiny baby.

'But dude, you're going to have to wait a hell of a long time til that lil tyke's old enough to go treasure hunting,' Hank replied.

'When the child is due to be born, I will immediately be able to train it to hunt for the Ministerial Gem,' Voldemort explained. 'After that, it won't do anything else but search for the Gem, for the rest of its life, or until the Gem is recovered.'

'Woah, sounds like a tough life for junior there,' Hank said with a stunned look on his face. Voldemort stroked his chin.

'This child will not know a normal life, it will grow to accept its duties,'

'You didn't have to kill it's momma though,' Hank said sadly.

'You're not worried about Maria Brently, are you? Because that would be really bad for you,' He threatened. Hank cowered.

'Sorry boss,'

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~* A little short, and a little late, sorry guys I hope you liked it anyway. *~

Tylah ~ Hey, great to have you back, and I'm glad you enjoyed your holiday! It's good that you liked all those new chapters, and I hope you liked this one too! Thanks for your reviews, and I'll be sure to update as soon as my schooling allows it!

HarryzBabe ~ Sorry for the sad chapter, but yeah… I hope you liked this one, and I hope it explained some of what will happen to the baby. There was a big Draco/Ginny scene in there, which didn't really go anywhere, but now they'll start to understand eachother better. I hope you liked this chapter!

Rose petel ~ I'm glad you liked that last chapter, and yes it was a very sad one, I even was sad writing it! I hope you had fun reading this one, thanks for your review!

Zaptor ~ Hi, nice to see a new reader! Thank you for all those nice things you said about my story, and I'm sorry for the late update. I hope you liked this chapter, and continue to read my story!

Headmaster Cromwell ~ Thanks for the offer, but I don't really like things like that.

Darcy16 ~ Thanks! Sorry this chapter is shorter but I couldn't think of anything more to add to it. I hope this chapter helped clear up some of your questions about Draco, he really is telling the truth. I hope you liked this chapter, and I'll try to get the next one up as soon as I can!

Kelei ~ You see, Sigma thought she succeed, because it seemed it worked at the time, but really, she only knew that she failed a few minutes after the shock of "succeeding" had settled in. Sorry for the confusion! I hope this chapter helped bring the story back on track to where I was originally going with it, thanks for the hint about that… lol, thanks for reviewing!