J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers own it all

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Chapter 23

Colin smiled as he heard the door to the sixth year boys' dormitory open. He knew that it would be Liane coming to let him know how their friend was doing. Ron Weasley was out in the common room putting on too good a show for any of his roommates to miss and he had heard her voice as she descended the stairs.

"You in here Cols," she called tentatively, not wanting to burst into the room lest she catch one of his roommates in a compromising position.

"Over here Li," Colin replied before folding the letter and tucking it away into his bureau. "How's she doing?"

Liane walked over and threw herself on Colin's bed with a sigh of exasperation. "Physically or mentally?"

Lifting an eyebrow, Colin waited for her to continue.

"Let's just say that our Gin-Gin has returned with everything in its proper order; save perhaps, her mind."

Colin chuckled lightly and continued to observe Liane. He knew all too well Liane's fiery temper and wasn't quite sure that he was willing to take sides on this matter without being more properly informed.

"He's completely talked his way out of everything," Liane continued as her hands flew to either side of her head in frustration. "You remember how livid Ginny was before the ball, when he'd treated her as his concubine in front of those Neanderthals? Somehow, he has managed to come up with some valiant excuse of trying to protect Ginny and she now has some romanticized view of everything that he has pulled."

Colin observed Liane carefully. He knew that the young witch had very definitive opinions regarding independence and that she especially worried about Gin after her Potter obsession. "Liane, I know that you're worried. But is it at all possible that his reasoning wasn't an excuse?" He hadn't been able to stop himself before responding and instantly wished he had not pursued this subject at this time. It was all too fresh for Liane and she would not be willing to see any perspective than her own.

"Colin Creevy," the witch snapped, sitting straight up in the bed and fixing her eyes on him pointedly. "I cannot believe that you would stick up for that snake after what he pulled today; even if he is friends with your little plaything."

Colin cringed at her words. This had been the first time in all the years they had been friends that Liane had made his sexuality sound dirty.

"I didn't mean it Col's," Liane started, instantly ashamed of her words and rising to walk over to him.

"If you hadn't, you wouldn't have said it," he spat back as he straightened his shoulders and turned to busy himself with some papers on his desk.

Liane considered Colin's words carefully. She had not honestly thought too hard on his sexual preferences before. Colin was her friend, someone else she could talk easily with about most things including the male population of Hogwarts. But if she were honest with herself, she thought about his sexuality as little as possible and probably would not have befriended him were it not for Ginny. "Perhaps you're right," she replied, silently cursing her honesty at this moment hoping that it would not cost her a friendship that she valued. "I'm not going to pretend to wholeheartedly understand or accept your choice of companionship. But it is your choice and I have no right to act condescending or belittle that choice."

"So good to know that I have your permission," he replied sarcastically.

"Cols," Liane started, leaning against the desk so that she could look at his face. "I didn't mean it that way. I'm just… you know… I didn't want to lie."

Colin looked up at Liane, a forced laughter falling from his lips. "Wonderful, we've been friends for six years now; you've known I was gay for what… four of those years. I'm glad to know that you are so forthcoming about your true feelings about queers."

"That's not the point at all Colin. You know me well enough to know that if I had a serious problem with you, we would not be having this conversation. Just because I am not comfortable or do not readily accept…"

"Queers?"

"Your sexuality," Liane finished. "That does not mean that I look down upon it or you for that matter. Your friendship is more important to me than anything else. I've already said that I was wrong…"

Colin looked up at Liane. He wasn't nearly as dense as he was behaving. He understood perfectly well what Liane was saying. She had grown up in an environment where the choices he was making were wrong and had not reconciled her personal opinions on the matter, the luxury of being straight he assumed. But she still wanted to be his friend and wanted him to accept her apology. Unfortunately, Colin was not in the mood to continue this conversation, for no matter how well meaning his friend was, undoubtedly she would say something else to get to him.

"So you did," Colin replied nonchalantly to Liane. "Well, as enlightening as this conversation has been," he continued standing up and pulling his robes on over his trousers and shirt, "I'm afraid I have to meet the plaything."

Liane's shoulders slumped slightly before she stood to rise from the desk. As she walked to the door of the dormitories, realization struck her and she turned back to Colin. "Look, I already apologized for the way I referred to Blaise. But, so long as you're meeting him, do be a dear and ask him how he and Malfoy just happened upon us this afternoon. Their behavior seemed rather well executed to have been a chance meeting."

As Liane walked out of the room, Colin silently berated himself for agreeing to help Blaise. "And how will you explain that one to them," he asked himself as he slipped out of his room and the portrait unnoticed.

The Halloween Feast

Draco strode down the corridors swiftly and alone. The Halloween Feast had started an hour ago and he had waved his housemates on ahead of him with no intentions of attending. Unfortunately his Head of House had determined that was not acceptable and paid him a personal visit when not given satisfactory answers as to his whereabouts by his housemates. Draco groaned as he made his way to the Great Hall in response to the veiled threat of detention with Filch were he not to report to the Feast or Madame Pomfrey within the hour.

He briefly considered whether the Potion's Master would honestly take action against a member of his own house before realizing that the punishment would be given privately and did not involve house points. Snape only went easy on his house for the sake of appearances and house points, in this case he would have nothing to lose.

As he approached the entrance to the Great Hall he was taken aback. Ginny had done a marvelous job he noted as he saw a pair of posts detailed in bronze, gold and silver with intricately etched representations of the house mascots running up on either side of the entry way. Above the doorway, a large mural detailed with the same metals appeared. In the center was a fire, on the hearth of which was an abundance of foods representing the last harvest of the year. At either end of the mural was a face looking outward to represent the old gods, one looking out at the year past and one looking on toward the new year. As Draco observed the final detail of the mural he understood why Ginny had spent so much time consulting with Professor Flitwick. She had charmed the mural so that a thin veil flashing Silver fluttered within it as tiny metallic spirits floated throughout the mural crossing the veil between life and the hereafter with ease.

As he strode into the Great Hall he admired her taste. The past feasts had primarily used muggle symbology of the holiday, which no longer held any ties to its true meaning. Ginny had successfully and tastefully included the meaning behind the New Year holiday.

"Ahhh, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore's voice boomed. As Draco looked up towards the head table, he saw that it was not there. As he turned to look about the Great Hall, he saw that gone were the large house tables, rather one large circular table was set in the middle of the hall; students and professors alike feasting from the same table. "I believe that once you have taken your seat the circle will be complete."

Draco walked around the table, noting with amusement that Ginny had included a statue of Salazar Slytherin, as she had statues of the other three founders to denote each houses section of the table. As he took the last seat amongst his housemates Dumbledore continued.

"As our table is now complete, we may continue. We must thank Mr. Malfoy here for bringing back the traditions of yore to this celebration." As the applause erupted in the Great Hall, Draco dared to look out at Ginny sitting across the circle from him. Her head was down and she was reluctantly clapping with the rest of the students.

"As many of you already know, Halloween, or All Hallows Eve is a celebration of the New Year. Muggles have believed since ancient times that on this evening the veil that separates the living and the dead is the thinnest and that we may commune with the dead. As wizards and witches however, we know that once the dead have chosen to leave this world, they shall not return. This does not however lessen the sanctity of this ancient ritual and there is indeed reason to honor and commune with the dead. For this reason, Miss Ginny Weasley who was assisting Mr. Malfoy in preparations for the feast has arranged for statues of the four founders to be placed behind the house tables in honor of their contributions to this institution." Dumbledore paused for a moment to allow for students to admire the founders' of their individual houses before a flood of ghosts poured up through the floor in the center of the table the students were seated at.

"I have also arranged for the ghosts that reside in the castle to join us for the latter part of the feast. I am sure that we are all aware of the danger that threatens our world at this time. I have found that much can be learned by looking to lessons learned of the past. I think that students from all houses will find that the information provided to them by some of the ghosts that reside here at the castle, many of whom you have not encountered yet, will be quite enlightening. Regardless of your house or current alliances, I implore each of you to speak with the spirits that have joined us at this table with an open mind. Think carefully on what experiences they might choose to share with you. You are all young and bright. I trust that if you open your minds and consider what you would like your future to entail, you all will make the right decision."

As Dumbledore finished his speech with that silly grin on his face and cast a prolonged glance across the Slytherin portion of the table, large pumpkins hollowed out with deserts presented neatly inside of them appeared on the table. Draco couldn't help but wonder as he reached for a slice of the pumpkin pie, "The right decision for whom?" Albus Dumbledore wouldn't possibly allow a flock of Slytherin ghosts that did not sympathize with the "path of the light" in to socialize with his impressionable students. It was for this reason that Draco did not attempt to mask his support for Voldemort's ideals when the ghost of a young witch floated over to speak with him. He was no fool, he would not dare pronounce that he and his family were active supporters in Voldemort's army, but he made no attempt to hide that he was sympathetic to his cause.

Author's Note: I know, it's been too long. For anyone still with me, THANK YOU!!!! This chapter well, what can I say? No Draco and Ginny I know, but it's coming. I think we'll find that Draco had an interesting conversation with the young ghost, I promise you, I'm working towards an end here, it's just so much I want to get in there, although perhaps some of the side stories will have to be sacrificed for the sake of actually finishing. I'll let the reviews guide me.

Also, I was raised Catholic and practice Christianity. I have little familiarity with the symbology of the pagan celebration of All Hallows Eve. If anyone out there finds blatant misrepresentations in the Feast scene, kindly leave it in your review and it will go into my list of edits.

Review Responses:

LovesFantasy: hehehe, I wanna understand it too :) No really, I do know basically what solved it, it's just getting back there. Sorry no Blaise and Colin, but you see that it's coming up. You wanna know how much I love you? It's 2 am I have to work in the morning and after this goes up I'm going to rework Chapter 3. ARGH Ron is NOT so easy to write. (the idiot)

Dracomio: not so sure it was a happy medium. Maybe a happy extreme, but it's not abandoned :)

Cjean: hehehe, "I think it would be an awesome story if it made more sense" That is an awesome comment. Don't know if that's a positive statement or not, but it made me smile. I'm hoping that it's the time that throws it off, and that I wasn't the only wishy washy teenage, wait adult, female out there. I can't count the number of times I have decided that I "hate" a guy, and was "through" with him but he did whatever, apologized, serenaded, did flowers, or neat little things with his tongue… I digress. The point is, this is 5th year, Ginny's what? 15. There's some chemistry there, and I don't think it's unreasonable for her to change her mind, after all she's a woman in training and that's our prerogative.

BeckyD: you're welcome. I hope this one somewhat lives up to it's predecessors

BigRed: sorry I made you wait, but here's more!

Nice: Thank you so much for the compliment. I'm glad you're enjoying it

KawaiiRyu: I'm afraid I made you wait, I just hope you didn't disappear.

Bradhadair: Nope not finished at 21, or 22. I'm going to try and work on an outline so I can better end this story and not get quite as stuck as I have been lately

Lalis186: well it took me a while, but I've updated!

Beautiful-exterior: Why thank you!

Rebecca Haliwell: I know it might not have seemed like it, but I haven't abandoned it! I'm glad that you're enjoying it

DGloveangel: Thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately I got sidetracked, but it's updated!

Possum: I'm glad you like Blaise and Colin, I think they may end up being my favorite lil part of this story, despite the fact it's D/G. They're so cute and well, I won't say more now

Silverbutterfly: Awww, it's updated. Thank you for the compliment, it means a lot. BTW I loved Silver Eyes! Can't wait to see something new!

i-forgot-my-name: glad to see that you enjoyed the chapter. I hope this one lives up to your standards as well!

AnitaBlake/BuffyFan: thank's for the compliment, and I get the hint, really I do. I must say this one is getting difficult to write, I mistakenly did not make an outline of any sort, so I have to constantly go back and figure out what has happened and in what tense. I have a sense of the overall story line, but the details are becoming more and more difficult to keep straight. But I will work on it! (It was less than a month this time :))

DracoIsMyLOVER: hehehe, thanks for the review. The italics by in large do represent the past (although I use them for thought also when in the present). I hate the thought of putting flashback on top of the text and this was the best way I could find to demark the tenses I am trying now to put a short description of the past scene now above the tense changes, since I cannot seem to get ff to let me put extra white space in these areas. I will be honest, I have no alliances to a particular ship. I have written Draco/Hermione, Draco/Hermione/Blaise, Draco/Ginny, Albus/Minerva/MmePince, and if I can work up the nerve to do slash, that opens a world of possibilities. But I do enjoy a good old Draco/Ginny. A recommendation, let's see. Jedi Tess of Gryffindor has one I'm reading now (it's in progress) called Potter vs. Malfoy: War's End I do believe. Check out her author's page. I'm enjoying it tremendously. Also LovesFantasy has quite a few fics out there, although I can't recall titles at this time, check her author's page out as well! Wait, I can't not plug my own work. Check out my fairy tale, The Malfoy Weasley Feud. I'm looking to update it hopefully within the week!

Kari Black: Well the update wasn't necessarily quick but here it is, I hope that you enjoy it!

Emilly: hehehehe, Tom Felton, yes he is a handsome young man (have to phrase that carefully, can't be confused for a pedo) But I'm not so sure that Bonnie Wright will get to touch him. Remember this is fanfiction. I doubt Jo will throw those two together (although I'm still holding out hope that he won't become the slime his father is)