Chapter 5: Evil in the Shadows
You can't change it. No one can. It's fate, dear friend.
Ron groggily came back to his senses, feeling warmer than he had been and only remembering the last part of what he'd dreamt. He rolled over slightly and obtained that he wasn't tied to a chair anymore, but the strange device covering his mouth still remained secured to his head. It took him a moment to realize the atmosphere surrounding him was actually quite cold, but wherever it was that he had been, was even colder than where he was now.
Wait where was he?
He finally opened his eyes. When his consciousness had surrendered to the dark, the room he had been in was pitch black. Now it seemed as though the unnatural darkness had been lifted to be replaced by the natural black cloak of the night sky, speckled with winking stars. He took in his milieu and realized he was in some sort of plant house, though most of the green monsters around him looked to him as if they only feasted on fresh meat.
Ron sat up abruptly, backing away from what looked like a Venus Flytrap but looked behind him right before he ran into a bed of Devil's Snare babies.
His eyes adjusted and he realized he was in some sort of greenhouse. As far as he knew, greenhouses usually had entrances and exits. Pulling himself together, Ron timidly began to edge his way around the dark greenhouse, involuntarily housing a frightened look on his face. He bumped into the walls of the greenhouse every now and then and cursed the object covering his mouth. Ron wished desperately to have his wand, but wishes don't always come true.
After an estimated fifteen minutes of walking in circles, Ron concluded that the greenhouse he was held in was somewhat small and everything living in it, as he'd suspected, only fed on fresh meat (which was confirmed after he saw a baby mandrake pounce on a squirrel and gobble it up mercilessly). During his search of the greenhouse, he'd also found a door. Without his wand, his efforts at opening the locked exit were fruitless.
Ron finally walked back to the spot that he had awoken. He sat down and thought of the dream he'd had in his deep slumber. He remembered seeing sudden flashes of people. He'd seen Harry and Hermione both looking depressed. Dumbledore had appeared just for a second, and Snape was there too. He'd also seen his sister Ginny, laughing as she ran through some fields, her flaming hair blowing behind her. The last person he remembered seeing was Draco Malfoy, bowing courteously to his younger sister as if asking her to dance, then cocking an eyebrow at him and lifting his head towards him slightly, revealing a mischievous grin.
Suddenly, Ron heard some rattling. The door! The exit to the greenhouse, someone was attempting to open it. Forgetting his fear and forgetting the number of people who could be on the other side of the door, Ron sprang up and dashed to the door.
"Ow!"
"Move out of the way, you brat!"
"You're the brat. Brat!"
Ron arched an eyebrow. The voices sounded so familiar.
A second later, the door opened and when Ron saw who stood at the door, he mouthed wordlessly and nearly fainted all over again.
* * *
Harry once again had fallen asleep on a heavily cushioned chair in front of the fire. Hermione glided down the stairs leading down from the girls' dormitory in hopes of finding her friend there. It was still pretty early in the morning, so no other students were stationed in the common room at the moment.
Hermione stood in front of the chair where Harry slept. His neck was tilted slightly and she knew he'd have a bad ache there when he woke up. Harry's messy hair looked even messier than usual as he slept, sitting up in the chair. His jet-black hair fell over his eyes; it had been a while since his last haircut. His face looked pale, but since recently, the whole pale look was considered normal for Harry. She wished he would tell her what was bothering him. Hermione glanced at Harry's clothes, the same ones he had worn yesterday, except they were now crumpled. She wondered how his clothes could look so crumpled when he'd gone to sleep sitting up in a chair. She looked to the floor and saw Harry had kicked his shoes off his feet. She knelt down to pick them up when he suddenly stirred.
Hermione, Harry's shoes still in her hands, looked up sheepishly. "Good morning!" She said somewhat cheerily.
Harry looked around for his glasses but realized he had gone to sleep with them on his face. He squinted a bit and looked at the enchanted clock across the room. It was 7:30 AM; he had gotten two hours of sleep— much better than last night. Harry looked up suddenly and realized Hermione must've said something since she was casually staring at him. "Oh, hey," Harry said, blushing slightly.
Harry got to his feet and held onto the chair that he had fallen asleep on to steady himself. He suddenly remembered why he had come into the common room last night in the first place. Harry's head shot up and he looked straight at Hermione. "Ginny!" He said in a half whisper.
"Yeah," Hermione said. "I actually came down here to look for her. I let her borrow my white blouse day before yesterday and I was wondering if she still had it. I felt like wearing it today—"
Totally ignoring what she was saying, Harry interrupted Hermione, "You mean Ginny's not in her bed, at 7:30AM?"
"Well, she could've gotten up to get an early start—"
Not waiting to hear the rest of what Hermione was saying, Harry dashed past her towards the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories, only muttering a faint, "Crap," on his way.
"Harry!" Hermione gasped. By the time she had arrived at the foot of the stairs Harry had gone up, he was already on his way down them wearing a preoccupied expression on his face. Nearly knocking Hermione off her feet, he was now up the stairs of the boys' dormitories and Hermione hurried after him. She was often in the boys' dormitories since Harry and Ron were her two best friends, so entering the boys' rooms wasn't anything for her to hesitate about.
When she'd arrived next to Harry's four-poster bed, she found Harry rummaging through his belongings. After creating a small mess, his right hand emerged from under his bed, holding the Marauder's Map. Realizing he needed a wand to make it work, Harry scanned the room for his own, but realizing he'd left it down in the common room, he finally reached into the hip pocket of Hermione's robes and used her wand instead.
Harry involuntarily looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember the exact words he needed to say to make the map work. His eyes glinted and he whispered (since the rest of the boys were still sleeping), "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Instantly, ink lines began to spread across the beat up piece of parchment in Harry's hands. Lines went straight, then suddenly curved creating hallways, and then went up and down and up and down again creating what looked like stairs. Soon, letters were formed across the top; great, curly green words and the last addition to the map were labeled dots.
Harry looked at the top right corner in the boys' dormitory of the Gryffindor common room and found two dots labeled "Harry" and "Hermione".
"Ginny! She's not here!" Harry hissed, scanning the map one more time.
Realizing what Harry was getting at, Hermione snatched the map away from him, squinted her eyes and look through the map. Harry was still in a dazed shock. If he hadn't been so thick last night, Ginny probably wouldn't have done something so… pointless… stupid? Hermione, her eyes frantic, looked down at Harry who was sitting on his bed. "Ron's not in the castle either."
Harry took the map back from her and narrowed his eyes, focusing on the bottom left corner of the map: the Slytherin common room. About a minute later, Harry, looking very grave, stared into Hermione's eyes. "Malfoy's not here either."
* * *
Ron stared horrorstricken at the two familiar people standing at the door. One was his younger sister Ginny, her innocent face the last he'd expected to see in a place like this.
"Finite Incantatem," Ginny said, her wand pointed at the lock holding Ron's mouthpiece unto his head. As soon as the lock had unhinged, Ginny stepped forward and embraced her brother in a tight hug. "I missed you so much," Ginny said softly, stifling some sniffles. She finally let go of him and asked, "Are you alright?"
Ron stared at her sister, completely flabbergasted. Alright? How in Merlin's name could he be alright of all things at a time like this! He finally managed to speak and his voice came out audible, but croaky since he hadn't spoken in nearly two days, "What is the meaning of this? Him? It?"
Ginny turned her head slightly and saw 'this', 'him', and 'it' were all referring to Draco. "You mean you don't know…?" Ginny asked, trailing off.
"I know that this sodding, impersonating git is prancing around in my clothes being me!" Ron said, his short temper already clear in the tone of his voice.
"Same goes for you, Weasley," Ron's impersonator said in a boring voice. He was leaning on one side of the door, arms crossed over his chest, red hair uncharacteristically combed neatly, clothes looking ironed and starched, and his face revealing a state of profuse boredom.
That drawl, Ron thought. The tone used when saying his last name. Something finally clicked in his head and Ron looked at Ginny furiously as he flung out an arm towards the imposter and roared, "MALFOY?!"
Ginny gave a soft squeal, whatever she'd tried to say had come out completely imperceptibly.
"By the way, Weasley, I'll have you know you're paying for my leather pants even though it probably costs more than your bloody house," Draco said to Ron. Ron mouthed wordlessly, trying to get at what Malfoy was saying when Draco continued on, "Those are Armenian leather pants you're wearing."
Ron's eyes leaving the smug look on his imposter's— Malfoy's face, lowered his gaze at his knickers. The lighting was very dim and he realized why he had felt so cold when he had first awoken in the unnaturally cold room and why he felt his lower half was especially revealing now. He was wearing tight black leather pants! Armenian leather pants as Malfoy had put it, and there was a large rip down the bottom of his left pant leg.
Draco reached into his back pocket and removed something compact from it and handed it to Ron. "Normally, only I touch this, but hey, you are me at the time, and this is getting rather boring, so when you look into my mirror, your face, bah— myM face, should look somewhat interesting… humoring… less boring than now?"
Realizing what Malfoy might be getting to, Ron tried to catch Ginny's eye, but she was trying her best not to look at him. Did he really look that horrible? Trying to hide his trembling fingers, Ron opened the pearly white pocket-sized mirror, a faint click sounding from it as he did. He jumped a bit at the click; the mirror was actually a brush and mirror stuffed into one thing. Removing the brush away from the silver pool of truth, the mirror, Ron first gazed intently into Draco's prized possession, but that look of intent soon turned into stark terror.
Around his chin were red lines from where the object that had covered his mouth used to sit, but they seemed even redder since the skin covering his face was so pale he could probably have success hiding in snow. The red lines were the least of his worries, however. His eyes were a cloudy shade of gray, looking into the pocket-sized mirror from slim slits in his head even though it felt as though his eyes were bigger than they seemed. His eyelashes were long and tickled the skin below his silvery eyebrows or just below his eye whenever he opened or closed his eyes. He looked up and noticed platinum colored strands of hair hovered just above his eyes. He readjusted the mirror and squealed a low squeal of surprise. Blonde and red, they weren't two colors that were easily confused. He took a closer look, silver? It was so neatly combed, too, but it was so long! Some stray wisps of hair were tucked behind his ears— were they his ears? What was going on? Next he examined his nose. It was so pointy! It was elegantly carved and pasted with care onto the center of his face, yet the sharpness of it ruined any beauty something as insignificant as a nose may have been able to convey. Sharper yet was his chin. The whole entire countenance he was staring at was neatly arranged on his head, everything had a sharp and succinct distinctness leading one to believe anything about the person who wore the face. However, if only focusing on just one spot of the face at a time, as he was doing now, the experience was enough to make one's stomach lurch. He felt that if he bowed his head just a little, he might be able to poke a hole into his shirt. His shirt! The last he remembered, he'd been wearing a checkered green shirt that had been handed down to him from Charlie. Now he wore a silky black shirt… it looked expensive too. Ron looked further down his body and just as Malfoy had pointed out, his shirt was tucked into a pair of black Armenian leather pants! The shoes hidden under his pants looked expensive, too.
Not bothering to see if his red socks were still on his feet, Ron abruptly snapped the mirror shut and clenched it hard in his fist. "MALFOY! WHAT THE SODDING HELL IS THE MEANING OF THIS? WHAT KIND OF SPELL DID YOU PUT ON THIS BLASTED MIRROR—?"
"Spell?" Draco interupted in a calm and somewhat bored tone of voice. "Here I am," Draco indicated, using his hands to showcase himself, "in your oversized shoes, in your unstylish red socks, in your baggy blue jeans, in your filthy green shirt, in your freckle-filled face, under your mop of sodding red hair." Draco paused and suddenly put his left arm around Ginny, surprising her a bit by pulling her close, and then added, "With your sister." And quickly he added one more comment, "By the way, mirror's pronounced 'meer-ir', not 'meer'." He ended snickering quietly.
Ron was fuming now. How could he be stuck in Malfoy's body? That's disgusting! He thought, not knowing it was one of the first things Draco had thought to himself as well. He was driven out of his thoughts at hearing a crack. He'd been squeezing the compact mirror so hard that an inch-long crooked crack had appeared on the top of it. Draco still had the smug expression on his face; he obviously hadn't noticed the minute sound from the crack emitted from his precious mirror.
Ron nearly charged at Draco, but he was startled beyond reason at what he saw Draco doing next. Draco removed his arm from Ginny's shoulder, who still looked as though she was going through the last bits of shock. He bowed slightly, his right knee bent a little, placed behind his bent left leg that was supporting most of his body. His right hand was across his stomach and his left arm extended towards Ginny, open-palmed. Draco lifted his head high enough so Ron was just able to see the sly grin snaking across his face and the cocked left eyebrow dancing above his left eye.
Except for the fact that Ron was seeing his own body perform these actions, this was just as he'd seen Malfoy in his dream! Ron was completely dry-mouthed now.
Confused, Ginny took a step back, placing her hands in front of her, her way of refusing the offer. Then she hissed in an iritated whisper, "Dance? You want to dance? We're here to rescue Ron, undo you two, and leave! How in Godric's name—"
Draco had slowly abandoned his elegant pose and now stood tall once again. "Dance? Hell, Weasley, I didn't even say anything!"
"Then why the hell did you have to bow, like that—" Ginny stopped speaking suddenly and stuttered a bit. Ron, her brother in Draco's body stood staring at her with his jaw hanging open. She realized suddenly Ron was staring above her head. "Ron?" Ginny incquired in a caring tone.
"Why?" Draco said, ignoring Ron. "Let me introduce you to some one."
Ginny shivered a little. Now she could feel the presence of someone behind her and it felt eerier than the feeling one gets when he or she feels someone else's eyes on one's body. "W-w-what?" Ginny said lightly, feeling a bit dizzy.
Ginny let out a high pitched scream when she felt someone's snakelike fingers touch her right shoulder. She jumped and her legs refused to hold her up, so now she sat on her knees, her right hand covering her mouth.
Someone with beautiful strands of straight, silvery blonde hair, a pointy nose and chin, and a somewhat pale complexion stepped out from the shadows.
Ginny heard Ron gasp and then Draco bowed once again, looked up at the man who had walked into the room and in his velvety voice he said, "Hallo, Father, so glad you could join us."
Author's Note: So, is Draco evil now? Will he hand over Ginny and Ron to his bad daddy? Ha! As if I'd tell you now… wait until the next chapter! And sorry the chapter was so short. It was only half as long as the last chapter, but then again, the last one was pretty long! Oh well… =p
Chapter Six: Draco's somewhat upset, but D/G have a blunt and uninteresting little conversation. Tom Riddle confronts Ron once again, and Harry and Hermione are back in the story!
This chapter is dedicated to the big sister I never had: Erika! *huggle squashles* She's always an e-mail away and I can rant to her whenever I want! Her comforting words are like lights from Heaven, and her presence online is always like a blessing. Erika's a wonderful *cough* old lady *cough* friend and though our age difference is about ten years, I'm profusely happy and glad that I know her. :)
Thanks to Jonah, bitchy brunette, Erika, Lily of the Shadow, Bubble, and evil*grrl*13 for commenting on the last chapter! So many commenters! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside now! ^_^
You can't change it. No one can. It's fate, dear friend.
Ron groggily came back to his senses, feeling warmer than he had been and only remembering the last part of what he'd dreamt. He rolled over slightly and obtained that he wasn't tied to a chair anymore, but the strange device covering his mouth still remained secured to his head. It took him a moment to realize the atmosphere surrounding him was actually quite cold, but wherever it was that he had been, was even colder than where he was now.
Wait where was he?
He finally opened his eyes. When his consciousness had surrendered to the dark, the room he had been in was pitch black. Now it seemed as though the unnatural darkness had been lifted to be replaced by the natural black cloak of the night sky, speckled with winking stars. He took in his milieu and realized he was in some sort of plant house, though most of the green monsters around him looked to him as if they only feasted on fresh meat.
Ron sat up abruptly, backing away from what looked like a Venus Flytrap but looked behind him right before he ran into a bed of Devil's Snare babies.
His eyes adjusted and he realized he was in some sort of greenhouse. As far as he knew, greenhouses usually had entrances and exits. Pulling himself together, Ron timidly began to edge his way around the dark greenhouse, involuntarily housing a frightened look on his face. He bumped into the walls of the greenhouse every now and then and cursed the object covering his mouth. Ron wished desperately to have his wand, but wishes don't always come true.
After an estimated fifteen minutes of walking in circles, Ron concluded that the greenhouse he was held in was somewhat small and everything living in it, as he'd suspected, only fed on fresh meat (which was confirmed after he saw a baby mandrake pounce on a squirrel and gobble it up mercilessly). During his search of the greenhouse, he'd also found a door. Without his wand, his efforts at opening the locked exit were fruitless.
Ron finally walked back to the spot that he had awoken. He sat down and thought of the dream he'd had in his deep slumber. He remembered seeing sudden flashes of people. He'd seen Harry and Hermione both looking depressed. Dumbledore had appeared just for a second, and Snape was there too. He'd also seen his sister Ginny, laughing as she ran through some fields, her flaming hair blowing behind her. The last person he remembered seeing was Draco Malfoy, bowing courteously to his younger sister as if asking her to dance, then cocking an eyebrow at him and lifting his head towards him slightly, revealing a mischievous grin.
Suddenly, Ron heard some rattling. The door! The exit to the greenhouse, someone was attempting to open it. Forgetting his fear and forgetting the number of people who could be on the other side of the door, Ron sprang up and dashed to the door.
"Ow!"
"Move out of the way, you brat!"
"You're the brat. Brat!"
Ron arched an eyebrow. The voices sounded so familiar.
A second later, the door opened and when Ron saw who stood at the door, he mouthed wordlessly and nearly fainted all over again.
Harry once again had fallen asleep on a heavily cushioned chair in front of the fire. Hermione glided down the stairs leading down from the girls' dormitory in hopes of finding her friend there. It was still pretty early in the morning, so no other students were stationed in the common room at the moment.
Hermione stood in front of the chair where Harry slept. His neck was tilted slightly and she knew he'd have a bad ache there when he woke up. Harry's messy hair looked even messier than usual as he slept, sitting up in the chair. His jet-black hair fell over his eyes; it had been a while since his last haircut. His face looked pale, but since recently, the whole pale look was considered normal for Harry. She wished he would tell her what was bothering him. Hermione glanced at Harry's clothes, the same ones he had worn yesterday, except they were now crumpled. She wondered how his clothes could look so crumpled when he'd gone to sleep sitting up in a chair. She looked to the floor and saw Harry had kicked his shoes off his feet. She knelt down to pick them up when he suddenly stirred.
Hermione, Harry's shoes still in her hands, looked up sheepishly. "Good morning!" She said somewhat cheerily.
Harry looked around for his glasses but realized he had gone to sleep with them on his face. He squinted a bit and looked at the enchanted clock across the room. It was 7:30 AM; he had gotten two hours of sleep— much better than last night. Harry looked up suddenly and realized Hermione must've said something since she was casually staring at him. "Oh, hey," Harry said, blushing slightly.
Harry got to his feet and held onto the chair that he had fallen asleep on to steady himself. He suddenly remembered why he had come into the common room last night in the first place. Harry's head shot up and he looked straight at Hermione. "Ginny!" He said in a half whisper.
"Yeah," Hermione said. "I actually came down here to look for her. I let her borrow my white blouse day before yesterday and I was wondering if she still had it. I felt like wearing it today—"
Totally ignoring what she was saying, Harry interrupted Hermione, "You mean Ginny's not in her bed, at 7:30AM?"
"Well, she could've gotten up to get an early start—"
Not waiting to hear the rest of what Hermione was saying, Harry dashed past her towards the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories, only muttering a faint, "Crap," on his way.
"Harry!" Hermione gasped. By the time she had arrived at the foot of the stairs Harry had gone up, he was already on his way down them wearing a preoccupied expression on his face. Nearly knocking Hermione off her feet, he was now up the stairs of the boys' dormitories and Hermione hurried after him. She was often in the boys' dormitories since Harry and Ron were her two best friends, so entering the boys' rooms wasn't anything for her to hesitate about.
When she'd arrived next to Harry's four-poster bed, she found Harry rummaging through his belongings. After creating a small mess, his right hand emerged from under his bed, holding the Marauder's Map. Realizing he needed a wand to make it work, Harry scanned the room for his own, but realizing he'd left it down in the common room, he finally reached into the hip pocket of Hermione's robes and used her wand instead.
Harry involuntarily looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember the exact words he needed to say to make the map work. His eyes glinted and he whispered (since the rest of the boys were still sleeping), "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Instantly, ink lines began to spread across the beat up piece of parchment in Harry's hands. Lines went straight, then suddenly curved creating hallways, and then went up and down and up and down again creating what looked like stairs. Soon, letters were formed across the top; great, curly green words and the last addition to the map were labeled dots.
Harry looked at the top right corner in the boys' dormitory of the Gryffindor common room and found two dots labeled "Harry" and "Hermione".
"Ginny! She's not here!" Harry hissed, scanning the map one more time.
Realizing what Harry was getting at, Hermione snatched the map away from him, squinted her eyes and look through the map. Harry was still in a dazed shock. If he hadn't been so thick last night, Ginny probably wouldn't have done something so… pointless… stupid? Hermione, her eyes frantic, looked down at Harry who was sitting on his bed. "Ron's not in the castle either."
Harry took the map back from her and narrowed his eyes, focusing on the bottom left corner of the map: the Slytherin common room. About a minute later, Harry, looking very grave, stared into Hermione's eyes. "Malfoy's not here either."
Ron stared horrorstricken at the two familiar people standing at the door. One was his younger sister Ginny, her innocent face the last he'd expected to see in a place like this.
"Finite Incantatem," Ginny said, her wand pointed at the lock holding Ron's mouthpiece unto his head. As soon as the lock had unhinged, Ginny stepped forward and embraced her brother in a tight hug. "I missed you so much," Ginny said softly, stifling some sniffles. She finally let go of him and asked, "Are you alright?"
Ron stared at her sister, completely flabbergasted. Alright? How in Merlin's name could he be alright of all things at a time like this! He finally managed to speak and his voice came out audible, but croaky since he hadn't spoken in nearly two days, "What is the meaning of this? Him? It?"
Ginny turned her head slightly and saw 'this', 'him', and 'it' were all referring to Draco. "You mean you don't know…?" Ginny asked, trailing off.
"I know that this sodding, impersonating git is prancing around in my clothes being me!" Ron said, his short temper already clear in the tone of his voice.
"Same goes for you, Weasley," Ron's impersonator said in a boring voice. He was leaning on one side of the door, arms crossed over his chest, red hair uncharacteristically combed neatly, clothes looking ironed and starched, and his face revealing a state of profuse boredom.
That drawl, Ron thought. The tone used when saying his last name. Something finally clicked in his head and Ron looked at Ginny furiously as he flung out an arm towards the imposter and roared, "MALFOY?!"
Ginny gave a soft squeal, whatever she'd tried to say had come out completely imperceptibly.
"By the way, Weasley, I'll have you know you're paying for my leather pants even though it probably costs more than your bloody house," Draco said to Ron. Ron mouthed wordlessly, trying to get at what Malfoy was saying when Draco continued on, "Those are Armenian leather pants you're wearing."
Ron's eyes leaving the smug look on his imposter's— Malfoy's face, lowered his gaze at his knickers. The lighting was very dim and he realized why he had felt so cold when he had first awoken in the unnaturally cold room and why he felt his lower half was especially revealing now. He was wearing tight black leather pants! Armenian leather pants as Malfoy had put it, and there was a large rip down the bottom of his left pant leg.
Draco reached into his back pocket and removed something compact from it and handed it to Ron. "Normally, only I touch this, but hey, you are me at the time, and this is getting rather boring, so when you look into my mirror, your face, bah— myM face, should look somewhat interesting… humoring… less boring than now?"
Realizing what Malfoy might be getting to, Ron tried to catch Ginny's eye, but she was trying her best not to look at him. Did he really look that horrible? Trying to hide his trembling fingers, Ron opened the pearly white pocket-sized mirror, a faint click sounding from it as he did. He jumped a bit at the click; the mirror was actually a brush and mirror stuffed into one thing. Removing the brush away from the silver pool of truth, the mirror, Ron first gazed intently into Draco's prized possession, but that look of intent soon turned into stark terror.
Around his chin were red lines from where the object that had covered his mouth used to sit, but they seemed even redder since the skin covering his face was so pale he could probably have success hiding in snow. The red lines were the least of his worries, however. His eyes were a cloudy shade of gray, looking into the pocket-sized mirror from slim slits in his head even though it felt as though his eyes were bigger than they seemed. His eyelashes were long and tickled the skin below his silvery eyebrows or just below his eye whenever he opened or closed his eyes. He looked up and noticed platinum colored strands of hair hovered just above his eyes. He readjusted the mirror and squealed a low squeal of surprise. Blonde and red, they weren't two colors that were easily confused. He took a closer look, silver? It was so neatly combed, too, but it was so long! Some stray wisps of hair were tucked behind his ears— were they his ears? What was going on? Next he examined his nose. It was so pointy! It was elegantly carved and pasted with care onto the center of his face, yet the sharpness of it ruined any beauty something as insignificant as a nose may have been able to convey. Sharper yet was his chin. The whole entire countenance he was staring at was neatly arranged on his head, everything had a sharp and succinct distinctness leading one to believe anything about the person who wore the face. However, if only focusing on just one spot of the face at a time, as he was doing now, the experience was enough to make one's stomach lurch. He felt that if he bowed his head just a little, he might be able to poke a hole into his shirt. His shirt! The last he remembered, he'd been wearing a checkered green shirt that had been handed down to him from Charlie. Now he wore a silky black shirt… it looked expensive too. Ron looked further down his body and just as Malfoy had pointed out, his shirt was tucked into a pair of black Armenian leather pants! The shoes hidden under his pants looked expensive, too.
Not bothering to see if his red socks were still on his feet, Ron abruptly snapped the mirror shut and clenched it hard in his fist. "MALFOY! WHAT THE SODDING HELL IS THE MEANING OF THIS? WHAT KIND OF SPELL DID YOU PUT ON THIS BLASTED MIRROR—?"
"Spell?" Draco interupted in a calm and somewhat bored tone of voice. "Here I am," Draco indicated, using his hands to showcase himself, "in your oversized shoes, in your unstylish red socks, in your baggy blue jeans, in your filthy green shirt, in your freckle-filled face, under your mop of sodding red hair." Draco paused and suddenly put his left arm around Ginny, surprising her a bit by pulling her close, and then added, "With your sister." And quickly he added one more comment, "By the way, mirror's pronounced 'meer-ir', not 'meer'." He ended snickering quietly.
Ron was fuming now. How could he be stuck in Malfoy's body? That's disgusting! He thought, not knowing it was one of the first things Draco had thought to himself as well. He was driven out of his thoughts at hearing a crack. He'd been squeezing the compact mirror so hard that an inch-long crooked crack had appeared on the top of it. Draco still had the smug expression on his face; he obviously hadn't noticed the minute sound from the crack emitted from his precious mirror.
Ron nearly charged at Draco, but he was startled beyond reason at what he saw Draco doing next. Draco removed his arm from Ginny's shoulder, who still looked as though she was going through the last bits of shock. He bowed slightly, his right knee bent a little, placed behind his bent left leg that was supporting most of his body. His right hand was across his stomach and his left arm extended towards Ginny, open-palmed. Draco lifted his head high enough so Ron was just able to see the sly grin snaking across his face and the cocked left eyebrow dancing above his left eye.
Except for the fact that Ron was seeing his own body perform these actions, this was just as he'd seen Malfoy in his dream! Ron was completely dry-mouthed now.
Confused, Ginny took a step back, placing her hands in front of her, her way of refusing the offer. Then she hissed in an iritated whisper, "Dance? You want to dance? We're here to rescue Ron, undo you two, and leave! How in Godric's name—"
Draco had slowly abandoned his elegant pose and now stood tall once again. "Dance? Hell, Weasley, I didn't even say anything!"
"Then why the hell did you have to bow, like that—" Ginny stopped speaking suddenly and stuttered a bit. Ron, her brother in Draco's body stood staring at her with his jaw hanging open. She realized suddenly Ron was staring above her head. "Ron?" Ginny incquired in a caring tone.
"Why?" Draco said, ignoring Ron. "Let me introduce you to some one."
Ginny shivered a little. Now she could feel the presence of someone behind her and it felt eerier than the feeling one gets when he or she feels someone else's eyes on one's body. "W-w-what?" Ginny said lightly, feeling a bit dizzy.
Ginny let out a high pitched scream when she felt someone's snakelike fingers touch her right shoulder. She jumped and her legs refused to hold her up, so now she sat on her knees, her right hand covering her mouth.
Someone with beautiful strands of straight, silvery blonde hair, a pointy nose and chin, and a somewhat pale complexion stepped out from the shadows.
Ginny heard Ron gasp and then Draco bowed once again, looked up at the man who had walked into the room and in his velvety voice he said, "Hallo, Father, so glad you could join us."
Author's Note: So, is Draco evil now? Will he hand over Ginny and Ron to his bad daddy? Ha! As if I'd tell you now… wait until the next chapter! And sorry the chapter was so short. It was only half as long as the last chapter, but then again, the last one was pretty long! Oh well… =p
Chapter Six: Draco's somewhat upset, but D/G have a blunt and uninteresting little conversation. Tom Riddle confronts Ron once again, and Harry and Hermione are back in the story!
This chapter is dedicated to the big sister I never had: Erika! *huggle squashles* She's always an e-mail away and I can rant to her whenever I want! Her comforting words are like lights from Heaven, and her presence online is always like a blessing. Erika's a wonderful *cough* old lady *cough* friend and though our age difference is about ten years, I'm profusely happy and glad that I know her. :)
Thanks to Jonah, bitchy brunette, Erika, Lily of the Shadow, Bubble, and evil*grrl*13 for commenting on the last chapter! So many commenters! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside now! ^_^