Chapter 7: And the Plot Thickens to a Lumpy, Custard-like Mixture…
"You knew it?" Ron asked flabbergasted. "You knew I was a Diviner all this time and didn't tell me?"
"Well, I didn't know all this time—"
"What, you're a Diviner, too?" Ron asked, shooting daggers at Harry with his glare.
There was an uncomfortable silence and Ron huffed, crossed his arms and turned his back to Harry. Hermione shifted at Ron's sudden bitterness, but she too was surprised when Harry answered Ron's question with, "Kind of…"
"What?" Both Ron and Hermione chimed in together.
Seeing Hermione's surprised shock and feeling Ron's acidic woe, Harry decided he should explain just a bit. "I talked to Dumbledore about it a few days ago," Harry began, his tone sturdy as ever.
Hermione raised her head and looked into Harry's bright green eyes, now a bit darker than usual, and was surprised to see that his eyes were staring into hers as well. Throughout the past month, Harry had changed— gotten paler, lost his appetite, and other strange things, but no matter what, he still had the same piercing gaze.
Harry saw Hermione look at him. "I went the day before you went to see him," Harry told her.
"That was—" Ron stuttered a bit, finally uncrossing his arms and looking at Harry, "that was the day Riddle took me." He stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets.
"How do you know it was the day Riddle attacked?" Harry asked.
Ron's eyes were uncharacteristic slits on his head now. "Because it was the day before Hermione went in to talk to Dumbledore. Unlike you, she tells me— her friend, about things she has to do!" Ron was fuming. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, but other than that he kept himself together pretty well.
Harry rolled his eyes. He just couldn't tell them why he'd gone in to see Dumbledore… could he?
"Harry?" Hermione's heavenly voice called, fishing him out of his thoughts. "Harry, if there's anything you'd like to tell us, or anything that's been bothering you, you can tell us," she said, eyeing Ron and making it obvious that 'we' referred to both herself and Ron. "We're best friends Harry, and when you had problems before, you never held anything back."
Hermione's words were usually the icebreaker during tense situations among the trio. Ron sighed and unclenched his fists. "We've always been there for you, Harry, and you've always been there for us." Ron unintentionally laced the fingers of his left hand with the fingers of Hermione's right hand. Hermione began blushing furiously but pretended not to notice— but Harry had noticed.
A pregnant pause followed Hermione and Ron's heartfelt words and Harry finally moved towards the exit of the cell. He tried not to sound cold, but his efforts were fruitless. "Hermione, why don't you take care of Ron's wounds with some medi-magic? We need to find Ginny and Malfoy; I'll wait outside."
* * *
"Out of the way, you oaf!" Snape growled, shoving his way past an enormous Hagrid.
"Oi! I need to see Headmaster Dumbledore, too, y'know!" Hagrid yelled back, shaking his fist and everything around him as he ran after Professor Snape.
Snape usually glided wherever he went, but now his long black cloak swirled and swished around his legs as he hurried down the hallway and then up the stairs to Dumbledore's office. Normally, anyone entering the Headmaster's office knocked at the door to display good manners, but Snape, quite uncharacteristically, barged in!
"Headmaster, I've got dire news to inform you of—"
Hagrid had finally made it up the stairs, having taken them four at a time, and helped himself into the office as well. Huffing and puffing, Hagrid faced Dumbledore. "Professor Dumbledore, 'Arry an' Ron 'an 'ermione… they're all gone!"
Snape gasped a bit, but hid his surprise and turned from Hagrid to Dumbledore. "Yes, well, I came to tell you that Draco Malfoy is not in the castle and has not been here for three days or more."
Dumbledore waited to see if either Snape or Hagrid had anything more to say to him, but both of his visitors felt what they'd said was enough. Before Snape and Hagrid bore holes into one another's heads with their eyes, the Headmaster sighed, itched a spot above his left eyebrow, then a spot behind his left ear, and sat down at his desk. "Yes, Severus," he looked at Snape, "Rubeus," he looked at Hagrid, "This is dire news indeed." With that, Dumbledore popped a lemon drop into his mouth, and smiled.
* * *
Blaise Zabini lay on her stomach on her bed, gazing into the fireplace in her dorm room. She had curled her hair today, so she played with a curly strand of hair, twirling it about the fingers on her right hand.
Suddenly, the fire spoke to her, but Blaise wasn't surprised. "Forgive me for making you wait, dearest," a dark, silky voice said.
Blaise giggled a flirtatious giggle. "Oh Lucius, I'll always wait for you!" She blew a kiss at the fiery image of Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius interrupted her giggles. "About the plan—"
Blaise immediately stopped giggling and now she pouted. She lowered her head and looked at the fire through her eyelashes. "Oh Lucius, I've not been able to initiate it yet! Draco's not been anywhere. Honestly, I'm surprised he's the son of such a brilliant man like you. The boy's got no manners at all!" She squealed in her high-pitched voice.
The tips of Mr. Malfoy's mouth twitched and a tiny grin snaked across his face. "Don't you worry, dearest. Draco is here. But there's been a tiny alteration to the plans—"
"Oh Lucius, the Dark Lord is still coming back, right?"
Lucius immediately switched attitudes with Blaise. "You imbecile! Do not speak of the plan! Where you are, anyone can find out about it!"
Then couldn't anyone find out about her talking to Lucius Malfoy in her fireplace? Blaise scowled inwardly. Pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind, she looked up at Lucius. "I'm so sorry, dear Lucius," she said in a soft voice.
Draco's father muttered something that sounded like, "Stupid girl," bid his farewell, and left, the fire in the fireplace dying down with his departure.
As soon as Lucius had left, Blaise's schoolgirl smile had left her face and she cocked an eyebrow. "Bastard," she said in a low voice as she slid off her bed and walked out of her dorm room.
* * *
Draco straightened up and still wasn't able to fathom why he had fallen through the magical barrier. It was impossible that his father's security system was faulty… so what had it been?
"Draco?" Ginny's voice rang clearly through the air.
Draco's silvery head jerked a bit as he looked up, the hairs on his head moving very slightly. Oh yeah. Her, he thought to himself.
He walked over to Ginny's left side, knelt down on his right knee and reached into his pocket for a hairpin. Seeing the questioning look on Ginny's face, he clarified, "It's Blaise's."
Normally, Ginny would've liked very much to poke some fun at Draco for having a girl's hair accessory conveniently in his pocket, but he looked quite bothered at the moment. The usual sneer playing around the edges of his mouth was missing at the moment… but why wouldn't it be? Ginny recalled the events in the greenhouse several times now and it was quite clear that for some unknown reason, Draco's father had turned on him. The more she thought of the situation from different points of view, the more reasons she found to have pity on Draco. For one, what kind of father would throw his own son into a prison cell?
Ginny remembered that she had been knocked out before coming to the cell as well. She presumed this was most likely done so those prisoners who were able to escape wouldn't be able to find their way around.
It was different for Draco, however. He'd probably been to these dungeons many times before, so he didn't have to be knocked out. But why would Lucius throw his own son into a cell?
The same question kept circling Ginny's head and she only tumbled back into reality when she noticed Draco turning her hand around as best as he could to see if the metal shackles had any keyholes. However, none were found. Frustrated, Draco tossed the hairpin he was trying to use behind him.
Ginny tried to readjust her sitting position, as she was becoming quite uncomfortable at the moment. As she moved, her flaming red hair kept getting into her face and she moved her head around in different ways to get it out of the way.
Meanwhile, Draco looked behind him and found the hairpin he had tossed aside. Ginny looked up and saw Draco lift his left pant leg up to his knee (A little thin, but nice calf muscles, Ginny thought); his wand was attached to his leg!
"Draco, you have your wand?" Ginny said, her voice sounding as if Christmas had come early.
"Actually, I own four wands, but this one came with the pants."
"Oh," was all Ginny could say. Then she suddenly asked out of curiosity, "Where exactly do you get your pants?"
"From my closet," Draco said gruffly.
Ginny would've responded to that, but she was now busy observing Draco. With his snakelike fingers, he had bent the hairpin into a circular shape. Now he twirled the wand in his left hand, perhaps as he thought of a spell. Only moments later, Draco threw the wand two inches into the air, caught it, and tapped two spots on the circular hairpin. The hairpin lifted in the air and was level with Ginny and Draco's noses. Draco put his hand, palm up, under the hairpin, ready to catch it when it dropped. Red and Green sparks circled the hairpin and soon, it began to look like rubber, then it became a bit sturdier and seconds later, it was a rubber band!
Now Draco stood up on his knees. "Move your head that way," he instructed Ginny. She wasn't facing Draco anymore, but the fact that his hands were free (whereas hers weren't) and he was behind her didn't seem to bother her as much as she thought it would.
Next, Ginny felt Draco's strangely gentle fingers go through her hair. Draco gathered her hair together and tied back Ginny's hair with the rubber band he had made.
When she felt his fingers leave her hair, Ginny slowly turned around to face Draco. This was the first kind gesture she had seen him do. True, all he'd done was tie her hair back, but it was thoughtful, and that's what counted. The ponytail was in the middle of the back of her head; it wasn't so low that it rode on her neck, but it also wasn't too high.
"Thanks," Ginny stuttered, her cheeks flourishing to a red color as soon as the word had left her mouth.
Draco simply nodded his head in response and now sat about a foot away from Ginny, his back against the hard cell wall.
Breaking the silence, Ginny asked, "Draco, you've got your wand! Why can't you just undo these chains and magic the door open?"
Draco's mouth began to twitch. He was smiling, and he would have laughed if his head didn't hurt so much. "Are you stupid?" He asked her in a spooky voice.
"Stupid?!" Ginny shouted, bewildered. "You're the one that's stupid! You've got your wand right there!"
"Alright, let me rephrase the question. Do you think my father is stupid? Do you think Malfoy's are stupid?"
She didn't need to think that through, but still her answer sounded as though she was a bit unsure. "No," she said.
"Well, you're not as dumb as you look," Malfoy spat back.
Ginny, taken aback by his sudden bitterness asked, "Why can't you just try a spell or two? What? Have you been locked in here before as well to know first hand that spells don't work here?" As soon as she'd said that, however, the solemn look on Draco's face made her regret it.
His father has locked him up in here before? Ginny thought to herself.
"Sorry," Ginny immediately muttered.
Draco had been in these prison cells before. He suddenly turned his head and looked at Ginny. "I remember that about three years before I came to Hogwarts," Draco began telling Ginny. "Father was teaching me the correct way of handling a hippogriff." Draco gave a masculine snort at this, having overemphasized the term 'correct' a bit too much. "As you might've figured, Father expected nothing less than perfection, so I used to read books about everything all the time. So, when my father asked me to approach the hippogriff, I did as the books I'd read had instructed me to. I locked eyes with the hippogriff and bowed, but before I could do anything else, Father had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and had tossed my body to the opposite wall of the room." Ginny winced at this and Draco noticed and smirked. "Yes, it hurt like the Dementor's Kiss. Well, I missed dinner that night and spent the night in a cell in my father's dungeons— locked up with the hippogriff as well.
"Even if I had become friendly with the hippogriff earlier on, it wouldn't have helped. This wasn't a regular hippogriff— it was brought up in Malfoy Manor, and nothing in this manor is ordinary. This was my first time to be punished by being thrown into a cell, and since the hippogriff was there too, I decided everything would be fine if I just ignored it. That was wrong however, because the hippogriff hadn't been fed either. So, when I'd tried to unlock the door, the magic was absorbed into the door, making it harder to open the door. No magic worked in that cell and later I found out that the cells in Father's dungeons were enchanted to prohibit the use of magic by any of its prisoners.
"That night I sprained my left wrist and was forced to use it the next day to write and carry out chores even though it wasn't fully healed. I bruised my elbows and knees from running around the cell so much and falling on the ground when dodging the hippogriff's attacks. I finally gained the opportunity to sleep, though." Draco now looked into Ginny's eyes and though his face physically wore a genuine Malfoy smirk, his eyes looked very sad at the moment. "Anything gained is at someone's loss. In order to get sleep, I used a pair of shackles attached to the wall to strangle the hippogriff to death." Draco paused at Ginny's sudden gasp, but continued nonetheless. "It was my first kill. Even then, however, I couldn't go to sleep with the body of the dead and bloody hippogriff on the other side of the cell. I had kept telling myself how it could be my neck that was snapped in half, but it didn't help."
Though Draco had been facing Ginny the whole time, he hadn't actually been looking at her. Now that his clear gray eyes rested on her horrified face, he cursed himself internally for telling her such a story. Why in Merlin's name was he telling Ginny Weasley about a sissy flashback he'd just had? Draco frowned to himself and finally said, "All in all, these cells were impenetrable and though I found this out at a young age, it's true and still remains true. Wizard security isn't like Muggle security; it never grows old or expires."
Draco looked up, hoping Ginny didn't look so shaken now.
After devouring such a story, Ginny tried hard to hide her facial expressions, but the fact that a child could be treated so horribly had struck a chord in her heart. Draco Malfoy was a human after all, she thought to herself.
"Well, could you still try to use a spell?" Ginny said in a quiet voice.
Draco's left eye twitched. Hadn't she heard anything he had so foolishly decided to tell her? He sighed angrily. "Using my wand and pointing it at the door," Draco pointed his wand at the door as he spoke, "and saying Alohomora isn't going to do anything!"
Whilst uttering the unlocking spell, Draco had swished his wand in the correct movement, and seconds later, the stone door before him creaked open. Draco jumped back in surprise. His father's cells were topnotch and simple first year spells weren't supposed to work on them!
He remembered when he was about seven years old and had watched some men install new cells into a new dungeon his father had had built. Nothing in Malfoy Manor was supposed to be faulty! Draco stared at the door leading out of the cell.
"Um, could you unlock these now?" Ginny asked sheepishly, the shackles around her wrists jingling as she lifted her hands up.
Draco reeled back into reality, but that was when he heard the voices again.
Blood…
Author's Note: This chapter was somewhat confusing since a little bit of everything was thrown in here; however, the plot is finally starting to take shape and the next chapter, we'll have some real action (how many times have I said that now?). And for you H/Hr and R/Hr shippers there, anything can happen! >D Sorry I couldn't make it H/Hr or R/Hr definite this chapter! *sweatdrop*
Chapter Eight: Sorry! H/Hr and R/Hr mystery still isn't definite yet in this next chapter, but there are big hints at both of them happening! Draco and Ginny are still in their little dungeon where Draco has an interesting little flashback and something mysterious is happening with the Hogwarts professors!
Thanks to Eiko, Erika, Adie, anonymous, and Bubble for commenting! Much love!
"You knew it?" Ron asked flabbergasted. "You knew I was a Diviner all this time and didn't tell me?"
"Well, I didn't know all this time—"
"What, you're a Diviner, too?" Ron asked, shooting daggers at Harry with his glare.
There was an uncomfortable silence and Ron huffed, crossed his arms and turned his back to Harry. Hermione shifted at Ron's sudden bitterness, but she too was surprised when Harry answered Ron's question with, "Kind of…"
"What?" Both Ron and Hermione chimed in together.
Seeing Hermione's surprised shock and feeling Ron's acidic woe, Harry decided he should explain just a bit. "I talked to Dumbledore about it a few days ago," Harry began, his tone sturdy as ever.
Hermione raised her head and looked into Harry's bright green eyes, now a bit darker than usual, and was surprised to see that his eyes were staring into hers as well. Throughout the past month, Harry had changed— gotten paler, lost his appetite, and other strange things, but no matter what, he still had the same piercing gaze.
Harry saw Hermione look at him. "I went the day before you went to see him," Harry told her.
"That was—" Ron stuttered a bit, finally uncrossing his arms and looking at Harry, "that was the day Riddle took me." He stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets.
"How do you know it was the day Riddle attacked?" Harry asked.
Ron's eyes were uncharacteristic slits on his head now. "Because it was the day before Hermione went in to talk to Dumbledore. Unlike you, she tells me— her friend, about things she has to do!" Ron was fuming. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, but other than that he kept himself together pretty well.
Harry rolled his eyes. He just couldn't tell them why he'd gone in to see Dumbledore… could he?
"Harry?" Hermione's heavenly voice called, fishing him out of his thoughts. "Harry, if there's anything you'd like to tell us, or anything that's been bothering you, you can tell us," she said, eyeing Ron and making it obvious that 'we' referred to both herself and Ron. "We're best friends Harry, and when you had problems before, you never held anything back."
Hermione's words were usually the icebreaker during tense situations among the trio. Ron sighed and unclenched his fists. "We've always been there for you, Harry, and you've always been there for us." Ron unintentionally laced the fingers of his left hand with the fingers of Hermione's right hand. Hermione began blushing furiously but pretended not to notice— but Harry had noticed.
A pregnant pause followed Hermione and Ron's heartfelt words and Harry finally moved towards the exit of the cell. He tried not to sound cold, but his efforts were fruitless. "Hermione, why don't you take care of Ron's wounds with some medi-magic? We need to find Ginny and Malfoy; I'll wait outside."
"Out of the way, you oaf!" Snape growled, shoving his way past an enormous Hagrid.
"Oi! I need to see Headmaster Dumbledore, too, y'know!" Hagrid yelled back, shaking his fist and everything around him as he ran after Professor Snape.
Snape usually glided wherever he went, but now his long black cloak swirled and swished around his legs as he hurried down the hallway and then up the stairs to Dumbledore's office. Normally, anyone entering the Headmaster's office knocked at the door to display good manners, but Snape, quite uncharacteristically, barged in!
"Headmaster, I've got dire news to inform you of—"
Hagrid had finally made it up the stairs, having taken them four at a time, and helped himself into the office as well. Huffing and puffing, Hagrid faced Dumbledore. "Professor Dumbledore, 'Arry an' Ron 'an 'ermione… they're all gone!"
Snape gasped a bit, but hid his surprise and turned from Hagrid to Dumbledore. "Yes, well, I came to tell you that Draco Malfoy is not in the castle and has not been here for three days or more."
Dumbledore waited to see if either Snape or Hagrid had anything more to say to him, but both of his visitors felt what they'd said was enough. Before Snape and Hagrid bore holes into one another's heads with their eyes, the Headmaster sighed, itched a spot above his left eyebrow, then a spot behind his left ear, and sat down at his desk. "Yes, Severus," he looked at Snape, "Rubeus," he looked at Hagrid, "This is dire news indeed." With that, Dumbledore popped a lemon drop into his mouth, and smiled.
Blaise Zabini lay on her stomach on her bed, gazing into the fireplace in her dorm room. She had curled her hair today, so she played with a curly strand of hair, twirling it about the fingers on her right hand.
Suddenly, the fire spoke to her, but Blaise wasn't surprised. "Forgive me for making you wait, dearest," a dark, silky voice said.
Blaise giggled a flirtatious giggle. "Oh Lucius, I'll always wait for you!" She blew a kiss at the fiery image of Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius interrupted her giggles. "About the plan—"
Blaise immediately stopped giggling and now she pouted. She lowered her head and looked at the fire through her eyelashes. "Oh Lucius, I've not been able to initiate it yet! Draco's not been anywhere. Honestly, I'm surprised he's the son of such a brilliant man like you. The boy's got no manners at all!" She squealed in her high-pitched voice.
The tips of Mr. Malfoy's mouth twitched and a tiny grin snaked across his face. "Don't you worry, dearest. Draco is here. But there's been a tiny alteration to the plans—"
"Oh Lucius, the Dark Lord is still coming back, right?"
Lucius immediately switched attitudes with Blaise. "You imbecile! Do not speak of the plan! Where you are, anyone can find out about it!"
Then couldn't anyone find out about her talking to Lucius Malfoy in her fireplace? Blaise scowled inwardly. Pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind, she looked up at Lucius. "I'm so sorry, dear Lucius," she said in a soft voice.
Draco's father muttered something that sounded like, "Stupid girl," bid his farewell, and left, the fire in the fireplace dying down with his departure.
As soon as Lucius had left, Blaise's schoolgirl smile had left her face and she cocked an eyebrow. "Bastard," she said in a low voice as she slid off her bed and walked out of her dorm room.
Draco straightened up and still wasn't able to fathom why he had fallen through the magical barrier. It was impossible that his father's security system was faulty… so what had it been?
"Draco?" Ginny's voice rang clearly through the air.
Draco's silvery head jerked a bit as he looked up, the hairs on his head moving very slightly. Oh yeah. Her, he thought to himself.
He walked over to Ginny's left side, knelt down on his right knee and reached into his pocket for a hairpin. Seeing the questioning look on Ginny's face, he clarified, "It's Blaise's."
Normally, Ginny would've liked very much to poke some fun at Draco for having a girl's hair accessory conveniently in his pocket, but he looked quite bothered at the moment. The usual sneer playing around the edges of his mouth was missing at the moment… but why wouldn't it be? Ginny recalled the events in the greenhouse several times now and it was quite clear that for some unknown reason, Draco's father had turned on him. The more she thought of the situation from different points of view, the more reasons she found to have pity on Draco. For one, what kind of father would throw his own son into a prison cell?
Ginny remembered that she had been knocked out before coming to the cell as well. She presumed this was most likely done so those prisoners who were able to escape wouldn't be able to find their way around.
It was different for Draco, however. He'd probably been to these dungeons many times before, so he didn't have to be knocked out. But why would Lucius throw his own son into a cell?
The same question kept circling Ginny's head and she only tumbled back into reality when she noticed Draco turning her hand around as best as he could to see if the metal shackles had any keyholes. However, none were found. Frustrated, Draco tossed the hairpin he was trying to use behind him.
Ginny tried to readjust her sitting position, as she was becoming quite uncomfortable at the moment. As she moved, her flaming red hair kept getting into her face and she moved her head around in different ways to get it out of the way.
Meanwhile, Draco looked behind him and found the hairpin he had tossed aside. Ginny looked up and saw Draco lift his left pant leg up to his knee (A little thin, but nice calf muscles, Ginny thought); his wand was attached to his leg!
"Draco, you have your wand?" Ginny said, her voice sounding as if Christmas had come early.
"Actually, I own four wands, but this one came with the pants."
"Oh," was all Ginny could say. Then she suddenly asked out of curiosity, "Where exactly do you get your pants?"
"From my closet," Draco said gruffly.
Ginny would've responded to that, but she was now busy observing Draco. With his snakelike fingers, he had bent the hairpin into a circular shape. Now he twirled the wand in his left hand, perhaps as he thought of a spell. Only moments later, Draco threw the wand two inches into the air, caught it, and tapped two spots on the circular hairpin. The hairpin lifted in the air and was level with Ginny and Draco's noses. Draco put his hand, palm up, under the hairpin, ready to catch it when it dropped. Red and Green sparks circled the hairpin and soon, it began to look like rubber, then it became a bit sturdier and seconds later, it was a rubber band!
Now Draco stood up on his knees. "Move your head that way," he instructed Ginny. She wasn't facing Draco anymore, but the fact that his hands were free (whereas hers weren't) and he was behind her didn't seem to bother her as much as she thought it would.
Next, Ginny felt Draco's strangely gentle fingers go through her hair. Draco gathered her hair together and tied back Ginny's hair with the rubber band he had made.
When she felt his fingers leave her hair, Ginny slowly turned around to face Draco. This was the first kind gesture she had seen him do. True, all he'd done was tie her hair back, but it was thoughtful, and that's what counted. The ponytail was in the middle of the back of her head; it wasn't so low that it rode on her neck, but it also wasn't too high.
"Thanks," Ginny stuttered, her cheeks flourishing to a red color as soon as the word had left her mouth.
Draco simply nodded his head in response and now sat about a foot away from Ginny, his back against the hard cell wall.
Breaking the silence, Ginny asked, "Draco, you've got your wand! Why can't you just undo these chains and magic the door open?"
Draco's mouth began to twitch. He was smiling, and he would have laughed if his head didn't hurt so much. "Are you stupid?" He asked her in a spooky voice.
"Stupid?!" Ginny shouted, bewildered. "You're the one that's stupid! You've got your wand right there!"
"Alright, let me rephrase the question. Do you think my father is stupid? Do you think Malfoy's are stupid?"
She didn't need to think that through, but still her answer sounded as though she was a bit unsure. "No," she said.
"Well, you're not as dumb as you look," Malfoy spat back.
Ginny, taken aback by his sudden bitterness asked, "Why can't you just try a spell or two? What? Have you been locked in here before as well to know first hand that spells don't work here?" As soon as she'd said that, however, the solemn look on Draco's face made her regret it.
His father has locked him up in here before? Ginny thought to herself.
"Sorry," Ginny immediately muttered.
Draco had been in these prison cells before. He suddenly turned his head and looked at Ginny. "I remember that about three years before I came to Hogwarts," Draco began telling Ginny. "Father was teaching me the correct way of handling a hippogriff." Draco gave a masculine snort at this, having overemphasized the term 'correct' a bit too much. "As you might've figured, Father expected nothing less than perfection, so I used to read books about everything all the time. So, when my father asked me to approach the hippogriff, I did as the books I'd read had instructed me to. I locked eyes with the hippogriff and bowed, but before I could do anything else, Father had grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and had tossed my body to the opposite wall of the room." Ginny winced at this and Draco noticed and smirked. "Yes, it hurt like the Dementor's Kiss. Well, I missed dinner that night and spent the night in a cell in my father's dungeons— locked up with the hippogriff as well.
"Even if I had become friendly with the hippogriff earlier on, it wouldn't have helped. This wasn't a regular hippogriff— it was brought up in Malfoy Manor, and nothing in this manor is ordinary. This was my first time to be punished by being thrown into a cell, and since the hippogriff was there too, I decided everything would be fine if I just ignored it. That was wrong however, because the hippogriff hadn't been fed either. So, when I'd tried to unlock the door, the magic was absorbed into the door, making it harder to open the door. No magic worked in that cell and later I found out that the cells in Father's dungeons were enchanted to prohibit the use of magic by any of its prisoners.
"That night I sprained my left wrist and was forced to use it the next day to write and carry out chores even though it wasn't fully healed. I bruised my elbows and knees from running around the cell so much and falling on the ground when dodging the hippogriff's attacks. I finally gained the opportunity to sleep, though." Draco now looked into Ginny's eyes and though his face physically wore a genuine Malfoy smirk, his eyes looked very sad at the moment. "Anything gained is at someone's loss. In order to get sleep, I used a pair of shackles attached to the wall to strangle the hippogriff to death." Draco paused at Ginny's sudden gasp, but continued nonetheless. "It was my first kill. Even then, however, I couldn't go to sleep with the body of the dead and bloody hippogriff on the other side of the cell. I had kept telling myself how it could be my neck that was snapped in half, but it didn't help."
Though Draco had been facing Ginny the whole time, he hadn't actually been looking at her. Now that his clear gray eyes rested on her horrified face, he cursed himself internally for telling her such a story. Why in Merlin's name was he telling Ginny Weasley about a sissy flashback he'd just had? Draco frowned to himself and finally said, "All in all, these cells were impenetrable and though I found this out at a young age, it's true and still remains true. Wizard security isn't like Muggle security; it never grows old or expires."
Draco looked up, hoping Ginny didn't look so shaken now.
After devouring such a story, Ginny tried hard to hide her facial expressions, but the fact that a child could be treated so horribly had struck a chord in her heart. Draco Malfoy was a human after all, she thought to herself.
"Well, could you still try to use a spell?" Ginny said in a quiet voice.
Draco's left eye twitched. Hadn't she heard anything he had so foolishly decided to tell her? He sighed angrily. "Using my wand and pointing it at the door," Draco pointed his wand at the door as he spoke, "and saying Alohomora isn't going to do anything!"
Whilst uttering the unlocking spell, Draco had swished his wand in the correct movement, and seconds later, the stone door before him creaked open. Draco jumped back in surprise. His father's cells were topnotch and simple first year spells weren't supposed to work on them!
He remembered when he was about seven years old and had watched some men install new cells into a new dungeon his father had had built. Nothing in Malfoy Manor was supposed to be faulty! Draco stared at the door leading out of the cell.
"Um, could you unlock these now?" Ginny asked sheepishly, the shackles around her wrists jingling as she lifted her hands up.
Draco reeled back into reality, but that was when he heard the voices again.
Blood…
Author's Note: This chapter was somewhat confusing since a little bit of everything was thrown in here; however, the plot is finally starting to take shape and the next chapter, we'll have some real action (how many times have I said that now?). And for you H/Hr and R/Hr shippers there, anything can happen! >D Sorry I couldn't make it H/Hr or R/Hr definite this chapter! *sweatdrop*
Chapter Eight: Sorry! H/Hr and R/Hr mystery still isn't definite yet in this next chapter, but there are big hints at both of them happening! Draco and Ginny are still in their little dungeon where Draco has an interesting little flashback and something mysterious is happening with the Hogwarts professors!
Thanks to Eiko, Erika, Adie, anonymous, and Bubble for commenting! Much love!