..::AN: oo im back!! woo did anyone miss me?! lol doubt it but did ya miss the FIC?...oo theres the big question there..lol. Well OMG ANSWERS TO WHO SHERISE IS!!!::..
Sighing Ginny threaded the key onto her silver chain and fastened it around her neck,
pocketed her wand then threw the invisibility cloak.
"Its now or never." she sighed it was the day after her little fiasco with the music
and Draco which she was dying to forget. But she had done a little bit of wandering in the
manor and was getting more accustomed to getting her way around in it.
With using a navigating spell she found the corridor that should have led to the
Southern part of the manor, but surprisingly there was just a wall that led to a corridor
that turned away from the Southern direction. Pursing her lips Ginny had searched
around, she was lucky when she looked at a small table that had a dragon carving on the
leg. She could easily see the eye of the dragon was a button, she slid her fingers over it
but afraid to draw attention she had left it alone but making a mental note. She knew that
it had something to do with opening up the Southern part of the manor.
So Ginny clutched the cloak tightly around her and made for the part of the hall
she had found before. She dared not go too fast in case she started to breath heavily and
draw too much attention in her general direction, but kept at a quiet steady pace.
She swore in her head a bit as she noticed her heeled mocha coloured boots were
making clinking noises against the floor. Carefully she kept the invisibility cloak over her
and pulled her wand out of her sweater sleeve. As quietly as she could she pointed her
wand down to her shoes and whispered; 'Mutenga' To her relief her steps were silenced
completely and she went a little more quickly towards the small dragon table.
Kneeling down she looked around carefully, the coast was clear. Ginny gently
pushed on the eye of dragon. She heard shuffling like something stretching, looking at the
wall beside the sharp corner she saw gold and silver sparkles creating a sort of square in
the wall.
Swallowing hard Ginny reached out slowly under the cloak to touch the wall, but
to her surprise it hit something that felt cold and wet. Like cold water. She retracted her
hand quickly and felt it, it was completely dry. Carefully she put her hand in up to her
wrist, she couldn't see her hand but she could feel it inside the wall-well lack of wall
more like.
Taking a deep breath Ginny stepped into the sparkling square, eyes tightly shut.
She felt like water was all around her and she instantly shot her hand up and pinched the
outside of her nose to stop the tickling sensation she began to feel. Slowly she opened her
eyes, her breath still held and saw she was in a sort of wall of a water like substance, it
was a dark gold colour and had the same silver sparkles that had showed up on the wall.
As quickly as she could Ginny pushed her way through and made for the space of
light she saw not far away. But as she began to speed up she began to loose her breath,
and the nonsense thinking that came with panic invaded her mind.
She was close, so doing the only thing she could think of Ginny just threw herself
out of the substance and landed on solid ground loudly and painfully. To her relief she
was surrounded by oxygen, musty smelling air, but oxygen none-the-less. Coughing and
breathing heavily Ginny dusted herself off and stood up letting her grip on the invisibility
cloak loosen a bit.
It was a hallway, quite like the other parts of the house. The only differences is
instead of Slytherin-esque memorabilia there were tons of paintings of flowers and
waterfalls. Ginny stepped closer to one to examine it and she saw two letters written in
small lettering in one of the corners.
"S.M" she read quietly aloud. She jumped as she heard someone snort as though
being awoken with a start.
"Who's there?!" someone asked sharply, Ginny turned grasping the invisibility
cloak so tightly her knuckles began to go white. A round and white face of a ghost was
sticking out of a vase that barely reached her middle. It was a boy by the looks of it, with
wide almost Dobby like eyes and a pouty smile.
"Who's there?! Come on I know there's someone here..I can smell you. You
smell good but that in ENTIRELY besides the point!" it said, squirming out of the vase
with difficulty. "Stupid enchanted thing.." he grumbled putting his hands on the rim and
trying to lift himself up. He screeched a bit as he toppled over, still inside the vase and
landed sharply on the floor.
"Er..do you need help?" Ginny asked quietly. The ghost, who was currently
rolling down the hall inside the still intact vase spun his head around trying to see who
was speaking.
"Who's there? Why cant I see you?" he asked angrily as the vase bounced against
the wall.
"I'll let you see me if you promise not to tell anyone you've seen me." Ginny said
sitting the vase upright gently. The ghost squinted and tried to feel the air with his free
hands, he ended up hitting Ginny lightly in the arm, but his hand passed right through her.
Shuddering at the cold sensation, the prickling hairs on the back of her neck
Ginny waited for him to answer.
"Fine. I don't get any company anyway." he mumbled. Ginny smiled and let the
cloak fall grabbing onto the bottom of the vase.
"Hello! Alright you push yourself out and I'll pull on this end of the vase." she
offered grasping onto the vase tightly. The ghost nodded and once Ginny started to pull
he put his hands firmly on the rim of the vase and with difficulty pulled himself out with
a suction like sound.
The vase gently came back and hit Ginny in the stomach, leaving her winded for
just a second but after she caught her breath she set it down gently out of the way.
"Who are you?" she finally asked. The ghost watched her pick up the invisibility
cloak and fold it neatly, tucking it over her arm.
"Tobey Picklemyer." he said simply. Ginny resisted the laugh that was surfacing
in her. "Stable boy." he said proudly, puffing his ghostly chest out.
"Stable boy?" Ginny asked, wondering how a ghost could tend to horses. The
ghost sighed a bit, and his chest deflated. He was very round, with a little belly of mist.
Her wore a small coat and trousers with a shirt that was a bit ruffled at the neck. His feet
weren't there though, instead his legs seemed to be stuck together and ended with a curly
whip of white ghostness.
"Well back in my day. Until I got my feet crushed by a rogue horse and died from
the bleeding. But other then that I was the best in my time." he shrugged. Ginny looked
around the hallway.
"What is this place?" she asked. Hoping it was what she was looking for.
"This Miss is the Southern Wing of the house." he said, as though reading her
mind.
"Why is it so empty?" Ginny asked, though rather clean she couldn't see or hear
anyone around at all.
"Since the Mistress had it closed up no one even Master Draco comes here
anymore." he shrugged. Ginny's eyes flamed with that curiosity she had grown to
embellish.
"Mistress? Do you mean Sherise?"she asked hopefully. The ghost's eyes widened.
"How do you know about the Mistress?" he asked. Ginny shrugged.
"I know of her. Please can you tell me about her Tobey. I'm Ginny by the way,
I'm staying here with Draco to do an article on him for a magazine. But please could you
tell me all you know about Sherise?" she asked.
"Course I could Miss Ginny. I quite enjoy talking about her, seemed like only
yesterday I was taking care of her horses." he sighed sadly. "I'll give you the tour of the
wing if you like while we talk." he offered. Ginny smiled and nodded to him.
"Lovely. So who was she?" she asked following the ghost boy as he glided down
the corridor.
"Don't you already know?" he asked, obviously surprised. Ginny shook her head
and he chuckled a little. "Why Miss Ginny he was the Master Draco's grandmother.
Sherise Malfoy married into the Malfoy family when she met Cain Malfoy...dreadful
fellow he was." he said as he stopped and began to show Ginny a bunch of riding trophies
Sherise had won when she was a child.
"Draco Grandmother?" Ginny blinked, thinking it through. Finally things were
falling into place. "Was this her house?"
"Well it was Sir Cain's house. When he was still kind and in love he made it for
them to live in. This was mainly her wing, besides her room of course." he said matter-of-
factly. Blowing some dust off a medallion.
"Is that the white room with the big bed and the tapestries?"
"Big white vanity? Yes that one. But this is where she spent most of her time.
Would you like to see her library?" Tobey asked. Ginny gasped.
"She had her own library?" Not that she was surprised, the Malfoy's were a bit
eccentric. Tobey chuckled and led her around a corner into another prim and neat
hallway. He gestured for her to open an arched door and step inside.
It was clean, except for a thin layer of dust that covered the floors and surfaces. It
was in the shape of a keyhole, with a round circular space that was several times Ginny's
height lined with shelves. On the shelves sat so many books Ginny wasn't surprised if it
had as many as Hogwarts. She smiled and took out her wand pointing it at the room.
"Scourgify!" she said clearly. Like water had been dumped on the spherical
skylight the fading colour of the wall washed away and turned to a very light but elegant
gold colour that sparkled even in the cloudy light the glass roof gave off. There was one
large spherical table in the rectangular part of the room, that still had several books
stacked on it, a few laying open that regained their normal colour once the spell touched
them.
The books on the shelves turned from the dull brown colour they had been and
turned into tons of brilliant, rich colours. A ladder that seemed to had fallen apart,
reattached itself to the roller track between two shelves and turned one again sturdy and
ready for using.
A red coloured velvet chaise became soft and comfy again, sitting beside a torch
lamp and polished wood table. A few paintings stirred and she began to hear the people
inside them talking.
"Who is that?"
"Look at what she did!"
"Its brilliant! I wonder what she's doing here.."
"Pretty little thing isn't she?"
"She looks a little nosy though."
"I wonder if that boy sold the manor!"
"No he wouldn't..would he?"
Ginny blinked, a little in shock this was supposed to be a library with such
talkative paintings. She cleared her throat and Tobey stopped his chuckling.
"Er...Hi. I'm sorry if I woke you I just thought it needed a bit of a touch up." she
said. Various paintings of wizards, witches, nymphs, fairies and centaurs looked at her
curiously.
"No problem at all! We're glad someones fixed up the place. Now did that boy
sell the manor?" a stout wizard asked puffing away merrily on a long stemmed pipe.
"No, I'm just a guest...nosing about." she admitted with a small smile. The
nymphs giggled gaily.
"She'd look so pretty with flowers in her hair.." the whispered. Ginny rolled her
eyes a bit and looked around.
Tobey sat on top of the table and motioned for her to take a seat.
"Oh your staying!" a witch said happily.
"We always loved company!" said another. Tobey grunted, he was getting highly
annoyed. Ginny just laughed quietly.
"Would you all shut your traps! I'm trying to tell Miss Ginny here about Mistress
Sherise!" he barked. Everyone sat back in their paintings, looking a little shocked but they
seemed to want to hear what he had to say.
"Right..as I was saying..Mistress had this place shut up right after Sir Cain closed
up her garden. I doubt it was on her orders because she was devastated when she
enchanted it to be closed. But before she did she hid something in here, I'm not quite sure
what it was but she seemed rather keen on not letting Sir Cain find it.
A terrible state she was in, our Mistress. She didn't cry as much once time went
on, we all figured there weren't enough tears left in her for her to cry. She didn't ride,
paint, draw, read or do any of the things she used to. She just stayed in bed, or in her
husbands study sitting in the corner while her son and husband read dark books.
Her son, Lucius, grew up and got married to Narcissa. A pretty young thing she
was but with as much personality as a rock. But it was when they had their first son,
Master Draco, that Mistress Sherise seemed to come back to life.
She used to sneak him back in here, to tell him stories and play games, but she
had to be careful that Master Cain never found out about it. Draco wasn't like his father,
he promised his grandmother that he would never take part in the Dark Arts.
This scared the Mistress, because she knew that once he was in school that Lucius
would begin to teach his son dreadful things found in the Dark Arts. He'd expect his son
to join He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and he'd get very angry if Draco refused. So
Mistress Sherise made him change his promise. If he had to, he could do as his father told
him but he was never to harm anyone with whatever he had learnt. Also he was never to
become a Death Eater.
Draco did and has abided by those rules in his Grandmothers memory, and once
Lucius was sent to Azkaban he felt that he had done right. That's probably why you think
he's so different Mistress Ginny."
"How did you know I felt he had changed?" Ginny asked suspiciously. Tobey
smiled.
"I heard you muttering to yourself when you were having your tea in his study,
also you can stand him and I'm quite aware of his behavior at Hogwarts. He had to be
like he was, maybe not to some extent but you must understand that Master Draco had a
very hard childhood. He is bitter, oh yes, but he doesn't like to feel anything, or to get
attached to things. You see he was very attached to Mistress Sherise, and she was taken
away from him." Tobey said.
"You make him sound like a saint Tobey." Ginny smirked. Tobey chuckled.
"Oh no, he's very devious. Very sneaky and cunning, he's like a mix between
Ravenclaw and Slytherin. His devious and certain love for breaking the rules is a
Slytherin trait, but his cunningness and ability to succeed is right from Ravenclaw.
Mistress Sherise was in Ravenclaw." he sighed.
"What happened to Sherise? I mean..did she..did she die?" Ginny asked quietly.
"No one really knows. She went to move with her sister before Draco had started
school, and Master Cain got the Dementor's kiss. She began to write to us, the servants
and ghosts who still lived here alone. But suddenly the letters stopped completely, so it's
more the likely that she is dead." he hung his head sadly and Ginny could hear a few
people in the paintings sniffling.
"The house was abandoned after that, a few of us ghost and of course the
paintings remained. Draco bought the house before he graduated, but struggled to keep
the money for it. The worst part was while Draco was so busy at school and with work
that before Lucius had been sent to Azkaban, Narcissa and himself decorated the entire
house. There used to be a room, beside Cain's old study that they filled to the rafters with
tools for the Dark Arts. Draco sold all of them and shortly after he had gotten his success
with his magazine and could pay for the house. He never came down the Southern Wing
though. We think it brings too many tragic memories of his Grandmother back for him."
Ginny sat quietly, thinking to herself. She understood so much now, she felt like
she had to help Draco somehow. He had suffered so much yet everyone, and until now
even her, were so oblivious to it. Suddenly her head perked up.
"Tobey how do I get to the garden?"
Ginny tugged the invisibility cloak tightly around her, she was in an underground
passageway and felt so cold she wouldn't be surprised if it was snowing up above her.
Tobey floated soundlessly beside her, looking at the light Ginny's wand gave off.
"So where does this lead again?" she asked quietly. "There is an overhang of vines between the
door and the wall. Though its extremely tight you should be able to fit. But be careful those vines
re dangerous." he warned. Ginny stopped.
"Dangerous how?"
"Strangling dangerous that's how. You'll have to charm them to lay dormant Miss
Ginny." he suggested. Ginny sighed, she knew this had been too easy.
They finally found themselves looking up at an extremely rusted iron gate, very
thin but longer in length then in width, Ginny sighed she'd have to squeeze on an angle to
get through.
Ginny performed the Reductor Curse on the gate and ducked as the pieces fell to
the ground loudly. It was then she heard the sound of slithering and saw thick, plump and
dark green vines coming through the hole in the ground. Ginny's eyes widened when she
saw the dark yellow thorns that covered the vines.
Ginny stepped back far away from the vines, her brain trying to remember the
spell Neville had taught her back in school for killing the alive and moving part of plants.
"feren...fernsa....' she began to try and remember the beginning as the vines came closer
to her.
The vine swung, lucky for Ginny she missed the thorns but it threw her up against
the dirt wall fiercely. Ginny got to her feet ducking another vine.
"FERENSAR MORIENTA!" she yelled after having to duck a vine that took
another nasty swing at her. A bright yellow orb came out of her wand, glimmering orange
around the outside. It hovered for a moment before separating and hitting all of the vines.
The vines shook violently, but pulled away from Ginny and the safe Tobey. They started
to rip a little, disgusting yellow liquid squirted out of the tears. Then suddenly with a loud
noise the vines exploded splattering Ginny with a face-full of pungent yellow liquid.
"Bad week?" asked Tobey. Ginny wiped the yellow sludge out of her eyes and
sighed.
"You could say that."
Ginny conjured a small ladder and climbed towards the rectangular hole in the
tunnel's ceiling. Carefully she put one hand on each side and twisted and began to lift
herself out.
She winced a little as her arms started to shake a bit, Ginny wasn't that physically strong.
She was about average, she never really worked out. She sometimes jogged to work but
that didn't really count in her mind.
As she fell chest first and she found herself in front of a large and thick looking
iron black door. She got to her feet and pulled on the round handle to find it wouldn't
budge. She dusted some of the dirt away and found a small keyhole.
"Alohomora!" she tried pointing her wand at it. It still wouldn't budge. Sighing
she turned and looked at the wall of limp and lifeless vines that shielded the door from
any view what so ever. She had asked Tobey about the other door before. It was a trick
door he had said, which made sense to Ginny because it would have been much too easy
to just walk up and open the darn thing.
Ginny gave another sigh as she pulled on the door one last time before jumping
back into the hole in the ground and securing the gate magically behind her.
Tobey's name was George first, but I didn't want it to have confusion with he brother i changed it to Tobey..i Tobey instead of the toby way but oo sex and the city is on..Hmm how about ten more comments then i'll post..Or i can be evil and say if i get eighteen or twenty ..g/d action is coming sooner...bruahhaha!