I didn't write it clearly, but when Prof. Northrop told Ginny she should consider becoming an Auror, she said it while walking out and looking back, then she left. I said she exited, said it, then 'she' left who you may have thought was Ginny. THEN Ginny left :P
Sorry about that. Anyways I hope you enjoy the next chapter.
Thank you, Shelby for betaing this for me :)
Dark Mark's Daughter
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Chapter Two – The Dark Lord's Calling
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Thunder roared and rain pelted against the wall-length window beside Ginny's bed, but Ginny did not awaken. Neither did the other four girls in her dorm. It was past midnight, and the common room had emptied itself completely just but an hour ago. The Gryffindor tower was sprawled underneath a sheet of silence, save for the torrents of rain and thunder outside.
'Come back...' The words repeated themselves in eerie echoes, as Ginny writhed in her sleep. She whimpered, curling up vulnerably. 'You don't belong with them... you belong alongside me...' Ginny clenched her fists, the longer of her uneven nails digging into her palms. Her face was white, creating a vivid contrast between the colour of her skin and that of her freckles dappled across her cheeks. 'They can't give you power, my Ginevra. They are all but weak.' Tears burnt her unopened eyes, sliding down her eyelashes and joining the coat of freckles underneath her eyes. 'Ginevra, reunite with your master!' Ginny sat bolt upright, her eyes wide open, clutching her right arm as if it was on fire. She winced in pain, sobbing afterwards, longing for the burning in her arm to disappear.
'Leave me alone!' She said, but it only came out weakly through her tears, which clogged up her throat as she tried not to wake her dorm mates. She ran her index finger over the black skull imprinted on her arm. The path where her finger had run felt like ice for a second before it burnt warmer than ever, causing more tears to flood down her even whiter face.
Ginny held the curtain of her four-poster bed aside and gazed out of the window. Raindrops slid down the glass one after another, and every few minutes the room and the sky outside would flash from the light emitted from the lightning.
Ginny lay back down, staring up at the ceiling, trying to pretend that the immense pain in her arm would disappear and leave her in peace. But like the past times the Dark Lord had called back hungrily for her service, she knew she would not receive any sleep for the remaining hours of the night.
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It was indistinguishable whether Ginny was fighting to keep her eyes open because of her lack of sleep, or because of her boredom in Muggle Studies. She had taken the subject to keep her father happy, but unfortunately did not enjoy it to the same degree as he did.
The overeager professor asked her a question, and Ginny sat upright, her eyes peeling open.
'Sorry, could you repeat that?'
He repeated his question in his same overly excited voice. Every syllable, it seemed, was exaggerated, as if he was trying to make the subject sound absolutely amazing, which, Ginny thought, was pointless. As far as she was concerned, she didn't need to know how Muggles managed to transport themselves from one side of London to the next, as long as she knew she could cover twice the difference in ten times the speed.
'I'm not sure, sir.' 'Of course you don't know, Miss Weasley! If you knew, I would be asking Lovegood, because she doesn't know either!' Luna Lovegood didn't seem to have even heard the professor say her name, because she continued to gaze dreamily out of the window, as if amazed by the fact that it was raining.
Ginny left her first class feeling as if it were her last. She made her way to the Great Hall, her bag feeling five times heavier than usual, like she was carrying three of Hagrid's giant pumpkins in addition to her school books.
'Ginny, Quidditch practice this afternoon!' Amelia Bell said, joining Ginny as she sat down at the Gryffindor table. She wore her blonde hair tied back, loose strands hanging behind her ears. Ginny just groaned. 'I hope we win this year.' Amelia said. 'Last year was such an embarrassment. Katie even told me so. She said... never mind.' Ginny didn't mind. She knew that whatever Katie said wouldn't have been all that bad. She always exaggerated everything. Colin thought it was to make up for her shyness. Ginny didn't get what that had to do with anything.
'Millie, can you tell Ron I'm in the hospital wing, and that I don't feel well?' Ginny asked tiredly. Though Amelia had helped herself to a corned beef sandwich and was eating away at it rather greedily, Ginny didn't eat anything.
Amelia, though, looked at her as if she'd been scandalized. 'Ginny? You can't skip the training session! Are you absolutely insane?! We're playing Ravenclaw in two weeks and we can't even pass the quaffle to each other without dropping it!'
Ginny buried her head in her arms, which were crossed over the table, and rolled her eyes so that her best friend couldn't see. They hadn't missed a pass for the past three training sessions. But she didn't complain. Unless she wanted Amelia telling the rest of the Gryffindor team, including Ron, that she was skipping the training session, enlarging it to the idea that Ginny had committed some deadly sin, Ginny would have to keep quiet and go to the training session.
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The day passed extremely slowly for Ginny, who, by her last lesson, had to hold her eyelids open so that they wouldn't close. Professor Flitwick had commented three times that she wasn't performing her best, and that he would expect her to be able to conjure a Cheering Charm accurately by now, seeing they'd learnt it in the third year, without sending her friend, Fia, running out of the classroom crying as if she'd just been told her mother had died.
Halfway through the lesson, Amelia had tried to charm Ginny's eyelids to feel lighter so that she wouldn't fall asleep. After she'd whispered the incantation so that Flitwick wouldn't hear, Ginny's eyelids felt heavier than ever, and she spent the rest of the class listening to Amelia whine apologies in her ear.
They made their way to the Quidditch pitch, each holding their broomsticks. Amelia held a Comet 260, which she complained about at least three times a week. Ginny held her own Shooting Star, a hand-me-down, like the majority of her things, from Ron. It may not have been the best broom, but Ginny had gotten to the point where she didn't care.
The rest of the team was already seated around Ron, who was standing up, his elbow perched on his Cleansweep 11 and his chest puffed out, reminding her of Percy. He was extremely proud of being elected captain. Ginny thought the only reason was because they thought Harry had enough trouble on his own hands with the rise of Voldemort, without the extra burden of training a Quidditch team.
Fia seemed to have cheered up since the incident in charms, and now sat with her legs crossed on the substitute bench, her Nimbus Two Thousand and One lying in her lap. Though the Firebolt had taken over it in the league,it was the best broomstick they had on the team, save for Harry's.However, Fia had never acted like it was a big deal that she had a Nimbus Two Thousand and One. Ginny, trying to imagine that she was as rich as her friend, still couldn't imagine acting so laid back, as if having a broomstick of that quality was no big deal.
Ron heartily made a speech about how none of them were trying hard enough, putting down everyone except for himself and Harry, who he couldn't find anything wrong with. Then, climbing onto his own broomstick, he told everyone to proceed with the training drills he'd outlined the week before.
Ginny tried to keep herself together, so that she wouldn't fall off her broom fifty feet in the air. Then, alongside Amelia, she followed Fia into the air.
Half an hour passed, in which Ginny was sure she'd fall off her broom any second. She ran away from several passes from both Amelia and Fia, because she couldn't make herself concentrate hard enough to try and catch them. Ron had yelled at her three times already, telling her that if she didn't smarten up soon she'd be the reason they lost the Quidditch cup.
However the arrival of a particular group of people dressed in green robes and all carrying identical broomsticks caused her to awaken almost suddenly, though it was moments before she took her eyes off the Slytherin team and noticed that her teammates were already striding towards them angrily. She headed back towards ground and followed them, at a slight jog so as not to miss out anything.
'That old Shooting Star leaving you a bit behind, Weasley?' Draco sneered as she reached them, standing next to Harry, holding her broomstick by her side. She scowled at him, not providing an answer. 'Of course, I really should be feeling sorry for you. It's not like your family can afford any better, can it? Not even now that there's only two of you left for your parents to pay for!' The rest of the thick-minded Slytherin team snorted, two or three of them taking a moment to actually get what he was saying.
'Malfoy, what are you doing here?' Harry said angrily, directing the conversation off Ron's family. Ron had turned the colour of his robes and was gripping onto his broomstick so hard Ginny was afraid it might break.
'Well surprisingly we were planning on training, Potter.' Malfoy said, expressing through his tone of voice how obvious that was, seeing they'd turned up in their Quidditch robes and holding their Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. 'But seeing it seems the pitch is already taken, we might as well sit down and have a laugh at your own pathetic efforts to make this team any less worse than it already is.'
Ron, having the opinion that all they were trying to do was clear the Quidditch pitch for themselves, told the team to continue with their training.
Ginny, her sudden jolt of energy having disappeared, groaned disappointedly, having hoped that the Slytherins' arrival would have meant she could go back to her dorm and sleep.
'Great, Ron. Now they're going to find out all our tactics!' Amelia whined. 'We are so going to lose now! You have just banished all our chances for the cup!' However it didn't seem they were much interested in their team tactics, as they were more occupied with mocking any player on any one mistake they made, than giving their team the upper hand in the game they played against Gryffindor next.
'Careful Weasley! You're going too fast!' Malfoy shouted as Ginny swept down near the stands to grab the quaffle that Fia had passed to her and she'd missed. 'You might overtake the Quaffle!' 'Ignore them, Ginny, they're not worth it.' Amelia said while giving death glares to Malfoy, who, as well as the rest of team, was in uproars. 'You know you're a good player regardless of what broom you're on.'
'Amelia, I can't even catch a quaffle when you throw it at me!'
'Ginny, you're half asleep!'
Ginny didn't say anything, continuing trying to catch the quaffles, and chase the majority of which she missed. When Ron told them all to go back to Gryffindor tower, Ginny was the most relieved of them all.
'Alright there, Weasley?' Draco asked mockingly as she passed. 'For a second there I thought...' But Ginny was glaring at him so dangerously that he stopped mid-sentence and turned back to his team. 'Right, well with them having finished their lousy efforts...' Draco peered back behind him to watch Ginny's mass of waved red hair disappear behind the stands, and for a second he thought he may have felt guilt. He convinced himself she was just a Mudblood-loving Weasley and then commenced with talking to his teammates.
'Right, I want that Rivero girl off her broomstick first. You know, the dark-haired Chaser. She's a fast player, and she's on a good broomstick. Oi, Crabbe, you hit her across the head with a bludger within the first ten minutes of the game, or else...' he didn't bother telling the burly Beater what he'd do if Fia hadn't been knocked off her broomstick by that time period. 'If you can, you can knock Weasley out with a Quaffle. That shouldn't be hard, and you can say it was an accident; that you accidentally hit him when you were scoring.'
Crabbe elbowed Goyle, grunting, which was, though not distinguishable, him laughing.
'The other Weasley...' he snorted. 'She's useless on that pathetic broom of hers, and as for Bell, she'll have the exact same tactics as her bloody sister.' He opened his eyes wide and made an exaggerated look of surprise, then pretended to be knocked back in the head with a Bludger, trying to imitate Amelia's older sister, Katie. 'They won't be able to score a single goal to save their lives.' 'What about Harry Potter?' Goyle croaked, grinning stupidly, though in a light which expressed his personal opinion that he was pretty smart to remember who the Gryffindor Seeker was.
'Leave Potter.' Malfoy snarled. 'If you get rid of him then I can't say I beat him to the Snitch.' He then tried to think of anything else to say, and, not finding anything, glared at them all. 'Well, you stupid oafs! What are you waiting for? Get to work!' With that they pushed off into the air, Crabbe and Goyle stupidly hitting the Bludger between them, barely two inches from one another.
Draco turned around to check the time on the clock behind him. As he turned to face the pitch again, his glance hit something else. He jerked back around, hoping to see what the big yellow eyes belonged to, but nothing was there. He waited for a few seconds, then, insulting himself under his breath for seeing things, took off to follow the rest of the Slytherins onto the pitch.
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zuvalupa – Heh thank you :) huggles
Faint Hate – You love Daphne too? I love her because she's such a flexible character. I can make her whoever I want her to be, and make her do whatever I want her to do. :P
Anaili – I adore the new DADA teacher, well, how I imagine her and her personality anyway.
Carmleinak – Thank you :)
AnimagisInTraining – Thank you :) huggles
mystique river – hehe I hope the plot I have in mind is good.. o.0
ragne – I love you Ragne!!! Thank you :)