Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All of Ron's lines are borrowed directly from Shakespeare's Macbeth and William Goldstein's The Princess Bride, and random lines are borrowed from Freddie Mercury and The Tolkien Estate.
A/N: Sorry chapter 2 has taken so long to update, my computer has been on the fritz. As well I have had much end of term marking to do.
Chapter 2: In Which Molly ...bakes...
The river embraced Ginny's limp form and she hovered downstream, before coming to rest in a thicket of rushes near the edge of the Weasley's garden. Fred sauntered out the door of the Burrow and paused dramatically as his eyes flew to a shock of red hair floating in the rushes. Fred thought back to his and George's night of gallivantation and had the sudden horror that his twin, his heart, his brother, was unconscious, alone, solitary, by himself, in the garden. George, after a nights' drinking, had the all too common habit of collapsing in agonizing indifference anywhere he happened to be. Fred timidly strutted over to take a look. What he saw astonished him to no end. Pulling his small, fragile sister out of the muddy water he reminisced tearfully on their childhood bond. Ginny's head flopped limply and she didn't seem to be breathing.
Fred heart seemed to stop. But a strangled caterwaul was intensifying in the back of his throat and he screamed recklessly "Mother! She has abandoned us!" Molly ...appeared... at the door with a puzzled look on her round friendly... face. "What do you mean ducky? Who's abandoned you? I'll just take care of that my love. Where's my wand...?" "No dearest mother, you don't seem to understand" Fred was growing more desperate with every passing second "Ginny seems to have drowned. She's dead. Oh Heavens to Betsy! My heart can not handle the strain." Giving a girlish shriek, Fred collapsed on a nearby chair. "Don't be ridiculous dear; I only just called her for lunch. Now please explain what has happened." "Mother," Fred attempted to lift his head, but his grief stricken face only rose futilely above the back of the chair before falling back. "For me the grief is still too near."
Draco appeared from behind Fred "Hello Molly, what's for lunch?" he asked politely.
"Ginny's dead!" screamed Fred again. Draco blanched and almost dropped the edentulous Goblet. "D-dead? But she can't be! She saved Goblet!"
Carefully setting Goblet on the mantle he rushed back out the door, pink paisley nightgown streaming out behind him. He found Ginny lying by the riverbank unconscious and fell to his knees beside her.
"Oh Ginny." he murmured "I would never do this for anyone else but because you saved my dearest Goblet I owe you a debt of gratitude." And with that he placed his lips on hers and performed mouth to mouth resuscitation. With a small (but sexy, Draco was disturbed to note) gasp, Ginny opened her chocolate brown eyes and looked up at her rescuer. Startled that his attempt had actually worked, Draco swiftly got up and ran away.
Ginny stood up and stumbled back to the Burrow, and hit her head on the door frame. With a dazed look at the door she muttered a "terribly sorry" and stumbled upstairs, all the way upstairs, finally coming to a rest in Ron's room. Fred looked at her bedraggled appearance and sopping hair and screamed "AAAAAAUGH She's a ghost!" and ran out of the room.
"Ginny dear, tomorrow we're going to Diagon Alley to get your school supplies." Molly stirred a cauldron... vigorously.... "Please be ready to go at 8:00".
As Molly ...tasted... her cooking, Ron wandered through the back door, a gaping wound gushing blood from his forehead. "He has kill'd me, mother. Help!" Molly perused her orderly kitchen carefully. "Ginny dear, did you call?" Molly seemed not to notice her injured ...son... as she chopped tomatoes.
"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Since the invention of the swoon there have been five swoons that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind. As Ron hit the floor, Molly ...swivelled... on her feet, and promptly tripped over his prone form. Ron feebly raised his head from the harsh stone of the Weasley's cold hard floor to mutter hoarsely "You mock my pain, Mother."
Fred walked into the room, tripped over Molly and Ron and ran shrieking from the house, disappearing into the distance, only to appear moments later, his silhouette a stark figure on the top of Stoatshead hill.
"I see a little silhouette of a man," Molly exclaimed with great vigorous ...calmness... A moment later, a tall dark stranger from a foreign location materialized in front of Ron, and, grabbing him under the arms, dragged him out the kitchen door, down the lane, and that was the last anyone saw of the youngest son of Desmond and Molly Jones, HA, HA, HA, HA!
To Be CONTINUED..............
