Author's Note: Ok, so REALLY REALLY sorry this has taken so long for me to update. My only excuse is that the last couple of weeks have been a tad nutty. Please forgive me. Thanks go out again to those who reviewed last time. You are so good to me.
chapter 20: Ashen - a calm before the storm
Ron felt a cold shiver run down his spine at the light touch on his shoulder and turned sharply to see who was behind him. Ginny looked up at him innocently. He sighed and turned to continue down the hall toward the dungeons. "What is it, Ginny?" he asked wearily. The headache still hadn't worn off from Divinations the period before lunch and he wasn't expecting the upcoming hour with Malfoy to improve things any.
"You have Herbology after this, don't you Ron?" Ginny's tone was bright but displayed nothing beyond that.
"No, I have it the class after that." Ron was unsure what Ginny was getting at.
"And you're studying Salamander's Heart now, aren't you?" she continued blithely.
"Yeah?" Ron was now thoroughly confused and he stopped to turn and give Ginny a questioning look. The less than ideal lighting conditions of the dungeon halls cast a dark shadow over her face, making it even harder for Ron to read her expression and discern her intent.
"Do you think you could get me a handful of the seeds?" She looked at him blankly then, her face a smooth mask of simple innocence and patient expectation. Ron felt a dark premonition stirring in the back of his mind but pushed it away. This was just Ginny.
"Why? What do you want with them, Ginny? It's not exactly the best plant for a window box, you know," he joked mildly. Salamander's Heart was well named and had a tendency to catch things on fire if not handled carefully.
Ginny just smiled at him lightly. "Of course I know. I just ran across a charm I want to try out and I need the seeds for that. I'd go ask Professor Sprout for some but I'm sure she wouldn't let me have any unless it were for something school related, and if you're working with them anyway..." She shrugged, smiling and Ron felt his resistances crumbling. She may have acted weird sometimes but she was still his baby sister.
"But how am I going to snitch Salamander's Heart seeds without burning a hole through my pocket?" Ron offered as a last excuse.
Ginny smiled again and reached down into a pocket in her robes. "Don't worry. I thought of that already." When she looked up her face was once again in the light and shone with a happy radiance. She held up a small wooden box that looked like something Hagrid would cobble together. Ron took it, frowning dubiously. "I coated the inside with a fire-resistant laquer we made last year in potions. It should hold the seeds fine."
Ron shrugged and stuck the box in his pocket. What could it hurt? He looked up and smiled at his sister reassuringly. She smiled back and, before he could protest, jumped up and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you," she sang, turning and running off down the hall. Ron smiled again as he continued on his way. It was good to see Ginny chipper again. She'd been acting so quiet lately and part of him had been worried about her without even really knowing it.
When he got down to Snape's offices he found that Malfoy wasn't there yet and so flopped down on the couch to wait. Sinking down into the squashy cushions and laying his head back on the armrest he found that the combination of a restless night and the lingering headache from Trelawney's stuffy classroom had left him feeling drowsy. He slipped his eyes shut and just let his mind wander over the small sounds that filtered into and around the room.
A low moaning sound that meant, even if the storm had passed on, the wind sure hadn't. Soft footsteps from the other room where Snape did most of his work and the clinking of glass against wood, probably a vial of something or other. The muffled, high-pitched drone of voices from somewhere down the hall. His own breathing, a soft whisper of exhalation, and under that, the small thump of his heart against his chest.
"The hour's almost up."
"Huh?" Ron mumbled and opened his eyes blearily to the sight of Draco Malfoy perched on the armrest at the other end of the couch. He sat up slowly, rubbing his hands over his face in an attempt to wake himself up. "Almost up? Why didn't you wake me sooner?"
Malfoy shrugged, looking bored. "The quiet was nice." He stood and sat down next to Ron on the couch. Ron nodded, yawning, and began rolling up his sleeve. "Why are you so tired, anyway?" Malfoy managed to make the question sound completely indifferent.
It was Ron's turn to shrug. "Wasn't able to get much sleep last night." This time Draco nodded, before taking Ron's outstretched arm in his hands, looking very intent.
"What's the matter?" Ron asked after a minute had passed and Malfoy hadn't moved.
The question seemed to snap him out of some kind of daze, however, for he shook his head quickly, drawing in a breath. "Nothing. Just...nothing." He shook his head again before setting his mouth to Ron's arm and Ron closed his eyes as that familiar buzzing current ran up his arm and shoulder. He barely felt the pain. He opened his eyes again, though, as he realized that Malfoy was more tense than he first looked.
"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked, then winced as Draco started up, letting go of his arm.
"I'm fine, Weasley." Malfoy's voice was cold and he frowned. "What do you care?"
Again, Ron shrugged. "You just seem tense."
Malfoy didn't move but Ron could sense him trying to relax. The look on his face was very still, like someone afraid that something bad was going to happen and trying not to think about it. "I didn't get much sleep last night, either," Draco said finally, then turned so that he was facing the door and just sat, waiting.
Ron didn't know what to say to that so just followed suit and turned to stare at the door, letting his thoughts drift. Snape would be in any minute to let them out, or rather to tell them to leave. Ron contemplated that fascinating object that was the door and tried not to think about how odd Malfoy was being today. He was surprised to note that the door was probably one of the nicer accessories of the room. The wood was well polished and of a fine grain. It was bound in simple yet well set brass straps and had brass hinges that, now that he thought about it, never squeaked. The handle was worn from long use but had an elegant latch that...
"I dreamt that I killed you." Ron jumped as Draco's words broke his concentration on the door. He turned to gape at Malfoy who was still staring placidly straight ahead. He wasn't sure what had him more surprised, Malfoys words, or the fact that he had willingly said them aloud. He had never seemed the type to mention something so personal as dreams, especially to someone he had loathed for years such as Ronald Weasley.
Before Ron could say anything, however, Professor Snape strode into the room, his black robes swirling behind him. He raised an eyebrow at the two boys' varied expressions before saying, in a voice like liquid ice, "Hour's up boys. I am glad to see that you have, once again, managed not to kill each other. Now hurry along to your classes." Still in a state of mild shock, Ron rose beside Draco and followed him out the door.
"Careful, Ron, you're going to burn yourself." Hermione reached over and stopped Ron's hand before it could stray too close to one of the plants they had just finished potting. Madam Sprout had given them all dragon hide gloves to work in but that didn't protect Ron from catching his sleeve on fire.
"Oh. Thanks, Hermione." Ron pulled his hand back quickly and turned to give Hermione an apologetic smile.
"Don't go drifting off while planting Salamander's Heart seedlings, Ron. It's not safe," Hermione scolded. "What were you thinking about anyway?"
Ron shrugged. "Nothing." In truth he had still been thinking about Malfoy's admission an hour and a half ago. Thinking about someone telling you that they had a dream that they killed you was distracting, especially if you were trying to figure you why they told you in the first place, and whether or not it meant something, and figuring that of course it meant something because Malfoy had actually mentioned it, and so then what did it mean?
"Earth to Ron." Hermione waved her hand in front of Ron's face and he shook himself out of his dazed contemplation. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"No, no, I'm fine." Ron waved off Hermione's concerned look. "I just didn't get much sleep last night, that's all." Hermione's concerned frown only deepened, but at that moment Professor Sprout spoke up at the head of the class with instructions for what they were to do next with the young Salamander's Heart seedlings and the matter was dropped.
After Sprout had finished her instructions, Ron worked for several more minutes before he remembered Ginny's request. Setting down his trowel and taking off one of the gloves, he dug around in his pocket for the box she had given him. It was small and roughly square with a tight-fitting lid.
Shuffling things around on the shelf below the greenhouse's work-table, Ron located the large jar that was used to keep the Salamander's Heart seeds, which had been used to grow the class' seedlings. There were several such jars located throughout the greenhouse and Ron was sure that if he took a small handful of the seeds for Ginny they wouldn't be missed.
Removing the lid of the jar, Ron peered inside. It was filled almost to the top with a mixture of about sixty percent ash and forty percent Salamander's Heart seeds, which were small and dark, looking almost like black seed pearls and smelling vaguely of old rosary beads.
Ok, this was the tricky part. He couldn't grab out the seeds with the dragonhide gloves on because they were too clumsy and he would inevitably end up spilling seeds everywhere and, with his luck, somehow end up catching the greenhouse on fire. So he would have to use his bare hands, or at least a bare hand, but, while the seeds weren't exactly on fire or anything, they were fairly hot and he wouldn't be able to hold them for long. Making sure that the lid of Ginny's box was definitely off and the box squarely on the table next to the jar, Ron readied his ungloved hand and prepared to fish out a handful of the ash and seed mixture.
"What are you doing, Ron?" Ron paused with his fingers hovering inches above the top layer of seeds. If he had been cold, this would have been an excellent way to warm up his hands.
"Hermione! You startled me!" Ron accused, looking over his shoulder at her. Hermione just looked at him expectantly so he continued. "Ginny asked me to get her some seeds for a charm she's working on. What can it hurt? It's not like we're about to run out any time soon." Hermione frowned, then bit her lip. Ron could practically see the wheels in her Prefect mind turning, trying to decide whether or not this was something she could let him get away with. She sighed and Ron knew he had won.
Then she frowned again. "She wants the seeds for a charm?" Hermione sounded skeptical. "What charm?"
Ron shrugged. "Didn't say. Just said it was something she came across and wanted to try out." Ron quickly plunged his hand into the jar, scooped up a handful of the mixture, and deposited it neatly in Ginny's box. Hermione hovered over his shoulder, still looking worried.
"That's odd. I've never come across any charms that use Salamander's Heart." Hermione worried her lip some more. Ron just shrugged again, putting the lid back firmly on the box and recapping the jar before shoving it back into its place on the low shelf. "Are you sure she...Oh, dear."
As Hermione hurried past him, Ron looked over to see what had caught her attention and winced. It appeared that, even under Neville's usually competent gardening monitoring, Harry had still fallen into the same trap that Ron had closely avoided and caught he sleeve on fire. Ron sighed as he stuffed Ginny's box back into the pocket in his robes. You'd think that after six years Harry would have gotten used to remembering the spells for dealing with things like that. Instead he was flapping his arm ineffectually, hindering Neville, and then Hermione, from casting the spell to put out the flames.
Ron watched quietly from the sidelines as Harry's arm was finally put out and, its aim accomplished and its fires spread, the seedling that Harry had been working with burst into small flame from the inside out and burned itself into ash. For a moment it looked like a living, plant-shaped coal, glowing red and orange through a coating of grey ash. 'Well, there you go for more seeds to replenish the one's I took for Ginny,' Ron thought to himself. Much like the phoenix, Salamander's Heart only found its regeneration in the ashes of its own destruction.
chapter 20: Ashen - a calm before the storm
Ron felt a cold shiver run down his spine at the light touch on his shoulder and turned sharply to see who was behind him. Ginny looked up at him innocently. He sighed and turned to continue down the hall toward the dungeons. "What is it, Ginny?" he asked wearily. The headache still hadn't worn off from Divinations the period before lunch and he wasn't expecting the upcoming hour with Malfoy to improve things any.
"You have Herbology after this, don't you Ron?" Ginny's tone was bright but displayed nothing beyond that.
"No, I have it the class after that." Ron was unsure what Ginny was getting at.
"And you're studying Salamander's Heart now, aren't you?" she continued blithely.
"Yeah?" Ron was now thoroughly confused and he stopped to turn and give Ginny a questioning look. The less than ideal lighting conditions of the dungeon halls cast a dark shadow over her face, making it even harder for Ron to read her expression and discern her intent.
"Do you think you could get me a handful of the seeds?" She looked at him blankly then, her face a smooth mask of simple innocence and patient expectation. Ron felt a dark premonition stirring in the back of his mind but pushed it away. This was just Ginny.
"Why? What do you want with them, Ginny? It's not exactly the best plant for a window box, you know," he joked mildly. Salamander's Heart was well named and had a tendency to catch things on fire if not handled carefully.
Ginny just smiled at him lightly. "Of course I know. I just ran across a charm I want to try out and I need the seeds for that. I'd go ask Professor Sprout for some but I'm sure she wouldn't let me have any unless it were for something school related, and if you're working with them anyway..." She shrugged, smiling and Ron felt his resistances crumbling. She may have acted weird sometimes but she was still his baby sister.
"But how am I going to snitch Salamander's Heart seeds without burning a hole through my pocket?" Ron offered as a last excuse.
Ginny smiled again and reached down into a pocket in her robes. "Don't worry. I thought of that already." When she looked up her face was once again in the light and shone with a happy radiance. She held up a small wooden box that looked like something Hagrid would cobble together. Ron took it, frowning dubiously. "I coated the inside with a fire-resistant laquer we made last year in potions. It should hold the seeds fine."
Ron shrugged and stuck the box in his pocket. What could it hurt? He looked up and smiled at his sister reassuringly. She smiled back and, before he could protest, jumped up and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you," she sang, turning and running off down the hall. Ron smiled again as he continued on his way. It was good to see Ginny chipper again. She'd been acting so quiet lately and part of him had been worried about her without even really knowing it.
When he got down to Snape's offices he found that Malfoy wasn't there yet and so flopped down on the couch to wait. Sinking down into the squashy cushions and laying his head back on the armrest he found that the combination of a restless night and the lingering headache from Trelawney's stuffy classroom had left him feeling drowsy. He slipped his eyes shut and just let his mind wander over the small sounds that filtered into and around the room.
A low moaning sound that meant, even if the storm had passed on, the wind sure hadn't. Soft footsteps from the other room where Snape did most of his work and the clinking of glass against wood, probably a vial of something or other. The muffled, high-pitched drone of voices from somewhere down the hall. His own breathing, a soft whisper of exhalation, and under that, the small thump of his heart against his chest.
"The hour's almost up."
"Huh?" Ron mumbled and opened his eyes blearily to the sight of Draco Malfoy perched on the armrest at the other end of the couch. He sat up slowly, rubbing his hands over his face in an attempt to wake himself up. "Almost up? Why didn't you wake me sooner?"
Malfoy shrugged, looking bored. "The quiet was nice." He stood and sat down next to Ron on the couch. Ron nodded, yawning, and began rolling up his sleeve. "Why are you so tired, anyway?" Malfoy managed to make the question sound completely indifferent.
It was Ron's turn to shrug. "Wasn't able to get much sleep last night." This time Draco nodded, before taking Ron's outstretched arm in his hands, looking very intent.
"What's the matter?" Ron asked after a minute had passed and Malfoy hadn't moved.
The question seemed to snap him out of some kind of daze, however, for he shook his head quickly, drawing in a breath. "Nothing. Just...nothing." He shook his head again before setting his mouth to Ron's arm and Ron closed his eyes as that familiar buzzing current ran up his arm and shoulder. He barely felt the pain. He opened his eyes again, though, as he realized that Malfoy was more tense than he first looked.
"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked, then winced as Draco started up, letting go of his arm.
"I'm fine, Weasley." Malfoy's voice was cold and he frowned. "What do you care?"
Again, Ron shrugged. "You just seem tense."
Malfoy didn't move but Ron could sense him trying to relax. The look on his face was very still, like someone afraid that something bad was going to happen and trying not to think about it. "I didn't get much sleep last night, either," Draco said finally, then turned so that he was facing the door and just sat, waiting.
Ron didn't know what to say to that so just followed suit and turned to stare at the door, letting his thoughts drift. Snape would be in any minute to let them out, or rather to tell them to leave. Ron contemplated that fascinating object that was the door and tried not to think about how odd Malfoy was being today. He was surprised to note that the door was probably one of the nicer accessories of the room. The wood was well polished and of a fine grain. It was bound in simple yet well set brass straps and had brass hinges that, now that he thought about it, never squeaked. The handle was worn from long use but had an elegant latch that...
"I dreamt that I killed you." Ron jumped as Draco's words broke his concentration on the door. He turned to gape at Malfoy who was still staring placidly straight ahead. He wasn't sure what had him more surprised, Malfoys words, or the fact that he had willingly said them aloud. He had never seemed the type to mention something so personal as dreams, especially to someone he had loathed for years such as Ronald Weasley.
Before Ron could say anything, however, Professor Snape strode into the room, his black robes swirling behind him. He raised an eyebrow at the two boys' varied expressions before saying, in a voice like liquid ice, "Hour's up boys. I am glad to see that you have, once again, managed not to kill each other. Now hurry along to your classes." Still in a state of mild shock, Ron rose beside Draco and followed him out the door.
"Careful, Ron, you're going to burn yourself." Hermione reached over and stopped Ron's hand before it could stray too close to one of the plants they had just finished potting. Madam Sprout had given them all dragon hide gloves to work in but that didn't protect Ron from catching his sleeve on fire.
"Oh. Thanks, Hermione." Ron pulled his hand back quickly and turned to give Hermione an apologetic smile.
"Don't go drifting off while planting Salamander's Heart seedlings, Ron. It's not safe," Hermione scolded. "What were you thinking about anyway?"
Ron shrugged. "Nothing." In truth he had still been thinking about Malfoy's admission an hour and a half ago. Thinking about someone telling you that they had a dream that they killed you was distracting, especially if you were trying to figure you why they told you in the first place, and whether or not it meant something, and figuring that of course it meant something because Malfoy had actually mentioned it, and so then what did it mean?
"Earth to Ron." Hermione waved her hand in front of Ron's face and he shook himself out of his dazed contemplation. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"No, no, I'm fine." Ron waved off Hermione's concerned look. "I just didn't get much sleep last night, that's all." Hermione's concerned frown only deepened, but at that moment Professor Sprout spoke up at the head of the class with instructions for what they were to do next with the young Salamander's Heart seedlings and the matter was dropped.
After Sprout had finished her instructions, Ron worked for several more minutes before he remembered Ginny's request. Setting down his trowel and taking off one of the gloves, he dug around in his pocket for the box she had given him. It was small and roughly square with a tight-fitting lid.
Shuffling things around on the shelf below the greenhouse's work-table, Ron located the large jar that was used to keep the Salamander's Heart seeds, which had been used to grow the class' seedlings. There were several such jars located throughout the greenhouse and Ron was sure that if he took a small handful of the seeds for Ginny they wouldn't be missed.
Removing the lid of the jar, Ron peered inside. It was filled almost to the top with a mixture of about sixty percent ash and forty percent Salamander's Heart seeds, which were small and dark, looking almost like black seed pearls and smelling vaguely of old rosary beads.
Ok, this was the tricky part. He couldn't grab out the seeds with the dragonhide gloves on because they were too clumsy and he would inevitably end up spilling seeds everywhere and, with his luck, somehow end up catching the greenhouse on fire. So he would have to use his bare hands, or at least a bare hand, but, while the seeds weren't exactly on fire or anything, they were fairly hot and he wouldn't be able to hold them for long. Making sure that the lid of Ginny's box was definitely off and the box squarely on the table next to the jar, Ron readied his ungloved hand and prepared to fish out a handful of the ash and seed mixture.
"What are you doing, Ron?" Ron paused with his fingers hovering inches above the top layer of seeds. If he had been cold, this would have been an excellent way to warm up his hands.
"Hermione! You startled me!" Ron accused, looking over his shoulder at her. Hermione just looked at him expectantly so he continued. "Ginny asked me to get her some seeds for a charm she's working on. What can it hurt? It's not like we're about to run out any time soon." Hermione frowned, then bit her lip. Ron could practically see the wheels in her Prefect mind turning, trying to decide whether or not this was something she could let him get away with. She sighed and Ron knew he had won.
Then she frowned again. "She wants the seeds for a charm?" Hermione sounded skeptical. "What charm?"
Ron shrugged. "Didn't say. Just said it was something she came across and wanted to try out." Ron quickly plunged his hand into the jar, scooped up a handful of the mixture, and deposited it neatly in Ginny's box. Hermione hovered over his shoulder, still looking worried.
"That's odd. I've never come across any charms that use Salamander's Heart." Hermione worried her lip some more. Ron just shrugged again, putting the lid back firmly on the box and recapping the jar before shoving it back into its place on the low shelf. "Are you sure she...Oh, dear."
As Hermione hurried past him, Ron looked over to see what had caught her attention and winced. It appeared that, even under Neville's usually competent gardening monitoring, Harry had still fallen into the same trap that Ron had closely avoided and caught he sleeve on fire. Ron sighed as he stuffed Ginny's box back into the pocket in his robes. You'd think that after six years Harry would have gotten used to remembering the spells for dealing with things like that. Instead he was flapping his arm ineffectually, hindering Neville, and then Hermione, from casting the spell to put out the flames.
Ron watched quietly from the sidelines as Harry's arm was finally put out and, its aim accomplished and its fires spread, the seedling that Harry had been working with burst into small flame from the inside out and burned itself into ash. For a moment it looked like a living, plant-shaped coal, glowing red and orange through a coating of grey ash. 'Well, there you go for more seeds to replenish the one's I took for Ginny,' Ron thought to himself. Much like the phoenix, Salamander's Heart only found its regeneration in the ashes of its own destruction.
