Author's Notes: Thanks to Iselin for reviewing!

Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine; only the plot.

Miss Cellophane

Ginny woke up early the next morning. She still had time enough to sleep for another half hour, but today was the first day of classes and she was eager to begin.

Rubbing her eyes and stretching, she got heavily to her feet and tried not to make much noise on her way to the bathroom. She turned the knob, but it only jangled loudly in the socket – it was locked. Ginny half turned and let her eyes sweep across the dorm – everyone was still in bed. Her eyes flicked apprehensively back to the locked room and she reached forward to try again, when it swung in.

"Oh, sorry!" breathed a very pink Hermione. She looked as if she'd been scrubbing her skin clean for at least twenty minutes. Sweeping past the younger girl, Hermione made her way to the corner, where Ginny saw that she had overlooked the dark rucksack and flats.

"Hermione," she said with wonder, brown eyes widening despite their sleepiness. "Why are you in the sixth-year dorms?"

The older girl looked down to fasten the straps of her shoes. "I tried to take a shower in my own dorm, but apparently the rest of the girls couldn't take the sound of the tap going on yet." She huffed lightly. "It's not as if the shower's a waterfall…Anyway, I had to come here instead."

Ginny nodded blankly. "All right…but you know what time it is, don't you?"

"Well, of course," she answered, rolling her eyes. "I just wanted to get an early start on the day." She stood and began straitening herself out. "You know, I can't take my job as Head Girl lightly." Tightening her tie and making sure that her badge stood out on her robes, she continued, "Why I'm sure that Harry is doing the same thing."

Ginny gave a small laugh. "If you think that he's getting out of bed at –" she checked her watch, "– 6:50, you haven't learned anything from staying at the Burrow with us."

"Well then I'll just have to remind him of what could come from shirking his duties." With that, she descended into the Common Room.

Ginny shook her head and went into the unlocked bathroom. "Some people never change."

Hours later Ginny stood in a large crowd waiting to get inside the Great Hall for lunch. The day had been hectic by even Hogwarts' standards, and there was assorted grumbling as everyone grumbled, aggravated.

Although none of the teachers were new except for the Defense professor, they still gave an introduction to the courses. All of them sounded interesting, if not difficult, and Ginny couldn't wait to get started.

Looking around, she saw that next to her there was a tall blond boy reading the Daily Prophet. Anxious to know what it was that had her brother and his friends so enraptured in the morning in their compartment, she inched closer to the person, hoping to get a glimpse at what articles there were. Not realizing that she appeared to be staring, she continued to look in the person's direction.

Suddenly he lifted his head from reading an article, and said, "Well, Weasley, if you take a picture like your creepy little friend likes to do, or have him do it for you, it might last longer."

Ginny looked up from the paper in the boy's hands to realize that it was Draco Malfoy and reddened slightly.

"Thanks for the advice, Malfoy," she said standing straighter. "But I don't think I'll need Colin. You're so full of yourself I bet you've got plenty of pictures lying all over the place."

It was rude of him to try and embarrass her. He had been laying off of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the past year (they thought he was plotting something evil; she reasoned that he got bored after awhile), and she didn't want him to get the idea that she had been caught off guard by his snobbery.

"And for your information, I was looking at your paper, not you."

He smirked and raised his eyebrow, "Sure, Weasel," he said, only mildly impressed at her backbone. "But if you wanted to see it, you could have asked."

Ginny gave a humorless laugh. Malfoy thought that she would actually take something from him? Did he think her stupid?

After her second year when his father had given her the Dark Lord's journal, did he actually expect that she would take even a tissue from him?

"While I doubt that you trust any Malfoy's 'gifts', I assure you that this Daily Prophet is Dark Art - free." He thrust it into her hands, and began to walk inside the Great Hall, the crowd thinning. "I understand you don't have the money to buy even a paper" – she glared at him – "but don't expect any more handouts. You're not my charity case, that's Potter's area."

Glaring at his back, Ginny thought fleetingly that the gesture was almost nice; she hadn't asked for the paper. On remembering his last comment, though, she figured he only gave it to her so he could have an opportunity to talk about her family's poverty.

Sitting down at the table, she put the newspaper next to her. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her reading it in public.

After a quick meal, Ginny left the Great Hall a little earlier than usual so that she could read in the Common Room. Colin, who said he had nothing better to do, went with her.

"I'm not going to be much company," she told him. "Leo Fortis." The Fat Lady nodded and opened.

"That's okay," he said stepping inside. "I just got the latest issue of Witch Weekly which should keep me occupied."

"Colin, you read that trash?!" Ginny said disapprovingly. "You know how Rita Skeeter is! Though she's calmed down a bit, she's still a wretched gossip monger."

Colin chuckled a little and plopped down into a chair. "I don't always read the articles."

Ginny raised an eyebrow at him.

"Really, I don't! I mostly use it to look at the pictures."

"Whatever floats your boat," she said, settling into the sofa next to him. Looking at the cover page she saw a snapshot of a distraught wizard trying to fend off photographers. He looked up and saw Ginny and then collapsed on the street crying. Someone, whom she assumed was his wife, was also weeping and trying to get him off the sidewalk.

When the woman touched his robes Ginny saw that something stained them. On closer inspection she saw that it was red, and sticky.

"What the…" Ginny murmured.

He was covered in blood.

She read the headline quickly: WIZARD TORTURES AND KILLS FAMILY OF MUGGLES. Flipping to the first page of the article, Ginny read:

Respectable wizard Alfred Tinelle was found at a Muggle home in East London, when Muggles complained about screams and bright lights coming out of the home. When officials from the Ministry arrived on the scene, they found the Muggle family (three children, the mother, and father) dead on the floor. The Killing Curse had been performed on them after several rounds of the Cruatius Curse.

When Mr. Tinelle was apprehended he was in shock, but lucid enough to allege that he had been under the influence of the Imperious Curse. Several minutes later his wife arrived on the scene to take him home. The Ministry however believes that this case might be the work of You-Know-Who and refuses to release him into her care. A compromise was reached stating that Mr. Tinelle would go to St. Mungo's for care.

In the mean time, Aurors prepared to question Mr. Lucius Malfoy, who worked closely with Tinelle in his division (The Division of Dangerous Artifacts). The most perplexing matter of this case is that Mr. Tinelle had no problems with Muggles; in fact, he often helped the Division for the Protection of Muggles.

The Ministry refuses to release more information on the episode until they are sure of the culprit; however the Prophet will continue to follow this case and keep all readers posted.

Ginny stopped reading the paper and sat back in her chair. She had met Mr. Tinelle years ago after her father brought him home. He had seemed nice enough: he had warm blue eyes and brown hair, and generally put off a very kind persona. She had not recognized him on the cover of the paper at first because he looked so…haggard. But Dark Magic could do that to you – she knew that better than almost anybody.

All the same, Ginny wondered why Harry, Hermione, and Ron were so interested in the article; there was always some crazed lunatic terrorizing Muggles, and even killing them. The fact that Mr. Tinelle was involved only made it remotely different from the rest.

'Are they trying to catch the wizard who put Mr. Tinelle under the Imperious, or find evidence to catch Tinelle himself?'

"But that's crazy!" she said aloud without realizing it. Colin looked at her speculatively.

"And so are you Gin," he said grinning. "Twice in one day!"

She looked at him confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"Oh don't think that I didn't see you laughing with Dark Lord Jr."

"Oh shut up," she said irritably, she had been trying to think. "The first time was that prat Malfoy's fault."

"It was his fault that you laughed with him?"

"Yes! – I mean no!" she contested loudly.

Putting his hands out in front of him, Colin backed up into the couch. "Only checking."

Students began rushing out of the dorm and out through the portrait. "Anyway, it's time to go." He handed her his arm. "Shall we?"

Instead of putting her arm through his she strung the strap of her bag on his wrist for him to carry and glared at him. If he wanted to tease her, he would at least have to carry her books.

"Yes, we shall."

Ginny exhaled loudly and dropped into a space on the bench in the Great Hall for dinner. Colin popped into the space across from her, while Neville sat on her left and proceeded to pile his plate high with food. Serving herself, Ginny surveyed the Gryffindor area, feeling that something was out of place. It seemed too quiet.

Mouth full of potatoes, Colin asked, "Ginny, where's your brother?"

Realizing that this was the reason for the unusual quiet, Ginny answered after a pause, "I don't know. Most people usually go upstairs to the Common Room to drop off books. Maybe that's what they did."

Colin nodded. "I suppose so."

For the next fifteen minutes the three made small talk; at least that's what Ginny was doing.

She made sure that the topic of the conversation stayed mainly on Colin and his photographic endeavors for the year. He could go on for hours talking about his hobby without her saying anything – and this time, that's what she wanted. While he continued chattering, she continued to speculate on where the Trio was.

It wasn't just her brother that was missing; Harry and Hermione where nowhere to be found either. This meant that Ron and Hermione went off somewhere alone, leaving Harry to wait until they were finished; or they were on some secret adventure.

She assumed it was the latter. The former gave her mind disturbing images.

Ginny scanned the Great Hall while nodding absently at something Colin said. Her eyes stopped short at the Slytherin table – Malfoy wasn't at dinner.

Cutting off Colin abruptly, Ginny said, "Neville, where did you last see Ron, Harry, and Hermione?"

Colin started a little at Ginny's unexpected interruption. He looked across the table at Neville as if to ask what was wrong with her. Neville shrugged his shoulders warily.

"Sorry," she apologized. She hated it when people cut her off, too, but this was important.

"I think it was at the end of the class we had just before dinner."

"Go on," she urged.

"When class was over they seemed to be in a hurry to go somewhere…I thought they were in a hurry to go to dinner, and asked if they wouldn't mind waiting for me to drop off my bag and come back. They said they wouldn't, so I ran up the staircase that heads for the East Tower – everyone knows that that one takes the least time – and came back down." He sighed. "But when I came back, they weren't there. I guess they had other things to do…"

While most of Ginny was still curious about their whereabouts, another part of her was angry with them for treating Neville so rudely. Especially Ron. She thought that he would know better than to stand someone up.

'No wonder he seemed so downcast,' she thought. Harry and Ron were his heroes, and they treated him with the same care as a Slytherin would.

This thought brought her back to her previous thoughts. She understood that the Trio went somewhere, but was it just a coincidence that Malfoy was also missing? A new idea made her ask Neville another question.

"Nev," she began; he smiled a bit at her endearment for him, "What class did you just have?"

Picking up his fork once again he stated simply, "Potions."

Ginny waited a beat, and then shot up from her seat, knocking over her goblet of pumpkin juice. Colin coughed and tried to mop off the juice that spilled over onto his lap.

"Ginny, what's wrong with you today? You've been –"

"Sorry!" she yelled over her shoulder while running toward the large doors of the Hall. "Got to go! Thanks for the info, Nev!"

'It all makes sense!' she thought, running for the staircases that lead to the East Tower. Gryffindor seventh-years had potions with Slytherin. The East Tower staircase was not only a good way to get to the Gryffindor tower, but rumored to be the stairs that led to the Slytherin common room.

Reaching the winding staircase, Ginny put a pale hand on the oak banister, slightly out of breath, mind whirring.

From years of careful eavesdropping, she knew that the only other time the Trio had gone to the Slytherin common room, was when they were hoping to obtain information from Malfoy about the heir of Slytherin. They had suspected him of being the one who attacked all of the Muggle-borns.

'Who would have thought it was me.' Ginny thought sadly. Shaking her head to clear the unpleasant thoughts she continued to put pieces of the puzzle together.

The Daily Prophet said they would be questioning Lucius Malfoy about Mr. Tinelle; the Wonder Kids probably suspected that the younger Malfoy knew something. Considering this, she reasoned that they were probably right.

'After all, like Death Eater, like son.' She hated sounding so narrow-minded, but it was the most obvious answer. Malfoy was always up to something, and so was his demented father; everything clicked.

Ginny was suddenly filled with a great sense of pride; she'd figured everything out just as carefully as the Trio would. If she kept this up, then maybe she would have her own place in their group. However, in order to get anywhere, she had to know just as much as they did about the case, which would mean tracing their steps.

Straightening up, Ginny began to ascend the stairs. They creaked and groaned with each twist and turn. After the first landing, Ginny stood and surveyed her options. There were three ways she could go, but in order to get to the Slytherin common room, she had to get on the right set of steps. A torch illuminated the path that she would take if she wanted to get to her own common room, so that choice was marked off. The flight of steps in the center led to the Arithmancy classroom, and as far as she knew, there weren't any dorms there. So her only option was the stairs on the left.

Halfway up, Ginny began to hear small sounds, and creaks in every direction. Getting a chill as she climbed higher, she pulled her robes closer against her skin. Hearing a sharp shriek as she stood on the fourth step from the top, she gasped and whipped around, pulling her wand out. Ginny could make out the faint silvery glow of a ghost at the very bottom of the steps, and felt foolish for letting such a common occurrence frighten her. However, as she reached the top, she decided to keep her wand out – just in case.

Slowly walking down the first passageway, she decided to keep to the shadows. It wouldn't be good if she were caught lurking around another houses dorms at night.

Deciding that she wanted to find her brother and his friends as soon as possible, Ginny began to walk a little faster. If only it weren't so dark… The sun was setting in the west, so the only light she had was the small glow of torches that were stationed infrequently throughout the hall. Soon the shadows seemed to be closing in on her, and Ginny wondered how long she'd been roaming around. She didn't even know where she was going…

All of a sudden, she walked into a cold, stone wall. Hissing an oath, she turned and backed up. The hairs on her neck rose as she felt someone watching her.

"Who's there?" she whispered sharply. A high pitched chuckle answered her. Backing up further, her back hit what she thought was another wall. The laughing got louder. Panic registered in her brain as she realized that it was coming from behind her. But how could it, there was a wall…?

Turning around slowly, Ginny whispered, "Lumos," and looked at what she had backed up against. Small beady eyes glared right back at her.

"What have we here?" the face said. It wasn't a wall; it was the painting leading to the Slytherin Common Room. Salazar Slytherin rose from his seat in the portrait and walked forward.

Ginny gasped and turned, looking for a place to hide. She ran to the nearest corner and crouched in the shadows. Slytherin chuckled. The door swung open unexpectedly, and three sets of feet shuffled out. Ginny pressed herself closer into the corner, hoping to remain hidden.

But Slytherin would not let an intruder leave unscathed. "There is a lovely young woman in the shadows," he whispered silkily. The people jerked around to look at her corner. They began to come near her.

"No!" Ginny cried out. She jumped up and put the light out of her wand immediately. She heard three intakes of breath and knew that they had seen her face. Their pace quickened, and they came closer. Ginny ran to the nearest path she could find, it lead to another corridor. Running quickly, she turned a corner, and heard one of the people whisper, "Hurry up!"

She began to panic even more when she realized that it had to be Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy, who were following her. Turning her head to see how far ahead she was, she saw their figures coming closer.

Luckily, her hands were in front of her, because she hit a dead end. With a frustrated and horrified cry she frantically searched for another way to get back to the staircases. A torch around the corner cast a dim glow on a banister around the corner, and Ginny ran toward it with a fresh burst of speed. Hearing her attackers' footsteps pounding on the carpeted floor, Ginny began to breathe raggedly; her heart felt like it would come up and out of her throat.

Her robes billowed behind her as she sprinted for the stairs, but she forgot about magic. One of the voices firmly shouted "Ambula!" in her direction; Ginny's legs began to pump slower against her will. Tears coursed down her face as she stopped running at breakneck speed. There was a spell on her; she wouldn't be able to escape, and they would capture her.

Although she couldn't run, she began to walk quickly. It was an odd feeling – she wanted so much to sprint down the corridor, but she felt as if she was walking through mud. Some invisible force was keeping her from doing anything more than a brisk walk.

Ginny exhaled loudly when she saw the staircase coming closer; the banister was in reach…

A strong hand jerked her back violently just as she was about to grab the stair hold and her breath caught in her throat. A scream tore from her, but a hand clamped over her mouth, as the arm that grabbed her pulled her closer. Her back was pressed firmly against a boy's tall, slim, body; her arms confined tightly to her sides as the assailant wrapped his arm around her. Breathing heavily into the person's hand, Ginny's wide, brown eyes looked frantically for someone to help her. She tried to call for help, but the hand was firm around her mouth.

She was trapped in the Slytherin Wing, and no one would hear her screams.

Muahaha. Please review!

-Femme