Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay! I've had computer difficulties and had to re-write this chapter through a bout of writer's block. Thanks for all of the reviews! Please keep them coming!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all of the characters in this fanfiction do not belong to me. That is the pleasure of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros.
Miss Cellophane
The Great Hall doors blew open and Ginny sprinted down the stairs, books in tow.
There had not been much time after Draco left her until classes, and she had to get her books before she was late.
The hallway was already a sea of students' bobbing heads going to class. Ginny looked for Colin's own, but did not see it. Instead she walked alone reasoning that Colin would probably find her himself.
She was not disappointed.
"Hey," said Colin amiably walking next to the nervous redhead.
She flashed him a smile, but did not say anything.
"What did you get up to at lunch?" Colin asked. "You weren't there."
Ginny dodged her friend's face and shrugged a little.
"Oh," she said. "I forgot that I had some last minute Arithmancy homework to finish up. I wanted to eat, but there wasn't time."
Colin nodded and smiled. "You're so studious this year. Remind me to ask you for help on that Potions essay tonight, will you? I'm lost on where to find one of the ingredients. And since you've started it already, I figured that..." He tapered off.
"Oh, right!" Ginny said brightly, a bit late. Her mind was elsewhere – most likely thoughts about nine o'clock that night. "Yes, of course I'll help you."
Colin smiled at Ginny who smiled back and then looked away to frown.
'He'd better not count on me reminding him,' she thought, feeling bad. Although she said that she had gotten a head start on the essay, with all that was going on, Ginny had almost forgotten there was one and had not even begun to research the topic.
"I hope that you don't plan on missing too many meals, though," Colin continued. "We miss you; it gets quiet."
Ginny grinned at the joke – she was not known for being the most talkative person.
"It's good that Ron missed me," she said loftily. "He wanted to apologize for being so rude, most likely. Too bad I wasn't there." On the inside, Ginny was grinning like mad.
'Ron, Hermione and Harry probably reached a dead-end somewhere and need my help. They'll have realized my value and desperately need me,' she thought. Admitting to herself that maybe 'desperately needed' might be an overstatement, she assumed anyway that she was needed on some scale.
Colin looked at his friend oddly, stepping aside from a third year's swinging rucksack.
"I meant Neville and me, Gin," he said tentatively. "Ron and Harry were busy talking as if they hadn't seen the other in years. From what I caught, Hermione was in the library – not unusual. About halfway through lunch, I think they went to join her. Besides, when was Ron rude to you?"
Ignoring his last question, Ginny looked up at Colin with a frown. "So they didn't notice I wasn't there?"
Catching onto Ginny's disappointment he said hurriedly, "I'm sure they did! They probably didn't want to make a big deal out of it; you know how they are..."
"Yeah," said Ginny. She knew Ron, and not making a big deal out of something was unheard of, but she dropped the subject. "So next we've got...?"
"I'm heading for the North Tower with Trelawney, and you're with Vector for Arithmancy. But why aren't you speaking to Ron?" Colin asked.
"What makes you think I'm not speaking to him?" asked Ginny.
"You just said – never mind. How was he rude to you?"
"Like you said, you know how he is..."Ginny said.
Colin's forehead creased in confusion. "Then when was he rude? I mean, it couldn't be this morning at breakfast because obviously I would have heard you arguing. Was it last night?"
Ginny and Colin came to the point where they would have to split up.
"I'll explain later. I have to go...to class," she said and half-ran, to the room.
Colin looked oddly at his friend's retreating back and then began the climb up the stairs.
"Damn that tower being so far away."
"Pincushion."
"Livamatus!"
Spffh!
"Porcupine..."
"Sillanimatus!"
Poof!
"Chair. Good show, Gin," said Colin, eying the brown chair sitting next to his table.
In revision of some of the previous year's work, Professor McGonagall asked her students to turn pincushions into their animate counterparts, porcupines. However, the students had to turn their animals into chairs. If all was well with that, they were to turn them back into the cushions.
"Thanks, Colin." Ginny smiled and look at her own brown chair, then at Colin's plushy one – his plushy, mauve one. "Shall we test them?"
Colin shrugged and looked at the chairs once more with a wary eye. "We have to."
"You first, then," said Ginny quickly.
Colin raised an eyebrow.
"It's not that I'm scared or anything," she said. She jumped as one more agitated student slammed the door shut on their way to the Infirmary. Many of the transfigured chairs had proved to be just as spiky as the porcupines had been.
"Purple is simply a majestic color. It begs to go first."
Colin wagged his finger at her. "It's mauve, not purple. And it happens to be one of my favorite colors." He did not want to admit that the color he had aimed for was a dark blue.
Ginny snorted. "Of course it is! On Opposite Day."
"I guess that I'll be the brave one then," Colin spoke. The redhead nodded.
Surreptitiously checking for any pointy looking objects in his chair, Colin sat. Then he moved back into the back rest. Afterward he moved his bottom around in exaggeration to show that all was well. The chair squeaked a bit.
"Ignoring a few rusty springs, my chair seems to be in top order," he boasted.
Ginny looked around the room at some of the students who had succeeded.
Gavin Wotwright, a Hufflepuff boy determined to be 'just like Hermione Granger' – he constantly proclaimed – was flipping between his pincushion, porcupine and couch so rapidly that it seemed like a slideshow. Professor McGonagall gave him a rare smile reserved for few. Knowing that one of those few was often Hermione made the boy blush with pride. His partner, Mavis Butters, seemingly loss control of her wand. It promptly smacked the blue-eyed boy in the face. Under his shoulder-length blond hair, Gavin now began to blush of embarrassment. The discreet smirk and shrug that Ginny caught off Mavis made her wonder if it was completely an accident.
Ginny shook her head and turned back to Colin. "It doesn't take a genius to do this, you know. I mean, if you did it..."
"We'll see," he said. He patted his chair as it squeaked.
Ginny began to gingerly lower herself into the brown chair. The classroom door slammed close yet again as an injured Hufflepuff waddled from the room. At the sudden noise, Ginny fell quickly into the object.
Almost immediately after, she jumped up; her mouth rounded in an 'o'.
About five short porcupine pins were jammed in her lower back, while two silver sewing needles stood out from her backside.
Just as immediately, Colin doubled over with laughter as his friend reddened in embarrassment and pain. His chair squeaked along at his jerky movements.
"Shut it, Colin!" demanded Ginny. "Oh, just shut up!"
She tried to take a step forward, but the pins stuck her even more. Her eyes watered, and so did Colin's as he continued laughing.
"Of...of all the things!" He slapped his knees with glee. "Oh...oh... my stomach hurts!" His chair continued squeaking, though a bit louder as he stuttered exclamations out. "You really should see your face, love. Oh!"
His back lowered into the chair. "Oh!"
"Colin..." muttered Ginny dangerously.
"Sorry, it's just...oh! Oh!"
At the last 'oh', Colin's face had taken an odd turn.
"There's something...something here..." he muttered shifting around in his seat. The chair squeaked loudly. "It's moving around behind my back!" he exclaimed.
Once again he began to laugh a little.
"Colin...?" Ginny asked.
"It's tickling me!" The chair squeaked and Colin kicked the bottom of the chair with his foot as he continued to laugh. Then it was his turn to jump from the chair.
"It bit me!" he shouted. When he turned to look at his chair, Ginny began to laugh while Colin clutched his back and looked with wide eyes. The chair squeaked.
Indeed it had bitten him. The small beady eyes of a frenzied porcupine looked up at the odd pair, and with a malicious squeak bared its teeth.
"I guess you're not better than me, Colin!" Ginny chuckled. "You'll just have to face the facts."
Professor McGonagall took that opportunity to check on them.
"Your chair still had pins, Ms. Weasley?" the formidable woman asked.
Sobering herself Ginny nodded.
"And yours has a face?" she asked Colin. Ginny snorted, and then ducked her head as the Gryffindor Head looked at her reproachfully.
He nodded his head slightly.
"Very well. Your homework is not only to research and practice the Tri-Transfiguration assigned for tonight, but to practice this one. Go to the Infirmary, you two." She walked away to another team.
Ginny and Colin both waddled their way out of the room, whispering insults at the other and clutching their backs.
Ginny was lost.
Of course that was her intention, but she was surprised how quickly and suddenly it had happened once she stopped trying.
After dinner, she concluded that lingering around the Dining Hall was not an option, nor was going back to the Common Room. Both would result in her whereabouts being apparent directly after the meal. If so, Colin would trail her for the remainder of the evening, forcing her to keep to her promise of helping with the Potions essay.
Leaving directly after dinner had been enough of a clench itself. Perhaps she was being overcautious, but she had partially mapped out a plan in her mind for a getaway. Leaving dinner too early would be suspicious, after all, she should be ravenous from not having had lunch – and she was. The best possible means of escape were to mesh with the crowd. Once the 'after-dinner' rush commenced, she could lose Colin.
That part of the plan had worked.
However, there was still about an hour until the agreed meeting time.
'Or the time he agreed with himself on,' thought Ginny irritably.
Aside from figuring out how to ditch Colin, the hardest parts lie in not being seen after dinner. Ginny was unsure of how long she would be meeting Draco for, but if she came back late enough to not see Colin or Neville until the next morning, they would ask her where she was. Of course she would have to lie again, but it would be easier to make up something if no one could claim to have seen her somewhere else. That was proving impossible.
She had already had a close shave with Neville, of all people.
For some reason, the boy had been walking around the West Wing – the opposite direction one would want to go in if they desired to go to Gryffindor Tower. When she saw him, Ginny ducked into a shadowed area beside a pillar holding a lit torch. At first Neville had been steadily heading in her direction. Then he abruptly turned and walked the other way. Relieved, Ginny had had to wait for his footsteps to subside until she could come out.
Next, it had been Michael Corner. True to his namesake, he emerged from a dark corner with a flushed and tousled (still gorgeous, if not more so) Cho Chang. Apparently they were still going strong (although there was an interlude Michael had with a Hufflepuff at the end of Fifth Year and during the summer); 'More power to them,' Ginny thought.
She skirted that area and turned a corner instead, not only from fear of discovery, but embarrassment.
At 8:11, it was Hephaestus Brommel, a dodgy Hufflepuff whom Ginny barely knew, but a boy who often chatted with Colin on photography.
Around 8:15 Ginny very nearly ran into an intolerable Gavin Wotwright, prancing about the halls, puffing his chest forward and getting a forty-five minute jumpstart on his 'prefectual duties'. She all but ran from him, not caring if he heard her footsteps.
After all of these encounters, Ginny opted for allowing herself to simply wander around and getting lost naturally. And it worked, quickly, too.
She found herself in some obscure part of the castle. There were a lot of older paintings in the area that she had never seen nor heard of. She met a portrait who claimed to have come close to being the Gryffindor portrait.
"I do miss seeing those smart, young, attractive ladies such as you. The fire of Gryffindor women..."
Ginny stared.
"The fire of their minds, I meant...of course..."
He stood up in his dark blue pantaloons and Ginny hurriedly walked away with his voice following her. "Come back again sometime!"
There was no doubt as to why he had not become their house portrait.
But there were other nice ones that Ginny saw. Many of the paintings were rushing back and forth. According to the portrait grapevine, there was a ball in Lucretia the Peerless's painting in the East Wing, one woman told her. Ginny waved as the woman smiled and portrait-hopped away.
Ginny then turned a corner and was faced with a dead-ended hall.
"Lumos," she whispered. The torches here were either off or in the process of dying out.
However, there was a wavering glow in a room at the end of the corridor on the left side. The right side of the corridor was blank, with only wall space, not even a painting. Against it, Ginny could see swaying shadows, being caused by the orange glow opposite it.
'There's probably a fire going in there,' she thought of the small room. She wanted to explore it, but needed to know exactly how much time she had until nine. Pushing her sleeve back, Ginny started.
"Damn!" she cursed.
'8:56, I'm going to be late.'
With a wistful look at the room, Ginny turned on her heel and hurried back around the corner she came.
A feeling of despair then came when she looked down the hall she had seemingly so easily come down. There were various corners she could have turned to get there, and she had no idea which.
'I'll take the stairs then,' she thought. 'I remember coming up the stairs at some interval. If I go down one flight, I might be more familiar with the area.' Her panic increased as the stairs moved around at their leisure. She thought of how long it had taken her to get lost, and how long it might take to get to the kitchens.
'My first meeting with Malfoy, and I'm standing him up,' she worried. Ginny wondered hopefully if he was similarly detained. During the course of dinner, she had discreetly looked for him at the Slytherin table. He was not there, but then again, neither were Crabbe and Goyle.
'Hopefully' – she thought wryly – 'he's up to some kind of mischief and needed Crabbe and Goyle's physical backing.'
The stairs let her off in an area with a lot of large windows, and Ginny began walking around, hoping to see something familiar.
She did not.
Growling a bit, she surreptitiously checked the watch again and groaned. '8:58...no wait,' the watch ticked, '8:59'.
"Damndamndamndamndamndamn...Okay, that's useless," spoke Ginny to herself. "I just need to find a familiar landmark. Anything! A scuffed shoe mark I've seen before...or...or toilet paper... I don't know!"
She slumped against the wall. "After all of the bloody suicide missions Tom sent me on, you'd think I'd know the whole school by now." The back of her head hit the wall.
This part of the castle only held more unfamiliar paintings. One portrayed a gory pub fight in which a man's head lie on the floor, shouting insults at his perplexed body that was still fighting its attackers. Another was of a man and woman embracing in a situation that was becoming less innocent by the minute. Ginny glanced at it for longer than a second, and the woman caught her eye and glared.
"I honestly wasn't watching! I...you were..."
The woman huffed, tossed her curly brown hair and shut the hangings around the room with one last rude glare at Ginny.
"Hag," muttered Ginny.
She banged her head against the wall again for good measure and risked a look at another painting of a tall, armored man on a horse. The backdrop was a mountainside, and a waxing moon hung in the sky.
The man looked at her, gave her a melancholy smile and said, "Always look to the North for truth."
He then resumed stargazing, with the same mournful, tortured lover look on his pale face. Oddly enough, his subtly dramatic ways – although much calmer – reminded Ginny of what Sir Cadogan might be like, if he was not constantly on a neurotic rampage.
Ginny thought about his ambiguous words. "North...truth..." she mumbled.
Jumping up suddenly, she silently cursed her stupidity. "Am I a bloody witch or not?!"
"Lumos!" she said whipping out her wand, and peering into the dark. "Point me." The wand swiveled north wise, and Ginny almost cheered.
She reckoned that if she kept going north, eventually she would get to the North Tower and sort her way out from there.
Ginny speed-walked for what seemed like ages because of the dark and shadows, until she heard a familiar rant.
"Halt, knave and fight like a man, you scurvy coward!"
Sir Cadogan's eyes bulged, and he cleared his throat noisily when he saw it was Ginny.
"Fair lady, what business dost thou have in these parts so late in the evening?"
She stopped walking and put her hands on her knees, catching her breath.
"Never... mind that," she responded, winded. "I'm stopping...here for a moment. Merlin, I'm glad to see you."
Cadogan's armor clanked noisily as tried to bow, forgetting he was still on horseback, and landing on the ground. He got up and stood very straight.
"It is no matter, Gentlewoman," he declared, as if his very being was the reason for her gladness.
Ginny shrugged. "I can't stay for very long. I don't even know why I stopped, really."
A part of her wanted to run until she got to Malfoy, so as not to dig her grave deeper. The other part of her wanted to postpone the meeting for just a little longer...maybe until she was a bit older...like, dead.
Breathing in very deeply Ginny stood tall and began to walk again, when Sir Cadogan's silhouette reminded her of the other knight errant.
"Er...Sir Cadogan," she hesitated. She had never directly addressed him. Usually she ran past him, hoping that he would not follow. "Earlier, I saw a rather nice portrait that reminded me of you."
Ginny could imagine his brow furrowing as he thought for a second. Then his armor clinked again as he faced her rigidly.
"Bah!" he groused. "You speak of Sir Chancery, a pansy of knight if ever there was one." He continued with disdain. "My brother: a weak, mush-minded, soft-hearted stargazer."
"Right...sure..." Ginny drew out. "Actually, he was very helpful; I kind of liked him."
"Of course you did!" Cadogan bellowed. Ginny winced. His voice bounced off of the cold, stone walls in the empty corridor. "You liked him for the womanly similarity in him!"
"Alright then," said Ginny uncertainly.
'That portrait is unhinged,' she thought.
"Goodnight..." She walked on quickly, the knight's voice following her.
"Remember me if I do not make it through this harsh night, for tonight, I do battle...!"
The rest died out as she went further out of range.
She glanced at the watch – 9:05. Then she just ran.
'If nothing else, by the end of this case I'll certainly be in great shape.'
She ran, and ran, and ran. Sometimes she stumbled over her steps, but went doggedly on ahead anyway. The distance was as great as if she had been running from Trelawney's classroom. And as she no longer took Divination, Ginny was nervous that she might get lost. It almost seemed like a maze, the way the windows blurred past her, identical in shape and size, one after the other.
Finally, she came to a familiar place. 'Once I turn this corner, I'll only have to go down the hall past the Charms room.'
Blundering along, and breathing heavily, Ginny felt every bit like a race horse. The room loomed closer, in an almost tantalizing way. There were two more rooms...one more room...she was going by it...
Just as she was going past it, a hand shot out of the room and grabbed her arm. Jerking back, she stumbled and fell with an "oomph!" on her behind. Ginny quickly looked up and paled at his evident displeasure.
"9:07," said Draco Malfoy. "You're late."
If Ginny could have rewound the past hour she spent gallivanting around Hogwarts, she would have in a second. Just from the look on his face.
What excuse would hold up against a seven minute deficit?
"Well, you see...I..." How annoying was it to have absolutely nothing to say?
"Don't just stand there in plain view like an idiot," he said sharply.
He began speaking before Ginny rose. "I didn't ask you to come here so that I would have to wait for –"
Ginny stood up on her own; obviously, he was not going to give her a hand. "No, Malfoy, you didn't ask me. Perhaps order is the word you're searching for." She pulled the paper from her robes pocket as she walked into the dark classroom.
His eyes narrowed. "I did order you, because I assumed correctly that you were incapable of doing something so easy. Did or did I not specify a time?"
Ginny thought about what to say. No fear of him would allow her to let Draco speak to her the way he was...even if she had dawdled. "I ran into trouble."
He laughed sarcastically. "Of course you did."
"Well, you didn't follow the 'specified directions' either. The note said the kitchens –"
"Don't be stupid, Weasley. I wouldn't be caught dead in the kitchens. It's enough that those bloody house elves are supposed to remain unseen, yet they're around anyway. I don't need to seek them out."
"Then why did you –"
"Do you make it a habit of asking idiotic questions before thinking?" said Draco aggravated. "I would go knocking on McGonagalll's door after curfew if I wanted to let people know that I was sneaking out after hours, instead of going to the kitchens where I am not as welcome –" Ginny snorted.
"Or welcome at all..."
"Whatever; it was just a ruse."
Ginny nodded curtly, still skeptical. "If you ask me, your plan was still shoddy." Her statement warranted a glare. "Suppose I hadn't come this way to go to the kitchens. We wouldn't have been able to meet up."
The blond waved his hand at Ginny as if to dissolve her thought
"Good thing I didn't ask you, then. Anyway I'd have known if you were there. Crabbe and Goyle have been gorging down there. No doubt you would have left right away after seeing them, and passed by here. I would have met you there. So enough questions, this was difficult enough." He gave Ginny and icy look, noticeably exasperated; the bickering ceased.
A clanking sound was heard in the distance and Ginny reflexively stepped closer to Draco, who whispered, "It's only Filch's big feet. Calm down."
Ginny kept stonily silent and Draco looked at her for a second more and then stuck his head out of the doorway, looked right and left, and then pulled it back in.
"Now I know that pack-horses have issues with quiet, but try as hard as your poor little brain can. down the halls late at night with that repulsive caretaker all over the castle..."
The redhead flushed with embarrassment and anger. So he had heard her running down the corridor.
"Worry about yourself, Malfoy. You've got loads of experience with that," she retorted.
"I'll follow that advice in the future. Filch has been patrolling up and down this hallway because his bloody cat knows I'm here. So if Mrs. Norris and her squib lover find you, don't expect my help."
"Because Slytherins have no honor," retorted Ginny.
Draco raked his hand through his un-gelled hair as Ginny put the paper away and looked anywhere but at him. "Not true; we just don't waste it on the like of you."
He checked once more to see if the coast was clear and very quietly glided from the room and went off for the steps. When he arrived safely in the shadow off the tall walls next to the grand stairway, he noticed that Ginny had not followed. But the redhead had again heard something coming from the direction of the Great Hall...Filch?
"Must I hold your grubby little hand?"
Ginny's head snapped front to greet the harsh whisper. "I'd rather die," she whispered harshly.
After a few moments she joined him at the oak banister. The winding wood, usually so cheerful seeming in the daylight seemed foreboding, as it appeared to hover in the air and spiral up and away into the darkness. The creaky steps were unusually firm under her feet, but instead of being reassuring, they made Ginny feel like she was standing fixed on cement blocks. It was probably just her though, she figured miserably, as Draco began to ascend the stairway with the ease of someone who is used to skulking about in the dark.
When the quiet began to become oppressive as Ginny continuously followed the tall figure in front of her, she tried to think of a topic to broach the silence.
"Did you, uh, have run-in with Mrs. Norris, then?" she spoke quietly.
Draco turned his head around for a brief second, but continued walking along, occasionally looking this way and that. Ginny hoped he knew where he was leading her.
"Well?"
Draco's fist clenched agitatedly. "Well, what Weasley?"
The redhead fidgeted a bit. "Mrs. Norris..."
"You're still on about that damned cat?"
"I don't know..." muttered Ginny. So much for decent conversation. If there was going to be another silly spat, she would rather have the silence.
"Obviously I wouldn't know either. Everyone knows that abnormal flea-trap has some kind of sick sixth-sense about students." He shrugged. "I got there a little early, maybe she saw me."
Ginny was silent once more, and simply settled for following Draco quietly. The main staircase had switched a while back to another that was far more narrow and creaky, but much shorter. Soon the pair was walking through a deserted hallway on another floor. A dusty blue light was filtering through the windows as the late hour approached.
'It's not even twelve yet, and it's so dark,' Ginny thought apprehensively. She looked around her for anything familiar, but just as she was lost before meeting up with Draco, the part of the castle they were in was unfamiliar. It had the same feeling of abandonment that made Ginny wary. Not many people would be so brave as to follow Draco Malfoy into uncharted parts of Hogwarts castle. There were so many tricks and nooks and passageways that if something should ever happen to her, it might take a while for anyone to find where she had gone.
Ginny thought of the nasty Slytherin that Fred and George had shut up in a disappearing closet before they left, and how long it took for anyone to find him. Never had she felt such sympathy for a Slytherin.
Abruptly, a wall came into Ginny's view, she jumped back, her steps clacking on the stone floor and echoing away.
"Pay attention," hissed Draco.
Ginny began to feel her temper rise for probably the thousandth time in the night so far. Her thoughts had been running loose, and she had almost run into a wall as Draco turned a corner.
"Malfoy, where are we going?" she demanded.
Draco growled with increased irritation. "You'll see, Weasley."
"You can't just –"
Draco began humming an unfamiliar tune over Ginny's words with exaggerated nonchalance. Fists balling up, Ginny stalked after the blond in renewed silence. The walking continued.
The two turned another corner, and Ginny's brow wrinkled with minor recognition. The hall was now a dead end, but not the same one that she had come to before. The room was on the opposite side that it had been earlier.
When they reached a room at the end of the hall, Draco stepped inside and walked straight to the opposite wall. The wall was sturdy and made of wide rectangular bricks, Ginny noted absently, looking around.
Draco pulled out his wand and tapped it in a seemingly random pattern. "Come on," he said briskly.
Ginny snorted. "If you were looking for hidden treasure, I'm sure that the wall's not hollow and hiding some."
Draco's back remained turned to her, but she could imagine him smirking after what happened next.
Not unlike the barrier at Diagon Alley, the bricks began to shift and turn and tumble under and over the others creating a hole big enough for people to pass through.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Weasley, but no hidden treasure." Ginny reddened. "I suppose its back to digging through rubbish bins again."
"Just go through the stupid wall, Malfoy!" the redhead grumbled angrily.
Draco smirked a little and bowed, holding his hands out. "After you, of course; I wouldn't want to be pushed or anything like that, if it should happen."
Ginny stood up straight and stalked straight for the hole, when she came through the other side, she could not help but be a little confused.
"I don't think I came through properly, something must have happened..." she said turning around. But Draco was already dusting himself off after climbing through, and the wall was closing.
When he heard Ginny's protesting moan, he looked up and rolled his eyes.
"What now?"
Ginny began to say that she did not think they had gone to another place; that somehow they had just ended up going through the wall and coming back into the same room, until she saw that the entrance was on the other side of the room. Also, from what she could discern in the dark, the coloring of the room seemed different somehow.
"I...nothing..." she looked around in more detail. There were small couches backed up against each wall, and a small table in the center of the room. A dark fireplace was a few paces away from her, but the room was not as chilly as the other had been. There was also a lingering smell of ashes.
"Hang on a minute," Ginny said, walking toward the entrance. She poked her head out of the door and saw a more familiar hall. It was the hall where she had been earlier.
"Wow..." she said quietly, coming back inside. Draco had situated himself in one of the chairs and was pointing his wand at the fire place.
"Incendio." A small fire sparked up in the small room, giving the two a little more light. Ginny saw that the room was mostly decorated with finished mahogany wood but there were some spots, such as on the mantle place, where Ravenclaw insignias were staring out at her. She looked closely at the three walls that weren't brick and saw that tiny Ravenclaw insignia patterns made up the wallpaper. The chairs were a navy blue, and in front of them were small azure footrests.
"Satisfied?"
Ginny spun around and looked at Draco.
"Hmm? Oh, right...yes...Yes, it's very nice." She continued her survey.
Draco sighed exasperated. "But?"
Ginny shrugged and a bit nervously sat in a chair across from him. "Well, where exactly are we?"
Draco looked at her with a blank face that portrayed disbelief. He waved his arm around at the walls and at the Rowena Ravenclaw portrait over the mantle place. Luckily the former Head of House was sleeping securely in her staunch copper frame.
Ginny's eyes narrowed. "I obviously understand that we're somewhere near the Ravenclaw common room, but what is this place exactly?"
"Beggars shouldn't be choosers, Weasley."
Ginny threw up her hands with exasperation. "Do you realize, Malfoy, that we've established that you asked me to meet you tonight? If you want to be stupid and immature, we can continue to argue ourselves into circles, but it's already been done. But fine, if it pleases you, I'll make sure to throw a recycled insult at you tomorrow so we can begin this all over again."
Draco examined his nails, seemingly unaffected. "I hold you to that, Weasley." Ginny growled.
"This room has been here since the Founders' Time," he finally began. "There are three other ones similar to it; you've seen one other just now. The one we are in right now was Rowena Ravenclaw's." Draco straightened in his seat, an excited glint in his eye. "The best way to explain what the rooms are for exactly is to think of them as common rooms, or staff rooms for the Heads-of-House; although teachers are allowed to be here if invited."
"What house is the adjoining room from?" asked Ginny.
"Hufflepuff," answered Draco.
"But where are the other two rooms?" Ginny questioned relentlessly. "When I came this way earlier, I only saw this one."
Draco lifted an eyebrow. "You mean earlier when you supposedly 'ran into some trouble'?"
"Yes," said Ginny quickly. "Well...sort of. I didn't want to be followed by anyone, so I tried to get myself lost." Ginny shrugged. "It turned out all right in the end."
"When trying not to be tailed by others, it is always a good idea to know where you yourself are going, Weasley," Draco stated. "And anyway, I don't exactly think that your brother and his little friends were dying to see where you were off to."
"I do have other friends, Malfoy," Ginny said angrily.
Draco stood and walked near the fire, smiling cynically. "Oh, right. Creevey."
Ginny turned. "Yes, Creevey. And he's one of my best friends, so I won't sit here and listen to you belittle him."
"You mean one of your only friends, Weasley."
The cushy chair sighed as Ginny pushed herself farther back into it. "Let's just start the meeting, or whatever this is."
Draco stared at the back of Ginny's head for a moment before coming around to look at her and sitting down.
"Fine."
He reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a miniscule gray object. Ginny watched as he placed it onto the table and held his wand over it.
"Engorgio."
The object proved to be the newspaper that Draco had lent her. Draco removed another shrunken paper from his robe and enlarged it. This time it was a piece of crinkled parchment with small, elegant handwriting on it.
"What is this?" asked Ginny picking up the tan parchment.
Impressive and Imperial Knowledge Worthy of a King: All You Need to Know about the Imperious by Martin Boot
Prophets of the Past: Daily Prophet Issue 27.BXTY by Ingrid Bridle
The Boggling Book of Mind Control by Dizzy Shepherd
Disguise, Lies, and Curses by Edward Nottingham
Ginny was more than a little confused by the booklist, but nonetheless intrigued. Three of the books were about curses – two of them specifically for the Imperious. Ginny was unsure what the second one was supposed to be of, though it did have something to do with the Daily Prophet.
"What do I need this list for?" she asked looking up at Draco.
Draco sighed. "I don't know what your experience is with Unforgivables – mostly the Imperious, but I doubt that it holds up to what I need it to be if you will help me. So I want you to go to the library and pick up the books on the list." After a beat he admitted. "And I want to make sure that there aren't any facts I'm unaware of."
Ginny smirked, not taking offense to his mild insult. "I have no reason to know about Unforgivables, Malfoy. So I'm sure that these will come in handy."
Draco's eyes flashed in annoyance. "Well you had better make sure that they do, Weasley. You don't need to be around the Dark Arts to know about Unforgivables and such curses. Everyone should have a basic knowledge of them."
"To inflict on others?" asked Ginny unabashedly.
"No," Draco said firmly. "For protection."
Ginny had no response for that. It was the truth.
"What about the second reference on the list?" she inquired.
Draco glanced at it. "That one is a reference book of all of the Daily Prophet articles from the last ten years. Tinelle is not a widely known wizard, but he was mentioned fairly frequently in the news around the time he got his job. From what I've...heard, there was a lot of competition between Tinelle and another man who wanted his job. And the other man was supposedly more qualified."
Ginny looked doubtful. "Well, we see who was more qualified if Mr. Tinelle got the post and the other man lost out."
"That's not it, Weasley," Draco contended. "The other man was rumored to be a Death Eater."
Ginny's eyes widened. "Oh..." She understood why Mr. Tinelle had won now.
Draco yawned widely, still managing to make it look sophisticated. "Anyway, I want you to go to the library, like I said, and check these out – not all at once of course, but gradually."
Ginny shook her head doubtfully. "But this last one, Disguise, Lies, and Curses, sounds like something that would be in the Restricted Section. I'll need to get a teacher to agree on letting me check it out, and not many teachers are willing to anymore."
Draco glared at the redhead condescendingly. "Then do that! Sneak it out or something, I don't know! Be creative; I've given you the list, the least you can do is just get them out. How difficult can it be? I obviously can't get them myself, or trust me" – Ginny snorted – "I would."
"I realize that, Malfoy, I'm not an idiot."
It was apparent to both of them that great caution would be needed – especially for Draco. He would need to remain as innocent in the public eye as possible. And checking out books that were on Unforgivable Curses and old articles about the man that his father was suspected of framing was certainly not a way to go about doing that.
A light flickered on in Ginny's mind. "You know, Malfoy," she began slyly, "keeping yourself in a good light might mean having to lay off of my brother and his friends..."
Draco laughed. "Weasley, laying off of your brother would call more attention to me than anything else." He stood up. "Nice try, though." He began to walk out of the room.
Ginny jumped up as well. "Wait! Where are you going?"
He looked at her blankly. "To bed; it's late." He held up his watch – it was past twelve.
Ginny was fully surprised. The time had flown by rather quickly, and now she had to make it back to bed before anyone figured out that she was not in bed. She hastily picked up the scrap of paper off the table and squashed it in her pocket. Looking up at the entrance to the room, Ginny expected to see Draco, but he was not there. She ran out of the room to see him about to turn a corner.
"Malfoy, wait!" she demanded, not caring if she woke up the dead. He could not just leave her alone, in the dark, at night.
But he did not turn around. "Think of it as a lesson in independence, Weasley," he called back.
And he had the nerve to quicken his pace. Ginny could imagine him laughing and itched to smack any amusement straight off of his face. She ran down the hallway, but when she turned to corner, no one was in sight.
"Damn him!" Ginny whispered angrily.
She was left alone again and in the dark.
When Ginny finally reached Gryffindor Tower without any further mishaps, she was still irked, but too tired to think on it very much. Dragging herself in front of the Fat Lady, Ginny whispered the password.
The portrait ignored it.
"Young lady, what are you doing outside of your room this late? In my day, ladies did not run about the castle at night, doing Merlin knows what! It was thought indecent!"
Ginny clenched her teeth. "I said 'Pig-jig Jellybean!" The portrait sniffed and swung open. "And thank Merlin that it's not your day anymore."
Gasping indignantly, the Fat Lady forced Ginny to step through quickly – she had tried to shut the door on the weary girl. But once it had shut tight, Ginny closed her eyes and fell back against it.
It had been a night of few revelations, and the only illuminating parts led Ginny to more questions. She almost began to become dizzy with the though of trying to decipher Draco Malfoy and all of the possible motivations that led him to seek her help. It would have been so much simpler if Ron had allowed Ginny to join them; then there would be no need to make deals with the devil.
Opening her eyes slowly and looking around the dim room, Ginny noted that the fire was low and cast tall, thin shadows around the dim room. Ginny sank low into the long couch closest to her and wondered if she should just spend the night there. She doubted if she was capable of going all the way up the stairs, while trying to be as quiet as possible and sneaking into bed.
She looked around the room some more, getting used to the sight of the common room late at night. Of course she had been there after bedtime hours before, but it was usually for work, and Colin was with her.
'Is this what Ron sees every time he comes back from late-night mischief?' she wondered.
There were no papers scattered anywhere, and the room looked as if it had been copiously cleaned. The house elves had probably come about an hour before, as it was now reaching half-past the midnight hour according to the clock above the fireplace.
That was why it was so strange to Ginny to see a lone book lying open on the coffee table in front of her.
She leaned forward slowly, feeling stupid that she was being wary of a textbook, but was unwilling to risk not checking it out.
Ginny smiled when she saw it in the soft firelight; it was just a sixth-year's Potions book. On opening, Ginny saw that transcribed in the inside cover was the words: Ex Libris: Colin Creevey.
Ginny shot straight up – she had forgotten all about Colin.
A little voice inside of her reminded her that ditching him had been her primary intention. Groaning loudly, Ginny shut the book and fell back once more into the couch, putting her hand over her eyes.
Slow, muted thumps sounded on the stairs, and Ginny's head swiveled in their direction.
"I hope I don't have that effect on everyone."
The couch sagged down on the side that Colin sank into. He looked incalculably displeased and even hurt.
"Explain."
Ginny's mouth remained open, poised to spout out whatever explanation came forth first.
She had been doing that a lot lately.
- Femme