Cinderella

Beaner-Bop

Disclaimer: I'm poor. I work at a McDonald's. I don't own Harry Potter or anything else. Damn.

Chapter Twelve: The Queen

"What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet."
- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
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"Where's Ginny?" Was the first thing out of Mr. Weasley's mouth when he got home and looked around, wondering why his daughter wasn't there to give him his usual hug. The house was frighteningly silent. In response to his question, Carminda walked out of the kitchen and nodded to him.

"I…I can't tell you Mr. Weasley." She said slowly. Arthur wondered for a moment what was wrong with her. "B…but my sister knows. Would you like me to tell her you're here?" Carminda asked him. Mr. Weasley took in her appearance, seeing flour on her face and mitts on her hands, easily showing him that she had just been in the kitchen cooking. He shook his head.

"That's alright, Carminda." He said, "I'll go talk to her myself."

Ginny stepped gingerly onto the rocks. The air around her was humid and was making her clothes stick to her skin and the rocks were extra slippery. There was a waterfall in front of her that the birds had told her to walk into to 'see the queen'. She wondered if they were playing some mean prank but decided it wasn't as though she had all that much to lose so she took in a deep breath and jumped.

Instead of getting soaked and falling to her doom, she was inside a large rock room that was still extremely humid, but also had chests, like the ones in her room, lying about all over the place. To her left was a large mirror that Ginny walked up to and looked at for a moment when a cranky voice made her whip her head around.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked an older woman, looking to be in her 40's or 50's. She glared at Ginny and the girl couldn't help but swallow nervously.

"I-I'm Ginny the-"

"-girl who has no idea who she is? Thinks she belongs here? Thinks this is her home?" The woman asked her. Ginny took this moment to glare back at the woman.

"I'm Ginny, and I came here looking for help to the-"

"-ball. Yeah, yeah. I know." The woman turned and waved her right hand in the air, uninterested and motioning for Ginny to follow her.

"How'd you know?" Ginny asked, slowly beginning to follow the other woman. The woman snorted.

"A little birdy told me." Ginny blushed and looked at her shoes but after a moment looked up to see where it was where they were going.

They were still in a rock cave like area, but now there were chairs, glass tables, and beads all over the place. The woman sat at one and Ginny sat opposite of her. The woman went straight to the matter at hand.

"Why do you want to go to the ball anyway?" She asked. Ginny shrugged.

"My step-mother and step-sisters are going and I just wanted to go to-" The older woman shook her head.

"I wasn't born yesterday, brat, try another one on me." Ginny pursed her lips and glared again at the woman but she kept doing her best at keeping her temper tantrum in, even though she desperately wanted to give into the urge.

"My step mother and sisters want to do some stupid things at the party and I want to stop them from doing it." Ginny bit out. The woman raised an eyebrow for a moment before nodding.

"I can believe that. Now, why should I help you?" Ginny's lips pursed more, she was hurting them horribly but she didn't notice.

"Because you're a nice person with a heart of gold." Ginny spat, while standing up and crossing her arms over her chest. The woman shrugged.

"That might be true but…" The woman smirked at her, "You're hardly that, now are you?" Ginny groaned before turning around.

"I'm sorry for bothering you." She said quietly, "I don't have time for this, if you can't help me than I'll just find another way to get in…Merlin, I can't believe Stephen said you can help me-" The woman sat up straighter and looked at Ginny, who of course couldn't see her because her back was to her.

"Stephen sent you?"

"-I mean honest-Huh? What? Stephen, yeah. He sent me. I'm guessing you two know each other?" Ginny asked the woman. The woman nodded.

"Yes…" Her voice got soft and her eyes got a far away look in them for a moment before coming back to that moment and looking directly at Ginny. "You look like shit." She stated before raising her fingers into the air and snapping them. Ginny felt a breeze go by her and looked down, finding her self in a soft green dress with all sort of different color tones in it, and dabs of brown in some places. She felt a breeze again, this time just in her hair. She felt it being lifted up and styled.

All through this, the woman was watching her silently when her eyes went towards Ginny's feet.

"You can't wear Tennis shoes to a ball but looking at your feet I doubt you're able to wear heels." The woman thought for a moment before once again snapping her fingers. Ginny looked down at her feet to see what the woman had done only to see dark green ballerina shoes on her feet, but not the fully laced type.

"Woah…" Ginny whispered under her breath. "I can't believe this." Ginny said softly. The woman snorted again.

"Don't get close to any of this, I want it all back, and trust me, I will be getting it back." She pointed a finger at Ginny to emphasize her point. The red-haired girl nodded.

"I understand, but still, thank you!" The woman began to walk with her back to the waterfall.

"Just jump through again and you'll be at the tree…and Stephen has your ticket. You better get going." Ginny nodded and grabbed her skirts, running into the waterfall.

Fin chapter