A Thousand Eyes
Chapter 4: Meetings and ….. What!?!?!?!
LunarianPrincess
Okay this is my companion to Midnight Sky. I would suggest reading Midnight Sky before this, although it isn't necessary. You might miss some of the references if you don't read that fic. Hope last chap didn't totally make you hate this. LP
SDA
Last Chapter:
Ginny strolled through the castle, heading for the doors which led to a side garden that lay between the lake and the forest. She looked around and was glad to note that she was alone before she slipped out of the castle. She took a deep breath, savoring the dense afternoon air. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket before ambling through the chill garden. Her mind wandered through a myriad of things, especially romantic stories that she had heard as a child. Now older, and hopefully a bit wiser, she took those stories with a grain of salt. A favorite quote of hers came to mind, "Why do you suppose they call it FALLING in love, when you truly fall in love you'll know it, you will weep with the comprehension of it" that seemed to be the sum of it. She sat on one of the chilled benches and buried her face in her hands. What a fool she had been, she thought, falling for her worst enemy, and to top that a man who didn't even see her. She brutally wiped away the few tears that had spilled from her eyes, she was angry with herself for allowing them to fall. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried over something so stupid.
"Well, this is interesting," a wry voice intruded upon her private moment. Her heart dropped to her feet as she turned to confront the stranger who had caught her at such a vulnerable moment.
Now:
Ginny lifted her head slowly, fearful of the predictable sight she would be presented with. True enough, she lifted her head and her eyes were met with silver orbs that, despite their haughty and mocking gaze, were worried. She stared at him in confusion, what was she going to do about her conflicted emotions? He just looked at her, his face carefully blank, his eyes neutral and alienating. She felt the hurt, fear, anger and confusion bubble to the surface. She struggled to get control of her feelings, but she could not, she had one of the worst tempers among the redheads in her family, and with Ron around that was saying something.
"I'm sure it would be, if I were you," she said bitterly, she shoved herself to her feet and looked at him heatedly, he looked a little surprised by her vehemence but he stood his ground. "Maybe that's why you did it, because I was an interesting diversion, well that's not going to continue, I have feelings and you need to respect them, pick something, either you want to be my friend or you want to go back to the way it was before, where you knew nothing about me and hated me, but either way, I am not going to dance for you like a puppet on a string," when she finished she shoved her hair out of her face and stalked away, she got a couple of feet away from him before she was violently turned around.
He looked at her, his silver eyes intense and turbulent. He stood there and looked at her. After a second or two, she made to wrench her arm away and stomp off. "Wait… Ginny," his voice sounded so conflicted, like he couldn't find the words he needed. He opened his mouth and closed it, he let her go and paced in front of her. She stood and watched as he had a heated inner debate. "That's just it, there is a before, there's a 'your family' and a 'my family', I can't change that for you, don't you see that," he kept his voice low, but there was strength and urgency in his tone.
She stared at him in growing comprehension. There were two possibilities, the first is that his family would never accept her, and he was embarrassed to be seen with her, or that he was worried for her safety, if his father was after him and found out that he liked her, he would try to get at Draco through Ginny. She sat on the bench and put her head in her hands, instead of being resolved, the problem had become more complicated.
"Alright… so what do we do?" Ginny raised her head and turned to look at Draco, he had his hand shoved into the hair at his forehead, his eyes were closed and he looked like he was thinking. She wondered if he even wanted to continue speaking with her.
"I have an idea…"he trailed off, piquing Ginny's curiosity. Ginny waited expectantly while he paced thoughtfully. When he had that thoughtful frown between his eyes and his silver eyes had turned almost black with contemplation, she couldn't resist him. She made herself focus on the problem of their friendship, not how incredibly delectable his body was or how hot he looked. He turned towards her suddenly, his face lighting up with satisfaction and excitement. "What about that room we raided your fourth year?" he asked. She nearly laughed out loud. If Draco knew what Gryffindors went there to do, he would not have suggested it for a meeting place.
"Well, that could work, but now, I think too many people know about it," she pointed out. He nodded dejectedly, Ginny almost kissed him right then, but she restrained herself. "I have it!" she said as she stood up. She had though about the privacy they needed, she had found the perfect room back in her first year. "Down by the dungeons there is a little used corridor, near Professor Snape's office, if you go down the right hall, and knock twice on the third door on the left it opens into a private study, it used to be the head boy's before they moved it." She knew this from the time when she had shared her mind with a young lunatic and homicidal/genicidal/muggicidal maniac. He didn't question her, merely nodded and walked away. She figured her would remember what she had told him, she just hoped she would know when to meet him.
Ginny was curled up in one of the armchairs at the back of the library studying her transfiguration homework. After she felt confident in her knowledge of that topic she moved on to her favorite part of her homework. She loved Potions, as odd as it sounded for a Gryffindor to like what Professor Snape taught. She was fascinated by the measurements and how the slightest variation created an entirely new substance. She was consumed by the new potion he had given them that day, the Hadeperse. It was created based on the legend of Hades and Persephone, basically it was a potion that caused the drinker to stay in close contact with the maker for however many Calendula petals you put in, each petal translated to an hour. She was surprised that Snape had assigned such a potion, it could cause some…interesting side effects. She thought about that class, each table pair would be required to administer it to their partner and the next day the other partner would demonstrate their potion, but what about missed classes? She imagined that Snape had cleared his students' absences with their teachers and Dumbledore.
As she was writing the process of making the potion she felt a whoosh over her head. Confused and a little startled, she looked up, overhead an owl hovered. It wafted down to her and alighted on her table. It stood complacently, offering its leg to her, she looked at the owl critically while she removed its burden. It was a coal black owl with yellow eyes which were observant but uninterested. It had an identification tag on its leg edged in silver, its name was Gitel. As soon as she had taken the message its spread its wings and launched effortlessly into the air, Ginny watched impressed as it swiftly and silently navigated its way out of the library. The parchment was an ordinary scrap of parchment, with only a simple wax seal, bearing no identification. She broke the seal and unrolled it, she looked curiously looked at the message
Vixen,
Meet me,
Ferret
She stared at it in confusion, what the heck? It took a second to realize what it was. It was a message to meet Malfoy, he had just used the animagus animals that they transformed into as identification. She looked at the clock on the wall, it was 9:45, she only had 15 minutes before curfew. She stood hurriedly and shoved her things in her bag.
She slung the bag over her shoulder and left the library. She walked quickly towards a hall near the base of the stairs, she looked around to make sure no one had seen her before she disappeared down the hall. She descended the stairs into a long stone hallway lit with flickering torches. The shadows thrown by the wavering flames were gruesome and sinister, after she passed Professor Snape's office it got worse, it was a discrimination against other houses coming down here. She looked at the third door on the left and paused. Should I go in, do I want to open myself up for the rejection?
She stood there for a few seconds, internally debating and weighing the pros and the cons of the situation. Finally she decided, hefting her bag on her shoulder she raised her right hand. After knocking twice she heard a small click, the large, imposing door swung open to reveal a sight she hadn't seen in five years. It was a shock seeing it again, everything looked exactly as it had when Tom had shown her, though it had been less dusty then.
There was no Draco, she set her bag on a relatively clean surface and let herself inspect the place she had only been in her mind. The bookshelves were empty, a difference from Tom's time when they had been filled with many books, though the table was in the same spot as was the couch and the bed, in its own little niche. It made her skin crawl to be in a place, when the last time she had been here was decades before. She heard a noise and looked up expectantly, her eyes widened in disbelief as the door opened slowly.
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Okay, that's it for this chapter, so what/who is there? Ten points if you guess correctly! Well, I guess I am getting to the meat of my story though its taken a long time, but now I must thank those wonderful people who have motivated me to continue!
Dracosbaby7: its weird that you mention her pensive/mature character, it just so happens that I was in that mood when I was writing this so I guess I translated my own tendencies to the character, I tend to do that a lot, I make my main characters like me and the people that surround them like the people I know that surround me because I understand their motivations/nuances, it makes writing easier though I guess it could get boring fast, what do you think, is making the characters like the people in my life getting tedious? You're 1 for one, how about you make it 2 for 2, tell me who/what it is this time, it may be something you don't expect, or maybe you do expect it? Okay now that I've totally confused I'll stop, thanks for the accurate and helpful assessment.
sakura-no-hana-hoshi: sorry, I've really gotten into the whole cliffie thing, I guess it makes writing easier if you leave off in a place where the audience/reader is interested you yourself are interested, it works in reverse for acting, my director says that if your are interested your audience will be interested, so tell me, does the cliffhanger make you want to read the next chapter more? I shall endeavor to try to write less cliffies, if you don't like them though.