Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter or any related material, no
infringement is intended on my part.
A/n Alright, I hate this chapter everyone, but it has to be done. I just have to post something.
Ginny's feet landed unsteadily and she barely stayed standing as she knocked into a wall. A house elf stuck its head around, where the hallway turned. She looked around as it disappeared again with a squeak. The wallpaper was dark green laced with silver; she saw snakes shimmering through it, giving it an odd glimmer. The carpets looked silky soft, the same shade of green. There were little tables of deep shining mahogany posed outside of doorways down the hall, polish instruments and baubles buzzing upon them. The doors were the same, a curled snake made of the doorknob, an open mouth peeking out so you could insert the key between the fangs. It was lighted by electrically charged snakes, slithering constantly on the ceiling, they seemed to be making a circle, and the speed was so even that the light barely flickered. She gasped in awe as she remembered the words of Voldemort and later, Draco. I could give you grand things. She checked the vials and made to find her way down the hall, before house elf rounded the corner again, with Draco in tow.
"Draco! Did you hear?" She wrapped her arms around him and he rocked her back and forth.
"Was it hard?"
"It was so hard. I've never done anything like that before, but... can we go somewhere to talk?" She glanced around as though someone were listening in, even though she could say what she wanted to say without worrying in a house as dark as this was. He wrapped his arm around her waist and they walked comfortably alongside each other. They walked along the hallway for a time that it would take her to run up the stairs of her house and back again three times. Finally, they entered a room that made the air drop from her lungs in a heavy huff. It was a ballroom, reaching as high as Hogwarts, with big windows and painted motifs on the ceilings of grand wizards and duels. The whole thing was lined with archways, the same mahogany carved into snakes forming arches. Their floor was entirely black marble.
"The heart of our home. We almost never use any of it. Just more for the house elves to do, I guess. Woe betide them if a room not seen in a decade by anyone except my mother have a spot of dust. " He shrugged. He led her to a sprawling staircase of green carpet (snake banisters, surprise, surprise), that started out fairly narrowed until it tapered off more widely until it swept across most of the hall. They walked up it and down another hallway to a grand door. Draco opened it and let her inside his room, which was equally grand in silver, green and black. "What do you want to say?" She set her purse on his desk, feeling shabby in the beautiful grandeur. He seemed to notice. "Shall we get you dressed before you meet mother?"
"Um..." She mumbled, but he had already flicked a bell next to his bed, raised on platform that you had to climb several stairs to get to. A house elf appeared.
"Dress Miss Weasley in the finest you can conjure, and if she doesn't like it, get real gown robes." The elf, its hands crackling with magic studied her for a moment, pressing on her hips and legs and up as far as it could reach around her waist.
"Missus must bend down so Bunky can dress her." The elf squeaked. Ginny obeyed and he grabbed her shoulders. She suddenly felt heavy was having trouble breathing. The elf stepped back. "What does Missus think?" She spun around and found a mirror. She could barely breath with delight, though it may have been because she was suddenly wearing a corset and a huge green gown, ornately stitched with silver. She blushed a little. She looked beautiful. "Missus is pleased?"
"I'm very pleased, thank you." She looked at Draco for his approval, which showed in his loose jaw and glazed eyes. "That's all now." The elf looked to Draco, who composed himself and nodded. "Draco, can we talk now?" He nodded and she climbed the little stairs to the platform where his bed lay. She flopped down flat, unable to sit; she was feeling a little light headed.
"So, you killed Snape?"
"Did Blaise tell you?"
"Yes."
"I figured that she would." Ginny said softly. "She saw how I really was, but I hope neither of you would let it get out. I was an emotional wreck. But I really did it for a while, really pulled it off. Cool, cruel, calculating. Totally emotionless. And then I got home and I collapsed and all I wanted to do was something normal, something that girls my age were doing on the first night of break." Draco crawled beside of the bed and pulled her back to his stomach. "But instead I killed someone. But now I've had a day to mull over it, to relive it every time I blink. And I know what that power is now. That power that could make me kill again and not shed a tear over it. That could let someone writhe on the ground while I laugh. You ever been to the department of mysteries?"
"Huh? In the ministry of magic?" He lifted his head and kissed her on the head.
"Yeah. I went there in my fourth year. And we came to this place and there was an archway on a dais a lot like the one that your bed is on. And there was this black, tattered curtain. I could hear voices behind it, but they were people that hadn't died yet. They were talking to me and they told me... they told me that I had killed them. It was amazing."
"Yeah?"
"That's when my resolve really strengthened and I knew that I could do it. Before I was sort of walking in a dream, debating good and evil, living in a world of grey."
"How poetic." Draco said dryly. He didn't look at her and she felt him tense behind her.
"What the hell is wrong with you Draco?" Ginny was hurt.
"Nothing, I'm just glad to see you."
"I'm glad to see you, too." She said contentedly settling back down, although both were still held firmly tense.
"That's just the night my father was arrested."
"That's right. So many things happened that night." She sat back. "Sirius died, all those death eaters arrested. We'll get them out, Draco. You'll have your father back by tomorrow." He stirred a little.
"Tomorrow?"
"I'm going with you, we're going to take polyjuice potion, he'll be put under Imperius curse and go back to my house, where he'll be controlled all night, until he returns in the morning to your house and I go back to my house. They'll come get a grand attack on the prison tonight."
"Why don't they just attack the prison and leave you out of this?"
"I need an alibi."
"Why do you even have to be involved at all?"
"Do you have a better plan? I need to be comfortable within in this environment, introduce myself to seasoned Death Eaters, so they know that I'm serious and reliable and dependable." "Most of them don't know that you're going to be queen." "That I'm planning on being queen." She sighed. "Having second thoughts?" "Not at all. There are just plenty of people that are going to want me out of that position. Someone young and inexperienced from the biggest blood- traitors of all. Anyway, Draco, what happened to our wonderful carefree conversations?" "They were all just a couple of days ago. They'll pick up again once things calm down a little, get back to school." "I know, I almost miss detention." "Course you do. Make-out sessions in the showers." He waggled his eyebrows at her. "Who wouldn't miss long sweaty runs around the lake? I bet you could learn to love it." He said softly. She turned around and looked him in the eye. "Gin?" "Let's not talk, okay, Draco?" He complied with a smile as she lay back with her lips slightly parted. He paused for a moment and took her in. "I love you, Ginny." "Shh. Draco. No talking." She said desperately.
Ginny was shaking with cold by the time they got to the prison. Draco draped his cloak around her shoulders. She had needed to change out of the gown to leave, but had come in Muggle clothes. Narcissa, with an eyebrow raised, had given her thick black robes to wear. "You have Muggle clothes?" She said. "I find it important to maintain the image that I don't hate Muggles." Ginny said stiffly. "Especially with the break out planned with Lucius, you would do well to mirror that behavior, Madam Malfoy." "That law you abolished was useful. I remember how hard it was approaching the Dark Lord when he was still in power before I married Lucius." "Some laws are out of fashion." She shook her head. "But I don't want to talk about politics, we have something to do, we're drawing close to the deadline." "Yes, you're right." Narcissa shook her pretty blonde head and smiled a little, Draco noticed Ginny had gotten a little nudge of approval from his mother, who was a big element in the group of seasoned death eater wives. "Shall we then?"
Lucius Malfoy, as Ginny remembered him, was a man with sleek blond hair and an elegant demeanor. The man before her, a patchy beard smudged across his chin was someone quite different. His cool grey eyes were clouded with trouble, when she met them she delved into his mind without intending to, pulling back as images trickled into her own. "Miss Weasley." He shook a little as he sat on his bed, pulling back his long dirty hair into Muggle elastic. "I always knew you. I saw right through you and knew that you would be the one."
"Lucius, you're not in your right mind." Narcissa said softly. "Who is the one you speak of, surely not-?"
"Narcissa!" He held up his hand, quivering next to his ear. "I always knew that she was dark inside. I slipped that diary into her hands and she worked wonders. She is beauty." He reached towards her, she steeled her gaze and tried her best not to step away, but a pale hand, soft and cool looking, reached out and grabbed onto Lucius' squeezing hard in spots Ginny recognized as pressure points.
"You must forgive him." Narcissa was talking to Ginny, but kept her eyes on Lucius, twisting under her firm grasp. "He has been in isolation far too long."
"Narcissa, please." He rasped. "Wife." Narcissa yelped as his hand lit up, remnants of magic flaring from him and scorching her hand a little. She clasped it tightly to her body not uttering a sound of pain even as guard was on the spot right away. Ginny pulled the hood of her cloak up and didn't say anything, keeping her eyes averted, hair hidden, and head down.
"It was me, I'm so sorry. I've just been getting a little upset." Narcissa's lip quivered and she grabbed on to the guard's arm. "You must think me ridiculous, but it is still hard for me finding out my husband was so immersed in..." Her voice lowered audibly and the guard leaned until her lips were near his ear. "The Dark Arts." She even managed a tear, and Ginny sighed, impressed. She hoped she would be able to do that someday. The guard led Narcissa away, who was still shaking a little. She looked back and mouthed the word, quickly, disappearing around the corner with the guard who was asking her to fill out an accident report. Ginny drew the polyjuice from her pockets, yanking out a hair of hers and stuffing it into the bigger vial. It turned violet. Draco leaned over, and explaining to his father what was going on, yanked out one of Lucius' hair. Ginny took off her robes quickly, knowing she could not rip them. Father and son watched in mild interest, she took a small gulp of the grey mixture from a single vial. She corked it and forced it into her purse before she dropped it. She dropped onto all fours and rolled around in the sensation, not sure what was changing, but knowing it was utterly bizarre. Her bender's magical knot untied and flopped to the floor, glimmering with white magic. She finally stood, walking unsurely on the new feet. Draco helped his father dress and helped Ginny into her robes. He let Lucius drink a little and Ginny watched in amazement as she appeared, looking haughty and a little crazy. Her eyes rolled around a little and she stumbled, falling into her own arms and knocking herself over, as Lucius too, grew accustomed to the new gait. She helped put the bender on Lucius, making Draco turn around, before tying on Narcissa's robes. The guard and Narcissa were returning just as they finished. Draco pulled on Ginny's cloak and hid her, hiding the red hair under the hood. Ginny flopped onto the bed, trying to look mad. Lucius was having trouble walking, Draco had to drag him. The guard looked suspiciously towards them. "She's so traumatized by this. I'm sorry. Lucius was a mentor of hers." Narcissa cooed, quietly wooing the guard, who closed and locked the doors with his wand. "You do that so easily." "Yeah, all the guards' wands open up the cells." "That's so fascinating. You must lead such an interesting life." Narcissa purred coyly. "I'd love to hear more." "Really? Well, you'll get a minute, we'll need to keep you while they search your husband." "You surely don't think that we would give him anything now do you?" Narcissa looked beyond wounded. "No ma'am, but high security prisoners like Malfoy have been known to do sneaky things like steal wands." Ginny, with a shout of panic spurred by the drop in her stomach, shot forward to the bars. The guard turned in slight alarm hearing her crash against the bars. "The man's crazy..." She heard Narcissa say. "Don't drop the soap, Dad." Draco said stiffly, looking melancholy. He hauled Lucius up again and hobbled down the hall. The bars her fists were wrapped around were cool, buzzing with magic against prisoners who got angry enough to not require a wand. Suddenly, she panicked. She had left her polyjuice in her purse. "Guard! Guard!" She screamed fiercely, amazed at how raw her voice was. A man appeared casually around the corner. "The people, that just were visiting me, they have something that I need desperately." "What could you possibly need? They've been searched and they didn't have anything you would need desperately. Like a wand." He said saucily, banging his own against her bars. She knocked her hands furiously against her barriers, if she had her wand this minute the man would be singing a different tune. "Malfoy shut up before I use my privileges and curse you to next Sunday." She stepped back, a little frightened, she was completely unarmed. He opened the cell and shoved her over onto the bed. "Take off your robes." Ginny stripped them off. Was he going to rape her? The man pointed his wand at her and sjavascript:void(0)aid a spell she didn't recognize. She didn't think anything had happened until she looked down and her body was completely clear. Her organs, Lucius' organs, pumped within her body. The guard circled her carefully. "Good, nothing swallowed recently and no wand up the ass. You've just improved my day. I hate retrieving the fucking things. Robes back on." "Will you just tell those people that I won't be myself if they don't bring my potion back? You know the one the healer gave to me when he was in here last week?" She hoped that the doctor's visit wasn't some mad mutterings. The guard looked up promptly as she casually pulled the robes back on and collapsed onto the bed, ready for a nap. "Ah shit, Malfoy! You know what the healer said would happen if you didn't have that." The guard tore off. "That dumb shit in 450 let his family take his Soothing Solution. Yes, he administers it himself! Catch the family just in case someone let them leave." So they had to give Lucius soothing solution? Ginny guessed, as she sat back down, that you couldn't keep a good man down. She thought to the images she had seen in Lucius, mad crusades against Muggles and the planning afterwards. What they could do better until they committed the perfect murder. A moment here that was a moment too long, a little less of one spell and a little more of this. She had understood the precision of killing before, but was now learning the mind of a murderer was a truly complex one. Draco ran back, with her purse swinging suddenly. He handed her the vial and she leaned forward for a kiss. "I'm sorry, it's just too weird." He panted. "Right." She tried not to sound hurt. "See you soon!" "Don't get yourself killed. You're so brave, Gin. So brave. I love you." "I know. And Draco you're loads braver than me." He didn't answer, flashing around the corner. She sat down on the bed, staring at her watch, feeling abandoned and lost. Lucius Malfoy had been in solitary confinement for almost two years, and now, moments after Draco had left, she felt as though she had been alone a life time.
Her hands were numb and her breath was short as she jolted awake, taking a swallow, unsure how long she had been sleeping this time. Was this true loyalty? Being a mad convict, the most important servant to the dark lord, falling to her knees and gasping for breath every hour as the robes started to pool around the floor and her arms shrunk back into the sleeves, freckles prickling across her face. Then she was coughing with the strong potion, which was starting to run a little low, her robes tightened and her shoulders broadened, her hands smooth and thick, and the sun sunk continually until it sparked green at the horizon. "Where are they?" She muttered to herself, standing up and beginning to pace. Her hands were covered in a brisk sweat she wiped them against her thighs only to find her legs damp and trembling beneath her robes. She had two hours left in the vial, what would she do? The door to her cell slid open and she looked up, she hadn't even noticed someone come in. The guard smiled and she looked into his eyes and shivered a little at the man's obsession with power, but cowardly pursuits of its fulfillments. He set a tray in front of her with bland looking food.
"Hungry, Malfoy?" She nodded and plucked up the fork. "You threatening me, Malfoy?" She dropped it onto the tray. "You callin' me a liar?" What was he talking about, fucking American? She attempted another look into his eyes and was met with a strong back hand that threw her and her dinner against the far wall. She crouched on the floor and gasped a little. If only she had her wand. But she didn't and decided to try the strength of Malfoy's body. The guard looked a little surprised at her sudden retaliation as she vaulted across the chamber, but he lifted up his wand and stopped her in midair. "Bad idea, Malfoy." He raised his wand again, but his eyes widened and he dropped to the ground twitching, inches from screaming. Ginny's cushy seat in the air was abruptly taken away, but she attempted to stay standing wavering only a little on her feet. She turned around and, keeping the guard in her view, smiled at the Dark Lord.
His skin was gray and translucent from the sun he hadn't seen. His nose fanned out into two slit nostrils. Beautiful maroon irises gave room to cat-like pupils. As Ginny looked into his mind, she found not pictures but a fizzling purple shape in the back, that she could see only when she was concentrating so fully on him. He reached out a long spidery hand to her and she took it, throwing her head back and pouting her lips. Although she was in Malfoy's body, she hoped she came across as a queen. "Guards will come soon; detecting the dark magic on their poor little..." he laid his foot across the guard's head and leaned down. "Puppet. Do you feel as though you had the imperius curse, however light, placed upon you?"
Ginny took a quick inventory, nodding a little. Her head was floating in clouds and her face, which had been burning from the slap she had received from the guard, was soft and cool. "That, my love, is why we enjoy inflicting the curse so much, because it takes away our pain." He reached around and brushed a lock of blonde hair from her face. "And we do feel pain, love. We can't let it out any other way than our wand, because we're stronger than those who are foolish enough to wear their hearts on their sleeves."
"Yes, my lord." Lord Voldemort cocked his head.
"At last. This sod would go insane in a few minutes if they didn't show up and save him. Perhaps they were attending to the little disasters in other parts of the prison." He pulled something from his robes and handed them to her. "Your wand, once and future queen." She whirled it around in her fingers finally she could do something useful.
"This is my wand, my lord." She said as the clattering of feet also came into her range of her hearing. "No unforgivables."
"Yes." He said lifting his wand away from the guard and kicking him into the wall, where he killed him quickly just as the other guards came vaulting around the corners from various sides. Ginny lifted her wand and went into immediate action. She shot a spell she had used on Draco, which restricted breathing as if all your ribs were cracked. She whirled around and leaned back as a spell came chasing towards her. She knocked him out and hit the guard behind her with a consuming spell. The guard went down crawling with flames, and quick wittedly put an extinguishing spell on herself before struggling to her feet, already covered in third degree burns. Ginny had already taken out four others who were flopping on the ground for various reasons. She would take care of them later. She had realized before the whole point of this raid. Leave no survivors; give them no opportunity to get aurors or any other kind of back up, which she assumed the others were taking care of. Gather as many prisoners for their side as possible, a newly free man was a loyal man. Today, Ginny would get used to the idea of killing, and she would get used to it quickly. She admired the woman's bravery as she struggled to raise her wand, but another consuming spell knocked her off her feet and left her burning quickly into nothing on the ground. The man struggling to breath was hit again and ceased breathing completely. She hit a man in the abdomen with an effect she didn't remember, but surfaced to the top of her mind. She looked away quickly, but heard him screaming as his body began to turn itself inside out. There was a quick, easy spell that they used to kill prisoners. It severed the spinal cord in the neck. She hit about four people with that, checking them quickly to make sure they were dead as the Dark Lord finished off the last person with a quick Avada Kedavra. Ginny took a quick swig of polyjuice, realizing she had no idea how much time had gone by. "Very good, Queen." The dark lord surveyed the circle of damage that was around Ginny. "Hurt?" "I didn't get hit once." She said proudly. "Excellent. Shall we?" He pointed her in one direction and he started the other way. She started jogging, and then headed back. She picked up all of the guards' wands. She came along to one of the cells and opened it. A man sat cowering in a corner and looked to her. "I give you your freedom if you fight for the Dark Lord in this battle." The man stood up with surprising agility. "Gladly." She threw him one of the wands. "Release more of the prisoners, if they protest, close the doors." He nodded and moved past her. She collected all of the prisoners in the hall, just as the man did. It seemed that even with the dementors gone; the prisoners still desired freedom over morality. She came along a guard and, using one of the wands that wasn't her own stuck into her back pocket, put crucio on him and relishing the power let him off fairly quickly. He started to crawl away, crying hysterically. She curled her lip and shot him down with a flash of green. It was easier when she wasn't using her own wand. She continued releasing prisoners. Along various hallways and twists and turns, she hurtled. She knocked out various guards with the killing curse, quickly losing track of the numbers she was disposing of. She finally found her way back to the main hallway and saw a door ajar. She knocked it open and saw a man crawling towards a fire, burning with floo powder. She set her foot on his back and pressed down. He groaned and looked at her. "Anyone else leave through this exit?" "Help." He gurgled. She kicked him over, a little repulsed as she saw the injuries inflicted on him. "I don't think I can let you do that." She leaned towards him. "Maybe if you tell me whether anyone else when through that fire to wherever it is you might be going." "No one." He pleaded, tears starting to leak down his face. "No one." He grabbed onto her hand and blood slicked across her hands. "Please, please." He grabbed onto the wand in her hand and pressed it to his neck. "No more. No one." She let him go quickly, but grabbed his dog tags from his neck and put them around her own, extinguishing the fire and making a mess of the instruments. She wiped her hands on her robes and sealed the door, and it was the last time she felt regret for a long time.
"Anything to eat, Ginny?" Arthur asked anxiously. She was acting very oddly, but Dumbledore warned them that for a little while she would. "Gee whiz, I'm swell, Pop." She said cheerfully. "You're sure?" "Ah, maybe you've talked me into some of those delicious looking potatoes." She smiled even more widely. Everyone at the table looked down at the beef casserole on the table and the corn next to it. There were no potatoes in sight. "Molly, are you sure that she isn't being possessed again? She was out all afternoon." Arthur said cautiously into his wife's ear. "Arthur, Dumbledore said to maintain a cautious, but normal approach to having her recover from this. She needed to go on the walk to get her art supplies. She came back with them, and she has been very happy, if not a little odd. We shouldn't have expected this after her adverse reaction to possession last time." Arthur shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his daughter smiled at a spot over his shoulder. Her face contorted suddenly, but it turned into a yawn abruptly. "I'm tired." Ginny said, standing up and stumbling towards the stairs. They heard a few crashes and came out to see her standing up as if she hadn't just walked into a wall. "Still a little disoriented." Molly whispered to Arthur. "I'm calling Dumbledore." Arthur said. "This is getting too unusual. She never acted like this before." "It would make me feel better," Molly admitted. Arthur moved toward the living room and Molly climbed the stairs to sit down by her daughter while she pulled on her nightgown backwards and climbed into bed with her feet on the pillows. Molly hauled her up and righted her jammies and let her head drift back onto her pillows. "Ginny, darling?" "Mummy?" Her eyes slit open and she smiled a little. "Darling how do you feel?" "I was scared before, but now I'm alright, I promise." "You're so brave." Molly kissed her forehead. "Do you feel feverish?" "No, just tired. Maybe it would be best if I just went to sleep." She kissed her mother and hummed a little." Molly recognized the tune and began to cry. Ginny didn't seem to notice, rolling over towards the wall and falling into deep sleep. "Molly." Arthur stood at the door. "Come down with me and we'll reach Dumbledore together. Don't you worry about a thing. Ginny's sleeping now, we'll keep checking on her. She'll be alright. It's probably nothing." "You're right, Arthur. I just... I just don't know. I don't want this war another day, I want my children to be safe and my mind at ease. That's all I've ever wanted." "Come on, love." Arthur crossed the room and pulled Molly to her feet. He kissed her gently on the forehead. "Downstairs and we'll have a word to Dumbledore and he'll clear all this up." Molly brushed a lock of hair from her daughter's sweaty forehead and walked out of the room, taking the light with her and shutting the door quietly. Ginny opened her eyes and handed the wand back to Wormtail. "You fool! What kind of vision did you have of my family life to think that my parents would react normally to 'Gee whiz, I'm swell, Dad'? Put Lucius in deeper sleep and keep him there until we can figure something out. They're calling Dumbledore because of your blunder, which means that something else must be done as far as Lucius' current location." Ginny shook her head angrily at the trembling man in front of her. She swept away quickly out of the room and down a hallway that her feet had never touched before, but her mind had followed a million times. Draco had been slumped over at a couch in the corridor, but hearing footsteps, he stood and grabbed onto Ginny's arm. "Hey." "Hey, Draco." She started walking and he clutched onto her in tow. "How're you feeling?" He asked quietly. "Strangely, I'm doing fine. Yourself?" She whirled him around and kissed him on the tip of the nose. "I don't know yet." "Well, I have some things right now that I have to do. Go home and get some rest and I'll try to join you if I can." She kissed him gently. "Bye." "Goodbye then." He turned and started off down the hall in the opposite direction. She paused and watched him for a moment before turning around again and heading for the meeting room where she knew Voldemort would be. She opened the door quietly. "My lord?" He turned and looked at her thoughtfully. "I tolerate your useless infatuation at your school where your little hormonal urges seem to dictate your every move, but I will not tolerate it in headquarters where it makes a fool of us, the Malfoy estate and the entire movement." "Yes, my lord, it will never happen again... in headquarters." She smiled a little and gave a jerk of the head. "See that it doesn't." He smiled. "Or next time it will be the boy's life that pays." "Yes, my lord. It's only fair." She nodded to him and bowed a little. "What I came to talk to you about regards Lucius' current coordinates." She gulped a little but continued on. "If I may be frank, I had warned you against Wormtail's abilities. He made a fool of Lucius who had begun fighting the spell in earnest, but I took over and managed to coax Lucius into sleep. Against my better judgment I turned over the reins to Wormtail again, but in his deep sleep Lucius will be unable to drink the potion which is essential to our ploy working. I ask that Lucius be pulled out of the location and a more fit agent be put in. Or maybe I should return home, also against my better judgment." "That was very frank indeed." Ginny held her breath at his icy tone. "And very true." She let it out quietly so he wouldn't detect her discomfort at being around him in person finally. "Shall we kill Wormtail?" "No. He is still a tool and even the rustiest tool has its use." "Very good. I have a shape shifter or two in my ranks, one of them can be disposed to the Weasley residence. Of course under a controlling spell by one of my better agents." "We'll let Wormtail clean out the toilets. No wand." Ginny joked. "We shall see." Voldemort glanced at her as though she were crazy. Ginny shifted uncomfortably. She put on her shelf of experience that Voldemort couldn't take a joke. "What shall I do now?" "You are still a little known weapon, and after the jolt that was Snape, well, we shall be more cautious about our more valuable treasures." He touched her hair and lifted it to his nose, inhaling deeply. "I have much work to do; otherwise I would request that you spend this night with me. However, I turn you to your infatuation." "No more work?" She said sadly. Tired though she was, being in headquarters, dishing out orders to those who knew her worth and future position, remembering the power that surged out of her wand was deeply satisfying and she was reluctant to let that go. She put her hand to her chest and felt, in between her breasts, a wand she had stolen to perform illegal spells, and the dog tags. "You've had a trying first day. I could not have expected you to perform better than you did." He smiled at her warmly. "I am proud of you. You fight... it was amazing to watch. I was in awe." Ginny smiled self indulgently. "You ain't seen nothing yet." She said in an American accent, leaving the room. She whirled along the corridors on clouds but noises abruptly made her grab her illegal wand from her robes and point it at a man who she recognized as the one who had brought her the message. "You." She said. She glanced at the strange green wand. "Me." He chuckled. "If I could kill you now..." "You would enjoy it, wouldn't you? But no, I'm about to save your life and your alibi." The man seemed a little too happy at the prospect. "Shape-shifter?" She glanced at the wand again, memorizing it. She looked into the eyes and shuddered as images trickled back into her mind. "Fl- forgive me then. A thousand apologies." "I accept. Now, don't dally. Get to wherever it is that you were going and forget about everything. We know where you are." The man paused and let the words gain gravity. "In case we need you. But I hardly think so, princess." Blaise was snoring when Ginny shook her awake. "Hey, you're back. I decided to Floo over to Malfoy Manor and see you. Draco!" She yawned and kicked Draco awake in an armchair. He sat up. "We've got some Muggle music and the bottle of eternal Ogden's upstairs." She paused a moment at the thought of a party. "First, I need food. I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm about to faint." She followed Draco to the kitchen. He rummaged around in a cupboard saying he didn't want to bother the house elves. Ginny and Blaise exchanged a smile behind his back. "I heard that." He produced a container full of cold turkey meat, light white bread and mustard. He handed her those and scurried across the kitchen for a knife and fork and plates. He pulled out jugs of milk and pumpkin juice and set them at the wide kitchen table. Ginny observed the kitchen with rapid comfort. The table had been hit by knives and the décor was white and sterile, not at all elegant. The house elves were the only ones to ever come in here, made apparent by Draco's long search for silverware, and although it was sterile, it was still homey. She started to make sandwiches handing one first to Draco, then to Blaise, and finally laid onto hers with great zest. She started pulling out her wand and making it do simple spells over and over again. "What're you doing that for?" Blaise asked thickly, trying to pull a piece of turkey into her mouth using only her teeth, and smearing herself with mustard. "I cast about fifty dark spells before I started using another wand. I have to get them out of the wand's system." She said, shrugging. "Kind of stupid I guess, but I really don't want these dark spells on the surface of my spell history." "Guess so." Blaise shrugged. "But I have a question. This is something that's been worrying me. What effect is this attack going to have on the Hogsmeade attack?" "Everyone thinks stronger resistance, but I think weaker. I don't have an exact idea of how we're going to pull it off fooling the order and all, but see, they don't expect continual attacks. They know about the Hogsmeade attack of course, but at the same time, wouldn't it be foolish to think that you would have received good intelligence on an attack of smaller scale at a later date rather than large scale at an earlier date. My theory is that they're going to put less effort into the Hogsmeade attack and be more on the lookout for something going on under the surface of the attack. I'll find out more from my parents but at the same time, how do you take advantage of something like that? If you strike Hogsmeade with full force you don't get your original goal which was to clear out and identify and capture Order of the Phoenix agents, nor do you launch another attack because their attention will already be focused on other ploys. "Anyway, I'm tired out talking business. Let's go party." She grinned. They climbed the stairs to Draco's room and Blaise started the music while Draco took a good pull at the Eternal Ogden's. Blaise had some and they turned to pass it on to Ginny, only to find her fast asleep in Draco's bed. Blaise turned off the music and Draco climbed the stairs to his bed, watching Ginny breath. "We should stay awake just in case headquarters calls back and says that they need her." Blaise observed. Draco nodded, he brushed a lock of hair from Ginny's forehead, and turned off the lights, leaving the room quietly.
TA DA! Another chapter churned out. And I apologize because it was after all, a very bad one. But what the hell. A few beautiful readers asked me to post and I delivered. So here are the thank you s to those beautiful and curious readers:
A/n Alright, I hate this chapter everyone, but it has to be done. I just have to post something.
Ginny's feet landed unsteadily and she barely stayed standing as she knocked into a wall. A house elf stuck its head around, where the hallway turned. She looked around as it disappeared again with a squeak. The wallpaper was dark green laced with silver; she saw snakes shimmering through it, giving it an odd glimmer. The carpets looked silky soft, the same shade of green. There were little tables of deep shining mahogany posed outside of doorways down the hall, polish instruments and baubles buzzing upon them. The doors were the same, a curled snake made of the doorknob, an open mouth peeking out so you could insert the key between the fangs. It was lighted by electrically charged snakes, slithering constantly on the ceiling, they seemed to be making a circle, and the speed was so even that the light barely flickered. She gasped in awe as she remembered the words of Voldemort and later, Draco. I could give you grand things. She checked the vials and made to find her way down the hall, before house elf rounded the corner again, with Draco in tow.
"Draco! Did you hear?" She wrapped her arms around him and he rocked her back and forth.
"Was it hard?"
"It was so hard. I've never done anything like that before, but... can we go somewhere to talk?" She glanced around as though someone were listening in, even though she could say what she wanted to say without worrying in a house as dark as this was. He wrapped his arm around her waist and they walked comfortably alongside each other. They walked along the hallway for a time that it would take her to run up the stairs of her house and back again three times. Finally, they entered a room that made the air drop from her lungs in a heavy huff. It was a ballroom, reaching as high as Hogwarts, with big windows and painted motifs on the ceilings of grand wizards and duels. The whole thing was lined with archways, the same mahogany carved into snakes forming arches. Their floor was entirely black marble.
"The heart of our home. We almost never use any of it. Just more for the house elves to do, I guess. Woe betide them if a room not seen in a decade by anyone except my mother have a spot of dust. " He shrugged. He led her to a sprawling staircase of green carpet (snake banisters, surprise, surprise), that started out fairly narrowed until it tapered off more widely until it swept across most of the hall. They walked up it and down another hallway to a grand door. Draco opened it and let her inside his room, which was equally grand in silver, green and black. "What do you want to say?" She set her purse on his desk, feeling shabby in the beautiful grandeur. He seemed to notice. "Shall we get you dressed before you meet mother?"
"Um..." She mumbled, but he had already flicked a bell next to his bed, raised on platform that you had to climb several stairs to get to. A house elf appeared.
"Dress Miss Weasley in the finest you can conjure, and if she doesn't like it, get real gown robes." The elf, its hands crackling with magic studied her for a moment, pressing on her hips and legs and up as far as it could reach around her waist.
"Missus must bend down so Bunky can dress her." The elf squeaked. Ginny obeyed and he grabbed her shoulders. She suddenly felt heavy was having trouble breathing. The elf stepped back. "What does Missus think?" She spun around and found a mirror. She could barely breath with delight, though it may have been because she was suddenly wearing a corset and a huge green gown, ornately stitched with silver. She blushed a little. She looked beautiful. "Missus is pleased?"
"I'm very pleased, thank you." She looked at Draco for his approval, which showed in his loose jaw and glazed eyes. "That's all now." The elf looked to Draco, who composed himself and nodded. "Draco, can we talk now?" He nodded and she climbed the little stairs to the platform where his bed lay. She flopped down flat, unable to sit; she was feeling a little light headed.
"So, you killed Snape?"
"Did Blaise tell you?"
"Yes."
"I figured that she would." Ginny said softly. "She saw how I really was, but I hope neither of you would let it get out. I was an emotional wreck. But I really did it for a while, really pulled it off. Cool, cruel, calculating. Totally emotionless. And then I got home and I collapsed and all I wanted to do was something normal, something that girls my age were doing on the first night of break." Draco crawled beside of the bed and pulled her back to his stomach. "But instead I killed someone. But now I've had a day to mull over it, to relive it every time I blink. And I know what that power is now. That power that could make me kill again and not shed a tear over it. That could let someone writhe on the ground while I laugh. You ever been to the department of mysteries?"
"Huh? In the ministry of magic?" He lifted his head and kissed her on the head.
"Yeah. I went there in my fourth year. And we came to this place and there was an archway on a dais a lot like the one that your bed is on. And there was this black, tattered curtain. I could hear voices behind it, but they were people that hadn't died yet. They were talking to me and they told me... they told me that I had killed them. It was amazing."
"Yeah?"
"That's when my resolve really strengthened and I knew that I could do it. Before I was sort of walking in a dream, debating good and evil, living in a world of grey."
"How poetic." Draco said dryly. He didn't look at her and she felt him tense behind her.
"What the hell is wrong with you Draco?" Ginny was hurt.
"Nothing, I'm just glad to see you."
"I'm glad to see you, too." She said contentedly settling back down, although both were still held firmly tense.
"That's just the night my father was arrested."
"That's right. So many things happened that night." She sat back. "Sirius died, all those death eaters arrested. We'll get them out, Draco. You'll have your father back by tomorrow." He stirred a little.
"Tomorrow?"
"I'm going with you, we're going to take polyjuice potion, he'll be put under Imperius curse and go back to my house, where he'll be controlled all night, until he returns in the morning to your house and I go back to my house. They'll come get a grand attack on the prison tonight."
"Why don't they just attack the prison and leave you out of this?"
"I need an alibi."
"Why do you even have to be involved at all?"
"Do you have a better plan? I need to be comfortable within in this environment, introduce myself to seasoned Death Eaters, so they know that I'm serious and reliable and dependable." "Most of them don't know that you're going to be queen." "That I'm planning on being queen." She sighed. "Having second thoughts?" "Not at all. There are just plenty of people that are going to want me out of that position. Someone young and inexperienced from the biggest blood- traitors of all. Anyway, Draco, what happened to our wonderful carefree conversations?" "They were all just a couple of days ago. They'll pick up again once things calm down a little, get back to school." "I know, I almost miss detention." "Course you do. Make-out sessions in the showers." He waggled his eyebrows at her. "Who wouldn't miss long sweaty runs around the lake? I bet you could learn to love it." He said softly. She turned around and looked him in the eye. "Gin?" "Let's not talk, okay, Draco?" He complied with a smile as she lay back with her lips slightly parted. He paused for a moment and took her in. "I love you, Ginny." "Shh. Draco. No talking." She said desperately.
Ginny was shaking with cold by the time they got to the prison. Draco draped his cloak around her shoulders. She had needed to change out of the gown to leave, but had come in Muggle clothes. Narcissa, with an eyebrow raised, had given her thick black robes to wear. "You have Muggle clothes?" She said. "I find it important to maintain the image that I don't hate Muggles." Ginny said stiffly. "Especially with the break out planned with Lucius, you would do well to mirror that behavior, Madam Malfoy." "That law you abolished was useful. I remember how hard it was approaching the Dark Lord when he was still in power before I married Lucius." "Some laws are out of fashion." She shook her head. "But I don't want to talk about politics, we have something to do, we're drawing close to the deadline." "Yes, you're right." Narcissa shook her pretty blonde head and smiled a little, Draco noticed Ginny had gotten a little nudge of approval from his mother, who was a big element in the group of seasoned death eater wives. "Shall we then?"
Lucius Malfoy, as Ginny remembered him, was a man with sleek blond hair and an elegant demeanor. The man before her, a patchy beard smudged across his chin was someone quite different. His cool grey eyes were clouded with trouble, when she met them she delved into his mind without intending to, pulling back as images trickled into her own. "Miss Weasley." He shook a little as he sat on his bed, pulling back his long dirty hair into Muggle elastic. "I always knew you. I saw right through you and knew that you would be the one."
"Lucius, you're not in your right mind." Narcissa said softly. "Who is the one you speak of, surely not-?"
"Narcissa!" He held up his hand, quivering next to his ear. "I always knew that she was dark inside. I slipped that diary into her hands and she worked wonders. She is beauty." He reached towards her, she steeled her gaze and tried her best not to step away, but a pale hand, soft and cool looking, reached out and grabbed onto Lucius' squeezing hard in spots Ginny recognized as pressure points.
"You must forgive him." Narcissa was talking to Ginny, but kept her eyes on Lucius, twisting under her firm grasp. "He has been in isolation far too long."
"Narcissa, please." He rasped. "Wife." Narcissa yelped as his hand lit up, remnants of magic flaring from him and scorching her hand a little. She clasped it tightly to her body not uttering a sound of pain even as guard was on the spot right away. Ginny pulled the hood of her cloak up and didn't say anything, keeping her eyes averted, hair hidden, and head down.
"It was me, I'm so sorry. I've just been getting a little upset." Narcissa's lip quivered and she grabbed on to the guard's arm. "You must think me ridiculous, but it is still hard for me finding out my husband was so immersed in..." Her voice lowered audibly and the guard leaned until her lips were near his ear. "The Dark Arts." She even managed a tear, and Ginny sighed, impressed. She hoped she would be able to do that someday. The guard led Narcissa away, who was still shaking a little. She looked back and mouthed the word, quickly, disappearing around the corner with the guard who was asking her to fill out an accident report. Ginny drew the polyjuice from her pockets, yanking out a hair of hers and stuffing it into the bigger vial. It turned violet. Draco leaned over, and explaining to his father what was going on, yanked out one of Lucius' hair. Ginny took off her robes quickly, knowing she could not rip them. Father and son watched in mild interest, she took a small gulp of the grey mixture from a single vial. She corked it and forced it into her purse before she dropped it. She dropped onto all fours and rolled around in the sensation, not sure what was changing, but knowing it was utterly bizarre. Her bender's magical knot untied and flopped to the floor, glimmering with white magic. She finally stood, walking unsurely on the new feet. Draco helped his father dress and helped Ginny into her robes. He let Lucius drink a little and Ginny watched in amazement as she appeared, looking haughty and a little crazy. Her eyes rolled around a little and she stumbled, falling into her own arms and knocking herself over, as Lucius too, grew accustomed to the new gait. She helped put the bender on Lucius, making Draco turn around, before tying on Narcissa's robes. The guard and Narcissa were returning just as they finished. Draco pulled on Ginny's cloak and hid her, hiding the red hair under the hood. Ginny flopped onto the bed, trying to look mad. Lucius was having trouble walking, Draco had to drag him. The guard looked suspiciously towards them. "She's so traumatized by this. I'm sorry. Lucius was a mentor of hers." Narcissa cooed, quietly wooing the guard, who closed and locked the doors with his wand. "You do that so easily." "Yeah, all the guards' wands open up the cells." "That's so fascinating. You must lead such an interesting life." Narcissa purred coyly. "I'd love to hear more." "Really? Well, you'll get a minute, we'll need to keep you while they search your husband." "You surely don't think that we would give him anything now do you?" Narcissa looked beyond wounded. "No ma'am, but high security prisoners like Malfoy have been known to do sneaky things like steal wands." Ginny, with a shout of panic spurred by the drop in her stomach, shot forward to the bars. The guard turned in slight alarm hearing her crash against the bars. "The man's crazy..." She heard Narcissa say. "Don't drop the soap, Dad." Draco said stiffly, looking melancholy. He hauled Lucius up again and hobbled down the hall. The bars her fists were wrapped around were cool, buzzing with magic against prisoners who got angry enough to not require a wand. Suddenly, she panicked. She had left her polyjuice in her purse. "Guard! Guard!" She screamed fiercely, amazed at how raw her voice was. A man appeared casually around the corner. "The people, that just were visiting me, they have something that I need desperately." "What could you possibly need? They've been searched and they didn't have anything you would need desperately. Like a wand." He said saucily, banging his own against her bars. She knocked her hands furiously against her barriers, if she had her wand this minute the man would be singing a different tune. "Malfoy shut up before I use my privileges and curse you to next Sunday." She stepped back, a little frightened, she was completely unarmed. He opened the cell and shoved her over onto the bed. "Take off your robes." Ginny stripped them off. Was he going to rape her? The man pointed his wand at her and sjavascript:void(0)aid a spell she didn't recognize. She didn't think anything had happened until she looked down and her body was completely clear. Her organs, Lucius' organs, pumped within her body. The guard circled her carefully. "Good, nothing swallowed recently and no wand up the ass. You've just improved my day. I hate retrieving the fucking things. Robes back on." "Will you just tell those people that I won't be myself if they don't bring my potion back? You know the one the healer gave to me when he was in here last week?" She hoped that the doctor's visit wasn't some mad mutterings. The guard looked up promptly as she casually pulled the robes back on and collapsed onto the bed, ready for a nap. "Ah shit, Malfoy! You know what the healer said would happen if you didn't have that." The guard tore off. "That dumb shit in 450 let his family take his Soothing Solution. Yes, he administers it himself! Catch the family just in case someone let them leave." So they had to give Lucius soothing solution? Ginny guessed, as she sat back down, that you couldn't keep a good man down. She thought to the images she had seen in Lucius, mad crusades against Muggles and the planning afterwards. What they could do better until they committed the perfect murder. A moment here that was a moment too long, a little less of one spell and a little more of this. She had understood the precision of killing before, but was now learning the mind of a murderer was a truly complex one. Draco ran back, with her purse swinging suddenly. He handed her the vial and she leaned forward for a kiss. "I'm sorry, it's just too weird." He panted. "Right." She tried not to sound hurt. "See you soon!" "Don't get yourself killed. You're so brave, Gin. So brave. I love you." "I know. And Draco you're loads braver than me." He didn't answer, flashing around the corner. She sat down on the bed, staring at her watch, feeling abandoned and lost. Lucius Malfoy had been in solitary confinement for almost two years, and now, moments after Draco had left, she felt as though she had been alone a life time.
Her hands were numb and her breath was short as she jolted awake, taking a swallow, unsure how long she had been sleeping this time. Was this true loyalty? Being a mad convict, the most important servant to the dark lord, falling to her knees and gasping for breath every hour as the robes started to pool around the floor and her arms shrunk back into the sleeves, freckles prickling across her face. Then she was coughing with the strong potion, which was starting to run a little low, her robes tightened and her shoulders broadened, her hands smooth and thick, and the sun sunk continually until it sparked green at the horizon. "Where are they?" She muttered to herself, standing up and beginning to pace. Her hands were covered in a brisk sweat she wiped them against her thighs only to find her legs damp and trembling beneath her robes. She had two hours left in the vial, what would she do? The door to her cell slid open and she looked up, she hadn't even noticed someone come in. The guard smiled and she looked into his eyes and shivered a little at the man's obsession with power, but cowardly pursuits of its fulfillments. He set a tray in front of her with bland looking food.
"Hungry, Malfoy?" She nodded and plucked up the fork. "You threatening me, Malfoy?" She dropped it onto the tray. "You callin' me a liar?" What was he talking about, fucking American? She attempted another look into his eyes and was met with a strong back hand that threw her and her dinner against the far wall. She crouched on the floor and gasped a little. If only she had her wand. But she didn't and decided to try the strength of Malfoy's body. The guard looked a little surprised at her sudden retaliation as she vaulted across the chamber, but he lifted up his wand and stopped her in midair. "Bad idea, Malfoy." He raised his wand again, but his eyes widened and he dropped to the ground twitching, inches from screaming. Ginny's cushy seat in the air was abruptly taken away, but she attempted to stay standing wavering only a little on her feet. She turned around and, keeping the guard in her view, smiled at the Dark Lord.
His skin was gray and translucent from the sun he hadn't seen. His nose fanned out into two slit nostrils. Beautiful maroon irises gave room to cat-like pupils. As Ginny looked into his mind, she found not pictures but a fizzling purple shape in the back, that she could see only when she was concentrating so fully on him. He reached out a long spidery hand to her and she took it, throwing her head back and pouting her lips. Although she was in Malfoy's body, she hoped she came across as a queen. "Guards will come soon; detecting the dark magic on their poor little..." he laid his foot across the guard's head and leaned down. "Puppet. Do you feel as though you had the imperius curse, however light, placed upon you?"
Ginny took a quick inventory, nodding a little. Her head was floating in clouds and her face, which had been burning from the slap she had received from the guard, was soft and cool. "That, my love, is why we enjoy inflicting the curse so much, because it takes away our pain." He reached around and brushed a lock of blonde hair from her face. "And we do feel pain, love. We can't let it out any other way than our wand, because we're stronger than those who are foolish enough to wear their hearts on their sleeves."
"Yes, my lord." Lord Voldemort cocked his head.
"At last. This sod would go insane in a few minutes if they didn't show up and save him. Perhaps they were attending to the little disasters in other parts of the prison." He pulled something from his robes and handed them to her. "Your wand, once and future queen." She whirled it around in her fingers finally she could do something useful.
"This is my wand, my lord." She said as the clattering of feet also came into her range of her hearing. "No unforgivables."
"Yes." He said lifting his wand away from the guard and kicking him into the wall, where he killed him quickly just as the other guards came vaulting around the corners from various sides. Ginny lifted her wand and went into immediate action. She shot a spell she had used on Draco, which restricted breathing as if all your ribs were cracked. She whirled around and leaned back as a spell came chasing towards her. She knocked him out and hit the guard behind her with a consuming spell. The guard went down crawling with flames, and quick wittedly put an extinguishing spell on herself before struggling to her feet, already covered in third degree burns. Ginny had already taken out four others who were flopping on the ground for various reasons. She would take care of them later. She had realized before the whole point of this raid. Leave no survivors; give them no opportunity to get aurors or any other kind of back up, which she assumed the others were taking care of. Gather as many prisoners for their side as possible, a newly free man was a loyal man. Today, Ginny would get used to the idea of killing, and she would get used to it quickly. She admired the woman's bravery as she struggled to raise her wand, but another consuming spell knocked her off her feet and left her burning quickly into nothing on the ground. The man struggling to breath was hit again and ceased breathing completely. She hit a man in the abdomen with an effect she didn't remember, but surfaced to the top of her mind. She looked away quickly, but heard him screaming as his body began to turn itself inside out. There was a quick, easy spell that they used to kill prisoners. It severed the spinal cord in the neck. She hit about four people with that, checking them quickly to make sure they were dead as the Dark Lord finished off the last person with a quick Avada Kedavra. Ginny took a quick swig of polyjuice, realizing she had no idea how much time had gone by. "Very good, Queen." The dark lord surveyed the circle of damage that was around Ginny. "Hurt?" "I didn't get hit once." She said proudly. "Excellent. Shall we?" He pointed her in one direction and he started the other way. She started jogging, and then headed back. She picked up all of the guards' wands. She came along to one of the cells and opened it. A man sat cowering in a corner and looked to her. "I give you your freedom if you fight for the Dark Lord in this battle." The man stood up with surprising agility. "Gladly." She threw him one of the wands. "Release more of the prisoners, if they protest, close the doors." He nodded and moved past her. She collected all of the prisoners in the hall, just as the man did. It seemed that even with the dementors gone; the prisoners still desired freedom over morality. She came along a guard and, using one of the wands that wasn't her own stuck into her back pocket, put crucio on him and relishing the power let him off fairly quickly. He started to crawl away, crying hysterically. She curled her lip and shot him down with a flash of green. It was easier when she wasn't using her own wand. She continued releasing prisoners. Along various hallways and twists and turns, she hurtled. She knocked out various guards with the killing curse, quickly losing track of the numbers she was disposing of. She finally found her way back to the main hallway and saw a door ajar. She knocked it open and saw a man crawling towards a fire, burning with floo powder. She set her foot on his back and pressed down. He groaned and looked at her. "Anyone else leave through this exit?" "Help." He gurgled. She kicked him over, a little repulsed as she saw the injuries inflicted on him. "I don't think I can let you do that." She leaned towards him. "Maybe if you tell me whether anyone else when through that fire to wherever it is you might be going." "No one." He pleaded, tears starting to leak down his face. "No one." He grabbed onto her hand and blood slicked across her hands. "Please, please." He grabbed onto the wand in her hand and pressed it to his neck. "No more. No one." She let him go quickly, but grabbed his dog tags from his neck and put them around her own, extinguishing the fire and making a mess of the instruments. She wiped her hands on her robes and sealed the door, and it was the last time she felt regret for a long time.
"Anything to eat, Ginny?" Arthur asked anxiously. She was acting very oddly, but Dumbledore warned them that for a little while she would. "Gee whiz, I'm swell, Pop." She said cheerfully. "You're sure?" "Ah, maybe you've talked me into some of those delicious looking potatoes." She smiled even more widely. Everyone at the table looked down at the beef casserole on the table and the corn next to it. There were no potatoes in sight. "Molly, are you sure that she isn't being possessed again? She was out all afternoon." Arthur said cautiously into his wife's ear. "Arthur, Dumbledore said to maintain a cautious, but normal approach to having her recover from this. She needed to go on the walk to get her art supplies. She came back with them, and she has been very happy, if not a little odd. We shouldn't have expected this after her adverse reaction to possession last time." Arthur shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his daughter smiled at a spot over his shoulder. Her face contorted suddenly, but it turned into a yawn abruptly. "I'm tired." Ginny said, standing up and stumbling towards the stairs. They heard a few crashes and came out to see her standing up as if she hadn't just walked into a wall. "Still a little disoriented." Molly whispered to Arthur. "I'm calling Dumbledore." Arthur said. "This is getting too unusual. She never acted like this before." "It would make me feel better," Molly admitted. Arthur moved toward the living room and Molly climbed the stairs to sit down by her daughter while she pulled on her nightgown backwards and climbed into bed with her feet on the pillows. Molly hauled her up and righted her jammies and let her head drift back onto her pillows. "Ginny, darling?" "Mummy?" Her eyes slit open and she smiled a little. "Darling how do you feel?" "I was scared before, but now I'm alright, I promise." "You're so brave." Molly kissed her forehead. "Do you feel feverish?" "No, just tired. Maybe it would be best if I just went to sleep." She kissed her mother and hummed a little." Molly recognized the tune and began to cry. Ginny didn't seem to notice, rolling over towards the wall and falling into deep sleep. "Molly." Arthur stood at the door. "Come down with me and we'll reach Dumbledore together. Don't you worry about a thing. Ginny's sleeping now, we'll keep checking on her. She'll be alright. It's probably nothing." "You're right, Arthur. I just... I just don't know. I don't want this war another day, I want my children to be safe and my mind at ease. That's all I've ever wanted." "Come on, love." Arthur crossed the room and pulled Molly to her feet. He kissed her gently on the forehead. "Downstairs and we'll have a word to Dumbledore and he'll clear all this up." Molly brushed a lock of hair from her daughter's sweaty forehead and walked out of the room, taking the light with her and shutting the door quietly. Ginny opened her eyes and handed the wand back to Wormtail. "You fool! What kind of vision did you have of my family life to think that my parents would react normally to 'Gee whiz, I'm swell, Dad'? Put Lucius in deeper sleep and keep him there until we can figure something out. They're calling Dumbledore because of your blunder, which means that something else must be done as far as Lucius' current location." Ginny shook her head angrily at the trembling man in front of her. She swept away quickly out of the room and down a hallway that her feet had never touched before, but her mind had followed a million times. Draco had been slumped over at a couch in the corridor, but hearing footsteps, he stood and grabbed onto Ginny's arm. "Hey." "Hey, Draco." She started walking and he clutched onto her in tow. "How're you feeling?" He asked quietly. "Strangely, I'm doing fine. Yourself?" She whirled him around and kissed him on the tip of the nose. "I don't know yet." "Well, I have some things right now that I have to do. Go home and get some rest and I'll try to join you if I can." She kissed him gently. "Bye." "Goodbye then." He turned and started off down the hall in the opposite direction. She paused and watched him for a moment before turning around again and heading for the meeting room where she knew Voldemort would be. She opened the door quietly. "My lord?" He turned and looked at her thoughtfully. "I tolerate your useless infatuation at your school where your little hormonal urges seem to dictate your every move, but I will not tolerate it in headquarters where it makes a fool of us, the Malfoy estate and the entire movement." "Yes, my lord, it will never happen again... in headquarters." She smiled a little and gave a jerk of the head. "See that it doesn't." He smiled. "Or next time it will be the boy's life that pays." "Yes, my lord. It's only fair." She nodded to him and bowed a little. "What I came to talk to you about regards Lucius' current coordinates." She gulped a little but continued on. "If I may be frank, I had warned you against Wormtail's abilities. He made a fool of Lucius who had begun fighting the spell in earnest, but I took over and managed to coax Lucius into sleep. Against my better judgment I turned over the reins to Wormtail again, but in his deep sleep Lucius will be unable to drink the potion which is essential to our ploy working. I ask that Lucius be pulled out of the location and a more fit agent be put in. Or maybe I should return home, also against my better judgment." "That was very frank indeed." Ginny held her breath at his icy tone. "And very true." She let it out quietly so he wouldn't detect her discomfort at being around him in person finally. "Shall we kill Wormtail?" "No. He is still a tool and even the rustiest tool has its use." "Very good. I have a shape shifter or two in my ranks, one of them can be disposed to the Weasley residence. Of course under a controlling spell by one of my better agents." "We'll let Wormtail clean out the toilets. No wand." Ginny joked. "We shall see." Voldemort glanced at her as though she were crazy. Ginny shifted uncomfortably. She put on her shelf of experience that Voldemort couldn't take a joke. "What shall I do now?" "You are still a little known weapon, and after the jolt that was Snape, well, we shall be more cautious about our more valuable treasures." He touched her hair and lifted it to his nose, inhaling deeply. "I have much work to do; otherwise I would request that you spend this night with me. However, I turn you to your infatuation." "No more work?" She said sadly. Tired though she was, being in headquarters, dishing out orders to those who knew her worth and future position, remembering the power that surged out of her wand was deeply satisfying and she was reluctant to let that go. She put her hand to her chest and felt, in between her breasts, a wand she had stolen to perform illegal spells, and the dog tags. "You've had a trying first day. I could not have expected you to perform better than you did." He smiled at her warmly. "I am proud of you. You fight... it was amazing to watch. I was in awe." Ginny smiled self indulgently. "You ain't seen nothing yet." She said in an American accent, leaving the room. She whirled along the corridors on clouds but noises abruptly made her grab her illegal wand from her robes and point it at a man who she recognized as the one who had brought her the message. "You." She said. She glanced at the strange green wand. "Me." He chuckled. "If I could kill you now..." "You would enjoy it, wouldn't you? But no, I'm about to save your life and your alibi." The man seemed a little too happy at the prospect. "Shape-shifter?" She glanced at the wand again, memorizing it. She looked into the eyes and shuddered as images trickled back into her mind. "Fl- forgive me then. A thousand apologies." "I accept. Now, don't dally. Get to wherever it is that you were going and forget about everything. We know where you are." The man paused and let the words gain gravity. "In case we need you. But I hardly think so, princess." Blaise was snoring when Ginny shook her awake. "Hey, you're back. I decided to Floo over to Malfoy Manor and see you. Draco!" She yawned and kicked Draco awake in an armchair. He sat up. "We've got some Muggle music and the bottle of eternal Ogden's upstairs." She paused a moment at the thought of a party. "First, I need food. I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm about to faint." She followed Draco to the kitchen. He rummaged around in a cupboard saying he didn't want to bother the house elves. Ginny and Blaise exchanged a smile behind his back. "I heard that." He produced a container full of cold turkey meat, light white bread and mustard. He handed her those and scurried across the kitchen for a knife and fork and plates. He pulled out jugs of milk and pumpkin juice and set them at the wide kitchen table. Ginny observed the kitchen with rapid comfort. The table had been hit by knives and the décor was white and sterile, not at all elegant. The house elves were the only ones to ever come in here, made apparent by Draco's long search for silverware, and although it was sterile, it was still homey. She started to make sandwiches handing one first to Draco, then to Blaise, and finally laid onto hers with great zest. She started pulling out her wand and making it do simple spells over and over again. "What're you doing that for?" Blaise asked thickly, trying to pull a piece of turkey into her mouth using only her teeth, and smearing herself with mustard. "I cast about fifty dark spells before I started using another wand. I have to get them out of the wand's system." She said, shrugging. "Kind of stupid I guess, but I really don't want these dark spells on the surface of my spell history." "Guess so." Blaise shrugged. "But I have a question. This is something that's been worrying me. What effect is this attack going to have on the Hogsmeade attack?" "Everyone thinks stronger resistance, but I think weaker. I don't have an exact idea of how we're going to pull it off fooling the order and all, but see, they don't expect continual attacks. They know about the Hogsmeade attack of course, but at the same time, wouldn't it be foolish to think that you would have received good intelligence on an attack of smaller scale at a later date rather than large scale at an earlier date. My theory is that they're going to put less effort into the Hogsmeade attack and be more on the lookout for something going on under the surface of the attack. I'll find out more from my parents but at the same time, how do you take advantage of something like that? If you strike Hogsmeade with full force you don't get your original goal which was to clear out and identify and capture Order of the Phoenix agents, nor do you launch another attack because their attention will already be focused on other ploys. "Anyway, I'm tired out talking business. Let's go party." She grinned. They climbed the stairs to Draco's room and Blaise started the music while Draco took a good pull at the Eternal Ogden's. Blaise had some and they turned to pass it on to Ginny, only to find her fast asleep in Draco's bed. Blaise turned off the music and Draco climbed the stairs to his bed, watching Ginny breath. "We should stay awake just in case headquarters calls back and says that they need her." Blaise observed. Draco nodded, he brushed a lock of hair from Ginny's forehead, and turned off the lights, leaving the room quietly.
TA DA! Another chapter churned out. And I apologize because it was after all, a very bad one. But what the hell. A few beautiful readers asked me to post and I delivered. So here are the thank you s to those beautiful and curious readers: