Riality, thanks for spotting those mistakes. I was in a sort of in a hurry when I wrote that… Ok, so fine, I didn't feel like spell checking and/or reading the whole thing over to check. I'm such a lazy arse… But in this one, I swear I tried harder. Hey, you know what? I've had about 717 hits, last time I checked, and only about 46 reviews. So if you're passing by, a review would be very much appreciated. Thanks to all who have though, and seeing as my computer was a bit screwed up before this chapter, review on this one and I'll give you author responses next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own what I own.

Draco glanced down at those underneath him. He'd taken to flying above them, to check his position. They had left the school nearly twelve hours ago.

"Are we close?" Ron called up to him.

Draco's eyes scanned the terrain in front of him, and he squinted. Very faintly, he could see several lights and what should be buildings. They were coming up fast, and Draco dropped down to end up next to Harry.

"We should be there in another ten or twenty minutes."

Harry glared at him. "Oh, joy."

Draco rolled his eyes. Harry had been a bit sore (pissed as hell) when the Cheering Charm had worn off. Of course, considering the fact that as he was on his broomstick he'd managed to hit on Hermione and Soleil at the same time with Blaise and Ron trying desperately to kill him, it would have been a wonder if he'd been able to smile after all that.

They flew on in silence for a moment, until the rest of the buildings became visible.

"Should we go to the villa first?" Draco feigned boredom. Inside, he was dying to know if Ginny was all right.

Hermione cast him a skeptical glance. "Right, and die because we had no idea about the lethifold in the basement or the dragon in the courtyard?"

"Lethifolds?" Ron almost fell of his broom, and Hermione shook her head.

"I was being sarcastic, Ron. What I mean to say is, we should at least scout the place out first. This is a Muggle village, in case you haven't noticed, and if we just fly in wands at the ready, do you know how much trouble we could be in?"

"So what do you suggest we do, Granger?" Blaise was also getting impatient.

"We can swoop down and check, from a safe distance," she reasoned. "But we don't interfere, and then we go into the Muggle village and try to get some information."

"Then let's go!" Draco fell into a sharp dive, skimming the dusty road in front of him despite Hermione's protests. He knew there was no one more than a mile or so around the villa; all the Muggles thought it was haunted.

He could hear several whooshing noises behind him, and as they approached the large, dreary lodge, he knew the others had joined him.

"Almost there" he called back, then looked forward. There was a bend in the road…and he could hear something coming from it…

"ARGH!" Draco managed a strangled yell before he was slammed full force into the bushes alongside the road. He rolled a few feet until he hit a tree, then raised his broomstick and began to pummel his attacker.

"OW! Stop—dammit, Malfoy—stop!"

Draco blinked and stopped his assault long enough to realize it was Harry glaring fiercely at him.

"What the hell—," but his tirade was cut off as Harry covered his mouth. He dragged Draco to the fringe of the surrounding forest, and they could see the others hiding themselves on the other side of the road.

"And I've, done you so wrong, treated you bad, I've strung you along, oh shame on myself, I don't know how I got this tangled, aww!"

Harry's grip on Draco loosened, and as the Slytherin squirmed over slightly, he was mesmerized. The voice was beautiful…as was the singer.

A girl with waist-length black hair and purple streaks was grinning widely and had headphones in her ears. Harry found that his mouth had gone dry as she sang, skipping with every step.

Behind her came a boy that looked almost exactly like her, with short black hair and green streaks.

But everyone's heart stopped beating as the next person turned the bend. Draco lunged as if to run out into the open, but Harry managed to regain his senses long enough to grab him and pin him down. The girl's screaming cut off Draco's loud yell.

"Sebby! Sebby, give me back my clip! SEBASTIAN!"

The boy, who clearly had to be Sebastian, turned and stuck out his tongue before racing up next to the girl who obviously had to be his twin, and slid something into her hand. She gripped it tightly but kept on singing, exchanging only a wink with her brother.

Ginny tackled Sebastian, and he fell to the ground laughing. Ginny sat on top of him, nose turned in the air and panting slightly. It was then that the others noticed that although she was smiling triumphantly, it didn't reach her eyes. She was even paler, if possible, and she seemed skinnier than when they had last seen her.

"Give me the clip. Now." Sebastian shook his head.

"Don't have it." He grinned cheekily. Draco let out a breath. Now the boy was going to get it!

But he was shocked to see Ginny lean down and whisper something in the boy's ear. His eyes grew wide.

"You wouldn't."

Ginny smirked. "I would."

"Wouldn't."

"Would.

"Wouldn't! Wouldn't!"

"Would, would, would!"

"Would."

"Wouldn't." Ginny mentally slapped herself as Sebastian started laughing again. "So you wouldn't call up Dezzie?"

"Shut up." She said, scowling, but she stood up and helped him up anyways. Sebastian ruffled her hair good-naturedly, as the girl dropped back to hand her the clip.

"You owe me, now." Ginny smiled sweetly at Sebastian. "And I want a ride."

"What?" He turned to face his sister, who only smirked back at him.

"That was a pretty mean thing to do, Sebby. Besides, I didn't even know I had the clip! I thought it was your I-Pod."

Sebastian growled, but it was turned into a grunt as Ginny leapt onto his back. He stumbled forwards a few feet, but then regained his balance.

"Come now, be a good horse." Ginny ordered.

The girl followed behind them as they walked, and began singing again, this time a whole new song.

"Steal some covers, share some skin…" she crooned slyly. The two ahead of her shot her looks, but they were soon laughing hard as they disappeared around another bend.

Immediately, Draco shoved Harry off him, who cringed at the sight of the enraged boy.

"HOW COULD YOU!" He roared. "SHE WAS RIGHT THERE!"

"Draco, calm down." Blaise stepped into the bushes. "Harry had reason, and do you remember what Granger said?"

"I don't give a fuck!" Draco swung at Harry, who rolled away. "Four months she's been missing and when she's finally there you just let her get away! You just—let her get away!"

Draco lapsed into silence, holding his head in his hands. Harry stared for a moment, then frowned. "Maybe we should have done something."

"Harry, no!" Hermione protested. "Ginny's alive and well. Don't you think, unless something big was holding her back, she'd have at least informed us by now?"

"Yeah." Ron agreed. "But she sure seemed happy back there. D'you think she's forgotten about us?"

There was a pregnant pause, before Soleil spoke up. "No. She wouldn't. She might be a little angry at first that we've taken so long to come around, but she wouldn't forget us."

No one said anything, until Draco picked himself up slowly and grabbed his broomstick. He trudged out onto the road and started walking back towards the town, where Ginny and the others had been heading.

Blaise sighed before following, then ran to catch up. "I seriously think there's something wrong with you, man."

"There's nothing wrong with me." Draco intoned monotonously. "I'm just fine, perfect in fact."

Blaise snorted. "Yeah right. And crying for the first time since you were a baby, not speaking for four months, and practically chewing Potter's head off twice was just because you were bored." Blaise swung his arm about Draco, knowing he hated to be touched and risking it anyway. "My friend, I think you're in love."

"No." Draco's eyes flashed, and in the next moment, Blaise found himself on the ground and staring up at his best friend of seventeen years.

"I can't be in love." Draco growled, although he sounded slightly panicky at the same time. "I can't! Not with her anyways, she's a Weasley, and a Gryffindor, and she loves Potter—,"

"Not anymore." Blaise couldn't help adding. Draco snorted.

"Even if she doesn't, did you see the way she was hanging onto that guy?"

"She's pureblood." Blaise reasoned. "And she's looking at a promising career as an Auror. If she keeps this up, she'll graduate Hogwarts early and earn thousands of Galleons a day!"

Draco looked thoughtful for a moment, but then he wiped it away. "Malfoys don't fall in love. They marry for money, and power, not love."

"That's what your father said." Blaise replied easily. "And I thought you said you didn't want to be like him anymore? Or is Lucius finally getting what he wants?"

Blaise stared up at Draco, who now had wisps of his shoulder length hair crowding around his face, and was breathing heavily. His face was not as pale as it had been years before. Now it was a little tanner, and his usually cold gray eyes had become a startling silver-blue.

Draco had changed, in appearance and mannerisms. He was no longer following the path his father had wanted him to follow, and had, in fact, completely cut himself off from it all.

"I hate it when you're right." Draco murmured quietly.

Blaise felt torn between simply smiling in glee and interrogating further. He chose the former.

"We have an idea!" Soleil suddenly popped up in between them, smiling widely. There was a collective snicker, and Draco and Blaise realized just how compromising their position must look. They jumped apart, and Draco glared at Soleil.

"So? What's the plan?"

Ginny stumbled slightly as she jumped off Sebastian's back, but she quickly righted herself and bounced into the shop.

"Mrs. McDougle!" she called. "Mrs. McDougle, I've finally learned how to work a CD player!"

The round, red-cheeked woman came out, smiling broadly. "Och, lassie, that be wonderful! Ye dinnae know how much ye scared me! Kin ye imagine? A lass o' your age, not knooing 'ow to use a player? Me own kin used to stare coos I dinnae know!"

Ginny stared at the far side of the shop, where Mrs. McDougle had just laid out a delicious array of pastries.

"What're they for?" she indicated the food.

"It's almost time for schools to close." Katherine walked next to her. "It'll have been…oh, about five months since you've come, Gin. So on…when is it, Seb?"

"June 30th, last day, Kat." Her brother replied absentmindedly.

"Yes, that's it." Katherine mumbled, staring at the pastries. "That's the day every single school has been let out, and most kids go home. It'll be an awesome day. A lot of them are here now, so Mrs. McDougle has these set up for them. Her own kids are coming on the 30th."

Ginny smiled, although something was tugging at the back of her mind. "Yeah, that's awesome."

Kat straightened up. "Mrs. McDougle, can I see the new CD's?"

"Certainly!" The woman boomed, and grabbed Kat by the hand, heading to the other side of the store.

Sebastian snuck a swipe at a cake and smiled toothily at Ginny. "You know, June 30th is a very special day in history?"

Ginny knew Sebastian tried many times to creep her out, and tried her best to decide what course of action could end this quickly. She rested on nodding, and Sebastian leaned against the wall.

"Yeah. On June 30th, a while back, the Wizarding World was in an uproar. Apparently, some guys had gotten it into their heads that the world didn't deserve to be in existence any longer."

Ginny couldn't help it; he had her hooked. "How far back was this?"

"Oh, around the 1900's or so." Sebastian waved his hands airily. "Anyways, these guys—sort of sound like Death Eaters—appointed the craziest one of them all to start this revolt. They started with one group, and they were going to go on with all the others, but something stopped them." He stopped, and sucked on a gumdrop he'd removed from his pocket.

"What happened?" Ginny demanded. "Tell me!"

"Well, the guy went a bit too power-mad, and instead of doing it all discreetly, he managed to let the whole world know. Somehow, the Ministry of Magic managed to convince the Muggles that he was killing off the people by Muggle means, and they sent in a group of Aurors. The Aurors got rid of him, and made it look like he killed himself."

"And?" Ginny prodded him.

"Well," Sebastian continued. "Of course the wizards were very upset. So they did something no one could ever have imagined." Sebastian paused to dig around in his pocket, until Ginny began to hit him over the head with a broomstick she had found in corner.

"Yes, well—ow! You can stop, I'm telling the story already! As I was saying, these guys called together every member of their little cult and had them all bring with them a Muggle or Wizard hostage, someone who they thought was doing wrong in the world, but someone not many people would notice for a while."

"And did they?"

"Yep." Sebastian nodded grimly. "There were about five hundred wizards in attendance—that's one thousand, counting the hostages—and they were all mad. Some guys who were right around the corner of inventing time machines, or color TV were there. All the almost-inventors of their time."

"Wow…" Ginny found herself gripping the broom fiercely.

Sebastian nodded. "They thought these men wanted to make this world worse then it already was. Well, they thought, why not destroy these guys, and then go about destroying the rest of the world later? But a group of Aurors heard about it, and snuck in the night of the gathering.

"Well, you can imagine the party! Suddenly, one of the members recognizes an Auror, and soon spells are flying, people are keeling over, and there was broken glass everywhere." Sebastian looked down into his hand and found a strawberry gumdrop.

"You know these are really good, Gin? D'you want—ow! Cheeky little—ok, ok, I'll finish. So, anyways, by the time the Ministry gets there, there's been a huge massacre, and no one's left alive."

"No one?" Ginny's eyes were wide, but then she shook herself and adopted a look of indifference. Sebastian didn't notice. He was already way into the story.

"So the Ministry has a hell of a time, obliviating memories of Muggles and a few Wizards, cause they decide that this is way too much for both the Muggle and Wizarding world to know. No stories are printed up, no reports are filed, and the Aurors and Wizards who were well known…well, they made it seem like someone else had done it. And by this time, Voldemort was just emerging into the world, so it made perfect sense to pin those disappearances on him."

"Sebby," Ginny said, her voice thick. "Who was the first guy?"

Sebastian's mouth became a grim line. "His name was Adolph Hitler. Evil little man he was, too. Lots of Muggles still remember him, as do the wizards."

"Why didn't anyone tell us?" Ginny insisted.

Sebastian shook his head. "Weren't you just listening? This was way too much for the wizarding world to handle, especially with the Death Eaters roaming around the place. Kat and I only found it because our Mum was a kid when it happened, and she lost her mum at the whole thing; she was a hostage. Mum escaped the memory charms, and decided it would best if we knew."

Ginny was quiet for a moment, staring at her hands. There was something she was supposed to be connecting to his words, she knew. If only she could dig it out from the back of her mind…

She thought back to her friends and winced slightly as their faces came back fuzzy. Ginny managed to push away the disturbance that came with the realization that she was slowly forgetting their faces, and instead thought harder. Back to the Malfoy Manor, back to the ride there, back to the opening of the trunk…

And there it was. Ginny's eyes widened and her breath came in sharp gasps as she remembered what Soleil had read off the trunk.

"The world has erred many times, through countless ages, and countless times…"

That would have to be what Sebastian was talking about. The wizards deemed the world unfit and unable to keep on going. She screwed up her eyes, forcing herself to remember the rest of the inscription…

"Blah…blah…" Now she was getting frustrated. All the other lines seemed to have been fulfilled already…except for one…

Ginny's eyes widened in realization. "See the gold and gleaming prize, right before your very eyes!"

"Gee, Gin, you're a poet and you didn't even know it."

Ginny ignored Sebastian and examined the line in her head once more. They'd thought the prize to be the chest, right? But it seemed so simple…too easy, actually. But what prize could be gold and gleaming?

"Sebby," she said, turning to him. "Has Desdemona been working on anything that has to do with gold?"

Sebastian frowned, and shook his head. "No, nothing that I know off. In fact, she seems to hate gold. We found a whole pile in a room. That's how we've been getting by, you know."

Before Ginny had time to digest this information, someone tapped her on her shoulder. She spun around, exasperated. "What, Kat?"

But it wasn't Katherine in front of her. A girl with sunny blond hair and wide blue eyes stared back at her. She was wearing a checkered skirt that ended just above her knees, and a white shirt with a red tie. She wore knee high checkered socks and loafers.

"I'm sorry." Ginny smiled. "I thought you were someone else."

"S'ok." The girl replied. She had an English accent, and although Ginny couldn't place it, she knew that voice from somewhere.

"I just wanted to ask you, are you new? I haven't seen you here before."

"I've been new for five months." Ginny replied dryly. "I suppose you've been away at school, then?" She stuck out her hand. "Mary Hart."

The girl eyed her oddly. "Are you sure that's your name?"

"Of course it is." Ginny bristled, although she could feel a bit of panic beneath her snippety exterior. She sensed Sebastian felt the same way. "You think I don't know my own name?"

"Of course." The girl apologized. "I'm sorry. My name is—er…"

Ginny couldn't help it. She let out a snort of laughter. "And you asked if I wasn't sure about my name?" She pointed to Sebastian. "This is my cousin, Sebastian Hart, and over there is my other cousin, Katherine Hart."

"You sure don't look alike." The girl eyed them both.

Ginny narrowed her eyes. "I got the recessive gene. And you still haven't told me your name!"

The girl shrank visibly. "It's…er, it's Ginevra! Yes, Ginevra—er, er—Black!"

Ginny could tell she was lying, and she had stiffened visibly at the use of her first name. "That's an odd first name."

The girl nodded vigorously. "Oh, my mum, she knew this nice lady, Molly Weasley, and Mrs. Weasley had a daughter by the name. Mum loved it so much, she named me after her!"

Ginny was silent. Of course her mum had many friends, Muggle and wizard alike. The girl could be telling the truth…but the last name?

"Who're your parents?" She asked abruptly.

Behind her, Sebastian pitied the poor girl, who looked ready to wet herself. He wouldn't stop Ginny, however. This girl was just too weird.

"Err…err, I dunno." She replied lamely. At Ginny's frosty glare, she continued quickly. "He left me and my mum after a while, because we had a secret he wasn't so happy about. But my mum…she decided to start over, so she changed her name, and she knew this guy named Black, so she just used the last name. It seemed common enough."

Ginny looked at her for a few moments, weighing the possibilities. The girl had a plausible story for everything, although her stutter and hesitant speech made it seem as though she was lying.

"Where are you staying?" The girl asked suddenly. She seemed to have forgotten that she wasn't in the best position to ask questions. Ginny sighed.

"The old Malfoy villa. You know, the house just up the road?"

"Why aren't your parents with you?" The girl was looking very much like a predator now, anxious to find out more, and Ginny felt only too much like the prey.

"Er—you see—they—"

"Look at that!" Sebastian cried, and grabbed Ginny by the hand. "It's time to go, we have to make dinner!" In an instant, he had run to the other side of the store and grabbed Kat about her waist.

"Nice to meet you see you later bye!" Sebastian ran outside, and the girl followed quickly. She just barely caught the broom Ginny had flung back at her before the three were sprinting down the road, with Katherine screeching indignantly at them.

The girl leaned against a post, and suddenly, a metal device wrapped around her ear appeared.

"Mission accomplished."