Thank you to Lady-Nimoe, review much appreciated :) (and you will just have to wait and see whether Ginny gets guts or glory. cheesy grin)
Chapter 4 – Watch this Space
Ginny watched Harry absently. She had become so accustomed to being aware of where he was all the time that she did it without realising. He, Ron and Hermione sat comfortably together, talking, whispering and bantering playfully with one another. Almost as if they haven't experienced all the evil they've witnessed.
Her mind, on the other hand, was on someone else altogether. Draco Malfoy haunted her every step.
She had so many unanswered questions that she thought she might just burst. Mentally Ginny knew she had to confront him and ask what had happened. But how to start a conversation with someone who barely cared she existed? At least Harry had seen her as a friend, or at very lest a substitute little sister, Draco probably didn't even know her name. And how would I start the conversation? 'Hi, I know you're disgusted to talk to me right now. I know because I can feel it!'
"Dammit" she muttered.
"Talking to yourself little 'un?" asked Seamus' warm Scottish burr from her left.
Ginny looked up, startled. His kindly brown eyes peered into hers. She was a little shocked that he'd bothered to talk to her. Few people did. Except Persephone of course.
"Just thinking" Ginny hurriedly replied, refusing to look at him straight on. She watched the flickering firelight interestedly.
There was a rather pregnant pause.
"Well…" Seamus appeared uncomfortable, and fidgeted anxiously, "Dean and I were wondering…" he tailed off and fiddled with his shirt.
"Yes?" Ginny prompted. What can they want? Merlin, what if it's boyfriend related?! And I didn't brush my hair properly this morning either! I must look a state. Not to mention a nervous wreck. Where's Persephone when you need support!
"Like, if you and Persephone wanted to accompany us to Hogsmeade next weekend…?"
Ginny gasped inaudibly, holy crap, what do I say now?!
"Uh, well, I'dhavetotalktopersephoneaboutitfirst!" she said very fast, mumbling into her collar slightly.
Seamus nodded in agreement, but didn't seem prepared to go anywhere away from her. Ginny threw him a swift smile before muttering about homework and bolted out of the common room as inconspicuously as possible.
Once in her dormitory, she threw herself down on her bed.
"You alright Gin?" asked Persephone's musical voice.
Ginny started for the second time that night. There didn't appear to be anyone in the room.
"Perse, where the hell are you?!"
Persephone appeared from beneath the bed adjacent to Ginny's own. At Ginny's questioning look she explained that she'd lost her watch.
"Underneath the bed?" inquired Ginny, dubiously.
"Well it never hurts to look everywhere," replied Perse "it's always in the last place you look."
"That's because when you find it, you stop looking," retorted Ginny "besides, don't distract me! I have something to tell you."
She quickly related what Seamus had told her, before falling back on the bed to gauge Perse's reaction.
Perse in return eyed her shrewdly; "Seamus and Dean have been after Lavender and Pavati for ages…"
"Yes," agreed Ginny quickly "practically since they worked out what girls were!"
Persephone nodded "and didn't Lavender say that she was going with that Hufflepuff Matt yesterday?"
Ginny understood her train of thought almost immediately and almost visibly she deflated.
"I guess we should say 'no' then?" don't want to get on the wrong side of Lavender and Pavati, then can be right bitchy when the mood takes them.
Persephone nodded, but sat up so she was on Ginny's level, "Do not fret your young heart, Hogsmeade is not safe, foreign spirits walk the streets. The trip will be the least of events soon enough." Her voice sounded strange, almost hoarse.
Ginny jerked her head up to look at Perse' face; her pupils were largely dilated, making her look both strangely beautiful and deadly, her features also appeared to belong to someone older and more weathered than Persephone's tender 16 years. As quickly as it was there, the tangible magic vanished again and Ginny once more wondered about Persephone's past. If Perse caught the look of faint fear on Ginny's face, she didn't mention it. Instead opted to stand up from the bed and walk to the floor-to-ceiling mirror in their dormitory.
Following curiously, Ginny went to stand beside Persephone, studying their reflections Ginny recognised that they were both very alike in many ways; both of them noticed things that many other people never would (or could), they both preferred their own company but by far the most important similarity was that they both had mixed-up pasts. Ginny occasionally saw a darkness in Persephone like her own, a darkness that came from being touched by great evil.
Persephone turned to her, and Ginny once again noticed the strange look in her eye.
"You have great power inside you," whispered Perse taking her by the shoulders, "we all do, that's why were here. Some people just never learn to unlock it."
Some merely have greater power than others thought Ginny, but kept it to herself.
# # #
Draco woke suddenly, gasping for breath. After a moments pause to catch his breath, he untangled his left arm from the knotted covers and examined his forearm uneasily. Clear, unmarked, just a dream… sighing with relief he sank back into the protection the sheets offered from the autumnal chill.
He felt Ginny toss and turn in her own bed for her dreams were troubled too. He closed his eyes and found that he could almost see what she was envisaging; it was so clear and untainted... Without warning he felt himself being sucked into the vision, the feeling was comparable to what he imagined it would feel like to fall off one of Hogwarts towers, and although he wouldn't admit it, it was terrifying.
Draco landed unceremoniously in a grim-looking graveyard. Dark clouds, rumbled and rolled overheard, threatening rain. He felt his pulse quicken as he looked around him, in every direction, as far as they eye could see, there were graves. Some large, some simple, but all proclaiming the deaths of a witch or wizard who had fallen, never to rise again.
It's only a dream, it's only a dream he repeated to himself over and over. He turned finding that everything was drawn sharply, like real life, and he was beginning to become aware that this wasn't just a normal dream. For one, he could feel the wind on his face and heard the rustling in the grass; Ginny wasn't capable of creating a world as diverse as this purely for a dream.
Directly behind him he heard pitiful sobbing, he turned again to find a young woman dressed entirely in black kneeling to face an intricate tombstone. He was certain she hadn't been there a second ago, but was still instantly recognisable as Ginny herself, the red hair spilling over her shoulders enticingly.
"Weasley" he said sharply, trying to get her attention. She glanced up at him without recognition in her eyes.
"They died for me," she told him, her eyes shining with agony "I couldn't stop them, and now they're gone forever." She returned to the gravestone, and began caressing it gently with her hands, finally Draco was able to read it.
'Here lie the treasured and much-loved Weasleys, may they rest in peace until the last'
"They forgot me," Ginny sobbed, "they left me behind."
Draco couldn't take anymore, he felt the frost in his heart begin to thaw, and that would be his downfall.
"Come Weasley," he said sharply, holding her shoulder tightly, "we're going back to Hogwarts." Dumbledore, if you can hear me, take us back please. From wherever we are.
# # #
Draco's mind frequently went back to the happenings of the morning throughout the day.
How can a girl that tiny have enough power to create an entire world in her dreams? Either she's incredibly powerful, or there's more here at play. Let's not forget that she seems to have banshees following her, and is inseparable from that welsh witch with the weird eyes.
There is definitely something strange about the diminutive Weasley. Think it's high time we had a little chat.
Blaise Zabini abruptly sat on the chair opposite to Draco and rudely interrupted his thoughts. Blaise was probably the only person in Hogwarts that Draco would ever trust, and even then it was very limited. I'm just not a trusting person. And of course the only person in Hogwarts who he wouldn't burn for interrupting his train of reflection.
"Problem, Zabini?" Draco said with infallible coolness. He did not like to have his thoughts sporadically disturbed at all.
"No." replied Zabini with an equally forbidding tone.
Girl troubles interpreted Draco correctly.
"Which one are you after now?" asked Draco tiredly
Blaise didn't bother feigning surprise, instead run his fingers jadedly through his hair making the darkened locks stick out at random angles. Draco eyed it distastefully. Blaise had a reputation for having every imaginable girl after him – even one or two Gryffindors. But he only wanted the ones who wouldn't give him the time of day. Last year he went after Luna Lovegood, she barely knew he existed. Well actually she barely knew boys in general existed corrected Draco.
Yet Blaise still didn't answer. Draco internally became quite interested, it has to be a good one, else he would have told me already, externally though his expression remained as disinterested as ever, although Blaise was not deterred.
"She seemed scared of me," he said confusedly "when I tried to talk to her, she ran away."
Draco smirked in amusement, which was the equivalent of anyone else bursting into hysterical laughter, "well, maybe you should do something with the hair" he replied arching an eyebrow derisively.
Blaise completely ignored Draco's jibe (which is probably why he's the only person I get on with Draco contemplated) and continued, "But she's very pretty, even you would have to admit she's pretty."
Mentally Draco eliminated possibilities; none of Slytherin was openly scared of Blaise, Hufflepuffs were out of the question, "Ravenclaw?" he asked
Blaise shook his head and pursed his lips in irritation; "You know me better than anyone," which wasn't saying a lot to be honest Draco thought reflectively, "you know the type I'd go for."
Draco nodded. He just hoped it wasn't Granger.
Before he could find out anything more however Blaise disappeared up the staircase, the conversation apparently over. Draco was left to his thoughts on the youngest Weasley instead, and his intriguing discoveries about her in the past week.
# # #
Albus Dumbledore waited patiently in his office, waiting for the knock that would soon come.
Regret and worry lines crossed his face, most of which he'd got since Harry Potter came to Hogwarts. Harry Potter and his young friends, as well as his supposed enemies, each as special as the other, they would all play their part.
He knew that war would soon rip its way through the north of England, and would slowly come further and further south. He also knew in his heart of hearts that his beloved Hogwarts would have to weather a significant storm and that life would be hellishly difficult for the staff and the students.
Albus recognized that tonight the ball had started rolling and Hogwarts was exceedingly important to the balance that the war would take.
United we stand, divided we will fall…