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Chapter 20 – Something Wicked This Way Comes (i)
"Where is she?" Ginny exclaimed for the nth time, running her hands frustratedly through her hair.
Draco watched her progress from window to window calmly. She'd managed to escape the hawk-like gazes of Potter and Granger to come to him, but all she'd done was fret about not knowing where Amelia was.
"I'm sure she's fine," he said with the most reassurance he could muster. He hadn't slept well the previous night; something colder was rolling in with the freezing December nights, and he had the first niggling of worry at the back of his mind. And Draco Malfoy didn't 'worry'.
Ginny turned to look at him, eyes narrowed. "It's not like you'd care anyway, it's no skin off your nose if she vanishes and I never even get a chance to get Persephone back! You two never got on anyway." She turned troubled eyes back to the window as though it would hold the answer to all her problems.
A Draco Malfoy of a year ago would have simply walked out but he was different, and wiser when it came to dealing with one Ginny Weasley. He moved to stand behind her, following her gaze out of the window to the forest below. If she wanted to lean on him she could, otherwise he'd just… be there. Draco could feel the worry pour off her along with the irrational anger and pain of being parted from her best friend, he could feel them all burning in his blood, in his heart; when he was close to her like this the link between them was nearly tangible. She held so much emotion that, even feeling it second hand, it was sometimes difficult for him to bear, he who had never been the subject of love, only of respect, had never played the empathetic part, instead placing his pride above all else.
"I'm sorry Draco," she breathed resting back on his comforting stance. "It's just… something feels wrong. Nobody's seen her since breakfast. I don't know where she could be."
"Maybe she got lost," the blonde replied. Although she had been right before, he didn't care much for Amelia, or, indeed, her counterpart Persephone. Frankly he cared for very few people, and this thing he felt for Ginny? Whatever it was? He didn't know whether it was real, or magic induced craziness. He couldn't deny the fire burning in his blood and the reaction she got out of him, but he didn't know whether it went further than that.
"Everything's just so weird y'know?" Ginny started, thinking out loud. "First the banshees, then the fairies, then Amelia and Persephone swapping for really no reason that can be found. And, of course Harry and Hermione following my every waking moment… This year has been crazy, and it's not even Christmas yet, well not for three days."
"Maybe you should ask Trelawney?" Draco suggested doubtfully.
She pulled back to look at him, sensing his strange mood. "Maybe I will," the redhead replied thoughtfully, trying to fathom out his eyes.
He stared back expressionlessly, locking his thoughts away. He didn't want to share himself with her, not tonight and he didn't know why. A small part of his recognised the selfishness of this, considering she let him see her whole and uncensored, but that was the difference between them. He was brought back to the moment by a small frown playing across her brows.
"It's funny how you can be so close, yet so distant," she ruminated. "You don't have to tell me what's on your mind… but I always know what's in your heart." She moved a small freckled hand to rest on his chest, above where his heart would be. Very slowly and deliberately, she reached up on tiptoe until their mouths were nearly touching and she could see into his eyes. See him watching her closely yet motionlessly. "Draco I'm yours." She blushed, realising how that sounded, but continued anyway. "All I am is for you…" Ginny looked away and then back at him. "Try not to break my heart," she breathed, brushing her lips against his, before turning and walking away.
He watched her go, an almost indiscernible frown wrinkling his forehead slightly. She knew what was in his heart? How could she, when even he didn't know? His train of thought was distracted by a bubbling of dread within his stomach, making him shiver with apprehension. A pop behind him made him spin around sharply, muscles taut.
The Astronomy Tower seemed darker and more deserted than usual. Ginny supposed that it was because she had become so used to associating it with Persephone and how full of life she was, and now she was gone. Well, her essence was… and now her body seemed to be as well.
She knocked lightly before entering the Divination classroom, not feeling the awe it kindled in others who had an inkling of foresight within them. Professor Trelawney greeted her formally from the desk that she seemed to have folded her limbs under opposite the door.
"Can I help dear?" she asked stiffly, taking in the autograph red of her hair. Weasleys had never been the best Divination students.
"Um…" Ginny was suddenly at a loss for words, what was she to say? Could you find my 'friend' from 1909, who's only been missing for six hours, sure, but I'm still paranoid? "Are you – ah – able to – um – track… people?" she asked, feeling infinitely idiotic.
Trelawney's strange look was cut off by a chill wind that whipped around the Divination classroom, defying any source whatsoever. Ginny watched it swirl around the curtains to the –shut – windows and send a wad of papers on the edge of Trelawney's desk tumbling to the floor. Ginny was quickly there, gathering them up, almost absent-mindedly.
"The shadows come forth," announced a harsh voice from the desk. The rasping, guttural sound sending shivers down Ginny's spine. She looked up sharply meeting the black orbs that had become of Professor Trelawney's usual watery green. "The Seer is borne forth to the dark lord, a prisoner of the Faeries of Death and she is but the first. The guards of darkness have been swayed and the shadows come forth. The shadows come forth," she repeated again.
The redhead blinked a couple of times, what the hell was happening? Was this some sort of joke? Or was the old fraud actually not such a fraud?
The professor blinked a couple of times as though trying to clear her head. "What did you want dear?" she asked looking confused. "Oh… no I cannot 'track' anyone, as you put it, perhaps you'd be better off asking Professor Hagrid, he may be of better use." Ginny did not miss the superciliousness of her tone. " now if you would leave me be, I have an awful headache and my tea leaf reading for tomorrow was dire, so I think I shall retire to bed now. Beware the silver swan," she said as a parting comment waving Ginny away from her desk and out of the door.
Ginny left the classroom and stood in the hall outside, leaning against it for support. The 'seer is borne forth to the dark lord'? A prisoner of the Death Faeries? The banshees? But how? If Amelia had been captured by them though… But how? The banshees had gone, the fairies had said so, and besides, how would they have got to her in broad daylight?
If what Trelawney had said was true though, and Ginny was inclined not to doubt, especially considering the mode of delivery, then Amelia, in Persephone's body, was being taken straight to Voldemort, and Ginny had an awful feeling that a Seer of their combined powers being used for ill-means could be the relative end of the war before it had even begun. Not that she thought Amelia was weak, but certainly not as strong as Persephone was.
What about the rest of the 'prophecy' – though she hesitated to call it that - , what of the shadows coming forth? Forth from where? And did she want to know? Ginny shook her head trying to clear it of the hubbub of thoughts.
What could she do?
Should she tell someone? No… that would mean too much to explain. Should she tell Draco and Zabini? No... she already owed them her life, and she didn't want to put them in harm's way.
Ginny supposed the only course of action left – save doing nothing – was to go after Amelia. Maybe she'd be able to save her. Maybe they'd be able to escape.
Draco found himself staring into familiar sharp grey eyes. Lucius Malfoy stood, facing him, his back to the wall, just behind the door. For perhaps the first time in his life, Draco was rendered speechless.
"Surprised?" his father's voice cut the air ruthlessly.
Draco nodded his head in assent. "How…?"
"It is wonderful, Son," Lucius said. "Azkaban is no more, the Dementors have been finally turned, and our Lord's plans are finally coming to fruition."
These words trickled into Draco's brain, almost in slow motion. Was this real? How could it be? Hogwarts was protected by so many anti-apparition fields that his father shouldn't even be here let alone be telling him thing that could strike fear into every self-respecting wizarding citizen in England.
"I am just a projection," his father said in way of explanation. "But I have come bearing a message from our Lord: get every Hogwarts student who is old enough to hold a wand in the name of the Deatheaters – within Slytherin of course – and get them to the edge of the Forbidden Forest by ten o'clock on Christmas Eve. Christmas day is going to be a full of revelry." Lucius smirked evilly, freezing Draco's blood.
"One more thing," continued the older Malfoy. "If you touch Ginevra Weasley again she will be hunted down and murdered along with her entire family. I can see her imprint on you; how could you have stooped so low?"
Draco started to shake his head, to deny it, to put his father off the scent, anything… but the door opened at exactly that moment. Ginny stood in the door frame, a mere plank of wood separating her from his father.
"Weasley," he greeted, putting the coolness into his voice that came so naturally. If he showed anything his father would probably kill her then… if she walked forward he probably would as well. He just had to get rid of her. "Do you need something?"
Her eyes flashed shyly, put ill-at-ease from his display of coldness. He felt his heart ache at her expression. "No – I – just wanted –"
"Take the verbal issues elsewhere," he snapped. "I have no time for stammering little girls with oral diarrhoea." She stepped backwards as though she'd been hit by him, the betrayal in her eyes evident. His heart began to break.
"But –" she started, colour rising in her cheeks.
"Take your but's with you as well, muggle-loving filth," he finished striding forwards to slam the door partly triumphant, she would live… but at the same time, so much pain.
His father was nodding approvingly. "Good, make sure it stays that way. I will see you in two days." With an abrupt 'pop' he vanished again, the projection ending.
Draco leant heavily against the doorframe, all the strength leaving his limbs. He felt Ginny's pain and it mixed with own causing a crippling hopelessness to take him over.
Ginny did nothing to stop the tears that fell freely down her face on her return journey to Gryffindor Tower. He had been acting strange all evening, and now he had just reverted to the cruel boy she had known before. Perhaps everything they'd shared over the past two weeks had only been magically induced after all, but then why did she feel so strongly?
In a haze of tears, pain and anger she quickly packed the bare necessities in a carry-all, thankful that there was no-one around to see her. Having made sure she had a spare change of clothes, a thick robe and some food supplies as well as her wand. She quickly slipped down the stairs, out through the portrait hole and down through Hogwarts. Stealing away towards the forest.
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Sorr for the wait! xx Susannah xx