DustFactory
Draco moaned fitfully in his sleep, struggling in Harry's arms. It didn't help that Harry was getting hungrier as Draco became weaker. He needed Draco to wake up; he just knew that if they didn't do this soon, the blond boy wouldn't have enough strength to do it at all.
Think Harry, come on, you can do this. Veela... He wracked his brain, trying, trying to remember what had been said about Veela in their Care of Magical Creatures class. (Since Grubbly-Plank had taken over for Hagrid for a seemingly indefinite period of time, the classes had been much more informative and useful.) If only I had Hermione's dictionary brain. Come on Harry. Veela... have strong fire elemental powers, change shape with strong emotions, and feed off of sugar and... He knew there was something he was missing. Draco let out another whimper. He glanced around the barren, dirty room. His gaze landed on the small, high, barred window and the slowly dimming light coming through it. He could just barely see a sliver of the rising moon. Only a few days until the new moon. Harry thought absently. The moon... there's something about the moon. Moonlight! Veelas feed off of sugar and moonlight! Harry glanced at where the small square of light fell, just on the other side of him. He gently rolled himself and the fragile blond over so that it fell on the side of Draco's face. He could only pray that there would be enough moon left to strengthen the Veela.
"Ron! How could you say such a thing! Harry is our best friend! We have no other way of saving him; we have no idea whatsoever where Voldemort's stronghold even is!" Ron cut her off with a steaming glare, puffing himself up for another speech of some kind. They were huddled in a corner of the common room, and had been whispering angrily at each other ever since the visit to McGonagall's office.
"If I had the choice of being murdered by You-Know-Who, or transformed into woman-raping devil's spawn, I would choose You-Know-Who any day. I'm sure if we could ask Harry, he would say the same thing. You heard McGonagall. She said there was a very strong chance that Harry was already coming into his Incubus blood. I think we should leave him there and take the chance that he hasn't and that if he has, he and You-Know-Who will finish each other off."
"Ron, we can't leave him there, no matter what." Hermione was beginning to realize that there was just no way to make him see the light.
"No, 'Mione, don't you see? You didn't grow up around wizarding culture. You don't know how bad these monsters are! If we bring him back, he'll feed off our energy while we sleep and kill us all, or poison us with his foul demonic presence."
"You can't be serious! That's total bollocks and you know it, Ronald Weasley!"
"You don't have a little sister to worry about, Hermione! If Harry comes back, he'll take advantage of Ginny, of you, of Lavender... Don't you understand?" There was a feverish light in his eyes, a burning fanatic's passion. Hermione sighed.
"Did I hear my name?" Ginny walked over to where they were sitting stiffly. "What's up you guys? Why all the tension?" Ron turned to make some kind of comment, and her eyes rolled back in her head. She crumpled, hitting the plush common room rug in a dead faint.
"Merlin, what happened?" Ron and Hermione had rushed her to the hospital wing with Ron muttering about demons and plots to ruin his life until Ginny had started screaming. Loud, long, blood curdling shrieks that chilled one to the bone. Her mouth opened so wide that her jaw popped, and blood started to drip from her eyes and nose. Ron was nearly hysterical once they had reached the hospital wing.
"We were just talking in the common room, and she fainted! She started screaming and bleeding out of her…" Here Ron gestured vaguely to her face, in a distraught sort of unfocused manner. "Out of her..."
The witch nodded sharply.
"Quick, put her over here." Madam Pomfrey rushed about, getting Ginny situated and performing spell after spell on her, before grasping her gently by the nose and tipping her head back as she poured a drought of some kind down her throat. She performed one more spell, and a blinding blue light that seemed to reflect from Ginny's body filled the room briefly.
Madam Pomfrey's eyes widened, and she lifted her wand to her throat and began speaking, but without a sound being heard by Hermione or Ron. Hermione could lip read a few of the obvious words such as 'Headmistress' and 'quickly' before Madam Pomfrey turned her attention to the door as the Headmistress walked through.
"What's wrong, Poppy?" McGonagall asked sharply.
"It was Potter! It has to be—" Ron was working himself back up into a righteous rage again, and McGonagall was obviously not in the mood.
"50 points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley, I bid you hold your tongue, or it will be 100! Miss Granger, as Head Girl, would you kindly escort Mr. Weasley back to Gryffindor Tower." Hermione nodded, seeing that this was not the time for questions, and quickly slapped a hand over Ron's mouth before he could make any more of a fool of himself. He looked outraged, but grudgingly followed Hermione's insistent tug on his sleeve.
As the pair left, McGonagall approached the bed. Ginny looked extremely pale, even against the bleached hospital sheets. Her freckles stood in stark contrast against her skin.
"What happened?"
"They said she just fainted for no reason. From what I can determine from my scans, someone who has some kind of strong link to Ginny was overloaded with power and Ginny caught the overflow. There was too much for them to hold, and seemingly almost too much for Ginny to hold, too. We can only hope it didn't burn out her magic."
"Will she be okay?"
"I'm not sure yet, we can only wait until she wakes to see what consequences this will have."
Draco shifted, the sun had been set for hours now, and Harry was beginning to get worried. The moonlight turned Draco's face from the already milky pale color that it was to a bleached bone white. His silvery lashes glowed, and his hair seemed to almost pulse with life. He turned his face to better catch the light, and Harry watched, mesmerized, as blurry silver orbs blinked sleepy lids. Harry had to contain the bubbly giggle that seemed to want to come out. He settled for a warm smile instead, and nuzzled the Veela's throat.
"Hey, you. I was getting scared you wouldn't wake up."
Ginny rolled over and sat up, rubbing her sleepy eyes with a fist. She realized that her entire body ached and tingled like it had been scrubbed raw, inside and out. She looked out the window next to her bed and saw the almost-new moon. She sighed. I hope Harry's okay. She blinked and focused on her reflection in the glass, noticing even by the dim light given off by the torches that something was wrong. Leaning closer, she noticed her face was shaped differently. Tentatively she touched her nose. It was definitely more pointy. And her jaw was sharper, her eyes tilted more. And her hair... She almost screamed. Her vibrant red hair had lightened up extremely. There was something wrong here.