Author's Note: Dear GOD do I love you peopleI'll try to do shout outs-or at least name all of you-in the next chapter, but I just want this chapter out. Forgive any errors, I'm rushing for the sake of updating.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
You've Got Mail: Ch.13-Two Kidnappings For the Price of None!
The first thing Ginny felt as she woke up was the throbbing pain in the back of her head. Groaning, she tried to reach a hand up to massage her aching scalp.
That was when she discovered she was tied up.
Brown eyes widening, Ginny immediately tried to kick out, and break her hands free, but she was securely tied to something. She opened her mouth, and fortunately found she still had her voice.
"Help me! Help!! Anyone, please!!" She screamed as loud as she could. A few birds took to the sky, shrieking and cawing, but other than that, there was absolute silence all around her. Ginny shivered as a cold wind blew eerily through the forest.
Sadly, for not the first time, Ginny felt honestly scared for her life.
Calm down, Ginny, you need to calm down. You're a Gryff, remember? Be brave,She told herself in her head. Look around. Analyze the situation. You can get through this.
Speaking harshly to herself did the trick, as Ginny immediately stopped struggling and began to examine her bonds and the area around her. Remembering what she could from before she blacked out, Ginny figured the pain in her head was from being hit by a rock or something. Her hands were tied tightly at the wrist behind her, preventing any movement that way. Her legs were also immobile by the Leg-Locker Curse, and bound to the mysterious object, but as Ginny moved her back she deduced it was probably a tree of some kind. The woods around her were generically woodlike, so that was no help. The sky was blocked by trees stretching and reaching their clawlike branches towards the heavens. Ginny couldn't even tell what time it was.
As the initial fear began to ebb, anger flowed in to take its place. Ivanovich was behind it all! She probably should have expected it-he was a murderer, after all-but she still hadn't suspected a single thing.
"How could I be so stupid!?!" She loudly berated herself.
Head bowed, Ginny was able to see the palm of her wand hand, and she remembered the search spell she'd conducted a few days ago. The bright circle that had marked her before was now gone. She guessed it was because Ivanovich knew quite a bit about Claydor-and especially about his death.
Great, she thought angrily. So the stupid spell works this indirectly? That was pretty useless then. Any more information about this whole situation might actually kill me.
Shoulders slumping in defeat, she leaned back against the tree, struggling to keep an optimistic thought in her head. Eventually she gave up.
Draco woke from his 'nap' at almost eleven at night. Somewhat groggily, he was shocked to find that the sky outside his window was dark. He almost thought he was going crazy till he remembered that he'd fallen asleep around four in the afternoon.
"Weird..." he muttered to himself, yawning and rubbing his still sleepy eyes.
Once he was fully awake, Draco found himself to be extremely bored. His dorm mates were snoring around him, and he was too lively to go back to sleep. An idea hit him suddenly, and he padded quietly out of his bed, before grabbing his computer and heading down the stairs towards the common room.
It was late, and the Slytherin common room was empty save for him and a crackling fire. So it was a smug Draco that took the comfiest, largest, warmest armchair nearest the fire. He put his laptop on his knees and opened the screen gently, pressing the power button. Hope clear in gray eyes, Draco signed onto AOL. He scanned screen, then sat back with a sigh. He'd really been hoping Cocoa would be on. In the logical part of his head, he knew it was far too late, but still, it would have been nice to say goodbye before the trip tomorrow morning.
He groaned at the thought of the trip. Three days, stuck with little Ginny Weasley, with her having the only knowledge of where exactly they were even going! Hell, he'd been in the dark about half this project right from the start. From picking their vampire, to the mysterious brooch, to going to Russia to research an English vampire, it had all been her.
He almost felt disgustingly weak for constantly bowing down to her wishes, but it seemed like every time he wanted to complain, she just looked up at him, batted her lashes against tear-filled doe eyes, and pouted, and he found the words in his mouth turn to ash. That and the fact that an angry Weaselette was not something he was eager to see. He remembered her reaction after he'd teased her knickers the day before...that was certainly unpleasant, and he'd dodged her slap that time. This time he may not be so lucky.
"I guess I'm just turning soft in my old age," Draco sighed to himself gloomily.
Draco, fast losing interest in being online, scanned his eyes over the screen, fixing on the 'You've Got Mail!' sign. Trash, junk, spam, junk, junk, a job offer for Mrs. Pansy Malfoy (he blanched but shrugged it off as a creepy coincidence), and there, at the bottom, a message from Cocoa. He smiled widely and opened it.
Dragon-(it read)
I know I mentioned this earlier, but really, you have the memory of a four-year-old, so I just wanted to remind you of (and rant a little about) my school trip.
I'm so excited to be going! Did I forget to tell you where we're going? Russia! Isn't it amazing? I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd be going to Russia, but hey, just goes to show you that miracles do happen. Well, double-sided miracles.
I have to spend the trip working, but not only that, working with the biggest git in school! You'd think that, if you had to work on a project with someone, you'd at least try to be civil? But nooo! He just goes on being the jerk he always is.
I guess that isn't really fair though. He has had these sudden moments of kindness, these moments where I feel like I'm seeing a whole different person, but the next second, that person is gone. I miss him, sometimes.
Now I guess I'm just talking nonsense, huh? Well, I have to go now anyways. Last minute packing to do before we leave at seven. An awful hour to be up, I know, but these are the sacrifices we make for learning!
Take care of yourself while I'm gone!
-Cocoa
Draco smiled as he scanned through her letter. He didn't read it thoroughly (she had a tendency to rant and be melodramatic at times), but he got a few extra glances right before he deleted the email. Wait, did she say she was going to Russia...? He shrugged it off with a yawn. It was probably just the tiredness taking over his eyes and making him see things.
Draco stood with a stretch, shutting down the computer. Even though he desperately wanted to go back to sleep, he was wide awake, and thinking hard about the past few days. His mind wandered to the day of the food fight between him and Ginny. Thankfully, no one had seen them, so the rest of the school was still in the dark as to their-friendship? Acquaintance-ship? He had no idea anymore. Sure they worked together (reluctantly, he added mentally) but lately he'd started to notice that they were arguing less and less, and when they did fight, it wasn't so much out of anger as it was a habit.
But they weren't friends, he told himself firmly. Her brother would probably kill him if he ever spoke to her after the project finished. Draco sighed and headed up to his bed. He lay back, and stared at the ceiling above his bed. Well, then things would just go back to the way they'd always been.
Somehow, he wasn't sure he wanted that.
Ginny watched her captor stomp around the clearing with no small amount of amusement. When he'd first returned she'd been terrified, sure he was about to kill her, but he had ignored her to look around. She knew exactly what he was searching for, and she also happened to have it in her possession-not that she was going to admit that to him. He was looking for the brooch, the one that Draco had trusted her with and the one that had belonged to William Claydor. She had no idea what the significance of it was, but she knew it had to be important. Otherwise Ivanovich wouldn't lower himself to crawling around in the dirt searching.
"What are you doing?" She asked loudly, hoping to disguise her laughter. Ivanovich had been searching everywhere he could think of in the small circle of trees for a while now, cursing every once in a while in Russian. She struggled feebly against her bonds to play her part of captive even better. "Let me go!"
"Shut up," he ordered absentmindedly, looking under a rock.
Ginny rolled her eyes and raised her voice to a near-hysterical shriek. "What have I done?! Let me go, you...you...you evil man!"
This time Ivanovich turned around with a nasty sneer on his face. Ginny idly wondered how Aimee could have ever found him handsome. "I said shut up! And don't play dumb with me. It doesn't suit you."
Ginny couldn't tell if it was a compliment or not, but she decided she'd pushed her luck enough, and wisely kept her mouth shut.
Draco yawned widely, and checked the clock with sleepy eyes. It was late. He had to load up on his rest for the big trip tomorrow. As much as he was loath to admit it out loud, he was pretty excited. He'd never been to Russia, and to go without the annoyance of parents...even if he had to spend the time with Weasel, it still could prove to be fun.
He trudged sleepily to his bed, mind whirling with ideas and hope.
Ginny was quickly getting bored watching her former professor search in vain. She was just contemplating the consequences of asking Ivanovich for a book or something, when he growled angrily and punched the ground. He swore loudly in Russian again for a minute or so, before standing and stalking towards Ginny with a glare.
Once he got closer, he attempted some sort of coaxing smile. Ginny decided that maybe she could understand why Aimee had liked him.
"Ginny, dear, I don't suppose you've seen anything...unusual?" He smiled at her, but the fact that it showed all his teeth didn't comfort her.
She decided to continue playing dumb. "What do you mean?"
His smile widened (if that was even possible) till it was almost a grimace. "Oh I don't know," he said slowly. "Say...anything shiny? Jewelry, perhaps? Here, on the ground?"
Ginny blinked like a deer in headlights. "Why would there be jewelry on the ground?"
Ivanovich casually popped his neck from side to side, and for a second, his eyes flashed with anger, but he calmed again. "Just answer me; have you seen any?"
Ginny pretended to think. "No...no I don't think so."
"STOP LYING!" He practically shrieked. Ivanovich raised his wand threateningly, and quick as a flash Ginny's dumb look was replaced by a glare.
"Torture me all you want," she mumbled angrily before she could help it. "You won't find it."
He smiled triumphantly, and Ginny paled at the realization of what she'd done. "No-I just-that's not what I-" She stammered out, trying to correct herself.
"Too late," he cut her off, then broke into a wide, evil grin. "You've just made the biggest mistake of your short life."
"Stupid girl, thinking she can hide it from me...where is it?!? Once I find it, I'll kill her so fast she'll be dead before she hits the grou-no, wait, I'll kill her slowly. Yes, that's it! Torture!" Professor Ivanovich gave a cackle of maniacal laughter and would have rubbed his hands together like the gleeful child he was, had his arms not been elbow deep in Ginny's bag. He'd pulled out most of the clothing (and paled at the lacy underwear she'd brought) and other items (she also had an amazing number of romance novels-he tucked one or two of the interesting ones under his arm for after the torture). And yet, so far no jewelry. Not that Ivanovich knew exactly what it looked like...when he'd killed Claydor the piece had been Transfigured into a plain old belt, but she couldn't have done that, it was far too hard for a sixth-year student. He figured it was jewelry made purely of gold, but as to what kind of jewelry, he had no idea.
Ivanovich sat back on his heels. Not a thing there was out of the ordinary, annoyingly enough. He sighed angrily, and slammed his fist down on the top of the bag. A sharp pain shot up his hand, and he groaned. The perfect end to the perfect day.
"What on Earth did I hit? I swear I'll blast it to bits..." He tried to locate the pocket this painful thing was hidden in, but it was hard to find. Finally, looking deep inside the bag, Ivanovich managed to spot the glimmer of magic along section of fabric. Curious, he spelled the charm away, and, pulling out the very thing he'd been searching for all along, let out a triumphant shout.
It was a small gold brooch, in the form of a medieval design, the letter A topped with a sort of crown design. It stood for the Latin phrase 'Amor Vincit Omnia,' which he knew meant 'Love conquers all.' Ivanovich sneered. Claydor always was a sentimental wimp, he thought to himself with a cruel chuckle.
Suddenly it hit him as he stood up from the wreckage of Ginny's suitcase. He'd finally found it. The fruit of so many years of searching, and slaving, and killing, was right here in his hand. Untold power, wealth, fame, this brooch most likely had the power to do anything.
Tapping into that power, however, proved to be one entirely different thing.
Beep-beep-beep.
Draco's magilarm went off shrilly, whirring around his sleeping head annoyingly. Waking up blearily, he waved his arm around in the air till he hit the magilarm to the ground with a fulfilling thud. Once there, the alarm wheezed and spluttered into silence.
Draco started to smile viciously into his pillow, before remembering just why he'd set the magilarm to such a heinously early hour. The trip.
"Damn, damn, damn," he muttered softly, regretfully leaving his warm bed. For all his sleepiness, Draco still managed to dress and gather his things together quickly. He was just turning to leave his room, when a tapping at the window made him stop.
Draco sighed in annoyance when he saw it was an owl. It was definitely a school owl, but one of the nicer ones, which made him think that maybe it was a staff owl. He scowled. If the trip had been moved, he'd definitely be more than a little pissed.
Once he opened the window, the owl hooted and flew in, looping around his head once before dropping a letter onto the desk. It left right after, not even waiting for a treat. Draco opened the envelope quickly, and looked inside. There was nothing there.
He was about to crumple it in annoyance, when something happened so suddenly his sleepy head couldn't begin to process it until it was too late.
If her hands had been free, Ginny would have smacked herself in the face. As it was, she found another suitable way to punish herself for the idiotic slip. She hit her head back against the tree painfully.
Thunk. "Ow." Thunk. "Ow." Thunk. "Ow." Thunk!
Ginny stopped after a particularly hard whack, her eyelids fluttering open and shut in dizziness. So maybe self-inflicted pain wasn't the best way to fix a bad situation.
If I could just get myself free, she thought hopelessly. It was no use really. Her legs were bound by the Leg-Locker; since her wand had last been seen twirling idly between Ivanovich's fingers as he walked away, that put a limit on the 'running away' part of escaping. Her hands, that was a more hopeful prospect. She couldn't tell if they were bound by a charm or rope, but she fervently hoped it was the latter. At least that way it wasn't impossible to free herself.
"Aha!" Ginny's head snapped up at the shout that came from just out of her view, heart sinking as she deciphered what it meant. He'd found the brooch. She'd used the hardest Sewing Charm she knew, with Invisibility Thread, but he'd still found it.
It was hopeless. "Can't I do anything right???" She screeched to the heavens. Her voice echoed around her slightly, but other than that, only silence greeted her question. A few seconds later, however, there was the sound of footsteps and the rustling of trees as Ivanovich burst through. He looked torn between being angry about the racket she was making, and being elated at discovering the brooch. At first she didn't see it on him (her eyes were drawn to the romance novel under his arm) but the gold twinkled from its spot pinned on his left breast.
Her heart sank further at the sight. By now Ginny guessed it must have been swimming somewhere around the level of her knees by now.
Ivanovich scowled at her, but he couldn't seem to help the happy quirk of his eyebrows. "Will you please be quiet, I'm trying to work with my latest toy." He flashed the brooch obnoxiously at her. "Did you know what you had you had in your possession, Miss Weasley? Do you know the amount of power in this? This-this wonderful little piece-is going to help me bring my Lord back to life." He slid his left robe sleeve up his arm, exposing the horrifying Dark Mark imprinted there.
Ginny's mouth went dry at the sight. The Dark Mark was so much more terrifying on someone's flesh than any picture could ever imagine. Merlin, she'd known the position of DADA teacher lured the most evil types, but this was getting ridiculous.
Eventually, she forced herself to speak. "You know you're not going to get away with this." By now, her fear had diminished, and she was just angry and annoyed. "By now everyone's noticed I'm missing. Malfoy, McGonagall, all my friends, they'll notice immediately! They'll put a Locator Charm on me, and in no time this place'll be crawling with Aurors. They'll find out everything, everything! And you'll rot in Azkaban for the rest of your miserable life."
She'd hoped he would be scared, as scared as she was, at least. Instead he just smiled at her eerily. "That," Ivanovich told her, "is where you're wrong. No one knows you're missing. Your friends, the staff, everyone thinks you and your partner are in St. Petersburg with me, doing research."
"M-Malfoy-" she just barely croaked out.
"Oh don't worry, he'll be here before long. But it'll still be too late for both of you. Once I complete the rituals, I'll have no need for either of you. I wonder how much your families will cry when the three of us go tragically missing. Maybe they'll find some bags or clothes, drifting away down some river...'Oh, what a tragedy, those young lives lost,' they'll say. No one will ever know the truth, until the day my Lord rises once more, more glorious than ever, with me at his right hand."
In one terrifying moment of self-doubt, Ginny could see everything the way he told her. Her family would be frantic, searching everywhere they could, but they'd only find a few scraps, and be forced to five up. No one would know about the brooch, and by the time they figured it all out, Voldemort would have risen again...Harry would be too weak, Ron and Hermione would be the first targets, along with the rest of her family. All would die in a blaze of hate and green light.
"No," she whispered. It wouldn't happen that way. Malfoy will never come, thought Ginny with grim determination. He'd never risk his neck to save me.
Sadly, it wasn't up to him.
It all happened so fast.
One moment, Draco was in his room, annoyed at the empty envelope, the next, his mind was whirling from the tug of a Portkey, and he was in the middle of nowhere.
With Weasley tied to a tree, and Ivanovich grinning like a madman.
"Oh sodding hell."
Things were about to get very interesting.
Oh freaking hell. That's another cliffy. I swear, it just popped out of me! I'll be dead before I hit the ground once you all read that...anywho. Don't hold me to this, but I think this story's got another two chaps in it, maybe three...hmmm...ponders I dunno. I'll see where the muses decide to take (cough drag) me ;-)
