Chapter 6- "Secrets, Lies, and Family Ties"

(A/N: FYI -Arthur Weasley has died during the summer before Ginny's sixth year. Sorry I could not fit it in. R.I.P. Arthur. Happy readings!)

The morning light shone through the window and hit Ginny on the face. As she stirred she felt something on her stomach. She squinted her eyes at what lay on her. She saw sleek blonde. Immediately she knew who it was. Finding out what he was doing there took her a minute to remember.

"Wake up Draco." Ginny tried to sit up, but Draco pushed her down. He was insistent on sleeping. She remembered Blaise and Amber talking in hushed voices in a corner of the room, discussing Blaise's 'secret.' She also remembered that she was lying on a stack of pillows with Draco next to her, they were just talking about stuff. Ginny, Natalie, and Emily had refused to leave Amber alone so they had stayed and waited for her. Hermione and Lavender, much to Ginny's surprise, had managed to coax Ron and Harry to go to bed. The sudden feeling of the memories flooding back to her made Ginny's head hurt. Her whole body was aching. It took her some 2 minutes to realize she must have hurt herself or something while Draco fell asleep on her.

"Not time to wake up yet." His voice was very slurred. She had to focus hard to hear him.

"Yes it is lover boy. Breakfast started an hour ago." Blaise's voice was too cheery for the couple so they threw pillows at them. He chuckled as he put up his hands to block the futile attack. "Draco and Ginny, if you two haven't forgot we have detention tonight. You guys can cuddle up then."

"Draco get up, he is right," Ginny's own words were slurred as well. She allowed Draco a minute to lift his head before she slipped away. She was at the door when she heard a thud. Draco had been so sleepy the he didn't realize the mountain of pillows he was lying on, ended right next to him.

"Ha ha. Very funny now lets go." For some reason even Blaise's sarcasism could not make Draco rise. After five minutes of watching him roll over to the door, Ginny and Blaise helped him up and walked him to the Great Hall. As they reached the doorway all eyes were on them.

"Oi, Ginny!" Natalie rose from her spot and went over to the three. "What is the matter with him?" She pointed to Draco.

"I think he took a sleeping potion. Maybe that is why he couldn't get up." Blaise dragged Draco over to the nearest spot to lay him down, at Gryffindor table coincidentally.

"Hey Blaise." A few Gryffindors who were used to Blaise's presence waved at him. He smiled back and asked them to fetch Professor Snape for him. They reluctantly went up to the head table and called upon the Professor.

"Zabini what have you done this time?" Snape's voice rung around the table nearly shaking it. He was more irritable, if possible, in the morning. He swooped over to Draco and bent down over him. "Stupid boy, you made your own sleeping potion didn't you."

By now a lot of Slytherins had come over to see what was going on. Pansy was quivering over Draco. She didn't see Ginny sitting on the other side of the table conversing with Blaise and Natalie. When Snape managed to take some of the potions effects off of Draco he walked away. Pansy grabbed Draco's hand and began to caress it. As Ginny looked up she saw this show of affection and nearly fell off of her seat laughing. Pansy's eyes shot up and glared at the girl.

"Oh come off it Parkinson." Draco sat bolt right up. He was shaking his head. As he snatched his hand out of Pansy's he banged his elbow off the table. Ginny managed to come over and see what he had done.

"Daft fool." She was chuckling at his stupidity. Offended, he pulled his hand away from her reach, nearly knocking out a first year.

"Daft and Fool mean the same thing twit." He was very groggy. He did not realize that his attempts at insulting Ginny gave her more reason to laugh. As he swung around the table, Madame Pompfrey came over to them.

Upon seeing Blaise and Ginny there she let out a half-hearted laugh. "Best friends now are we? Oh, I'll say this: if you, Mr.Zabini, come to me with an injury I'll expect these two by your side." She bustled through the half-shaped crowd towards Draco. When she gave him a potion he almost let out a sound of pain.

"What the hell is this? It feels like my insides are burning." As soon as she saw his face, Ginny's head shot straight up. She flinched when he complained about the burning.

"Oh no! A Malfoy feeling emotions, and pain nonetheless. The world is ending!" The extremely funny thing about what Blaise had said was the fact that he kept a straight, serious face. It wasn't until he saw Ginny's straight face did he laugh. As he saw her face not falter he reduced his laugh to a chuckle. Her eyes looked like they wanted to tear, but yet they were willed not to. He became silent when she looked down.

"Better Mr.Malfoy? That potion should take away the burning feeling." Madame Pompfrey did not wait for an answer; she just went back to her post. As the crowd thinned out to just Slytherins Ginny got up and walked away. As she did so many people were wondering why. Blaise and her were obviously friends so why didn't she wait for him? They were so going to find out. Their questions were answered when they heard yelling from the hallway. Ginny's voice and that of a male's could be heard.

"You are so ignorant." Ginny's voice gave away the fact she was holding back tears. She croaked, "You and the rest of those pigheaded jerks who are ONLY blood related to me can take your 'concern' and shove it!"

"Ginny, listen to me. You know I am the voice of reason here. I forbid you from-" The male voice sounded young, but also old, maybe a twenty-something man.

"FORBID ME? I cannot believe you Bill Weasley. You are not dad, you have no right. You are so insufferable. If you go within a mile of him or me you will be hexed into oblivion." Ginny's voice had reached it loudest ever. All trace of tears were gone, only rage left.

Draco and Blaise looked at one another and just shot up from their seats and ran into the hallway. It was a good thing they did because Ginny had her wand out and was about to blow away her brother. Draco stood in the doorway thinking. Blaise grabbed Ginny and held her back. She was too quick for him. After releasing herself from his grip she pointed her wand at her brother. This time Draco knew what he had to do. Even though his whole house, hell, the whole school was watching. He walked over to Ginny, making sure he was in her line of fire so she wouldn't curse her brother, and put both of his hands on her wrists.

"Come on pet. No one is trying to be your father he is irreplaceable. I should know that." He let her go and she fell into his chest. She cried and everyone was whispering.

"Oh come off it! You guys think they'd fall for each other? Ha! Malfoy probably doesn't want the ball to be canceled because of this quarrel." Lavender winked at the two as she and Paravati continued speaking loudly. Draco and Blaise took Ginny upstairs.

"And isn't Malfoy's friend, Fire or something, -" Blaise called down his name from the stairs causing a few people to laugh, "-whatever. Malfoys' friend Blaise dating Ginny's pal? Oh yeah I heard Ginny was on for a bloke in Ravenclaw." Paravati who had picked the house name out of a hat did not realize the trouble she would cause Ginny.

"Ugh, McGonagall is late." Draco had repeated this sentence over and over again. He never failed to say it after exactly one minute. Whether this ability was good or bad Ginny could not decide.

"Maybe we were supposed to meet her somewhere else. And Michael is missing so I could be right." Ginny was intensely playing chess with Blaise. "Plus are you really that eager to have detention?"

"I want it over and done with," he turned crimson when Blaise turned to look at him with a knowing glance. He cursed under his breath for revealing so much.

"Well, since you want it over with so quickly Mr.Malfoy you can be the first to help." McGonagall glided in the room in a Prof. Snape kind-of-way. She went into a back room and levitated two cages out. As she did a small tawny cat came out of the room. "This is Isis. She is a very talented magical cat. She is a guardian of magical creatures, or that is what Dumbledore has named her. Her job is to watch over creatures for me and Professor Madison." she drew breath; during the silence she took in the confused looks on the young students faces. "Recently, though, she was injured. The animals she has been assigned to guard remain wild. Your detention duty is to help her out until I return and watch over these."

She unveiled the cages to reveal one eagle in each of them. Ginny stood and was tempted to walk over to the cages. "Professor, they are classified as a level 3 in rareness." She stared at the birds mesmerized.

"Very good Ms.Weasley. Now since there are 2 birds you will have to spilt up into 2 pairs." McGonagall was taking out four right-handed gloves. "Here is a glove for each of you. Oh dear that is right." She put one glove away.

"Professor may I ask where the pra-Michael is?" Blaise was lazily looking at McGonagall. Her face fell as she explained.

"Professor Dumbledore is giving Michael his punishment." She turned to look at Isis. "Isis, be a dear and help these ones." The cat jumped on Blaise's desk and started to butt her face against his. When it was clear she had chosen her partner, Ginny and Draco gave each other a side-glance. Ginny pretended to wince at the idea of working with him and Draco sat oblivious to what was else was happening, he was just too happy. "Well since Isis is fickle, -" a hiss came from the cat to McGonagall, "- you two will have to work together." Her face grimaced as she turned to the two.

"Whatever." Ginny turned to her game and began playing again. McGonagall cleared her throat telling Ginny she had work to do. Draco got up and went over and got two gloves. He threw one over to Ginny and surprisingly she caught it as though she expected him to do it.

"Well lets go then," McGonagall sheepishly replied. She walked towards the doors eyeing Draco and Ginny who were looking at an eagle. She stopped when she reached the doorway as she had remembered something, "Their names are Angel; the one Mr.Zabini is looking at, and Sarouk; the one Ms.Weasley is playing with. Good day."

Ginny looked at the one called Sarouk and put the glove on her hand and raised it, "Come Sarouk I want to meet you." The eagle flew over to her arm and chirped as though talking. "Wow!"

"What, he tells you he's got magic powers." Draco's sarcasism was obvious, but Ginny was used to it by now.

"Yup, that and he is a Legimens." She smirked for all of ten seconds, but hid it. Her eyes glazed over as she concentrated on talking to Sarouk. Draco just sat down on the large windowsill bed and was trying to sleep. Blaise had let Angel out of her cage and was trying to get her to talk to him.

"Hey the cat's a Legimens too." Blaise stated when the cat came up to him. Ginny walked over to the cat with Sarouk. "She said that the birds are like carriers of the stones."

"Hey isn't there that legend with the Stones of the Houses."

"What legend?" asked Draco. Ginny sat down next to Draco and got comfortable to tell the story.

"Well long ago the founders of Hogwarts decided on the points system to determine which house would win the house cup. You know the big hour glasses in the Hall near the Grand Stairs? Well it really isn't sand inside them it is rock fragments. What legends tell us is long ago each founder had a large rock in their rooms that was kind of used for communication. Folk-tales and myths are mingled so no one knows exactly how they were used all anyone knows in that the rocks held a bond between the founders. Each rock was the color of its owners respective house. So when they looked for a way to unite the houses they figured out that they should have some system where each house picks one student to be a House Head student. Then Helga Hufflepuff decided she would break off a piece of her rock that bonded the founders and give it to her House Head. So anyway that tradition caught on, but one day a Gryffindor House Head and a Slytherin House Head were caught in a kiss by their respective houses. A man from Gryffindor stole the Head's rock and threw it at the Slytherin Head and it broke. Well then something amazing happened. Well in a negative sense anyway. The rock in Godric's room shattered. And then the rock in Salazar's room shattered, as in Helga's and Rowena's. The little grains of the rocks were collected and put into hourglasses. They enchanted the hour glasses to work in the system we have them in now. But each kept the largest fragments that was left of the rocks and gave it to an animal in the forest and every year during the summer solstice legends say the rock is passed on to a new animal."

"But why?" asked Draco. He was lying down on Ginny's stomach as she was lying down already.

"Why what?" countered Blaise.

"Why would they give away the largest stone fragments to animals?"

"Well," drawled Ginny, "they reasoned that when the time was right then the stones would return to the students and the system would restart. Only no one knows what Salazar did with his stone because when he left he took his animal with him."

"Wow," said Blaise plainly. They sat like that thinking for a while.

At around 9:00 a brown talon owl came to the classroom window. Ginny put down Sarouk and went over to collect a letter from the owl. Her face light up as she read the letter. She quickly squiggled a reply.

She spoke part of what she was writing. "Dear Sam…love to come over…cant though…tell you later…thanks for the gift…you don't know…the hell…I…have…been… through…. Yours, Ginny." Ginny re-read the letter and after finding it satisfying she gave it to the owl. She sent the owl off and went back over to Sarouk.

"Still talking to Sam?" Blaise eyed her with mock suspicion, watching her as she answered his inquiry.

"Yes. Oh I forgot to tell you didn't I?" Her face grew as she asked.

"Well it would seem so." Blaise dropped his suspicious eye. Draco's eyes, however, were glaring at Blaise for an answer.

"Well he is letting me go over to his house during Easter holidays, but I declined. He might come over for Valentine's too" Her own eyes were scanning the boys. Blaise had lost his enthusiasm and Draco looked stark raving mad. Her face fell for a bit.

"Who is Sam?" Draco tried to hide his anger, but unfortunately when he addressed his question his rage was obvious. He stared at Blaise, to whom he was directing his question. Ginny, mistakenly thought he had asked her.

"He is-," her voice trembled.

"I was asking Blaise." Draco kept his voice down and gritted his teeth as he spoke. He wouldn't look at her.

"Sam's full name is Samson Robertson. His mother is Delilah Robertson, maiden name Prewett. Delilah's father was one Andrew Prewett. Andrew had another daughter named Molly." Blaise's look told Draco that Draco had misheard or not heard enough of the conversation.

"So? I did not ask who his family was." Draco's eyes let their color drain a bit. He gripped on the table for his life. He knew he was going to receive a big blow.

"So, Molly Prewett married Arthur Weasley. They had children. Named Charlie, Bill, Percy, Ron, and Ginny," Ginny answered and her eyes shown with tears. Sarouk jumped onto her shoulder not clawing and not letting Draco out of his sight.

"That means, Jackass, that Sam is Ginny's cousin. Who is 25 and is married to wife April, with 3 kids." Blaise rose. Draco's eyes went completely gray. They all stood in silence. No one dared to move. Ginny felt Sarouk peck her and it seemed as though she was conversing with him. She sat down. Blaise began playing with Isis again while Angel flew around. Draco motioned to leave, but was halted when he ran into something. McGonagall had been in the process of entering the room when the sight of the birds out of theirs cages surprised her.

"Merlin me. They let you keep them out of their cages." She had her right hand over her heart.

"Why wouldn't they?" Ginny looked at McGonagall with a very confused look. Sarouk looked at McGonagall and without remembering his connection to Ginny he spoke using Legimency.

'Alright you old bat you can shut up now.' Sarouk's voice was gentle, but even a delicate voice like his had been able to show its anger.

'Sarouk! What have you been doing? You have been meddling. And I suppose Angel is helping you.' McGonagall's voice was a little high, but that happens to a person when they were as shocked as she was.

'Well, Draco was an ass and made Ginny almost cry. So me and her were plotting ways to get revenge.' Sarouk glared at her. 'Angel is too infatuated with that one to help me.'

'Sarouk! I was not going to take part in the plan and you know it.' Ginny's voice was very stern. She was sick of the bird trying to take charge. McGonagall gave Ginny a look of surprise then ended the Legimency connection between the three of them.

"Well, I do believe that this detention has served its purpose. Please you may leave." As Ginny left Sarouk jumped onto her shoulder and Angel did the same thing to Blaise. Isis was following Draco. When McGonagall realized this she went into an uproar, "No! You three stay! Not you Zabini!"

'Hush. We are on orders from Father.' Angel's voice was the definition of her name, Angelic.

"Oh I am calling Dumbledore right now!" McGonagall waved them to leave and the three animals followed. "They'll be put through hell."

(A/N: BTW I do not like to pester about reviews, but I do feel maybe you should just tell what you think. Remember- A review a day keeps psycho authors away. LOL Raja)