Chapter Thirteen: Following the Clues
Ginny looked at the man that still leaning against the wall in one of the corners of the dungeon. It was the third night he didn't sleep. She knew that because when she woke up he was exactly in the same position he was when she had fallen asleep. He was still with his head between his knees and hadn't spoken a single word. He only let her come close to him to take care of his wounds but he would still snarl like a raging dog every time she asked to check the wounds.
Ginny got up and walked towards Draco, stopping in front of him.
"You need to sleep!"
"Did I asked you to be my mother, Weasley?"
"If you keep like that you'll die! You haven't eaten anything in days and me neither! And you don't sleep anymore. Do you really want to die Malfoy, because if you do then my work was worthless."
"If it's food you want you could have saved me the speech!" Draco murmured something she didn't understand and a piece of bread and a glass of water appeared by her side.
Ginny looked at the food. She was starving but he needed it more than her. She had never let anyone die while she was working and she wouldn't do it now. Suddenly a question appeared inside her mind. One of those questions she didn't know why or from where it came from: 'Why do you worry so much about him? Why do you worry about a man that tortured you and will probably kill you?'
Ginny shook the question out of her mind and started to eat. Draco stared at her while she was eating. He didn't understand her. He had put her through so much pain and she still cared for his health. That made him angry and scared at the same time. He knew how to deal with other people's fear for him, he even liked the feeling. He knew how to deal with loneliness and evilness but sympathy was something he had never known. The only people who had given him attention had been Snape and his mother, but it had always been a distant and cold attention. Ginny was different, she was not a cold Slytherin, she was a kind of person he was used to kill not to talk with or live with. She was not acting like most of his victims and that scared him. What did she wanted from him? What was her plan? He hadn't felt fear in a long time. He looked around. Fear, that word that he lived with through all his childhood and that he had promised he would never feel again seemed to haunt him again. Fear, that feeling he lived with through torturing days inside that same dungeon when he was only six.
'No, it's not fear, it can't be fear!' he tried to convince himself of those words. 'It's only discomfort! Or something like that. How can I, Draco Malfoy, be afraid of such a weak, defenseless and fragile creature?' he said glaring at the read head standing in front of him unaware that he was looking at her.
For the first time in three days he stood up and walked around Ginny, as a vulture waiting for her to fall so he can eat her. He truly wanted ti kill her and drown that feeling that was starting to break the walls around his heart. But what was that feeling?
Ginny tried to get away from him. She could see a sparkle in his eyes she hadn't seen before, it was a sparkle she wasn't sure if it scared her or if it relieved her. It was weird, he looked like a leopard getting ready to strike but at the same time it looked like a wounded beast.
'What's happening to you Weasley? Feeling pity of a Malfoy? You've been far too long here. You're going completely nuts!' she thought.
As if he had just woken up from a long sleep, he turned away from her. But Ginny had the chance to see the sparkle fade away. Draco sat in the same corner and put his head between his knees once more. Ginny took a deep breath and sat down too.
•·.·´¯·.·•
"Harry, may I come in?" Harry and Ron turned to the entrance door. They were in Harry's living room, surrounded by books of Greek Mythology. They had spent the last two days trying to figure out what Snape meant by what he had said. But they were still as they were when they left Snape's house. That was the first time they stopped their research for something besides eating and sleeping. Hermione was knocking on the door restlessly. Harry stood up but found himself unable to walk with all those books lying on the floor.
"Alohomora!" he said and the door opened. He didn't wait for Hermione to come in. He just sat down and continued to read the book he had in his hands.
"Harry you really need to go ou..." Hermione started saying but stopped when she found Harry's living room filled with books. She was sure not even she had been surrounded by so many books and it wasn't just Harry that was reading. For her surprise, Ron was Reading the book in his front with deep concentration. " what happened to you? You've been missing for three whole days, no one has seen you since then and ow i find you surrounded by... books?" she said still trying to convince her she wasn't seeing things.
"Hermione we are kind of busy, we just can't talk right now."
"I beg you pardon!" Hermione was completely astonished. "What the hell is happening? Harry' Ron?"
"Sorry Herm, but we really are very busy, we are looking for something in these books so we can't talk right now!" Ron said without taking his eyes away from the book: 'Greek Mythology: Myths and Facts'.
"Oh please! You can't be serious! I don't believe you. You're looking for something in a book and you can't talk to me? If you remember, I'm know books better than you two do!"
Harry and Ron looked at their friend trying to make her way towards them, moving away some books as if realizing who she was only then.
"Uh... Sorry Herm, but... it's just that... well... we did not want to put you in danger. But we really need help." Harry said feeling guilty.
"It's fine! We are all tired. It's comprehensible that you forget about old friends." Hermione said smiling at them " So, what are you looking for?" she asked, sitting by Ron's side.
Harry told her about what Snape had said, not forgetting one single detail. He couldn't really forget because he had been living the whole scene inside his mind for three days now.
"Odysseus! Well, I don't think is that hard!"
"What? We've been reading about him the last two days. Trojan horse, Trojan War, Troy, Greece... The only thing we figured out is that there is princess that was kidnapped like Ginny. But we can't use a horse made of wood to trick Malfoy!" Ron said putting his hands over his head in an act of desperation.
"I thought so! You two have been looking at the story it self, in the details of the war instead of looking at the meaning of the whole thing."
"And what is the meaning of the whole thing?" Harry asked.
"You have to get inside the enemy."
"I figured out that Hermione, but how can I get inside someone who is surrounded by iron walls. Not even Snape knows how to get to Malfoy."
"I'm not talking about getting to know him or get inside his mind. I'm talking about getting inside HIM. We have to find out what's inside him that can destroy him. Something about him, about his past that can take him down. Something not even him can control."
N/A:Can someone be my beta reader for this story. I'm sure you have noticed I desperately need one. If someone is interested please e-mail me. Thank you!