Ahhhh...Jk, you're killing us! So, without spoilers, I'll say that I finished book six and allI can say is "NOOOOOOO!"
No, I didn't give up on this story. I promise. I was just on vacation in Ohio for three weeks and then, two days later school started, so I've been pretty busy. Things are quieting down now, so I should be able to update pretty soon. We should be getting to Christmas Holiday in the next chapter! Whoot! And now, the longand impatiently awaited, Chapter 24! (The Price is Right theme song begins randomly playing in the background)
"Why would you do that?"
"Hmm…?" Blaise asked, suddenly becoming much more interested in his magazine.
"You planned that." Draco replied. "Why didn't you tell me she'd be there?"
"Planned what?" His friend asked absently.
Draco glared.
"Fine. Is it a crime to want your two best friends to get along?" Blaise said.
"Me and Weasley? Get along? I always knew you were nuts."
"Weasley and I." Blaise corrected. Draco stared at him as though he had just announced he was going to elope with Pansy Parkinson and then join the circus.
"You expect me to put her first?"
Blaise rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded uncannily like "git".
Again, Draco glared at his friend.
"Besides," Said Blaise, "We don't get any work done when it's just the two of us. Guys keep coming up to flirt with her. Or occasionally," He added with a shudder, "me. They all seem to think I'm gay after that thing with Colin at the Halloween dance.
"If I weren't so tired, I'd be seriously disturbed."
"See, Colin walked over and-"
"Not that." Draco snapped, cringing. "keep your twisted love life to yourself. I meant the fact that anyone would find Weasley attractive enough to actually put some sort of effort into impressing her. I mean, she's nice enough to look at, but just being in the same room with her for three minutes is enough to make any sane man want to rip his hair out."
Blaise laughed. "Rip your hair out, eh? Funny what some guys will do to ease their frustrations. Personally, I just find a girl willing to follow me into the broom closet."
"You're telling me that you find Weasley…" He stumbled a bit over the wording, "desirable?"
"You've known me for year and you don't find it the least bit strange that I choose now to start randomly befriending Gryffindors?"
Draco cringed. "So, basically you're telling me you wanted to…seduce Weasley and… I don't know have your way with her?" At least now he knew why Blaise had suddenly had no problem associating with a Gryffindor.
Blaise laughed. "Well, I would have put it a little more delicately but…yes that was the basic plan." Draco cringed again. "Oh, don't worry," Blaise assured him. "I'm not competition. I realized she's not my type."
The blond scoffed. "Not this again. I told you, I don't fancy Weasley."
"Sure."
"I don't! Really!" Stupid idiot Blaise and his stupid idiot assumptions. No matter how much Draco denied any attraction to the redheaded Gryffindor Blaise still kept making not so subtle references to her. Inviting Ginny to the library had obviously been another one of his plans to get the two of them together.
"Please Draco, she's the only one who can get under your skin. You talk about her almost constantly when she's not around-"
"I do not!" Draco interrupted indignantly.
"You get all hot and bothered any time she is around." Blaise continued.
"Malfoys do not get hot and bothered." Draco corrected scornfully.
"You call out her name in your sleep."
"Oh, now your just making things up."
"Hey, say what you will, but half the time there's so much sexual tension between you two I'm afraid you'll throw her down on the table and make little pink-haired babies right in front of me."
Draco winced. "Now theirs a scary thought; Weasel Junior. I'm telling you, when you start using phrases like, 'sexual tension' it's time to lay off Pansy's romance novels. What are you reading now anyways, Teen Witch Magazine?" Draco asked, snatching the abandoned magazine off the arm of Blaise's chair.
Blaise made an effort to snatch it back, but Draco was too quick and nimbly jumped out of his friend's grasp.
"The Quibbler?" Draco asked in slight disbelief as he read the title. He absently fanned through the pages, all emblazoned with brightly colored extraordinary looking animals and a particularly strange article about a woman who claimed to be impregnated with Godric Gryffindor's child. He stopped, noticing Blaise had dog-eared one of the pages toward the back. He scanned the page until his eyes fell on a small, about the editor paragraph in the bottom right hand corner. Next to the article was a picture of a rather small man with large, protruding eyes, even further enlarged by a pair of thick glasses. He had his arm around Luna Lovegood, looking down at her affectionately. Luna, looked from Draco (frowning), to Blaise (winking).
"I'll take that." Blaise snapped, and grabbed it from the blonde's hands and hastily rolling it up and placing it in his pocket.
"Looney Lovegood, Blaise? Honestly, I think I would be less disturbed if you had been looking up makeup tips and which bikini fits your figure best."
"Don't call her that." Blaise said reproachfully.
"She's dating Neville Longbottom!"
"No she's not. She hasn't seen him since the Halloween dance. She said he got too freaked out whenever she mentioned Blue-Winged Abarad to ever actually have a relationship with him."
Draco, for some reason unknown to Blaise found this statement hilarious.
"What?" Blaise demanded feeling slightly degraded.
"You-you –" Draco could hardly get the words out between bursts of laughter. "You're Looney's rebound guy! You-you're Longbottom's replacement."
"Luna and I aren't dating," Blaise said defensively. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go pack."
"You can't even replace Longbottom!" Draco howled.
"Yeah and you're in love with Ginny Weasley. Life's a funny, funny thing."
Abruptly, Draco stopped laughing. "That's it. You're dead."
And then, Blaise and Draco bonded in a manner befitting two true Slytherins. Namely, the bonding of Draco's fist to Blaise's face and then the connection of Blaise's foot to Draco's jaw.
Ginny closed her eyes sleepily before refocusing them on her books.
"Stupid messy-haired, hyper competitive, green-eyed freak." She mumbled to nothing in particular. Harry, in preparation for the two-week Quidditch break had ordered a double session of practice. She could swear the tips of her fingers were still numb from the cold.
"It's our last practice before holiday." He had kept reminding them.
Well, now it was well past midnight and she had her last midterm before holiday to worry about. And it was potions. She sighed as she closed her book and began her assent up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. There was really no use in studying when she'd just forget it all by morning. And right then, a warm blanket was sounding really appealing.
"That's what you get for waiting until the last minute." A voice that sounded annoyingly like Hermione scolded.
Collapsing on the bed she shifted around for a minute before sliding her legs between the sheets and puling the covers up to her chin.
As she closed her eyes she became aware of the spot of warmth on her chest that had grown so familiar to her. She fingered the necklace absently as she drifted off to sleep.
Draco shifted around uncomfortably. Casting an envious glance at his peacefully sleeping roommate, he rolled over yet again and let out a sigh of frustration. It was far too hot to even consider sleep and no matter how many times he scourified the sheets he couldn't help but notice they still smelled distinctly of vanilla. He rolled over one last time before closing his eyes and waiting impatiently for sleep to come.
Draco kneeled on the hard, cold floor, pain filling his whole body. His arms were tied straight out at his sides, as though he hung from some ominous crucifix, leaving his bare chest exposed to the crowd of hooded men around him. The constant, dull ache of pain from being pinioned in such an unnatural position was broken only by the sharp pain of the curses being thrown at him. He screamed, a low, feral cry of pain and desperation as another curse hit him full in the chest. Each time he jerked, the chains bit deeper into his pale skin and warm blood trickled down his arm. His world was in a blur, everything spun and his stomach churned. Mocking voices, laughing, more curses- all directed at him- mixed together, the effect leaving his head throbbing. Then, maybe even more alarming then the noise, came a sudden silence.
Then, as though some angel of mercy had been sent to rescue him from this private hell, a pale, slender hand unchained first one arm, then the other. Draco's arms fell limply to his sides, unprepared for their sudden release and Draco sat for a moment, unable and unwilling to move. Then gently, almost caringly, his rescuer lifted him to his feet and slipped on arm gingerly around Draco for support.
Draco's legs throbbed in protest when he tried to move them. Pain ripped through his leg, stiff after so long disused, still he stumbled along with his aide. Even assisted, he couldn't manage such a far distance as across the room and fell to the ground. The same person bent down again to pull him to his feet, but this time not so gently. Draco was being dragged from the floor. This time, he refused to be moved. With all the stubbornness befitting a Malfoy, Draco laid his head down and closed his eyes.
"Get up, boy, get up." Draco hardly felt the foot making contact with his side.
"That will do Lucius." Someone announced, the voice both rasping and commanding. Immediately Draco's arm was released.
"You've done quite well," The voice announce with something that must have been akin to satisfaction. The rustling of robes heading toward him was enough to make Draco rouse himself to look up. Not even a foot away from him stood a hooded figure. Eyes, red and cat-like, stared emotionlessly out at him and Draco knew now of course who was before him. Voldemort.
The dark lord knelt before him, looking intently into his eyes, making Draco repress a shudder.
"This is not what you wish?' Voldemort asked with some amusement, his voice lowered so that no one else could here.
Draco couldn't bring himself to speak. Voldemort's mouth twisted into an ugly smile. "This is what you were born for. This is what you are. Look around you. This is what you will become."
"No." Draco managed.
"You can't escape your destiny, Draco." Voldemort told him, and suddenly Draco was on fire. Every inch of his skin burned. His insides too seemed to have caught ablaze. He'd never been n so much pain in his life. He opened his mouth to scream but the sound died in his throat, too parched to play host to any type of sound at all. Draco knew he was dieing, he wanted to die, if only so the pain would end. Every bone in his body seemed to break and reform only to be broken again. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the pain died away, leaving only a dull ache filling his body.
"This is your destiny. Accept it."
And then they were gone.
Then, a moment later, he flinched at the unexpected touch as someone put a cool hand on his shoulder. He was too tired to respond further. He barely noticed as his shoulders began to heave in deep, silent, sobs.
"Malfoy." He recognized the voice at once as Ginny's. His eyes fluttered lazily open and he made a fruitless effort to lift his heed.
"Oh, Draco." She said sadly as she ever so gently pulled his head into her lap. Her hand stroked his temple, wiping away sweat and blood. He caught her other hand in his, not so much for comfort but to prevent it from traveling farther up his arm where he knew he had been branded with the dark mark. He opened his eyes only once, just long enough to see her concerned face peering down at him.
Draco woke up drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. He looked down impusivily at his left arm. Finding nothing there, he let out a sigh of irrational relief. He closed his eyes and took slow, deliberate, breaths. When his heart had slowed to it's normal pace, he opened his eyes again, only to see Blaise, sitting cross-legged and shirtless on the other bed looking at him with obvious concern.
"Dreams again?" His roommate asked. He nodded, pushing back the covers and swinging his legs onto the ground.
"What time is it?" Draco asked, heading towards the bathroom to so he could wash his face.
"Six." Blaise replied.
Draco groaned. There was no use going back to sleep now. Quickly he set about penning a short letter to his mother before getting dressed for school.
Ginny awoke groggily with the feeling she was being dragged through murky water. Her vision blurred momentarily before she was able to sit up. Parvati and Lavender were both still sleeping soundly. Hermione was dressed and ready for school, reclining on her bed with a rather large book in hand.
"What time is it?" She asked blearily.
"Six." Hermione answered tersely, eyes not leaving her page.
Ginny groaned. Six? She had at least another half an hour of good sleep left. Not that she'd be able to go back to sleep after that. Nearly a whole week dream-free only to be followed up with nightmares about Malfoy of all people. Welll, she could understand Malfoy giving people nightmares, but this was something completely different.
"What are you doing up?" She asked.
"Last midterm today." Hermione answered, still reading. "Ancient runes. Very difficult"
"Complete sentences would be nice, you know."
Hermione paused her reading to glare at Ginny.
"Fine, fine." Ginny grumbled, getting slowly to her feet. "I hate mornings."
I really like Draco's dream. It was reallly hard to write, butI like the way it came out.
I want to say yet another HUGE thank-you to everyone who took the time to review. It makes me so happy. (huggles random reviewer) I wuv you guys (blows kisses)