A/N: As you may or may not have noticed, this fan-fic is Harry, Hermione and Ron's seventh year at Hogwarts. Very AU. My apologies. Also, sorry if it's predictable. Thanks for reviews!!

Disclaimer: I am not lucky enough to as smart as to invent these characters myself. They are not mine. Too bad. –pout-

The Stone Speaks

Three: Surprise

GINNY

Ginny sat across from Luna Lovegood, her nose wrinkled in concentration. The Wizard's Chessboard quivered as the many little figurines waited to get going, but Ginn took her time – Luna was ditzy, but surprisingly gooyd at chess.

"Are you ready yet, Ginny?" Luna asked vaguely. It annoyed Ginny to know end how the Ravenclaw girl could think of the right move instantly, yet it took her ten minutes, and she still lost.

"Give me a minute," the redhead replied between gritted teeth. Then, seeing an escape route, grinned, and told her Pawn: "D7." The Pawn slid oblingingly into its correct place, and swung its sword from its scabbard expectantly.

Luna was looking intently at the door to the library, instead of focusing her attention inside the library, where the chessboard was. Glancing down, and seemingly not paying much attention, she said, "Queen A9. Checkmate."

Ginny gaped as the black Queen swung her throne and knocked off the white King's head. "Not – fair -" she protested, sweeping away the broken pieces and performing the mending charm. "Let's play again, that wasn't fair."

Luna, however, was again staring at the library door, her head tilted slightly sideways so that both of Luna's ash-blonde ponytails were swept over her left shoulder.

"What is even so interesting over there?" Ginny demanded, turning in her seat. And then she saw an unmistakable platinum-blonde head of hair, an unmistakable pale, pointed face – "Malfoy!" Ginny gasped, swivelling back to Luna.

"What about him?" Luna frowned, returning her gaze to Ginny's furious face.

Ginny raised her eyebrows significantly. "Uh, I don't know, maybe the fact that after killing Dumbledore, he shouldn't be here! Maybe the fact that he's a Death Eater!" she pointed out angrily.

Luna look surprised. "So?" she asked. "Maybe he's had a change of heart and is here to apologize for his wrong-doings," she said dreamily.

Ginny snorted. "Yeah. Right. Or maybe he's here to kill us all," she retorted, and, abandoning all thoughts of Wizard's Chess, grabbed her school things and swept from the room.

As it turned out, the truth veered slightly more towards Ginny's opinion.

Amulet bouncing on Ginny's collarbone, she marched up four flights of stairs to the Gryffindor tower, snapped, "Bowtruckle", and stormed inside.

As expected, Ron, Hermione, and Harry were curled up on the sofa, chatting amiably and basking in the fire's warmth, as autumn was fast setting in. As Ginny entered, Ron and Hermione sprang apart for no apparent reason – Ron nearly landing on Harry's lap – and blushed profusely.

"Ginny, what's wrong?" Harry asked, seeing the volcano of emotions hiding in her blazing eyes.

"Malfoy!" she spat out, pointing her finger back towards the painting. "Here! At Hogwarts!"

Hermione paled. "But – but he's a Death Eater!" she cried, standing and backing away from the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, as though Draco Malfoy might burst through at any given moment and murder them all.

Ron, on the contrary, reddened with anger, and leapt to his feet. "Where is he?" he snarled, "I'll rip his throat out, I'll kill him!"

"CALM DOWN!"

Ginny, Ron, and Hermione all looked, bewildered, at Harry, who, by now, was standing too, breathing hard.

"Just calm down, everyone," Harry said. "Ron. Mione. Sit."

Ron and Hermione sank back onto the sofa, still looking rather panicked/angry. Hermione closed her eyes, muttering jinxes under her breath to protect everyone in the school, and Ron merely sulked in his fury.

"Ginny. Start at the… start. What happened?" Harry asked worriedly.

Feeling her emotions well up again, Ginny recounted the incident in the library again, including being beaten at Wizard's Chess (Ron smirked) and Luna's daydreaming.

"And then I came here," Ginny completed, "to tell you all."

Ron clenched his fists, and Hermione glanced anxiously at Harry, who seemed deep in thought, staring at his hands as though he'd never seen them before.

"Harry?" asked Hermione delicately.

"Luna," Harry said, surprised, looking up with a strange look in his eyes.

Hermione, Ron and Ginny exchanged glances. "No," Hermione corrected, "it's me. Hermione."

Harry jolted back from Dream World, and blinked up at everyone else. "Oh, sorry, I zoned out. What did you say, Mione?" he apologized.

Ginny frowned at him. "What about Luna?" she inquired suspiciously, narrowing hazel eyes to a death stare.

Harry blinked. "Er. Nothing," he said flatly, his eyes glowing with bewilderment and even, for some reason, guilt.

"Well, what do you suggest we do, then?" Ron demanded. "Whether or not he's a psychopath loony, I don't really care; what I do care about is why the hell he's here!"

"Why don't we find out?" Hermione smiled wickedly.

Ginny glared at the wall, venting her annoyance on it. Why had she been picked for the first watch, exactly? Oh yeah: "You're the youngest". Wow, talk about military tactics.

She raked her fingers through her hair and tied up the long red tresses, out of her face for the task ahead. Shrugging off her robes, until she was standing in her school trousers and jumper, she tucked away her books and her robes in the narrow corridor from the tapestry on the third floor to the painting on the fifth.

These minor jobs aside, she continued down the slim passageway, careful not to stumble on marble steps, worn by countless footsteps. Ginny reached the fifth floor, and peered out through a carefully drilled hole in the painting. Across the hallway outside was the History of Magic lesson, where Malfoy currently was having a lesson.

There was a great scraping of chairs as approximately thirty seventeen-year-old Slytherins and Hufflepuffs prepared to leave the History classroom. The first to burst through the panelled door was Ernie Macmillan and his friends, eager to be first for whatever class they had next. Hannah Abbott... Pansy Parkinson… some Hufflepuffs and Slytherins fighting… Malfoy.

Ginny paused until he was some distance down the main hallway, and then pushed the painting open. She walked slowly, so that Malfoy wouldn't see or hear her if he turned around, ducking behind various pillars and statues.

"-so tell me again, Malfoy, why are you back?" the shrill voice of Pansy Parkinson carried right the way down the hallway, and Ginny picked it up instantly. She moved closer, hiding behind a statue.

"Oh, just… business," Malfoy muttered darkly.

Ginny snorted – too loudly. Malfoy slowed down, and though Ginny could only see his back, she knew he was listening intently. She ducked behind a statue of a gargoyle, and started muttering various random passwords that might cause the statue to open and reveal a tunnel elsewhere.

"Goyle, Crabbe, I'll meet up with you later," Malfoy said, and, without an explanation, turned on his heel and stalked towards Ginny.

Oh damn oh damnnn, Ginny's head shouted, and she was mumbling faster, more ridiculous ideas –

"Weasley."

Ginny looked over at Malfoy. "Oh. Hi," she said casually, tucking behind her ear some shorter hairs that had fallen from her ponytail, for want of something to do but look at her nemesis.

"Quit the formalities, Weasley. Why were you following me?" Malfoy demanded, folding his arms.

Ginny pursed her lips, and tilted her head up to stare into Malfoy's face. "Well, sorrybut I have my own life and I'm perfectly entitled to walk along this corridor if I want to," she retorted. "And I was not following you. Why the hell would I want to? I'm not part of your girly fan-club, Malfoy, incase you haven't noticed."

Malfoy's expression of suspicion changed to one of anger. "I don't have a girly fan-club, Weasley. I'm not an arrogant loser like Potter, you know," he snapped.

"Hey. Shut it," Ginny said defensively. "Harry isn't an arrogant loser." Her slim red eyebrows furrowed together angrily, and it was everything she could do not to punch him in the face.

"Why are you even defending him?" Malfoy sneered, "It's not like you even like him anymore."

Ginny fell totally silent. How – how – did Draco Malfoy know? Hermione didn't know, Luna didn't know, her mother didn't know… so how did Malfoy?

"I do!" she said snappily, but her retort was late, and the smirk on Malfoy's cruel face told Ginny that he knew he was correct.

"Just get the hell away from me," Ginny muttered.

A/N: Oooooo! Touchy, touchy. Please review!