A/N: Thank you so much to reviewers! I love you all. This is late December now. Ginny learns something about the Stone and discovers something terrible.
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
Chapter Twenty-Two: Aberforth
GINNY
In January were the winter exams – Ginny had been so excited by the prospect of the Yule Ball that she had forgotten, and now was forcing herself to do some serious revision-work, despite the thick snow crunching over the Hogwarts grounds, pleading, have snowballs fight in me, make snow angels, please. "Someone should make exams while it's snowing illegal," Ginny muttered, looking up from her Transfiguration notes,
"Ignore the snow, Ginny, just revise," said Hermione strictly. For a whole week after the Yule Ball, she had been almost as ditzy as Lavender Brown; she had kissed Viktor Krum, and danced all night long with many good-looking Durmstrang and Hogwarts boys, including Ron. However, now she was back to her usual bookish self.
"That's easy for you to say," Ginny said, though she wasn't sure why it was easier for Hermione, and she focused on how to Transfigure a rock into various different animals. She remembered her Aunt Fleur using that spell in the Triwizard Tournament three years ago, and also remembered thinking, I could never do that.
Ginny smiled, and returned to her gaze to the window, where shouts of the rowdy younger students could be heard outside in the gardens. Despite the distance, she thought that she saw a glint of platinum-blonde hair, seven floors below.
Things between Ginny and Draco had been awkward for a while, but now they had settled back into their normal friendship – though Ginny knew that she was take the feel of Draco's lips on hers to the grave. Her fingers floated to her necklace, and wrapped around the smooth chunk of black rock…
"Ginny, are you actually revising?" Hermione said with a sigh, and then yelped. "Hell, Ginny, where'd you go?"
Ginny groaned. Not again. She looked down – she had disappeared again. A devious thought crossed her mind, and, as quietly as she could, Ginny climbed out her chair and left the common room, snatching up her hat and scarf as she went.
"Score," said Ginny with a grin as she pulled on her hat, and knotted her scarf around her neck. Ginny passed a floor-length mirror, and, expecting not to see anything, was shocked to see a floating woollen hat and stripy scarf. "Whoa."
Ginny reached up and touched her hat – it was still there. But she wasn't. Whaaat?! She felt her scarf, and her fingers brushed the stone around her neck; she came into view, scaring a nearby cat.
"The necklace," Ginny whispered, realization dawning on her. "It's the necklace that makes me turn invisible." She stretched up one finger and prodded the black onyx gently, taking in her breath quickly in anticipation… nothing happened. She curled her fingers around the silver edging, and boom. Gone.
A grin spread across her face, and she raced, invisible, down the hall, able to sprint as fast as she could without fear of being spotted or given detention. The necklace bounced against her collarbone with every step, sending new life flying into every stride. She swerved past Colin Creevey, leaping over Mrs. Norris, and thundering down the grand stairs.
Bursting outside, Ginny spun, leaving strange marks in the snow that, seemingly, no-one had made. She laughed, dropping down and sitting in a snowdrift. "This is amazing," she murmured, and reached up to touch the glowing pendant. Her trainers appeared in front of her, jeans extending from there, and she knew that she was truly a master of invisibility.
"What the hell is she doing?" Jaqi's sneer reached Ginny's ears, but the redhead didn't notice, she was at the stage where she was ready to start dancing. She had the power of invisibility, she had great friends, it was January, it was snowing, and she had kissed Draco – wait. Ginny stopped dead. Why do I care?
"She's such a freak," said Lavender.
"I know. I have no idea how she could get that Bulgarian hottie to fancy her," said Jaqi's right-hand girl, Eva Perrin, "she's so damn weird."
"Did you hear about the Yule Ball?" Jaqi sniped. "I heard that she snogged that freak in Slytherin."
"Malfoy? Didn't he used to be really hot?"
"Yeah, him. Only now he's a total mess, 'cause word says he works for You-Know-Who."
"No way."
"Anyway, I thought that she was dating Harry?"
"She is."
"Ohmigod, that's sooo unfair, right? She gets all of the hot guys at the same time? There has to be something good about her."
"Yeah," retorted Ginny, standing up, "there is something good about me. I know when the hell to shut my mouth."
"So, Ginny," Eva sneered, "is it true? Did you kiss Malfoy? Do you actually have feelings for him? Aw, poor Harry Potter is gonna be so upset."
"Shut it, Perrin," Ginny snapped. "For your information, I didn't kiss him," it was a blind lie, but none of them knew Leglimency, so it didn't really matter, "and I don't have feelings for him. Even if I did, it wouldn't matter to poor Harry Potter because everyone knows that he's not in love with me anymore!" Eva, Jaqi and Lavender stared at Ginny in a stunned silence. Damn, Ginny panicked, I wasn't supposed to know.
"'Even if you did'? Weasley, are you hiding something?" sneered Lavender.
"No," said Ginny defensively.
"Of course not, Lavender, don't be stupid," said Jaqi, "who could possibly fall in love with that stupid, ignorant, Dark-Lord supporter -"
Before Ginny even acknowledged that her wand was out, a roar of "Furnunculus!" was thrown out, and Jaqi cried out, stumbling backwards as boils began to sprout all across her face. "Back off," Ginny snarled, pointing her wand at the fallen Jaqi.
"You psycho!" Jaqi spat, sitting up. "You're a raving lunatic. And trust me, Weasley, Malfoy would never have you – probably for the same reason that Potter doesn't. Who wants a stupid, hideous blood-traitor?"
Ginny stared down at the bedraggled black-haired girl in front of her, speechless. Everything that she had worried about for seven years had just been snarled out by the person she hated most in the school. Her witty brain had been drowned out of any comeback – instead, she grabbed the necklace, disappeared from sight, and, undetectable, fled.
No, no, Ginevra Molly Weasley does not cry, she told herself firmly, slamming her back up against a third-floor stone wall breathlessly, and slapped herself. Then, pain ringing through her head, she sank to the floor, holding the pendant around her throat until she came back into view. She raked one hand through her mussed mop of red hair. It's so damn bright, it sticks out, different, from everyone else. It's brighter than anyone else's in my family… She ran a finger across the bridge of her nose, where she knew that her ugly freckles lay.
"All students report to the Great Hall," Professor McGonagall's voice suddenly echoed through the castle, crackling with sound. "All students report to the Great Hall immediately."
Then there was a silence. Ginny wondered what on earth was so urgent. The last time that something like this had happened, it had been because Sirius Black was 'on the loose'. She smiled at the irony that had filled the entire situation, what with Sirius being Harry's godfather.
Scattered groups of students began pouring down the corridor, most of them staring at Ginny and asking if she was okay. "I'm fine," she said, and hauled herself to her feet. Coming down the hall was Harry, Ron and Hermione, so she scurried over and fell into step beside her brother. "What's happening?" she asked.
"I don't know," Harry said, "but it must be something really serious."
"Professor McGonagall came into the common room, looking really upset. We were sitting on the sofas, so she sent me up to get all of the girls, and Harry up to get all of the boys, and then she used the Sonorus charm to amplify her voice to the whole school," Hermione explained. "She refused to tell us what was going on."
"Maybe Professor Trelawney jumped out of the Divination Tower and committed suicide," said Ron hopefully; Hermione elbowed him in the ribs, frowning. They followed the troupe of Gryffindors down the Great Hall, and filed through the doors.
The entire school population was present – every Professor was there, and even the ghosts were all present (including, to everyone's dismay, Peeves the poltergeist). The tables had been removed, as it had been for the Yule Ball Group-Apparation, but this time there was no Apparation circle. Ginny pushed through the crowd to Luna, and nudged her friend.
"Lu, what's happening?" Ginny asked. "Why are we all here?" Luna shrugged soundlessly, and pointed up at the raised dais, where Professor McGonagall was rising to speak. Professor Umbridge looked thoroughly grumpy that she had been robbed the duty of making speeches.
"Students," Professor McGonagall called, clapping her hands once to gather attention, "we have a very serious situation. I do not want to frighten any of you, but it must be said. He Who Must Not Be Named is targeting Hogwarts and he is drawing closer. Albus Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, tends a pub in Hogsmeade – he has been found dead, marked with only the Killing Curse, and the Dark Mark above his house."
There fell a terrified hush, and Ginny felt as though she might be sick everywhere as she remembered her meeting with Professor McGonagall: "Ms. Weasley, He Who Must Not Be Named intends to kill you."
"He Who Must Not Be Named is in Hogsmeade," continued Professor McGonagall, "and, we fear, drawing closer. We have set up jinxes so that He cannot come within one thousand yards of the Hogwarts grounds, but jinxes are only jinxes. They cannot hold forever – and with a Dark Wizard of such power… I do not like to think how long the jinx can last."
Ginny began to tremble; she couldn't help herself. Scared spasms shook her body, and she clung to Luna for physical support. "He's coming to kill me," she whispered.
Luna looked at Ginny, and, for some reason, didn't seem the slightest bit insane. "He won't," she said, after a long pause, and then returned her focus to Professor McGonagall.
"There will be full lock-downs on the school building," said Professor McGonagall. "No-one will leave, and no-one will enter, the Hogwarts grounds. All Hogsmeade trips are postponed until further notice. If you see anyone doing anything of suspicious activity, tell a teacher immediately." She stared desperately around at them all, looking frighteningly like a human being, and not a strict teacher who loved distributing detentions. "And if you, for any reason, should not want to report something to us, then bear this in mind… lives are at stake here."
Yeah. My life, Ginny thought darkly. Then, another thought: what if Lord Voldemort didn't kill Aberforth Dumbledore? What if – what if it was another Death Eater nearby? Such as, I don't know, say, maybe, DRACO MALFOY Ginny paled. Great. I kissed a Death Eater. Fantastic.
"You kissed a Death Eater?" Luna asked interestedly.
Ginny stared at her disbelievingly. "How do you know?" she demanded. "Did you read my thoughts or something?"
Luna raised one thin, arched eyebrow. "If I just told you your thoughts back to you, then you need to stop saying your thoughts out loud," she said. "Why did you kiss a Death Eater?"
Ginny blushed. "I didn't," she lied. "It was… it was a joke." Luna's eyes were piercing through her lie, and Ginny felt herself growing steadily more and more embarrassed. She tried to imagine what she would say if she confessed.
I had to? That would sound like he held her at wandpoint.
There was mistletoe? Why would they be alone together?
If I didn't, someone would die? That would be mean and prejudiced against Death Eaters – they weren't all bad, after all (Ginny refused to entertain thoughts of Draco).
I wanted to? Somehow, Ginny didn't think that this idea would go down particularly well, and so she simply avoided saying anything more.
A/N: Sorry, this chapter wasn't very interesting. My bad. It ran out steam half way through. Sorry. Please review.