The Ballad of Mona Lisa

Chapter III

"Hey, stranger, I want you to catch me like a cold
You and God both got the guns
When you shoot I think I'd duck"

November 14, 1852

Ginevra woke late in the morning in a cold sweat. She looked around, breathing heavily and noting that she more tired than she had when she went to bed last night. She supposed she could attribute to that nightmare she had last night.

Her, entranced by falling snow and walking away and away from a blazing fireplace towards it... But then, suddenly, a silver snake with gleaming emerald eyes materialized out of thin air and wrapped her around both it and the icicle which suddenly seemed a lot colder and sharp than it had before. Behind her, people, people she knew, watched and laughed at her. Her parents, William, Charles, Percival, Frederick, George, Ronald, Hermione, Harrold, Duchess McGonagall... Only Chancellor Dumbledore wasn't laughing. He was gazing at her with those twinkling, horrifyingly bright eyes of his. She'd wanted to scream at him, accuse him of luring her into this trap, tell everyone that they were all nothing but useless pawns to him... But she found she couldn't talk at all. The snake's monstrous but blindingly stunning head came into focus and had said something... But she couldn't remember what it was.

She sighed and ran a hand through her messy scarlet curls. Sunlight was pouring in through her lone window and as she rose to look outside, her nightgown caught on one of the wooden bedpost's many splinters. As she started yanking on it furiously since her day was going bad enough and she didn't need anymore frustration, thank you very much, one strong and calloused hand came to rest on her narrow waist while the other's long fingers nimbly removed the satiny fabric from the post.

Ginevra, panicked, whipped around so fast she almost fell, but the hands quickly came to slide her up close to a hard, lean chest. She looked up high to stare into dark enrapturing eyes. The stranger from yesterday.

"It's Tom. Ginevra, right?"

She shook free of whatever spell she'd been under and glared at him, beginning to hotly reprimand him. "First of all, I thought it was clear. I have no wish whatsoever to see you in my room again, uninvited or not. Secondly, I actually think there's no need for introductions if we're never seeing each other again."

He chuckled, still holding her flush against him."Well, that's just too bad. I really was looking forward to getting to know you."

She glowered at him, her hazel and gold eyes smoldering, but then she faltered, for once, as she saw something hidden in his smile. Something mocking, shrewd. And then she realized what had been off about him all along, and she voiced it out loud contemplatively and without question. "You're the snake."

His dark eyes flashed quickly, so that if she hadn't been looking for a reaction, she wouldn't have noticed it. "Pardon?"

"You're the snake. There's no one else that even remotely fits the description - at least, nobody that wasn't already there."

For once, he actually looked bemused. Ginevra thought it odd to see him so quiet and not so all-knowing for once. She explained exasperatedly, "It's a dream. Apparently it's warning me to stay away from you - which I'm trying to do, but you're just making it so damn impossible!"

He grinned, for once his eyes were glowing in what appeared to be nothing other than pure humor. "What if I don't want to let you go?"

Although she could tell that at least this comment was meant simply in jest, the words themselves caused an unpleasant shiver to crawl down her spine.

Tom noticed and his eyes seemed to darken even more, which Ginevra hadn't thought possible. All of a sudden, he swooped his head and down and kissed her. Hard.

She immediately pushed him away with an anguished cry. Silently, she lifted a hand to her full, swollen lips. Her first kiss... Stolen by this stranger. The supposed snake. Tom.

What she wasn't about to let him know was that electricity had raced down her back, greatly overpowering her last shiver.

He grabbed her hand in one clean move and dragged her closer to him, tilting her face up with his other index finger and forcing her to look him in the eyes. "How dare me? I've done a lot of worse things, Ginevra, things you can't even imagine. But tell me, didn't you think that was more than just some ordinary kiss? You didn't feel the magic? It proves we can be great together. Just give me a chance, Ginevra, and I can be everything you need. And don't deny that you need something, because you wouldn't be here if you didn't."

She looked up at him, thinking they made a vision at that point. Him, dark all over, not a bit of color on him, his tall frame leaning over and holding her, his eyes gazing into hers persuasively. Her, wearing a rose pink night gown, her knees quivering, standing at least a head below him, her red tangled curls flowing and loose, her lips slightly parted in awe of him.

"Please, Tom..."

"I need you to decide now, Ginevra. I can only help you." His voice was too insistent, too persuasive, and as though she was on the outside looking in again, she found herself nodding without thinking about it and her arms hesitantly slipping around Tom's neck and broad shoulders.

He understood her wordless response and pulled her close to him.

It had always been her against the world, who was she to refuse if someone wanted to lessen her burden?

Although Tom's gesture was meant to be comforting, Ginevra could not help but feel as if she had just sold her soul to the devil.