After lunch on New Year's Eve, Ginny packed an overnight bag, said a quick goodbye to Fleur and Nadine, then took the Floo Network to Astoria's house.
"Hi Ginny, have a good Christmas?" Astoria greeted, as Ginny stepped out of the grate and into a large foyer.
"Yes, it was fine," Ginny replied, glancing around the room at the high ceilings, tall windows and a grand staircase, with a beautifully carved railing, leading to an upper floor. "How was yours?"
"It was wonderful. We went to my grandparents' home in Nottingham and just got home this morning. Come into the drawing room," Astoria said, as she started walking down a hallway. "My parents want to meet you."
They entered a large, festively decorated room. On the far side, near a set of French doors leading out to a balcony, were two people whom Ginny assumed were Astoria's parents.
"…vile creature is completely useless," the woman was saying, as she pointed her wand at an antique chaise and moved it to the other side of the room. "I might as well just do everything myself rather than ask that wretched elf do it."
"Where is it now?" the man asked.
"I told it to go punish itself, and then make sure the food and drinks are ready for when the guests get here…" Mrs. Greengrass stopped talking at the sight of the girls standing in the doorway and her husband turned around to see what had caught her attention.
"Ginny has arrived," Astoria announced, unnecessarily.
Astoria's father walked forward and held out his hand to Ginny. "Merrick Greengrass. It's a pleasure to meet you Ginny. And, my wife, Adelaide," he added, as Mrs. Greengrass came to stand beside him.
Mrs. Greengrass looked at Ginny with sharp eyes and her lips drawn into a tight line.
"You're a Weasley." It wasn't a question.
"Yes, Ma'am," Ginny replied, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt under the penetrating stare of the woman. "Thank you for having me over."
Astoria, obviously feeling the tension in the room, grabbed Ginny's arm. "Okay, let's go up to my room now."
"Alright," Ginny agreed, feeling relieved. "Nice meeting you both," she added to the couple before turning away and following Astoria.
They walked back into the foyer and ascended the handsome staircase to the next floor.
"Your mother doesn't seem too pleased to see me here," Ginny observed, once they were out of earshot of Astoria's parents.
"Don't take it personally," Astoria said, sounding unconcerned as she opened the door to her bedroom. "Mum acts that way around everyone she meets. She likes to make people feel inferior to her."
Ginny thought this was an odd thing for Astoria to say about her own mother, but as she walked into the large bedroom, she forgot all about her interaction with Mrs. Greengrass. Moving over to the large diamond-paneled windows, Ginny could see that Astoria had a beautiful view from her room. The house, which must be sitting high up on a hill, overlooked a beautiful valley that was spread out below them. Off in the distance, Ginny could make out a few houses in a nearby town or village.
"Where are we?"
"East Sussex," responded Astoria, coming to stand beside her. "Near the South Downs."
They sat down on the bed and Astoria dug out a stash of candies to share with Ginny. The two girls spent the afternoon talking and catching up on all of the events that happened since they last saw each other, just over a week ago.
As evening drew near, it was time to get ready for the ball. Ginny pulled on the dress robes that she borrowed from Fleur. The robes, which were made of plain black velvet, were worn only once by Fleur for a funeral. It was, however, the only formal thing either girl had that would conceal the tracking band on Ginny's arm. Looking at herself in the mirror, Ginny disliked how unflattering the dress looked on her.
She felt even worse when she glanced over at Astoria, who had just finished putting on her emerald gown, made of smooth, silk material. The dress, which looked stunning on Astoria, fit her perfectly from the single strap over her left shoulder down to the handkerchief hemline of the skirt.
Over the years, Ginny had gotten used to being the girl who was always in the second-hand robes, but she still tended to get a twinge of envy when she was around people who had much nicer, and more expensive, things than her.
"I hope this is okay," Ginny said, gesturing to her own robes as she caught Astoria's eye in the mirror.
"Oh, its fine," Astoria replied, though she looked away when she said it, so Ginny didn't completely believe her. "You look beautiful in anything. What are you wearing for makeup?"
"I don't use makeup, you know that," Ginny reminded her, rolling her eyes slightly at the girl who shared a room with her the past four months.
"I know you don't day-to-day, but I thought maybe you would want some tonight."
Ginny considered this for a moment; she was already going to look horrible in her dress, so maybe a little makeup would help her out. Not that Ginny minded wearing makeup, she just found it too time- consuming to bother with every day.
"I didn't bring any with me. Do you have something I could use?"
"Sure, let's see… what would look best with your hair?" Astoria said contemplatively, as she looked through her enormous cosmetic supplies. "You know, we may need to call on an expert for this."
"What do you mean?"
"Follow me."
Astoria walked out of her room and went to the door directly across the hall. After knocking and waiting for a "come in", Astoria walked into the room with Ginny behind her. A girl around their age was seated at a large vanity table, applying mascara to her lashes.
"Ginny, this is my sister, Daphne," Astoria introduced them, as Daphne turned around to greet them. "Can you help us out, Daph? Ginny doesn't often wear makeup, so I thought you might know what looks best on her. She's amazing with cosmetics and beautifying spells," Astoria added to Ginny.
Daphne stood and walked over to them and scrutinized Ginny with a frown. "Eyeliner for sure, something bold to bring out your eyes… maybe a little foundation, but honestly your skin is gorgeous, the freckles on your face actually accentuate beauty—that doesn't happen to everyone." Daphne took a step back from Ginny and pointed to the chair next to her vanity. "Sit."
"Er—okay," Ginny said nervously, sitting on the cushioned seat, while Astoria sat on the bed, picking up a nearby Enchanteen magazine, the cover of which stated "Charm unsightly acne away for good, six new spells that really work!".
"Have you talked to Adrian?" Astoria asked, flipping through the pages. "Is he coming tonight?"
"Yes, he was actually planning to come over early, before the party started, but his mother wanted to go London today and he didn't know what time he would get back from there. But he will definitely be here."
"Who's Adrian?" Ginny asked, hoping to sound friendly rather than nosey.
"Her boyfriend," Astoria replied. "Adrian Pucey. You might remember him when you see him, he used to play Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team."
"What about your beau, Tori?" Daphne asked, looking in the mirror at her sister, with a smirk on her face. "Is darling Draco coming?"
"Of course, he is. Unless something comes up with his… you know, work…," Astoria trailed off and Daphne gave her sister a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, he will be here; that boy is crazy for you. Even if he is a stuck-up little prat."
Ginny burst out laughing at that and both girls looked at her.
"Sorry, Astoria, but it's true," Ginny said, with a shrug, as Daphne snickered. "Malfoy is a prat."
"He's not to me," Astoria replied, as she tossed the magazine over, hitting her sister on the back of the head.
"Be nice, or I won't put that French Twist in your hair that you asked for," Daphne warned.
Daphne was extremely efficient at doing make-up; she finished Ginny's face in just a few minutes, using a combination of products that Ginny had never heard of and a few muttered spells to help enhance the look she was going for. Without even asking, Daphne took some cream from a small container and rubbed it through Ginny's hair, then waved her wand. Ginny looked in the mirror at the result and saw her hair was now hanging down in loose, natural-looking curls.
"You are amazing," Ginny said, admiring her reflection. "You should start a business or something."
"That was the plan before," Daphne replied with a small sigh, as she replaced the cover on the hair cream container. "I was hoping to open an aesthetics shop in London."
"Before what? What changed?"
"The new law. Married by twenty-one and as many children as you can handle."
"Oh," Ginny said. "Well, maybe you could do both."
"Maybe," Daphne replied noncommittedly. "Okay, you're done, Ginny. Come on over, Tori, let's make sure you look good for Draco."
Astoria rolled her eyes at Ginny as they switched places. Daphne's eyes followed Ginny as she moved away from the vanity.
"Not to sound rude," Daphne said, cringing slightly as she looked at Ginny, "But are you planning to wear that?"
Ginny looked down at her dress and blushed slightly. "It was all I had."
Daphne strode over to her wardrobe and opened the door, revealing a large assortment of colourful robes. After a moment, she pulled out a splendid royal blue gown.
"This will look perfect on you," Daphne insisted.
"I really appreciate the offer, but I was planning to wear something with long sleeves tonight."
Astoria gasped and looked apologetically at Ginny. "I forgot about the admonitor!"
"The what?" Daphne asked in confusion.
Ginny rolled back her sleeve to show Daphne the metal cuff on her arm.
"You have to wear that every day?" Daphne asked, looking at it in disgust. "That's terrible – it's so ugly!" She went over to Ginny to take a closer look at the admonitor. "What if we changed the colour, maybe we could make it blend into your skin or charm it to look like jewelry?"
"I can't do anything to magically alter it," Ginny replied, with a shake of her head. "Ministry people will show up and probably arrest me. I don't think that would be a good image for your party tonight."
"No, Mum would kill you," Daphne mused, as she turned away. "You can cover it though, right? You had your sleeve over it."
Daphne looked through her jewelry box and then presented Ginny with a bracelet. It had a certain elegance to it, with large flowers that didn't exactly hide the admonitor, but it blended in behind them well enough that most people wouldn't even notice it unless they looked really closely.
"Perfect," Daphne said, clapping her hands in excitement. "Now will you try my dress?"
While Daphne worked on Astoria's hair and makeup, Ginny switched dresses. Looking in the mirror, she barely recognized herself. Growing up in a house full of boys, Ginny had never been one for dressing up, but as she stared at her reflection, she had to admit that it did feel nice once in awhile.
*.*.*
At quarter to eight, the girls went downstairs to the foyer, where the family would greet the guests.
"Daphne, you look stunning," Mrs. Greengrass said, smiling at her eldest. "I love that shade of lipstick on you. Oh, Astoria," she continued, turning to her younger daughter and frowning, "I thought you were going to wear your hair down, up like that isn't very flattering with the shape of your face."
Mrs. Greengrass then turned away, acting as though Ginny wasn't even in the room. Astoria's father, however, walked over and complimented each of the girls, before leaning in to give Astoria a kiss on the cheek.
"Just ignore your mother, darling," Ginny heard him whisper. "You look beautiful."
When the guests started arriving, some through the fireplace and others through the front door, Ginny drifted away from the family and into the drawing room. The guests, who greeted their hosts before wandering off in search of food, drink or company, paid very little attention to Ginny, although she did catch a few people glancing at her, as though trying to figure out who she was.
The first person to actually speak to her was Draco Malfoy. He nodded to her as he walked by and uttered a quick, but polite, "hello". Ginny could hear Lucius Malfoy asking Draco who she was, and he must have told him, because a moment later, Mr. Malfoy looked over his shoulder, sneering at Ginny.
Ignoring him, Ginny turned away and wandered around the room. She tried to avoid speaking with anyone but wanted to keep an eye on everyone present, hoping to find an easy target that she could use to start her plan.
As she neared the doorway, she saw the Carrows come in – Hogwarts' new Headmaster, Amycus, with his wife and daughters, and Alecto Carrow tagging along behind them. Then Pansy Parkinson and her parents arrived at the same time as haughty-looking Blaise Zabini who was accompanied by an older looking beautiful witch, who Ginny assumed was his mother – the famous witch whose husbands mysteriously died. A moment later, the Flint family came into the room and Ginny turned and wandered to the other side, away from Meredith and her brother Marcus.
On this side of the room, Ginny found a large group of Death Eaters: two of her professors, Rookwood and Lestrange, were there, along with the other Lestrange brother, Rodolphus, who had been married to Bellatrix before Ginny's mother had killed her. Ginny noticed that the man didn't appear to be too bothered by the absence of his deceased wife, since he had his arm around another woman, holding her close to him, while he laughed at something one of his friends had said.
Ginny glanced at the other faces in the crowd and was able to pick out Antonin Dolohov (who murdered her uncles), Thorfinn Rowle (he almost killed her at Hogwarts in her fifth year), Corban Yaxley (recently named Minister for Magic) and Calix Selwyn (who apprehended Luna on the train last year as a way to punish her father).
Ginny turned away from the group and closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Being in the presence of this many Death Eaters was a lot more unnerving than she had anticipated.
"Miss Weasley?" Ginny jumped slightly as the voice behind her. "My apologies, I did not intend to startle you."
Ginny spun around and was face-to-face with Theodore Nott.
"It's fine," Ginny replied, trying to downplay it. "I was just lost in thought. How are you, er—Mr. Nott?"
She wasn't sure if this was the proper way to greet someone or not and was beginning to think that she should have asked Astoria to give her a few lessons in etiquette before the party.
"I'm very well," Nott said, "but please call me Theo – Mr. Nott makes me feel old." He smiled at her.
"Okay, Theo," Ginny replied, returning his smile. "But only if you call me Ginny. Miss Weasley makes me think I'm in trouble for something."
He laughed at that before saying, "I'm surprised to see you here. Your family has never come before, have they?"
Ginny felt the smile fall from her face at the mention of her family, but she kept her composure. "Astoria invited me," she replied, hoping this would be a sufficient answer.
"I'm very glad she did," Theo said sincerely. "I was about to get a drink. Would you like one?"
Ginny nodded. "That would be lovely, thank you."
Theo walked away and Ginny watched him go, feeling a mixture of anxiety and satisfaction. It appeared that Astoria may have been correct in saying that Theodore Nott fancied her. Why else would he seek her out in a room full of people? Finding someone to help her infiltrate the Death Eaters may be even easier than she imagined.
"Weasley!" A shrill voice, filled with disgust, brought Ginny back to the present. She turned around and saw Pansy Parkinson staring at her in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"
"I was invited," Ginny replied coolly.
"By whom?" she asked skeptically. "No one here would want a dirty blood-traitor around."
"What's going on?" Ginny breathed a sigh of relief as Daphne wandered over.
"This filth snuck into your family's party, Daph," Pansy said.
"Of course, she didn't," Daphne replied. "Ginny is here as our guest."
Pansy looked shocked. She opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by the reappearance of Theo.
"Here you are, Ginny," he said, handing her a glass of champagne before turning to the other two girls and greeting them. "Good evening Daphne, Pansy. You both look lovely tonight."
"Thank you, Theo," Daphne replied warmly.
Pansy, however, looked outraged. "What is going on here? Has everyone lost their damn minds? We are on the brink of a perfect new world with Purebloods in charge – it's what everyone has dreamed of for years! Now that we have achieved it, we are making friends with the enemy?"
"Ginny is Pureblood, Pansy," Daphne reminded her. "She's hardly the enemy."
Feeling a twinge of annoyance, Ginny almost snapped that it didn't matter what her blood status was, but then she remembered that she was supposed to be playing up her reformed state of enjoying being a Pureblood on top.
"She's a blood-traitor," Pansy spat. "Most of her family is in prison. The ones who survived anyway," she added maliciously.
Ginny fumed, but Theo spoke before she could say anything to Pansy.
"Part of the new order is accepting that going forward we need as many Purebloods as we can to be on board with us. We need to forgive those who were more lenient with their relationships in the past and move forward together."
Once again, Ginny didn't agree with the statement that was being made, but she held her tongue. She also couldn't help but feel a wave of appreciation towards Theo for quickly coming to her defence. Pansy glared at the three of them for a moment, then turned and angrily walked away.
"Don't worry about her," Daphne said, with a smile at Ginny, before walking away.
Ginny stayed by Theo's side for the rest of the evening. He introduced her to a few of his acquaintances, some of which greeted her politely, while others didn't speak at all and instead glared disdainfully at her.
Surprisingly, Ginny found herself enjoying Theo's company. They both had a love for Quidditch, although they supported rival teams: Ginny was a big fan of the Holyhead Harpies, while Theo had always cheered on Puddlemere United. Ginny took great pleasure in being able to tease him about Puddlemere's terrible season two years ago.
"Do you think they will ever have regular Quidditch seasons again?" Ginny wondered.
"Oh yeah," Theo replied. "They are hoping to get the teams back together this summer. I have a friend that works in the Department of Games and Sport and he said they just have to make sure that all the players meet the blood status rules before reforming their teams."
Ginny didn't know what to say about this, feeling annoyed that blood status apparently now controlled every aspect of life. She wanted to keep the conversation light, though, so she told him about the new student-selected Quidditch teams at Hogwarts, now the school houses were gone.
"Who's on your team?" Theo asked, once she finished.
"Oh, I'm not playing this year."
"You're kidding!" he exclaimed. "You're so good, I figured people would be falling over each other to have you on their team."
"I never thought I would hear a Slytherin say a Gryffindor is good at something," Ginny admitted before she could stop herself.
Theo, however, smiled and said, "I know talent when I see it."
Ginny felt herself blush slightly and was happy when a welcome distraction approached them. Astoria and Draco appeared out of the crowd.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" Astoria asked her.
Ginny nodded. In truth, the party wasn't nearly as bad as she predicted. Sure, most of the guests here were snobbish and proud, but Theo had provided a nice balance, giving her someone normal to talk to. As Astoria was telling her about Delhia Rosier getting caught snogging Cassius Warrington in the powder room, Ginny noticed Draco lean over and whisper something to Theo. Looking apprehensive, Theo turned and looked across the room. Ginny's eyes followed where he was looking and she saw Lucius Malfoy speaking with another man, while both kept glancing in their direction.
"Excuse for a moment," Theo said, looking at Ginny. "I'll be right back."
Ginny watched him walk over to the man and saw the satisfied smirk on Lucius Malfoy's face as the older man spoke angrily to Theo.
*.*.*
Astoria's grandmother had come along pulled Astoria and Draco away, wanting to get to know her granddaughter's boyfriend better, and Ginny was left standing alone. Theo had not returned, and she was worried that something had happened to cause him to stay away from her. Tired of waiting, Ginny decided to seek the boy out and find out if everything was okay. If Theo had changed his mind about wanting to be around her, Ginny knew that she would have to befriend someone else that could get her closer to Voldemort.
Ginny finally found Theo outside on the balcony that extended from the drawing room. He was leaning against the railing, a drink in his hand, staring off into the valley that was illuminated by the moonlight above. Ginny stepped out into the cold and closed the door softly behind her, before walking towards him. At the sound of her footsteps, Theo turned around and, when he saw her, a small smile appeared on his face.
"I've been looking for you," Ginny said, stopping beside him. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to stay warm.
Theo pulled out his wand and waved it, causing a warm, fur cloak to appear. "Sorry, I didn't make it back to you," he said, his breath hot on her cold neck, as he wrapped the cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. "I promise, I was coming. Just needed a bit of fresh air first."
"That's okay," Ginny replied. "Was that your father you were talking to earlier?".
Theo nodded but didn't elaborate, as he came to stand beside her again.
"He looked angry," she said, hoping she wasn't coming off as meddlesome.
"He's always angry these days," Theo replied with a shrug. "Ever since he got out of Azkaban, he hasn't been the same."
Ginny was spared the difficulty of having to come up with a response to that, as a voice from inside the house called out loudly, "Ten seconds until midnight… nine…"
Ginny glanced at Theo, wondering if they were thinking the same thing.
"Seven… six…"
"Would you be offended if I kissed you?" Theo whispered, stepping closer to her.
"Four… three…"
"I think I'd be more offended if you didn't," Ginny replied with a tiny smirk, as she closed the gap between them.
"One… Happy New Year!" A series of cheers and bangs, along with the cracking of fireworks, sounded from inside the house.
Theo, being a gentleman, leaned down and pressed a kiss against her cheek, but Ginny turned her head until their lips met. She felt him stiffen in surprise, before pressing his mouth more firmly against hers, while his hand went behind her head, pulling her in close.
In that moment, Ginny forgot all about her master plan and why she was making an effort to do all of this.