Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, therefore I am not making any money from this story.
Note: As you may have noticed, the flashbacks are not in chronological order. And, obviously, certain events of the sixth book never happened. Like Dumbledore dying. Because he's definitely still alive in this story.
Yes, it's been a long time. Inspiration has struck! I had a lot of plans for this story before, but I'm finally beginning to plan out the subplots that will occur inside the main one. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at where I will take this story.
As I have said before (especially on my other works), what YOU want out of this story influences how I write it. While I know how I would like it to go, I will ALWAYS listen to what you have to say. Some of the most helpful advice has come from reviewers :) And a lot of them had their ideas incorporated into the story!
So, without further ado…here we go!
"You know, I am Head Boy this year, and I hear that comes with certain privileges. A private dorm for example," Draco bragged.
"A private dorm that you will have to share with the Head Girl," Ginerva corrected.
"With my luck, it will probably be that mudblood Granger," Draco growled.
"So that means that we can't meet in there. The Room of Requirement perhaps?" Blaise questioned.
Ginerva considered it. Unplottable, even by the Marauder's Map. It could transform into anything they wanted, and it was nowhere near the dungeons. If Ginerva was spotted walking around the dungeons by someone unfaithful to the Dark Lord, it could blow her cover. She nodded. The Room of Requirement was their best option.
"I should probably go meet up with the new Head Girl in the Head's compartment. I pray that it is not Granger. I am sure I will be driven mad if we have to share a dorm this year," Draco complained, moving toward the door.
"And all she does is study. You might just get infected with her disease," Ginerva mocked. "You can't fool me, Malfoy. I happen to know that you are second in your class to Hermione. A very close second."
"It is not her studying disease that I am worried about. It is the disease that is her blood. Her non-magical background is a curse, and one that I want absolutely nothing to do with. Despite her surprising intelligence, she is still inferior to all of us," Draco stated shortly, his articulation perfect, as always. Ginerva idly wondered if perfect pronunciation was something that was taught to all pureblood children. She looked at Blaise and decided that it was probably only a Malfoy trait. His father had it too. Blaise used contractions, while still sounding sophisticated enough to pass for being a member of the upper class.
"Don't you have somewhere to be, Draco?" Blaise reminded him. Draco turned towards the door, opened it, and walked into the corridor. "He doesn't trust you," Blaise explained.
"Do you blame him?" Ginerva fired back.
"I don't question the Dark Lord's orders," he replied carefully, "but I will admit that he is not omnipotent, nor is he always right. I am not enough of a fool to believe that he is a god, but I do believe that he is powerful. He can make mistakes. Has he made a mistake in choosing you to be a spy for us?"
"That remains to be seen, I suppose," she replied, a small smile gracing her lips.
Flashback
"You cannot just ignore this, Bellatrix. Sooner or later, we will need to—"
"I am busy, Severus. Could you find another time to—" she paused a beat when she saw Ginny rounding the corner, "—bore me with the details of your potion making?" Bellatrix snarled.
Bellatrix grabbed her arm and dragged the younger witch in the direction in which she had just come. She looked at over Bellatrix's shoulder at Snape, who looked even more irritated than the insane murderer walking beside her. Ginny sent him a questioning look, which he acknowledged with a slight shake of his head. She resolved to ask him about it later. Right now, Bellatrix was demanding her undivided attention. Ginny felt her arm go numb under Bellatrix's fingers as she pulled them both into a training room.
Ginny knew not to speak to Bellatrix when she was in one of her moods. That would just make her punishment worse. This was not new to her. Whenever the older woman was in a foul state of mind, Ginny would be in for a few rounds of very physical dueling. She would be subject to the anger of one of the most dangerous members of the wizarding community. There was nothing she could do about it, so she braced herself for the first curse.
Ginny blocked the Cruciatus with a weak shield charm. Bellatrix fired off another one, which Ginny sidestepped. Curse after curse was fired from her wand, with Ginny barely managing to avoid them all. A particularly nasty hex whizzed past her head, and she realized that she might not make it out of the duel alive.
Ginny looked around quickly, assessing her surroundings. She saw nothing that might help her disarm Bellatrix.
She was distracted from the duel by the sole door in the room opening. Lucius Malfoy stepped into the chamber, closing the door behind him. She kicked herself for becoming unfocused in the midst of a duel, but she looked over at Bellatrix and realized that the other witch was sidetracked as well.
Ginny raised her wand and fired a Cruciatus at Bellatrix. The younger woman watched in amazement as the curse hit her teacher square in the chest, knocking her backwards and slamming her into the far wall of the room. Bellatrix writhed in pain on the floor, but she never made a noise. Bellatrix never screamed—unless, of course, the Dark Lord asked for it. It was something that she was proud of. She could control herself to not cry out even when she was in the most agonizing pain. It was a control that she and Ginny had in common. Ginny lifted the curse, and Bellatrix immediately stood up, straightening her robes. Lucius huffed in incredulity while Bellatrix rounded on Ginny.
"You little bitch. If you weren't the Dark Lord's favorite, I would rip you to pieces! How dare you use a curse like that on your better?"
"Yes, Bellatrix. My parents are blood traitors, I am a little girl, and I am not nearly where I need to be in my training right now. Are we done? I could use some lunch," Ginny quipped. "We are not the good guys, Bellatrix. I was correct to do what I did. If your distraction meant the difference between life and death for me, I was perfectly in my own right to fire off that curse."
"And frankly, if you were distracted enough to let that poorly aimed curse hit you, maybe you are not one of the best duelers in the world. Letting a little girl get the drop on you," Lucius sneered in disbelief, "absolutely disgraceful. Not befitting of a pureblood. Especially of your status." Bellatrix started to protest, but Lucius cut her off. "The Dark Lord would like to see you at your nearest convenience, Bella," he drawled, then strode out of the room, his robes billowing in a fashion that reminded her all too much of Severus.
"You know that the Dark Lord doesn't like to be kept waiting—"
"You cunt, who taught you that? Hmmm? I taught you how to read His moods and decipher His codes months ago. Don't you dare tell me what I already know!" Bellatrix nearly screamed at Ginny.
"You're just upset that I defeated you in front of Lucius," she challenged.
Bellatrix looked ready to fight again, but instead squared her shoulders as she walked toward the door. "Maybe when the Dark Lord isn't waiting for me, blood traitor."
"Wait!" Ginny yelled, catching up to her. The redhead pointed her wand and muttered a spell, looking Bellatrix up and down. When she was done, all traces of their fight had been erased. The sweat on her face, the wrinkles in her robes, all gone.
Bellatrix merely sneered and walked away. Ginny was not expecting an expression of gratitude. In fact, she was expecting a swift rebuttal and another screaming match to ensue, but the fact that it did not proved that Bellatrix was not as displeased with Ginny's continued existence as she appeared to be.
She had no idea why she was helping Bellatrix. Maybe she had the same weakness for the mad witch that their Master did. There was a reason she was still in the Dark Lord's favor, after all. Who didn't appreciate a little chaos?
End Flashback
"I could be a spy for the Order for all you know," Ginerva said mysteriously. "I'm going to go find Potter and his friends."
Ginerva opened the door and walked into the hallway of the train. She passed many people she knew, but again, they ignored her. Did they not remember her? Or were they too preoccupied with their own problems to even notice she was there? She continued walking down the long hallway, lost in thought, but still completely aware of her surroundings. She noticed her snarky potions professor walking toward her with a nasty glare on his face. As Snape passed her, he drew back his shoulder and rammed it into her.
"Ms. Weasely! Please do have the decency to watch where you are going," he straightened his robes and scoffed in his usual bored tone. She sent him a questioning look, making it just bold enough so that he would notice it, but not nearly obvious enough for anyone else to. Snape simply raised an eyebrow at her. To the other students, it may have seemed like a challenge, but Ginerva knew what it was.
"But Professor, you bumped into me!" Ginerva fired back, showing some of the Weasely temper that usually got her into trouble. Normally, she would have brushed Snape off and continued on her way, but Severus had sent her an open invitation to fight him. This would solidify her cover as the innocent schoolgirl who hated all Slytherins as well as give him an excellent reason to make up a meeting time. And of course, he always loved to test out her acting skills.
"Fifteen points from Gryffindor for mouthing off to a teacher. And detention tomorrow night at eight o'clock in my office. Am I understood?"
Ginerva pretended to be ready to protest, but instead, she let tears fill her eyes and whispered, "Yes, Professor Snape."
He walked away, muttering something about foolish Gryffindors losing house points before the train had even made it to Hogwarts. She turned and stormed toward the compartment she knew the Golden Trio would be inhabiting, stomping her feet in a show of childishness. She found their compartment—it really wasn't hard to look for the one with all of the silencing and secrecy charms. They were supposed to be the saviors of the world, couldn't they at least learn the art of subtlety? She could detect their spells from at least ten feet away!
She opened the door. When they saw her, they deactivated the charms and motioned for her to sit down. "Snape just gave me detention for tomorrow! I mean, can you believe that git? He bumps into me, and then has the guts to deduct house points and give me detention. Bloody hell, you'd think he has it in for me!" she ranted.
"Wait, Gin, you lost house points for us already?" Ron asked, incredulity present in his voice.
"Didn't you hear me, Ronald? He bumped into me, not the other way around! You're ridiculous!"
"Ron, just let it go! It's not her fault. You know how Snape is," Harry said when Ron looked ready to fight back.
Ginerva folded her arms over her chest and pretended to be cross with her brother. In reality, she didn't care. She had accomplished her goal for the day. She set up a meeting with Snape and started a fight within the Golden Trio. As far as she was concerned, today was a success. The four teenagers talked in stilted conversations for the rest of the trip to Hogwarts.
After the first years had been sorted, the students began to eat. Conversation was still awkward between Harry and Ron with Hermione trying to play the role of peacemaker. Ginerva said very little but kept her eyes open for any new relationships. Friendships, arguments, alliances and even crushes could be useful to her. As a spy, it was her job to know everything, and she had learned early on that spotting the weaknesses of others was one of the most important things a double agent could do.
She had forgotten how annoying it was to be with people that lacked any sense of restraint. Every emotion that ran through their minds was plastered on their faces for all to see.
They were so carefree. The war raging on outside the walls of Hogwarts did not concern them. Quidditch and NEWTs were the talk of the Gryffindor table. Ginerva could not believe that she used to want to befriend these imbeciles.
When all of the students had consumed enough of the house elves' excellent cooking, Dumbledore stood up to make his customary speech. "Good evening, students. Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. It is very agreeable to see you all again.
"Outside of these walls, there is a storm brewing. I must urge you not to bring that turmoil within the walls of our great school. Doing so will make this year perilous, as well as unnecessarily difficult. These are dangerous times, and I desire your safety. That is why I must request that you stay out of the Forbidden Forest, as always. Many of Lord Voldemort's supporters may be lurking near the outskirts of the wards that protect us.
"This is a year of many changes. We are getting older—this is merely a fact of life. For some of you, this is your last year at Hogwarts. For others, this is your first. I hope you all are comfortable with these changes, and I hope you will embrace them. I'm glad you are here, and I hope that this year is at least as good as your last. Now, off to bed." Dumbledore clapped his hands merrily.
As the student population was rising, she subtly inclined her head at Blaise and Draco, indicating that she wished to have a meeting with them later. She caught Snape's eye and scowled, conveying her distaste at being forced to spend time with such dense Gryffindors. To anyone else, this would look like her glaring at the hated potions professor for giving her a detention before the start of term. To them, it was a sign of her exasperation. He smirked back knowingly.
Ginerva passed through the doors to the Great Hall with the rest of the students. Instead of continuing up to Gryffindor Tower with the rest of her house, she exited the stairs on the seventh floor. She wandered around for a while, pretending to be engrossed in the artwork hanging on the walls for the benefit of any passerby who might glance in her direction.
Was that tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet still there? She snorted. Obviously, whoever chose the artwork to be hung had never spent much time in Malfoy Manor.
She used this time to alter herself from harmless girl to graceful spy. She straightened her shoulders, fixed her posture, and schooled her expression into one that she had unapologetically copied from Narcissa Malfoy.
When she arrived at the Room of Requirement, Draco and Blaise were already there. The room was decorated in Slytherin colors. The furniture was expensive, yet still aesthetically pleasing. It was obviously the sophisticated taste of a Malfoy. So Draco designed the room then? She found that she liked it.
She sat down on one of the comfortable leather couches. They stared at her expectantly.
Ginerva sighed. "Dumbledore believes that this year will be better than last year. He obviously has no idea what the Dark Lord is planning. That is a good thing. It means we can take him by surprise."
"So what is the plan?" Blaise asked curiously.
"You will know when the time comes," she avoided.
"When the time comes…" Draco echoed, his irritation mounting. He was to sacrifice his life for a plan that he knew nothing about. This both irked and scared him. How was he supposed to do his job?
"Yes, when the time comes," she said shortly.
"Bloody hell, this is insane," Draco muttered to himself.
"It's not insane, Malfoy. You have your orders from our Lord, now I expect you to follow them."
"You actually expect us to follow you without question? You, a Gryffindor traitor that has betrayed her friends seemingly without a second thought? No, thank you. Ginny, Ginerva, whatever the hell you want to be called, I support the Dark Lord but I don't trust you. Never you. This came out of nowhere and I refuse to be caught off guard by you betraying yet another side," Draco said forcefully. She was infuriating. Beautiful and obviously very powerful, but infuriating.
"The Dark Lord himself trusts me. You may support our Lord, but do you doubt his intelligence? Rest assured, Malfoy, his faith in me is warranted. I have swayed over the Dark Lord, Bellatrix Lestrange, Severus Snape, and even your parents. Do you really think all of these powerful men and women to be mistaken? Your own father trusts me, Draco. Do you want to disappoint your father?"
Blaise merely raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing. Draco's face turned various shades of red. Ginerva watched with fascination as it turned from extremely pale to beet red in a matter of seconds.
His friend saw the impending explosion and nudged him gently, reminding him where he was and who he was with. Draco took a breath and exhaled slowly, his usually impeccable Malfoy control returning.
Blaise studied Draco for a moment. From the moment Malfoys are born, the concept of self-control is hammered into their heads. Lucius Malfoy's composure never slipped in public, not once. His regal stance and rigid posture were legendary among other pureblood families. What went on behind the scenes, however, was quite a different story.
What was it about this girl that broke Draco's control? Blaise had only seen him lose it twice in his whole life. Once, his mother succumbed to a disease that had her bedridden for days. The family healer could not diagnose her. Draco had sat by her bed for hours on end, and when Blaise walked in the room to offer support, he had seen a single tear slide down his pale cheek.
Of course Narcissa recovered, no thanks to Professor Snape's brilliant mind and quick brewing. He deduced that a new dark object from Lord Malfoy's office had begun misbehaving. It began secreting a poison that she had breathed in while looking for some paperwork in her husband's drawers.
Needless to say, the object was taken by Snape and promptly destroyed. As far as Blaise knew, Malfoy Senior had no idea that his wife was even sick. He was also caught by surprise when his new purchase mysteriously vanished.
The second time was only a few weeks ago. Lucius Malfoy had gone on a rant so loud that it could be heard in Draco's bedroom, where he and Blaise were both residing. Malfoy had gone downstairs to see if his father required assistance. What he heard brought Draco to the brink.
His father was cursing the earth, the heavens and everything in between. The Dark Lord was not gaining power rapidly enough. The mudbloods were becoming smart and going into hiding. Narcissa had been slowly drawing away from him. Severus had been avoiding him lately. His only son was showing little interest in becoming a servant to his Master. Maybe if he had been a little stricter with his family they wouldn't be defying him now. Maybe Narcissa just needed to be taught a lesson about attending to her husband…
The attacks became more personal by the minute. Draco could easily listen to his father yell for hours about the state of affairs in the world and in Voldemort's army. But when Master Malfoy began screaming at the top of his lungs like a raving lunatic about Narcissa, a crashing sound was heard and Draco returned to his room shortly after.
His face was as beet red as it was now, and Draco refused to talk about what happened. Blaise had reluctantly dropped the matter. He knew as well as Draco did that his father was losing his control. Apparently, events like these were commonplace. Unfortunately, this one hit too close to home for the Malfoy heir to dismiss.
Blaise sighed. Something about this beautiful woman was shattering Draco's self-control. He would have to keep an eye on his best friend, should this trend continue.
While Draco was acquiring control of his face, Ginerva also thought about the boy. She had seen his father snap on more than one occasion. The boy was different though. He had a quieter anger. While Lucius would explode and shoot curses at anything that moved, Draco was slower to act. But both Malfoys shared the same trait: they never forgot, and they could hold one hell of a grudge.
She did not mean to question his reluctance to disappoint his father. Truth be told, it had slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. She knew Draco's devotion to his father had been at an all time high last year. She also knew that this summer had changed things between them. Severus had implied the nature of their newly strained relationship several times. And he would know—he was Draco's godfather, after all.
Ginerva inwardly cringed. This would not help their working relationship at all. But she did not need her new partners questioning her loyalties. After all she had done this summer to prove her worth and faithfulness to the cause, there were still disbelievers.
She couldn't blame them, though. They had not known about her involvement until today. She could not expect them to change their opinions of her overnight. Though Blaise was doing a remarkable job at being accepting…
Something about Draco infuriated her. Maybe it was his handsomeness that threw her off guard. She couldn't let it affect her mission.
She apologized. "I didn't come here to anger you. I only wish to tell you that I will require the services of Theodore Nott. Please tell him to meet me after dinner tomorrow night in the unused charms classroom on the fourth floor. Thank you for your time."
With a final glance at the flabbergasted Draco and the curious Blaise, she walked out of the room.
On her way back to Gryffindor Tower, she composed herself. It would harm her image as meek Ginny Weasley to be seen with so much power openly flying around her. She reigned in her magic and stepped into the Common Room.
There were many people still awake, but only one with their attention centered completely on the portrait.
Sylvia ran up to her. "Ginny, we need to talk." With protests from Ginerva, the annoying chit of a girl dragged her up to their room. This was the last thing she needed. She had much more important things to concentrate on.
"So, you spend the summer with this secret boyfriend of yours, and now on the first day back, you're sneaking out to see him again. What the hell is going on?"
"Nothing. Just let it go, Sylvia."
"Fine. For now. But I'm going to do everything in my power to find out who this boy is. This isn't healthy for you, Gin."
Ginerva just rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. Sylvia was becoming far too suspicious.
She would have to deal with her. Soon.
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