A/N I have realized the error of my ways. In my everlasting stupidity, I have been spelling Lucius Lucious. So now I will be spelling it the right way.
Title: The Protagonists
Chapter: Straw
Disclaimer: But Soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Draco Malfoy is the sun. Err... Something like that. Anyway, it's not mine.
Rating: Pg-13 (for no apparent reason except for that I have nothing better to do besides up the rating and somebody dies in this chapter.)
A/N 2: Fifty galleons if you can figure out where the titles is from. Read the story, then review with your answer. (Okay, we all know it's a gimmick to get you to review, but at least I'm not threatening you with an eight-hundred page hardcover book.)
***
Both the room and Narcissa had been cleaned up. Her pale gold hair fell in thick waves to her knees in perfectly brushed tresses. Her eyelids were the lightest shade of silver and her lips were as soft and pink as rose petals. Narcissa, even at thirty-eight, was probably the most beautiful witch ever to grace the earth.
She was miserable. The makeup was even gummier then usual-she'd had to use her reserve stores after Lucius destroyed her usual supplies. The lipstick was old and tasted horrid, and her hair had taken an hour and a half to brush into order. Not to mention the layers and layers of various substances that had gone into covering up that horrid black eye.
Life would be so much easier if Lucius allowed her a wand. She could have been looking like this in thirty seconds-and it needn't have felt so disgusting either. Oh hell, life would be so much easier without Lucius in it. But Narcissa had learned long ago that wishing was useless and time consuming.
Narcissa turned back toward the mirror. This was the last time. The last time... Biting her lip for a moment, then scolding herself for marring the lipstick, she touched the mirror.
An excruciating pain rippled through her body, honing in on her head. She screamed as metaphorical knives ripped through her perfect scalp, destroying her. With all her willpower, she fought it.
***
Ginny was in Divination class when the headache hit. It was a dull, throbbing pain at first-hardly more then a nuisance. It gradually increased to a steady ache, bothering her and making her lose concentration. She wasn't expecting the sense-depriving, mind-destroying pain that hit her next.
Someone was clawing at her head-her brain! They were inside her head, trying to tear her cerebellum apart. Ginny screamed and flung herself from her chair. The table fell over with a crash and the crystal ball shattered on the floor.
Her fellow students turned to gape at her, eyes wide, as the hysterical half-mad teenager writhed on the floor. Clawing madly at her own hair, Ginny sought to tear the invisible hands from her mind. Mentally, she dug her nails into the villain's fingers and pulled with all her might.
***
Narcissa felt it as the opposing force gripped her hands and mind and yanked. There was one brief flash of agony, and then the world stopped. Narcissa died.
Her heart continued beating, unaware of this event. Her head tilted and her eyes blinked. Her lips curved into a strange grimace that showed all of her teeth. It could loosely be interpreted as a smile, if you had a good imagination.
Narcissa's body still lived. Her mind, however, did not. Her memories, dreams, thoughts, and wishes had been pawned off on Ginny Weasley, but her actual mind had died.
Giving it no real contemplation, Narcissa tipped the mirror over. The glass shards spread across the floor around her. Vaguely curious, Narcissa dropped to the floor and leaned over inquiringly. She picked up a piece, examined it, and squeezed it in her fist.
Her eyes went wide and she let out an animal howl as the uneven corners penetrated her skin. She opened her hand and shook it violently, but the shard was embedded in her flesh. Letting out a shrill whine of pain, the woman brought her hand up to her mouth to lick the blood off.
Her teeth latched onto the mirror shard and she pulled.
The world faded into oblivion around her.
Narcissa howled.
***
Ginny awoke. She was sprawled across the floor and glass fragments were scattered around her. This was not an unfamiliar scene. She struggled to her feet, her mind still pulsing with the remnants of the mind-shattering pain that had previously afflicted her. She was suddenly aware that several things had just happened.
She had a whole new set of memories, of thoughts. It felt like she was carrying another person inside of her. But they were just memories-nothing more.
She was aware that something catastrophic had happened to the bearer of these memories.
Draco Malfoy had just entered the room, door slamming open. The rest of the world immediately became the background.
The aforementioned Malfoy was heading toward her, and he looked as if someone had just come at him with a muggle chainsaw.
Draco, who looked somewhat like a white cat that had been chased up a tree by a ferocious dog, spoke thus: "What the hell happened here?"
Ginny closed her eyes and answered him, her voice a hoarse whisper that rasped in her throat. "Your mother is dead."
She expected him to scream, to weep, or to deny it. He didn't. "She isn't. I passed her in the hallway coming up here." The words surprised even him. Had he seen her? He didn't really remember. He had been in such a hurry to get up here he hadn't really noticed.
The door crashed open again.
***
In the depths of Narcissa's ravaged mind, the shredded fragments of her memories surfaced.
Her thoughts took shape.
'?' ????? !!! ... -(~~~~~~?) !
Puzzled, she tried to form the nameless thoughts into the newly discovered thing that gave its name as 'language'.
Waat 's th's? 'urts! Waat 're t'ey dooiing wit' ther mooths?I c'n do it!
Her mind triggered when it saw two of the students. The names floated to the top of her head unburdened. Draco. Ginny.
Narcissa reached out and tugged a piece of wood from one boy's grasp. The child gave a startled squeak and ducked under the table. Words floated to her, connecting themselves with the wood. Curious, Narcissa pointed the twig at the boy under the table and recited them clearly. "Aveda Kedavra!" The boy went limp, as if asleep. How funny! She should do this again.
The other children were letting out howls. They appreciated it! Smiling at their kind acceptance of her, Narcissa pointed her wand at another girl and opened her mouth to repeat the phrase.
Suddenly, Draco and Ginny had latched themselves onto her arms. They wanted to stop her! How mean. Or perhaps they wanted to play as well? Yes, that was it. Words drifted distantly around her head and Narcissa picked one that sounded right. "What game shall we play today, Draco?" She asked. The boy's face froze. His eyes opened and he nearly let go of her arms.
Ginny looked at her, then back at Draco. "She's mad." The girl said simply, and renewed her grip on the older woman's wrist. It hurt.
She made her own syllables, trying vainly to make herself understood. " 'Oo dun wan' me ta play! Meeeeeeeeeeeeeen! Bad Draco! Bad Draco! Bad Ginny! Bad Ginny! I 'ill speak the 'ords on oo ifffff ya dun let meh speak th'm." She told them sulkily. An idea struck her. "I 'ow! 'member whennn I said cestions to ya 'nd ya answered meh? Play that!"
Ginny turned and stared at Draco. "What did she say?"
Draco's face was completely emotionless. He answered her flatly. "She said, 'You don't want me to play. Mean. Bad Draco, bad Draco, bad Ginny, bad Ginny. I will speak the words on you if you don't let me speak them. I know, remember when I said questions to you and you answered me? Play that.' " He looked at his partner. "She's referring to the games of riddles we used to play." Draco turned back to his mother and said gently, "Riddles, mum?"
The woman nodded enthusiastically. "Yessssssss! 'ittles! Ittles!" Then her voice, thick and unintelligible, changed. She spoke clearly.
"The biggest reflection you've ever seen,
I'm as blue as the grass is green!"
Draco nodded. "I remember that one. It's the sky."
Narcissa nodded and continued. "Good boy!
The first of the last,
The second you'll lose.
The third to move
The birds in the air,
The fourth marks
The beginning of an end
And the end of all time."
Both Draco and Ginny gaped at her. Biting his lip, the blond boy answered, "I don't know."
His mother's cheerful expression vanished and she slapped him hard. "Stupid boy! Now you will die." She didn't really know what the words meant, but they seemed to come attached to the spell on her lips. She leveled the stick at him.
"AVEDA KEDEVRA!"
***
A/N Oh my. Cliff hanger. By the way, brownie points to anyone who figures out Narcy's lethal riddle.
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Draco and Ginny belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Warner Bros and various other corporations. They are being used here without permission and/or affiliation with the above. None of the authors listed here make any profit from these stories.