Title: The Protagonists

Chapter: The Voice of Insanity…

Disclaimer: It’s not mine, please don’t fine, this is a lousy rhyme.

Rating: PG

><><><

The disturbance in the air from the broom taking off ruffled Ginny’s flaming hair. She watched in wry amusement as Hermione wrapped her arms so tightly around Harry that Ginny was surprised it didn’t cut off the circulation. The broom rose slowly, almost hesitantly, into the air as if it didn’t want to leave Hogwarts. Above it, the sky glittered with the beauty of the dawning sun.

Suddenly, as if deciding that it might as well get the whole thing over with, the broom leapt into the air and sped off over the Forbidden Forest. A distant wail floated back to them as the two Gryffindors faded from sight. Ginny tilted her head so that she was looking straight into the glare of the dawning sun. "That would be Hermione-eternal broom-aphobic."

The figure next to her, arms crossed over his chest, said nothing. If someone were to have studied his pose, they would have realized that his hands were clenched so tightly the nails were drawing blood. They might have noted his unusually silver eyes-not gray, but translucent, shimmering silver-were glaring intensely at the horizon where Harry and Hermione had so recently vanished.

Ginny turned to face her silent partner. "Look, Mr. Icicle, we have to work together for who-knows-how-long, and I will not put up with your ‘Lesser Families’ crap. I’m a Weasley. Who bloody cares? I don’t see what you have against me personally. I haven’t done anything to you-yet. Why encourage me to?" she said, exasperated, and threw her hands into the air.

He turned to face her, his fixed sneer becoming even more sneer-like then usual. "Because you have red hair, freckles, too little money, and are a Gryffindor. Maybe we’ll eventually learn to not verbally beat each other to bloody pulps, but until then I will continue to insult you." He paused for minute and then, in an amused voice asked, "Mr. Icicle?"

Ginny was baffled. The last comment didn’t fit with the rest of his angry tone at all, and besides that, his lips hadn’t moved at all. Rather than saying anything, she just glared at him. She violently wished that he fell over with some awful disfiguring skin disease which would mottle that oh-so-perfect face, or perhaps lose all of that silky hair.

><><><

The first task they had to do wasn’t difficult, but it was boring. They had to cast a strengthening spell on every single stone in the astronomy tower. It was apparently the first tower built and was so rickety it was rumored that it swayed with the wind. Since neither Draco nor Ginny wanted to drag a stepladder up six flights of stairs and Professor Sinistra didn’t believe in chairs, they had to use what was available.

The only thing in the entire tower that met the required six feet Ginny needed to reach the top row of stones was Draco. The result was a rather wobbly Ginny trying to complete the entire top row and simultaneously balancing on Draco’s shoulders. Beneath her, Draco held onto her ankles so tight his knuckles turned paler then they were already.

"One… more…" Ginny croaked, her voice hoarse from all the dust in the hallway. A cough that made Ginny brace herself against the wall shook the Slytherin below her. She glanced down quickly to make sure that he was still staring at the ground and reluctantly turned back to the last row.

"Good. It’s not enough that my shoulders are going to ache for all eternity, my mouth is so full of dust I need a broom, and we’ve been up here for five bloody hours, but I can’t look any direction but down for fear of looking up your robe. Next time we do this, wear pants underneath!" Draco complained, periodically breaking the tirade with coughs.

"Next time?" She echoed, disbelieving as she finished the last stone.

"Do you think this is the only tower in the school?" came the sarcastic reply.

Ginny ignored him. "No. I simply didn’t think the rest needed this treatment. And you can let me down now, I’m done."

"Ah. That merely proves your stupidity. And if I wasn’t in a hurry, I’d make you either jump or fall down, but since I want to get out of here now, I’ll kneel." Draco drawled without malice.

Ginny carefully stepped back onto solid ground. Behind her, Draco stretched, trying to loosen up the muscles that had been supporting a hundred and fifteen pounds for the past half hour. Stumbling downstairs in a sleepy haze, the pair managed to navigate their way to the Great Hall, where Ginny abruptly sat down and began to suck in the clean air.

"Are you okay? Do you need to go to the infirmary?" There it was again. The voice that was Draco’s, but didn’t come from his mouth. His lips remained unmoving, his expression blank.

Pictures flashed across her mind, vivid memories that were not hers. Images flickering across her mind that had never been there before. A castle. A dragon. Blood spilled across pale flagstones, marring the smooth surface. Ginny jerked convulsively, trying to force the visions away. All around her, people crying, blood spilling. And then one long, high pitched, terror-ridden scream. Someone was dying! As quickly as it had started, the scream was cut off and a fresh wave of blood ran over Ginny’s feet. She was swimming in it! Blood, everywhere. An ocean of human blood.

Ginny screamed.

><><><

A roaring inferno burned around her, Red flame speckled with the yellow gold of fire. It was on the carpet! Oh god, not the carpet! It was swallowing up the rug, eating away at the rich hand-made silk. She fled, screaming for someone to come and put it out. But the flame had a life of its own now. It ate everything, even metal. It lapped against the heavy door Ginny had slammed behind her, reducing it to ashes in a matter of seconds.

She was running as fast as her legs would carry her, the impossible fire chasing after her, matching her speed. She got the feeling that it could easily catch her if it so chose, but it had a different purpose in mind. It wanted to eat her, savor the flavor of the marrow in her bones. It considered her soul a delicacy and couldn’t wait to sample it.

She rounded a corner and came face to face with a dead end. Whirling, she pressed herself against the smooth marble, willing the end to come quickly. She felt the heat all around her, pressing through the pores in her skin, suffocating her in warmth. She slowly opened her eyes, noticing for the first time that there was no smoke. She stared into the center of the inferno as something rose from inside of it.

A shape stepped through the blaze, and the fire suddenly became the background scene. A man, impossibly tall wearing a black cloak that concealed all but the hands that protruded from the sleeves. They were beautiful hands. Nails clipped to perfection graced the ends of the fingers. They were perfect in every way. Every essence of Ginny’s being begged to see what the face looked like.

The left hand, which had been balled into a fist slowly opened to reveal a short knife. The hand gave it a light toss and caught the handle between the thumb and index fingers. In that instant, she knew that she was going to be destroyed by that knife. She wasn’t particularly afraid. To be destroyed by such beautiful hands would be a blessing.

The hand drew back, aiming carefully, and with the precise air of a professional, threw it.

><><><

Ginny bolted awake, her eyes snapping open to take in the white walls of the Infirmary. The first thing she noticed was Malfoy sprawled across the bed opposite her. As he was fully clothed and laying on top of the sheets, Ginny assumed that he had fallen asleep while watching over her.

Propping herself up on her elbows so that she had a better view of the world, Ginny twisted her self around so that she was facing him. "Malfoy?" she asked tentatively. She was still shaken up from the nightmare and rather confused as to why the blond male opposite her would care enough to look after her, which explained her slightly timid approach.

His eyes flew open and he jerked upright. Ginny was faintly surprised that he woke up at such a quiet query. He gave her his best glare. "Is there any particular reason why you woke me from my peaceful slumber at…" He glanced at the clock for confirmation. "Eleven-thirty at night?" Draco snarled.

"No," she answered sweetly, all traces of timidity gone. "just wondering what happened, why you’re sitting here too, and while we’re at it-Why the hell do I sometimes here your voice when your lips don’t moved."

He blinked, thrown off balance by her sudden change of mood and the last statement. "As an answer to your first question- How the hell should I know? Maybe you swallowed too much dust. For the second-Because I don’t want my partner to die and leave me with the hassle of saving the world all by myself. And for last-What the bloody hell are you talking about? Have you gone mad?" His face suddenly changed from scornful to fake surprise. Sarcasm oozed from his voice. "Oh! I’m so sorry! Allow me to correct my verbal error. Have you become even more mad since last time I checked your sanity levels?"

Stung by the open animosity, Ginny bristled. "Just forget I asked and shut up, Mr. Icicle." Half the time she addressed him, she found herself referring to him as ‘Mr. Icicle’.

"Whatever you say, Lava Hair." Draco answered lightly, his eyes dancing. Ginny stared at him. Once again, his mouth hadn’t moved.

><><><

Fifty miles away, Hermione’s terror level finally dropped from the record-breaking high that it had been at for the majority of the day. She hated brooms. Riding in an airplane was one thing. Riding on a broom with nothing but a twig between you and the foreboding ground thousands of feet below was quite another.

Stretching out on the sleeping bag beneath her, she fell asleep easily.

><><><

Hermione actually didn’t get very much sleep. She was awoken at approximately one o’clock in the morning by the sudden swoosh of wind and dull thump as someone dismounted from a broom. Grumbling unintelligently, she sat up and rubbed at her eyes. "Dun get up so early, Harry. Or at least don’t land so close. I dun wanna be woken up when the sky’s not li-li-li-light." Her complaint was interrupted by a long yawn.

A small chuckle floated down from above her. Wearily, Hermione looked up and the elbows which she had propped herself up on gave in. She stared at the person towering above her and attempted to call up her extensive vocabulary which at the moment was missing.

The figure above her smiled down on her in good humor. "Hello, Hermione." Ron said gently.

><><><

A/N Don’t despair, Ron lovers! He’s one of the major characters in the story. You didn’t think he’d leave his poor, sweet Hermione out there all alone in the wild, did you?

* * *

Review This Story