CHAPTER SEVEN - In Which We Almost Begin Romance in Hogsmeade

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Bright, white sunlight rained down from the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall. As each day passed, the chatter of breakfast time lessened as more and more students returned home for a few days with their families. They would all return for the Yule Ball on Christmas night. Ginny pushed away her breakfast plate and slithered out from her tight squeeze between Lavender and Ron at the Gryffindor table. She couldn't believe she didn't have a date for the winter ball and it was only 5 days until the big event. Yvette was no where to be found but Ginny wasn't worried. She had probably just slept in; after all, it was winter vacation.

After bidding her friends a quick 'see you later', Ginny exited the Great Hall in search of the breaker of her wand. She barely had time to close the massive doors behind her before Draco grabbed her arm from out of the shadows.

"Let's go," he said, pulling her with him as he walked swiftly. Ginny practically ran to keep up with his hurried strides.

"Well, good morning to you too," Ginny replied in a huff. "How did you manage to get passes for Hogsmeade anyway?"

"I didn't. We're sneaking out."

"Sneaking out?"

"Yes." He pulled her towards the Potion's classroom. Besides the closed entrance hung a portrait of an aristocratic man holding an angry looking Persian cat. The man and his pet stood on grass that suspiciously resembled that of the Great Lawn. The painting's frame was made of lacquer intertwined with silver, standing out yet complimenting the stone-brick walls behind it.

"Whoa! Where did that come from?" Ginny exclaimed.

"You have to know where to look to see it," Draco explained in his usual condescending tone. "It's a glamour for Slytherins only."
"Then why I can see it now?" she asked.

"I know where to look," he replied.

"Oh. That makes A LOT of sense." Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Good, it should." With that, Draco abruptly kicked the cat in the painting. Ginny's chocolate eyes widened as his foot struck the canvas. The white feline opened its mouth wide to snarl at them. Strangely, the mouth continued to expand until it resembled a saliva filled void lined with teeth and carpeted with tongue.

"What the--" Before she could protest, Draco grabbed her wrist again and jumped into the painting and through the cat's mouth, taking her with him. Ginny squeezed her eyes shut, dreading the wet, slimy landing on the grimy tongue. Instead, they landed smoothly on one of Hogmeade's brick-layered streets.

Hogsmeade was bustling with last minute holiday shopping. Despite starting the day by jumping into the mouth of a ferocious snarling cat, Ginny held a mirthful disposition.

"Where's the wand shop?" she asked, her voice light and cherry.

"Down that block, but we won't be going there for a while."

"Why not?" Ginny asked.

"I need to visit the charms store," he answered.

"Why?"

"Just come with me, Weasley." He began to walk off.

"Whatever you say, Malfoy," Ginny muttered under her breath as she hurried to catch up with him.

They traveled down the busy street, avoiding the pedestrian traffic as best as possible. Draco entered a shadowy little shop and she slipped in after him quietly. Her jaw dropped; it was obvious that this was a dark charms store. At the back of the store stood an array of seven large bookcases, all of which were covered from top to bottom with large, dusty volumes. Voldemort, himself could probably learn something from the large expanse of dark arts books. Illegal artifacts lay in crystalline display cases. Objects of lesser evil sat on exposition pedestals and hung on ill-lit walls. One that caught Ginny's eye was a simple pearl perched on a satin cushion. She leaned towards it only to find it an ever-swirling sea of faerie light.

"Hello, Draco darling," cooed an old woman sitting in a corner. Ginny nearly jumped at the elderly witch's demure voice. Brushing a strand of snowy white hair out of her face, she got to her feet, leaning her weight against a cane carved with animal designs. "It's been a while since I saw you last. My…how you've grown."

Draco gave her an embarrassed grin. "Hello Mrs. Weatherspoon," he replied.

She was a small, proud, grandmother-ly woman with twinkling green eyes and comfortably wrinkled skin. She wore a classic, gray witch's robe with the many uneven layers and long pocket-like sleeves. The shop suited her persona so well she almost blended right into it.
"Hi," Ginny spoke up shyly.

"And who's this?" She turned to Ginny in her red and gold robes. "A Gryffindor girlfriend? Draco, I'm shocked." Then noticing Ginny's dismayed expression, she added, "In a pleasant way."

"I'm not -" Ginny started but stopped when a voice sounded in her head.

"Let it go, Wealsey," it said.

"Malfoy?" Ginny thought with surprise. His voice rang loud and clear in her mind, but his lips hadn't moved.
"Yes, it's me," he mind-spoke.
Ginny shifted her eyes from side to side, scanning the room furiously in search for the true source of the Malfoy-like voice. Her brow furrowed, as she found none.

"I'm going crazy," she muttered aloud.
"Oh, is that why you brought her here?" Mrs. Weatherspoon nodded understandingly. "Insanity issues?"

"No…I meant-" Ginny began.

"She means she's crazy with love," Draco interjected smoothly. "We both are." He paused to wrap his arms around her waist and draw her in close to him with a sickening smile. "For each other."

Ginny glared at him, while mentally yelling at the Draco-like voice inside her head. "He's exaggerating a bit," she said, pushing out of his hold.
"Hey, Weasley…" There it was again, his little drawl in her head.

"Shut up!" she thought angrily, trying to repress the voice to no avail.
"Make me," he teased.
Ginny glared at Draco, uncertain if he was the true ventriloquist of if she really was mad. He retorted with a mischievous wink.
"Why are you glaring?" the Draco voice continued.

Ginny was about to respond when Mrs. Weatherspoon spoke up. "Well, you two have fun," she gushed. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"We're just looking," Draco replied.

The elderly witch smiled and withdrew to a small room at the back of the store, leaving Ginny and Draco to stand there in silence.

"Why are you glaring?" the voice asked again.

Ginny stood awkwardly next to Draco, freshly out of his abrupt embrace. Was she hearing things? Was Malfoy mind-speaking to her?

"Weasley, it's me, Malfoy."
"I don't believe you," she thought back stubbornly.
"Weasley, it's me, Malfoy," he said aloud. She looked up at him half in surprise.

"Do it again," she said.

"Weasley, it's me, Malfoy. This is the last time," he mind-spoke.

Ginny stared at him wide-eyed. "What are you doing?"

"It's this thing," he explained, picking up the pearl. "It's a mindball." The object's coat turned blue upon Draco's touch.

"Oh."

"We're now linked by it."

"Oh," Ginny said again dumbly. "Is that a good thing?"

"You can't lie when you're mind-speaking."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Do you want it or not, Weasley?" he asked.

"I don't know! It's kind of creepy and sudden. Isn't it dark magic?"

He sighed. "Let's get out of here." He withdrew a sack of galleons and dumped them on the counter. "Mrs. Weatherspoon!" he called. "We're leaving. I left you money on the table."

"What'd you buy?" she asked from the backroom.

"The mindball."

"Good choice. Have fun."

"Thanks. Bye."

"Bye, Draco. Bye, Ms. Weasley."

"Bye, Mrs. Weatherspoon."

And so Draco and Ginny left the shop into the bright winter morning.

*************
"Long time, no see," Lucius sneered. Yvette had been dragged to the dungeons that tunneled deep underground beneath the notorious Malfoy manor. She looked tiredly up at Lucius.

"What do you want, Uncle? Is this yet another brilliant plan for resurrecting the Dark Lord?"

He looked disdainfully upon the girl kneeling on the stone floors, bound and soon to be broken. "You're trash, just like your mother," he said finally, hate glistening in his steely eyes.

Yvette opened her mouth, only to close it. She wouldn't waste her words on him. Her uncle bent down and scrutinized her face, his own breaking into a sinister grin.

"As a matter of fact, yes. This is another plan to aid the Dark Lord's rise to supremacy."

Yvette raised an eyebrow. "Harry Potter won't come after me, if that's what you're after."

"The Dark Lord wants more than just the Potter boy. Can you guess who he wishes to be brought here?"

"Ginny," she answered without thinking, her voice flat and grim.

"Very good my dear niece." There was something about the way he said 'dear' that sent shivers up her spine.

"Why her?"

"Your muggle-loving friend opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"I already knew that."

"The Dark Lord is granting me a favor, Yvette. With you here, the Weasley girl will come to save your pitiful existence. After her will come her brother and with him, Harry Potter."

Yvette blinked. "How convoluted."

Lucius ignored this. "I'm sure you know the Virginia Weasley and my son are bound to each other by an ageless curse. If the order of the imprecation is not followed, both she and Draco will die."

"Not to mention you and the rest of the Malfoys," Yvette added silently.

"Along with the Dark Lord," Lucius continued. "The Weasley girl shared a piece of her spirit with him through his childhood diary. That ties him into the curse with the rest of us."

"So killing Ginny is going to solve everything," she snapped, her voice coated with sarcasm.

"We won't kill her." His lips broke into another sardonic grin. "At least not right away. We plan to remove her soul and set it to flames, an experience similar to the dementor's kiss. With no soul bound to Draco, the curse is temporarily postponed until another pair is born."

Yvette didn't speak, but it didn't matter for Lucius continued.

"My family will not be soiled and the Dark Lord shall live and conquer all." Predictably, he chuckled mirthlessly after speaking.

"You're so full of shit, Lucius," Yvette spat with disgust.

Without warning, he grabbed a fistful of her soft, blonde hair.

"You're very beautiful, my little niece. That has gotten you out of many tight corners, but don't think for a second it'll save you from me."

Yvette winced in pain as his violent grip. She offered him her darkest glare. "Fuck off, Lucius," she gritted out. For a moment she thought he was going to slap her. Instead he smiled toothily, the wry cruelty shinning through his pallid eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said finally.

"Why? Too scared?" she countered without thinking. The sharp pain in her scalp had numbed to that from a dull knife, but resumed its intensity as Lucius pulled even harder.

He laughed. "We both know the answer to that." He leaned closer. "Yvette, does Weasley know you have Malfoy blood in you?"

She didn't answer. She should have seen this coming.

"Didn't think so," Lucius sneered. He released his hold on her hair.

"Wouldn't it be better to just let her marry Draco?" she blurted out, resisting the strong urge to massage her throbbing head where he assaulted her.

"No! My bloodline will not be tainted with muggle-loving sewage!"

"Don't be so melodramatic," Yvette replied matter-of-factly. "Besides, the Weasleys may be poor, but you are the lowest scum on this earth."

Now he did strike her, causing her face to sting with pain. "Don't forget that the scum you're talking about is your own family," he hissed.

Tears were welling up in Yvette's eyes, but they were stubbornly held back. How did she manage to roll into this mess? What did she do in her past life to deserve an uncle like Lucius? "Family?" she said, her voice strangled. "Were you my family when my father died, leaving us penniless? We came to you for help and - "

He stood up and kicked her in her stomach. She buckled over, the piercing blow of his steel toed boot stabbing her solar plexus.

"I was generous with my offer of servitude," he retorted. Two bright red spots of anger colored his otherwise pale cheeks.

Yvette glared up at his towering figure. "Generous?" she laughed without humor.

"You father should have never even looked twice at the half-blood you call your mother. You're nothing more than a mere accident, Yvette. An accident. You are what destroyed your mother's life, not me."

She tore her eyes away from his. The ground blurred through her tears as a bitter, salty drop fell to the floor. Was it only a few weeks ago that she relived the painful memory of her first visit to the Malfoy Manor after speaking to Draco? Who would know she would return to face his father…again.

"You know I'm right," Lucius chuckled balefully. He turned on his heel and strode out of the dungeons. The clang of the cell door signaled his exit, echoing emptily long after his departure.

Yvette looked around the dim dungeons for any means of escape. A single candle was the only thing that suggested hope, but like her chance of breaking free, it too burned low. The stone tiles on the floor were old and cracked, dappled with suspicious stains on the once smoothly paved ground. The rays of the pitiful candle barely reached the corners of the cell, faintly illuminating thick cobwebs. Yvette shuddered and focused her eyes on the flame atop the melting wax.

"Please don't come for me, Ginny," she thought.

**********

"Damn! I lost it!" Draco cried, staring after the mindball as it rolled towards the gutters. With firebolt speed, he chased the glowing silver orb. Like the snitch, it seemed to avoid him with a vengeance. The sun was high in the December sky, its radiance glinting off the mindball's currently metallic coat.

"Lost what?" Ginny was startled by his sudden yell and dash after the shiny round object headed for the gutters.

"This!" Draco triumphantly held up the mindball, smiling at his own victory in the pursuit.

Ginny's eyes narrowed as his voice resonated in her mind. .

"Stop it," she said. The way his voice echoed in her head felt all too alien to be comfortable.

"Stop what?"

"Stop the mind dialogue. It feels strange."

"The mindball lets us mind-speak."

"Apparently it does, doesn't it?" Ginny answered dryly. "Stop it. This is scary. I've read an article about those things. They don't work."

"Well, it's working, isn't it? Besides, Mrs. Weatherspoon's charms always work." Draco was indignant.

"Is this dark magic, Malfoy?"

"Obviously, Weasley."

"You used dark magic on me?"

"Not really. The mindball is more of a spell on its self. It doesn't affect its users."

"Why did you want it?"

"Because you can't lie when you mindspeak," he explained. "And if we're ever in a tight situation, that would really help," he added silently.

"Right, whatever," Ginny began. "Look, this is DARK magic, Malfoy. You may have been around it all your life with your terri- your father and all, but I don't want anything to do with it, okay?"

Draco's eyes darkened as she mentioned his 'terrible father'. "Relax, Weasley," he said. "The ministry wouldn't allow Mrs. Weatherspoon to sell these if they were dangerous. All her charms are watered down versions of the real thing. Besides, most dark magic isn't dangerous. Not if you have control, experience and understanding."

"Which you must have a lot of," Ginny snapped irritably, unsure if her statement was sarcastic or not.

His eyes darkened another shade, but he only smirked. "Of course."

They continued walking towards 'Olivander's'. The diagon alley shop had a twin owner and shop in Hogsmeade.

"How do you know Mrs. Weatherspoon anyway?" Ginny asked.

"She was a Ravenclaw in Hogwarts," Draco began. "Unfortunately for her, she fell in love with a Slytherin. He was a death eater. When he tried to back out of the deal, You-know-who killed him and widowed her. She put together a dark charms store and she's still there. My mother gives her money once in a while just to help when business is slow."

"Oh," Ginny said awkwardly. She reflected on how little she actually knew Draco and how much the past hour revealed. "She seemed nice."

"She is. When I was a kid, she'd take me to the winter flea market every year."

"What happened?" Ginny asked carefully.

"I grew up, I guess. My father wanted more control of my life and mother's forbidden to see her anymore."

They walked in a silence for a while.

"I'm sorry," Ginny said slowly. "My family is not great either. We're literally without a galleon, but there's the love, you know? Still, there are seven of us kids. Sometimes, I feel just lost in the shuffle. I'm just the youngest Weasley, another redhead. Ron's little sister."

"Too much money, too little heart is where I come from. You have it the other way around." Draco pointed out. "But would you change your family?"

"No," Ginny answered immediately. "No matter what, I still love every one of them. Would you change yours?"

"No," he lied.

Ginny slowly moved towards Draco. Finally she lay her head on his shoulder, half expecting him to push her away. He pulled an arm around her and drew her closer to him. She smiled and snuggled into him as they continued walking.

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End of Chapter Seven

Chapter seven was what we had before we started coming up with new stuff. We went through writer's hell trying to come up with romance. None of it came through in this chapter. We basically just posted what we had before. The good stuff is coming next chapter. At least, we hope it will.

My lord, you have no idea what we tried doing for Draco and Ginny. I think we spent two weeks writing this scene in which Draco and Ginny go out for ice cream. We made this nice old fashioned shoppe and everything, but then it wasn't going anywhere. So they went out to lunch instead. Ack! Both scenes will not be used. Okay, enough mindless blabbing.

Thanks for being patient with us.

 

 

PS: We love you now, but we'd love you more if you submitted a review. Please do. ^_~

 

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