Shadows Between, Part 03; D/G, N/G, NC-17
Part 3
Ginny couldn’t remember why she had been so distracted, but Hermione’s attack galvanized her into action. She couldn’t just sit there feeling sorry for herself anymore. Someone was out there, attacking Gryffindor girls. She had to help, however she could. Anyone else in the dorms could be vulnerable, and the attacker might even switch houses. Ginny decided she had to act, and she had to visit Snape. He had hinted that he would be able to help her recover her lost memories. If it was true, she would then have more clues as to her attacker’s identity.
On the way to Snape’s office, Neville bumped into Ginny. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked, looking extremely nervous.
“Look, Nev, I was on my way...”
“I’m sorry,” he blurted suddenly. “Look, the other day... I just...” He took a deep breath. “Ron asked me to look after you, me and Harry. And I... I like you. And the attack made me realize, I can’t wait to tell you. I don’t know if it’s just going to be girls that are attacked, or anyone late at night. I go to the library or to the greenhouses, it could be anyone. And I want you to know I’ll be there for you, for whatever you need.” Neville was almost blushing, his words tripping over themselves in his haste. “It’s just... what if you didn’t wake up? What if Madam Pomfrey couldn’t heal you? I had to let you know. I can’t wait on it anymore. I... I like you, Ginny. And it’s okay if you don’t like me back like that, but I had to let you know. And I’ll protect you, no matter what. I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt.”
Ginny’s breath was caught in her throat and she couldn’t breathe. “I... I didn’t know.”
He looked almost ashamed, and it seemed almost normal between them again. “I know. I wouldn’t have even... I don’t want you to feel weird around me, but I think you are already. And I don’t want this to ruin our friendship. But... If we don’t know if we’re going to wake up in the morning, it makes us all that much more precious.”
The strange tightness in her chest eased. “Yes, that’s true.” She leaned in and gave Neville a tight hug. “I do like you as a friend, Neville. I don’t know if it’ll grow to more than that or not. I don’t know what anything will be.” Ginny pulled back and kissed his cheek softly. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me, to know that there’s someone I can rely on.”
Neville smiled at her sadly. “You’re going to throw me over for Harry, aren’t you?”
Ginny blinked in surprise. “What?”
“It’s what everybody says.”
“Well, everybody doesn’t know me,” Ginny snapped, bristling by instinct. Neville seemed almost alarmed by it, and Ginny forced herself to smooth out her features.
“I just...” Neville grasped her hand tightly, desperately. “I wanted you to know. You mean so much to me, and I feel so helpless right now, not strong or brave or useful. If there’s anything, let me know. I don’t care how silly it sounds. I’ll do anything.”
Ginny found herself nodding, if only to get away. The pressure on her hand was stifling. It’s not Neville, really... It’s a memory, fighting its way back to me... I need to remember...
And then Neville leaned in, kissing her on the lips.
His kiss was light and reverent, dry and cool. It was nothing like Draco’s fevered, passionate kisses. There was hesitancy in him, desperation. He wanted so much to make a good impression, and was so afraid of failure. When Neville broke the kiss, he looked at her anxiously.
Ginny touched Neville’s face gently. “I’ll be all right. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I needed to be sure,” he said, voice faint. He was clutching at his chest with his other hand, his fingers scrabbling spastically over his breastbone. “I feel almost sick with worry sometimes, that I’m not good enough, that things are only going to get worse.” Neville took in a deep breath. “I try to be strong around everyone else, I don’t show them this. But I feel safe with you. I trust you. I know you’re better than I am.”
She was feeling almost embarrassed by the effusive praise, and Ginny could feel the blush rising in her cheeks. “No, I’m not.” In her mind’s eye, she thought of Draco, his tongue between her lips and then his fingers sliding within her knickers.
Neville was closer than Ginny had realized. She could almost hear his heart, and it was beating in an erratic triphammer rhythm. “Yes, Ginny. You’ve bounced back from the horrible things that have happened. You don’t seem scarred by it. You’re a survivor. And you’re wonderful in ways that I’m not. I know what I am, Ginny. I’m not saying this for sympathy. I know what I’m capable of, and I know what I can do. And I don’t think I could have done as well in your place.”
Ginny smiled sadly and let her hand fall from his face. “You never know until it happens what you’re capable of.”
He nodded solemnly. “That’s true.”
“I’m taking a walk,” Ginny said after a moment. “I wanted to be alone, to try and think. My thoughts have been all muddled up lately.”
Neville nodded. “I’m here for you. Anything I can help with, anything, just ask me.”
“I will,” Ginny promised. She impulsively leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
She could feel his eyes on her back, and turned away from Snape’s office. She didn’t want anyone yet knowing that she was planning on visiting him. Ginny was pretty sure that Occlumency and Ligilmency were hidden talents, and she wasn’t about to broadcast Snape’s skills to everyone. He would help her, though. Her memories wanted to return, but they were fairly skillfully blocked at every turn.
She thought of the boys in her year. The Gryffindor ones were rough and tumble, but didn’t seem to be capable of such rage. She instinctively turned over the Slytherin boys, looking for ones that seemed likely. They were sneaky, but somehow didn’t seem overly vicious. They were lazy and suspicious of others, wanting more return for poor effort. Attacking her was something that had to have been planned out and prepared for, and the Slythern boys of her year didn’t seem to be the type capable of waiting. Hufflepuff boys weren’t the type, and Ravenclaws generally weren’t that nasty.
Who could it have been?
Ron had mentioned that three boys in her year had helped look for her. Nathan Cohen, Alex Chang and Marcus Bastas, though Ginny didn’t think any of the three considered her a close friend. She knew them, but not that well. She often kept to herself, not really trusting anyone in her year. They hadn’t noticed her in her first year, when she had problems adjusting. They hadn’t noticed the changes as the diary took over her mind. Once Ginny had been pronounced cured, she was back as if nothing happened. As far as her year may have thought, nothing happened other than that she had been kidnapped and Harry had saved her.
Nathan was quiet. There wasn’t much else that Ginny knew about him. He had eyes that took in everything, and he often didn’t speak. But he was the fastest in the class at Charms, and the one most gifted in Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall approved of him mightily, and had him appointed as a Transfiguration tutor. It was high praise indeed, though he didn’t seem to have much of a personality in his own right. Ginny found it odd that he seemed to be in the background and almost isolated. My male counterpart, she mused, turning at a random corridor in her travels. Only I’m better at Potions than Transfiguration.
Alex talked to her most, though it was always about classes and afterschool clubs. He didn’t seem to have much going for him other than his impressive knowledge about ancient runes and artifacts. He was the most Ravenclaw of the Gryffindors, rather like Hermione in the seventh year class. Alex treated others much more nicely, though, and Ginny counted him as a trustworthy acquaintance. It didn’t seem like him to be violent either.
Ginny had actually no ideas about Marcus one way or another. He was brash, rather like Ron, but did make a lot more cutting remarks than seemed necessary. Yet she had also seen him patiently help lower years with their homework and getting projects together on time. It seemed as though he had no patience for his cohort at all. It was odd.
No one will seem like the type, I suppose, Ginny thought absently. She made another turn in the hallway, this time toward Snape’s office. She didn’t think she was being followed, and the corridors were deserted and dim. Damn. I probably shouldn’t have wandered this far out.
But she didn’t have any bad feelings about the corridors. It seemed almost as if she were investigating odd corners where her attacker may have been hiding. She wasn’t, but she could always say so if she ran into anyone.
The corridor outside Snape’s office was empty. She knocked on the door firmly, waiting for a response. The hairs at the nape of her neck began to prickle just as Snape’s door opened. He seemed surprised to see her.
“I’ve forgotten a lot of Potions. I was wondering if I could arrange for a tutorial?”
“Well, if you’re not busy right now, I have some time,” Snape said, eyebrow lifted.
Ginny shrugged. “I don’t have any supplies, but I do have the time.”
He nodded. “It’s quite all right. We can begin with some of the stored materials in the workroom.” Ginny stepped around him, into the Potions office, and the door shut behind her. The odd feeling at the back of her neck eased. “Now can you explain yourself?”
“I felt as though I were watched.” Ginny looked up and saw the startled expression on Snape’s face. “I didn’t think you wanted your other abilities widely known.”
He nodded. “Very thoughtful of you. Have you remembered much on your own yet?” he asked, indicating the chair opposite his desk.
Ginny shook her head. “Nothing much more than odd sensations. Like vague memories of memories, nothing real.”
“And did you have any thoughts regarding your classmates?”
“None of them seem the type. But then... I don’t know what I’m looking for, really.”
Snape nodded again. “Very well. Shall we begin?”
She nodded eagerly. “Please.”
Snape looked at her solemnly. “You may not like it.”
“I don’t care. I need to know. He needs to be punished, and I need to live without this hanging over me.”
He seemed almost to respect that. “Sit back and open your mind. I’ll try to be gentle, but if you don’t consciously try to block me, this may be easier for you.”
“All right.” Ginny leaned back and closed her eyes. She saw the black veined with red, the echoes of light making stars against her eyelids. She could feel herself drifting along in the darkness, reaching back for the memory that was hidden deep down in the corridors of her mind. We’ve gone exploring.... and hopefully we’ll find something...
There was a soft sound behind her, and then a sharp pain at the base of her skull. Light flared bright white behind her eyes. Sensation began to bleed through.
Nails along her spine. She could feel her flesh almost curdle from the touch, puckering with the cold seeping into her bones.
“So beautiful,” a voice rasped, “and all mine...” The voice didn’t sound like anyone she knew, didn’t sound like much at all. It was a slight susurrous of sound, a sinuous slither across the stones. She could feel the stones as she fell against them, as she was thrown down and beaten into submission. Cold. Intense pain and ripping. Freezing cold, as though her skin was about to stick to the stones. Her fingernails scrabbling across stone and cloth, losing purchase, breaking to the quick. “I will have you forever...”
Ginny gasped, eyes snapping open. She was staring at Snape but not really seeing him at all. A strange glyph hung in her vision, black on gold, cold and menacing. Ginny couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. She was transfixed by the vision in her inner eye, the feeling of being possessed on all sides. Her magic was bound, her body was bound, her voice was bound. She was caught in the corridor, lost among the shadows, every minute slipping away from her, dripping from her fingers and sinking down into the ground.
You can’t keep yourself from me. You can’t hide from me. I know where you are at all times. I know what you do. You belong to me.
Ginny’s heart froze as Snape’s gaze seemed diffuse and empty. “Professor?”
No one will take you from me, no one will find me. I’ll be sure of it.
“Professor!” Ginny shrieked. She mentally slammed her memories behind a locked door, and leaped to her feet. Snape seemed to be caught within himself, lost and confused. She shook his shoulders rapidly, but he wasn’t responding. “Professor! You can’t do this! You’re the only one that can help me!”
I’ll know. I’ll know and I’ll stop it. You can never get rid of me.
Ginny was trapped on all sides again.
***
Everyone accepted Ginny’s explanation that she had gone to Professor Snape to relearn Potions and found him catatonic. Madam Pomfrey did an examination and said that he was under a powerful spell that had locked his mind away. Ginny could see that Madam Pomfrey believed Snape had discovered the attacker’s true identity, and found herself drifting away from the Infirmary. She bumped into Alex on the way to Gryffindor Tower. “Oh! Alex! I didn’t know you were staying here for hols. I thought you were going home.”
“I was, but Nathan said he wanted someone to keep him company.” Alex smiled at Ginny as he shrugged. “I guess with the attacks, he didn’t want to be alone in the dorm.”
“Wasn’t Marcus staying?”
“I think he changed his mind. He’s not in the dorms. He hasn’t been around,” Alex said with another shrug. He smiled at the Fat Lady and gave the password. “I thought he just went home to get away from what was happening here.”
“Did he take his things with him?”
“He took his trunk,” Alex replied. He sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace and looked at the fire. He seemed almost morose, not at all like himself. “But he must have been in a hurry. I mean, his bed was a mess, and he was neat to a fault.”
“You think his parents got scared?” Ginny asked, sitting next to him.
Alex shook his head. “He was fine. He was talking about hols, all excited to stay. But the night Hermione was attacked, he was out late. He had gone out after all of you took Ron to the Infirmary, so at first we thought he was going to help. But he didn’t come back with the three of you, and I didn’t think to ask if you’ve seen him. You looked really worried, and I knew that it had to be pretty bad. And when I woke up in the morning, Marcus’ trunk was gone. I guess I just assumed he sent an owl to his parents and left.”
“You think he’d do that?”
Alex suddenly smiled at Ginny. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Look, lots of people changed their mind about staying. Half the Hufflepuffs are going, you know. Most of the Ravenclaws don’t think it’s safe. So he probably just didn’t bother to tell us. It’s not like we were best friends.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
He smiled genuinely at Ginny, making his slanted eyes crinkle into a fine line. “It’s all right. He just doesn’t get on with people in general. I don’t think he ever knew how to, being an only child and spoiled rotten. I’m sure his Mum and Dad just panicked and wanted him home.”
Ginny nodded and then went up the stairs into the girls’ dorm. She managed to fall asleep and dream of butterflies flitting against a black night sky. She probably would have continued to dream of rather benign things if not for the screaming a few hours later. In her bedclothes, Ginny ran down the stairs to see what it was.
Lavender Brown was standing just inside the portrait hole, screaming and pointing along the corridors behind her. Neville and Seamus were beside her, and Ginny suddenly remembered that they were working on an herbology project together with two Hufflepuff girls.
“I saw it! I’m not making it up! The shadows moved and just swallowed them up! I saw it! Tell them!”
“Look, it could have been anything! We were near the windows!” Seamus was yelling back. Neville looked vaguely uncomfortable at being caught in the middle.
“So?” Lavender shrieked. “You think they jumped? Impossible! The cards told me there would be a loss, but now there’s two!”
“You’re jumping to conclusions,” Neville began feebly.
“NO!” Lavender shrieked, pushing him aside. “I know what I saw, even you two didn’t see a bloody thing. It’s like the darkness came down and swallowed them up, and I’m sure we’ll find them in a few days in a bloody mess!”
“Oh come on now, that’s ridiculous!” Seamus cried. “Headmaster Dumbledore would never allow it, you’re daft!”
Lavender looked around the common room desperately, then her eyes locked onto Ginny, standing on the stairs. “She was attacked!” Lavender yelled, pointing. “She was lost for hours and wound up unconscious for three days! And then Hermione! Someone’s out there! Someone’s doing this!”
Ginny stepped back from the railing, thinking it had been a bad idea to simply walk out of the dorm into the common room. She saw Alex and Nathan out of the corner of her eye, a piece of parchment being exchanged then sliding into Nathan’s pocket. Nathan quickly stepped away from Alex, then ducked behind a group of fourth years wanting to see Lavender’s hysterical face.
“What do you want, Lavender?” Neville began, exasperated. “We told Professor McGonagall, we told Professor Vector. What else are we supposed to do? It’s past curfew as it is!”
“Sodding curfew!” Lavender cried, stamping her foot. “It’s how this bastard is getting away!”
“Look, just calm down... the teachers will find them...” Seamus said, taking hold of Lavender’s shoulders. “They’ll be safe.”
Lavender burst into tears. “But we won’t know! We won’t know.”
“They’ve got to be, Lav,” Seamus comforted her awkwardly, and Neville moved to sit on the couch in front of the fireplace. Lavender bawled against Seamus’ chest, and he wrapped his arms around her gently. “They’ve got to be all right,” he kept repeating, holding her. Everyone else in the common room looked away, uncomfortable. No one knew what to say that wasn’t a lie, and everyone knew what must be happening to the missing girls.
Feeling almost dirty, Ginny slunk back toward the dorms and tried to sleep again.
This time, all she could see in her dreams was a strange black glyph painted over a gold locket.
***
Anne Marie Harding and Vita Vellore were still missing the next day. They had never arrived at the Hufflepuff dorms, and the teachers hadn’t seen the girls either. As it was hols, the entire Gryffindor and Hufflepuff dorms pitched in and looked for the girls in shifts.
Anne Marie was found by three fourth year Hufflepuffs near the dungeons just before dinner. She was bound, gagged and had frostbite of her fingers and toes. She was bruised all over, and there was blood between her naked legs. Her uniform shirt was torn open, buttons missing. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, and she kept making hissing sounds. Harry later confirmed that it was not Parseltongue.
Vita was found the next day near the entrance to the Ravenclaw dorms, just after dinner. None of the Ravenclaws that had missed dinner had heard anything, and there had been no sign of her before dinner. She was completely naked, with vicious bruises and cut marks over her breasts and legs. The blood was smeared over the stones around her, indicating a struggle had taken place there. She was also glassy-eyed, and also making the same hissing sounds. No one bothered to ask Harry if it was Parseltongue, but he confirmed anyway that it wasn’t. She shrieked violently when approached by anyone, and Madam Pomfrey had to silence her with a Stunning spell, then levitate her to the Infirmary.
No one said anything, but doors were warded just a little bit tighter.
Headmaster Dumbledore’s absence became a little more troubling.
***
Hermione woke up the next day. Her impeccable memory ended during the library rounds she had been doing when attacked, though she did admit to Ginny in private that she remembered odd things. “Sounds,” Hermione whispered when prompted. “Hissing sounds, like a snake’s, I suppose. It sounded almost like language, and then there were regular words in it. But it was mostly hissing, something that made my skin crawl just to hear it.”
“Anything else?” Ginny asked. Her desperation must have bled into her voice, because Hermione looked up sharply.
“I’m not the only one, am I?”
Ginny shook her head helplessly. “Two Hufflepuff girls were taken two days ago, and we found them one at a time. I think it’s the same thing.”
Hermione looked as though she was about to say something else when there were voices just outside the entrance to her corner of the Infirmary. Hermione clamped her mouth shut, then grabbed Ginny’s hand in a viselike grip. Ginny could feel one of Hermione’s broken nails scratching against her palm painfully. It seemed deliberate, almost like a letter.
“It’s the only other thing I remember,” Hermione whispered fiercely, leaning in next to Ginny. She stared at Ginny intensely, her eyes dancing in the candlelight as if she were feverish. “And it’s fading fast.”
Ginny looked down at her palm and paled. It was the same strange glyph from her dreams.
***
Someone had been in the library alcove. Ginny had hurried there after visiting Hermione, wanting to collect her thoughts. There was something about the glyph that seemed almost familiar, though Ginny didn’t know where else she could have seen it. She needed to think, and she missed Draco desperately. Somehow, when they had worked on homework together, if she had a problem he would instantly make it seem simple.
Her quills were in the wrong place, and one of them was missing. The books had been stacked in a different order than the last time she had been using them. True, she hadn’t been to the hidden alcove since before her attack, but no one else had known about it.
Someone must have seen us here. Someone else must have known. Ginny grabbed her precious quills and a roll of parchment. Her dorms then. The attacker couldn’t be there, since she knew for a fact the attacker was male. How did they know? How could they have possibly seen us go in there?
Ginny hurried past the Restricted Section entrance, unable to shake the horror-inspiring feeling that she was being watched.
***
Ginny was dreaming. She knew it had to be a dream, because Draco was in it.
She was being followed, and knew that they were using the Weasley family clock to do it. There was a way to remove the spells placed on her, so that the clock would no longer recognize her presence. It involved very Dark spells and a bit of mutilation, but it was worth it. The shadows were moving, and Ginny was afraid that they would eat her alive if she let them.
Inside a pentagram, Ginny recited the nonsense syllables of the spell. She rubbed at her right wrist with a spike-studded piece of hide, chanting all the while. She didn’t feel any pain, but could feel the bonds of the identity spells loosening as the blood flowed.
And then finally, it broke.
Ginny flung down the studded hide outside the pentagram, knowing her clock hand had just fallen off of the family clock. She could feel the snapping inside her chest. There was a sense of accomplishment, that she had managed to complete such a vicious and precise ritual that too few people knew about. But at the same time.... now she wasn’t a Weasley. Now she was cut off, adrift in the sea of people with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. No one could love her now, no one could forgive her for what she had done.
Ginny sank to her knees, sobbing, clutching her bleeding wrist to her chest. She could feel a presence behind her as the pentagram dissolved, the spell loosening its hold. Draco folded her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Ginny tried to keep her bloody arm off of his pristine green shirt, but it smeared anyway. She kept her head down, ashamed, not wanting him to see her like this. She shouldn’t have been so weak.
But he tilted her head up and looked into her eyes. His own seemed like pools of molten silver. “I know why you did this. I know what you’re afraid of. There isn’t much time left, not much time at all. I’m dying, Ginny. He’s killing me and I can’t even say who he is, not unless I want to die even faster. I’m hoping you’ll find me, Ginny. You have to.... you have to find me.”
Ginny shot up in bed, gasping for air. It seemed heavy and oppressive around her, and she could still feel a stinging in her right wrist. She looked at it, and it looked as though she had rubbed it raw in her sleep.
Could Draco really be alive? Was he really trying to send her a message?
Ginny crept from her bed without waking her remaining roommates. She slipped through the portrait hole, the Fat Lady murmuring slightly in her sleep. Ginny headed for the Headmaster’s office. She remembered him talking to her once, after the Chamber, that he would always be there for her if she needed help. “I’m always here,” he had said with a smile. “My room is just next door, so it’s easy to take a nap between appointments.” Then he had winked at her, eyes twinkling brightly, and then he shooed her out of the door. She had never really taken him up on the offer before, but now was as good a time as any.
“Coconut candies,” Ginny said clearly. The gargoyle gave way at the sound of her voice, and the stairs began to open up. She ran up the entire flight of twisting stone steps, then stopped short just inside his office doors.
The office was in shambles. Trinkets were tossed about or broken, paintings slashed and maimed, furniture broken. Books were strewn across the floor, pages torn out. Ink was spilled across the carpet. The desk itself was overturned. Fawkes was gone.
Ginny shook her head disbelievingly. It was impossible. Dumbledore was the greatest mage that had ever lived. He couldn’t have been harmed by whoever made this mess. It just wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be.
Then, as she moved toward the bedroom he had spoken about, Ginny found Dumbledore’s half moon glasses on the ground. The frames were bent, the glass ground to powder. Her heart seemed to stop, and she shook her head. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.
Ginny fainted when she found Dumbledore’s head on a spike in the bedroom.
***
***
Ginny couldn’t remember why she had been so distracted, but Hermione’s attack galvanized her into action. She couldn’t just sit there feeling sorry for herself anymore. Someone was out there, attacking Gryffindor girls. She had to help, however she could. Anyone else in the dorms could be vulnerable, and the attacker might even switch houses. Ginny decided she had to act, and she had to visit Snape. He had hinted that he would be able to help her recover her lost memories. If it was true, she would then have more clues as to her attacker’s identity.
On the way to Snape’s office, Neville bumped into Ginny. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked, looking extremely nervous.
“Look, Nev, I was on my way...”
“I’m sorry,” he blurted suddenly. “Look, the other day... I just...” He took a deep breath. “Ron asked me to look after you, me and Harry. And I... I like you. And the attack made me realize, I can’t wait to tell you. I don’t know if it’s just going to be girls that are attacked, or anyone late at night. I go to the library or to the greenhouses, it could be anyone. And I want you to know I’ll be there for you, for whatever you need.” Neville was almost blushing, his words tripping over themselves in his haste. “It’s just... what if you didn’t wake up? What if Madam Pomfrey couldn’t heal you? I had to let you know. I can’t wait on it anymore. I... I like you, Ginny. And it’s okay if you don’t like me back like that, but I had to let you know. And I’ll protect you, no matter what. I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt.”
Ginny’s breath was caught in her throat and she couldn’t breathe. “I... I didn’t know.”
He looked almost ashamed, and it seemed almost normal between them again. “I know. I wouldn’t have even... I don’t want you to feel weird around me, but I think you are already. And I don’t want this to ruin our friendship. But... If we don’t know if we’re going to wake up in the morning, it makes us all that much more precious.”
The strange tightness in her chest eased. “Yes, that’s true.” She leaned in and gave Neville a tight hug. “I do like you as a friend, Neville. I don’t know if it’ll grow to more than that or not. I don’t know what anything will be.” Ginny pulled back and kissed his cheek softly. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me, to know that there’s someone I can rely on.”
Neville smiled at her sadly. “You’re going to throw me over for Harry, aren’t you?”
Ginny blinked in surprise. “What?”
“It’s what everybody says.”
“Well, everybody doesn’t know me,” Ginny snapped, bristling by instinct. Neville seemed almost alarmed by it, and Ginny forced herself to smooth out her features.
“I just...” Neville grasped her hand tightly, desperately. “I wanted you to know. You mean so much to me, and I feel so helpless right now, not strong or brave or useful. If there’s anything, let me know. I don’t care how silly it sounds. I’ll do anything.”
Ginny found herself nodding, if only to get away. The pressure on her hand was stifling. It’s not Neville, really... It’s a memory, fighting its way back to me... I need to remember...
And then Neville leaned in, kissing her on the lips.
His kiss was light and reverent, dry and cool. It was nothing like Draco’s fevered, passionate kisses. There was hesitancy in him, desperation. He wanted so much to make a good impression, and was so afraid of failure. When Neville broke the kiss, he looked at her anxiously.
Ginny touched Neville’s face gently. “I’ll be all right. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I needed to be sure,” he said, voice faint. He was clutching at his chest with his other hand, his fingers scrabbling spastically over his breastbone. “I feel almost sick with worry sometimes, that I’m not good enough, that things are only going to get worse.” Neville took in a deep breath. “I try to be strong around everyone else, I don’t show them this. But I feel safe with you. I trust you. I know you’re better than I am.”
She was feeling almost embarrassed by the effusive praise, and Ginny could feel the blush rising in her cheeks. “No, I’m not.” In her mind’s eye, she thought of Draco, his tongue between her lips and then his fingers sliding within her knickers.
Neville was closer than Ginny had realized. She could almost hear his heart, and it was beating in an erratic triphammer rhythm. “Yes, Ginny. You’ve bounced back from the horrible things that have happened. You don’t seem scarred by it. You’re a survivor. And you’re wonderful in ways that I’m not. I know what I am, Ginny. I’m not saying this for sympathy. I know what I’m capable of, and I know what I can do. And I don’t think I could have done as well in your place.”
Ginny smiled sadly and let her hand fall from his face. “You never know until it happens what you’re capable of.”
He nodded solemnly. “That’s true.”
“I’m taking a walk,” Ginny said after a moment. “I wanted to be alone, to try and think. My thoughts have been all muddled up lately.”
Neville nodded. “I’m here for you. Anything I can help with, anything, just ask me.”
“I will,” Ginny promised. She impulsively leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
She could feel his eyes on her back, and turned away from Snape’s office. She didn’t want anyone yet knowing that she was planning on visiting him. Ginny was pretty sure that Occlumency and Ligilmency were hidden talents, and she wasn’t about to broadcast Snape’s skills to everyone. He would help her, though. Her memories wanted to return, but they were fairly skillfully blocked at every turn.
She thought of the boys in her year. The Gryffindor ones were rough and tumble, but didn’t seem to be capable of such rage. She instinctively turned over the Slytherin boys, looking for ones that seemed likely. They were sneaky, but somehow didn’t seem overly vicious. They were lazy and suspicious of others, wanting more return for poor effort. Attacking her was something that had to have been planned out and prepared for, and the Slythern boys of her year didn’t seem to be the type capable of waiting. Hufflepuff boys weren’t the type, and Ravenclaws generally weren’t that nasty.
Who could it have been?
Ron had mentioned that three boys in her year had helped look for her. Nathan Cohen, Alex Chang and Marcus Bastas, though Ginny didn’t think any of the three considered her a close friend. She knew them, but not that well. She often kept to herself, not really trusting anyone in her year. They hadn’t noticed her in her first year, when she had problems adjusting. They hadn’t noticed the changes as the diary took over her mind. Once Ginny had been pronounced cured, she was back as if nothing happened. As far as her year may have thought, nothing happened other than that she had been kidnapped and Harry had saved her.
Nathan was quiet. There wasn’t much else that Ginny knew about him. He had eyes that took in everything, and he often didn’t speak. But he was the fastest in the class at Charms, and the one most gifted in Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall approved of him mightily, and had him appointed as a Transfiguration tutor. It was high praise indeed, though he didn’t seem to have much of a personality in his own right. Ginny found it odd that he seemed to be in the background and almost isolated. My male counterpart, she mused, turning at a random corridor in her travels. Only I’m better at Potions than Transfiguration.
Alex talked to her most, though it was always about classes and afterschool clubs. He didn’t seem to have much going for him other than his impressive knowledge about ancient runes and artifacts. He was the most Ravenclaw of the Gryffindors, rather like Hermione in the seventh year class. Alex treated others much more nicely, though, and Ginny counted him as a trustworthy acquaintance. It didn’t seem like him to be violent either.
Ginny had actually no ideas about Marcus one way or another. He was brash, rather like Ron, but did make a lot more cutting remarks than seemed necessary. Yet she had also seen him patiently help lower years with their homework and getting projects together on time. It seemed as though he had no patience for his cohort at all. It was odd.
No one will seem like the type, I suppose, Ginny thought absently. She made another turn in the hallway, this time toward Snape’s office. She didn’t think she was being followed, and the corridors were deserted and dim. Damn. I probably shouldn’t have wandered this far out.
But she didn’t have any bad feelings about the corridors. It seemed almost as if she were investigating odd corners where her attacker may have been hiding. She wasn’t, but she could always say so if she ran into anyone.
The corridor outside Snape’s office was empty. She knocked on the door firmly, waiting for a response. The hairs at the nape of her neck began to prickle just as Snape’s door opened. He seemed surprised to see her.
“I’ve forgotten a lot of Potions. I was wondering if I could arrange for a tutorial?”
“Well, if you’re not busy right now, I have some time,” Snape said, eyebrow lifted.
Ginny shrugged. “I don’t have any supplies, but I do have the time.”
He nodded. “It’s quite all right. We can begin with some of the stored materials in the workroom.” Ginny stepped around him, into the Potions office, and the door shut behind her. The odd feeling at the back of her neck eased. “Now can you explain yourself?”
“I felt as though I were watched.” Ginny looked up and saw the startled expression on Snape’s face. “I didn’t think you wanted your other abilities widely known.”
He nodded. “Very thoughtful of you. Have you remembered much on your own yet?” he asked, indicating the chair opposite his desk.
Ginny shook her head. “Nothing much more than odd sensations. Like vague memories of memories, nothing real.”
“And did you have any thoughts regarding your classmates?”
“None of them seem the type. But then... I don’t know what I’m looking for, really.”
Snape nodded again. “Very well. Shall we begin?”
She nodded eagerly. “Please.”
Snape looked at her solemnly. “You may not like it.”
“I don’t care. I need to know. He needs to be punished, and I need to live without this hanging over me.”
He seemed almost to respect that. “Sit back and open your mind. I’ll try to be gentle, but if you don’t consciously try to block me, this may be easier for you.”
“All right.” Ginny leaned back and closed her eyes. She saw the black veined with red, the echoes of light making stars against her eyelids. She could feel herself drifting along in the darkness, reaching back for the memory that was hidden deep down in the corridors of her mind. We’ve gone exploring.... and hopefully we’ll find something...
There was a soft sound behind her, and then a sharp pain at the base of her skull. Light flared bright white behind her eyes. Sensation began to bleed through.
Nails along her spine. She could feel her flesh almost curdle from the touch, puckering with the cold seeping into her bones.
“So beautiful,” a voice rasped, “and all mine...” The voice didn’t sound like anyone she knew, didn’t sound like much at all. It was a slight susurrous of sound, a sinuous slither across the stones. She could feel the stones as she fell against them, as she was thrown down and beaten into submission. Cold. Intense pain and ripping. Freezing cold, as though her skin was about to stick to the stones. Her fingernails scrabbling across stone and cloth, losing purchase, breaking to the quick. “I will have you forever...”
Ginny gasped, eyes snapping open. She was staring at Snape but not really seeing him at all. A strange glyph hung in her vision, black on gold, cold and menacing. Ginny couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. She was transfixed by the vision in her inner eye, the feeling of being possessed on all sides. Her magic was bound, her body was bound, her voice was bound. She was caught in the corridor, lost among the shadows, every minute slipping away from her, dripping from her fingers and sinking down into the ground.
You can’t keep yourself from me. You can’t hide from me. I know where you are at all times. I know what you do. You belong to me.
Ginny’s heart froze as Snape’s gaze seemed diffuse and empty. “Professor?”
No one will take you from me, no one will find me. I’ll be sure of it.
“Professor!” Ginny shrieked. She mentally slammed her memories behind a locked door, and leaped to her feet. Snape seemed to be caught within himself, lost and confused. She shook his shoulders rapidly, but he wasn’t responding. “Professor! You can’t do this! You’re the only one that can help me!”
I’ll know. I’ll know and I’ll stop it. You can never get rid of me.
Ginny was trapped on all sides again.
***
Everyone accepted Ginny’s explanation that she had gone to Professor Snape to relearn Potions and found him catatonic. Madam Pomfrey did an examination and said that he was under a powerful spell that had locked his mind away. Ginny could see that Madam Pomfrey believed Snape had discovered the attacker’s true identity, and found herself drifting away from the Infirmary. She bumped into Alex on the way to Gryffindor Tower. “Oh! Alex! I didn’t know you were staying here for hols. I thought you were going home.”
“I was, but Nathan said he wanted someone to keep him company.” Alex smiled at Ginny as he shrugged. “I guess with the attacks, he didn’t want to be alone in the dorm.”
“Wasn’t Marcus staying?”
“I think he changed his mind. He’s not in the dorms. He hasn’t been around,” Alex said with another shrug. He smiled at the Fat Lady and gave the password. “I thought he just went home to get away from what was happening here.”
“Did he take his things with him?”
“He took his trunk,” Alex replied. He sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace and looked at the fire. He seemed almost morose, not at all like himself. “But he must have been in a hurry. I mean, his bed was a mess, and he was neat to a fault.”
“You think his parents got scared?” Ginny asked, sitting next to him.
Alex shook his head. “He was fine. He was talking about hols, all excited to stay. But the night Hermione was attacked, he was out late. He had gone out after all of you took Ron to the Infirmary, so at first we thought he was going to help. But he didn’t come back with the three of you, and I didn’t think to ask if you’ve seen him. You looked really worried, and I knew that it had to be pretty bad. And when I woke up in the morning, Marcus’ trunk was gone. I guess I just assumed he sent an owl to his parents and left.”
“You think he’d do that?”
Alex suddenly smiled at Ginny. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Look, lots of people changed their mind about staying. Half the Hufflepuffs are going, you know. Most of the Ravenclaws don’t think it’s safe. So he probably just didn’t bother to tell us. It’s not like we were best friends.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
He smiled genuinely at Ginny, making his slanted eyes crinkle into a fine line. “It’s all right. He just doesn’t get on with people in general. I don’t think he ever knew how to, being an only child and spoiled rotten. I’m sure his Mum and Dad just panicked and wanted him home.”
Ginny nodded and then went up the stairs into the girls’ dorm. She managed to fall asleep and dream of butterflies flitting against a black night sky. She probably would have continued to dream of rather benign things if not for the screaming a few hours later. In her bedclothes, Ginny ran down the stairs to see what it was.
Lavender Brown was standing just inside the portrait hole, screaming and pointing along the corridors behind her. Neville and Seamus were beside her, and Ginny suddenly remembered that they were working on an herbology project together with two Hufflepuff girls.
“I saw it! I’m not making it up! The shadows moved and just swallowed them up! I saw it! Tell them!”
“Look, it could have been anything! We were near the windows!” Seamus was yelling back. Neville looked vaguely uncomfortable at being caught in the middle.
“So?” Lavender shrieked. “You think they jumped? Impossible! The cards told me there would be a loss, but now there’s two!”
“You’re jumping to conclusions,” Neville began feebly.
“NO!” Lavender shrieked, pushing him aside. “I know what I saw, even you two didn’t see a bloody thing. It’s like the darkness came down and swallowed them up, and I’m sure we’ll find them in a few days in a bloody mess!”
“Oh come on now, that’s ridiculous!” Seamus cried. “Headmaster Dumbledore would never allow it, you’re daft!”
Lavender looked around the common room desperately, then her eyes locked onto Ginny, standing on the stairs. “She was attacked!” Lavender yelled, pointing. “She was lost for hours and wound up unconscious for three days! And then Hermione! Someone’s out there! Someone’s doing this!”
Ginny stepped back from the railing, thinking it had been a bad idea to simply walk out of the dorm into the common room. She saw Alex and Nathan out of the corner of her eye, a piece of parchment being exchanged then sliding into Nathan’s pocket. Nathan quickly stepped away from Alex, then ducked behind a group of fourth years wanting to see Lavender’s hysterical face.
“What do you want, Lavender?” Neville began, exasperated. “We told Professor McGonagall, we told Professor Vector. What else are we supposed to do? It’s past curfew as it is!”
“Sodding curfew!” Lavender cried, stamping her foot. “It’s how this bastard is getting away!”
“Look, just calm down... the teachers will find them...” Seamus said, taking hold of Lavender’s shoulders. “They’ll be safe.”
Lavender burst into tears. “But we won’t know! We won’t know.”
“They’ve got to be, Lav,” Seamus comforted her awkwardly, and Neville moved to sit on the couch in front of the fireplace. Lavender bawled against Seamus’ chest, and he wrapped his arms around her gently. “They’ve got to be all right,” he kept repeating, holding her. Everyone else in the common room looked away, uncomfortable. No one knew what to say that wasn’t a lie, and everyone knew what must be happening to the missing girls.
Feeling almost dirty, Ginny slunk back toward the dorms and tried to sleep again.
This time, all she could see in her dreams was a strange black glyph painted over a gold locket.
***
Anne Marie Harding and Vita Vellore were still missing the next day. They had never arrived at the Hufflepuff dorms, and the teachers hadn’t seen the girls either. As it was hols, the entire Gryffindor and Hufflepuff dorms pitched in and looked for the girls in shifts.
Anne Marie was found by three fourth year Hufflepuffs near the dungeons just before dinner. She was bound, gagged and had frostbite of her fingers and toes. She was bruised all over, and there was blood between her naked legs. Her uniform shirt was torn open, buttons missing. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, and she kept making hissing sounds. Harry later confirmed that it was not Parseltongue.
Vita was found the next day near the entrance to the Ravenclaw dorms, just after dinner. None of the Ravenclaws that had missed dinner had heard anything, and there had been no sign of her before dinner. She was completely naked, with vicious bruises and cut marks over her breasts and legs. The blood was smeared over the stones around her, indicating a struggle had taken place there. She was also glassy-eyed, and also making the same hissing sounds. No one bothered to ask Harry if it was Parseltongue, but he confirmed anyway that it wasn’t. She shrieked violently when approached by anyone, and Madam Pomfrey had to silence her with a Stunning spell, then levitate her to the Infirmary.
No one said anything, but doors were warded just a little bit tighter.
Headmaster Dumbledore’s absence became a little more troubling.
***
Hermione woke up the next day. Her impeccable memory ended during the library rounds she had been doing when attacked, though she did admit to Ginny in private that she remembered odd things. “Sounds,” Hermione whispered when prompted. “Hissing sounds, like a snake’s, I suppose. It sounded almost like language, and then there were regular words in it. But it was mostly hissing, something that made my skin crawl just to hear it.”
“Anything else?” Ginny asked. Her desperation must have bled into her voice, because Hermione looked up sharply.
“I’m not the only one, am I?”
Ginny shook her head helplessly. “Two Hufflepuff girls were taken two days ago, and we found them one at a time. I think it’s the same thing.”
Hermione looked as though she was about to say something else when there were voices just outside the entrance to her corner of the Infirmary. Hermione clamped her mouth shut, then grabbed Ginny’s hand in a viselike grip. Ginny could feel one of Hermione’s broken nails scratching against her palm painfully. It seemed deliberate, almost like a letter.
“It’s the only other thing I remember,” Hermione whispered fiercely, leaning in next to Ginny. She stared at Ginny intensely, her eyes dancing in the candlelight as if she were feverish. “And it’s fading fast.”
Ginny looked down at her palm and paled. It was the same strange glyph from her dreams.
***
Someone had been in the library alcove. Ginny had hurried there after visiting Hermione, wanting to collect her thoughts. There was something about the glyph that seemed almost familiar, though Ginny didn’t know where else she could have seen it. She needed to think, and she missed Draco desperately. Somehow, when they had worked on homework together, if she had a problem he would instantly make it seem simple.
Her quills were in the wrong place, and one of them was missing. The books had been stacked in a different order than the last time she had been using them. True, she hadn’t been to the hidden alcove since before her attack, but no one else had known about it.
Someone must have seen us here. Someone else must have known. Ginny grabbed her precious quills and a roll of parchment. Her dorms then. The attacker couldn’t be there, since she knew for a fact the attacker was male. How did they know? How could they have possibly seen us go in there?
Ginny hurried past the Restricted Section entrance, unable to shake the horror-inspiring feeling that she was being watched.
***
Ginny was dreaming. She knew it had to be a dream, because Draco was in it.
She was being followed, and knew that they were using the Weasley family clock to do it. There was a way to remove the spells placed on her, so that the clock would no longer recognize her presence. It involved very Dark spells and a bit of mutilation, but it was worth it. The shadows were moving, and Ginny was afraid that they would eat her alive if she let them.
Inside a pentagram, Ginny recited the nonsense syllables of the spell. She rubbed at her right wrist with a spike-studded piece of hide, chanting all the while. She didn’t feel any pain, but could feel the bonds of the identity spells loosening as the blood flowed.
And then finally, it broke.
Ginny flung down the studded hide outside the pentagram, knowing her clock hand had just fallen off of the family clock. She could feel the snapping inside her chest. There was a sense of accomplishment, that she had managed to complete such a vicious and precise ritual that too few people knew about. But at the same time.... now she wasn’t a Weasley. Now she was cut off, adrift in the sea of people with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. No one could love her now, no one could forgive her for what she had done.
Ginny sank to her knees, sobbing, clutching her bleeding wrist to her chest. She could feel a presence behind her as the pentagram dissolved, the spell loosening its hold. Draco folded her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Ginny tried to keep her bloody arm off of his pristine green shirt, but it smeared anyway. She kept her head down, ashamed, not wanting him to see her like this. She shouldn’t have been so weak.
But he tilted her head up and looked into her eyes. His own seemed like pools of molten silver. “I know why you did this. I know what you’re afraid of. There isn’t much time left, not much time at all. I’m dying, Ginny. He’s killing me and I can’t even say who he is, not unless I want to die even faster. I’m hoping you’ll find me, Ginny. You have to.... you have to find me.”
Ginny shot up in bed, gasping for air. It seemed heavy and oppressive around her, and she could still feel a stinging in her right wrist. She looked at it, and it looked as though she had rubbed it raw in her sleep.
Could Draco really be alive? Was he really trying to send her a message?
Ginny crept from her bed without waking her remaining roommates. She slipped through the portrait hole, the Fat Lady murmuring slightly in her sleep. Ginny headed for the Headmaster’s office. She remembered him talking to her once, after the Chamber, that he would always be there for her if she needed help. “I’m always here,” he had said with a smile. “My room is just next door, so it’s easy to take a nap between appointments.” Then he had winked at her, eyes twinkling brightly, and then he shooed her out of the door. She had never really taken him up on the offer before, but now was as good a time as any.
“Coconut candies,” Ginny said clearly. The gargoyle gave way at the sound of her voice, and the stairs began to open up. She ran up the entire flight of twisting stone steps, then stopped short just inside his office doors.
The office was in shambles. Trinkets were tossed about or broken, paintings slashed and maimed, furniture broken. Books were strewn across the floor, pages torn out. Ink was spilled across the carpet. The desk itself was overturned. Fawkes was gone.
Ginny shook her head disbelievingly. It was impossible. Dumbledore was the greatest mage that had ever lived. He couldn’t have been harmed by whoever made this mess. It just wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be.
Then, as she moved toward the bedroom he had spoken about, Ginny found Dumbledore’s half moon glasses on the ground. The frames were bent, the glass ground to powder. Her heart seemed to stop, and she shook her head. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.
Ginny fainted when she found Dumbledore’s head on a spike in the bedroom.
***
***