RP: So What Are We Now?

[shh_rodolphus]

Date: June 14th, 2005
Characters: Ginny Weasley and Rodolphus Lestrange
Location: The River
Status: Private
Summary: Rodolphus hopes he was right about Ginny's vague reference to Thursday.
Complete: Complete

Comments

[shh_ginny]

"Go over those texts and remember, I'll want to see your notes on what you think of the findings. Don't forget to annotate, Healer Weasley, this time." Healer Asklepion chided, wagging his finger at her before digging a muggle bill out of his robe and pressing it in her hand with a wink. "Bring me back one of those lovely mutton wraps, too."

Ginny laughed and pushed the money into her pocket, scratching a note on the corner of her page of references as she turned to make her way down to the staff lounge. Leaving her robe in her locker, Ginny tucked one of the texts under her arm and headed out the door of the hospital. It was overcast but the air wasn't heavy so she opted to apparate to the Five Alarm for take away and placed Healer Asklepion's order to be picked up later.

She really didn't think he would be at the river that early so she disapparated to the grove and was surprised to find him already bent over a parchment, sketching away. Walking up behind him, Ginny looked over his shoulder and said. "It's missing the cat."

[shh_rodolphus]

Rodolphus was still looking at the page when he heard someone behind him and sat up straight, turning his head. He smiled a little bit at the sight of Ginny. She didn't look angry at him, which was certainly a start.

"A cat?" He looked at her curiously. "Oh, you mean like that day in the forest?"

Rodolphus shrugged. He wasn't the best at animals, but he would try.

"I suppose that means I need to draw you too."

[shh_ginny]

"No, I mean like in my dreams. I don't know what you were doing that day before you came and got me." She answered, surprised by his question. "I guess I just assumed that Rabastan told you about my dreams after what happened... happened."

Ginny hesitated but remembered how calm he'd been the other day, and try as she might, she just couldn't raise any kind of fear of him in herself. She knew it was blatantly ridiculous to drop her caution but she didn't see any sense in being paranoid. She'd done some research after their meeting. The wizard had been in prison for longer than he'd been alive. She wasn't sure how much of the old Rodolphus Lestrange remained in him anymore. Circling around the bench, she sat at the opposite side and stretched her legs out. "I suppose you do."

[shh_rodolphus]

Rodolphus shook his head.

"Rabastan never told me about any dreams. If you don't mind me asking, what were they about?"

He finished the muzzle of the wolf and began to sketch a similar cat to his animagus form, making sure to leave room for Ginny. Then he realized that the tail would get in the way of her form and erased it. Rodolphus looked at the paper for a minute and started to sketch Ginny first. He glanced at her briefly to get her face properly drawn.

After a moment, he sketched her sitting against the tree and started to draw the cat in her arms. As he had mentioned, he wasn't terribly good at animals, but it wasn't too horrible. Rodolphus looked at Ginny and offered her the sketch.

"How about that?"

[shh_ginny]

Opening her take away sack, Ginny pulled out the sandwich she'd ordered and an apple, setting the apple on the bench between them. "Still not poisoned."

"I have them every night. Ever since... Scotland. I become aware that I'm in the forest, running and holding a black cat. Something is chasing. We pass a wolf and it's growling, reacting to whatever is after us. Sometimes the wolf urges me to run faster, sometimes it makes a stand. It's always nearly the same every time. Little things change. I stop running. Or I put the cat down and return to the wolf. I don't know what it's supposed to mean." She answered, leaning back and taking a bite of her sandwich after she finished her explanation.

He showed her the sketch and Ginny tilted her head as she looked at him sideways. "You drew me holding the cat before I told you about doing that in my dream."

[shh_rodolphus]

Rodolphus put out his cigarette and picked up the apple, taking a bite. He smiled a little bit.

"Well, it certainly doesn't taste like poison."

He listened to Ginny's dream quietly, his expression neutral.

"That's...very interesting. I'm not skilled in anything involving dreams, but it's not difficult to see who the animals are."

Rodolphus looked down at his sketch at her next words.

"I thought the cat on the ground would obscure part of you, so I put it in your arms."

He bit his lip.

"That is rather strange."

[shh_ginny]

Ginny chuckled at his understatement and said as much. "I shouldn't be surprised. Nothing about it is normal."

Opening her text on her lap, she took another bite of her sandwich. "There's nothing normal about dreaming about you two."

[shh_rodolphus]

"I've never been one for Divination and such. It's mostly smoke and mirrors, after all, but have you talked to anyone with experience in the subject?"

Rodolphus took another bite of the apple, glancing at what she was reading.

"No, I suppose that isn't very normal. Especially considering you're dreaming about us in our animagus forms rather than as our regular selves."

[shh_ginny]

"I tried to. She was more interested in telling me what a bad person Rabastan was and how he might be trying to control me through the mediation technique he taught me." Ginny sighed. "I think it's a bunch of hooey myself but well, you know your brother, he thought it might be a good idea."

She looked at him sideways. "It's not normal to be dreaming about either of you, period. There's a bit more to it than what I said but I really don't know if I feel comfortable telling you about it."

[shh_rodolphus]

Rodolphus raised an eyebrow.

"Rabastan is not that kind of man. I know you're aware of that, but I suppose that most other people don't know him as well as you do. He's a much better man than I am. Always has been."

He looked at her curiously after her next words.

"You certainly don't have to, but I will listen if you wish to tell me."

[shh_ginny]

"I've already dealt with her and had a row with a brother who is very dear to me over your brother. I've had enough of thinking about what others want to think of him. It was my mistake to think I could confide in anyone as if I actually have friends anymore." Ginny grumbled dejectedly, looking at her sandwich for a moment before taking a bite. She wasn't going to starve herself just because she kept putting her appetite off.

Sighing she said. "The thing... in my dreams. It's bad and I'm not running from it so much as keeping the cat away from it. The wolf, when he stops, I stop. It's very unnerving. The cat is clawing me to keep me from putting him down. It's all very real."

[shh_rodolphus]

"Well, I must say, you do choose rather unusual friends."

Rodolphus smiled a little bit.

"I do hope that Rabastan isn't hurting your relationship with your family. Not that he's doing anything on purpose, but most people hear our last name and pull out the pitchforks and torches. Not that I blame them, really."

He frowned at her description of the dream.

"What kind of...thing? Like a shape or a creature?"

[shh_ginny]

Ginny threw a glare at him. "I didn't choose either of you."

"No, you can't." She retorted sharply. "It wasn't his fault. It was mine. I should have known better than to think... well, it doesn't matter."

Ginny shook her head. "There's no shape. It's just... darkness and evil."

[shh_rodolphus]

"I suppose that's true." He frowned, biting his lip.

Rodolphus looked down at his sketch. The Ginny he had drawn didn't look particularly scared or angry. More fierce than anything.

"I can't tell the future, and I've never been much for putting stock in dreams, but if it keeps happening and you're sensing something that strong, that real..."

He looked away from the notebook back to her.

"I'm not sure."

[shh_ginny]

She stopped eating. "That real what?"

"Tell me." Ginny resisted the urge to grab the notebook to get his attention but at the last minute caught herself, remembering who he was. The fact that she fell away from remembering at all was unnerving her.

[shh_rodolphus]

"I don't know. There may be some real danger. I met a Seer in a tavern the week before my wedding and she grabbed me and told me to run as far as I could, because only death was in my future. It's vague, I know, but she was accurate, now wasn't she?"

Rodolphus shrugged.

"There are dark things out there. More than people would care to believe. I'm sure you know this more than most people."