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]

"I can't argue with that but I doubt you would have heeded it under the circumstances." Ginny shrugged.

She sighed. "It's not enough to love someone if you lose yourself in it. You had free will, you made your own choices even if those choices were to let someone else control you. Even I had a choice, narrow though it was."

"I already am."

[shh_rodolphus]

"Perhaps something or someone is trying to remind me of my folly the first time I disregarded someone's insight, be it vague or not. I sincerely doubt your dreams mean nothing."

He laughed, and it was bitter.

"I suppose I find it strange that I am not the darkness in your dreams, considering who I am. What would be following all three of us with such determination? Perhaps it is a metaphor for something, or a person, or just...a dream, despite how much I doubt that."

Rodolphus absently ran his fingers over the open page of the notebook that held the scene in the forest.

"I know you are." He said softly. "It is entirely possible that one of your companions killed my wife as well. Should I pursue them for the fury of their spears?"

[shh_ginny]

Ginny turned, leaning over to pull the pencil from his hand and in that motion, curled her hand in the space where the pencil had been, suddenly empathic. "No. My dream isn't a warning. It can't be. You don't understand. In the dream, I'm trying to protect you. The cat. You. Okay? I didn't want to say it but there it is."

She released his hand and stood, raking a hand through her hair as she paced toward the rivers edge. "Ever since... ever since I started having this dream, I've not had any nightmares unless I forget to meditate. I'm not talking your run of the mill scary monster in the closet nightmares here. I'm talking, slammed awake in a cold sweat at 3 a.m. never want to sleep every again nightmares. I think the darkness... its them. Because of what I did."

Spinning around, Ginny said sharply. "Pursue them for what?"

[shh_rodolphus]

Rodolphus was vaguely started when her hand touched his, but he did his best to hide it