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Chapter 27: Half the Truth is the Best Lie
“Ginny! Wait up!” her brother’s voice called out to her from down the hall. Turning around and shooting him a filthy look, she continued to storm away.
“Why, so you can yell at me some more?” she called over her shoulder. She heard the loud footsteps as he clumsily caught up with her, and grabbed her shoulder.
“It’s okay, Ginny. Malfoy explained everything to me, and I know all about your little plan,” Ron said, between panting breaths.
“He did, did he?” Ginny asked, her voice kept carefully neutral, using all of her diplomatic discipline in order to betray nothing of her anger.
“Yeah, he told us all about the lie that you’re using so that his family will be nice to you. And it’s lucky that he did, I was about ready to take his head off for even thinking he could touch you,” Ron said, his anger returning.
“Ron, you are a stupid Neanderthal, and I’ll thank you to keep in mind that I can look after myself, and I am a grown woman and perfectly capable of looking after myself,” Ginny spat at him, her eyes narrowing as her temper threatened to break free. Ron answered back with a wide grin.
“Gin, you’re my kid sister, you could be 90 and I’ll still be looking out for you,” he said, throwing an arm around her shoulder, as they started to walk again. Ginny had to suppress a sarcastic chuckle at his words, debating whether she should remind him of all the times he had been too wrapped up in his adventures to take any notice of her at all, let alone to protect her from anything. “This is quite the house, Ginny! How do you keep from getting lost in here?”
“Sheer luck, I suppose. It takes me hours just to find the main entrance,” she answered, slipping back into their usual idle chatter, where most Weasleys felt comfortable. No discussing anything too serious, or tempers will be unleashed.
“Ronald Weasley, I have been looking every where for you! Where on Earth have you been?” a shrill voice called out from the room they were walking by. Brother and sister both flinched, knowing full well that there was only one person whose temper matched their mother’s – that of Hermione Granger. And there she was, her hands on her hips, a look of supreme indignation on her face.
“Hullo, ‘Mione! What are you up to?” he asked, with a beaming smile that served only to infuriate her even more.
“Looking for you! And…Ginny! Shouldn’t you…aren’t you two…?” Hermione trailed off, surprised to see the two of them acting so friendly with each other given the loud argument the two of them had had earlier. She figured that she’d have to keep them away from each other for quite awhile before they’d be able to be in the same room with each other without another yelling match occurring.
“It’s okay, Hermione. Malfoy explained that they’re just posing as a couple to get Ginny in the Malfoys good books, that’s all,” Ron explained. Hermione shot Ginny a suspicious look, and noted the way that she was avoiding meeting her eyes.
“If that isn’t the biggest load of bollocks I’ve ever heard!” she exclaimed. “I can’t believe you bought that, Ron!”
“It’s the truth,” Ginny said quietly, looking up to meet her eyes.
“Oh it is not! You’re just as terrible at lying as your brother is!” Hermione dismissed her statement with a wave of her hand.
“But…I…but –” Ron sputtered.
“It’s not like they knew anyone was watching them from the house,” Hermione said simply. Ron turned, looking at his sister with a shocked expression on his face. Ginny bit her lip nervously as she watched his face contort into a series of expressions before finally realization dawned on him, and his face gradually became red.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have some paper work to see to,” Ginny said quickly, and scurried away down the hall, eager to get away from her brother before he gathered his wits enough to begin another argument. She turned down the end of the hall, and found herself in the room displaying Vincent’s artifacts from Guatemala. Shutting the door softly behind her, she sighed in relief as she surveyed the cluttered room, glad to be away from the eyes of others and finally able to drop her façade and relax.
She chuckled to herself as she could hear the echoes of Hermione and Ron arguing down the hall. The cleverest witch in her year at Hogwarts, leave it to Hermione to figure out things that she wasn’t even involved in! Ginny sighed in exasperation as she remembered the few agonizing moments after overhearing the conversation between Ron and Draco, frustrated that the infamous Weasley temper had almost clouded her judgment to the point where she actually believed the smooth lie Draco had spoken.
With an almost fond smile, she remembered the one thing that Fudge had taught her about the deceptive nature of politicians: the best lie is grounded in the truth, and that half the truth is the most believable lie of them all. Draco hadn’t lied at all; they did have an arrangement to pose as a couple for his family. But it wasn’t the whole story, for there was another connection between them that, as yet, both were unwilling to name or even recognize aloud.
But it was there, Ginny thought uneasily. There was so much happening at the moment, Ginny found herself lost in a confusing world where nothing seemed to make any sense at all. Choosing to distract herself from the mass of unanswered questions in her mind, she wandered over to the displays of crude magical tools and reminisced about the few days she’d spent in Guatemala on an assignment.
Forcing her mind to focus, she picked up the rudimentary wand that Vincent had shown her the first night she’d spent there. To the uneducated eye, it seemed to be a slender piece of petrified wood, worn and scratched from age. Smiling fondly as she recalled the look in his eyes as she had related what she’d known about the ancient colony of wizards that had lived there. She traced a finger down it, turning it around in her hands, wondering how they had used it. It was thought that it had just been a piece of wood, without the magical core that current wizards used. Ginny’s own wand was made using the hair of a unicorn’s tail. She held the wand up, turning to see the bottom to examine it closer.
Her eyes caught a tiny imprint in the wood. Inspecting it further, she made out a fading pattern on the bottom. Tracing the tiny design with her finger, she nearly dropped the wand as a terrifying jolt ran through her body. Releasing a nervous gasp, she squinted her eyes, and tried to make out the pattern that was carved. She tentatively scratched at the grim that had collected from age in the grooves of the pattern, sucking in her breath as the painful wave of energy jolted through her body as she made contact with it. She managed to scrape off a bit of it, but was still unable to make it out.
She was scraping at it again and had just about cleaned all of it away when her finger lingered too long against the pattern in the wood, and a severe flood of energy overwhelmed her, causing her to cry out as she fell to her knees, dropping the wand to the floor. Gasping as the shuddering effects reverberated through her body and the waves of pain slowly faded; she stared at the wand lying on the ground next to her.
The pattern on the bottom was suddenly very clear to her. Standing shakily and gingerly picking up the wand and placing it back in its spot, she glanced about the room, the pieces falling quickly into place. Her eyes fell on a bookshelf in the corner of the room, and she practically ran to it, and began searching the titles of the old books that it held. Forcing herself to stay calm, she ran through all the titles until she finally spotted the volume that she had been searching for. Unable to believe her good fortune that it was among Vincent’s collection, she pulled the book off the shelf, and quickly left the room, making her way as silently as possible to her room, eager to see if she what she believed could possibly be true.
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