Two Months Ago
Draco put the new pair of specially cut black trousers onto the counter and reached into his leather bag to pull out his wallet.
“That’ll be eight Galleons, please, sir,” the shop assistant said, looking Draco up and down admiringly, in his expensive robes and perfectly arranged blond hair. She fluttered her eyelashes up at him as he put the gold coins onto the counter.
Draco smirked slightly, enjoying the attention.
She pulled out a large plastic bag, with a moving image of a model in long evening gown parading down a catwalk, and slipped the receipt and the trousers in.
He took the bag, muttering a quick “Thanks”, and turned to leave, hearing a quiet tinkle from the door as a pair of tall men in long black robes walked into the store.
He walked straight past them, not looking, until he felt the sharp point of a wand tip pressing into the middle of his back. Eyes widening, he twisted his head round to see two of his father’s acquaintances, Avery and Nott, standing shoulder to shoulder behind him.
“There are always consequences for betraying the Dark Lord, boy,” Nott whispered in his ear.
Draco felt fear creep up his spine. He knew how ruthless the Death Eaters were and found he was not surprised to be held at wand point after he had failed the Dark Lord not so long ago. “I think people will notice if you kill me here, Nott; even you are not that stupid,” he muttered back angrily, trying to cover the rising panic.
“Look around, Draco. I don’t think anyone will pay be paying any attention,” Avery chuckled quietly.
Draco frantically looked around at the stands of cloaks, shoes, and clothes the few people in the store were still absently rifling through, holding items up and not even noticing the two men holding a wand out in public. He turned last to the shop assistant, whose long blonde hair was flowing over her face while she looked down to write some notes in a parchment book. They were obviously under a glamour of some sort. Draco felt himself breathing more quickly and forced himself to think rationally. What can I do? What can I do?
“Send old Dumbledore our regards.”
Draco heard, as if in slow motion, the small intake of breath as Nott prepared to say the fatal words, and he began to lift his leg forward, ready to kick Nott standing behind him. ‘Avada -‘
There was an almighty crash, and Draco felt himself get thrown sideways into the rack of multi-coloured robes, his elbow hitting a metal pole in a blast of pain. He blinked and frantically scrambled up to his feet to see Harry Potter and Ron Weasley standing in the doorway, wands out. He looked down to see Nott and Avery sprawled on the shop floor, amidst a pile of women’s hats. He heard a small scream, and noticed that everyone in the shop was staring and gathering around the two figures on the floor.
“They’ll be out for a few hours,” Ron said, with a grin.
Draco felt even sicker than he had a few moments ago. He had just been saved by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. This was not good. Summoning up all his manners, he forced out a very quiet “Thank you.”
“Don’t take it personally, Malfoy. We were just trying to avoid the mess,” Ron answered spitefully.
Harry shot Draco a dark look. “Count yourself lucky I was in a good mood.”
Draco clamped his mouth shut and walked straight out the door, without another look back. He rounded the corner of the street in Diagon Alley and leant back against an old wall, leaning his head against the cold stone and taking some calming breaths. The Dark Lord is trying to kill me and I am indebted to Harry Potter. This was terrible.
He looked down at his shopping bag, still clutched in his hand, and reached in to feel the soft material of his new trousers. He felt a piece of card tucked in between the folds of fabric. Taking it out, he read ‘Marianne Tallgate, owl me.’ He crumpled it up and threw it across the alleyway in frustration.
Pushing himself off the wall and with nothing else to do, he headed back to the Leaky Cauldron and reached for his room key.
The Present Day
Draco walked into the common room to see his girlfriend waiting for him to go to breakfast.
“Pansy, I can walk to breakfast myself, you know. I’m not an invalid.” He was in an irritable mood, like he was most mornings after a disrupted nights sleep.
“That’s no way to treat your girlfriend, Draco. Say sorry right now.” She put on a mock pout.
Draco shut his eyes briefly and began counting to ten. He didn’t quite make it. “Why are you my girlfriend again? I can’t quite remember. Was I drunk when I agreed to go out with you?”
Pansy narrowed her eyes. “Stop being such a bastard, Draco. I’m sick of it. I’m going to breakfast.” She started to prance off towards the door.
Draco heaved a sigh. As much as he hated to admit it, he actually liked having a Pansy as a girlfriend. Despite being ridiculously annoying a lot of the time, it made him feel important having someone who worshipped the ground he trod on. Besides, it gave him a certain status within Slytherin, and made all the other girls even more flirtatious. He strode forward and grabbed her arm. “Look, I didn’t mean it. I want you to go to breakfast with me.” He could almost see her smile. Moving around so he was standing in front of her, he placed a quick kiss on her lips, not thinking he could stomach any more, and pulled her out of the common room.
***
Ginny spent most of breakfast waiting for Draco to leave the table. She ignored the odd looks from her fellow students and couldn’t stop thinking about everything Harry had said. Could Draco really have been helping? She couldn’t help but think that they had all been very foolish to trust him.
The morning post interrupted her thoughts as flurries of owls flew in and spread out across the room to find their respective recipients. A letter was dropped in front of her place. Ginny picked it up and skimmed through the letter from her parents, filled with relatively non-important details from home and questions about how her first days of term had gone.
Her attention was jerked back to the Slytherin table as she saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle get up. Now was her cue to leave. “I’m going to head back. I’ve just realized I haven’t finished my Charms essay.”
“Sure, I’ll be up in a minute,” Sarah replied.
She grabbed her bag and hurried out of the hall, hoping Draco hadn’t got too far. Now she just had to think of a way to dispense with Crabbe and Goyle. That shouldn’t be too difficult, she smiled.
She pulled out her wand, and using one of her mothers’ best recipes, created a large piece of chocolate fudge cake, dripping with icing.
She walked quickly to catch up with the three Slytherins as they rounded the corner to the stairs. Striding slowly past them, she held the cake up to her mouth as if to take a large bite. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Goyle nudge Crabbe.
“Oi,” Crabbe said, his eyes widening at the size of the cake.
She turned her head, and lowered the cake slightly.
“Where’d you get that?” Goyle grunted.
Ginny smiled innocently, pretending to be intimidated by the size of the two older boys. “Um, Professor McGonagall was giving some away. It’s her birthday today.”
“Hmmph,” Goyle grunted. He looked at Crabbe, who looked back at him. His face broke into a wide grin and they both looked at Draco pointedly.
Draco rolled his eyes. “I don’t want any,” he answered grumpily. Ginny had never thought she’d see Draco grumpy. She hid her smile behind her piece of cake.
Crabbe and Goyle turned quickly and lumbered off in the other direction. Ginny smiled; that was way too easy.
“That was so subtle, Weasley,” Draco said sarcastically, looking annoyed.
“You think I need to be subtle around those two idiots?” She looked back at him, looking forward to what she was about to say.
Draco narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything else. Then his customary smirk swept across his face. “How was the rendezvous with the boyfriend last night?”
“Oh, it was very interesting. I have some news for you.” She smiled back at him, fluttering her eyelashes mockingly and decided not to bother correcting his use of the term ‘boyfriend’. He looked a little surprised at this behaviour. “You were wrong about the Dragon and the Snake.”
He looked at her disbelievingly. “Of course I wasn’t wrong, Weasley, I’m never wrong.”
He looked so sure of himself, and Ginny couldn’t wait to wipe the smile right off his face. She was thoroughly enjoying this conversation. “Well, you were. Harry told me himself.”
Draco looked suspiciously at her, glanced from side to side, and then dragged her into the nearest empty classroom.
Ginny started to have doubts about whether he had purposely pointed them in the wrong direction. This was strange behaviour for someone who had planned this all along.
“Does this mean that I still am in debt to that speccy git?”
Ginny very nearly chose to mislead him and say that it was true, just to watch him squirm, but she knew that he’d find out soon enough anyway. “I suppose it depends on whether you lied to Harry or were simply being thick.”
Draco hesitated a moment and seemed not to know how to answer. “In that case, I’m off the hook.”
Ginny smirked in a rather impressive imitation of him. Draco looked far from pleased.
Ginny turned to leave, her work here done, wondering if she ought to feel bad at how happy she was to have got one up on Draco Malfoy, but before she reached the door Draco spoke up.
“Good luck finding the last Horcrux without me,” Draco called out, with a superior look on his face.
“Looks like we’d do better without your pathetic…” Ginny paused and swung around, any trace of playful mockery gone. “How do you know about the Horcruxes?” She took a step towards him, managing to look very threatening considering her small height. “I know for a fact Harry never mentioned them once.”
Draco glared back at her, a superior look stealing across his features. “I don’t come second in my year for no reason. Did you think I wouldn’t be curious when Harry asked me to help? But don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone anything… yet.”
Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “Then why are you still alive? Why are you back at school? I’m not stupid either. There must be a reason that the Death Eaters haven’t torn you to shreds, and you feeding them information from Harry Potter would be the perfect way to worm your way back in.” Ginny looked at him in disgust. “You are no better than your father. Harry should never have trusted you, Lord knows I never would.”
Draco looked murderous. Ginny had just overstepped the mark and he could no longer restrain himself. Using his forearm he pushed her back into the wall, hard, and heard her breath rush out in a sharp gasp.
“You know nothing about me; you know nothing about my father. You live in your own fantasy world, blinded by your own superior morals and ignorant of the pain of everyone around you. You’re pathetic. You’re a silly little girl, meddling in affairs far too dangerous for you to even contemplate. How you dare to assume anything about…”
Ginny struggled against his arm, which was pressing against her throat and causing black spots to begin dancing in front of her eyes. Fueled by the fury of the Weasley temper, she pulled up her knee and hit him hard.
With a sharp “Oof”, he released her and bent double trying to cover up the agony.
“I know far more than you think, Draco.” She spat his name as if it was the worst insult in the world. “In fact, it was your own father that helped me on my way. Enjoy getting the Dark Mark. I’ve heard it may sting a little.”
With that, she turned and walked out the door, exercising all the self-control she didn’t even know she had, and walked off to the Charms classroom, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down.
***
Draco Malfoy was furious. How had that happened? He had just completely torn down his cool façade, and in front of Weasley at that. He was horrified with himself at getting so worked up over some simple, already said before, insults.
He let himself calm down a little and allowed other thoughts to enter his head, ones that he’d been carefully blocking out. Why had his father suddenly given in and accepted him back into his home? He doubted it was because of fatherly love. Draco almost snorted before realizing that was very un-Malfoyish. And what had Weasley meant when she said that his father had helped her on her way? She must have been at the receiving end of some Death Eater business, but what was it? It can’t have been that bad, or he’d have heard about it, wouldn’t he?
Well, at least one of his problems was over. Harry Potter no longer held a debt over him. So he was free in that respect. Thank goodness. Well, almost. Although technically there was no magical spell holding him, he couldn’t help but feel that he hadn’t properly repaid Potter. And it was not a feeling Draco liked.
He groaned, and put his head in his hands. When had his life turned so complicated?
His attention was suddenly drawn out of himself, as he heard voices, one of which seemed horribly familiar. He walked over to the window, which was slightly cracked open, letting voices drift in from a room on the floor below.
“Garth, the Dark Lord has a new assignment for you.”
He definitely recognized that voice.
“What is it, Severus?”
Draco tried to place who this second voice belonged to. Who was Garth?
“He would like you to find a possible lure to encourage Harry Potter to pay a visit ahead of schedule. I don’t think it should be too difficult. Potter has many admirers, and too many friends. I already have a particular friend in mind.”
“And who would that be? You know that Hermione Granger and that Weasley boy are not in Hogwarts, so I cannot…”
“Yes, yes, I know all that. I’m talking about another Weasley. A girl, Ginny. It was common knowledge that she and Harry Potter were involved for some time last year.” He said the word involved like it were some deathly poison.
“I know who you are talking about; the plain girl with the unsightly red hair.”
Draco couldn’t help but disagree. Ginny may have the most horrible personality of anyone he’d ever met, but he wouldn’t have called her plain. Disgusted, he returned his attention back to the conversation.
“…her yesterday, going into the Marmouth’s passage to Hogsmeade. She was surely to have been meeting Harry Potter,” the mysterious Garth added.
“Good, well, you know what you need to do. He wants the bait in two weeks time. Now, about the other matter; your position here at Hogwarts. The Lord wishes you to…”
Draco turned as he heard the laughter of a crowd of third years entering the classroom. Cursing them for their timing, he strode from the room, left with even more problems to deal with. Well, he was damned if he was going to do anything to warn that Weasley bint. She deserved what was coming for her. Didn’t she?
***
Ginny stood outside the dungeons, waiting for Pansy to show up so they could do their horrible detention. She sighed when she heard the clatter of Pansy’s high-heeled shoes echoing against the stone. This was going to be hours of utter hell.
Pansy lifted her nose when she saw Ginny, as if she were nasty smell, and strutted straight past and into the Potions classroom. Ginny reluctantly followed her in to see Professor Slughorn already waiting for them at his desk.
There was a large, empty cauldron in place in the centre of the room, and huge pile of ingredients on the desk next to it. Ginny’s mood dropped even further.
“Ah, girls. Perfect timing. I need you to make me some more Truth Serum. As you know, it is a First Year potion, so you should not find it particularly taxing. But in case you had forgotten, the instructions are here.” He waved his wand at the board and lines of curly writing appeared. “I will require another one hundred bottles.”
Ginny’s mouth dropped open, that would be, what, ten batches. Ten whole batches!
Pansy seemed equally horrified. “But, sir…” she began in a high-pitched wail.
“No buts. Please leave the finished bottles on my desk for me to put away tomorrow morning. Now, enjoy your evening.” He flashed them a wide smile, picked up some papers, and left the room.
Pansy turned towards Ginny, looking highly put out. “At least you don’t have a boyfriend who will be missing you,” she said in a highly superior voice.
Ginny rolled her eyes and bit back a nasty retort. “Lets just get on with this and then you can go back to your bastar…oh sorry, boyfriend.”
Draco put the new pair of specially cut black trousers onto the counter and reached into his leather bag to pull out his wallet.
“That’ll be eight Galleons, please, sir,” the shop assistant said, looking Draco up and down admiringly, in his expensive robes and perfectly arranged blond hair. She fluttered her eyelashes up at him as he put the gold coins onto the counter.
Draco smirked slightly, enjoying the attention.
She pulled out a large plastic bag, with a moving image of a model in long evening gown parading down a catwalk, and slipped the receipt and the trousers in.
He took the bag, muttering a quick “Thanks”, and turned to leave, hearing a quiet tinkle from the door as a pair of tall men in long black robes walked into the store.
He walked straight past them, not looking, until he felt the sharp point of a wand tip pressing into the middle of his back. Eyes widening, he twisted his head round to see two of his father’s acquaintances, Avery and Nott, standing shoulder to shoulder behind him.
“There are always consequences for betraying the Dark Lord, boy,” Nott whispered in his ear.
Draco felt fear creep up his spine. He knew how ruthless the Death Eaters were and found he was not surprised to be held at wand point after he had failed the Dark Lord not so long ago. “I think people will notice if you kill me here, Nott; even you are not that stupid,” he muttered back angrily, trying to cover the rising panic.
“Look around, Draco. I don’t think anyone will pay be paying any attention,” Avery chuckled quietly.
Draco frantically looked around at the stands of cloaks, shoes, and clothes the few people in the store were still absently rifling through, holding items up and not even noticing the two men holding a wand out in public. He turned last to the shop assistant, whose long blonde hair was flowing over her face while she looked down to write some notes in a parchment book. They were obviously under a glamour of some sort. Draco felt himself breathing more quickly and forced himself to think rationally. What can I do? What can I do?
“Send old Dumbledore our regards.”
Draco heard, as if in slow motion, the small intake of breath as Nott prepared to say the fatal words, and he began to lift his leg forward, ready to kick Nott standing behind him. ‘Avada -‘
There was an almighty crash, and Draco felt himself get thrown sideways into the rack of multi-coloured robes, his elbow hitting a metal pole in a blast of pain. He blinked and frantically scrambled up to his feet to see Harry Potter and Ron Weasley standing in the doorway, wands out. He looked down to see Nott and Avery sprawled on the shop floor, amidst a pile of women’s hats. He heard a small scream, and noticed that everyone in the shop was staring and gathering around the two figures on the floor.
“They’ll be out for a few hours,” Ron said, with a grin.
Draco felt even sicker than he had a few moments ago. He had just been saved by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. This was not good. Summoning up all his manners, he forced out a very quiet “Thank you.”
“Don’t take it personally, Malfoy. We were just trying to avoid the mess,” Ron answered spitefully.
Harry shot Draco a dark look. “Count yourself lucky I was in a good mood.”
Draco clamped his mouth shut and walked straight out the door, without another look back. He rounded the corner of the street in Diagon Alley and leant back against an old wall, leaning his head against the cold stone and taking some calming breaths. The Dark Lord is trying to kill me and I am indebted to Harry Potter. This was terrible.
He looked down at his shopping bag, still clutched in his hand, and reached in to feel the soft material of his new trousers. He felt a piece of card tucked in between the folds of fabric. Taking it out, he read ‘Marianne Tallgate, owl me.’ He crumpled it up and threw it across the alleyway in frustration.
Pushing himself off the wall and with nothing else to do, he headed back to the Leaky Cauldron and reached for his room key.
The Present Day
Draco walked into the common room to see his girlfriend waiting for him to go to breakfast.
“Pansy, I can walk to breakfast myself, you know. I’m not an invalid.” He was in an irritable mood, like he was most mornings after a disrupted nights sleep.
“That’s no way to treat your girlfriend, Draco. Say sorry right now.” She put on a mock pout.
Draco shut his eyes briefly and began counting to ten. He didn’t quite make it. “Why are you my girlfriend again? I can’t quite remember. Was I drunk when I agreed to go out with you?”
Pansy narrowed her eyes. “Stop being such a bastard, Draco. I’m sick of it. I’m going to breakfast.” She started to prance off towards the door.
Draco heaved a sigh. As much as he hated to admit it, he actually liked having a Pansy as a girlfriend. Despite being ridiculously annoying a lot of the time, it made him feel important having someone who worshipped the ground he trod on. Besides, it gave him a certain status within Slytherin, and made all the other girls even more flirtatious. He strode forward and grabbed her arm. “Look, I didn’t mean it. I want you to go to breakfast with me.” He could almost see her smile. Moving around so he was standing in front of her, he placed a quick kiss on her lips, not thinking he could stomach any more, and pulled her out of the common room.
***
Ginny spent most of breakfast waiting for Draco to leave the table. She ignored the odd looks from her fellow students and couldn’t stop thinking about everything Harry had said. Could Draco really have been helping? She couldn’t help but think that they had all been very foolish to trust him.
The morning post interrupted her thoughts as flurries of owls flew in and spread out across the room to find their respective recipients. A letter was dropped in front of her place. Ginny picked it up and skimmed through the letter from her parents, filled with relatively non-important details from home and questions about how her first days of term had gone.
Her attention was jerked back to the Slytherin table as she saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle get up. Now was her cue to leave. “I’m going to head back. I’ve just realized I haven’t finished my Charms essay.”
“Sure, I’ll be up in a minute,” Sarah replied.
She grabbed her bag and hurried out of the hall, hoping Draco hadn’t got too far. Now she just had to think of a way to dispense with Crabbe and Goyle. That shouldn’t be too difficult, she smiled.
She pulled out her wand, and using one of her mothers’ best recipes, created a large piece of chocolate fudge cake, dripping with icing.
She walked quickly to catch up with the three Slytherins as they rounded the corner to the stairs. Striding slowly past them, she held the cake up to her mouth as if to take a large bite. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Goyle nudge Crabbe.
“Oi,” Crabbe said, his eyes widening at the size of the cake.
She turned her head, and lowered the cake slightly.
“Where’d you get that?” Goyle grunted.
Ginny smiled innocently, pretending to be intimidated by the size of the two older boys. “Um, Professor McGonagall was giving some away. It’s her birthday today.”
“Hmmph,” Goyle grunted. He looked at Crabbe, who looked back at him. His face broke into a wide grin and they both looked at Draco pointedly.
Draco rolled his eyes. “I don’t want any,” he answered grumpily. Ginny had never thought she’d see Draco grumpy. She hid her smile behind her piece of cake.
Crabbe and Goyle turned quickly and lumbered off in the other direction. Ginny smiled; that was way too easy.
“That was so subtle, Weasley,” Draco said sarcastically, looking annoyed.
“You think I need to be subtle around those two idiots?” She looked back at him, looking forward to what she was about to say.
Draco narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything else. Then his customary smirk swept across his face. “How was the rendezvous with the boyfriend last night?”
“Oh, it was very interesting. I have some news for you.” She smiled back at him, fluttering her eyelashes mockingly and decided not to bother correcting his use of the term ‘boyfriend’. He looked a little surprised at this behaviour. “You were wrong about the Dragon and the Snake.”
He looked at her disbelievingly. “Of course I wasn’t wrong, Weasley, I’m never wrong.”
He looked so sure of himself, and Ginny couldn’t wait to wipe the smile right off his face. She was thoroughly enjoying this conversation. “Well, you were. Harry told me himself.”
Draco looked suspiciously at her, glanced from side to side, and then dragged her into the nearest empty classroom.
Ginny started to have doubts about whether he had purposely pointed them in the wrong direction. This was strange behaviour for someone who had planned this all along.
“Does this mean that I still am in debt to that speccy git?”
Ginny very nearly chose to mislead him and say that it was true, just to watch him squirm, but she knew that he’d find out soon enough anyway. “I suppose it depends on whether you lied to Harry or were simply being thick.”
Draco hesitated a moment and seemed not to know how to answer. “In that case, I’m off the hook.”
Ginny smirked in a rather impressive imitation of him. Draco looked far from pleased.
Ginny turned to leave, her work here done, wondering if she ought to feel bad at how happy she was to have got one up on Draco Malfoy, but before she reached the door Draco spoke up.
“Good luck finding the last Horcrux without me,” Draco called out, with a superior look on his face.
“Looks like we’d do better without your pathetic…” Ginny paused and swung around, any trace of playful mockery gone. “How do you know about the Horcruxes?” She took a step towards him, managing to look very threatening considering her small height. “I know for a fact Harry never mentioned them once.”
Draco glared back at her, a superior look stealing across his features. “I don’t come second in my year for no reason. Did you think I wouldn’t be curious when Harry asked me to help? But don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone anything… yet.”
Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “Then why are you still alive? Why are you back at school? I’m not stupid either. There must be a reason that the Death Eaters haven’t torn you to shreds, and you feeding them information from Harry Potter would be the perfect way to worm your way back in.” Ginny looked at him in disgust. “You are no better than your father. Harry should never have trusted you, Lord knows I never would.”
Draco looked murderous. Ginny had just overstepped the mark and he could no longer restrain himself. Using his forearm he pushed her back into the wall, hard, and heard her breath rush out in a sharp gasp.
“You know nothing about me; you know nothing about my father. You live in your own fantasy world, blinded by your own superior morals and ignorant of the pain of everyone around you. You’re pathetic. You’re a silly little girl, meddling in affairs far too dangerous for you to even contemplate. How you dare to assume anything about…”
Ginny struggled against his arm, which was pressing against her throat and causing black spots to begin dancing in front of her eyes. Fueled by the fury of the Weasley temper, she pulled up her knee and hit him hard.
With a sharp “Oof”, he released her and bent double trying to cover up the agony.
“I know far more than you think, Draco.” She spat his name as if it was the worst insult in the world. “In fact, it was your own father that helped me on my way. Enjoy getting the Dark Mark. I’ve heard it may sting a little.”
With that, she turned and walked out the door, exercising all the self-control she didn’t even know she had, and walked off to the Charms classroom, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down.
***
Draco Malfoy was furious. How had that happened? He had just completely torn down his cool façade, and in front of Weasley at that. He was horrified with himself at getting so worked up over some simple, already said before, insults.
He let himself calm down a little and allowed other thoughts to enter his head, ones that he’d been carefully blocking out. Why had his father suddenly given in and accepted him back into his home? He doubted it was because of fatherly love. Draco almost snorted before realizing that was very un-Malfoyish. And what had Weasley meant when she said that his father had helped her on her way? She must have been at the receiving end of some Death Eater business, but what was it? It can’t have been that bad, or he’d have heard about it, wouldn’t he?
Well, at least one of his problems was over. Harry Potter no longer held a debt over him. So he was free in that respect. Thank goodness. Well, almost. Although technically there was no magical spell holding him, he couldn’t help but feel that he hadn’t properly repaid Potter. And it was not a feeling Draco liked.
He groaned, and put his head in his hands. When had his life turned so complicated?
His attention was suddenly drawn out of himself, as he heard voices, one of which seemed horribly familiar. He walked over to the window, which was slightly cracked open, letting voices drift in from a room on the floor below.
“Garth, the Dark Lord has a new assignment for you.”
He definitely recognized that voice.
“What is it, Severus?”
Draco tried to place who this second voice belonged to. Who was Garth?
“He would like you to find a possible lure to encourage Harry Potter to pay a visit ahead of schedule. I don’t think it should be too difficult. Potter has many admirers, and too many friends. I already have a particular friend in mind.”
“And who would that be? You know that Hermione Granger and that Weasley boy are not in Hogwarts, so I cannot…”
“Yes, yes, I know all that. I’m talking about another Weasley. A girl, Ginny. It was common knowledge that she and Harry Potter were involved for some time last year.” He said the word involved like it were some deathly poison.
“I know who you are talking about; the plain girl with the unsightly red hair.”
Draco couldn’t help but disagree. Ginny may have the most horrible personality of anyone he’d ever met, but he wouldn’t have called her plain. Disgusted, he returned his attention back to the conversation.
“…her yesterday, going into the Marmouth’s passage to Hogsmeade. She was surely to have been meeting Harry Potter,” the mysterious Garth added.
“Good, well, you know what you need to do. He wants the bait in two weeks time. Now, about the other matter; your position here at Hogwarts. The Lord wishes you to…”
Draco turned as he heard the laughter of a crowd of third years entering the classroom. Cursing them for their timing, he strode from the room, left with even more problems to deal with. Well, he was damned if he was going to do anything to warn that Weasley bint. She deserved what was coming for her. Didn’t she?
***
Ginny stood outside the dungeons, waiting for Pansy to show up so they could do their horrible detention. She sighed when she heard the clatter of Pansy’s high-heeled shoes echoing against the stone. This was going to be hours of utter hell.
Pansy lifted her nose when she saw Ginny, as if she were nasty smell, and strutted straight past and into the Potions classroom. Ginny reluctantly followed her in to see Professor Slughorn already waiting for them at his desk.
There was a large, empty cauldron in place in the centre of the room, and huge pile of ingredients on the desk next to it. Ginny’s mood dropped even further.
“Ah, girls. Perfect timing. I need you to make me some more Truth Serum. As you know, it is a First Year potion, so you should not find it particularly taxing. But in case you had forgotten, the instructions are here.” He waved his wand at the board and lines of curly writing appeared. “I will require another one hundred bottles.”
Ginny’s mouth dropped open, that would be, what, ten batches. Ten whole batches!
Pansy seemed equally horrified. “But, sir…” she began in a high-pitched wail.
“No buts. Please leave the finished bottles on my desk for me to put away tomorrow morning. Now, enjoy your evening.” He flashed them a wide smile, picked up some papers, and left the room.
Pansy turned towards Ginny, looking highly put out. “At least you don’t have a boyfriend who will be missing you,” she said in a highly superior voice.
Ginny rolled her eyes and bit back a nasty retort. “Lets just get on with this and then you can go back to your bastar…oh sorry, boyfriend.”
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