Finding Color
By Mell8
----------------
Part Four:
The morning came, resplendent with chirping birds and sunshine in their faces, so Ginny decided to get up. She left Draco sleeping as she explored the rooms he called his own.
One door in his room led to a sitting room with a fireplace, a couch, and two comfortable looking armchairs. The other door in Draco’s bedroom led to a bathroom. Ginny decided to save exploring that for later.
In the sitting room were bookshelves upon bookshelves. Now Ginny knew what Draco did in his spare time and, judging by the amount of books in the room, he had a lot of spare time. Another door in the sitting room led to a study where Ginny found all of Draco’s schoolbooks lying haphazardly across an oak desk. She also found a piece of parchment and a quill.
Ginny took her time writing out the names of every Death Eater she recognized from last night. Some she could guess names of because she recognized their magic, Snape for instance. Most, however, she had to guess based on similarities in their magic to people she already knew. Bellatrix Lestrange had a magic signature similar to her close relative, Tonks. Another similar signature to Bella, Rodolphus Lestrange, her husband, led her to Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus’ brother.
She made sure to indicate which names she was guessing and which she was sure on, before signing the paper and rolling it up. She borrowed some of Draco’s wax and stamped the Weasley family crest into the wax with a bit of magic. Now no one except a Weasley could open the scroll.
Ginny reached out a glowing finger and touched the parchment. It vanished and Ginny knew that it would reappear on the kitchen table at the Burrow where everyone was no doubt having breakfast right now.
“What’re you doing?” came a tired voice from the doorway.
Ginny turned around with a smile for Draco. “Do you remember the train ride back?” she asked. “You said you couldn’t spy because you’d be killed and I couldn’t spy because my family would hate me. But my family knows I’m up to something, so they won’t hate me, which means I can spy all I want.”
“Just, be careful, okay?” Draco sighed. Ginny nodded and smiled at him.
“So, what do I have to do to get some breakfast around here?” she asked.
Draco laughed. “Put some fresh clothes on and I’ll show you the way downstairs.”
Breakfast at the Malfoy’s was certainly not the Weasley family free-for-all Ginny had grown up in. The three Malfoys sat with their backs straight and their elbows off the table as the house elves carefully set filled plates in front of them.
Ginny emulated the Malfoys as best she could. She kept her back straight and her elbows off the table and pretended to know which fork was which. Draco seemed to sense her confusion and winked at her. She glowered back at him.
“Miss Weasley,” Narcissa Malfoy finally spoke. It seemed that conversation was allowed at the breakfast table despite the silence that they had been sitting in for the past five minutes.
“Yes?” Ginny asked as politely as she could.
“What are you doing here?”
Draco stifled a gasp of laughter with his napkin at his mother’s rather rude question. Both Ginny and Narcissa gave Draco the look, which had Lucius hiding a small grin in his cup of coffee.
“I am now in the employ of the Dark Lord,” Ginny said with a smile. “He granted me your son in return.”
“He gave away Draco!” she gasped.
“You could say that,” Lucius said in a placating voice to his wife. “Ginevra has an interesting condition which Draco alleviates. I, however, am not as positive as the Dark Lord that she is telling the truth.”
“I am blind,” Ginny retorted.
“Yes, that has been proven without a doubt. I’m speaking of your wishes for Draco,” Lucius said with a piercing look right at Ginny.
“He lets me see-” she began.
“I saw the way he was holding you last night,” Lucius snapped, fed up with her roundabout words. “I know that you feel something for him besides simple need.”
“Father!” Draco grumbled.
“No, Draco,” Narcissa jumped in. “I want to know this too. Are you in a relationship with this girl? The truth, Draco.”
“Fine,” Ginny grumbled. “Yes, I like your son very much.” Ginny sighed and told the Malfoys about how blackmailing Draco had gone from an obligation to a pleasure. She told them that seeing had gone from a desperate wish to a happy time.
Draco nodded along with everything she said and gently nudged her hand to the right fork when they started eating their breakfasts during the conversation.
“And, Draco,” Narcissa said in a much gentler voice than she had used to speak to Ginny. “What are your feelings towards this…girl?”
Ginny didn’t miss the hesitation and neither did Draco. Narcissa had probably meant to say “blood traitor”, but Ginny wasn’t a blood traitor any more because she was working for the Death Eaters so Narcissa had been forced to change her wording.
“Ginny and I are in a relationship,” Draco agreed. “I enjoy spending time with her,” he added at his mother’s skeptical look.
“Narcissa,” Lucius broke in as he put his fork down. “I saw them last night. I believe it is safe to say that they have something between them.”
Narcissa put down her silverware as if something in her breakfast tasted terrible. She carefully dabbed at her lips with a napkin and took a deep breath.
“Where did Ginevra sleep last night?” she asked with apparent calmness.
“In Draco’s bed,” Lucius replied with a sigh. “But,” he added when Narcissa went white. “I had a house elf monitor them the entire night. If anything untoward occurred, I would have been notified immediately.”
The house elves cleared away breakfast as Narcissa contemplated the best course of action. It was clear that Ginny needed to stay; the Dark Lord had given Draco to her no matter how much Narcissa wished it weren’t true. But, she refused to believe that Draco was in a relationship with a girl not picked out by his father. Draco had dated Pansy Parkinson through school because at the time Lucius thought it might be a beneficial relationship for the Malfoy family. Once Narcissa had met that idiot girl, however, things changed.
It was Narcissa’s belief that Astoria Greengrass would have served well as Draco’s bride and had been contemplating mentioning it to Lucius. Now with this Weasley girl here, she needed to rethink her plans. Only by getting rid of Ginevra, both from her house and from Draco’s affections, could Narcissa retake her hold on Draco’s relationships with potential brides.
Narcissa gasped as Ginny opened her eyes and gave the older woman a knowing smile. Ginny stood and walked around the table to wait by Narcissa’s chair.
“The men don’t need us around right now,” Ginny said to Mrs. Malfoy. “I’m going to be here a while and I’m assuming that staying in Draco’s bed the whole time wouldn’t be a good idea. Why don’t you show me a room I can stay in that won’t upset propriety?” Ginny asked.
Narcissa nodded, eager to get the girl alone for a little bit, and stood as well.
Ginny walked away from Draco with her eyes closed. She didn’t want to experience the sight of everything vanishing until the colors became nonexistent this time. Especially since she knew that any time she wanted she could easily find Draco and she could see again.
By the time they were out in the main hallways of the Manor, Ginny was guiding herself down the halls with magic and Narcissa was watching her with a hawk’s eye.
“Do you really expect me to believe that you are sightless?” Narcissa said scornfully. “I don’t know how you managed to dupe my husband and my son, but I will end this.”
“You will try,” Ginny agreed. She lifted up her head so Narcissa could see that her eyes were closed as she unerringly followed the Malfoy matron up the stairs and down the hall.
Mrs. Malfoy guided Ginny to the exact opposite side of the house from where Draco’s rooms were located. Ginny sighed, knowing that there was probably an empty room right next to Draco’s that she could have, and followed the woman into the deepest, most unreachable corner of the Manor. What the Malfoy Matron didn’t know was that Ginny could use her magic and will herself into Draco’s room any time she wanted. Distance and silly things like wards couldn’t stop her and therefore neither would any of Narcissa’s machinations.
The room they entered was threadbare and covered with dust. There was an old bed in the corner with a nightstand beside it that was missing a leg. Along one wall were two mismatched dressers for clothing with a cracked mirror lying lopsided on top of one. This had to be the room where the house elves stored all the broken furniture they were planning on refurbishing as soon as they had time, meaning never.
Narcissa hid a smirk as Ginny stood in the doorway. There was only one room, unlike Draco’s suite of rooms, and an attached bathroom. Ginny hoped there would be running water in the bathroom so she didn’t have to disrupt the Manor’s spells too much when she fixed the place up.
Ginny took a step into the room and a gust of wind blew through the room before her, apparently from the windowless hallway she had just left. All the dust was picked up in the room and blown out the small bedroom window that opened itself as the wind neared.
The covers on the bed lifted themselves as Ginny took another step into the room. The moth holes in the fabric sewed artful patches of fabric over themselves, fabric that appeared from some unknown source, and a family of doxies ran, shrieking, for the curtains.
Narcissa watched as the nightstand grew a new leg, the mirror liquefied and re-solidified, whole and unblemished, and the ragged, fire spotted carpet brushed itself to a new shine.
Ginny took a third step into the room and smiled even though her eyes were still closed. Narcissa had noticed that the girl hadn’t opened them yet.
The ripped wallpaper glued itself back on the walls while the broken hinges on the bathroom door found their missing screws and refastened themselves correctly.
By the time the wind died down the room looked habitable. It was certainly not the best room Malfoy Manor could offer, but it was more than serviceable for even a respected guest to stay in.
“Do I need to rescue the bathroom too?” Ginny asked as she turned her face towards where Narcissa was standing, eyes still closed.
“That was you?” Narcissa gasped. She had been watching the magic as it somehow fixed the room, but had certainly not being ignoring Ginny. The girl hadn’t moved a finger and was certainly not holding a wand, yet she professed to have accomplished something so impossible that Narcissa hardly believed it had just happened despite seeing it herself. Just what powers did this girl have?
“It was,” Ginny said with a smirk. She ignored Narcissa’s shocked and disbelieving silence and walked into the bathroom. There was running water, but the pipes were so rusted and the sink, bathtub, and toilet so cracked, that running water might destroy the room rather than save it. Ginny got to work.
Narcissa Malfoy stood out in the middle of the bedroom, mouth agape. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen. That little girl had used wandless magic to fix the room, something Narcissa wasn’t sure she could do with a wand.
She looked around the room, trying to find evidence that maybe the Manor had done something odd and Weasley was just taking credit, but could find no signs. She did find something peculiar however. The nightstand leg that had re-grown was the wrong color. The piece was of a rich, dark wood while the new leg was a pale tan.
The carpet was a pale blue that matched the wallpaper and the bedspread, but the new bits of shag were brown. In fact, Narcissa felt it would be safe to say that everything that had just been fixed had been fixed in the wrong color. It was almost as if whoever did the fixing couldn’t see the colors to match them.
Someone with enough power to re-grow wood or carpet should easily be able to match the colors in the process. Only a blind person would make such a mistake.
Only a blind person…
Narcissa gasped.
“So now you understand?” Ginny said as she walked back into the room from a sparkling bathroom. Her eyes were open and Narcissa winced at the colorless white that greeted her. “I am blind and through that blindness I have great power. Since I prefer sight and your son, I willingly abandon that power.”
“You can’t use your power when you’re around Draco?” Narcissa asked, curious despite her dislike of the girl.
“I can use my powers whenever I like,” Ginny said with a smile. “I just prefer to use my eyes while I have them available to me.”
Narcissa sniffed. “We dress for dinner,” she snapped before turning and sweeping from the room. Ginny couldn’t help smiling as the defeated woman left.
III
Ginny used her magic to send her to the dining room when she felt all three Malfoys gather there.
A house elf had brought her lunch while Ginny had spent the day “reading”. She had recently discovered a Muggle invention called Braille and was busy teaching herself to read the bumps and dots. She was tired of being forced to listen to a disembodied voice every time she wanted to fall into a good book. This was a much better way.
Draco was the only one who didn’t jump when she appeared next to him. Lucius and Narcissa had to scramble to hide their surprise. Ginny just opened her eyes and gazed at Draco.
He was dressed smartly in slacks and a blue collared shirt. Ginny really liked the blue on him, especially since his hair and eyes matched so well with it. Blue was a very pretty color to see, Ginny thought.
She was wearing a green dress, similar to Narcissa’s, that was fitted but not revealing. It was a simple dress, nice enough that none of the Malfoy’s could complain but not so nice that Ginny would feel awkward eating in it.
“Where’d you get that dress?” Draco asked, his eyes on her body as he went a little slack jawed.
Ginny laughed and reached out to pull Draco’s head up until he was looking at her face. She closed his mouth and patted his reddened cheek.
“I made it out of a handkerchief I stole from you,” she answered with a smile, waiting for his outburst. She wasn’t disappointed.
“You’re wearing my handkerchief?”
“Well, I made it a little bigger, but, yeah, I am.”
Ginny guided Draco over to the table and waited while he pulled her chair out for her.
“Why are you wearing my handkerchief?” Draco asked as he carefully pushed her chair in.
“I only brought a few changes of clothes with me. I certainly couldn’t bring a dress.” Ginny shrugged.
Narcissa’s disparaging sniff brought conversation to a close for dinner and they ate in silence as the house elves brought them plates of food. No one dared breach the Malfoy matriarch’s smothering quiet.
When dinner ended Ginny and Draco rose and returned to Draco’s office. As soon as they were out of Narcissa’s sight Ginny sighed in relief. Her dress began to melt off as she walked and was quickly replaced by the clothes she had been wearing earlier that day.
When they reached Draco’s rooms, Ginny handed him a small green handkerchief with a smile.
“Ginny,” Draco groaned. His cheeks were pink as he held the piece of cloth between two fingers. Then he signed and kissed Ginny on the lips.
She responded eagerly and they fell against the door with a thump. The door, probably thinking its master couldn’t get in by turning the handle for some reason, opened itself, sending the teens sprawling onto the floor.
Ginny laughed and sat up while Draco glowered at the door. He stood first and gave Ginny a hand up. Together they walked into the office and began to plot.
“I need names,” Ginny explained to Draco. “We think there might be a spy and only by listing off the names of all the Death Eaters will the rest of the Order be able to find out who is both a Death Eater and an Order member.”
Draco looked pensive as he tapped the feathery end of a quill against his lips in thought.
“You’ll want the unmarked informants then,” a voice came from the doorway.
Both Ginny and Draco spun around to face Lucius Malfoy. Draco was clearly frightened now that they had been discovered. Ginny slowly closed her eyes and dropped into her magic in preparation of stopping the elder Malfoy from doing something that might hurt her or Draco.
“Draco,” Lucius snapped. “Leave. I need to speak with Miss Weasley for a moment.
Draco shivered at the cold tone in his father’s voice and glanced at Ginny worriedly. When he saw that he eyes were already closed and that her pale pinkish-red hair was glowing slightly, he stood and walked from the room. Draco knew that Ginny was more than capable of taking care of herself and that he would get in the way when she unleashed her magic because she would expend extra energy protecting him from her. Instead he walked out into his sitting room and settled into a couch to wait for the backlash.
Lucius closed the door once Draco left and turned towards Ginny. He had noticed her closed eyes and glowing hair because Draco had taken the extra time to look for it. He knew he was treading on thin ice and that Ginny’s unknown power could destroy him, depending on what he said first.
“I suspect we can come to a compromise,” Lucius said carefully.
“What sort of compromise?” Ginny replied calmly. He magic didn’t spark once as she spoke, showing her complete control over it.
Lucius shivered at the sheer power this little girl represented but gathered his courage around him to continue speaking.
“I will help you and my son. In return you will ensure that my family does not go to Azkaban.”
“I can keep you, your wife, and Draco out of Azkaban,” Ginny said thoughtfully. “But extended family like the Lestranges will go to Azkaban regardless of what I say.”
“Draco, Narcissa, and myself,” Lucius agreed. “In return I will help you gather information for your order and I will help you not to die when the Dark Lord overcomes his ego and calls you to him again.”
Ginny slowly opened her eyes and a shiver went through Lucius.
“You magic will remember this promise even if you yourself forget,” she said ominously.
Lucius nodded and wet to the door to get Draco. “I will remember,” he replied.
By Mell8
----------------
Part Four:
The morning came, resplendent with chirping birds and sunshine in their faces, so Ginny decided to get up. She left Draco sleeping as she explored the rooms he called his own.
One door in his room led to a sitting room with a fireplace, a couch, and two comfortable looking armchairs. The other door in Draco’s bedroom led to a bathroom. Ginny decided to save exploring that for later.
In the sitting room were bookshelves upon bookshelves. Now Ginny knew what Draco did in his spare time and, judging by the amount of books in the room, he had a lot of spare time. Another door in the sitting room led to a study where Ginny found all of Draco’s schoolbooks lying haphazardly across an oak desk. She also found a piece of parchment and a quill.
Ginny took her time writing out the names of every Death Eater she recognized from last night. Some she could guess names of because she recognized their magic, Snape for instance. Most, however, she had to guess based on similarities in their magic to people she already knew. Bellatrix Lestrange had a magic signature similar to her close relative, Tonks. Another similar signature to Bella, Rodolphus Lestrange, her husband, led her to Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus’ brother.
She made sure to indicate which names she was guessing and which she was sure on, before signing the paper and rolling it up. She borrowed some of Draco’s wax and stamped the Weasley family crest into the wax with a bit of magic. Now no one except a Weasley could open the scroll.
Ginny reached out a glowing finger and touched the parchment. It vanished and Ginny knew that it would reappear on the kitchen table at the Burrow where everyone was no doubt having breakfast right now.
“What’re you doing?” came a tired voice from the doorway.
Ginny turned around with a smile for Draco. “Do you remember the train ride back?” she asked. “You said you couldn’t spy because you’d be killed and I couldn’t spy because my family would hate me. But my family knows I’m up to something, so they won’t hate me, which means I can spy all I want.”
“Just, be careful, okay?” Draco sighed. Ginny nodded and smiled at him.
“So, what do I have to do to get some breakfast around here?” she asked.
Draco laughed. “Put some fresh clothes on and I’ll show you the way downstairs.”
Breakfast at the Malfoy’s was certainly not the Weasley family free-for-all Ginny had grown up in. The three Malfoys sat with their backs straight and their elbows off the table as the house elves carefully set filled plates in front of them.
Ginny emulated the Malfoys as best she could. She kept her back straight and her elbows off the table and pretended to know which fork was which. Draco seemed to sense her confusion and winked at her. She glowered back at him.
“Miss Weasley,” Narcissa Malfoy finally spoke. It seemed that conversation was allowed at the breakfast table despite the silence that they had been sitting in for the past five minutes.
“Yes?” Ginny asked as politely as she could.
“What are you doing here?”
Draco stifled a gasp of laughter with his napkin at his mother’s rather rude question. Both Ginny and Narcissa gave Draco the look, which had Lucius hiding a small grin in his cup of coffee.
“I am now in the employ of the Dark Lord,” Ginny said with a smile. “He granted me your son in return.”
“He gave away Draco!” she gasped.
“You could say that,” Lucius said in a placating voice to his wife. “Ginevra has an interesting condition which Draco alleviates. I, however, am not as positive as the Dark Lord that she is telling the truth.”
“I am blind,” Ginny retorted.
“Yes, that has been proven without a doubt. I’m speaking of your wishes for Draco,” Lucius said with a piercing look right at Ginny.
“He lets me see-” she began.
“I saw the way he was holding you last night,” Lucius snapped, fed up with her roundabout words. “I know that you feel something for him besides simple need.”
“Father!” Draco grumbled.
“No, Draco,” Narcissa jumped in. “I want to know this too. Are you in a relationship with this girl? The truth, Draco.”
“Fine,” Ginny grumbled. “Yes, I like your son very much.” Ginny sighed and told the Malfoys about how blackmailing Draco had gone from an obligation to a pleasure. She told them that seeing had gone from a desperate wish to a happy time.
Draco nodded along with everything she said and gently nudged her hand to the right fork when they started eating their breakfasts during the conversation.
“And, Draco,” Narcissa said in a much gentler voice than she had used to speak to Ginny. “What are your feelings towards this…girl?”
Ginny didn’t miss the hesitation and neither did Draco. Narcissa had probably meant to say “blood traitor”, but Ginny wasn’t a blood traitor any more because she was working for the Death Eaters so Narcissa had been forced to change her wording.
“Ginny and I are in a relationship,” Draco agreed. “I enjoy spending time with her,” he added at his mother’s skeptical look.
“Narcissa,” Lucius broke in as he put his fork down. “I saw them last night. I believe it is safe to say that they have something between them.”
Narcissa put down her silverware as if something in her breakfast tasted terrible. She carefully dabbed at her lips with a napkin and took a deep breath.
“Where did Ginevra sleep last night?” she asked with apparent calmness.
“In Draco’s bed,” Lucius replied with a sigh. “But,” he added when Narcissa went white. “I had a house elf monitor them the entire night. If anything untoward occurred, I would have been notified immediately.”
The house elves cleared away breakfast as Narcissa contemplated the best course of action. It was clear that Ginny needed to stay; the Dark Lord had given Draco to her no matter how much Narcissa wished it weren’t true. But, she refused to believe that Draco was in a relationship with a girl not picked out by his father. Draco had dated Pansy Parkinson through school because at the time Lucius thought it might be a beneficial relationship for the Malfoy family. Once Narcissa had met that idiot girl, however, things changed.
It was Narcissa’s belief that Astoria Greengrass would have served well as Draco’s bride and had been contemplating mentioning it to Lucius. Now with this Weasley girl here, she needed to rethink her plans. Only by getting rid of Ginevra, both from her house and from Draco’s affections, could Narcissa retake her hold on Draco’s relationships with potential brides.
Narcissa gasped as Ginny opened her eyes and gave the older woman a knowing smile. Ginny stood and walked around the table to wait by Narcissa’s chair.
“The men don’t need us around right now,” Ginny said to Mrs. Malfoy. “I’m going to be here a while and I’m assuming that staying in Draco’s bed the whole time wouldn’t be a good idea. Why don’t you show me a room I can stay in that won’t upset propriety?” Ginny asked.
Narcissa nodded, eager to get the girl alone for a little bit, and stood as well.
Ginny walked away from Draco with her eyes closed. She didn’t want to experience the sight of everything vanishing until the colors became nonexistent this time. Especially since she knew that any time she wanted she could easily find Draco and she could see again.
By the time they were out in the main hallways of the Manor, Ginny was guiding herself down the halls with magic and Narcissa was watching her with a hawk’s eye.
“Do you really expect me to believe that you are sightless?” Narcissa said scornfully. “I don’t know how you managed to dupe my husband and my son, but I will end this.”
“You will try,” Ginny agreed. She lifted up her head so Narcissa could see that her eyes were closed as she unerringly followed the Malfoy matron up the stairs and down the hall.
Mrs. Malfoy guided Ginny to the exact opposite side of the house from where Draco’s rooms were located. Ginny sighed, knowing that there was probably an empty room right next to Draco’s that she could have, and followed the woman into the deepest, most unreachable corner of the Manor. What the Malfoy Matron didn’t know was that Ginny could use her magic and will herself into Draco’s room any time she wanted. Distance and silly things like wards couldn’t stop her and therefore neither would any of Narcissa’s machinations.
The room they entered was threadbare and covered with dust. There was an old bed in the corner with a nightstand beside it that was missing a leg. Along one wall were two mismatched dressers for clothing with a cracked mirror lying lopsided on top of one. This had to be the room where the house elves stored all the broken furniture they were planning on refurbishing as soon as they had time, meaning never.
Narcissa hid a smirk as Ginny stood in the doorway. There was only one room, unlike Draco’s suite of rooms, and an attached bathroom. Ginny hoped there would be running water in the bathroom so she didn’t have to disrupt the Manor’s spells too much when she fixed the place up.
Ginny took a step into the room and a gust of wind blew through the room before her, apparently from the windowless hallway she had just left. All the dust was picked up in the room and blown out the small bedroom window that opened itself as the wind neared.
The covers on the bed lifted themselves as Ginny took another step into the room. The moth holes in the fabric sewed artful patches of fabric over themselves, fabric that appeared from some unknown source, and a family of doxies ran, shrieking, for the curtains.
Narcissa watched as the nightstand grew a new leg, the mirror liquefied and re-solidified, whole and unblemished, and the ragged, fire spotted carpet brushed itself to a new shine.
Ginny took a third step into the room and smiled even though her eyes were still closed. Narcissa had noticed that the girl hadn’t opened them yet.
The ripped wallpaper glued itself back on the walls while the broken hinges on the bathroom door found their missing screws and refastened themselves correctly.
By the time the wind died down the room looked habitable. It was certainly not the best room Malfoy Manor could offer, but it was more than serviceable for even a respected guest to stay in.
“Do I need to rescue the bathroom too?” Ginny asked as she turned her face towards where Narcissa was standing, eyes still closed.
“That was you?” Narcissa gasped. She had been watching the magic as it somehow fixed the room, but had certainly not being ignoring Ginny. The girl hadn’t moved a finger and was certainly not holding a wand, yet she professed to have accomplished something so impossible that Narcissa hardly believed it had just happened despite seeing it herself. Just what powers did this girl have?
“It was,” Ginny said with a smirk. She ignored Narcissa’s shocked and disbelieving silence and walked into the bathroom. There was running water, but the pipes were so rusted and the sink, bathtub, and toilet so cracked, that running water might destroy the room rather than save it. Ginny got to work.
Narcissa Malfoy stood out in the middle of the bedroom, mouth agape. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen. That little girl had used wandless magic to fix the room, something Narcissa wasn’t sure she could do with a wand.
She looked around the room, trying to find evidence that maybe the Manor had done something odd and Weasley was just taking credit, but could find no signs. She did find something peculiar however. The nightstand leg that had re-grown was the wrong color. The piece was of a rich, dark wood while the new leg was a pale tan.
The carpet was a pale blue that matched the wallpaper and the bedspread, but the new bits of shag were brown. In fact, Narcissa felt it would be safe to say that everything that had just been fixed had been fixed in the wrong color. It was almost as if whoever did the fixing couldn’t see the colors to match them.
Someone with enough power to re-grow wood or carpet should easily be able to match the colors in the process. Only a blind person would make such a mistake.
Only a blind person…
Narcissa gasped.
“So now you understand?” Ginny said as she walked back into the room from a sparkling bathroom. Her eyes were open and Narcissa winced at the colorless white that greeted her. “I am blind and through that blindness I have great power. Since I prefer sight and your son, I willingly abandon that power.”
“You can’t use your power when you’re around Draco?” Narcissa asked, curious despite her dislike of the girl.
“I can use my powers whenever I like,” Ginny said with a smile. “I just prefer to use my eyes while I have them available to me.”
Narcissa sniffed. “We dress for dinner,” she snapped before turning and sweeping from the room. Ginny couldn’t help smiling as the defeated woman left.
III
Ginny used her magic to send her to the dining room when she felt all three Malfoys gather there.
A house elf had brought her lunch while Ginny had spent the day “reading”. She had recently discovered a Muggle invention called Braille and was busy teaching herself to read the bumps and dots. She was tired of being forced to listen to a disembodied voice every time she wanted to fall into a good book. This was a much better way.
Draco was the only one who didn’t jump when she appeared next to him. Lucius and Narcissa had to scramble to hide their surprise. Ginny just opened her eyes and gazed at Draco.
He was dressed smartly in slacks and a blue collared shirt. Ginny really liked the blue on him, especially since his hair and eyes matched so well with it. Blue was a very pretty color to see, Ginny thought.
She was wearing a green dress, similar to Narcissa’s, that was fitted but not revealing. It was a simple dress, nice enough that none of the Malfoy’s could complain but not so nice that Ginny would feel awkward eating in it.
“Where’d you get that dress?” Draco asked, his eyes on her body as he went a little slack jawed.
Ginny laughed and reached out to pull Draco’s head up until he was looking at her face. She closed his mouth and patted his reddened cheek.
“I made it out of a handkerchief I stole from you,” she answered with a smile, waiting for his outburst. She wasn’t disappointed.
“You’re wearing my handkerchief?”
“Well, I made it a little bigger, but, yeah, I am.”
Ginny guided Draco over to the table and waited while he pulled her chair out for her.
“Why are you wearing my handkerchief?” Draco asked as he carefully pushed her chair in.
“I only brought a few changes of clothes with me. I certainly couldn’t bring a dress.” Ginny shrugged.
Narcissa’s disparaging sniff brought conversation to a close for dinner and they ate in silence as the house elves brought them plates of food. No one dared breach the Malfoy matriarch’s smothering quiet.
When dinner ended Ginny and Draco rose and returned to Draco’s office. As soon as they were out of Narcissa’s sight Ginny sighed in relief. Her dress began to melt off as she walked and was quickly replaced by the clothes she had been wearing earlier that day.
When they reached Draco’s rooms, Ginny handed him a small green handkerchief with a smile.
“Ginny,” Draco groaned. His cheeks were pink as he held the piece of cloth between two fingers. Then he signed and kissed Ginny on the lips.
She responded eagerly and they fell against the door with a thump. The door, probably thinking its master couldn’t get in by turning the handle for some reason, opened itself, sending the teens sprawling onto the floor.
Ginny laughed and sat up while Draco glowered at the door. He stood first and gave Ginny a hand up. Together they walked into the office and began to plot.
“I need names,” Ginny explained to Draco. “We think there might be a spy and only by listing off the names of all the Death Eaters will the rest of the Order be able to find out who is both a Death Eater and an Order member.”
Draco looked pensive as he tapped the feathery end of a quill against his lips in thought.
“You’ll want the unmarked informants then,” a voice came from the doorway.
Both Ginny and Draco spun around to face Lucius Malfoy. Draco was clearly frightened now that they had been discovered. Ginny slowly closed her eyes and dropped into her magic in preparation of stopping the elder Malfoy from doing something that might hurt her or Draco.
“Draco,” Lucius snapped. “Leave. I need to speak with Miss Weasley for a moment.
Draco shivered at the cold tone in his father’s voice and glanced at Ginny worriedly. When he saw that he eyes were already closed and that her pale pinkish-red hair was glowing slightly, he stood and walked from the room. Draco knew that Ginny was more than capable of taking care of herself and that he would get in the way when she unleashed her magic because she would expend extra energy protecting him from her. Instead he walked out into his sitting room and settled into a couch to wait for the backlash.
Lucius closed the door once Draco left and turned towards Ginny. He had noticed her closed eyes and glowing hair because Draco had taken the extra time to look for it. He knew he was treading on thin ice and that Ginny’s unknown power could destroy him, depending on what he said first.
“I suspect we can come to a compromise,” Lucius said carefully.
“What sort of compromise?” Ginny replied calmly. He magic didn’t spark once as she spoke, showing her complete control over it.
Lucius shivered at the sheer power this little girl represented but gathered his courage around him to continue speaking.
“I will help you and my son. In return you will ensure that my family does not go to Azkaban.”
“I can keep you, your wife, and Draco out of Azkaban,” Ginny said thoughtfully. “But extended family like the Lestranges will go to Azkaban regardless of what I say.”
“Draco, Narcissa, and myself,” Lucius agreed. “In return I will help you gather information for your order and I will help you not to die when the Dark Lord overcomes his ego and calls you to him again.”
Ginny slowly opened her eyes and a shiver went through Lucius.
“You magic will remember this promise even if you yourself forget,” she said ominously.
Lucius nodded and wet to the door to get Draco. “I will remember,” he replied.
Leave a Review