Chapter One



When I looked back on things later, I should have been suspicious. It started about midway through my fifth year. I was always clumsy, so it wasn’t anything but a common occurrence when I tripped down the stairs one day after Charms. The uncommon occurrence was that Draco Malfoy helped me up and handed me my things. I started at him for a moment, and he looked at me, as if studying me.

“I met your brother Charlie this summer. He’s a good man. Asked me to look after you,” he said, before sweeping off in the direction of the Great Hall. I wrote to Charlie that night and asked him if this was true. After two days of constantly looking at the window, an answer came back.



Ginny,

Yes, Draco was telling the truth. He came to Romania this summer, and stayed with us here. He’s a very good fellow deep down. Don’t give him a hard time this year; he’s had a rough life. That’s all I’m going to say, and even that’s too much. Don’t mention it to him, all right? I’ll be home when you get back from Hogwarts, so look for me on Platform 9 ¾

Your brother,

Charlie



Charlie’s reply was the next odd thing. In all my years- and all Ron’s years- at Hogwarts Charlie had never seen us off or met us as we came back. He was always too busy with the dragons in Romania. Still, I pushed aside my suspicions and looked forward to seeing my eldest, and favorite, brother. I became more and more anxious to see Charlie as the school year came to a close, although when it was time for me to sit the O.W.L.s, he was momentarily forgotten.

Finally, the day came when we boarded the Hogwarts Express. The ride seemed slower than ever, and I spent most of it looking anxiously out the window. My anxiety must have shown, though, because soon Harry, Ron, and Hermione were asking me if I was all right. I slipped out of the compartment, intent on taking a walk to clear my mind.



That was when the next, and final, odd thing happened.



I ran into Draco Malfoy about halfway to the bathrooms. He did not insult my family, our financial status, or my hand me down books and clothes. Instead he gave me a studying look again.

“Watch where you’re going, Weasley,” he said softly. After a moment of thinking, he added, “I suspect I’ll be seeing you this summer.” Before I could ask what he was talking about, he had turned into the compartment to my left. I started at the spot where he had been before turning around and going back to the compartment I’d come from.

When the ride finally came to an end, I was the first one off the train. I looked wildly around and saw Charlie standing with Mum, grinning like mad at me.

“Charlie!” I called out, and ran to him. He picked me up in a hug and spun me around, just like he used to do when I was younger. I laughed as he set me down. “You’ve got some explaining to do,” I said as Mum greeted Harry, Ron, and Hermione with a hug for each of them.

“Later,” he said quietly, and I knew the topic was closed. He looked away from me and at the train. “You know, I miss Hogwarts,” he said wistfully. I laughed.

“I don’t. I’m ready for a break from there.” Before we could continue our conversation, however, Mum pulled me close for a hug.

“Just because Charlie’s here doesn’t mean that you get to ignore me,” she said, trying to keep the cheerfulness in her voice and the tears out. That should have been another warning sign, but as Mum’s a very emotional person I just assumed she was very happy to see us all.

Charlie and I didn’t get a chance to talk that night because the instant we were home, Mum sent me upstairs to unpack. When I finished unpacking, I headed downstairs, planning on talking to Charlie, when I heard my name and stopped where I was.

“It’s too dangerous! Ginny’s only sixteen!” mum said fervently. I heard the laughing that I instantly recognized as Charlie’s.

“Mum, that’s how old I was when I went for the first time. Anyway, if she has the Gift then she won’t be in any danger at all. If she doesn’t, then she can stay a week or two, and then come home. I promise she’ll be safe,” Charlie said.

“Yes, but Ginny’s my little girl,” Mum said sniffing.

“Just think about it, will you?” Charlie asked, sighing. Mum’s answer must have been a nod or a shake, because soon the door started to open and I pressed myself against the wall so that they couldn’t see me. Charlie came out first and held the door open so that Mum, who was wiping her eyes, could leave. She went directly for the kitchen, but Charlie stayed where he was.

“How much of that did you hear, Ginny?” Charlie asked, a small grin on his face. I feigned innocence.

“Hear what?” I asked, continuing down the stairs.

“I’ve grown up with Fred and George, too, Gin. I can tell when someone’s lying. It’s all right; I won’t get mad. In fact, I was wanting to tell you all along, but Mum’s not too happy about it,” Charlie said, leading me into the living room that Mum had just vacated. I sat down on the nearest chair and looked at him.

“Not much, just the end of the conversation. Something about me going and having the Gift?” I said, looking questioningly at him.

“I can’t tell you about the Gift yet, but I’m trying to see if Mum will let you come with me to Romania for a while this summer. She seems to be under the impression that it will be dangerous or something,” Charlie said, rolling his eyes. I laughed.

“I would love to come to Romania! Is there anything I can do to convince Mum?” I asked, looking up at him eagerly. Charlie sighed.

“No. Don’t let on to Mum that I told you. I’ll talk to her and dad tonight and see if I can convince them. I need to get back. Tedros will be lonely with out me,” he said as he stood up from where he had been leaning against the piano.

“Tedros?” I asked, curiously. Mum never let him talk about dragons and Romania to me because, I suppose, she was afraid that I would be like Charlie and want to work with them.

“My dragon. He’s a Swedish Short-Snout. C’mon. Let’s go help mum with dinner in an attempt to butter her up,” he said and ushered me out the door.



I went to bed that night before a decision had been made, but early the next morning Charlie woke me up. He was grinning like mad, and at once I knew that Mum was going to let me go.

“Time to get up. You need to pack because I need to get back today. Mum says I need to bring you home in two weeks if things don’t work out, or with two weeks remaining in the summer if they do,” Charlie said, pulling my blanket off of me. I shivered and tried to pull the blanket back on.

“Give me five minutes and I’ll get up,” I yawned. I was an early riser, but always needed a few minutes to get completely woken up.

“All right. I’ll be downstairs with Mum. You can either come directly down there and eat breakfast, and then pack, or you can pack first. We need to be leaving within the hour, though,” he said and left the room. Within the hour? I thought to myself. It doesn’t give me much time to pack. I hurried out of bed and pulled off my Weird Sister’s shirt and plaid pajama pants and pulled on a pair of faded blue jeans and a Celestina Warbeck shirt. I combed my hair, and then spent twenty frantic minutes packing everything that I thought I might need in Romania. When I was sure I had packed everything that I could think of, I almost ran downstairs to eat breakfast. Mum was standing in front of the stove, cooking bacon, and looking like she had been crying for several hours. Charlie was sitting at the table, drinking a mug of tea, and looking at Which Broomstick. He looked up when I entered the room, and smiled at me.

“I met her once,” he said, pointing at my shirt. “She was quite nice and seemed rather interested in my, uh, job.” He looked nervously at Mum, who glared at him.

“Eat up, Ginny, dear. Merlin knows when you’ll get another decent meal,” she said, piling my plate with more food than I thought I was going to be able to eat. Charlie sighed in exasperation.

“We eat perfectly healthy meals,” he said, rolling his eyes at me. I giggled and started to eat my breakfast.

It took thirty minutes for me to eat my breakfast, and then it took another ten convincing Mum that I didn’t need any more to eat. She kept looking at me with her eyes full of tears when she thought I wasn’t looking. Finally, the time came for us to leave. Mum didn’t even try to hold back her tears as she hugged me.

“Be good, Ginny, and make sure Charlie keeps you safe,” she said.

“Mum, I went through this last night-” Charlie started, impatiently, but was cut off by Mum.

“Charlie. One more word and she won’t go,” she snapped, and he was quiet. After fifteen minutes of Mum fussing over me, we boarded the Knight Bus and were on our way.



“So, what can you tell me about why I’m going?” I asked Charlie as we sat at one of the round tables on the top story. He sipped his drink and thought for a minute.

“Well, everyone at Hydes- the dragon Reservation that we’re going to- is a member of the Council. We help Dumbledore and the Resistance. I can’t really tell you more than that until we get there and you get tested,” he finally replied. There was a loud bang! and the Knight Bus stopped in front of a large stone manor that was surrounded by grassy fields as far as the eye could see and, to my heart’s delight, dragons! “Here we are,” Charlie announced, standing up from his chair. We quickly left the bus and that’s when I heard it. A voice in my head, that is.

Welcome back, young one, the voice said. I jumped. Hearing voices, even in the magical world, is a bad thing, so I didn’t mention it to Charlie. I heard the voice again.

So, this is the one you’ve told me about. Hello, little one, the cool, calm voice said.

“Er, hello,” I whispered. Charlie immediately turned to look at me, giving me an odd look.

“You heard about Tedros speaking?” he asked me. I nodded, and then heard the voice speak again.

Of course she can hear me. The little one is special beyond what you expect. Lunchtime, the voice, which I now realized was Tedros’, said again.

“I’ll take you to your room, Ginny, and while you get settled in I’ll feed Tedros, and then speak to the Council members,” Charlie said, leading me towards the manor.



The room was a lot larger than my one at the Burrow. It was a circular room, much like the ones at Hogwarts, and held a large four-poster bed with yellow hangings, a dressing table, wardrobe, desk, and bookcase. There were six large windows, giving a magnificent view of the grounds. Everywhere I looked I could see dragons being fed, bathed, or flying. Slowly, I started unpacking my clothes. I had been at work for twenty minutes when the door opened, breaking my reverie. A tall woman with white hair and blue eyes strode into the room. She was wearing tan dragonhide pants and had on a fitted deep purple tunic. Her white hair was pulled back into braids, which were knotted when they connected at her nape. She was carrying two packages that were wrapped in brown paper. She smiled at me and placed the packages on the bed.

“Hello, Ginny,” she said warmly, and shook my hand. “My name is Eloise Sloan. Most around here call me Sloan, but you can call me either. I’m the Head of the Council. Your brother told me that you were able to talk to his dragon. Is that correct?” She took a seat at the desk as she asked me.

“Er, yes, but I’ll promise not to do it again if it’s illegal,” I said, quickly. I rather liked this woman and did not want to get on her bad side. She laughed a very tinkling laugh.

“Oh, sweet, it’s not a bad thing. It’s just very unusual, you see. I’ve brought you your dragonhide pants and a green tunic,” she said, pointing to the packages. “If you’ll just change into those down I’ll send Charlie up in a few minutes to get you and you can meet Goldenwing.” She stood up and started to head towards the door.

“Goldenwing?” I asked curiously.

“Your dragon,” she said simply, before leaving. I stared at the door in amazement. I hadn’t been here for an hour yet, and I already had a dragon.

Chapter Two

I turned slowly and stared at the packages before reaching for them to open them. A pair of black dragonhide pants and a soft green fitted tunic were in them. Quickly I pulled my jeans and tee shirt off and put on the new clothes. I could tell instantly that they had been charmed to fit nicely and to be breathable. I ran a brush through my hair and waited for Charlie to come and get me. I stared out the window at the dragons, wondering which one was Goldenwing. I was pulled out of my daydreams by the door opening and Charlie walking in.

“Ready?” he asked. I noticed that he had on a yellow tunic, which clashed horribly with his hair, and black dragonhide pants.

“Yeah,” I mumbled. I was beginning to get nervous. What if the other Council members weren’t as nice as Eloise had been? What if they thought that being able to talk to Charlie’s dragon was horrible, and thought that I should be sent to Azkaban immediately? What if they had some awful test that I had to go through and couldn’t do and they sent me packing my bags? I shook my head to get the what-ifs out of my mind as we made our way through the manor and outside.

The sun was shining brightly and there was a slight breeze. It was perfect Quidditch conditions. We headed towards a field that was filled with people wearing different colored tunics.

“Those are the other members of the council,” Charlie said, noticing my gaze. “You’ll have to perform a test in front of them, then there will be a meeting tonight in which they will discuss whether or not you should be allowed to join the Council.” I looked nervously at the people standing around. My heart sank to my feet when I recognized one of them.

Draco Malfoy was standing on the opposite side of the field from me in a green tunic and black dragonhide pants. In my nervousness I noticed that dragonhide was a very good look for him. That thought led me to remembering that I had on dragonhide, too, and I suddenly wished that I had worked out a little more with the Quidditch team. Blushing, I turned my gaze from him to the man standing next to him. He was wearing a yellow tunic like Charlie’s and tan dragonhide pants. His hair was dark blonde, and he looked at me scornfully. I shifted my gaze from him and scanned the rest of the faces. Anxiously I noted that all the women had their hair braided like Eloise’s had been if it was long enough. I thought of my own long hair and how I had left it down, and wished that I had thought to pull it up. I hoped my hair wasn’t going to get in the way of my test. My gaze landed once again on Draco as we reached the crowd.

Oh no, I’m going to make an arse of myself in front of Malfoy, I thought.

You won’t, child. You have the Gift in far greater proportions that he could ever dream of having, a calm, feminine voice said. It calmed me, much like a Draft of Peace potion would. I looked around to see where the dragon that had spoken was and saw three men and a woman leading the most beautiful creature I had ever seen towards me.

The dragon’s scales were iridescent, but had more gold than any other color in them. Her eyes were glittering and multicolored with no pupils. My heart leapt and I knew, instantly, that I would never be able to give Goldenwing up; I felt a sense of completion, as though I found the one thing I had been needing, although I didn’t know I had been missing it.

Hello Goldenwing. I’m Ginny, I thought, not knowing what one should say to one’s dragon.

I know, the serene voice replied. Come and pet me. I was only vaguely aware of Eloise speaking again, but I didn’t know what she was saying. Carefully I walked towards the dragon and reached tentatively towards her neck. As my hand made contact with the scales, I gasped. I had expected the scales to be cool, but they were warm, as if she had been lying out in the sun all day. The dragon closed her eyes in contentment. The thunderous noise of applause brought me out of my thoughts and I looked around. Everyone was clapping, even the man standing next to Malfoy, although he was clapping rather reluctantly. I looked back at where Charlie was standing, clapping with a huge grin on his face. Seeing him looking so proudly at me brought a smile to my face. I turned to face Goldenwing once more. Looking at my beautiful dragon, I knew that if I had needed to, I would have been able to produce a real patronus.

The crowd disbanded soon after the applause had died down. Now only Charlie and, of all people, Draco Malfoy were left. They were talking quietly. After a few minutes, Charlie left his side and came towards me.

“We’re having a meeting now, but Draco is going to show you some basic dragon care things and tell you what he knows of the Council. Normally Sloan would tell you, but she’s needed in this meeting; it’s bound to be a rough one,” Charlie said. He gave me a hug and left before I could protest having to be taught by a Malfoy. I pointedly looked away from Malfoy and continued to pat my dragon. I sensed rather than heard him walk behind me.

“You have a really beautiful dragon,” he said. After hesitating for a moment, he continued. “May I pet her?” I nodded mutely, not knowing what else to do. We stood in silence for a few minutes, both petting Goldenwing, before I spoke.

“So, uh, what kind of dragon do you have?” I asked, wondering if it was a stupid question to ask.

“Hungarian Horntail named Vertigo,” he said. “Let’s take Goldenwing out to the field where the Greens are kept; I’ll explain some stuff to you on the way.” I nodded.

Come on, Goldenwing, we’re taking you somewhere. I suppose you’ll just follow us? I said to my dragon. She opened her eyes and stared at me.

Of course, she said. I followed Draco as he started walking to the right.

“Er, what did you mean where the Greens are kept?” I asked.

“I suppose that’s a good enough place to start my explanation. There are five regular groups in the Council, which are indicated by the tunics we wear and the fields that our dragons are kept in. Greens are the lowest, and newest, members, who are usually still in school. Our fields are the farthest away. Next come Reds. They’re the newest ones to have graduated. Their fields are a little closer than ours. Third are the Yellows, one of which is your brother. They’re older than the Reds, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, and again, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, their fields are closer than the Reds’. It goes on like this. The older you are, the closer your field is and the higher rank of color you have. After the Yellows come the Blues. After the Blues are the Whites. White is the highest normal rank. Basically you stay a white until you die. The last group is the most prestigious. They’re Purple, and the only current members of that is Sloan, the Head of the Council, and Dorian, her second in command. Purples lead the Council, and there are usually only two or three of them.” By this time we had reached the farthest field and stopped. Goldenwing, who had been flying behind us landed with a soft thud next to me.

“Which one’s yours?” I asked, so excited at learning so much new information that I forgot it was Malfoy I was talking to. He rolled his eyes.

“The only Hungarian Horntail out here,” he said, pointing to a medium sized black dragon. I glared at Malfoy.

“So, um, what is there to teach me?” I asked. He rolled his eyes once more.

“The real question is what is there to not teach you,” he said, and then continued in a more serious voice. “Well, you need to know how to saddle your dragon- but they don’t allow Greens to show newcomers that, so I suppose you’ll learn tomorrow- and you need to know how to wash your dragon, and feed her, but she’s been washed and fed today already, so you’ll learn that tomorrow. Really there isn’t much to tell. They don’t tell Greens a lot of stuff, and we’re not allowed in the meetings until we graduate, but by then they make us Reds,” he shrugged.

“Who else is a Green?” I asked.

“Well, there’s Tait. His dragon is Tybalt,” he said and pointed to a Common Welsh Green, “and Zandra. Angus is hers,” he pointed at a Swedish Short-Snout, “Lacey,” he grimaced at her name, “is the only other Green. Her dragon is a Hebridean Black and is named Noah. Zandra and Tait both go to Durmstrang and Lacey goes to Beauxbatons, although she’s British.”

“Where are all of them?” I asked, curious as to why I hadn’t seen them earlier.

“Durmstrang goes about a week longer than we do, and Lacey is on holiday with her parents. They should be finished with the meeting, so we can head back and see if dinner is ready.” We walked part of the way back in silence before I spoke again.

“So- your parents don’t mind you coming here all summer? My mum almost had a nervous breakdown at the thought of me being away all summer,” I said sighing. He made a noise, as if restraining himself from making a mean comment about my mother.

“Father is in Azkaban. Mother couldn’t care less,” he said simply, and I knew the topic was closed.

By that time we had reached the manor and dusk had arrived. All the windows were lit and the front doors were opened. Many witches and wizards were sitting on the front steps or on the grass. Some called out greetings to us, and Draco greeted them by name while I just waved, not knowing who they were. Charlie met us at the door and smiled at me.

“They’ve accepted you, as I knew they would. There were a few who didn’t want to, but in the end the majority ruled,” he said and led us into a chamber off the entrance hall. One large table stood in the middle. Two witches, both Whites, were placing dishes of food on the table.

“Hello Charlie, Draco, Ginny,” one called out as she put a bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. She had gray hair and a kind smile.

“Hello, Leila,” Charlie smiled. Soon the table was filled with the rest of the Council. Draco had left my side to go and sit with the man he had been standing with earlier. They were conversing in low tones and kept glancing at me periodically.

Dinner was an enjoyable affair. I met many of the Reds and even some Yellows. Most of them accepted me graciously, but I noticed one man that kept glaring at me. He had medium brown hair, wore a blue tunic, and was rather tall and rough looking.

“Who is that man that keeps glaring at me?” I whispered to Charlie. He glanced over at the man, and then turned back to me.

“Oh, that’s just Jude. He doesn’t really like new people,” Charlie said in an offhanded way. I tried to ignore the man, but his glare bothered me so much that I excused myself early from dinner and headed back to my room. Once in the sanctity of my room, I pulled out a parchment and quill to write Hermione a letter.

Hermione,
Romania is amazing! I’m having such a wonderful time here. I met this beautiful Antipodean Opaleye named Goldenwing. She is the sweetest creature! I’ve also met some very interesting people here. I’m looking forward to the rest of my visit and, while I’m sad you, along with Harry and Ron, aren’t here, I think it will be good to get away from those that I’m used to and give myself a chance to meet new people, ones that are out of Hogwarts. Two girls and a guy will be joining us later. Two go to Durmstrang and one from Beauxbatons. I’m really excited about meeting them. There is one other Hogwarts person here. Draco Malfoy. He’s been acting a little differently, and I’m thinking that the dragons have perhaps changed him for the better. I hope so, anyway. It looks like I’ll be spending the summer working with him. I can’t say much more about my visit- sorry to be so vague. I’ll see you two weeks before September 1st when I return from here. Until then, keep my brother and Harry safe! I know you’re the only reason they’ve survived six years at Hogwarts.
All my love,
Ginny

I gave the letter to my owl, Persephone, and watched as she flew off into the night before pulling my pajamas on and crawling into bed. I smiled to myself as I thought about Goldenwing and how much there was for me to learn and experience this summer. I yawned, rolled over, and was fast asleep within minutes.

Chapter Three

My first thought was that this was not my bed. My second thought was interrupted by Goldenwing’s greeting.

Good morning, she said. I grinned, remembering that I was in Romania with Charlie and that I was going to become a member of the Dragon Council.

Good morning Goldenwing, I thought back to her and sat up in bed, stretching my arms far over my head.

“Miss…. Mistress has asked Doppa to help you,” said a squeaky little voice. I jumped slightly, and turned to the doorway where a house elf was standing in a tea towel.

“Help me with what?” I asked, unsure of how to treat a house elf. Since we were very poor, we had never had a house elf, and although there were hundreds at Hogwarts, I had never seen any. The only house elf that I had been in contact with was Kreacher, and he was foul beyond belief.

“Dressing, miss,” Doppa said and creeped towards the wardrobe. She snapped her fingers and the doors flew open, revealing many pairs of different shades of dragonhide pants and green tunics.

“Um, okay. Anything in particular that I’m suppose to wear?” I asked, then, when she shook her head, I continued, “All right, will you bring me one of the tunics and one pair of pants?” She did as she was told and brought me a green tunic and tan dragonhide pants. I thanked her, and then quickly changed out of my pajamas into the new clothes. “Anything else?” I asked her, my stomach rumbling and my want for breakfast growing stronger.

“Mistress asked Doppa to braids your hair, miss,” she said.

“Um, okay,” I said, wondering who this “mistress” was. Was she Eloise, or did one of the rich Council members bring a house elf for added comfort? I moved from where I was standing to sit in the chair that was in front of the dressing table. Doppa snapped again and a stool appeared behind my chair for the house elf to stand and on and she set to work. Soon my long red hair was braided like Eloise’s had been.

“Thank you,” I said. The house elf nodded and was gone. I stood up from the chair and, after grabbing my wand, headed down to breakfast.


The first thing I immediately noticed was the dark haired girl that looked to be about my age that was sitting at the table. She hadn’t been here the night before, so I assumed her to be Lacey, the girl from Beauxbatons. She was telling Charlie about her trip to Mexico with her parents. Charlie looked up when I walked into the room and smiled at me. Lacey turned around and smiled when she saw me.

“You must be Ginny. I’m Lacey,” she said and stuck out her hand for me to shake. “Sit down and let’s eat. I was just telling Charlie about Mexico. Have you ever been there?” I told her that I hadn’t and sat down. She turned out to be very cheerful and lively, and I could see why Draco didn’t seem to like her. As this thought crossed my mind, the door opened and none other than Draco himself walked into the room.

“Nolen,” he drawled, nodding in greeting to her.

“Hello, Draco,” she said, cheerfully. “Made anyone cry today?” He rolled his eyes and sat down near us.

“Not yet, but the day is still young,” he turned and I got the feeling that this was routine for them.

“Ah, yes, Malfoy Code number 557: The day is wasted if one doesn’t make someone cry,” Lacey said brightly and spooned more eggs onto her plate.

“No, that’s number 558. Number 557 is ‘One must always treat those who are cheerful in the morning to a very painful death.’” he said as he started to spoon food onto his plate.

“What kind of death is it going to be this morning?” she asked, grinning wickedly. “You’ve already threatened me with disembowelment and quartering.” Draco rolled his eyes and finished chewing and swallowing the bite he had in his mouth.

“I’m thinking water torture,” he said, and, when she looked confused, he continued. “I tie you under a pipe that drips water constantly onto your forehead and you slowly go insane or die or something.” He spooned another bite of oatmeal into his mouth. Lacey laughed.

“Disembowelment and quartering was much better, Draco dearest. Are you losing your touch?” She grinned. He scowled and she laughed again, and then turned to me “Let’s head out to the fields and I’ll introduce you to Noah. I’m dying to see him again. Madame Maxime wouldn’t let me keep him at the school,” she frowned.

“Sounds good. I’ll introduce you to Goldenwing,” I said and followed her out of the dining room and out onto the grounds.

“Is Draco always so surly in school? You’re the only other one I’ve meet from Hogwarts, besides him. I was too young to come and watch the Triwizard Tournament, you know,” she said, pulling on her long dark hair. “Oh drat. I forgot to braid my hair.”

“Actually, he’s usually worse. I think coming here and meeting his dragon has tamed him a little,” I said, reveling in the warm air with just the hint of a breeze.

“Probably. I know Zandra was like that. I had met her a few times before- we’ve both had relatives that have helped out the Council in one way or another- and she was always so awful, but now she’s all right. She’s closer to Draco than either Tait or me, but I suppose those rich aristocrats always stick together,” she said, shrugging. “I suppose that’s why we get to stick together,” she said, grinning, “We’re both poor. Of course, I don’t have any siblings, and you have, what, six?” I laughed.

“Yes, six brothers to make matters worse. Ron’s friends Harry and Hermione come over during the summer, so it’s kind of like I have an extra brother and sister. Mum’s convinced that Harry and Hermione will be in the family someday. She thinks that Harry is going to fall madly in love with me, and that Hermione and Ron will fall madly in love with each other. What she doesn’t know is that Ron is dating Padama Patil, and I think Hermione fancies Harry.” Lacey laughed.

“Sounds like my mum. She wants me to marry Zandra’s brother, but he’s worse than she’s ever been. He doesn’t have the Gift,” she added. Before I could ask any questions, we had arrived at the fields, and she screamed “NOAH!” and ran towards her Hebridean Black.

Hello Lacey, he said in his gentle voice, opening one eye to look at her as she flung her arms around his neck.

“I’ve missed you so! Eloise said she kept asking Madame Maxime to let me keep you, but she refused! Seemed to think that I wouldn’t be able to keep you from ravishing the castle and eating all of the students,” Lacey laughed. I turned my attention to my own dragon.

Hello Goldenwing, I said and patted her on the neck. She closed her eyes in appreciation.

Hello young one. I see you’ve made a friend? She said. I told her that I had and turned to face Lacey who was still hugging her dragon.

“Lacey, this is Goldenwing,” I called out to the older girl. She turned and grinned.

“She’s pretty! I always wanted an Antipodean Opaleye until I got Noah, here. Now I wouldn’t take any other dragon except for him,” she said, smiling lovingly at her dragon. Soon Draco and Charlie joined us.

“Okay, Gin. You have a lot of stuff you learn, so we’ll get started,” Charlie said, carrying a bucket and a sponge.

“What’s that for?” I asked, noticing that Draco was carrying two similar ones.

“Oh, dragon’s dung! It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to be around dragons that I completely forgot the morning processes!” Lacey laughed, taking the bucket that Draco handed her. “Thanks Draco, darling.”

“The first thing that we do every morning is give our dragons a good scrub to get rid of any dead skin or dirt that has gotten on their scales. Here, I’ll do a little bit and I’ll show you how do to it. Will you tell her to spread her wings?” Charlie asked, setting the bucket on the ground next to Goldenwing.

Can you spread your wings for us? She did as I asked and soon Charlie had dipped the sponge into the liquid in the bucket.

“What’s in there?” I asked.

“Scrubbing potion. Thomas created it, and it helps this task to go a lot faster. Now, the trick is to do the scrubbing in a gentle, circular motion,” Charlie said, demonstrating on an area behind her ear. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Draco and Lacey had already started working and were bantering. I watched silently for a few moments as Charlie dipped the sponge back into the red potion and continued the scrubbing, giving a slightly red tint to her scales. When he had repeated the process three times, he stopped and handed me the sponge. “You try.” I dipped the sponge in the potion and found it to be ice cold. I gasped slightly and plunged my hand deeper into the potion, determined not to make a fool of myself in front of the more experienced Greens. I pulled my hand out and put it against Goldenwing’s scales and gently pressed down into her and moved the sponge in a clockwise manner, just as Charlie had done.

“Is this okay?” I asked as I plunged my hand back into the potion. He nodded.

“You’re doing very well. I’m going to go take care of Tedros; I’ll be back when I’m finished washing him. Draco and Lacey can show you how to wash the potion off.” We all called out our goodbyes to my brother and he left. We continued working, and Lacey continued to talk. I began to wonder if she ever stopped.

“When will Zandra and Tait be here?” Lacey asked Draco. He dipped his sponge into the bucket.

“In a week, I suppose. Zandra owled yesterday and requested that Eloise bring their dragons back.” Lacey opened her mouth as if to ask another question, but I spoke first.

“Do we get to take our dragons with us?” Hope was building inside that I would get to bring my beautiful dragon back and wouldn’t have to be separated from her again.

“I don’t,” Lacey said irritably.

“We do. Dumbledore is mad, and therefore allows us to bring them,” Draco said, with a hint of amusement in his voice. “We can’t tell anyone that they’re there and we can’t let them interfere with studies, or prefect duties. Also, we have to care for them. As much as that oaf Hagrid would love to take care of them, he wouldn’t know the proper way. No one except Council members really knows how.” I rolled my eyes at his jab at Hagrid, but said nothing. As much as I liked Hagrid, I wasn’t sure that he would know how to properly take care of the dragons, and I wasn’t going to leave Goldenwing in the care of someone that didn’t know how to take care of her.

“I wish I could go to Hogwarts, but noooo. Mum said that I would get a more rounded education at Beauxbatons. The worst part was having to learn French fluently. They speak some English, yes, but they prefer to speak their native language and most get offended if I try to start a conversation in English. A few of my friends will talk to me in a combination of both, but there are some that won’t,” she shrugged. We worked in silence until we had all finished. I threw my sponge back into the bucket, my arm aching with all the work I had done. Goldenwing’s eyes were closed and she looked as if she was sleeping.

“I’ll show you how you wash your potion off,” Draco said, stepping forward. He pulled out his wand. “I turned seventeen in April, so this is perfectly legal for me, but you’ll be allowed to use a little magic, too. What Fudge doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” He pointed his wand at Goldenwing and a jet of water shot out of the tip of it. He moved his wand in small counterclockwise circles. “The key is to go in the opposite direction that you scrub in. Here, you try.” He lowed his wand and the water stopped. I did just as he had done. “Good” was all he said before turning back to his own dragon to wash the potion off. We worked in silence until the entire potion was cleaned off of our dragons. By that time, we saw Charlie walking up.

“He’s done already?” I asked incredulously. Lacey laughed.

“The older you get, the quicker it becomes,” she said simply. Charlie reached us and inspected my dragon.

“You did a good job. Now, the next thing we do is feed them. Accio goats!” Charlie said, waving his wand. Soon three goats could be seen flying towards us. “There really isn’t a trick to feeding them,” Charlie said. “Your first time seeing it will probably gross you out a lot, but after the first time it’s not so bad.”

“I couldn’t eat for a week straight,” Lacey said as she led one of the goats towards Noah. Draco and I headed forward and led the goats towards our own dragons. Immediately Goldenwing’s eyes snapped open and she leaned forward. Before I knew it her teeth were wrapped around the goat’s neck and there was a sickening cracking noise as the neck broke completely in two. The bloody head fell to the ground, and Goldenwing dug her teeth into the stomach of the goat and started to eat, blood staining her beautiful scaly mouth. My stomach lurched, and before I knew what was going to happen, I threw up my breakfast on the ground beside me. Charlie conjured up a glass of water and handed it to me. Turning from where Goldenwing was eating, I gulped down the water.

“She’s finished,” Draco called out to me. I took a deep breath then turned to the dragon and she was finished. There was no trace that there had been a live goat there moments before except for the spots of blood on the grass.

“Scorgify,” Lacey murmured, waving her wand and the blood spots, which immediately disappeared.

I’m sorry for freaking out like that, Goldenwing, I said gently to my dragon. She turned her opal eyes to me.

I understand, young one. All must go through it, Goldenwing replied calmly. I patted her neck, careful to stay away from her mouth.

“What do we do next?” I asked, turning to Charlie.

“Council meeting, which Greens don’t attend. Greens usually spend Council meetings in the Library, either catching up on homework, talking to their family through Floo, or reading. When I was a Green, Gwyn even slept in there,” Charlie said, smiling slightly. I thought back and remembered who Gwyn (or Gwyneth, as she’d been introduced to me as) was. I remembered her having honey colored hair and being very loud. The four of us headed back to the manor. Draco talked to Charlie about Quidditch while I chatted with Lacey about Zandra again.

“Zandra is very pretty. I think those rich, Pureblood families like the Malfoys are unable to have an ugly child,” Lacey giggled. Draco, who had apparently overheard her drawled, “So you admit you fancy me, then?” Lacey laughed and called out, “You wish, Malfoy!”

“Back to the topic at hand. What does she look like and what is she like? What should I not do around her?” I asked, not wanting to make a bad impression in front of the other two Greens.

“Well, she has auburn hair- like yours- but hers is long and straight where yours is long and wavy, I’m assuming from the curls that frame your face. I like wavy better, and I’m sure she will, too, so don’t really expect to find a friend in her. She is very musical, and any time there is a harp or piano around, she’ll play it for you, whether you want her to or not. There’s a piano here, but not a harp. She might have brought hers- she’s always talking about how high quality it is- but she might not have. She hates Quidditch, which is a pity. I think she hates it because she’s no good at it. Usually in the evenings some of us will get together and play Quidditch. You do play, right?” she asked, speaking very fast and in one breath. I laughed.

“Charlie was one of the greatest Seekers that the Gryffindor team has seen, except for Harry- sorry Charlie, he really is better than you- and Fred and George were superb Beaters before Umbridge kicked them off the team and they left school, and Ron is an okay Keeper. Quidditch runs through the blood in my family. Of course I play! I’m Chaser on the Gryffindor team, and for three fourths of a season I was Seeker,” I said, grinning.

“Good. We never have enough good Chasers. Malfoy and Charlie always play Seeker, of course, and I’m a Keeper. Payton is the other Keeper, and various others play Chasers, but not many are good at it. Beaters are just down right hard to find. Gloria usually plays, and Anthony will, too, and once in a while we can get Eloise to play with us. She went to Beauxbatons, like me, and was one of the first women to be on the Quidditch team in the history of the school. When she was in her last year, however, she had this huge accident and doesn’t like to play it much anymore,” Lacey said as they reached the manor.

“Let’s go to the Library. I want to get started on my N.E.W.T. Potions homework,” Draco said. Lacey and I agreed that it would be a good place to go and we all went. I thought vaguely on starting my N.E.W.T Charms work (Describe the Fidelius Charm and it’s advantages and disadvantages), but the thought of speaking to Hermione through Floo won over my responsibilities.

Mum had invited Hermione to stay at the Burrow since Mr. and Mrs. Granger were going on a dentist convention. I knew that Mum secretly hoped that Ron and Hermione would fall head over heels for each other. I giggled, knowing it wouldn’t happen. Lacey yawned and stretched.

“I think I’ll take a nap,” she said as Draco opened the door to the Library for us.

It was a huge two-story room with a glass dome at the top where sunlight filtered through. A spiral staircase was at one end, leading up to the second story. Every inch of the first floor walls that didn’t have a window or door had a bookcase. A huge Persian rug was in the middle of the room, and on top of it sat many armchairs, chaise lounges, and tables. The second story was not quite as full of books as the first; one wall was devoted to fireplaces where you could talk through Floo. Lacey flopped onto one of the chaise lounges, and closed her eyes. Draco headed off to one of the bookcases and started searching for a book. I made my way across the room and up the stairs. There was a vase on the mantel that I found to have Floo powder in it. I took a pinch and threw it into the fire, which immediately turned green. Kneeling down on the floor in front of the fireplace, I stuck my head in the flames and called out “The Burrow!”

The kitchen swam in front of my face. Mum was in there, cooking lunch, no doubt. The thought of food made my stomach lurch again, but since it was empty there was nothing to come up.

“Hello mum!” I called out. She dropped her spoon into the soup she had been stirring and whirled around. Her shocked expression softened when she saw me.

“Hello, Ginny,” she said, smiling at me. “Are you enjoying Romania?”

“Oh, yes, it’s lovely here. Everyone is so nice and the dragons are amazing. I was wondering if I could have a little chat with Hermione?” I asked. Her face had lost some of its happiness when I had told her how much I liked Romania, but she didn’t say anything about it.

“Of course. I’ll go get her right now,” she said, and went up to the stairs to find Hermione. They came back down a few minutes later. Hermione was looking very surprised to see me.

“Is everything okay Ginny?” she asked me, dropping to her knees in front of the fireplace. I laughed.

“Yeah. I just had some free time and I didn’t feel like doing my Charms homework, so I thought I’d floo you. Did you get the owl I sent?”

“Yes, I got it this morning. Romania sounds fascinating. I bet you’ll be able to learn loads. I’m really jealous of you,” she said, laughing slightly. I grinned.

“I have learned lots, and there’s still a lot to learn. How is everything there?” I asked. She launched into a long explanation of how she’d had spent all day yesterday nagging Ron to start his homework, but he didn’t want to. I felt a hand on my shoulder. “I need to go, Hermione. I’ll owl you or something,” I said. When she had said good-bye to me, I pulled myself out of the fire and looked up. Lacey was standing over me.

“Lunch is ready,” she said, holding out a hand to help me up. My stomach gave another unpleasant lurch at the thought of food, and we headed down to the dining room together.

Chapter Four

I stared out the window as the rain slashed against it, frowning. I had really wanted to go visit Goldenwing. Eloise had promised me that we were going to fly today. However, beginners didn’t get to fly in the rain until they’d learned to fly. Lacey, apologizing to me, had gone to fly Noah, as had all the other Council members, but I was in the Library, staring out the window longingly, while trying not to think about the figure sitting behind me. Draco Malfoy had chosen to not fly his dragon in the rain. He had said something about not wanting to catch his death of pneumonia, and that he needed to work on his N.E.W.T Transfiguration work. I sighed audibly, as I had been doing for the last half hour.

“Will you stop that Weasley? It’s very distracting,” Draco snapped irritably. It wasn’t that I blamed him or anything, I was sure it was very annoying, but I felt the need to be grumpy.

“It’s a free country. I can do what I want, where I want, when I want,” I snapped back. He glared at me.

“Would you at least keep it down to a dull roar, then?” He spat. I rolled my eyes and ascended the stairs to the second floor. I thought briefly of Flooing Hermione, or one of my relatives, but pushed the thought aside. Not being with Goldenwing was making me irritable, and it was very likely that I would snap at anyone that I talked to, just like I had done with Draco. I browsed the bookshelf, not really reading the titles until a book caught my eye. The binding was faded, but it had once been the prettiest shade of royal blue that I had ever seen. I pulled the book out of the bookshelf and looked at the title. It was written in gold peeling letters, but it was still very legible. The Dragon Council: An Ancient and Most Noble History it read. My whole demeanor changed. I was suddenly full of curiosity and my mood was pleasant. I descended the stairs and plopped down on one of the chaise lounges. I felt Draco glaring at me, but I ignored him and opened the book to the first page.

In the year of our Lord 1037, Gregory the Great stumbled upon a field of dragons and, to his surprise, wasn’t attacked. He soon learned that he was able to communicate with all of them- a trait that hasn’t been found in witch or wizard since.

The book enthralled me. I barely noticed when Charlie came up and told Draco and me that dinner was ready, or when Lacey came up to try and persuade me to come down to dinner. I was only pulled away when a disdainful voice spoke.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice laced with superiority. I looked up quickly and saw a tall, very pretty girl, with long straight auburn hair staring down at me. She had on dark blue robes that were obviously hand made especially for her and a white travelling cloak.

“Ginny Weasley. You’re Zandra, right?” I asked, closing my book for the first time in hours. My back ached from not being moved. I held out my hand for her to shake, but she just stared at it. I lowered it, my face flushing red.

“So you’re the newest? I hear you can talk to all dragons. No one has been able to do that since Gregory the Great,” she said, speaking as though she didn’t believe my talent. “Eloise asked me to tell you that there’s still some dinner if you wanted any.” Before waiting for an answer, she swept out of the room and I was alone. I stood up from the lounge and stretched. The door opened again and a tall boy with brown hair stepped in. He, unlike Zandra, was grinning.

“So, you’re the infamous Ginny Weasley, are you? I rather expected you to be taller,” he said, smirking to let me know that he was teasing.

“And you’re the infamous Tait Stuart, are you? I rather expected you to be shorter,” I replied mockingly. He grinned.

“Yep. You’re a keeper. You’ll turn out to be more like Lacey, not Zandra. Although,” he said, catching sight of my hair, “I suppose she’ll hate you because of your hair. It’s far prettier than hers. Anyway, it was wonderful meeting you and all, but I have a bed that’s calling my name. I’ll see you in the morning,” he said, and before I could reply, was gone.

I left the library and continued on my way to my room, still holding the book, and wondering what they did at Durmstrang to make their students so odd.



The next morning, I practically flew out of my bed. The sky was sunny, and the ground looked firm enough. It was good flying conditions. I threw on the first pair of dragonhide pants and tunic that I found and waved my wand at my hair, which automatically flew into the customary braids. I thundered down the stairs, stopping when I met Lacey coming out of her room.

“You sound like a herd of hippogriffs,” she laughed and we continued down the stairs. “So, did you meet Zandra and Tait last night?”

“I did. Tait seemed nice, but Zandra didn’t. She wouldn’t even shake my hand,” I said, thinking angrily of last night. Lacey shrugged.

“Don’t worry about it, she won’t shake anyone’s hands. She’s more paranoid than Made-Eye is, and that’s saying a lot!” I stopped where I was and looked at her.

“You know Mad-Eye?” I asked, curiously.

“Oh yes. He was a good friend of my Papa’s. He and Papa were partners before Papa died in a raid the year I was born. He took it upon himself to keep in touch with us and to kind of look after us. Of course, when he found out that I was going to Beauxbatons and not Hogwarts he was furious. He hasn’t spoken to us in years. Once in a while I’ll get a Christmas present- dark detectors, of course- but not a letter,” Lacey said, pulling on my arm to make me continue down the stairs.

“He’s a friend of my dad’s. I saw him quite a bit last summer,” I said.

“How is he doing?” she asked as we entered the entryway and continued towards the dining room.

“The usual. You know, very paranoid. I think he’s finally learned to trust Mum’s cooking, though,” I said, laughing as we entered the dining room. I quickly looked around to see who was in there and found Zandra and Draco sitting together at one end of the table; their heads were together and they seemed to be deep in discussion. Neither looked up as I looked their way, so I continued my scan of the table. Charlie was sitting next to a beautiful Hawaiian girl named Malia (who was a yellow, like Charlie) and they were laughing boisterously. Eloise was sitting at the head of the table, going over a map with Dorian Reagan, the dark haired second in command. Tait walked through the room just as Lacey and I sat down near Charlie and Malia.

“Good morning ladies. I see you’re eating this morning Ginny?” he asked as he spooned eggs onto his plate.

“Yeah. I’ve gotten used to Goldenwing eating,” I said and bit into a piece of toast.

“It takes a while to get used to, of course, but once you’ve seen it a few times you don’t think anything of it. Perfect flying conditions today, eh Lacey?” Tait said mischievously and Lacey grinned.

“We start at the Green field and end at the manor,” she laughed, and then, seeing my confused expression, continued. “We race all the time when we fly.”

“Ahh. I haven’t flown yet,” I said to Tait. “It’s been raining the past week, and I haven’t had the chance to learn yet.”

“Ginny,” Charlie called, tearing his attention away from Malia to face me; “I got a letter from Mum this morning. She said that Harry is coming tomorrow, and would you please consider coming home.” I rolled my eyes and he grinned.

“Does she not get that I don’t like him anymore? Anyway, I wouldn’t dream of leaving.”

“Good,” Charlie said simply before turning back to Malia. I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck and turned to the other end of the table and found that Draco was staring at me. His expression was oddly blank; there was no sneer or smirk at the mention of my former crush on Harry. We stared at each other for a moment before a hand on my shoulder successfully distracted me away from him. I looked up and found Eloise standing behind me. She smiled down at me.

“Are you ready to fly?” she asked. I couldn’t contain my grin, although I tried to not sound so eager.

“Yes!”


The air smelled like honeysuckle as we walked across the fields to the Green field where Goldenwing was. I thought vaguely of the Burrow where it always smelled like honeysuckle. My stomach lurched with homesickness, but I pushed it aside at the thought of flying.

“All we’re going to do today is fly in some circles. Tomorrow we’ll work on speed, and later this week we’ll start you on aiming the flame from the air. Lacey will be training with you to refresh herself. The other three were able to practice over the holidays when there weren’t many people at school,” Eloise said. I shifted the large saddle in my hands, going over in my mind the steps of saddling my dragon.

“Sounds good to me.” We arrived at the field and immediately I felt calmer just seeing my dragon.

Good morning, Goldenwing.

Good morning. Will we fly today? She sounded very restless. I grinned at her.

Yes. I threw the saddle over her back and buckled it on her underside. I slipped the reigns over her mouth and stepped back.

“Mount her,” Eloise said calmly. I climbed onto the saddle. Something wasn’t right, I knew it, but I was too eager to fly, so I ignored the nagging feeling. “Gently pull the reigns up and dig for feet just a little bit into her sides,” she instructed. I did as she told me, and soon we were flying upwards. We were about forty feet from the ground when I realized I should have listened to my nagging sensation. Something wasn’t attached properly and the saddle slid. I couldn’t think as I fell, and when I hit the ground, everything went black.


When I woke up later, I didn’t know where I was for a moment. I struggled to open my eyes and found a very familiar blonde headed boy sitting next to me.

“Draco?” I asked, my voicing sounding far away. He looked up from the book he had been reading. Even in my weariness I could see that the book was upside down. A torrent of emotions flooded his face and eyes before the cool, blank mask that I knew so well appeared.

“Weasley,” he returned, nodding to me.

“Where am I? What happened? Where is everyone?” I asked, struggling to sit up. Draco set his book down on my bedside table and pushed me back down.

“Leila instructed me to make you stay in bed. You’re in the hospital division, and the older Council members are in battle. Greens don’t go. You especially wouldn’t go, not even knowing how to properly fasten your saddle,” he said, his arrogant drawl returning. I glared at him, and my face flushed.

“Oh, like you did it right every time,” I muttered. His smirk only grew wider.

“As a matter of fact, I did. Eloise said I was the quickest to adapt to everything about being part of the Council,” he said, his words dripping with arrogance. I scowled.

“Where are Tait and Lacey?” I asked, trying to steer from the topic of my disastrous attempt at flying. Draco shrugged.

“I expect they’re in the kitchen, having dinner. I was given the task of watching you, and Zandra was given the task of making dinner. She’ll send up dinner and your medicine later,” he drawled, picking his book up once again. I giggled, and he glared. “What is it this time, Weasley?”

“Your book is upside down. I expect it’s rather hard to read it that was, is it?” I laughed. A slight pink tinge appeared in his cheeks.

“Malfoys do everything the hard way,” he sniffed, and didn’t move his book. Several minutes passed by with the only noise in the room being the sound of Draco flipping the pages of his book. I stared at the ceiling and made pictures out of the cracks. Just as I was almost a sleep, a tinkling of a bell rang out and Draco dropped his book, which he had still been reading upside down.

“What was that?” I asked, sitting up in bed.

“Dinner,” he said, pointing to a small wooden door on the far wall. He crossed the room in four long strides and opened the door revealing a small compartment that contained two plates with sandwiches, potatoes, and green beans on them, and two glasses of iced pumpkin juice. He carried the two plates over to the bed and handed one to me. It had a small glass filled with a pink substance on it. I picked it up and smelled it.

“Urgh,” I said, putting the cup back down on the plate. “What is that?” I asked, wrinkling my nose in disgust.

“It’s your medicine. That fall did cause damage, you know. Your leg is broken in about five different places. Two days on that medicine, and you’ll be able to walk again,” he said, taking a bite of his sandwich. I stared at my medicine and grimaced.

“But it smells like dung!” I complained. He rolled his eyes.

“Merlin, Weasley, don’t complain so much. It’s either take the medicine and be back on your feet in two days, or don’t take the medicine and be in bed and without your dragon for three weeks,” he said. I stared down at the cup. I didn’t want to take the medicine, but I didn’t want to be without Goldenwing for three weeks. Sighing, I picked up the small cup and drained it in one gulp. I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed the potion, which burned all the way down my throat. My leg gave a horrible throb, but the pain subsided soon. When I opened my eyes again Draco was smirking at me.

“Shut up,” I said and scowled. He didn’t say anything and we ate our dinner in silence.

“When you’re back on your feet, we’re going to play a game of Quidditch. You should play; aren’t you on the Gryffindor team?” he asked casually.

“Yes, I’m going to play, and yes I’m on the team. I’m a Chaser,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Shouldn’t you, as Quidditch Captain, know that?” He glared at me.

“I was just trying to be polite,” he sniffed. I smiled faintly, but the door opened before I could say anything and we turned to look to see who was at the door. Lacey, Tait, and Zandra came into the room.

“Ginny! Malfoy didn’t tell us you were awake!” Lacey said, hurrying over to give me a hug. Draco sniffed again.

“Leila told me to stay here and not to leave. How was I supposed to tell you she was awake?” He drawled, the arrogance seeping into his voice once again. Lacey glared at him and turned back to me.

“How are you feeling? We got to the field just in time to see you fall,” she said, sitting on the edge of my bed. Tait came up behind her and sat on the bed behind her, while Zandra chose a seat near Draco.

“Yeah,” Tait said grinning, “It was a spectacular fall. Lacey’s fall wasn’t nearly as exciting as yours.” Lacey scowled.

“Her fall?” I asked, frowning. A sudden feeling of being left out washed over me.

“She fell from her dragon when she was learning to fly,” Zandra sniffed, her voice adopting the same arrogance that Draco’s held. I briefly wondered if rich Pureblood children were made to take lessons on smirking, sneering, and sounding superior.

“Just because you and Draco didn’t fall, doesn’t make the rest of us oh-so-terrible for falling,” Lacey snapped, an angry flush rising in her cheeks.

“Hey, calm down,” Tait said, putting a hand on Lacey’s arm. She huffed, but didn’t say anything. Zandra’s cool gaze was disdainful as she looked at Tait’s hand on Lacey’s arm. Lacey, seeing what Zandra was looking at, smirked. I looked between the two girls, confused. Draco rolled his eyes and turned to Zandra.

“Let’s go to the Library and leave them to themselves,” he said, standing up. She gave us one last glare before following him out of the room. Tait dropped his hand from Lacey’s arm.

“I hate when she does that,” Lacey said, nearly snarling.

“Does what?” Tait asked, moving to the chair that Draco had just vacated.

“Does that whole superior thing. The only difference between our families is that hers has money and mine doesn’t. And mine is good and hers isn’t, rather like the Malfoy’s. I bet they’ll get married someday. They deserve each other,” Lacey said harshly. My heart contracted once at the thought of Draco being off the market. When I had a developed a crush on him? I wondered to myself.


The Council members got home late that night. I had been sleeping, but I woke up when I heard the racket they made. After a few minutes of hearing voices getting closer and closer, the door opened and a large, cheery woman with gray hair walked in with Charlie. They both looked very tired and worn out, but smiled at me when they saw me awake.

“Did that Malfoy boy give you your medicine?” the woman, whom I assumed was Leila, asked. I nodded.

“He made sure that I took all of it,” I said as Charlie took the seat next to me. The woman nodded.

“Good, good. I always knew he was better than that good for nothing father of his. Goodnight, Ginny; good night, Charlie,” she said, waving at us, and leaving. Charlie slumped in his chair.

“How did the fighting go?” I asked, eagerly. In the two weeks since I had been at Hydes, there hadn’t been a battle until tonight.

“We won the battle. We didn’t lose anyone, but Malia and Boris will be confined to the bed for about a week. You look exhausted, Gin. Go to bed so you can get better. I hear there’s a Quidditch match being held when you get better,” he grinned. I smiled sleepily back at him.

“Goodnight Charlie,” I yawned. He smiled at me.

“Night, Gin,” he said and leaned over and kissed me on the forehead.

True to Draco’s word I was up and walking in two days. The first morning that I was able to walk down to breakfast, Tait and Lacey hurried over to sit by me.

“Oh good, this means we can play Quidditch this afternoon!” Lacey said excitedly.

“What position does she play again?” Tait asked Lacey.

“Chaser,” I answered, “but if need be, I filled in for our Seeker my fourth year.”

“We don’t need a Seeker. Malfoy and Charlie are our Seekers, but Chasers are something we do need. I’m a Beater. Payton and Lacey will be Keepers. Gloria, Anthony, and Thomas play the other beaters. We’ve talked to some people and Gwyn, Wyman, Geoffrey, Camilla, and Eloise have agreed to play Chasers. Eloise usually doesn’t play, but she’s agreed to. Now, I think we’re going to have all the Greens plus some players against everyone else. Malfoy will be our Seeker; Lacey will be our Keeper; Thomas and I will be our Beaters; Gwyn, Eloise, and you will be our Chasers. Everyone else will be on the other team. Does that sound good to you two?” Tait asked, speaking quickly and in one breath.

“Sounds good to me,” I smiled.

“Good. I’m going to go tell Malfoy the plan,” he said and hurried off.


Clutching my broom in my hand I walked with Lacey out onto the makeshift Quidditch pitch.

“I love Quidditch,” Lacey breathed, carrying her own broom. I grinned.

“Too bad you didn’t go to Hogwarts. We could have used you on our team,” I laughed. She smiled.

“I almost wish I had, but I love Beauxbatons. It’s just so…refined. I guess all the things French people do are, really,” she said, shrugging elegantly. Most of the team was on the Pitch already when we arrived, so we wandered over to where Draco and Tait were talking. They waved us over.

“So here’s the game plan,” Tait said, grinning, “There is no plan.” We laughed. Dorian blew a whistle.

“Into formations!” he called out and we took the customary Quidditch positions. Eloise and Gwyn, a short Yellow with honey colored hair, took spots on either side of me while Draco stood in front of me and across from Charlie. Tait and Thomas stood behind us Chasers, and Lacey took her spot in front of the goal posts.

“On my whistle!” Dorian called out. He blew his whistle and threw the Quaffle into the air while Valerie released the Bludgers and the Snitch. Eloise caught the Quaffle and threw it to me. I raced down the pitch, avoiding the Bludger that Gloria had hit in my direction. I threw the Quaffle to Gwyn and she finished the last leg of the journey to the goal posts and threw the red ball at the goal. The crowd of Council members that had gathered around our game cheered. Payton, whom I had noticed wasn’t the greatest Keeper, had missed the ball and it sailed effortlessly through the middle hoop.

Eloise, Gwyn, and I easily made four more scores before Camilla managed to steal the ball from us and she, along with Geoffrey and Wyman managed to make three scores. I noticed that Tait, who would execute stunts to amaze her, kept distracting Lacey. I caught Draco’s eye and we rolled our eyes. I grinned to myself at the fluttering in my stomach as Gwyn stole the Quaffle and threw it to me. I raced down the pitch, determined to show Draco how good of a player I was, and threw the Quaffle hard at the left post. Payton streaked towards it, but missed catching it by half an inch. The crowd cheered and I grinned.

Suddenly there was a loud Ohh-ing noise and we turned to see Charlie and Draco streaking towards a small golden glint just below me. We all stopped what we were doing to watch them.

It was the common opinion at Hogwarts that Draco had bought his way onto the team and that he possessed no real talent. Watching him streaking towards the snitch, I wondered how anyone could ever think that. He was neck and neck with my brother, who was years older than him and had therefore been playing Quidditch longer. They continued their steep dive, the ground coming closer and closer. Suddenly they were two feet away and both hands reached out. It looked like Charlie was going to get it, but Draco pushed my brother’s hand out of the way at the last minute and grabbed it.

His smile at winning the game seemed to be genuine; it was the first true one that I had ever seen on his face, and it seemed to soften it up. He seemed like a completely different person when he smiled. Our team flew feverishly towards him to congratulate him. When I reached the two Seekers, Draco’s hand was in my brother’s.

“I suppose I’ll have to settle for beating a Weasley instead of Potter,” he drawled, but his tone was somehow different. I realized what the difference was as Charlie threw his head back and laughed. Draco Malfoy, son of a Death Eater, was teasing a Weasley. I blinked at the ludicrousness of it, before the smile came back to my face and I celebrated with my team

Chapter Five

The summer passed by too quickly for my liking. True to Eloise’s word, I learned how to fly, even race, Goldenwing, along with how to shoot and aim fire. When only two weeks remained in the summer, Charlie told me it was time to come home. I packed my trunks dutifully and lugged them down the stairs to the front door where Tait and Lacey were waiting to say goodbye to me. Lacey pulled me into a hug the minute I set my trunk down.

“You’ve got to owl me all the time, Ginny,” she told me sternly. I smiled and returned the hug.

“’Course,” I said as she released me. Tait pulled me into a hug next.

“Owl me, too,” he said and released me. They stepped aside and I noticed the Knight Bus, and the figure beside it. Draco was leaning rather impatiently on the side of the bus.

“Come on, Weasley. I don’t have all day, you know,” he said sourly. I rolled my eyes at him, but picked my trunks up and dragged them to the bus. Once they were loaded, we got on the bus and waved goodbye to the Council members that stood outside to see us off. Charlie would not be returning with me. I turned to face Malfoy, but found that he was across the bus and already climbing the stairs to the top level. Once on the top level we chose a large table and sat down at it. Draco spent most of the ride glaring at the table, as if it were doing some sort of truly heinous thing.

“God, Malfoy, what is your problem?” I sighed. He stopped glaring at the table to look up and glare at me.

“What does it matter to you, Weasley?” he sneered.

“You’re going to put me in a horrible mood by the time I get home, that’s what it matters to me,” I snapped. Inside I thought and I have a crush on you and therefore care about you and want you to like me, and not be all Malfoy-ish to me. There was no way I’d ever say those words aloud.

“If you must know,” he said, sighing and glaring at the same time, “I’m not exactly thrilled at the prospect of going home.” He turned away from me to look out the window, and I knew the topic was closed. Pity filled my heart; I wanted to reach out and comfort him, to hold him and tell him that everything would be all right. I might have done so, had he not spoken. “Don’t, Weasley. I don’t let anyone pity me, especially not Weasley's,” he said, turning to look at me. There was such an intensity of emotions in his eyes that I had to look away. I looked down at the table, blushing.

We didn’t speak again until we reached the Burrow. I looked up, suddenly ashamed at the state my house was in. I could see him physically restraining himself from making comments on my house. I got up quickly, determined to leave before anything more embarrassing could happen, when my mother came out of the house. Wearing her apron…her polka-dotted apron…over her striped dressing gown. I closed my eyes for a second and bit back a groan. I could hear Malfoy’s smirk.

“Lovely attire your mother has,” he said, unable to restrain himself any longer. I was about to reply to that, when he spoke again. “Have a good summer, Weasley.” I turned to him, smiling slightly.

“Have a good summer, Malfoy.” I continued down the stairs and off the bus. Once I was completely off the bus, there was a large Bang! and the bus was gone. Mum pulled me into a hug.

“Oh, Ginny, I’m so glad you’re back,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. I pulled away slightly.

“Mum, I can’t breathe,” I choked. She released me and wiped away her tears.

“Inside, now. I have breakfast waiting,” she said busily. I sighed contentedly as we made our way into the warm kitchen. As much as I loved Romania and the dragon reservation, there was nothing like home. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the table, eating breakfast, when I walked in. There was a scraping of chairs and Ron and Hermione launched themselves happily on me. Harry sat at the table, looking unsure as to how he was to greet me. They let me go, and I sat down across the table from Hermione.

“How was Romania?” Harry asked.

“It was wonderful,” I said, smiling dreamily. I heard Mum huff angrily, and didn’t continue my thought. Instead, I did an activity she approved of: I ate.


Several days later, I was finally used to being back home. I missed Goldenwing terribly, but I got several letters from Charlie reporting on her health. A week before school was to start back, I got a letter from Lacey.

Ginny,
It’s been so lonely here in France. There are no dragons to ride, people to tease, and no you to gossip with. I didn’t miss Romania this much last year; I guess it was because I didn’t get really close to a lot of people then. But it doesn’t matter. Soon I’ll be back at school and I’ll be with friends again. Mama says we’re going to Diagon Alley tomorrow- we might live in France, but she says the English are much easier to deal with- and I was wondering if you’d like to meet us at the Leaky Cauldron tomorrow at noon for some lunch and then school supply shopping. It would be wonderful to see you one last time before we head back to school. I’ve written Tait already to invite him, but his parents do his shopping while he’s in Romania, so I doubt he’ll be able to come. Contact me through Floo with your answer. Just ask for Chambre de Rachat. If I’m not waiting by the fireplace, just ask for me. I await your answer.
Tout mon amour,
Lacey

I set the letter down on my bed and hurried downstairs. I found Mum sitting in the living room, listening to the Wizarding Wireless and knitting.

“Mum, my friend Lacey- her family is good friends with Mad-Eye- wants to know if I can meet her and her mum in Diagon Alley tomorrow to do school supply shopping. Can I go? Please?” I begged. Mum looked like she was going to say no, but thought better of it.

“All right. We’ll all go. We need to be going anyway. Go tell your brother and his friends about our plans,” she said and continued on with her knitting. I rushed and gave her a hug.

“Thanks Mum!” I said and ran up the stairs to tell Ron, Harry, and Hermione.


The next twenty-four hours flew by quickly. Before I knew it, I was pulling on the skirt of my yellow sundress and stepping into the fire to get to the Leaky Cauldron. It was a particularly hot and muggy summer in London, so most witches and wizards were donning Muggle clothing. Cooling Charms weren’t helping much. Hermione was wearing a baby blue sundress that was very similar to mine.

“Ginny!” Lacey called out. I found her sitting next to a tall woman with graying brown hair and mauve robes. Lacey was wearing white shorts and a red shirt. She waved and smiled at me. I grinned back and headed towards her.

“Hallo,” I said, taking a seat beside her.

“Mum, this is Ginny, Ginny this is my mum,” Lacey said. We said our pleasantries and were soon joking and eating together.

“We’d better get started on our shopping,” I said, standing up from the table. Lacey agreed and followed me out of the pub.

“Where to first?” she asked, pulling out her list. I had already memorized mine.

“Madame Malkin’s. Charlie sent some money with me for new robes,” I said as we made our way to the robe shop.

“What can I do for you, ladies?” Madame Malkin asked us.

“She needs a set of Hogwarts robes, and I need a set of Beauxbatons robes,” Lacey said, smiling pleasantly at the woman.

“Right. Just set up here and I’ll get Trudy to measure you. TRUDY!” she called, turning around the open doorway behind her. A short woman with rosy cheeks came out, holding measuring tapes.

“How has your holiday been?” I asked Lacey as we got measured for our robes.

“Terribly boring since leaving Romania. I miss Noah so much,” she sighed wistfully, thinking of her dragon. I laughed.
“Noah isn’t the only boy you miss,” I teased, winking at her. She blushed a pretty shade of pink. Her blush left and a smirk found its way onto her face.

“Yeah, well, I can think of a certain blonde that you’re missing,” she said smugly. I rolled my eyes, and kept the blush from appearing in my cheeks.

“Honey, I don’t miss Gwyn the way you miss your guy. I don’t swing that way,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her. She giggled.

“Oh, come on, Ginny. You know you fancy him,” she whined. My eyes flickered at the two women who were measuring us.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I sniffed. I wasn’t about to tell anyone, not even Lacey, about my newly developed crush on Draco. I still wasn’t used to the idea of having it. Lacey laughed again.

“Sure you don’t. Invite me to the wedding, will you?” she grinned. I rolled my eyes, but chose not to reply. I looked forward and out the window in front of the shop. My breath caught in my throat as I saw who was glancing our way from across the street. He, too, was wearing Muggle clothes, although this didn’t surprise me at the time. He had on a simple white shirt and gray trousers. His hands were in his pockets and a house elf was walking behind him, carrying many packages. A tall witch with the same white blonde hair was standing next to him, looking into the window of a boutique on the opposite side of the street from Madame Malkin’s. She was wearing robes of deep red and was keeping the hem of it from dragging by holding her skirt slightly with delicately boned, jewel-encased fingers. Draco turned to the woman, whom I assumed to be his mother, and said something to her. She looked over at the shop and frowned slightly. He shrugged slightly and they came into the shop. Giggling from next to me brought me out of my daze. Trudy had just finished with Lacey’s robes, and Lacey, while pulling a few coins out of her purse, was giggling at me. Madame Malkin looked up at this disruption of the silence and looked to the door. Faster than one could say “Chudley Cannons”, she was on her feet and greeting the Malfoys.

“Mrs. Malfoy, Mr. Malfoy, it is always such a pleasure to have you here. What will you be requiring today?” she asked, wiping her hands slightly on her skirt. I frowned. Was she ever going to finish my robes?

“Draco here needs a new set of Hogwarts robes and some new dress robes. I’ll look around for some, shall I Draco?” Mrs. Malfoy said and, without waiting for an answer, started to browse through the racks.

“Of course. Step on to this platform, if you would, Mr. Malfoy,” Madame Malkin said, pointing to the platform that Lacey had just vacated. With a curt nod, he stepped on it. Madam Malkin seemed to have just remembered that she’d been working on pinning my robes. “Trudy, will you finish this young lady’s robes? Thank you,” she said in a very sing-songy voice. Trudy knelt in front of me and got to work.

“Hallo Malfoy,” Lacey said, grinning cheekily at him.

“Hello Lacey, Weasley,” he said, nodding at each of us.

“She has a name, you know,” Lacey said coolly, before I could say anything for myself. Draco looked calmly at her.

“I’m very well aware of that,” Draco said, and left it at that. I rolled my eyes.

“There you are, dear,” Trudy said, standing up. I gave the woman my money and left, promising to return in an hour and pick up my finished robes. Lacey linked arms with me as we made our way to Flourish and Blotts.

“He fancies you, Ginny. Why else would he have gone to Madame Malkin’s? I heard him complaining just before we left Romania about how horrible of a job she does, and how he gets all of his clothes from Gladrags, if not a bigger name,” Lacey smirked. I felt the uncontrollable blush creeping onto my cheeks.

“Maybe they’re in a money crunch since Lucius is in Azkaban,” I said, half-heartedly. Lacey let out a small laugh.

“Yeah right! The Malfoys have more money than anyone could spend in three lifetimes! Well, you don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to, but your first child had better be named after me,” she said, entering the bookstore. A small grin escaped as a single thought raced through my mind: Draco Malfoy might like me!


The day came to a close too soon for my liking, and soon I found myself hugging Lacey and promising to owl her every other day before stepping into the fire place and returning to the Burrow. Mum was waiting for me when I stepped into the kitchen.

“Ginny…let’s go to your room. I’d like to have a bit of a chat with you,” she said, trying to smile at me. I looked at her for a moment before replying.

“Um, okay, I guess.” We made our way up the rickety staircase before going into my room. I sat on the bed of my small room while she stayed standing, looking at the knickknacks around the room.

“You’ve gotten so old so quickly. It seems like it was just yesterday when you walked for the first time. We used to talk all the time, Ginny. It seems we haven’t had the time lately,” she said softly, picking up a picture frame from the dresser. The frame was red with pink jewels and the words Daddy’s Angel across the top. The picture in it was of Dad and me when we’d gone to Hogsmeade for my sixth birthday.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked her as I crossed my legs. She sat down on the bed beside me.

“I just wanted to make sure that you didn’t do anything that you need to talk to me about, or that no one made you do anything you didn’t want to,” she said carefully. I was confused. Did Fred and George frame me for some prank they’d pulled?

“What do you mean, Mum?” I asked slowly.

“What I mean is...have you…you know. Taken the big step with a boy,” she asked in the same careful voice. My jaw dropped. What had made her think that?

“Of course not Mum! Why do you ask?” I asked, a little hurt that she would think I would go and do something like that with someone I barely knew. Sixteen or not, I could keep control of my hormones, thank you very much.

“Women dragon tamers don’t have the best of reputations, that’s all. Well, I’m relieved to hear that your reputation is still untarnished. I need to go and get dinner started. Ron, Hermione, and Harry are all in Ron’s room. Hermione told me to tell you to come on up when you got home.” With that, she left, shutting the door sharply behind her. My jaw was still slightly dropped. How could she say such horrible things about all the nice people that were dragon tamers? I shook my head and turned to my wardrobe. Fred and George were coming to dinner and if I knew them, there would be a Quidditch game and it was not good to wear a dress while playing Quidditch. I pulled out a pair of well-worn blue jeans and a black tank top and quickly changed into them and ran a brush through my hair before heading to Ron’s room.

When I got to his door, laughing could be heard from coming inside. I felt slightly jealous that they were in there, having a perfectly good time without me, but I pushed those thoughts aside as I knocked on the door. The laughter stopped and footsteps made their way across the room. The door opened to reveal Hermione who, like me, had changed into jeans and a white shirt. She smiled brightly at me.

“Come on in,” she said cheerfully. Harry was lying on Ron’s bed, reading Which Broomstick and Ron was sprawled across the floor, leafing through a new book. Hermione sat down on Ron’s cot, and I took a seat next to her.

“How about this one?” Ron asked, taking a bite out of a chocolate frog. “Bad Hair Day Curse. It gives them bad hair for about a week. Malfoy would hate to have his precious hair messed up for even an minute, let alone a week.” The Golden Trio laughed at this and I smiled slightly.

“I bet he spends hours in front of the mirror,” Hermione said, glancing into Ron’s own mirror and frowning at what she saw. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and secured it with an elastic band from around her wrist. The door was flung open and my twin brothers, whom I hadn’t seen in a year, came barreling in.

“Ginny!” George cried.

“So nice to see you again!” Fred said. They both grinned and caught me in a hug. I laughed. The twins had always been my favorite brothers, aside from Charlie.

“Mum sent us up to tell you that dinner’s ready,” George said as Fred swung me on his back and ran down the stairs.

Dinner that night was an enjoyable affair, as it usually was the night before we left for Hogwarts. Fred and George entertained with stories of their shop, and I told some stories of my stay in Romania. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had spent a boring summer at the Burrow, so there were no funny stories to tell from them. Too soon for my liking it was time for bed. Hermione and I changed into our pyjamas and crawled into my double bed. There was silence for a few minutes and, just as I was about to speak to Hermione, gentle snores told me she was already asleep. I smiled softly and rolled over so that I could also go to sleep, excited at the prospect of seeing Goldenwing again.

Chapter Six

Draco found me in my compartment on the way to school.

“Weasley, Dumbledore wants to see us when we get to the school,” he said, making sure to flash his Head Boy badge at Harry and Ron, who glared at him, but didn’t say a word.

“Okay. Thanks for telling me,” I said. He nodded and turned and left. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at him, disbelieving.

“Hermione, do you realize that Draco Malfoy just came into the compartment, had a civilized semi-conversation with a Weasley, and left without insulting us?” Ron asked, amazed. I rolled my eyes, but my heart was light. I knew what Dumbledore was going to talk to us about…our dragons. I smiled slightly to myself and leaned my head against the window and fell asleep.


Dumbledore stared down at us over his half moon spectacles, his eyes twinkling cheerily. I smiled in spite of myself. Dumbledore could always make me feel happier, no matter what.

“Mr. Malfoy already knows about this, but I thought reviewing might be a good thing. You will be on your own to feed your dragons. Whatever you need, just let Hagrid know and he’ll get it for you. You can’t fly your dragons, I’m afraid. No one is to know that your dragons are here. You’re free to visit them at any time as long as it doesn’t interfere with your studies. Now, I think there’s a feast that we ought to attend,” Dumbledore said cheerful and stood up. I smiled and we followed Dumbledore out of his office and into the Great Hall for the feast.

“What did Dumbledore want to talk to you and Malfoy about?” Hermione asked as she watched disgustedly as Ron shoveled food into his mouth and swallowed without chewing. I thought back to what Dumbledore had said about no one knowing.

“He just wanted to see how our stay in Romania had gone,” I said and took a rather large bite out of a chicken so that I couldn’t answer any questions she asked. Hermione, luckily, seemed to have believed the story and turned to talk to Harry about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Cadaver. My eyes kept wandering towards the Slytherin Table during the feast. They would settle on Draco and I would snap out of my trance when he moved, as if to look towards me. The tenth time I caught myself doing this, I decided it was time for bed. Apparently Dumbledore agreed because at that moment, he released us. Mya found me as we made our way to Gryffindor Towers.

“Gins!” she called out and fought her way through the crowd to me. Her light brown hair was curled and down to her chin and her skin was a beautiful mocha shade. I grinned and stopped to wait for her.

“Mya!” I said and embraced my friend. We continued back on our path to the dorms.

“How was your summer?” she asked. I smiled.

“Brilliant. I got to go stay with my brother in Romania with the dragons!” I said excitedly. Her jaw dropped.

“Wow! I thought it was exciting that I got to say home for a week without my parents, but man! Dragons! Were they scary?” she asked, amazed. I laughed.

“Absolutely not! They were so amazing, though. Really powerful looking and everything,” I said as we climbed through the portrait hole.

“Charlie’s the one in Romania, right?” she asked, starting the climb to our dorm. I nodded.

“Yeah. Mum about threw a fit over him wanting to take me, but in the end she let him. I’m so glad she did. I had such a great time.” We reached the door to our dormitory and opened it. A wave of weariness hit me and all I could do was change into my pajamas before dropping onto my bed and falling asleep.


The week went by fast. Before I knew what was happening, it was Friday afternoon and time for my Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, which I was not looking forward to. Ron’s class had had it that morning and had come to lunch with Parvati and Lavender whispering how it was a bad omen to have a teacher with cadaver for a name and Hermione fuming. For the second time in seven years, we had gotten a Defense teacher that absolutely hated Hermione. After hearing all the bad things they had to say about her, I was not looking forward to this class. Mya and I took seats in the middle of the room and pulled out our books, parchment, quills, and wands. A tall, willowy woman with long wispy white hair was seated at the desk, her head down, and her quill flying across a paper. The bell rang but she ignored it. Remembering our Defense teacher from two years ago, Professor Umbridge, the class’s talking immediately ceased. She stopped writing after a few moments and sealed the letter with a tap of her wand. She handed it to the owl that we had not noticed perched on the back of the chair and it flew out the window, dipping slightly as it took off. Professor Cadaver stood up and walked to stand in front of Collin’s desk.

“Good afternoon, class. My name is Professor Cadaver and I will be your Defense teacher this year,” she said in a frail voice, giving us a small smile.

“According to the notes that Professor Dumbledore has given me on what you’ve covered, your class is well behind in your education. I don’t blame you, of course, what with all those staff changes. No matter. I’ll get you caught up in no time. Now, copy these notes down and we’ll discuss it,” she said, flicking her wand at the board and it was instantly covered with notes. We frantically started copying the notes.

An hour and a half later, we left the class rubbing our cramped up hands. Once we finished one board full of notes she would discuss it for a moment before replacing it with a whole new set of notes. We had gone through nine boards.

“Man, I think my hand is going to fall off!” Mya moaned as we made our way to dinner. I laughed.

“Oh, Mya, dear, you know it won’t. I can’t figure out why she and Hermione don’t like each other. She seems like the type Hermione would like, you know,” I said, frowning thoughtfully. Mya shrugged.

I’m hungry, a voice floated into my mind. I jumped.

“What’s wrong Ginny?” Mya asked, stopping and turning to look at me. I gave her a shaky smile.

“Nothing. I’m just not too hungry right now. I think I’ll take a walk outside and nick something from the kitchen later,” I said. She looked at me for a minute before shrugging and continuing into the Great Hall.

I’m so sorry Goldenwing! I thought apologetically. I had been so caught up in worrying about Professor Cadaver that I had completely forgot about feeding my poor dragon. I didn’t go back to the common room to drop of my bag. Instead, I took it with me, stopping only at Hagrid’s hut to get a goat for Goldenwing. When I got to the paddock that she and Vertigo were staying in, I found that I wouldn’t be alone. Draco was out here feeding his dragon. He turned when he heard my footsteps and nodded towards me in acknowledgement of my presence. We stood in silence for a while, each watching our own dragons eat. Finally, he spoke.

“Have you told anyone?” he asked calmly. I shook my head.

“I was tempted to tell Hermione, but I remembered what Dumbledore had said, so I just told her that he wanted to ask us how our summers had been in Romania. Mya wouldn’t understand about dragons. No one would, really, except for you.” We were silent for a minute.

“Father is going to be released from Azkaban at the first of the year. If he finds out about the Council there will be hell to pay,” Draco said quietly. I turned sharply to face him.

“What are you going to do? Surely you can’t give up Vertigo!” I said. My dragon sensed my distress and rested her giant head on my hands. I stroked it.

“I would never give up Vertigo,” he said in a quiet, yet dangerous voice. We were quiet for a few more minutes before he spoke again. “He’s not going to find out. I’m going to go to Romania this summer and never go back. I can’t go back. I don’t fit in with that life anymore.” There was another silence.

“I need to be getting back. I told Mya that I was going for a walk and she’ll get worried if I’m out too late. It was good talking to you Draco,” I said, and turned, picking up my bag, and left before he could say anything.

We fell into a routine. Every three days we would skip dinner, or meet at the paddock just after dinner to feed and wash our dragons. Sometimes we would sit in silence, but other times we would talk. Sometimes it would be about classes- we were both fond of Potions, Charms, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, and Herbology- other times we would talk about our dragons. Rarely we would talk about families. Oddly enough, when we talked about families, it would be his family. He would tell me stories of his childhood. I began to understand the mystery that was Draco Malfoy, and my feelings for him only increased.

One day in late December, just before Christmas break, we met at the paddock after dinner. Snow was on the ground and the dragons didn’t like it one bit. I was wrapped in my non-regulation kelly green cloak and he was in a non-regulation charcoal grey one. Snow started to lightly fall and I automatically turned my face towards the heavens and opened my mouth, tasting the snowflakes.

“You’re odd, Weasley,” Draco said with a small smirk. I looked at him and mock glared. My glare dropped, however, when I realized he was only inches from me. We inched forward and my eyes fluttered shut. His lips pressed against mine and as he deepened the kiss, I felt the word around me spinning. My hands found their way to his shoulders as his snaked their way around my waist. It felt so good, so right. The kiss warmed me up and I felt like fireworks were exploding in my stomach. Suddenly he pulled away and I opened my eyes. He his eyes were wide and there was a flush spreading across his cheeks. Raw emotion was etched across his face and he took a step back, our hands dropping for each other. Neither of us spoke and he turned and left the paddock. My eyes closed as tears welled in my eyes. I was never going to have a chance with him, not if he ran after just one kiss. I let the silent tears flood down my cheeks as I brought a gloved hand up to touch my lips. Kissing him had been…amazing. I had never wanted it to end. Goldenwing reached her head towards me and rubbed against my own head. I reached up and scratched her behind the ear. She said nothing, but her presence was comfort enough. Another voice did speak, however.

Be careful with him. He’s confused and doesn’t know what he wants, young one. Don’t take his running to heart, a voice said. I looked towards Vertigo to find him face to face with him.

If he doesn’t want me, why did he kiss me? I asked sadly.

He does want you, but he’s never felt like this. He doesn’t know what to do, Vertigo said. I sighed heavily, glad that we would be leaving the next day for Christmas break. I bade the two dragons good bye and walked slowly back to the castle.


Lacey,
Happy Christmas. I can’t wait to see you for a few days before school starts back up again. Goldenwing will be so happy to be able to fly again. We’re not allowed to do that because Professor Dumbledore is afraid that someone will see them. I wish you were here. I could do with your guidance right now. I have a confession to make and a story to tell. I lied when I said I didn’t have a crush on Draco. Of course, I’m sure you knew this. You remember how I’ve been telling you that we’ve been spending a lot of time together with our dragons, just talking? Well, tonight he kissed me. I think it was on accident. Anyway, he broke the kiss and practically ran- except that Malfoys don’t run, do they? It would be too undignified for them. Anyway, I had a little chat with his dragon, who practically told me that Draco likes me. He said that Draco wants me, but hasn’t felt like this before, so he’s confused. This kiss was amazing, Lacey. You wouldn’t think it, but Draco is actually a pretty amazing guy once you get to know him. Anyway, I need to pack. I’ll see you December 27th!
All my love,
Ginny


I gave my letter to Persephone and got into bed, my head spinning with thoughts of Draco.

Chapter Seven


The Burrow at Christmas was what made me happiest when I was little. All the brothers would come home and we’d spend time together, just playing. This tradition changed when I was ten. Mum and Dad went away for the holiday, and Harry, Fred, George, and Percy stayed at school. I went to stay with the Lovegoods. Luna has never been one of my close bosom buddies, but we were good enough friends that I had an enjoyable holiday, even though I missed my brothers.

This year all the brothers were coming home, Harry included. Hermione was going with her family to the beach. Christmas Eve was always an enjoyable affair. Mum would cook a feast that, had my brothers been sisters, we would have never been able to finish. But brothers I had, so every last crumb was consumed. After dinner we would gather in the living room and just spend time together. Percy would usually talk to Dad about Ministry things; Fred, George, Ron, and Charlie would talk about Quidditch; Mum would nag Bill about his hair; and I would slide in and out of each conversation. This year was pretty much the same. The only difference was that Charlie and I talked about dragons while Fred, George, Ron, and Harry talked Quidditch.

“Have you been taking care of Goldenwing?” he asked me as he wrote a letter. I smiled slightly, remembering that the last time I had been with my dragon, Draco had kissed me.

“Yes. Draco and I feed our dragons every three days,” I replied dutifully. Charlie’s head shot up at the lack of malice when talking about my schoolmate.

“Draco, not Malfoy, eh?” he asked smirking. I felt a blush rise to my cheeks.

“Since we’re spending so much time together, we’ve become civil to each other,” I replied, sticking my tongue out at him. He just continued to smirk as he turned his gaze back down to his letter.

“Who are you writing to?” I asked him curiously. He’d spent a good half hour on the letter, and it was nearly a foot and a half long. He paused in his writing before mumbling something. “What was that?” I asked, grinning. If Charlie was embarrassed to say who it was, it must be good.

“Malia,” he said louder. I squealed with delight.

“Does this mean you’re dating her?” I asked happily. Malia was a very nice girl, and if Charlie was going to date her, I was certainly going to approve. A faint blush crept on to his face. Charlie never blushed. My grin grew larger.

“Yes, for about a month now,” he said, answering the question that I hadn’t had time to ask. I jumped up from my chair and hugged him.

“I like her, Charlie,” I said as he returned my hug. He smiled.

“I do, too, Gin, I do too.”



A reply to my letter to Lacey arrived on Christmas morning, before I’d made my way downstairs to open my gifts. A small parcel was attached to it. I opened the parcel first. It was a necklace. The pendant was a dragon with its wings spread wide and brilliant green jewels for its eyes, and it hung on a delicate gold chain. I smiled slightly as I thought of my dragon and put the necklace on.


Bonjour mon amie!
How are you? You should be doing well, after getting such a kiss! Oh, you lucky, lucky girl! If only my guy would kiss me…but, alas, that won’t happen, not in this lifetime, anyway. Since Malfoy is so smitten with you, mine will probably end up marrying her. At least one of us will be happy. I hope you like your necklace. I saw it in a store when we were shopping in Peu du Magie (the magical town by Beauxbatons), and I just had to get it for you. Thank you so much for the box of Chocolate Frogs you sent! They’re my favorite! I can’t wait to see you again. It’s so boring here at home! Maman is throwing a fit for us to decorate the whole house- without magic- and it’s awful. She’s been singing Christmas Carols at the top of her lungs all day and my Maman was not blessed with a beautiful voice. Grand-père has been visiting us, but he spends all his time locked in the office, doing Merlin knows what. Well, Maman is calling me…it’s time for my daily cooking lesson. She won’t listen when I tell her I don’t have her talent for the culinary arts. Ta for now!
Tout mon amour !
Lacey


I smiled and tucked the letter in my desk before shucking off my pajamas and putting on a pair of jeans and my new sweater- scarlet with a gold dragon on it- and making my way downstairs. My brothers were all already down there, although Ron and Harry looked half dead. I was sure they’d spent the night talking instead of sleeping. I smiled slightly and took a seat next to Bill.

“M-Morning, Gin,” he yawned. I smiled and curled up next to my older brother. I suddenly felt like I was six again, as this was something I was wont to do at that age. Bill smiled softly, as though thinking the same thing. Mum came in, carrying a tray full of mugs of hot cocoa. We each took a mug and she clapped her hands together.


“Ginny, I think you should do the honors,” she said, smiling down on me. I smiled back, although I wanted to scowl. Every time we were at home, she made me pass out the gifts. I set my mug down on the table next to me and kneeled in front of the tree, looking at all the tags on the gifts and giving them to their rightful owners. I had a method for this that I had perfected over the years. Mum and Dad would get theirs first, and then I would go in order from oldest to youngest with my brothers, saving me for last. Once I had passed out all the gifts, I settled back down next to Bill and at once we all started tearing into our gifts. We were interrupted by a voice from the kitchen calling out.

“Charlie!” a male voice called, which I instantly recognized as Dorian, Eloise’s second in command. Charlie dropped the present he was unwrapping and hurried in there, closing the living room door behind him. They had a few minutes’ hushed conversation before Charlie hurried back in.

“Ginny. We’re leaving, now. Grab your wand. We’ll come back for clothes later,” he said shortly and turned and left the room. I dropped my presents and hurried up stairs to get my shoes and my wand. In five minutes we were on the Knight Bus and headed to Hydes.

“What is it?” I asked him as we settled down at a table on the second level. He sighed heavily.

“A battle. They need all hands- except for Greens. You lot will be kept at the Manor, as always. I’ll be in the second or third shift that leaves, depending on when we get there, and how long it takes me to get Tedros ready,” he said, staring out the window as if willing it to get there faster. Maybe the fates did listen to Charlie, or maybe it was because we were the only customers on the bus, but not a minute later, the bus halted and we were in front of Hydes. A group of dragons was in one of the fields, readying for battle, while three other groups were just gathering their dragons. Lacey ran out of the Manor to meet us as we left the bus. Charlie said a hurried goodbye and ran to get his dragon ready. Lacey pulled me into the house.

“It’s good to see you,” she grinned. Her grin faded as she continued. “I wish it wasn’t because of a battle, though. I always hate battles. I hate thinking that someone might not come back.” I stopped and gave her a hug.

“I’m sure they’ll all come back. They didn’t last time, didn’t they? Anyway, there’s no match for Hydes dragons!” I said, smiling at the older girl in an attempt to cheer her up. She smiled a little.

“Unless they have dragons. Ginny, there’s something you have to understand. Maybe you’ve felt it, maybe you haven’t, but a person who has made such a connection with a dragon as we have will do anything to keep his or her dragon safe. Life after a dragon has passed on is awful for the human. They’ll always feel like they’re missing a part of themselves. Some people feel that Voldemort will be victorious in this war, so they’ll join that side in an attempt to save their dragon. I know that you’re thinking how could anyone doubt Dumbledore, but there are some out there.” We had reached the library and entered it. I frowned. I had never thought about that before. I looked up as we entered. A very sullen Zandra was sitting at one of the tables, flipping through a magazine. Draco was sitting at the opposite end of the same table doing some homework. Tait was lying on the chaise lounge, staring at the ceiling and generally doing nothing. Draco looked up when we walked him. Emotion flashed behind his eyes, but a cool mask of indifference made its customary appearance. I tore my gaze from him to Lacey. She was looking between us curiously. I shrugged and she shrugged in return.

“Let’s go to the second story,” I suggested and we made our way up the staircase and settle ourselves in chairs.

“So what was that look he gave you about?” she whispered to me. I blinked.

“What look?” I whispered back. She sighed exasperatedly.

“You know. First he showed a little bit of emotion- something I’ve never seen him do- and then he was all…indifferent,” she said, frowning. I shrugged once more.

“I guess he’s still confused,” I said, and picked up a book I’d grabbed off the shelf as we passed by. Linda and the Large Lotus. I rolled my eyes at the title, but opened the book and started to read, determined to not be subjected to the Spanish Inquisition.



We were not so lucky this time as we had been in the past. What Lacey told me had apparently been true. There were a few dragon people that felt that loyalty to Voldemort was the only way to ensure the survival of their dragon. This was not true, Charlie had told me later than night. They had eliminated three of the seven dragons that were on Voldemort’s side. Two of the twenty of our members had been killed. Rafael, rider of Caron, and Wyman, rider of Gunda, were both killed. Their dragons had died in mourning of their riders. I had met Rafael on a few occasions, and had liked him a lot. He loved to study history, but didn’t like Quidditch. Wyman, on the other hand, had been a Quidditch fanatic. He was good with animals and had reminded me a lot of Charlie. Charlie and Malia, who were so weary that they had to lean on each other to even walk, had come in to the Library to give us the news. Everyone seemed to take the news okay, except for me. Death always affected me badly. I was that way as a child, always bawling at any death, but the experience in the Chamber of Secrets my first year had made the condition worse. When Charlie told us of the deaths, I dropped my book on the floor and ran out of the Library and up to my room. I flung myself on the bed and cried into my pillow.

It seemed like I had been crying for hours before anyone came up. By the time Charlie came to see if I was okay, my crying had been reduced to the occasional sniffle. He sat down on the bed beside me and gathered me into his arms like he had done when I was little and was terrified of a thunderstorm.

“Ginny, I know this is hard for you, but you’ve got to accept it. Every one of us knows what we’re risking when we go back into battle. We know there’s a chance that we won’t come back. Wyman and Rafael were both friends of mine, and I know that they would be glad they died in battle rather than here, doing nothing,” he said. I sat there, thinking about what he said. When it was time for me to go into battle, did I want to have to think that I, or any of my friends, might not come back? I decided that it didn’t, but that I would have to since there was no way I would choose any other line of work. I hugged my brother back.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. He squeezed my gently before letting me go and getting off the bed and holding his hand out to help me up.

“I do believe dinner’s ready,” he said. I smiled slightly and took his hand, allowing him to help me up. We headed down stairs together, and I said a little prayer of thanks that my brother had been saved.


The next day, after returning home briefly so I could get some clothes to take back with me, Lacey and I spent the morning cleaning our dragons and racing them. After lunch we went back to the Library to work on homework. Draco caught me outside the doors to the Library.

“I need to speak with you, Weasley,” he said, looking me in the eye and studiously ignoring Lacey. I could feel the blush rising to my cheeks as I saw her smirking out of the corner of my eye.

“I’ll wait for you in the Library,” she said cheerily and went into the room, leaving me alone in the hallway with Draco.

“Where would you like to talk?” I asked, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.

“Here’s fine. I wanted to talk to you about what happened at the paddock before we left Hogwarts,” he said. I tensed. It looked like he was going to tell me to forget it, that it meant nothing.

“Want me to forget it, to pretend it never happened? Want me to promise that I won’t let the school know that you, Draco Malfoy, Prince of Slytherin, kissed a lowly Gryffindor Weasley?” I asked coldly, crossing my arms across my chess.

“Look, Weasley-” he started, but I cut him off, determined to have the upper hand in the conversation.

“I know you’re embarrassed at having kissed me, but I won’t tell anyone,” I said, and tried to pass him, but he grabbed my upper arm and turned me so that I was facing him once more.

“God, Weasley, can’t you just be quiet for once and let me speak? I’m not sorry I kissed you, but nothing can come of it right now because I don’t know what I’m feeling,” he said, practically spitting the words out. I’m not sorry I kissed you… echoed in my mind.

“Oh,” I said faintly and blinked. He was gone before I could formulate a reply. I slowly made my way into the Library where I knew Lacey would be waiting for me to tell her everything. I decided that she didn’t have to know, and that Draco wouldn’t want her knowing his business.


Life at the reservation went smoothly after that day. Tait, Zandra, Draco, Lacey, and I spent our mornings with our dragons, feeding, washing, and racing them. Our afternoons were spent on homework, and our evenings were spent usually playing Exploding Snap or hearing stories of battles from the older Council members. The last night of our stay there, we all gathered in the small ballroom, fires burning merrily in all twelve fireplaces, to play games and just have a goodtime in general. Draco and I would be returning to Hogwarts the next day while Zandra, Tait, and Lacey would return home for another day or two before going to their own schools. Eloise and Jude weren’t present, however, but I didn’t think about this. I was too busy enjoying myself while playing Exploding Snap with Lacey, Tait, and Draco as Zandra sat near us reading Witch Weekly.

The doors banged open and Eloise and Jude hurried in. The room fell silent as the formidable witch strode towards the center.

“Emergency Council meeting. Zandra, Tait, Draco, and Lacey, please leave. Ginny, you may stay as this pertains to you,” Eloise said. The four other greens muttered their annoyance that I, the youngest, was allowed to stay, but, after I promised Lacey to tell them if it was anything interesting, left. The remaining members seemed to float into ranks, Yellows with Yellows, Reds with Reds, and so on. Charlie waved me over and I sat next to him.

“We have just been informed of something, something that is terrible and could lead to our downfall,” Jude started. Gloria laughed lightly.

“Quit being such a drama queen!” she called out. Jude glared at her. Eloise stepped in between them as a peacekeeper.

“Gloria, there is a remote possibility of this happening. He is exaggerating it, though. We have been informed that Voldemort,” she paused, waiting for the customary shivers to subside, “knows of little Ginny’s talent regarding dragons. We all knew that this could be a liability when we accepted her, but we also knew that it would be better to have her on our side than to go to Voldemort’s side.

“Since Voldemort knows of Ginny’s talent, we are worried that he might try and attack or something. He will find any way possible to get Ginny on his side. She could talk any dragon into doing anything. Such is a great talent that needs to be treated with respect and not abused,” she paused here again, and looked directly at me, as if telling me silently that that last sentence had been directed at me.

“What are we going to do to prevent anything from happening?” Charlie asked from my right. I lowered my gaze to the floor, suddenly feeling like I was a great burden on them. I thought briefly of leaving and running away.

You will not leave me, Goldenwing said, her calm voice reassuring me. I felt suddenly ashamed of my traitorous thoughts of leaving my dragon.

Of course I won’t, I said.

“We will have a full Council meeting once Ginny is safely at Hogwarts. It is late, so this meeting is adjourned,” Eloise said with an authoritative voice, as if daring anyone to keep asking questions. People started to get up and walk around, whispering in small groups and sneaking glances at me. I dropped my gaze to the floor again.

“C’mon, Gin. Let’s get you to bed. First thing tomorrow we’ll take you and Draco back to Hogwarts,” Charlie said and pulled me towards the doors. I nodded dully, the happiness I’d had earlier was gone.


The next day was stormy. Just as we were about to board the Knight Bus, Eloise ran out.

“Charlie! We need you- there’s a battle! Draco can protect Ginny on their way back. Get your dragon ready, you’ll be in the first set!” Eloise left before Charlie could say anything. He gave me a quick hug and kissed me on the forehead.

“Be good and I’ll owl you to let you know I’m all right. Be careful,” he said, adding the last part to Draco, who nodded.

“Come on, Weasley. We’d better get going,” Draco said as he put a hand on my back and gently pushed me onto the bus. We sat down at a table on the third level.

“So you’re a target of Voldemort’s?” he asked conversationally. My eyebrows flew up, a gesture I’d seen Ron do many times, but had rarely done myself.

“Yes, but how did you know? I didn’t even tell Lacey,” I asked, surprised. I briefly wondered if he’d bought one of Fred and George’s Extendable Ears. He shrugged.

“I just guessed, from they way there were all acting,” he said. We sat in silence for a minute.

“Listen, about me snapping at you the other night, I’m sorry about it,” I said, looking anywhere but at him. I could feel his penetrating gaze on me. He was silent for a minute.

“It’s all right. It’s just…” he sighed, and continued. “This is wrong, it has to be. Father would…no, I’m not my Father. Weasley, I really like you, so I was wondering if-” he was cut off, just as I was started to get hopeful by another voice.

“STUPEFY!” the woman’s voice boomed. The jet of magic hit my back and I knew no more.

Chapter Eight


I’m not sure how long it was before I regained consciousness again. The first thing I did, after making sure that I had no broken bones or missing limbs, was to look around at my environment. I was in a very small cell, probably eight feet by six feet. The walls and floor were made of stone, and a wooden slab jutted out of one of the walls. A musty, moth-eaten blanket lay on the slab. There was a small hole in the corner of the room opposite the wooden slab, which I assumed was for urinary purposes. Where the twelve-foot walls met ceiling, a small rectangle had been cut so that air could come in. I stood up on the wooden slab and tried to see out of the window. Craning my neck this way and that, trying to see beyond the cell; I couldn’t. Sighing, I sat back down on the “bed.” I sat there, wondering what had happened to Draco and whether or not I’d get out of this alive. Just as I was starting to worry, the door opened. I jumped up and automatically reached into my pocket for my wand, which was, obviously, not there.

“The master wants see you now, blood traitor,” said the person. She lit her wand with a soft “Lumos!” and I could see her properly. She was tall with long honey blonde hair and brown eyes. She was the only pretty Death Eater that I had seen, aside from old pictures of Bellatrix Lestrange. I recognized her voice as the one that had spoken on the Knight Bus.

“And what if I won’t see him now?” I asked, standing definitely, although kicking myself for acting so stupidly brave when I was unarmed. Her lips spread into a smile that was anything but friendly.

“Crucio,” she whispered. I knew what was coming, but I was still unprepared, just as a rabbit who knows that he’s going to be eaten but doesn’t fully realize it until he is. It felt as if though long daggers were being plunged into my body repeatedly. My insides were on fire and I couldn’t breathe. All at once, it stopped. “You will see him,” she said simply before binding me with ropes and levitating me in front of her range of sight. Since I didn’t have to concentrate on keeping up with her, I took a look at my surroundings. The passage we were traveling through looked much like the ones in the Hogwarts dungeons. The walls, floor, and ceiling were composed of stone. Lit torches were scattered throughout the halls and there were heavy wooden doors every few feet. We went up stairs, turned right, went up more stairs, another right, up more stairs, turned left, and after that, I lost track. After a long period of time, during which I concentrated on not thinking about my family, we arrived at a door at the end of a staircase. The female Death Eater opened the door and we stepped into a plain entrance hall. The walls and ceiling were stone, but the floor was wooden. Tapestries of bloody battles covered the walls that would make anyone shiver in horror. This was definitely not a place I wanted to be at. I bit back a sigh as we continued on our way up more stairs and hallways. We stopped in front of large ornate doors that were decorated with snakes, after what seemed like hours. It’s just like Voldemort to be so gaudy, I thought with bitter amusement.

The Death Eater knocked three times on the door and opened it. The first thing I noticed about the room was that it was just as ornate as the door had been. Thick green carpeting was on the floor, and the walls were decorated with many portraits of men with long pointy noses and women with disdainful looks on their faces. A single chair was in front of the fireplace, its back to the doorway. I could see the body of a man, but not the face. I didn’t need to see his face to know that it was Voldemort. Tom had returned to me. Those long white fingers, so like a surgeon or pianist’s, curled around the arms of the chair as he pushed himself out of the chair, rising as gracefully as a feline.

“Little Ginny, we meet again,” he spoke in his terrible, high-pitched voice, eerily silky. He turned to the Death Eater. “Leave us,” he said coldly.

“Yes, my Lord,” she murmured as she bowed low, and left the room. Once the door was shut, Tom took three steps towards me.

“Little Ginny, how much you’ve changed. And yet, you haven’t changed a bit,” he said softly. Soon he was in front of me. He reached out a pale hand and stroked my cheek with the back of his hand. I fought back a flinch as his fingers snapped and the floating incantation was lifted. My legs, not ready to support me, folded and I landed on the ground. He looked down his nose and at me.

“What do you want with me?” I asked, my voice cracking more than I had hoped for it to. His face twisted into a look of immense pleasure.

“Stand up, Little Ginny,” he said in that same soft voice. My body followed his orders against my will. His hand found its way back to my cheek. I did not flinch this time. My mind was clouding up, and I was finding it hard to remember that he was bad.

“What do you want with me?” I asked again, forcing myself to speak. His grin, so full of malice, widened slowly. He placed his mouth near my ear, and this time I couldn’t suppress my shudder.

“I want you to join me, Little Ginny. Think of all the power you’ll have once we win the war,” he whispered. “I want you to get the dragons to join me.” The word dragon triggered something in me. I thought of Goldenwing, and how much I loved her. Would Voldemort really win the war? Should I join to ensure the safety of Goldenwing? I opened my mouth to tell him that I would join him, my mind getting cloudier and cloudier by the moment, when someone knocked on the door, bringing me out of my trance. I jerked away from him as he looked up sharply at the person who entered the room.

“My lord-” the person began, but Voldemort sent a Killing Curse their way, and we would never know what they wanted to report.

“We’ll continue this later,” Voldemort hissed, turning back to me. He pressed a wand to my forehead, and said “Stupefy,” and the world went black.


***


I wasn’t sure how long I had been out when I woke up later, but it definitely felt like it had been hours. I was back in my cell and a plate of food was lying in the middle of the room on the floor. The food was colorless, and lumpy. My stomach lurched at the thought of having to eat it. Seems to me, if they really wanted to get me on their side, they would be treating me like royalty, I thought bitterly. I sighed and picked the plate up and tasted one bite gingerly. The back of my mind was screaming that I shouldn’t be eating anything that Voldemort gave me, but deep inside, I knew that he wouldn’t kill me. No, he needed me too much to kill me. At least not yet.

I later realized, as my eyelids grew heavy and my mind grew dim, that it had been laced with a sleeping potion. I yawned and lay on my so-called bed to sleep.


The grass was greener than I had ever seen it, and the sky was the most brilliant shade of blue. The breeze was warm and the sun was light. Everywhere around me, people were laughing with each other, generally having a good time. When I looked closer, I realized that I was back at Hydes. Charlie was with Malia under a beech tree, both enjoying the other’s company. Most of the Quidditch playing Council members were playing a game of Quidditch. Rafael and Wyman were tossing a Frisbee back and forth. I frowned, looking at them. There was something very odd about it, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I shrugged and turned my gaze towards the paddock. Draco and Lacey were standing with their dragons and Goldenwing. They were smiling at me and waving me towards them. I hurried over to where they were standing and took my place next to Draco. He slipped his arm around my waist.

“Hello, love,” he said to me. I smiled back at him and leaned into his embrace. Goldenwing cooed happily at me.

“Hello, Little Ginny!” Lacey said, smiling wider at me as she hugged Noah. Vertigo rubbed his head against Draco.

“Will you join our side? Voldemort is the winning side, Little Ginny!” Draco said fervently. I tried to step away from him, but his arm was too tight and I couldn’t get away.

“Come on, Little Ginny. Do this for Goldenwing! You know what will happen to her if you’re on the losing side,” Lacey said.

“Look at how happy everyone here is,” said Charlie, who had walked up behind us. “Even Rafael and Wyman are back!” I looked over to where the two men were playing Frisbee, and suddenly realized why it was so odd to see them again. They had died weeks before.

“Join us, Little Ginny!” cried all of the dragon people.

“No! I won’t!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. Clouds covered the sun, suddenly, and the shadows made everyone look sinister. Or maybe they didn’t need the help of the shadows. In my fright, I pressed closer to Draco. He shoved me away.

“Okay, bitch, here’s what you get for refusing our Lord,” he snarled and pulled a long machete out of nowhere. The blade made contact with Goldenwing’s neck, and the whole world around me seemed to collapse. There was darkness once more.


When I woke up again, my heart was racing and I was drenched in cold sweat. I couldn’t get the image of Goldenwing, with a machete buried deep in her neck out of my mind.

Goldenwing, can you hear me? Are you out there? I called out in my mind, trying to reach my dragon. Only silence greeted me. Tears threatened to spill down my cheeks, but I refused to let them. I would not let Voldemort see that he had gotten to me. I knew the dream was just a dream, but I had no doubt that if he could, Voldemort would kill Goldenwing if I refused to join him. The door opened once more, bringing me out of my thoughts.

The man that stepped into the room was short and balding with small, watery eyes. I recognized him at once as Peter Pettigrew.

“Hello, Scabbers,” I said maliciously to the man. He glared at me, and pointed at the plate with his silver hand. A jet of red light shot out of his finger and the plate disappeared. “Ooooo, such pretty magic! Amuse me with more!” I said sarcastically. He smirked, and I knew I’d made a mistake.

“Crucio! ” The pain, so much like knives, returned once more, but in more abundance than when the woman had cast it. Apparently Peter wanted to hurt me more than the woman did. When I thought I was going to die from the curse, or at least go insane like the Longbottoms, he lifted the curse. “Do not tempt me, girl. Only the Dark Lord’s need for you keeps me from killing you,” he hissed and left the room before I had a chance to retort. Gingerly, I got up from where I had fallen on the ground and curled up on my bed. The full impact of what could happen to me hit me. I could die from all of this. The tears, which I had been unconsciously fighting, fell at last.

Chapter Nine


I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before I saw him again, but my rough estimate was about a week and a half. My days followed a strict routine: I’d wake up from fitful sleep, full of nightmares of something awful happening to Goldenwing, to find a plate of breakfast sitting on the floor of my cell. I would eat the breakfast, and then sit and wonder what was going to happen to me until lunchtime when Wormtail would come and take my plate and deliver lunch. We would change words, he would use the Cruciatus on me, and then he would leave. I would eat lunch when I recovered from the curse, and would sit and think about my family until dinnertime. The lady Death Eater, whom I sill didn’t have a name for, would come and collect my dinner. I didn’t ever bother to speak to her, and she always finished her job in silence, leaving me a plate of drugged food.

I didn’t mind the drugged food, so much. At least I knew that my dreams were completely fabricated, and that it wasn’t some sort of connection like Harry had with Voldemort. Today started out no different. Breakfast was waiting for me as usual. I ate it, and then sat and thought about Goldenwing, Draco, and Lacey. Lunchtime came, and Wormtail arrived.

“Hello traitor,” I greeted him, as I usually did. He glared at me, and pointed his hand at the floor. The old plate of food reappeared with food for lunch. It was as lumpy and colorless as breakfast had been.

“You’d be quite if you knew what was good for you, prisoner,” he sneered back, his high-pitched voice sounding very non-threatening to me at the moment. I rolled my eyes.

“You’re one to talk about knowing what’s good for you. You’re the one that joined up with that half monster!” I retorted. He pointed his silver hand at me and I knew what was coming next.

“Crucio! ” he bellowed. One discovery that I had made after I came here, was that if you were put under the Cruciatus Curse for a while every day, you start to develop an immunity to it. The pain was less this time; instead of feeling like knives were being poked into me and twisted around, it felt like small metal rods were being poked into me and twisted around. It wasn’t much of an improvement, but I was thankful for every bit of relief that I found.

He seemed to be upset at something because he held me under the Cruciatus Curse longer than normal. When he finally lifted it, I was in horrible pain, worse than I had ever felt. The world wouldn’t stop spinning, and I had to close my eyes before I threw up from the dizziness.

“Bitch,” was all Wormtail muttered before leaving me alone. Finally the pain became too much and I let the darkness claim my now wasted body.


When I regained consciousness, again, I found that I was not alone in the cell. Voldemort was sitting on my bed, sneering down at me.

“Had a nice nap there, little Ginny? He asked in his shrill voice. I fought the urge to ask him why he’d changed himself so much. He had been much more dangerous looking (and handsome) when he was seventeen. It was one of those things that had a reason behind it and no one really knew.

“Oh yeas, it was lovely. I find that I sleep the best after I’ve been tortured to the point that I pass out,” I said, my tone lined heavily with sarcasm. I was no longer afraid of Voldemort since I knew that he wouldn’t- couldn’t, really- kill me.

“Don’t be smart with me, girl,” he said, his eyes narrowing in irritation. His look of annoyance quickly turned into one of twisted pleasure, amusement. Something that most would find sickening and yet this man managed to accomplish this feat almost every single second of the day. “If you irritate me, I won’t tell you the exciting news I’ve brought you.” I gritted my teeth. It took quite a lot of effort for me not to unleash all of my anger out on him in the form of sarcasm. Voldemort motioned with one and the lady Death Eater, whom I had not noticed in the room, stepped forward from the shadows. She held up a copy of the Daily Prophet and started to read.

“ ‘Ginevra Molly Weasley was a vibrant, outgoing, and stunningly beautiful Sixth Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was well-loved by her fellow classmates, was a good student, and was a star Quidditch player.’ How saintly,” she sneered before continuing to read the article aloud. “ ‘Miss Weasley disappeared nearly two weeks ago as she was traveling from Hydes Dragon Reservation to Hogwarts on the Knight Bus, accompanied by Draco Malfoy. Ministry officials questioned Mr. Malfoy, whose father, Lucius, is currently in Azkaban pending trial for associations with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, before being released into the custody of the school. Minister Fudge, at press time, had no other comments other than to say that Draco Malfoy is not a suspect at this time, and that everything in their power is being done to find Miss Weasley.

“ ‘Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster at Hogwarts, announced to the school that Miss Weasley was missing, and that the reason for her kidnapping is currently unknown. The disappearance of Miss Weasley is the newest in a line of kidnappings that are suspected to be related. Miss Weasley, like all of the other victims, is a female between the age of fifteen and twenty-five and is attractive. If you have any evidence on Miss Weasley’s disappearance of whereabouts, please contact the Ministry of Magic as soon as possible. ’ ”

My heart sank. I had been certain that Dumbledore would know that Voldemort had me, and would know how to save me. After all, if Dumbledore couldn’t do it, who could? Voldemort sneered coldly at me.

“You see, Little Ginny, they don’t know where you are. Your precious Potter can’t save you now.” He turned and faced the woman. “Come, Natasha. We have a meeting to attend.” With that, they left the room, and I was once again left alone. My gaze fell from the door that they had just exited to the floor, which was blurred with my tears. I ran the back of my hand across my eyes and stood up. I couldn’t lose hope; I would surely die if I did.

The lady Death Eater- Natasha, I corrected myself mentally- did not bring my dinner that night. Instead, Wormtail did. I was in no mood for my normal games, so I feigned sleep. I didn’t eat dinner that night. My loss of hope brought not only a loss of appetite, but also a fear that my food would have poison in it. When Wormtail left, I rolled on to my back and amused myself by finding pictures and words on the cracks in the ceilings. When I was little, I often amused myself by lying on my back in the grass and finding pictures in the clouds while my brothers played Quidditch, since they wouldn’t let me join them. Funny how they’d probably beg for me to play Quidditch with them now. Just like the nature of human beings, things change. What can one do? Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Without realizing what I was doing, I found myself trying to find Goldenwing in the cracks. My eyes filled with tears as I thought about my beautiful dragon. Thousands of questions filled my mind: Was Draco feeding her? Was she worried about me? Did she know why I wasn’t coming to visit her anymore? Had she given up hope of seeing me again? The salty tears rolled down my cheeks as I realized that all of my questions would be unanswered. Exhaustion soon took over me and I fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was feeling more refreshed than I had the whole time that I had been gone. I made a mental note to start skipping dinner. The nightmares caused by the potion in the food often caused troubled sleep and I would wake up dozens of times during the night. As I thought about why I had skipped dinner in the first place, the hopelessness from the day before came flooding back in full force. I had to try something, anything, to get the feeling of uselessness to go away. I got up from my bed and stood in the middle of the room. Taking three deep, cleansing breaths, I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. The only thing I could think to do was communicate with dragons, anywhere.

Hello? Is anyone out there? I called from my mind tentively. I didn’t expect to hear from any Hydes dragons- I’d already tried communicating with them. I didn’t really expect anything to happen. I especially didn’t expect the roar that sounded in my mind and the feeling of utter confusion that overwhelmed me. My eyes snapped open and I took an involuntary step backwards. I decided to try again.

I’m not going to hurt you. I need your help, I called, although I was unsure how this dragon would help me. I hadn’t thought much of my plan on communicating with the dragons; but then again I hadn’t really been planning on communicating with any dragon at all. There was another roar in my mind, and this time anger accompanied it. I stood rigid for a moment, before I heard it. The dragon’s roar was closer now, and it was accompanied by screams of people. The wild dragon had attacked. I dropped to my bed and wrapped the ratty blanket around me. I didn’t know how to control wild dragons, especially not when they were attacking. Charlie had once told me that to face a wild dragon, even a calm one, is the scariest thing to do. I sank back into the corner and hugged my legs to my chest, letting my forehead rest on my knees. I didn’t know how to get out of the mess I’d started.

A long time later- hours, probably- the screaming finally stopped. There was one last roar and all was silent. Somehow I knew the dragon was dead. Relief and sadness, flooded through my body, and I lifted my head. Moments later, footsteps sounded outside my door, and it was thrown open to reveal Natasha.

“You stupid- you idiotic- you- you- ARGH!” She was so angry that she couldn’t finish a thought. She took a calming breath while angry, red sparks shot out of the tip of her wand that was held at her side. “You moronic bint! Do you realize that you could have gotten the lot of us- you, included- killed when you set that dragon on us? You do that again, and I assure you, My Lord will not hesitate to kill you,” she said, hissing the last part before turning and stomping out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, letting my head hit it was a dull thud. A completely random thought ran through my head: she didn’t bring me food. I allowed a small, hysterical giggle at that thought, but it soon turned to tears.


Food wasn’t brought to me that day. I suppose it was punishment for the dragon incident, but I couldn’t find the heart to feel guilty for doing it. No food meant no visits from Wormtail or Natasha, and that meant no Cruciatus Curse. I knew that they would have to feed me before long, and that the torture would start up once again. And most likely not in the far future, but very soon.

The food- and the impending torture- came sooner than I had expected: that night. It was later than dinner was normally brought, and I was lying in my bed, trying to fall asleep, when the door opened. I sat up quickly and looked at the door. Natasha and Wormtail came in, Wormtail carrying a plate and Natasha carrying a torch, both holding wands. Wormtail put the plate of food on the floor as I scrambled to stand up.

“Fool,” Natasha said, and then flicked her wand and muttered, “Crucio. ” The pain was back. It felt like white-hot liquid was flooding through my veins, scorching every organ it came into contact with. It felt like red pokers were being shoved through me and twisted. Death compared to this would probably be a welcoming relief Just as my voice was giving out and I was about to accept the darkness that I felt creeping up on me, the pain stopped, and I was on the floor, twitching. Wormtail and Natasha leaned over me. “Don’t ever pull a stunt like that again. You’d better be glad that Our Lord isn’t here to do this himself.” And then they were gone, and I was alone.

Chapter Ten

I didn’t think that my angering the dragon would have an after effect, other than angering the hell out of the Death Eaters. It took exactly a week for the effect to take place. I found out, later, that Voldemort had been in a meeting, somewhere away from the place I was being held captive, when my stunt had happened. He got a week after it had happened and was furious. He didn’t bother sending for me; no, he came himself. I was picking at my food when the door was thrown open and he stalked in. He looked about a foot taller than normal in his anger. His red eyes were in slits, and anger was radiating from him. I shrunk further back into the wall.

“You stupid girl,” he hissed. I looked him directly in the eye, but didn’t say anything. Natasha’s threat was still fresh in my mind, and I had no intentions of getting myself killed. “Crucio,” he said, and the pain was unlike I had ever felt. Voldemort’s Cruciatus curse was twenty times stronger than either Natasha’s or Wormtail’s, and it felt like it lasted twenty times longer. When he finally lifted the curse, I could barely stay awake. Just before I blacked out, I heard someone scream, “My Lord! They’ve come!”


***


I don’t know how long it was before I woke up again, but all was silent. Voldemort was gone, and so was my food plate. I was still lying on the floor where I had fallen. The silence was eerie for some reason, like something had happened while I was unconscious. I thought back to the last thing I had heard. “My Lord! They’ve come! ” I frowned. I didn’t know who “they” were, or if they could be of any help to me. I sat down on the edge of my bed and settled myself in for a long wait.

It was hours before I heard anything. I had forced myself into an almost trance-like state, when I heard the voices.

“We’ve checked everywhere else,” a hard female voice said, sounding like it was coming from the end of the long hallway.

“She must be down here. She has to be. How else could the dragon…unless they’ve moved her,” a male voice said, trailing off. I realized they were my only hope, and moved over to the door.

“I’M IN HERE!” I shouted and banged on the door three times before my hand started to hurt. There was a still silence, and then-

“Eloise! Down here!” a male’s voice called out from near my cell. My heart rose to my throat and started to beat wildly. Eloise. The Council was here to save me! There were quick footsteps along with a grunting.

“Open it,” said a female voice, which I quickly recognized to be Eloise’s. A grin spread across my lips, as I heard whomever she had been speaking to mutter an incantation and the door swung open. There in the hallway stood Eloise, a Death Eater in ropes, a few council members and, best of all, Charlie.

“Oh, Ginny,” he breathed and stepped towards me. I met him halfway and he captured me a bear hug, similar to the ones he would give me when I was younger.

“She’ll have to go to St. Mungo’s, of course,” someone said, I peaked over Charlie’s shoulders and saw that Leila had spoken. I felt safe enough in my brother’s arms to look more closely at who had come to my rescue. Malia was leaning against the doorway with Dorian next to her. Eloise was supervising Thomas, Geoffrey, and Payton in what to do with the prisoners, and Leila and Camilla were talking quietly across the hall. My heart sank. Draco wasn’t there.

“The sooner we get her there, the sooner we can get her home,” Charlie said as he let me out of his hug. I frowned. St. Mungo’s? I hated the hospital. When Dad had to stay there in my fourth year, I hated visiting him there. Charlie saw the look on my face and added, “You won’t have to stay. They just need to run some tests to make sure that you’re in good condition.” I nodded warily, and followed my brother out of the cell and into freedom.


***


Later that night, I was finally able to return home to the Burrow where my family, Harry and Hermione included, was waiting. Mum had cooked a huge meal, and everyone was really excited to see me, but all I wanted to do was go to bed. I stayed up as long as I could and even ate some, but an hour and a half into my return home I could barely keep my eyes open. My elbows were on the table, on either side of my picked at plate, and my head was resting on my hands as I listened to Harry and Ron recount their latest Quidditch glory from the previous day. My eyes started to droop, and I knew I would fall asleep soon, whether I wanted to or not. Luckily, Mum saw my struggling, and shooed me towards bed.

“You’ve had a few weeks, dear. Go on to bed,” she said gently and sent me on my way. Once in my room I fell onto my bed and was instantly asleep.


***


The next day was rainy, just the way I liked them. Harry and Ron went with Fred and George to their shop, leaving Hermione and me to have some girl talk time, something we hadn’t had in a very long time.

“Ginny, I have a question I’ve been dying to ask you, but if you don’t want to answer it, I’ll understand,” Hermione said quickly. I smiled faintly.

“Go on,” I said, “I’ll answer whatever I can, Herms.” She scrunched her nose in disgust at my favorite nickname for her.

“Did, uh, Malfoy try to stop your kidnapping?” she said, and paused slightly as my jaw dropped. Seeing my look of shock, she continued hastily. “I mean, he says he didn’t, and I suppose the Ministry believed him, but I mean, come on! Look what he has for a father! Look at his family! No one at school really believes him, not even the other Slytherins.” I sat still, still too shocked to answer. Draco was being blamed for my kidnapping? Finally I snapped out of my funk.

“We were talking quite civilly about, um, stuff, and then all of the sudden someone behind me said ‘Stupefy’, and I blacked out. Considering the conversation we were having, I don’t think he had anything to do with it. And don’t use that ‘look at his father and family’ nonsense with me. I mean, just look at Perce! He was awful, and our family isn’t,” I concluded, ignoring the anger I felt at my brother. Hermione looked mildly embarrassed. Her look of embarrassment quickly turned into one of curiosity, as if she had suddenly remembered something.

“What did you mean when you said ‘considering the conversation we were having’?” she asked me. I could feel my face flush, and I looked down.

“He, uh, kissed me at Christmas, and I think he was going to ask me out,” I said, turning the color of tomatoes. Hermione’s eyebrows shot into her hair, and she looked thoroughly surprised.

“That’s really…wow…are you sure? Malfoy?” she asked, her surprise tinted with suspicion. I nodded.

“Herms, he’s changed. Hydes…well, it just does something to you. When we’re there, there are no stupid house or family rivalries. You have your dragon, and that’s all you need to be happy, really,” I said, pausing for a moment to think about the conversation I had had with Lacey over Christmas about why people with dragons go to Voldemort’s side. Hermione opened her mouth, but I was in no mood to talk about Hydes and Goldenwing, so I cut her off by asking another question. “How did it look like Draco was handling this?”

“He’s been…well, not really his usual self. He’s been hanging about in the library by himself, doing his homework, a lot. He goes out of his way to avoid us, but I think that’s because Ron doesn’t really believe that he had nothing to do in this.” Hermione ended with a small shrug. Poor Draco, I thought. We didn’t get to talk anymore because Mum chose that moment to knock on the door and come in.

“Ginny, love, could I see you downstairs for a moment? Oh, Hermione, the boys are due back any moment. Will you make sure that they pack their things? Dumbledore requests that you lot be back by dinner for the feast,” Mum said as she led us downstairs.

“What feast?” I asked curiously as we took the last steps off the stairs.

“Your welcome home feast, of course,” Mum said and herded me into the den, shutting the door behind me. I sat down on the couch and pulled a freshly knitted blanket around my shoulders as Mum started a fire in the fireplace.

“What did you want to see me about?” I asked and watched as she made a huge fuss about getting herself comfortable.

“It’s about this dragon thing,” she said when she could no longer stall.

“What about it?” I asked, a cold knot forming in the pit of my stomach. I knew what was coming, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to hear it.

“I want you to give it up,” she said, sighing and looking me in the eye.

“I can’t just ‘give it up,’ Mum! I have a duty. I have gifts,” I said.

“And those ‘gifts’ almost got you killed!” she snapped in return.

“No, Mum, those gifts kept me alive. They eventually saved me. If I hadn’t made that dragon mad, t he Council never would have found me.” Charlie, on our way to St. Mungo’s explained how they discovered my location. The area that Voldemort had me in hadn’t had dragon activity in years. When they heard of the angry dragon, they asked Snape if Voldemort had a place there. When they found out he did, they knew that that was where I was.

“He never would have taken you if you weren’t involved with the Council,” she said angrily. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

“Of course he might have. Mum, face it. The moment that Harry was invited to our house, we became Voldemort’s targets, whether or not he was alive and aware of it,” I sighed. Mum looked at her hands, which were twisted together in her lap.

“I won’t be happy if you continue,” she said softly. I looked at her sadly, my anger draining, before replying.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t abandon Goldenwing,” I said and left.


***


In keeping with Dumbledore’s wishes, we were back at Hogwarts before dinner. I made my way to Gryffindor Tower with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I listened to them discuss Professor Cadaver, but did not participate in the conversation. I savored the enjoyment of being back at Hogwarts, my home away from home.

The feast that night was an enjoyable affair for the most part. Mya and Ron positioned themselves on either side of me, and refuse to leave. I thought briefly of my conversation with Hermione and wondered if she told Ron and Harry what I had said about Draco because every time I would sneak glances at the door to watch for him (because he hadn’t arrived yet) I would be pulled back into the conversation. It didn’t occur to me until an hour had passed that maybe he wasn’t going to come. Half an hour after my revelation, I managed to pull myself away from the feast alone by telling Ron that I wanted to thank Professor Snape (who was also not at the feast) for his part in my rescue. Once in the deserted entrance, I sought out Vertigo.

Where is Draco? I called out to the dragon. The answer didn’t come from Vertigo, but from my own Goldenwing.

He is here, with us, she said calmly. My heart soared. Goldenwing! I flew out the door and into the woods, towards the paddock. I was thoroughly out of breath by the time I got to the dragons. Draco, sure enough, was there. His back had been turned to me, but when he heard me, he turned.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone, Weasley. You wouldn’t want Potter to have to save you from evil Draco Malfoy, would you?” he said coldly as he turned his back to face his dragon.

“Draco-” I started, but he cut me off.

“Goldenwing is fine; I’ve been taking care of her for you. Now that you’ve seen that she’s okay, you can go run back to your precious Potter,” he said harshly. I stood where I was, blinking for a moment.

“Harry? But-” I started but, again, he cut me off. Draco Malfoy h ad manners, but I was beginning to think he missed the bit about not interrupting.

“Yes Potter, who would never let harm fall on you,” he said, his tone mocking. My brow knitted together in a look of confusion, and I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off again by whirling around to face me, an angry expression on his face. “Just go, and leave me alone!” My eyes narrowed and I glared at him.

“No. Draco Malfoy, you will listen to what I have to say, even if I have to put a Full Body Bind on you!” I yelled. His eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms over his chest, but he didn’t say anything. I took a deep breath. “First of all, I don’t think you had anything to do with my kidnapping, and I feel perfectly safe out here with you, even if you are being a stupid prat.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I plowed ahead. “I know you wouldn’t intentionally let anything harm me, just like Harry wouldn’t. And as for Harry… I don’t want Harry. Do you understand that? I do not want him. I want you, and if you can’t accept that, well, then it’s your loss. Thank you for taking care of my dragon, but since you’re being insufferable, I’m leaving,” I said, and turned, ready to stalk off.

“Weasley…wait,” he said, his tone softer than when he had spoken last. I turned back around, angry tears welling in my eyes. He was looking at his shoes as if they were the most interesting things he’d ever seen. I shivered, suddenly remembering my lack of a cloak. He looked up when I shivered and, in one fluid moment, look off his cloak. He muttered something as he draped it over my shoulders.

“What?” I said, not catching what he had muttered. He sighed heavily and looked me in the eye.

“I’m sorry,” he said, emphasizing the last word. I smiled slightly.

“The infamous Draco Malfoy is apologizing for being insufferable and a stupid prat, and I don’t have any witnesses,” I said mockingly. He glared at me, and I dropped my mocking tone. “Sorry…your apology is accepted.” He hesitated for a moment and stepped forward and pulled me to him in a hug. I wrapped my arms around him, glad just to be near him.

“So you really want me and not Potter?” he mumbled into my hair. I laughed softly and hugged him closer to me.

“Yes,” I said, and his lips met mine in our second kiss. When we were both breathless and felt like passing out from the pleasure, we parted and just stood in silence in each other’s arms.

“We should get back to the castle,” Draco said, finally pulling away from me. “They’ll probably piece together that we’re both gone and come looking for me, ready for a lynching.” I giggled softly.

“I don’t think they would. They may not believe you, but they’ll believe Hermione. I had a nice little chat with her and told her that under no circumstances were you to be blamed for my kidnapping,” I said as I laced my fingers with his and we started the long walk back to the castle.

“Thanks,” he said, and we walked along in a comfortable silence for a while.

“Draco?” I asked as we neared the castle.

“Hmm?”

“Are you, you know, official now?” I asked him, and he stopped and turned to look at me.

“Do you want to be?” he asked, his silver eyes boring into mine. I shivered at the intensity of his gaze.

“Yes,” I said simply and he smiled a small lopsided smile. My heart fluttered, and I knew what his answer would be.

“Then we are. But let’s keep it down low for a while. You’ll be getting enough attention for the whole kidnapping thing without having this added on to it,” he said as we resumed our walk back to the castle.

“That’s fine with me, but I want to tell my family before the summer hols,” I said, and he nodded his consent. When we parted ways in the entrance hall that night, he promised he would let me know when a good time and place to meet up again would be, and I made my way to Gryffindor Tower alone, a grin on my face and happier than I had been in a long time.

Chapter Eleven

This is for JoJo, who has reviewed every chapter,
And for dragonfire29 and Madison27, who have meant a lot to me
And for Fairy of Obsession, my beta, wherever she might be


Graduation day…


I was perfectly content to just stay in the dungeon room with Draco as my only company, but I knew my parents would start looking for me if we didn’t headed head to the ceremony soon.

“We need to go ahead and go on to the Great Hall,” I said in a mostly sad voice as I got up from the chair I’d been sitting in and tugged on his hand, urging him to do the same.

“Do we have to?” he asked, sighing. Neither of us was looking forward to this day for several reasons. Firstly because he was leaving after today; although I would see him every day during the summer at Hydes, where he was going to live, I wasn’t going to see him every day during the school year the next year. Secondly, today was the day we were going to tell my family about our relationship.

“Yes. You promised me,” I said. “Please? I promise it won’t be painful. I’ll protect you; Mum wouldn’t dare let them hurt me.” I smiled smugly and he groaned.

“It will just delay my death. They’ll come find me when you aren’t around,” he said, pouting. I laughed and hugged him.

“Then I suppose I’ll have to stay with you at all times,” I mumbled into his chest, which shook with silence laughter.

“I suppose you’ll have to,” he agreed and we left the room together.

Draco and I parted ways as we left the dungeons. He had to line up with his fellow graduating Slytherins, and I needed to find my family. Finding my family was never hard. All I had to do was look for the sea of red hair, which was spotted easily. Quickly, I slipped into a seat by Charlie. He smiled at me, and looked like he was about to ask me where I had been, but Dumbledore stood, signaling the start of the ceremony.

The ceremony was long, the speeches boring, and the graduates slow. I watched with little interest, only clapping when Harry, Ron, Hermione, and, most importantly, perhaps, Draco got their diplomas. Charlie clapped with me when Draco got his, and we were some of the few who did. From the looks people were giving me, I figured that most people still believed that he had a hand in my kidnapping. Mum gave us a strange look when she saw us clapping, but didn’t say anything.

When the ceremony was over, we stood near the back of the Great Hall and waited for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to find us. I leaned over to Charlie.

“I’ll be right back,” I whispered to him, and slipped away to find Draco. He was standing in a corner, just as we had arranged, and it only took me a moment to find him. I took his hand, lacing my fingers with his, and led him to my family.

“Hello, Draco,” Charlie said warmly. “Congratulations.” The two men shook hands and Mum looked over at me suspiciously.

“Mum,” I said, taking a deep breath. “There’s something that I really need to tell you.” Her face turned white, and she spoke before I could finish my rehearsed spiel.

“Oh my god! She’s pregnant!” Mum whispered harshly and she placed a hand over heart, as if willing it not to stop beating.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Mum,” I said, and rolled my eyes. “I just wanted to tell you that Draco and I have been dating since January.” There was a moment of silence, and then-

“Ginevra Molly Weasley! You come out into the Entrance Hall at once!” Mum screeched, and grabbed my arm, pulling me away. I turned to look at Draco, who looked very worried, as she pulled me away, and mouthed I’m sorry to him. Before the doors shut behind me, I saw Charlie step forward and next to Draco, as if taking his side. I smiled at my eldest brother, and then the doors shut.

“Yes, Mum?” I asked mildly as she let go of my arm. I crossed my arms over my chest and stood defiantly, ready to defend Draco to the death.

“How can you- Draco Malfoy- your father- his father- Ohhh!” Mum said, too angry to complete a sentence.

“He’s changed, Mum. Hydes does that to people. He’s not evil, and he’s definitely not his father. And, no matter what everyone believes, he did not help in my kidnapping!” I said, yelling the last part.

“Ginny, dear, can you honestly believed that he’s changed? Are you sure he doesn’t just want…sex…from you?” she asked, her face coloring slightly at the word sex. It amazed me that someone who had seven children could be so shy about sex. I rolled my eyes.

“Mum, if he wanted to have sex with me, he would have tried. And yes, he has changed. Hermione didn’t believe me, either, but she’s talked to him, and-” I started, but was cut off my Mum.

“Hermione knew you two were dating before I did?” She said, finally losing her cool and yelling.

“No, she didn’t. No one knew. We didn’t want the extra spotlight put on us after my kidnapping and his suspected part in it. Hermione just knew that I liked him, and that I thought he liked me back,” I said, yelling back at her.

“Ginny, I don’t want you to see that boy,” Mum said, her voice quieting. “Please, love? You know what his family is like. It’s just not right.” I glared at her.

“I will do no such thing. I- I love him, Mum!” I said, and, realizing the truth in my words for the very first time, started to get tears in my eyes. Mum went very still at my words.

“You’re only seventeen…you can’t possibly love him, sweet,” she said, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself of that as much as me. I gave her a hug.

“I do, Mum, and I’m going to continue seeing him whether you give your blessing or not, but I would really like your blessing,” I said softly and looked her in the eye. She took a deep breath and put her hand on my cheek.

“I don’t like this, but I’m going to trust you to make the right choice about him. If he hurts you or tries anything with you, though, that’s that, and there will be no more Draco Malfoy mentioned, all right?” she asked, sounding gentle, but stern at the same time. I smiled and hugged her again.

“Thanks, Mum,” I said, and pulled away from her. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione have probably found their way to the family by now, and we should get in there.” Mum agreed and we walked back into the Great Hall.

Sure enough, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were waiting by the rest of the family. Draco was still over there and was talking calmly with Charlie. Ron, Harry, Fred, George, and Bill were all looking at Draco suspiciously, and all but Bill were looking at him with loathing. Draco looked up when he heard the door open and smiled softly at me. I smiled back and made my way to stand next to him. He slipped his arm around my waist.

“Gin,” Charlie said, “I just want you to know that not only do I accept this, but I also am genuinely happy for you.” I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around Charlie in a hug as Draco’s arm dropped from around me.

“Thank you. I think you’re the only one that is,” I said, tears forming in my eyes. Charlie laughed.

“I have no doubt about that, Gin-bug. Go tell your brother and his friends congratulations before they come and lynch you,” he said. I turned to look at Ron, Harry, and Hermione and saw that Ron was looking at me with a scandalized expression on his face. I laughed, and walked over to them, leaving Draco with Charlie.

“Congrats, you three,” I said and gave each of them a hug, leaving Hermione for last and giving her the longest one.

“Ginny…Malfoy? But-why?” Ron asked, sounding very indignant. He and Harry looked at me, expecting answers, but Hermione just smiled softly.

“Because,” I said, shrugging, “I love him, and that’s all there is to it.” I turned and headed back to Draco and Charlie before they could say anything about it. Charlie bid us Adieu and left to talk to an old school mate of his that he spotted, leaving Draco and I alone. He pulled me to him in a hug.

“Don’t make me go through that again,” he said, his voice muffled by my hair. I laughed and pulled back from him slightly to give him a small kiss.

“Thank you, Draco,” I said as I settled back into his arms.

“Anything, Gin,” he said and played with my hair by pulling the curls straight and watching them bounce back. After a few moments of that, he pulled away from me.

“I need to go find Father and Mother. It would best if you didn’t come with me,” he said, his voice hesitant on the last part. I nodded and placed a soft kiss on his check.

“I understand. I’ll see you next week at Hydes,” I said, smiling at him. He gave me one last hug before leaving to find his family, and I turned back to face mine, happy to have a family that supported me.


***


Draco,
The summer has been going well for me, and I hope you’ve been having as pleasant of a time at Hydes as I have been having here at the Burrow. When we got home after Graduation, Daddy pulled me into the study and had a few stern words with me on what I shouldn’t do with you, and how he was going to kill you if you hurt me. I wouldn’t suggest hurting me, because the methods that he described to me sounded very painful. I will give him that he was very creative, and described quite a few very different and unique ways of killing you. He did, however, make Ron promise not to hurt you, whether you hurt me or not. Daddy said that if you hurt me, it was his job to hurt you, not Ron’s. You would have laughed at Ron’s face; he was so red that he could have been mistaken for a giant tomato. He was so livid that he couldn’t speak. He hasn’t spoken to me since Graduation, but I’m not worried. He’ll come around eventually when he knows you aren’t going to hurt me. I think they aren’t so upset that I’m dating you, but that we kept it secret for so long. Even I’m not sure how we managed to keep it secret for six months. I suppose everyone was on pins and needles with me, so they were willing to over look any suspicious activity as long as I came back and was happy. And believe me, I was- and still am- extremely happy.

Are you taking proper care of Goldenwing? I miss her terribly, but I’m content to know that I’ll see her again soon. One of the things that hurt the most when Voldemort had me was that I didn’t know when- or if, even- I was going to get to see her again. Not knowing the same about you hurt a lot, too, especially when you seemed so close to asking me out when they got me. Enough about that; it depresses me to think about it.

Charlie just came up here to tell me that dinner is ready, so I’ll just go ahead and end it rather than leave it here and work on it again later. I miss you terribly and I can’t wait to get to Hydes next week. I’m going to end this letter with something that I probably should say in person, but since my family knows you should, too. I love you Draconis Octavian Malfoy. And just know that there is no pressure for you to return the sentiments. You can tell me if/when you are ready. I’ll see you next week!
Love,
Ginny

Smiling, I rolled the letter and attached it to the leg of Draco’s owl, Euphrates. I couldn’t wait to see him.


***


“Ginny, I just want you to know that Mum has requested that I never let you out of my sight while you’re here,” Charlie said, a grin on his face. I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Just like I’m going to never let you and Malia out of my sight?” I asked, arching one eyebrow, causing my brother to laugh.

“Exactly. I think Malfoy’s been rubbing off on you, Gin,” he said, shaking his head ruefully as the Knight Bus stopped at Hydes. Grinning widely, I gathered the lighter stuff, leaving the heavier things for Charlie, and stepped off the bus. Draco, Lacey, Tait, and, surprisingly enough, Zandra were waiting for me in the doorway. Lacey and Tait raced each other to me while Draco calmly walked and Zandra slunk towards me. Lacey and Tait tackled me in a giant hug, but let go of me as Draco reached me. Obviously the news of our relationship had spread because they weren’t shocked when Draco gathered me in his arms in a hug that could rival any of Charlie’s. Lacey and Tait smirked at each other and Zandra scowled. When Draco let go of me, he took the things I had been carrying and we walked together toward the building, his arm around my waist, and mine around his. Lacey and Tait updated me on the tally of the races, and of the newest Greens, Laurel and Allan. I smiled to myself, and thought, life can’t get better than this. Oh, but I was wrong.


***


Later that night, after almost everyone had gone to bed, Draco came up to my room and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I called and looked up from the book that I had been reading in bed. I smiled at Draco as he came in. Shutting the door behind him, he flung himself onto the bed and simply looked at me for a few minutes. I arched one eyebrow. “Can I help you?” He smirked at me before reaching up and, cupping my face in his hands, kissing me. When we were both out of breath he pulled back slightly.

“I love you, Ginny Weasley,” he said and pulled me into his arms. I smiled, tears coming to my eyes.

“I love you, too, Draco,” I said, and we were content to stay there, in our own world where there were no Voldemorts, Malfoys, Weasley's, Harrys, Hermiones, or even Dumbledores. It was our special place where only we existed and we rather liked it that way.


-fin-