ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT

Chapter Seven- The Powers of Toads

“Oh, you’re joking!” Draco blinked, brushed his hair out of his eyes, and blinked again. He had not been expecting anyone up this late in the common room, much less a shirtless Blaise Zabini, who was now laughing at him like a hyena.

“What the bloody hell is your problem, Blaise? And would you please put on a shirt?”

“You have got to be joking! Merlin! Oh, I think I’m going to hurl! You and Weasley! Honestly, Draco, there’s got to be something better than that piece of filth around here somewhere. It’s a big school, you know. Have you tried Ravenclaw yet? I’m mean, sure, they tend to blather on, but at least....”

The dark complexioned boy stopped suddenly as Draco slapped a hand across his mouth, effectively ending the mocking tirade.

“Tell me, Blaise. What are you doing up so late in the first place?” asked Draco with a calmness he didn’t feel inside.

Gingerly peeling off the hand which restrained him, Blaise looked innocently up at Draco.

“Why, spying on you, of course. Everyone knows the sneaky little Dragon’s been up to something lately. I just didn’t think I would be the one privileged enough to discover all the gory details. So, tell me Draco. What’s it been? A little job in the Astronomy Tower? A few....”

“Nice try, but not good enough,” he cut Blaise off wearily. “No one here cares who does what in the night anymore. The shock wore off around third year, what with the incident with Pansy and that Hufflepuff. What are you really up to?”

Blaise smiled. “I thought we didn’t care what anyone did in the night.”

“This is different.”

“How do you know I haven’t just come back from banging some little Gryffindor in the Charms corridor, too?”

“I have not been banging Ginny, thanks so much for your confidence in my tastes, Blaise.” Draco could feel an irrational rage coiling within his chest, but he struggled to repress it.

“Ah, so it’s Ginny now, is it? And what does she call you? Her little Drakey-poo?”

Draco’s hand whipped out. He grabbed Blaise by the throat and pushed him bodily against the wall of the common room.

“You are lying to me and you are making me sick. Your behavior is inexcusable on both counts. Spit out whatever you have to say and let me go to sleep. It’s been a rough night.” His glare dared Blaise to make anything out of the comment.

Blaise regarded him calmly from under half-closed lids, all traces of lighthearted mockery fled from his face.

“You aren’t the only one with sources outside, Malfoy,” he answered coolly. “You aren’t the highest in authority around school, either, for all your cocky ways.” Draco sneered at him.

“Oh, I supposed you know someone higher in the ranks, do you, Zabini?” he asked derisively, but a cold thread of fear was worming its icy way through his stomach. Blaise met his gaze serenely, then turned his bare left arm slightly to the side. Draco glanced down, half against his will, and saw the livid red tattoo on the boy’s dark skin. He let go as if scalded.

“What the hell, Blaise,” he whispered. Lightning was running through his veins, a heady mix of fear and anger and excitement.

“Come on, Draco, haven’t you ever seen one before?’ asked Blaise coldly. His eyes bored through Draco’s skull. “Aren’t you going to ask me again what I was doing?” His tone left no doubt as to the correct answer.

He paused expectantly, but Draco remained silent and still. Blaise studied him closely for a moment more, the turned and went into their dorm.

Blaise. Blaise Zabini. He was Slytherin’s resident prankster, a strange, crazy, wild foreigner with no important lineage at all. Zabini was an amusing jokester, but he had no real influence, no real talent or power. He was no one of consequence. And yet Blaise Zabini had been made a Death Eater before him, Draco Malfoy? It was a ridiculous idea! It was ludicrous! It was unthinkable! It was, he had to admit, impressive.

Draco had been the virtual leader of Slytherin since he got his prefect’s badge the year before, and he had been the power in his class from the beginning. The more he thought about it, the more his outrage grew. Of course he should have been the first in their year to enter the ranks! It was his right, his honor! If this spread around the house as fast as he feared it would, what was left of his position after the deaths of both his parents would be completely eradicated. Then again, this was Zabini he was dealing with. For all Draco knew, Blaise had been a Death Eater all year and just not told anybody, for some unfathomable- and no doubt highly sinister- reason of his own. Or maybe they had forbidden him to tell anyone. Or maybe, just maybe, (and this was a completely new thought to Draco) entrance into the Death Eaters meant that you had plans and interests which superseded the power struggles of Slytherin 6th years.

Draco hated being outclassed. Damn Zabini.

And how had he known about Ginny?

ooooooooooo

Becoming a traitor, Ginny had swiftly discovered, was detrimental to a good night’s sleep. Yes, for all her giddy joy and newfound confidence, she had no doubt that this was a betrayal. And what could she do to change it? Not a single bloody thing. Her family and friends weren’t evil, that much was obvious. They were simply gullible and blind to the facts. She could try to explain to them what she now understood (the dangers of mixing with Muggles, the threats to their very existence), but she knew they would never listen. A bitter smile crossed her face. When had any of them ever listened? That was what had brought her here in the first place, she realized. The fact that no one cared, no one listened, and no one even noticed.

Until now.

Ginny recalled the bright passion in Bellatrix’s eyes as she spoke of the future, a future which Ginny could be a part of, and the feeling of Draco’s lips on her skin. They cared. She wasn’t going to give that up, not for anything. No, all of this would just have to stay a secret until the time was ripe for her family to understand. And the time would come, of that she was sure. When it did, she would no longer be the baby, the little girl, to one who needed to be coddled and protected and lied to. She would be the only one who had seen the truth and done something. She was the one who had acted. Finally, she was the one who was right.

The moonlight cut through a crack in her bed curtains and bleached her already pale face to the shade of snow. A small smile of satisfaction stole across her lips as she drifted to sleep, secure in the knowledge that she was finally safe from the dark.

ooooooooooo

“Ginny! Ginny!” The quiet but frantic voice wormed its way into her drowsy
brain and began to stir her thoughts back to life. She groaned and turned over, loathe to disturb the warm nest of blankets she was incased in.

“Ginny! Will you wake up already! Please!?”

She moaned. “Nngghhh. Do I have to?”

“Honestly, wake UP!” The last was all but shrieked in her ear. Ginny felt disgruntled; she was not a morning person and Tally knew it. What was the silly bint playing at?

“Natalie, please don’t take this the wrong way, but will you kindly go stick your head up your....”

“You don’t understand!” Tally interrupted tearfully. “This is really important, Gin!”

A sudden fear shot through her. She sat up quickly, and fixed the distraught third year with an intense stare.

“Is everyone all right?” she asked urgently, “Is something wrong?” Oh, Merlin. Ron, the twins, Harry and Hermione. Draco. Her mind was racing, begging for their lives. If only they’re OK.... She could feel her heart pounding, out of control. Panic was flooding through her, but she fought it down.

Confronted with the wild face of her friend, Natalie froze. Her mouth was poised to speak, but no words came. Ginny repressed the urge to shake her viciously.

“Tally!” she yelled. “What’s happened?”

The younger girl dropped her gaze and stared, almost shamefacedly, at the floor. An sullen expression crossed her face.

“You’re going to think I’m stupid,” she muttered sulkily.

“McDonald,” Ginny said in a low and deadly voice. “Spit. It. Out.”

“It’s the Slytherins,” muttered Tally after a tense pause. Ginny waited for a brief moment.

“Pray tell, what about the Slytherins, Natalie, darling?” she inquired, her voice dripping with exaggerated patience and politeness.

Tally looked up and met Ginny’s glare with rebellious defiance, her own eyes flashing with anger.

“They’re gone. Every one of them. No one knows where.” She turned haughtily on her heel and began to stalk out of the dorm, regardless of Ginny’s still-sleeping roommates. Without warning, she pivoted back for a moment. “I just thought you’d want to know,” she added with a slight curl of her mouth, and was gone.

Ginny stared after her, shock and anger undisguised on her face.

Where had they gone? Why had they left her behind? And what did Natalie mean by that last comment? Had she really been that careless, that Natalie might know about Draco?

Ginny buried her head in her blankets and groaned. Just when everything was finally going to be all right.

ooooooooooo

The school was in chaotic disarray, especially for a Sunday. It was only seven in the morning, yet it seemed to Ginny when she entered the Great Hall that the entire student body was all ready there. The three crammed tables made the absent Slytherins more blatantly obvious than ever. Nervous and muted conversations could be heard throughout the Hall and many furtive glances were cast at the empty spot left by the absent house. As Ginny sat down at the edge of the Gryffindor table, she snuck at look to the front of the hall where the staff sat: Snape was glaring accusingly around at the milling students, as though he expected to find his missing students among them. Dumbledore was not there.

She met the Potions Master’s roving gaze for a moment, quite by accident. She froze. He knew. He obvious knew. In that agonizing second as his black eyes drilled into hers, it seemed that he surely knew everything that had happened in the past two weeks. The incrimination in his gaze was crystal clear. He was going to turn her into Dumbledore, and she would surely be expelled, maybe even arrested. What was the sentence for consorting with Death Eaters? She shuddered to think. Would they send her to Azkaban? Was there any evidence to prove her guilty? Would it matter? She squeezed her eyes shut in terror and awaited her doom.

A long minute passed. The nervous whispers of the students continued around her like a tide. She opened her eyes slowly and looked again at Snape. He was now eyeing Harry, who had just come into the Hall with Ron and Hermione trailing behind him, bickering in unusually quiet voices. Snape’s expression was one of exquisite loathing. If looks could disembowel, then The Boy Who Lived would have been in for some serious digestive difficulties in the very near future. Her breath escaped her in one fast relieved sigh. No Azkaban for her then, at least not this time.

After a split-second of contemplation, Ginny decided that facing Harry wouldn’t be much better than facing a dementor at the moment. The memory of her altercation with the Trio the day before was still too fresh for comfort, despite her reconciliation with her brother. How’re they going to be when I finally tell them about all of this? she wondered uneasily. No. She couldn’t think about it that way. If they refused to see the truth in the end, in spite of everything, that was going to be their own problem, not hers. In the meantime, avoidance would be her policy.

Thanks to the vast crowds, this was no problem. She grabbed a muffin from the table and moved swiftly across the Hall, being sure to keep a particularly large group of second-year Ravenclaws in between her and the Trio at all times.

A few short minutes later found her standing nervously in front of a blank stretch of stone and praying the Slytherins hadn’t changed their password before they left.

ooooooooooo

“What do you mean, you didn’t think she should come, you half-witted maggot? When did your foolish judgment gain precedence in your mind over my own? Did it ever enter into your tiny brain that there are things more important than your ridiculous schoolboy crush?”

Draco felt a faint blush rising on his cheeks and refused to meet his aunt’s furious gaze. There were few things in the world more frightening than an Azkaban convict in a rage. Draco fervently wished to come through this encounter unscathed, as a good many of those things were in his near future and he was going to need his wits about him if he wanted to survive them as well. He was beginning to suspect that following orders unquestioningly and knowing when to keep his mouth shut was going to take him a lot farther in this new world than arrogance and disrespect always had. Luckily, with family like his, he had plenty of practice with blind and silent obedience.

“Are you listening to me, boy?” Bellatrix hissed at him, grabbing him by the chin and forcing him to look into her eyes. For someone who was nearly a head shorter than him, she managed to convey a tremendous sense of dominance. He suppressed a smirk. It was going to be a sweet day when he could finally rise above her and bring her weeping to her knees.

The sudden fury in her gaze made his eyes widen. Oh, shit, he thought with a stab of realization. Legilimency. She must have felt his rebellion against her in his mind, and now....

“That is good,” she said softly, amusement and satisfaction filling her tone. “You are not as weak as I thought. Something of value may have even have survived the mess your father made of your mind during your early training with him. Ambitions against your teacher are a decent start down the road to something much greater.”

Her look hardened again.

“But that does not excuse your blatant disregard of my direct orders concerning the girl.” Her hand was out so fast he hardly noticed she had moved. He looked up and saw a glint of suppressed excitement and voracious anticipation “Crucio!”

I can’t believe I ever doubted she was mad, was his last vague thought as he screamed and fell writhing to the floor where he had lain so many times in the past under much the same circumstances, though a different set of hungry eyes had witnessed his agony then. But never before had the white-hot pain come with such mind-blowing intensity. Bellatrix had a depth of hatred and a lust for suffering that his father could never have matched. Without warning, it overcame everything and he fell into darkness.

ooooooooooo

Twenty minutes later, when Ginny emerged from a green maelstrom of fire into a dark and dusty room in Malfoy Manor, a strange sight met her eyes.

Bellatrix Lestrange was sitting on a filthy Persian rug, ignoring the tremendous amounts of dirt which were accumulating on her robes, and muttering over a toad. Behind her, Draco was sitting on an elaborately carved mahogany chair and staring at nothing. He was even paler than usual, and his eyes looked strangely dead. Ginny felt an urge to go to him and touch him, to bring him out of his odd trance; he looked so far away.

This is not the time to be fantasizing about Draco, she thought firmly. I need to be strong, I need to be calm, I need to keep my wits about me....

“You’re going to have to move, Gryffindor, if I’m to be leaving this fireplace sometime in the next decade,” came Blaise’s amused voice from behind her. Ginny flushed a shade of tomato red that she thought only Fred and George were capable of bringing to her face. She nearly tripped over her own feet, such was her rush to get out of his way. She cursed inwardly.

I thought you were done acting like a silly little girl, she berated herself. Get a grip!

At this Bellatrix looked up, her long black hair momentarily obscuring her face.

“You brought back the girl, Zabini,” she said, her voice full of cool approval. “Well done.”

“I wouldn’t dare to go against your command,” Blaise replied, smirking at Draco. The blond boy didn’t even look up. Undaunted, he continued. “She was outside the common room when I returned, ready to throw a fit. Probably would have killed me if I hadn’t told her where you were. It didn’t take a lot of convincing to bring her along.” He paused for a long moment, but Bellatrix remained silent, intent on the toad. “So, why are we here?” he asked suddenly.

Ginny, who had been pondering this precise question, almost let out a sigh of relief. At least she wouldn’t have to expose herself to more humiliation through her pitiful ignorance.

‘Since you ask, Zabini,” replied Bellatrix, “For the next 24 hours, you three are going to help me hatch a basilisk.”

A loud crash filled the room as Draco fell off his chair; apparently this comment had shaken him out of his reverie.

“We’re going to WHAT?!” he yelled.

“Be silent. You’re a disgrace to your blood, boy,” said Bellatrix frigidly, looking at him with what could only be described as distaste.

Ginny moved hesitantly closer to the rug where the Death Eater sat gracefully beside the lethargic toad. Yes, she could see it, almost hidden beneath the folds of green fat and flesh: an egg. She shuddered. The Dark Lord had once had a basilisk, in the Chamber of Secrets....

“It’s been incubating for two weeks,” Bellatrix informed them quietly. “It must be watched constantly from now on. If the beast hatches too soon, the toad will still be alive. In order for a basilisk to prosper, its first nourishment must be the dead flesh and warm blood of its parent. The timing of the hatching is essential.” The three stared at the unborn basilisk with wonder and awe. But after a moment, Blaise looked up again.

“Well, I must admit that’s all very wicked, but it can’t be the only reason we’re here. Why did you and the others come and take us all away last night? Has something happened? I mean, you weren’t exactly communicative at the time, but I did get the distinct impression that something slightly more important than a snake hatching was going on.”

Bella’s sharp gaze went from Blaise’s shrewdly questioning face, to Draco’s cold, imperious expression, and came to rest on Ginny. The redhead met her silent appraisal with an inscrutable look; her pale face showed not the slightest hint of her thoughts.

“It is the beginning,” Bellatrix answered simply, her eyes still on the youngest Weasley. The girl carried all their hopes now, though she didn’t know it. “There is no going back now.

ooooooooooo