Finding Color
Part Six
By Mell8
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Draco woke up early in the morning when his arm began burning and cursed. The birds weren’t chirping and the moon still shone through his bedroom window despite the fact that it was morning. Why the hell was he being called now?
He snapped his fingers and waited for a house elf to appear as he found his robes and pulled them on.
“Sir?” the elf bowed once it appeared.
“Wake Ginny,” Draco told the diminutive creature. “Tell her we are being summoned by the Dark Lord.”
The elf bowed again and vanished.
Draco found a pair of socks and was busy pulling on his boots when Ginny appeared at his side.
“The Dark Lord’s finally willing to forgo the blow I handed his ego?” Ginny asked with a giggle that Draco knew hid her nerves. Ginny might have powerful magic at her side, but she wasn’t invincible. Dark Magic might refuse to touch her, but there were spells that weren’t Dark that could do damage too.
“Hopefully it’s only information he wants,” Draco sighed. “I’d have thought the Order might have finished it by now.”
“They took out Lestrange and have probably been planning ever since,” Ginny replied knowingly. Draco guessed she had spied on an Order meeting herself in order to find out why it was taking them so long.
“It doesn’t take this long to plan an offensive,” Draco grumbled as he pulled the last lace tight on his shoe and gave his hand to Ginny.
“This is their only chance,” Ginny replied. “If the Order botches this, Voldemort wins. They’re not going to jump in without exploring every eventuality.” She took Draco’s hand and pulled on their magic, vanishing from Malfoy Manor without even a pop.
They reappeared in the middle of Voldemort’s meeting room where an entire contingent of Death Eaters was waiting for them.
“So,” Voldemort hissed when he caught sight of them.
Ginny and Draco walked to the center of the room and the center of the circle of the Death Eaters.
Voldemort waited for them to take their place with a cruel smirk curling his lips.
“So,” he repeated. “You came quickly enough for Order spies.”
Ginny snorted and let out a small laugh. “Just because I originally came from the Order doesn’t mean I’m your spy.”
“Fine then,” Voldemort said with a cold smile. “Where are the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix?”
“The Burrow,” Ginny answered immediately. “But I have no idea what the wards are around it, so don’t bother asking if I can get you in.”
“Potter is there?”
“I haven’t been back since the first time you and I spoke,” Ginny answered, telling the truth while still skirting around the entire truth. “Potter could be there or he could still be out hunting for you.”
“And how is the Order learning so many of my plans?” Voldemort hissed pointedly at her.
“Obviously you have a spy. Have you spoken with Snape?” Ginny’s grin was mocking and only served to incense Voldemort’s temper.
“I have information from a reliable source that you are the spy, Miss Weasley,” Voldemort hissed with a laugh. “But I can hardly believe that you could possibly be able to gather so much information when you haven’t been to one single Death Eater gathering or planning meeting.”
“Then I can’t be your spy, can I?” Ginny asked, grin still in place.
“And yet my source insists that you have the power to see my meetings without being in this room. Narcissa?”
Narcissa Malfoy stepped forward from where she had been hiding behind a pillar. She glared hatefully at Ginny before giving her son a loving look that said, “I will make it all better soon, love”.
“My Lord,” she whispered with a low bow to Voldemort.
“You have told me that you believe Miss Weasley has been gathering information to use against me?”
“I did,” she answered. “I saw her use her magic to speak to her family. They answered her in the form of a disembodied voice. I heard Mad-Eye Moody, my Lord, but he certainly wasn’t in my home.”
Voldemort nodded and watched Ginny closely to see her reaction. The mocking grin never left her lips.
“I will admit that my magic does amazing things,” Ginny agreed. “But poor Narcissa is so stressed from this war. I would hate to think she’s hearing voices. Insanity is as unbecoming as jealousy, dear.”
Narcissa snarled and dove for her wand.
“Petrificus Totalus,” Voldemort said with a lazy wave of his wand. Narcissa’s body stiffened and fell to the ground. Her glaring face was focused on Ginny even as she impacted with the hard wooden floor.
Draco winced but made no move towards his mother. She had betrayed them to Voldemort and Draco preferred to stand at Ginny’s side than go to his traitorous mother.
“I only believe part of her story,” Voldemort said thoughtfully as he twirled his wand in his fingers. “I believe that you may have the ability to speak with your family over long distances. I believe that your power might give you the ability to spy on a meeting where you are not in attendance. However, I do not believe you were acting on your own.”
Ginny tilted her head to the side. “That would be a foolish conclusion,” she said with that same grin. “I came and offered my knowledge to you alone and I work alone now.”
Voldemort shook his head. “Yet I still don’t believe you.”
The room was silent as everyone watched Voldemort and Ginny hash out their argument. Ginny felt their eyes on her and knew by the roiling of their magic that they would kill her in a heartbeat whether or not she was the spy.
There was a shiver to the magic in the room as Voldemort continued to twirl his wand through his fingers. Ginny couldn’t easily pinpoint the magic, but she dearly wished she had made the effort when she thought back on the night.
Seconds after that shiver Ginny realized what Voldemort had done, but by then it was too late.
The Invisibility Spell wore off right in front of Draco and the Severing Charm became visible for the half second it was still in the air.
Before Ginny could send any magic out to stop the spell, it impacted exactly where Voldemort intended it too.
Draco fell to the ground with a yelp, clutching at his bleeding eyes with his hands. Seconds later he was unconscious from shock.
The blood was bright red and it was all Ginny could see as the darkness began to encroach on her eyes.
Red: brilliant and shining.
Red: pain and death.
Draco, beautiful blond and green Draco: red.
And then everything was black.
III
Ron looked out into the blighted graveyard just down the hill from the Riddle House and sighed. They were waiting for the recon team to return from scouting the area for traps and wards before they could move forward. Either there had been a lot of traps to avoid or the team had been captured and their plan was in ruins before it even began.
The coin in his hand warmed suddenly. Ron hissed with excitement as he read what the coin had to say.
Proceed to station 1
“Let’s go,” Ron quietly called to the group of six under his command. Harry and Hermione were at his back, but Harry was hidden under his invisibility cloak pretending he wasn’t there until the opportune moment so Ron was left in charge.
They crept between the broken slabs of graveyard stone and up the hill to the House. The back door wasn’t guarded. Apparently Voldemort felt safe in his father’s ancestral home and saw no need for human protection.
Hermione disabled the wards easily and their group was inside, as planned.
Moody was entering the front door with his group while Lupin’s airborne group was flying into the second floor windows. The second wave of troops would be entering in exactly two minutes.
Ron’s coin warmed again.
Station 2
They inched forward, wands at the ready, as they made their way to the first doorway along their hallway. The room proved to be empty and they moved on.
They reached a T-junction in the hallway, just as the blueprints had said, and Ron gave the signal to split. Harry and Hermione stayed with him as they went right while the other three turned left.
There was a large door at the end of the hallway that Ron was purposefully making his way towards. The blueprints had showed the room to be the only one in the building large enough to house a Death Eater meeting and all the teams would eventually make their way here. Harry was sent directly to make sure he was there to challenge Voldemort when the fighting broke out.
Laughter and screaming echoed down the hallway through the door, which let the trio know they had the right place.
Their back up, led by Bill, arrived at the same time that Moody’s group rounded the far corner. The Order converged together for a few more moments until Shacklebolt, Moody’s back up group leader, and his company joined them.
Their wands were out and suddenly the door was gone with a wave of Moody’s wand. The Order entered the room in droves, wands waving at the unsuspecting Death Eaters.
Ron rushed in alongside his friends and shot off a few spells before taking in exactly what was happening. Voldemort was standing on a dais, screaming orders to his followers as Harry advanced on him. The masked and robed Death Eaters were scrambling for their wands before the battle became a rout.
And Ginny was in the middle of it all.
She was on her knees on the floor clutching at her eyes. On the ground beside her was a body that looked suspiciously like Draco Malfoy, only there was a red, bleeding slash where his eyes and upper nose should have been.
Ron’s eyes were pulled from the struggling Narcissa Malfoy, apparently magically bound at Voldemort’s feet, to a Death Eater throwing off his mask to show the face of Lucius Malfoy as he sank to his knees at Ginny’s side so they both hovered over Draco’s body.
Then Ron was back to flinging Stunning Spells at every Death Eater he saw in order to end this battle before any casualties could occur.
Harry finally made his way up to Voldemort and the snake, Nagini. Fiendfyre took care of the unsuspecting snake before Voldemort ever realized that Harry was there under his invisibility cloak. Harry threw the cloak off so he could engage with Voldemort directly.
Voldemort turned, wand raised, towards Harry with a snarl on his face.
The most agonizing scream ever heard by anyone in the room, even Voldemort, rent the air. The fighting stopped as the scream went on and on. A pulse of magic went through the room, making everyone jump, and then the scream stopped.
Ginny had vanished with Draco and Lucius Malfoy.
Part Six
By Mell8
--------------------
Draco woke up early in the morning when his arm began burning and cursed. The birds weren’t chirping and the moon still shone through his bedroom window despite the fact that it was morning. Why the hell was he being called now?
He snapped his fingers and waited for a house elf to appear as he found his robes and pulled them on.
“Sir?” the elf bowed once it appeared.
“Wake Ginny,” Draco told the diminutive creature. “Tell her we are being summoned by the Dark Lord.”
The elf bowed again and vanished.
Draco found a pair of socks and was busy pulling on his boots when Ginny appeared at his side.
“The Dark Lord’s finally willing to forgo the blow I handed his ego?” Ginny asked with a giggle that Draco knew hid her nerves. Ginny might have powerful magic at her side, but she wasn’t invincible. Dark Magic might refuse to touch her, but there were spells that weren’t Dark that could do damage too.
“Hopefully it’s only information he wants,” Draco sighed. “I’d have thought the Order might have finished it by now.”
“They took out Lestrange and have probably been planning ever since,” Ginny replied knowingly. Draco guessed she had spied on an Order meeting herself in order to find out why it was taking them so long.
“It doesn’t take this long to plan an offensive,” Draco grumbled as he pulled the last lace tight on his shoe and gave his hand to Ginny.
“This is their only chance,” Ginny replied. “If the Order botches this, Voldemort wins. They’re not going to jump in without exploring every eventuality.” She took Draco’s hand and pulled on their magic, vanishing from Malfoy Manor without even a pop.
They reappeared in the middle of Voldemort’s meeting room where an entire contingent of Death Eaters was waiting for them.
“So,” Voldemort hissed when he caught sight of them.
Ginny and Draco walked to the center of the room and the center of the circle of the Death Eaters.
Voldemort waited for them to take their place with a cruel smirk curling his lips.
“So,” he repeated. “You came quickly enough for Order spies.”
Ginny snorted and let out a small laugh. “Just because I originally came from the Order doesn’t mean I’m your spy.”
“Fine then,” Voldemort said with a cold smile. “Where are the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix?”
“The Burrow,” Ginny answered immediately. “But I have no idea what the wards are around it, so don’t bother asking if I can get you in.”
“Potter is there?”
“I haven’t been back since the first time you and I spoke,” Ginny answered, telling the truth while still skirting around the entire truth. “Potter could be there or he could still be out hunting for you.”
“And how is the Order learning so many of my plans?” Voldemort hissed pointedly at her.
“Obviously you have a spy. Have you spoken with Snape?” Ginny’s grin was mocking and only served to incense Voldemort’s temper.
“I have information from a reliable source that you are the spy, Miss Weasley,” Voldemort hissed with a laugh. “But I can hardly believe that you could possibly be able to gather so much information when you haven’t been to one single Death Eater gathering or planning meeting.”
“Then I can’t be your spy, can I?” Ginny asked, grin still in place.
“And yet my source insists that you have the power to see my meetings without being in this room. Narcissa?”
Narcissa Malfoy stepped forward from where she had been hiding behind a pillar. She glared hatefully at Ginny before giving her son a loving look that said, “I will make it all better soon, love”.
“My Lord,” she whispered with a low bow to Voldemort.
“You have told me that you believe Miss Weasley has been gathering information to use against me?”
“I did,” she answered. “I saw her use her magic to speak to her family. They answered her in the form of a disembodied voice. I heard Mad-Eye Moody, my Lord, but he certainly wasn’t in my home.”
Voldemort nodded and watched Ginny closely to see her reaction. The mocking grin never left her lips.
“I will admit that my magic does amazing things,” Ginny agreed. “But poor Narcissa is so stressed from this war. I would hate to think she’s hearing voices. Insanity is as unbecoming as jealousy, dear.”
Narcissa snarled and dove for her wand.
“Petrificus Totalus,” Voldemort said with a lazy wave of his wand. Narcissa’s body stiffened and fell to the ground. Her glaring face was focused on Ginny even as she impacted with the hard wooden floor.
Draco winced but made no move towards his mother. She had betrayed them to Voldemort and Draco preferred to stand at Ginny’s side than go to his traitorous mother.
“I only believe part of her story,” Voldemort said thoughtfully as he twirled his wand in his fingers. “I believe that you may have the ability to speak with your family over long distances. I believe that your power might give you the ability to spy on a meeting where you are not in attendance. However, I do not believe you were acting on your own.”
Ginny tilted her head to the side. “That would be a foolish conclusion,” she said with that same grin. “I came and offered my knowledge to you alone and I work alone now.”
Voldemort shook his head. “Yet I still don’t believe you.”
The room was silent as everyone watched Voldemort and Ginny hash out their argument. Ginny felt their eyes on her and knew by the roiling of their magic that they would kill her in a heartbeat whether or not she was the spy.
There was a shiver to the magic in the room as Voldemort continued to twirl his wand through his fingers. Ginny couldn’t easily pinpoint the magic, but she dearly wished she had made the effort when she thought back on the night.
Seconds after that shiver Ginny realized what Voldemort had done, but by then it was too late.
The Invisibility Spell wore off right in front of Draco and the Severing Charm became visible for the half second it was still in the air.
Before Ginny could send any magic out to stop the spell, it impacted exactly where Voldemort intended it too.
Draco fell to the ground with a yelp, clutching at his bleeding eyes with his hands. Seconds later he was unconscious from shock.
The blood was bright red and it was all Ginny could see as the darkness began to encroach on her eyes.
Red: brilliant and shining.
Red: pain and death.
Draco, beautiful blond and green Draco: red.
And then everything was black.
III
Ron looked out into the blighted graveyard just down the hill from the Riddle House and sighed. They were waiting for the recon team to return from scouting the area for traps and wards before they could move forward. Either there had been a lot of traps to avoid or the team had been captured and their plan was in ruins before it even began.
The coin in his hand warmed suddenly. Ron hissed with excitement as he read what the coin had to say.
Proceed to station 1
“Let’s go,” Ron quietly called to the group of six under his command. Harry and Hermione were at his back, but Harry was hidden under his invisibility cloak pretending he wasn’t there until the opportune moment so Ron was left in charge.
They crept between the broken slabs of graveyard stone and up the hill to the House. The back door wasn’t guarded. Apparently Voldemort felt safe in his father’s ancestral home and saw no need for human protection.
Hermione disabled the wards easily and their group was inside, as planned.
Moody was entering the front door with his group while Lupin’s airborne group was flying into the second floor windows. The second wave of troops would be entering in exactly two minutes.
Ron’s coin warmed again.
Station 2
They inched forward, wands at the ready, as they made their way to the first doorway along their hallway. The room proved to be empty and they moved on.
They reached a T-junction in the hallway, just as the blueprints had said, and Ron gave the signal to split. Harry and Hermione stayed with him as they went right while the other three turned left.
There was a large door at the end of the hallway that Ron was purposefully making his way towards. The blueprints had showed the room to be the only one in the building large enough to house a Death Eater meeting and all the teams would eventually make their way here. Harry was sent directly to make sure he was there to challenge Voldemort when the fighting broke out.
Laughter and screaming echoed down the hallway through the door, which let the trio know they had the right place.
Their back up, led by Bill, arrived at the same time that Moody’s group rounded the far corner. The Order converged together for a few more moments until Shacklebolt, Moody’s back up group leader, and his company joined them.
Their wands were out and suddenly the door was gone with a wave of Moody’s wand. The Order entered the room in droves, wands waving at the unsuspecting Death Eaters.
Ron rushed in alongside his friends and shot off a few spells before taking in exactly what was happening. Voldemort was standing on a dais, screaming orders to his followers as Harry advanced on him. The masked and robed Death Eaters were scrambling for their wands before the battle became a rout.
And Ginny was in the middle of it all.
She was on her knees on the floor clutching at her eyes. On the ground beside her was a body that looked suspiciously like Draco Malfoy, only there was a red, bleeding slash where his eyes and upper nose should have been.
Ron’s eyes were pulled from the struggling Narcissa Malfoy, apparently magically bound at Voldemort’s feet, to a Death Eater throwing off his mask to show the face of Lucius Malfoy as he sank to his knees at Ginny’s side so they both hovered over Draco’s body.
Then Ron was back to flinging Stunning Spells at every Death Eater he saw in order to end this battle before any casualties could occur.
Harry finally made his way up to Voldemort and the snake, Nagini. Fiendfyre took care of the unsuspecting snake before Voldemort ever realized that Harry was there under his invisibility cloak. Harry threw the cloak off so he could engage with Voldemort directly.
Voldemort turned, wand raised, towards Harry with a snarl on his face.
The most agonizing scream ever heard by anyone in the room, even Voldemort, rent the air. The fighting stopped as the scream went on and on. A pulse of magic went through the room, making everyone jump, and then the scream stopped.
Ginny had vanished with Draco and Lucius Malfoy.
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