The 8th Charter

Ginny yawned as she descended the staircase sleepily, brushing her tangled hair out of her eyes. The kitchen was in chaos, which, at the Burrow, was perfectly normal. Fred and George, the Weasly Twins, were attempting to make toast, and failing horribly, causing the toaster to shudder and then spit the toast out ten feet into the air. The toast hit the ceiling and then came down on top of Ron's head. Ron, who was currently in a heated conversation about Quidditch, took the toast off his head, brushing the crumbs out of his hair. Then with a devilish grin he put it on Hermione's plate (who was staring off into nowhere). Mrs. Weasly was desperately trying to restore calm, making eggs at the same time, which in truth only adding to the chaos. Mr. Weasly was sitting in a corner playing with a muggle laptop, throwing parts all over the kitchen floor, and occasionally tapping it with his wand and muttering a few words under his breath.

Hermione looked down at her plate, and picked up the toast. She took a bite and promptly spit it out, pulling a long red hair out of her mouth.

"What did you do to this?" She asked shrilly to Ron, causing him to try desperately to hide behind Harry, although being that he was 6"4 and still growing, this task was impossible. Ginny sat down at the table just as her mother bustled over dropping a plate of eggs on the table, which was attacked greedily.

"Ginny do something with your hair, it looks horrible." Mrs. Weasly said sitting down. "And Arthur come eat, and stop playing with that contraption."

"Mum I just got up, give me some time to wake up!" Ginny answered pushing her hair out of her face.

"One minute Molly." Arthur answered as he tapped the computer with his wand.

"Now Arthur!" Insisted Molly. "And what is that silly thing you're playing with?"

"It's a computer Molly." Arthur answered

"Well it can wait!" Molly yelled.

Arthur got to his feet grumbling, "I don't see why breakfast can't wait, besides I've just had a breakthrough."

"Well now that you've had it, it wont go anywhere." Molly began to eat.

Percy who had been sitting at the table silently until now looked up from the daily prophet. "Did you hear about the new law on ink that I recently brought to Fudge's attention? Well look there's an article on it in the paper." Percy handed the paper to George who immediately began reading aloud:

"Misread No More. By Debra Skeeter." There was a collective groan (Although Rita had disappeared after two years ago, her daughter had quickly taken her spot.). "Yesterday in the ministry a law was passed on ink enchantments. As of 3:55 pm all ink must be charmed so it will not run. This is thanks to the handsome young man, who is quickly becoming well known in the ministry, Percy Weasly." Fred let out a cough. George continued: "Percy Weasly is the son of muggle lover Arthur Weasly, and brother to Ron Weasly, best friend of Harry Potter The Boy Who Lived."

"She's related to Rita all right." Hermione commented, rolling her eyes.

"Thanks to this new law love letters and simple business letters will now be legible even when written in the middle of pouring rain. The world should be thankful to this young man who comes from a poor family, with seven children, and a muggle loving father." At this Molly and Arthur started fuming.

"I swear if I ever get my hands on that woman then she'll never write another word." Arthur growled in a very un-Arthur like way while Molly turned slightly red in the background.

Then she said a little to briskly: "Arthur calm down, Percy that is a wonderful article, Ginny go take a shower before your hair starts growing who knows what, Percy go work on that article about books you had to write."

"Actually its about-" Molly waved her hand.

"Go," She shooed him up the stairs. "Fred, George go find something productive to do, and Ron take Harry and Hermione out to de-gnome the garden they're all over the place." With several groans and a lot of shuffling everyone went off in their separate directions.

*******

Ginny yawned tiredly rolling into bed that night. After a rather hectic morning the rest of the day passed with surprising calm, especially considering that this was after all the Weasly household. Ginny jumped slightly as a bang came from the direction of the twins rooms and the attic ghoul dropped a pipe causing a rather loud sound to echo through the otherwise silent house.Ginny pulled the covers over her, and lay her head down on the rather flat pillow, from 16 years of being slept on.

She dreamed that she was standing atop a glacier. A women dressed in white with long blond hair that flowed down her back was trying to show her something through a window seemingly made of ice. Ginny looked around, less then five feet away the glacier tipped over the edge of what looked like a rather steep cliff, a huge vertical descent. A large structure was over on the right that seemed to continue into the heart of the glacier for thousands of feet. The woman, whoever she was, tapped her on the shoulder with a bit of impatience.

"Look!" She ordered hitting the glass with a wand made of Rowan. The pane of ice swirled, blacks and greens moving in spirals. Ginny reached out to touch it and was drawn into the swirls. She landed in what was presumably a river; except far colder than anything she had ever been in. The river was so cold it seemed to suck the life straight out of her. Further ahead Ginny could hear the sound of a waterfall. The whole place was dark and cloaked in fog, although not impossible to see through either. The flow of water seemed to change as something came out from behind the waterfall. It was a woman, her hair black as night, and her skin so pale it was as if she had no color. She wore a blue robe adorned by thousands of silver keys.

"You have arrived." She spoke in a voice so soft that Ginny took a step closer to hear it and was almost captured by the current of the river. "Your task is of importance, so complete it at all costs, and whatever you do never forget that this river will keep on flowing even after everything else falls apart."

Then Ginny was hurtling back through the swirls until she was standing next to the woman again.

"Did you see?" She asked excitedly as she opened up a bottle, the ice turned to liquid and flew back into it as if possessed. "Well did you?"

Ginny woke up relieved to see that she was still in bed in her room. The dream had not been unpleasant nor scary, but more unsettling than anything else. Ginny took several deep breaths and then went back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

******************

Draco woke up that morning in a rather good mood for a change. He couldn't tell exactly why he was so happy but something inside him told him he should be. Getting out of bed he pulled the cord to open the silver drapes around his bed.He rose with the grace and agility of a cat, the gray stone floor felt cold against his feet, and sent shivers through his body. After a quick shower he pulled on a green robe to match his rather good mood, before opening the door and walked with acquired grace down the steps to the dining room.

His father was already seated at the table conversing with his mother who was commenting on why she disliked the latest styles of dress robes (Fitted all the way through in colors of golden brown to deep yellow.) Draco suppressed a yawn, his mother always had a way of boring him.

"Oh good morning Draco, sit down, your mother and I were having a very interesting conversation. Breakfast will be out in a moment." Lucius motioned for him to sit down.

Draco sat down doing his best to shut out his mother as he was sure that if she didn't shut up soon he'd fall asleep at the table and he was rather sure that would annoy his father and that was never a good way to start the day. The door swung open and in came two house elves dressed in what looked to be potato sacks. Draco still wondered why his father didn't allow them better clothes. It really was a disgrace to the family to have house elves walking around in ugly pieces of canvas.With a clap of his hands one of the elves lifted both the platters of food on the table, then turned on their heels and left accomplishing all of this without a word.

"Draco." Lucius said turning to his son, "How are you this morning?"

"Good thank you father and you?" Draco asked helping himself to some eggs.

"Good, listen Draco we must speak about what your future will bring for you." Whenever Draco spoke to his father he always had the impression that he had to be on his very best behavior save his father go crazy.

"Well I was actually thinking of going into Quidditch…." Draco began but was cut off by his fathers silencing glare.

"Quidditch is a wonderful sport and I'm very glad that you've found such a great hobby that you excel at."

"Except against Potter." Draco mumbled under his breath.

"What's that?" His father asked, slate gray eyes seeming to cut straight into his thoughts.

"Nothing of importance, what is it you were saying?" Asked Draco praying that his father wouldn't ask further about what he had said. Above all Lucius hated when his son compared himself to Potter and considered himself below the scar faced hero.

Lucius glared at Draco for a moment before continuing: "Well as you know this family has a business in exchanging dark arts object, I expect that you will take over the trade after my death and continue it. Although that is not all I expect you to do after Hogwarts: With the recent rise of our Lord the Death Eaters have returned. Although you cannot serve until you are over the age of age, I expect you to become a Death Eater once you graduate from Hogwarts." Lucius paused for a second examining Draco with his cold gray eyes. "I trust you to fulfill your duties the best you can. Draco I do not have to tell you that if you disgrace the Malfoy name you will meet dire circumstances. Betray our family and know that I can make life hell."

"Yes of course father." Draco had officially lost his appetite. "Now I really should be leaving, I told Crabbe and Goyle I'd meet them at ten and I'm already late."

"Yes, yes go." His father waved him off.

Draco left the room at the closest to a run he could get without arising to much suspicion from his father. Once out of the hall he collapsed against a statue of a sphinx, clutching his chest, breathing hard, and trying desperately not to pass out. Ever since his father had begun teaching Draco the dark arts he knew he'd never be able to fulfill his expectations. Draco may have been a spoiled pure blood prick, (and he knew it) that sometimes enjoyed the use of potions that were not completely within the law, but he didn't have the courage to kill someone. Taking up the family trade he did not mind, he had always known that was what his life held for him. Draco figured that it would most likely be a good 40 years before his father became to old to work and that would give him more than enough time to have a stunning Quidditch career.

What worried him was becoming a Death Eater. It wasn't that Draco was against killing the likes of Harry Potter and Dumbledore. It was that inside he was terrified of the act, terrified of taking someone's life and the circumstances that would come if he were caught. He knew very well that the ministry was harsh with those who practiced the Unforgivables, and he didn't fancy being locked into Azkaban before he was thirty. In truth he'd rather not be locked into Azkaban at any time in his life.The appointment with Crabbe and Goyle had bee a lie to get him away from his father. His new plan for the day, now that his mood had been dampened and he wanted to stay as far from his father as possible, was to go lock himself in his room. With some luck his mother wouldn't bother him either because he really didn't feel like a conversation on shampoo

Entering his room he shut the heavy door behind him, locking it so no one could simply walk in and surprise him. He pulled a book off the silver shelf next to his bed. It was a muggle book actually, his father was definitely a muggle hater, but he was a believer in good literature and muggle authors were undoubtedly better than wizard ones. The book was a rather thin one called "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. Although he'd only had time to just start it, the book made him thankful he was a rich wizard instead of a poor muggle, for it appeared street life was not an attractive one. Opening up to where he left off he began to read, happily loosing himself in the words on the written pages.

Much to Draco's pleasure he was not bothered again, he had been called to dinner but declined saying he was not feeling well and would rather eat in his room. Draco's goal was to see his father as little as possible in the remaining five days of summer vacation so as not to be submitted to his "become a death eater" lectures.

Early on in his life Draco had separated the dark arts into three different categories. The first one was all the curses save the unforgivables. These were the ones that Draco was willing to practice, they did, after all make life thousands of times easier and didn't do any permanent damage. The second category, for it was somewhat on the same level as the first, were the dark arts objects that the ministry had chosen to make illegal for various reasons. Draco found those laws completely, well, idiotic and was simply waiting for the ministry to do away with them. The third level was the one he refused to touch. This was the level that included the Unforgivables. It was the level that was the one the Death Eaters were on, and Draco knew that he could never go that far. Draco didn't care how far into the dark arts he sank, as long as he never reached that level, as long as he didn't have to kill anyone. He knew he was a coward but he figured that it was better to be a coward then end up in Azkaban for the rest of his life, although according to his father if it was for the Dark Lord ending up in Azkaban was the honorable thing to do. The rest of Draco's days at home passed quickly and uneventfully, before he knew it, it was the night before the start of the term. Unfortunately for Draco, it meant a family dinner that practically no force on earth could get him out of.

Draco was just getting ready for the impeding dinner when there was a knock on his door. He opened it to find his father.

Lucius Malfoy stood in the hall cloaked in silver. "Listen Draco, I know I said I'd be at dinner tonight it, but I have Death Eater business, sorry."

It was all Draco could do not to jump for joy. "Its ok father, do what you must."

"I might not be back tomorrow morning so if I'm not I would like to wish you luck at Hogwarts this year. I know that you will make me proud." But Draco knew otherwise.

"Thank you father, and if it's not to much of a hassle could you tell the house elves to bring me up dinner before you leave?"

"Of course." Then Lucius Malfoy did a very un-Malfoy like thing: he pulled Draco into a hug. "Good luck my son." And then he left.

Draco was ecstatic; he'd forgotten that his father would drop anything to go to Voldemort's aid. This meant no extended time periods with his father, which meant that his father still had no idea that he had no intentions of becoming a Death Eater.Later that night he crawled into bed, pulling the green covers over him and quickly fell asleep.

He was in a large room that looked like a reservoir. The water came up to his knees, and there were small shafts from which sunlight was able to come through casting a dim light across the entire space.In the center were five stones, and they were like no other stones Draco had ever seen. They had marks etched into them that moved across the rock in a never ending flow, they gave Draco a feeling of security and wholeness. He reached out to touch one of them and was shocked to find that it was magic that coursed through the rock. The magic was defiantly far older than anything Draco had ever used. The flowing marks made his fingers tingle with the sense of power that the stone held. A tall girl appeared from behind one of the five stones.

"Oh you're here, good." She was rather tall and slim; her hair was black and her skin so pale white it looked like something had sucked the color straight out of her.She was wearing a white robe with silver keys and golden stars embroidered into it. Across her chest was a bandoleer that held seven bells the smallest one the size of a pillbox, the largest bigger than Draco's two fists put together. On her forehead was a mark like the ones that seemed to flow nonstop across the stones. Hanging from her waist was what looked to be a small compact mirror, in her hand was a large double edged sword, it to was covered in the marks that moved across the metal without end giving the impression that they were alive.

Smiling, she sheathed it. "Sorry about that we can't really take enough precautions in these times."

"Oh, um, ok." Draco searched frantically for his wand, finally finding it up his sleeve. He pulled it out and pointed it at her. "Who are you, where am I, and what do you want with me?"

The girl smiled as if to keep from laughing when Draco pulled out his wand. "I am Lirael, or Abhorsen as most call me these days. You are in the reservoir under the castle in Belasiere in the Old Kingdom. What we want with you well you'll find out."

"Hold on, we?" Draco asked holding his wand a little tighter and putting on what he thought was a more menacing glare

"Oh not here." She answered. "But you'll meet them later.

"Later? What later? Who said I was coming back here to this, well wherever the hell I am."

"Yes later you think this is the last time you'll see me? And as I told you before, you're in the reservoir where the Great Charter Stones are held, you know about the Charter right?" She asked still completely calm despite the fact that Draco was practically shoving his wand in her face.

"No." Draco asked sighing, he was getting rather put out, who did this Lirael, Abhorsen person think she was?

"Oh dear, they said you'd know something. Well there really isn't time to explain. I suppose I'll do it some other time, but anyhow here is what I am here to tell you: Remember that evil is bound for only so long, for binding alone does not do the job, banishment beyond the ninth gate is the only way to keep evil down, it takes the power of the wand and the charter brought together to finish all wrong."

"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?" Asked Draco as the room began to fade.

"My! Well there's no need to be so unpleasant, I mean really!" And with that Draco woke up, and was very glad to see that he was still in his own room at Malfoy Manor. Although the dream had seemed so real it was hard to believe it wasn't. Draco's fingers were still tingling from the feel of the marks under his hands. Rolling over he went back to sleep.

**************

Ginny lugged her heavy trunk onto the train wondering why she had to bring so many things to school, finally after a lot of struggling she got it on she sat down in a compartment shoving her trunk underneath her seat. She was just settling down when the compartment door opened and in walked a boy who looked like a sixth year. He was tall and slightly skinny, his hair was brown, spiked, and dyed blue on the ends in a way that rather annoyed his professors. Although there was no rule against hair color it was still scorned. His eyes were also brown.

"Dan! There you are. Where have you been all summer?" Asked Ginny running over to hug him.

"Well, America actually. We weren't allowed to receive or send any mail, that's why I couldn't contact you. Dad was worried because he was negotiating something with the American Ministry and he didn't want You Know Who getting wind." Said Dan in an apologetic manner, sitting down in the seat next to Ginny.

"Well don't tell your best friend where you were going and why she had to help her mother cook all day."

"I'm sorry Ginny, Dad wouldn't let me, but I took pictures for you."Dan pulled out a packet of pictures from the pocket of his black jeans.

"Ooh let me see." Ginny enthusiastically opened the packet and pulled out the first picture.

"That's the Capitol Building." Said Dan pointing to a large white building, "And that's Tamar."

"When's Tamar starting at Hogwarts?" Asked Ginny referring to Dan's little sister. "Why aren't the pictures moving?"

"Tamar starts next year. We weren't allowed to use any magic, they're muggle.It took Mum forever to figure out how to cook so we went out to dinner a whole lot during the first few weeks.Dan pulled out the next picture. "This is my dad." He said pointing to a tall balding man with who was an older copy of his son minus the blue hair. "And the USA's president George W. Bush. The biggest prick ever to step into the oval office. I still have no idea how America could have such a daft bloke! Anyhow he made us walk around with mad amounts of security to everywhere and we were trying to keep a low profile!"

Ginny laughed, and Dan pulled out the next picture. It was of an underground cavern in which was a huge blue building with the letters A.M.M. written in front. In front was Dan with a small balding wizard wearing bright green robes. No account for taste whatsoever but American robe fashions had always been off.

"That is the American Ministry of Magic. That's me with the American Minister of Magic Don Von Con. Horrible name but a brilliant man, ten times better than Fudge will ever be. He has some brilliant ideas, the only minister who's managed to unite both political parties," (People who were for making close allies with muggles and didn't believe the unforgivables should be used no matter what, and those who were for keeping muggles and magic folk separate and using the unforgivables against the dark arts.) "He's great," Dan continued, "and had some wonderful ideas for our You Know Who problems. We'll probably be seeing him soon." Dan pulled out the next picture, it was of him and agirl. She was short and very petite with black hair that hung halfway down her back her face was plain but her eyes were pleasant. They were standing on a large green lawn that seemed to extend forever. "That's the National Mall, it's not really a mall but a large lawn that extends from the Washington Monument, otherwise known as the United States' Erection. It's the tallest freestanding mason structure in the world standing 555 feet 5 ¾ inches from base to tip the Washington Monument. One of the security guards was an ex-tour guide and he gave that speech at least once a day, daily. Well anyway it's a lawn that extends from the Washington Monument to the Capitol Building.

"Who's she?" Asked Ginny examining the girl.

"Oh her," Dan blushed. "Alanna, the daughter of the head of the Defense Against the Dark Arts department. I'm not crazy about the father but the daughter is really nice."

"Well, isn't that just lovely Danny's finally found himself a girl."

Dan blushed and hit Ginny on the head with the pictures. "Well we weren't sure about the long distance relationship, but we're gonna try…" Dan blushed again.

"Good luck." Said Ginny as she pulled out the next picture this time it was of Dan and Alanna kissing.

"Well Dan had fun this summer." Ginny grinned.

"Shut up!" Dan was still blushing.

The compartment door opened again and in walked Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

"Oh hello Dan how was your summer?" Asked Hermione.

"Good, thank you." The trio sat down in the seats across from them.

"What did you do all summer?" Harry asked blowing his hair out of his eyes.

"Went to Washington D.C." Answered Dan giving Ginny a look that said she'd better keep her mouth closed about Alanna if she valued her life.

"Oh what did you do there?" Asked Hermione suddenly looking very interested.

"My father had some business with the American Minister." Answered Dan.

"Oh wow did you meet Von Don Con?" Asked Hermione with excitement.

Dan nodded "He's brilliant."

"Oh really, did you know that he's the only minister ever to unite both parities. He was born in 1940, established as minister in 1990 and made it his official business to stop the arguing between the two political parties. It was the time of You Know Who's first rein and America was terrified that he'd travel over the ocean to them. And Von said that hard times were coming and that if the wizarding world wasn't united they were going to have an awful lot of trouble in the years to come. Of course You Know Who was defeated before he could cross the Atlantic so there was nothing to worry about but his words stuck."

"Hermione we don't need a history lesson, school hasn't started yet." Ron grumbled.

"Well I was just telling you about a rather important minister he really is a wonderful man. In 1965 he married Margaret Stiller and they have two children, a 25 year old named Jonathan and a 30 year old name Dominique."

"Really Hermione we don't care." Insisted Ron.

"Well fine then." Hermione crossed her arms and glared out the window occasionally glaring at Ron.

"Anyway Dan how was America?" Ron asked glancing sideways and glaring at Hermione every few seconds for good measure.

"Good except their president doesn't know when to leave people alone, we had to walk around with tons of security because of him, and father had to hear nonstop complaints about his family. It's his fault if he can't keep his daughters on a leash not ours, honestly that man. Although America itself was wonderful." Dan shot a glare at Ginny to keep her mouth shut. "The food is actually quite good, or compared to our food at least." This caused everyone including Hermione to laugh.

"Have they been affected by Voldemort at all?" Harry asked causing everyone in the compartment to flinch at the mention of his name.

"Not much actually, according to what their spies say he is planning to take over all of England before moving to the rest of Europe and then the rest of the world.

"I hope someone stops him soon." Ginny whispered. There was silence throughout the compartment. In the past two years since Voldemort's return to power the wizarding world had split in tow. The ministry was a mess of people who believed in using harsh methods against the death eaters and those who wanted to stun them and give them fair trials. Everyone lived in fear, Hogwarts had been expanded to house people whose houses had been burned or had been taken over by the Death Eaters, and it was one of the only safe places left. In the last few months all Death Eater activity had stopped, this made everyone nervous about what they were planning for if it was taking this much time it had to be big, and that was a thought that scared everyone.