Nothing I Have Ever Seen

Chapter 8

Draco leaned casually on the table behind him as he addressed Potter in his most cool of tones.

"Nice to see you Potter. Anything I can help you with?" Draco smiled sarcastically at the three Gryffindors ahead of him. He took in the wands pointing right at him, but he also spotted a rolled up old parchment in Potter´s hand. What was that? Not important right now... He made no effort to move away from Ginny. She remained as close to him.

Potter can´t have had any decent reply, as he remained silent. He glared at Draco and shifted his eyes to Ginny with what was unmistakably shock and disappointment present in his gaze. She however, gazed back nonchalantly. Without a word, he turned with a flourish and disappeared through the doorway as Pansy had done only a matter of minutes ago, sweeping papers lying on nearby desks into the air, landing haphazardly on the floor. Weasley and Granger were left standing helplessly alone without their devoted leader.

"Ginny?" the Mudblood started. "What...?" He felt Ginny bristle by his side, but the sentence was cut off as Weasley pushed past and approached Draco, who raised an amused eyebrow at him.

"You are absolute slime, Malfoy. Come on, what spell have you got on my sister? I swear, if you don´t let her go right now you´ll regret it," he snarled.

"Is that a threat Weasley? I´d think more carefully about that if I were you. You must understand you´re in way out of your depth. In any case, you´ll find that your sister is under no magical influence of mine."

Oblivious to Draco´s superiority, he pushed closer hissing, "I thought I told you to stay away from her. She´s not going to be any part of your twisted, sick little conspiracy." He turned his head to address Ginny. "Come on Gin, it´s ok now, come back to the common room with us." It sounded more of an order than a request, which irritated Draco somewhat.

Ginny glared at her brother. "I´m a bit old for the protective brother thing, Ron. I don´t want to go back. I´m fine where I am." She held her head high as Ron glowered at her, this tips of his ears decidedly pink.

"What?! Gin, what´s wrong with you? It´s Malfoy. You don´t want to be getting involved with him!" he scowled in Draco´s direction.

"Your sister´s got more sense that you have, Weasley. She has standards with her acquaintances. You´d do yourself a favour to follow her example," Draco drawled. "Why don´t you just leave? You must have had enough experience to know when you´re not wanted," he added.

The Mudblood, obviously feeling that she´d gone without comment for too long pushed forward and took Ginny´s hands. "Ginny, you´re making a mistake. He´s got you under his spell, magical or otherwise. You know what he´s like."

"Hermione, I know a lot more than Ron, Harry- and even you- give me credit for. I´m not the one who´s wrong here. Maybe you should all open your eyes a bit and see what´s really there," Ginny replied. Coolly done, Draco mentally congratulated her. He fought to hold in an exclamation of triumph as utter surprise and shock crossed Granger´s face. Serves her right. Always telling other people what´s right and wrong. See how she likes it when someone throws it back at her. Draco slid his arm around Ginny´s waist and pulled her close; if there was anything he knew, it was how to successfully aggravate that annoying threesome.

Weasley threw an incredulous look at Ginny, who just looked away out of the window. He glared at Draco with such pure venom, Draco had to admit that the force of dislike on display in front of him was unexpected. That kind of power could not have come from a Weasley.

"Well Ginny, if you ever decide to remember where your roots are and get rid of this git, you´ll know where to find us. That´s if you´re fit for anything after he's finished with you." With these parting words he stormed out, Granger hurrying after him.

The door slammed shut behind them, leaving a deafening silence in their wake that filled the vast room.

Draco looked at Ginny. She was glaring at the door. "I can't believe he just said that! Who does he think he is, my mother? I can make my own decisions for God's sake!" It sounded more as though she was talking to herself than to Draco.

"Forget them," said Draco easily. "They're not worth it."

"Hmmm," was all she'd say to that. "So... what were you saying before we were so rudely interrupted?" She grinned cheekily at him as he leaned over and kissed her again, his strong arms circling her once more. "Come on," she added, a bit later, "we'd better go."

Stepping over the mess of papers Potter had swept onto the floor, Draco noticed an old parchment lying on top. Looking more closely, he saw that it was a map of some sort. Small, labelled dots were moving all over it. He reached down to pick it up, but Ginny got there first. In a flight of panic, she quickly rolled it up and stuffed it into her robes.

What was it? Why was she hiding it? It must be important, then...

"What´s that?" The suspicion was barely disguised.

"Nothing, nothing..." Ginny replied hastily. Lying. Blatantly lying. Why? Irritation coursed through him. Obviously she didn't give her trust away for free. He remained silent until they reached the dungeons.

"Later, Ginny," he murmured, pulling her close one last time in the empty corridor, hand slipping unnoticeably into the pocket of Ginny´s robes. She smiled at him as he walked away. Back turned to her, a smug smile broke across his face as he clutched the rolled up parchment in his hand...

*

The moon shone through the dormitory window. It must have been very late, about two in the morning Draco supposed. Eyes wide open, he stared at the old parchment that lay rolled up, lit by a thin beam of moonlight, tied now with a green ribbon, laying tantalisingly on his bedside table. Since removing it from Ginny´s possession, he hadn´t had the chance to study it. Now however, there was no one to disrupt him. The perfect chance to work out what it does, and why Ginny was so protective of it.

He rose from his bed and contemplated getting dressed to go down to the common room, but it would be deserted this time of night, no need to make an impression on anyone, so wearing only his boxers, he threw his black silk dressing gown around him and descended the winding staircase clutching the parchment tightly in his supple hands.

The fireplace burst into bright green flame as he entered, casting eerie shadows around the common room. Although he knew it was empty, he couldn´t help being distracted by the flickering shadows that made his feel as if he was being watched by silent onlookers. He shuddered. There was something spooky about being down in the dungeons all alone.

He spread the parchment out on the dark mahogany table by the fire. Frowning at it, his pale eyes took in the elaborate crest at the top with the depictions and letters proclaiming, `Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to proud to present THE MARAUDER´S MAP´.

Draco had guessed at what the map did in the few seconds he´d seen it earlier that day. That, surely, was how Potter had known that he and Ginny were together, and also where to find them. The animated halls of Hogwarts we still visible now, though devoid now of all moving dots. Not surprisingly really, since everyone was in bed asleep.

Or maybe they weren't. A rapid movement to the right hand side of the map caught Draco´s attention. He frowned as two small dots sped away from the dungeons, towards the Gryffindor area of the castle. It was only when the dots stopped moving, in the Transfiguration classroom that Draco was able to see who the dots represented. Pansy and Flint.

What were they doing out of bed? And what´s more, together? What the hell was Flint playing at? Without stopping to think why, he rose from his chair and stormed after Pansy and Flint, gripping the wand that he always carried with him, with only the thought of the betrayal of his Quidditch captain. The rational part of his mind knew that he had no comprehensible reason to want Flint away from Pansy, but as far as Flint knew, they were destined- by their families and otherwise, to be together.

Without really knowing how he´d got there, Draco found himself standing opposite a door which stood partially open, a yellow ray of light shining out of it, lighting a narrow strip of the stone corridor. Checking the map, he knew this was where Pansy and Flint were. He paused, hiding in the shadows as snatches of conversation floated from the doorway.

"She manipulative, that´s what she is. She´s been plotting this, to take him away from me." Pansy´s voice, dripping with hatred rang out.

"She´s nothing compared to you!" Flint was trying to console her. "Don´t let a common Gryffindor get to you!"

"That´s just it! She´s common- and a Gryffindor! My family has power rivalling his own, and I´m a Slytherin. What the hell is he doing with her?"

"There´s been something wrong with Malfoy for a while now... I think he might be converting, you know, from the Dark Side," Flint muttered.

"And who´s fault´s that? That damn Gryffindor´s! She´s corrupted him! We have to get him back to where he belongs, away from that-"

"So what are you suggesting? And why did you want to talk in here? Why not the dungeons?" Flint interrupted, sounding curious.

"Use your brains Marcus. It´s way to risky in the dungeons. And I´m suggesting we do something about it. Accidentally push her off the roof or something," Pansy´s voice sounded sulky.

"Bit drastic don´t you think?" Flint sounded mildly amused at the strength of Pansy´s determination.

"I don´t care. Ambition, that´s what we´re prized for isn´t it? If I have my heart set on something, it would be wrong to ignore it wouldn´t it? Flinty?" Pansy cooed at him.

"We´d have to make it look like an accident," Flint contemplated, sounding uncharacteristically as though he knew what he was talking about.

Draco moved so he could see their traitorous faces more clearly. Pansy´s face lit up with a demonic smile at Flint´s words. To Draco, it seemed as though Flint didn´t really understand the depth of what he was saying- he was just going along with what would make Pansy happy, whatever the consequences.

"So you´re in then. The two of us. We´ll need a foolproof plan. I suggest we come down here tomorrow night- to discuss her demise." Pansy´s eyes glazed over and she smiled at her reverie.

Fury was raging inside Draco. How dare they? He highly doubted Pansy's ability to bring about the demise of anyone, or anything after seeing her wand work in class, but how dare she even think about it? Clutching his wand tightly in his hand, he kicked the door wide open and faced the two. Pansy and Flint jumped as if they had been caught playing with fire.

"Draco, how nice to see you," Pansy purred, regaining her composure.

"Too late, Pansy. I know what you´re planning."

"So what are you going to do Draco? Tell on us?" Pansy taunted him.

"I don´t need to. By tomorrow, you won´t remember a thing about this," he replied, pulling out his wand. "Obliviate!"

A jet of light bolted from his wand. Anticipating his reaction as only she could after her years of careful observation, Pansy raised her own wand and cried, "Expelliarmus!" A second shoot of blinding light flashed into the room, clashing in the air with Draco´s spell. A great bang shook the room as the spells cancelled each other out.

"Obliviate!" Draco shouted again.

"Expelliarmus!" This time, two voices rang through the air so filled with magic and tension that it crackled. Two jets of light sprang towards Draco, combining to create twice its strength. His own curse missed its target as his wand was wrenched from his grasp.

Wandless, he turned to face Flint and Pansy again. "Now what? I suppose you think you´re clever. Remember, I know what you´re planning- and Pansy, it won´t get you anywhere. Ginny has character and soul that you´ll never have. I´d rather she were a Mudblood than choose you as my girlfriend," Draco bit at her. Shocked silence filled the room, as Draco and Pansy glared at each other. Suddenly, footsteps were heard coming down the corridor towards their room. Pansy hastily gathered her things.

"You´ll regret this Draco, I swear you will," she hissed. "Avada connaise!"

A flash of bright blue light blinded him. The spell hit Draco with such a force he was thrown backward into the stone wall. Stars appeared in front of his eyes as he tried to keep consciousness, and he blinked at the figures of Pansy and Flint standing over his crumpled form on the floor, laughing. The footsteps outside were coming closer.

"Goodbye Draco." Pansy and Flint rushed out of a door at the back of the room just as the one Draco had entered through was slowly pushed open. His head spun madly, then darkness overtook him.

*