The Heart Asks Darkness First

CHAPTER SEVEN - I CLIPPED YOUR WING

The next morning, the Gryffindors arrived at breakfast and immediately noticed that something was amiss. The Slytherins were all bickering amongst themselves, seemingly having an argument over who "should have stopped him". One of their housemates was very obviously missing, and the look on Snape´s face confirmed that the circumstances were anything but innocuous.

Ron turned to his girlfriend. "Where do you suppose Malfoy is?"

Hermione shrugged. "I don´t know. But I don´t think he´s missing through choice."

Next to them, Ginny fiddled nervously with a piece of paper she was holding. She wasn´t sure why she had it - Hermione would no doubt kill her for even thinking of damaging one of her books. But she felt a deep desire to protect Tom, and she knew that if Hermione learnt of the potion she would immediately realise that it was the cause for Malfoy´s behaviour last night. The redhead had briefly glanced at the page and learnt that the potion was essentially the Imperius curse in a bottle.

Hermione, who had clearly been waiting for an answer to something, roused her from her thoughts. A little startled, she blurted out "Nothing!"

Hermione sighed. "Honestly Ginny, I swear you´re on another planet sometimes! I was only asking if you were okay."

"I...I´m fine. Honestly." Ginny stood up. "I´m going to, er, get ready for class."

"Okay." Hermione gave her a concerned look. "Just promise me you´ll go to your lesson and not skip it to spend time with Tom."

"I promise," Ginny lied, crossing her fingers behind her back. She turned and practically fled the Hall as Snape approached the Gryffindor table. "Where´s she off to?"

"Three guesses," spat Ron, temporarily forgetting who he was talking to. "Getting ready for lessons my foot!"

Hermione gently kicked him under the table then turned back to the Professor. "Did you need to speak to her?"

"It´s just...she was one of the last people to be anywhere near Mr Malfoy before the...incident last night. Since my Slytherins are denying any involvement, I thought I should talk to her."

Ron scowled. "Well, good luck finding her!"

Harry hesitantly spoke up. "Um, Professor Snape? Where is Malfoy?"

Snape sighed. "I only wish I knew, Mr Potter."

~GW~ ~TR~

Deep inside the forest, two young men were playing out a scene in apparent silence. One was stood over the other, wand held out. The other was writhing in agony - his mouth was open as though yelling, but no sound seemed to escape.

Inside this effective bubble, Tom flicked his wand away once more. "Now are you ready to tell me why you were on the warpath for Ginny last night?"

Draco looked up at him. The blond seemed badly beaten already, with the beginnings of bruising appearing all the way down the left side of his face. Gritting his teeth, the older boy whispered, "I think you know."

An amused smile played across Tom´s lips. "Maybe so, but I want to hear it from you."

They were interrupted by approaching footsteps. As Ginny stepped into the imaginary cocoon, she said, "So this is why it´s so quiet. I almost thought - oh!" She cut off as she realised that she and Tom were not alone. Tom moved up to her and kissed her. "I was just trying to find out why Mr Malfoy was so intent on getting hold of you last night."

"He was?" Ginny panicked - had he told Snape about his suspicions, or worse Dumbledore?

Tom nodded. "Lucky I found him really."

Ginny looked at the other Slytherin. Despite his appearance, there was an almost insolent gleam in those grey eyes that unnerved her. Turning back to Tom, she handed him the page she held. "Here. Hermione almost found it last night, but I offered to look in the book, and pulled the page out while she wasn´t looking."

"You damaged one of Granger´s books?" Malfoy´s voice, though weakened, still had its familiar sarcastic tone to it. "I wouldn´t wanna be there when she finds out."

"Shut up Malfoy!" Deep down, Ginny hated Malfoy for having voiced a fear that she herself had already considered. Tom shot a look at her. "So, do you think he´s been punished enough?"

She wanted to say yes. She wanted to let Draco move on. But she still found herself whispering. "No. I don´t think he has."

Draco´s eyes widened at this. He realised that his worst fear had played out - Ginny was completely under the young Voldermort´s thrall. He tried to stagger to his feet, but Ginny shoved him back down. "We´re not finished with you yet."

Both of the Slytherins stared at her - Draco was stunned, while Tom was secretly ecstatic. `She´s following the path better than I expected!´

Draco looked up at the youngest Weasley. "What did you do to me last night?"

"I didn´t do anything," Ginny returned, only half lying. Well, she hadn´t known what the potion would do. "Just because you went psycho-"

"You´re lying." At Draco´s words, Ginny´s anger spilt over. Stepping closer to him, she gathered all her strength and slapped him as hard as she could. To her irritation, Draco merely laughed. "Hit a nerve, did I Weasel?"

"Stop calling me that!" Ginny swiped at him again, but he managed to avoid her blow. Something suddenly seemed to snap in him as he pushed her away and moved to stand again. "I shouldn´t have bothered trying to save you. I should have just left you to fall the same way my mother did!"

He started to walk off, but an intense cold pain in his shoulder forced him to collapse to his knees. Tom stalked up to him and grabbed hold of the other boy by his hair. Yanking his head back to talk to him, Tom sneered "Not so fast, Malfoy. You´re not going anywhere."

~GW~ ~TR~

As the class began to leave their Transfiguration lesson, Professor McGonagall approached the trio. "Mr Weasley, Mr Potter, Miss Granger. Could I have a word please?"

Confused, the three students nodded and waited for the class to empty. As the last pupil left, McGonagall closed the door and then turned to face the trio. "I need to talk to you about Miss Weasley. She´s been missing an awful lot of classes lately, and I was wondering if you knew why."

An angry flush spread across Ron´s face. "I´ll kill him!"

"Who, Mr Weasley?" McGonagall seemed concerned. "If someone is forcing your sister to do something, we need to know."

Ron was too angry to respond. Hermione stepped in. "It´s just that...she´ll probably hate us for this, but I think you should know...she´s managed to bring Tom Riddle back."

McGonagall looked stunned. "How on earth did she manage something like that?"

"With a little help from Malfoy!" Ron spat out. "He was the one who told her how to do it."

"I don´t think he quite realised what he was doing though." Hermione surprised everyone, including herself, by defending the Slytherin. "He told me that he wasn´t expecting her to actually carry it out."

"That may well be, Miss Granger, but he shouldn´t have told her in the first place." McGonagall sighed. "I shall have to speak with him."

"You´ll have to find him first," Ron pointed out.

"I wonder where he is." Harry spoke up for the first time.

Hermione sighed. "We all do, Harry."

~GW~ ~TR~

Back in the forest, Draco was lying on the ground, barely conscious. Ginny was stood over him, an alien gleam in her eyes. "Not so much fun when someone else is winning, is it Malfoy?"

Tom was stood back, a smirk playing at his mouth. Ginny was hitting back at everything, everyone except for him. It was almost time for everything to fall into place. On top of this amusement, there was a sadistic pleasure in watching Malfoy being tortured. Maybe it was the knowledge that he would grow up - indeed, had grown up - to do exactly the same thing to the boy´s father. He stepped forward lazily. "I think he´s learnt his lesson, Ginny. He knows how untouchable you are."

Ginny reluctantly backed down. "I guess. So what shall we do with him?"

Tom shrugged. "Leave him here. Let him figure his own way back. After all, he is a Malfoy - aren´t they supposed to know everything?"

With a sneer at the blond Slytherin, Tom wrapped his arm around Ginny´s shoulder and led her away. The last thing Malfoy was aware of before darkness overcame him was two pairs of footsteps fading into the distance.