The Green Man and the Goddess

My first year of Hogwarts passed quite uneventfully. I didn't find the shell that housed the Goddess's soul, although I looked very hard for her.

I was sorted into Slytherin as my father and I expected and I took up the traditions of the average Slytherin pureblood. I taunted the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors and even the Ravenclaws; they were always the hardest to make fun of but I always managed to get under their skin.

But my time at Hogwarts wasn't the happiest of my life. I was surrounded by idiots. Big idiots who could put up a good fight, yes, but they couldn't carry on a simple conversation. And to make matters worse, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, had made a fool out of me on my very first day of Hogwarts when he openly refused my friendship on the train. He and a Weasley.

After that episode, Father sent me a rather rude letter telling me that I was not to be brought down by Harry Potter and a Weasley. Father had an imagine to maintain, the letter stated, and his colleagues wouldn't look kindly on him if his son was made a fool of by one of the poorest wizarding families in the country. It did not matter to him that Ron Weasley was a pureblood. All that mattered was that he was poor and therefore a lesser wizard than the Malfoys.

It seems to me that all my problems at Hogwarts started on the first day of my first year when I actually think about it. You'd think that no problems could result from a simple welcoming speech before a feast. You see, when I first saw that there was a forest at Hogwarts I was overjoyed. As we crossed the great lake , all I could look at was the opposing forest that was there to greet me, not the castle that was to be my new home. The forest called to me as we glided closer and closer to it over the dark waters to my new life. I was eager to explore the forest and make it my own, to memorize the trails, to find its hidden secrets. When Dumbledore announced that the forest was called the 'Forbidden Forest' and hence off limits, it chilled me. My bad day just got worse and I cursed that my natural environment was denied to me.

That night I filed out of the Great Hall and down to the dungeons with the other Slytherins, my head down, my heart weary. I wanted to be as free to enter the Forbidden Forest as the animals that inhabited it, but as with Sherwood, I would only be able to look out through the cold windows at what I yearned for.

After the revelation I grew bitter. I attacked people verbally whenever possible, although I never laid a hand on anyone. Potter and Weasley made me mad beyond belief. I could hardly believe I hated anyone so much, but I did. It brought me deeper into depression and I wished for the Goddess to appear so I would no longer be alone. I started to wish I had a shoulder to cry on but Malfoys never cried, so my eyes stayed dry and I faced the world on my own.

When I finally came home from school again, my father was very disappointed in me. Not only had I not prevented Potter from defeating Voldemort, I was not the highest of my class. No, that honour was given to the Muggle-Born witch, Hermione Granger. Yet another Gryffindor and a good friend of Potter's. Father was very embarrassed for both of these reasons, and he knew his colleagues were not very pleased with it either. He ranted and raved about how I was dragging the Malfoy name in the dirt and how we were becoming less and less respected by other pureblooded wizarding families. Yet again he beat me, although it wasn't as painful as the day I ventured into the forest. But since it was just the beginning of summer and no one would see, nothing was given to me to reduce the pain.

That summer I wandered the lonely halls of Malfoy Manor, watching the paintings move and talking to the ghosts. After a few weeks of moping around my father hired a Quidditch coach and began to train me to be a seeker because another thing that disappointed my father was that Harry Potter was a seeker and I wasn't. He paid my way onto the Slytherin Quidditch team.

During the whole summer I didn't have much time to look out the windows of Malfoy Manor and look out at Sherwood. Although I missed the long hours just starring at the forest, I was much to busy to take up the old habit. After a while it stopped bothering me though because I had dreams instead.

Starting that summer I dreamed about the Green Man almost every night. In those dreams he would train me for what was to come. I remember the first dream vividly. I was walking in the forest and I came into the clearing. To my dismay, the Goddess wasn't there. The Green Man was, though, sitting in the shadows. He stood up and approached me, holding out his hand.

"Protect it well, child," he told me, placing something in my hand and closing my fingers over it. I didn't know what it was. Before I could look down and open my fingers I woke up, out of the dream.

My hand was clenched closed and I was sweating. Slowly I opened my hand, one finger at a time. I was holding a beautiful pendant shaped like an owl. Its eyes were grayish silver and it looked like it was about to blink or open its beak, it was that lifelike.

After that the Green Man trained me in dreams. He showed me that the pendant could be changed into my weapon of choice. I could change it into a sword, a staff and even a wand, but my favourite form was the bow and arrow. I practiced for what seemed like hours in my dreams, shooting at targets in the forest. The Green Man also helped me to strengthen my magic. He taught me wandless magic and long forgotten spells that were powerful beyond belief. Gradually I grew stronger and I knew that when the time came I would be able to protect the Goddess from whatever came to harm her.

Towards the end of the summer, the Green Man gave me the bad news. Once I went back to Hogwarts, he would be unable to find me in my dreams. If I were to learn more, I would have to sneak into the ancient parts of the library and research it for myself. He said some of the rooms there had books that were older than even Hogwarts. They were long forgotten, even hidden in dusty corners, along with the magic that had been used to wield them. This magic was the main power of the Green Man and the Goddess.

I was very upset after that and I refused to practise Quidditch. My father glared at me but didn't do anything. A couple of days after that he had me accompany him to Knockturn Alley and I put on the facade that my father would expect before Dark wizards. Then, we went to Diagon Alley for my school things and of course I had to see Potter.

I really did hate Harry Potter. He was rewarded when he broke the rules because he was Harry Potter and he had everything that was missing in my life. It was chance that I came across him, Weasley and the Mudblood. I stood at the back of the crowd, scowling at Potter and that idiot Lockhart as Potter yet again got undeserved recognition. When Lockhart had finished his little show, I pushed myself to the front of the crowd and started making fun of him. I felt cheated. He didn't deserve the publicity. He just liked the spotlight, I thought.

Then I heard her.

"Leave him alone, he didnt want all that!" the girl said, pushing herself into the conversation. She was small with brown eyes and a mass of red hair. A Weasley. The goddess was a Weasley. It was one of the hardest things in my life but I didn't gape at her or anything. I just ignored my soulmate. I felt sick as I spat out the hateful words to her and turned my back to her.

"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend," I smirked at him. I looked away so I didn't know how she reacted and I didn't want to know. I was being cruel to my soulmate. I had never felt so sick in my life.

At that point Ron Weasley just had to jump into the conversation, defending Potter. Potter doesn't deserve to be defended, I remember thinking angrily.

It seemed that the whole goddamned family was there. Before I knew it, my father was in a fight with Arthur Weasley. When I think back, it was really rather stupid. Father would always go on about how I shouldn't fight with people like the Weasleys because they were below me... but he could have an all out battle with Mr. Weasley? What bull shit.

So I stood there glaring at Potter and Ron Weasley, trying not to look at the Goddess as our fathers fought it out. I don't know how long it lasted but suddenly my father was dragging me out of Flourish and Blotts and he hurriedly bought the rest of my school supplies and rewarded me with a new broom, a Nimbus 2001 to be exact.

Finally we arrived home and I was able to think back on the days events. Sitting by a window I looked over at Sherwood and brood. I realised I didn't even know her name! I knew she was a Weasley, probably the only female Weasley but I didn't know what they called her. I was dismayed by the thought and I sat there for hours before I fell asleep, into another dream.

The Green Man seemed pleased that I had found the Goddess. "Good work, boy," were the first words out of his mouth. "Now you have to work up a relationship with her. Of course it will be hard. You'll be in two different houses. She'll be a Gryffindor for sure. You should have been a Gryffindor you know, boy, but sometimes the Hat looks at blood. It's a pity really."

"I can't talk to her," I told him. "She's a Weasley. All I can do is make fun of her. If it got out that I was actually nice to her, Father would flay me!"

"You'll just have to think of a way," he said confidently. And that was when I woke up.

After that I tried to think of away to talk to the Weasley. I still didn't know her name though, so I thought that would be my first priority.

Arriving back at Hogwarts I listened for her name but I wasn't in any of the same classes or anything like that. I would watch her across the Great Hall every night but she never noticed me. Her red hair drew me and I was just fascinated by the way her hair would reflect the lights. It wasn't till I realised that I had been doing this every night for two months that I realised I was in love.

I was in love with a Weasley, and the legends said eventually she would fall for me. But she never looked at me. Her eyes always trailed Potter. That was all she saw and I was growing more and more depressed.

Then the Secret Chamber opened. I had mixed feelings about it. I didn't want the Goddess to get hurt but I wanted to be the model Slytherin and aid the Heir of Slytherin in washing away the dirt that had been building up at Hogwarts over the centuries. I wanted to get rid of all the Mudbloods and help make Hogwarts truly great.

I searched for clues of the identity of the heir as well as the location of the Secret Chamber but I never found anything. I had given up on my search when the end of the year came and Potter disappeared for hours, finally reappearing with Ron Weasley and his little sister cradled in Potter's arms.

That was when I finally learned her name. Her name was Virginia Weasley, Ginny for short. And to my utter disgust it turned out that my father had slipped Tom Riddle's diary in her books and corrupted the Goddess. I wasn't sure who I was more angry with though, Potter for saving Ginny Weasley in the Secret Chamber or my father for causing the situation in the first place.

I was the Green Man, I thought, therefore I should have been the one to save her, not Perfect Potter. Because of that I decided to walk away from the entire situation. I turned my back on Virginia Weasley and decided to let her think that Harry Potter was her savior and her soulmate, for every time I looked at her I could see her desire for him clearly in her large brown eyes.

So, over the years I tried to ignore Virginia. The summer became the hardest time of my life, since the Green Man would haunt my dreams and try to talk me into going along with my destiny but I was determined to ignore him and choose my own path. I still yearned for Ginny though. I denied it to the Green Man and myself but deep down, I knew it wasn't true. But I could never force myself to act on those feelings.

Finally, I could stand it no more. It was during my sixth year, and I wanted to approach her so much it was driving me crazy. I had never been so lonely in my life. Crabbe and Goyle had transferred to Durmstrang at the beginning of the year and I missed their familiar presence looming over me whenever I felt endangered.

I was standing in the shadows of the entrance of the Great Hall late one night, looking for a girl to seduce. I was in a black mood. I just wanted to use someone the way people used me.

I heard someone descending the stairs and I saw a shock of red hair. It was Ginny Weasley. My heart skipped a beat and I just stared at her and I was flooded by the realization of how alone I was, yet again.

I quietly slipped out of the shadows and followed her as she exited the school. She walked down the lawn, past Hagrid's hut, into the forest. At first I didn't approach her, just trailed her through the bushes as we got deeper and deeper into the forest.

There was a gap in the trees where the moon shone through and it illuminated her. I stumbled and she must have heard me, since she stopped and started to look around. I quickly pulled myself out of the bushes as quietly as possible and stood behind her. She hadn't heard me. I placed a hand on her shoulder and she jumped but she didn't turn around right away. I started to caress her shoulder and then her face and she leaned into my hand sighing. I stood there, hoping beyond hope that she would turn around and when she saw me, accept me for who I was and not run screaming into the forest.

Finally, she turned her head, her eyes meeting mine. Realisation shot through them but she didn't move away. We just stood there, starring for the longest time, into each other's eyes. Finally I broke the silence.

"You have no idea how long I've waited for this," I told her, my voice a mere whisper.

She just stared at me, not saying anything. I began to get scared. I felt that I had to say something to her.

Are you scared? I've known you were the Goddess for a long time, Ginny. But I could never talk to you with your brothers and Potter always around you, I told her. I know you probably thought Potter was the Green Man. He is the Boy Who Lived, but he can't be everything. Personally I think I got the better deal.

Finally she talked to me for the first time since right before my second year. "Thank you Draco," she said, using my first name, "'That is very kind of you." It was all she said. I was so nervous, I snapped.

That's all you have to say? I asked, getting very irritated. I've wanted to talk to you forever and when I finally get to talk to you, all you say is thank you? What are you trying to say? Because if you don't want me, feel free to tell me.

"It's just shock, Draco. Malfoys are always the bad guys," she told me. I was starting to get mad. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Maybe in this lifetime the Green Man and the Goddess weren't meant to be. We were on different sides.

"Oh, perfect, you're going to try the Malfoy means evil bit. I-AM-NOT-MY-FATHER! I started to scream at her. I knew I shouldn't but I was getting upset. I wanted her so badly that my fingers itched to hold her and mouth ached to kiss her.

Then she surprised me by cupping my face in her hands and whispering, I'm sorry Draco. I didn't mean to say that. Just everything I ever thought, everything that should have been written in stone is now... well, not. Malfoys and Weasleys never really mixed you know.

"I know, but I've loved you ever since I saw you. I never stopped loving you or raised an eyebrow when the school discovered you had opened the Chamber of Secrets. I wanted to comfort you and make sure you were all right.

I think that's when I discovered you were the Goddess, ' I said. Before that I was scared by the feelings I had for you. But, after that, I knew why and I knew that it was right. There is nobody in this world for me except you. Please tell me you believe that.

I pleaded with her desperately, so scared she was going to walk away from me. She gave me a reassuring smile and told me, "Of course I realize that Draco. There is nobody but the Green Man." And she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled my head down and kissed me. I kissed her back, feeling that there was nothing else but her. I had finally been reunited with my soulmate.

I would protect her at all costs.