Prince of Unicorns

Prince of Unicorns
By Cinnamon

Chapter Nine

“We’re never going to find her,” Hermione said, scowling as she picked tendrils of Devil’s Snare out of her hair. “This place is huge, and the farther in we go, the more dangerous these ridiculous traps become.”

Harry was picking spider webs off Ron, who was too petrified to really move and do it himself. “Tell me the truth, Harry,” he said, his voice cracking. “Are there any in my hair?”

“No, no spiders anywhere. I promise.”

They had just nearly escaped an attack by a dozen spiders the size of wolves after having nearly been crushed to death by Devil’s Snare, and Hermione was tired and sick to death of nearly dying.

“Let’s just try to get out of here,” she begged, shuddering as a tiny spider fell out of her hair.

“Easy for you to say. Any idea where the door is?” Harry asked.

“And we’ve still got to find Ginny!” It was proof of his love for his sister that, even after being attacked by huge spiders, Ron was still willing to keep searching for her.

“Ron,” Hermione said gently. “If she’s even still here, do you really think she could have survived even half of these traps by herself? We’ve barely managed and we’re used to these sorts of things, and there are three of us. She’s alone.”

“She’s not dead, Hermione,” Ron said angrily, walking head of them. “She can’t be dead. We’ve just got to find her and get out of here, it’s as simple as that.” He picked a door almost at random, threw it open, and marched inside.

“He’s right, we’ve got to keep looking,” Harry decided. “She might still be alive, and—”

His words were cut off by a sudden shriek from Ron.

“You killed her! You bastard! I’ll kill you! I’ll rip you apart! You bastard!”

Hermione and Harry followed his voice. They stumbled into a long, brightly lit room, and at the other end, a startled Draco Malfoy was leaning against the wall, Ginny’s limp body cradled against his chest.

Ron was charging straight at him, still shouting at the top of his lungs. Draco got to his feet, still holding her, and Ron grabbed her, pulling her out of his arms. He knelt with her shaking her and crying, “Ginny, Ginny, don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.” He was trying desperately hard not to cry, and Draco watched for a moment, trying to think of something to say. Ron was shaking her now, trying to wake her up, and her head was snapping back and forth on her neck limply.

“Weasley,” Draco snapped. “Stop it, you’ll hurt her—” He never got the chance to finish. Harry had reached him, grabbing him by his robes and slamming him against the wall. “I warned you,” he snarled. “I warned you if you hurt her again, I’d kill you.”

“Hurt her again?” Draco asked smoothly, looking calm despite the threat.

“Stop denying it, I saw you hit her yesterday,” Harry growled. Hermione ran to Ginny, pulling her away from Ron and starting to wipe the slime off her face.

“He hit her?” Draco growled dangerously.

“You hit her,” Ron shouted, fighting tears.

“What is this all over her?” Hermione asked quietly. “Is she dead?”

Draco shoved Harry so suddenly that he stumbled back in surprise. Before he could grab Draco again, Draco had knelt down beside Hermione, the only one of the other three who seemed remotely rational. “She’s not dead, of course I didn’t kill her. She fell into a sleeping puddle, I’ve been here for hours waiting for it to wear off.”

Hermione shot him a sideways glance. “You held her for hours?”

Draco shrugged. “She crawled onto my lap and fell asleep. I couldn’t get her off.”

“Couldn’t get her off?” Ron repeated, his face going red as he took that in the worst possible way. “Malfoy, if you tried anything on her while she was asleep, I swear to god I’ll—”

“Ron,” Hermione said, still working at wiping off all the goo off of Ginny. “Shut up.”

“Is she all right, do you think?” Draco asked quietly, hoping Harry and Ron, who were watching furiously, couldn’t hear. “I wasn’t sure if it was a sleeping potion or not, I didn’t know. She might not wake up, I don’t know.”

Hermione looked at him coldly. “Don’t think holding her for a few hours makes up for hitting her yesterday or for all the cruel things you’ve ever said to us, you’re wrong. You can go now, Malfoy. We don’t need you anymore.”

Draco was furious. “You don’t understand. There’s more going on here than you know, I can’t just leave her, she saved my life.”

“Pity,” Ron snarled.

Hermione had cleaned her face and arms of the sleeping slime, and she inspected Ginny’s face carefully. “She’s not dead,” she told Ron, who looked only moderately relieved. They still didn’t know what was wrong with her. “Ginny,” Hermione said finally, carefully. “Come on, wake up. You’re stronger than a stupid sleep puddle.”

Ginny didn’t move and Hermione sighed. “We can carry her back, can’t we?” Harry asked. “Dumbledore will fix her.”

“Can I...” Draco began, reaching out to touch Ginny’s face. “Can I talk to her?”

“Do whatever you want, Malfoy, since when has anything I’ve ever said gotten in your way?” Hermione snapped. She got to her feet and turned to Ron and Harry. “How are we going to carry her back? There’re still all the spells in the caves, we can’t survive them if we have to carry her. We might have to wait until she wakes up.”

“It’s not safe here,” Harry argued.

“She might be dying or something,” Ron said. “We’ve got to get her back as soon as we can.”

They started arguing and none of them even glanced down to where Draco was kneeling beside Ginny. He watched them for a moment to be sure they wouldn’t see what he was about to do. Ron would probably rip his heart out, but they didn’t understand, of course.

He slipped one hand under Ginny’s knees and the other under her shoulders, lifting her up onto his lap again, supporting her head on his shoulder. “Ginny,” he whispered. “You’ve got to wake up, we’ve got to get out of here. C’mon.” He leaned his ear close to her lips to make sure she was still breathing, and some of his hair brushed across her cheek. When it did, he heard, very faintly, her breathing change. Her lips opened the tiniest bit but she still didn’t wake up. He was close enough now to see the faint bruising around her lower lip from where Copper had hit her. Narrowing his eyes in thought, he quickly looked back at the others to find they were still occupied arguing, and before he could talk himself out of what he was about to do, he closed his eyes and kissed her lightly, barely even brushing his lips against hers.

They were cool and still and, more determined now, he moved closer, tilting his head a little and kissing her harder, one of his hands moving up to stroke her face. She made a low whimper in the back of her throat the second before she started kissing him back, her own hand sneaking up to touch his hair, and Draco’s eyes flew open just as hers did, still clouded with sleep. They met his and widened a bit before she pulled away suddenly, breathing heavily.

“I… What…” she said thickly, still trying to remember what exactly was going on.

The argument halted abruptly at her voice, and Ron, Harry, and Hermione stared down at her in shock.

“Ginny!” Ron cried, grabbing her hand and pulling her off Draco’s lap. He helped her rise shakily to her feet and then hugged her tightly. “I thought you were dead!”

“How did you get here?” she asked, still confused.

Ron started explaining everything that had happened while Draco slowly stood up, watching them. Harry was watching him. “How did you wake her?” he asked quietly.

Draco smiled innocently. “Just talked to her,” he said.

Harry studied his face for a moment but didn’t comment. “We’ve got to get out of here,” he said to the others.

They made their way into the corridor, Ron still holding Ginny tightly in case she tried to die on him again, and Draco trailing behind them. Hermione kept shooting him hard looks, as if trying to ask why he was coming with them at all, but Draco didn’t feel like answering, so he didn’t.

They hadn’t gone far when Draco became aware of someone watching him from behind. He turned slowly and saw Copper standing at the end of the hall, smiling calmly and playing with the jewel-encrusted handle of a dagger. “No,” Draco hissed, and the others turned at his voice, Ginny slower than the others, because she was still weak.

“Malfoy,” Ron cried, staring at Copper. “He looks just like you.”

Everything seemed to have been slowed down for Draco, like he was watching it all happen a thousand times slower than usual, and he didn’t bother to reply to Ron. He had never felt terror before but he felt it now as he watched Copper casually raise his arm and flick his wrist, the dagger flying forward, straight at Ginny’s back.

She was still clutching Ron’s arm as she glanced over her shoulder to see what was going on. The dagger hit her in her lower back, slipping between two disks of her spine and severing her spinal cord. Her eyes widened in shock and flew to Draco, who was running towards her, and then her legs, which had gone numb, crumpled beneath her. She fell onto her stomach; her head tilted sideways, her face still showing her shock, eyes still open. And then Ginny died.

Ron glanced once at Ginny’s body, the dagger still lodged in her back, and then back at the man who looked exactly like Malfoy who had thrown the knife. He fell heavily to his knees, pushing all Ginny’s heavy red hair out of her face. Blood was pooling around her from the knife wound and it stained Ron’s knees but he didn’t care.

“Ginny,” he called softly. “Come on, Gin, wake up now. How will I tell Fred you missed him if you don’t wake up?”

Hermione was screaming and trying not to cry and Harry, feeling sick, turned to her and tried to make her stop.

It seemed to take Draco forever to get to Ginny, and he fell to the floor beside Ron, his hand shaking as he stroked her hair and touched her neck, searching for a pulse. There was none.

“She’s dead,” he whispered to Ron. Ron looked at him, not seeing him as Malfoy, his archenemy from school, but just someone who seemed, at least a little bit, to be as upset about that as he was.

“She’s not,” he whimpered.

Draco glanced at him but didn’t say anything. Pulling the dagger out of Ginny’s back, he stood slowly and turned to face Copper, who was watching the entire scene with an indulgent, sweet smile on his face. Draco reached into his pocket for his wand, a thousand Dark spells his father had taught him shimmering on his tongue, Dark spells that would kill Copper slowly and terribly for what he had done, but before he could even get his wand out, Copper grinned and flicked his other wrist, and everything went black.

***

A burst of pain brought Draco out of the weakening spell Copper had used on him, and he opened his eyes. He was in the inner courtyard again, this time shackled to one of the four huge stone pillars that supported the rock overhang. He could taste blood from where Copper had punched him, the pain that had woken him, and now Copper was studying his face critically.

“I should have killed you myself the first time,” he said.

Draco spat some of his blood out in the snow. He turned his head, searching, but Ginny hadn’t been brought to the courtyard. He could see Harry, Ron, and Hermione shackled to the other pillars, still seemingly unconscious, and he turned back to Copper, furious.

“You just left her there?” he hissed.

Copper smiled. “Virginia? Of course. I don’t go to extra trouble for traitors.”

“Why didn’t you just kill us then?” Draco asked defiantly.

Copper stroked his face gently. “I want to make you scream,” he hissed.

He walked away before Draco could ask anything else, making his way over to Harry.

He didn’t punch Harry to wake him, only muttered a soft counter curse. He smiled gently at Harry. “Hello.”

Harry spat in his face and Draco smirked. “Get away from me,” Harry snarled.

Wiping his face on the back of his hand, Copper kept smiling. “I understand that you are upset over Virginia, Harry, but I assure you. Her death was necessary. She was a liability to the cause.”

“What cause?”

Copper sighed and said, “We haven’t been properly introduced. My name is Copper Malfoy and I have been posing as Draco Malfoy at your school for the passed two days.”

Harry glanced at Draco and then back at Copper but didn’t reply, and Copper launched into the story of why he felt it necessary to wipe the Malfoys off the face of the globe. Harry listened with a vaguely bored expression, and Draco tuned the entire thing out.

He leaned his head back against the pillar, looking up at the sky and forcing himself to breathe deeply. His eyes were stinging with something he didn’t recognize and felt sure he did not want to admit to. He kept replaying, over and over in his mind, the picture of Ginny slowly crumpling to the ground, the knife stuck in her back. It was his fault, if it hadn’t for him, Ginny never would have been caught by Copper in the first place, she never would have risked her life to save him, and she wouldn’t be dead now. It may have been Copper who threw the knife, but it was Draco who had killed her.

He had never felt guilt before. He had lived his entire life feeling that anything that was given to him was his by right of his very existence, and had never questioned who had given it to him and why. He really didn’t like the feeling.

He was glad Ron was still knocked out. He felt bad for him, which was in itself a new emotion Draco had no experience with. Especially towards a Weasley. But none of that mattered anymore because Ginny had given her life for his and that had to mean something. Draco knew he couldn’t have done it. Risked himself for someone he hated. What did that say about the worth of the Weasleys in comparison to the worth of a Malfoy like him?

He closed his eyes and drew in another deep breath.

Copper had finished his wild story by now, and Draco waited for Harry’s response, half expecting him to agree to help Copper. Harry had no love for the Malfoys, after all.

But Harry didn’t. He said in a cold, hard voice, “You may as well kill me, because I’d never help you.”

Copper smiled. “But Harry, you know they’re evil. I’m on your side, I am. The side of good.”

Harry’s eyes were flashing with rage. “The side of good doesn’t kill innocent girls who become a ‘liability to the cause’.”

“She betrayed me,” Copper said simply.

Harry was scowling. “You’re a Malfoy. If I swore to rid the world of Malfoy’s you’d be the first I’d kill. But I don’t do that. Murder is never right. No matter how you justify it, you’re not on the side of good, you’re on your own side, and I refuse to join you. The ends never justify the means, and you killed Ginny. Do you have any idea how her mother is going to cry when she hears about this? Not to mention Ron. These people mean more to me than anyone else in the world and you hurt them.”

Copper sighed. “The only reason I kept you and your little friends alive is because I was afraid you might refuse to join with me, Harry, and a boy of your power would be a great asset to me and I was worried I’d need to do something to convince you.”

“What do you mean?”

Copper leaned very close, hissing in Harry’s face. “If you think what I did to Virginia was bad, Potter, just wait and see what I do to her brother.”

Harry had gone very pale, and Draco scowled, watching. “If you’ve got to blackmail every ally you manage to get on your side, I think you’ve got a problem,” he called.

Copper shot him a scathing glance but didn’t reply. Harry had taken the minor distraction to gather his courage. “You wouldn’t hurt Ron,” he said to Copper. “You wouldn’t.”

“I believe a little demonstration is in order,” Copper replied with an easy shrug, turning to Ron. He reached out one hand and hissed something under his breath.

Ron’s entire body jerked, his head falling back against the pillar and screams coming from his lips before he had even fully awakened.

Copper was laughing as Ron twitched with agony. The harsh screams woke Hermione, who started to cry.

“Stop it!” Harry was screaming, twisting against his shackles. “Stop, please don’t hurt him anymore!”

Copper didn’t stop and Draco had the feeling that he was going to torture Ron until he died.

He never got the chance. There was a crackle in the air and it hit Copper in the chest, sending him flying backwards, hitting the stone altar. There was a sickening crack as his back snapped against it, and his body flipped through the air and fell behind it.

Ron’s screams died off and he slumped unconscious against the pillar, still held up by his shackles, which cut into his wrists.

Draco was almost afraid to look, but he slowly turned towards the entry to the courtyard.

Ginny stood there, a strange white crackling light all around her, her eyes flashing with rage. Her robes were moving as if touched by a light wind that Draco couldn’t feel, and flashes like tiny bolts of lightning were flickering at her fingertips. Snake-like trails of lightning danced through her hair as well, snapping at the ends. She was floating a few inches off the ground.

***

Dying for the first time was not a pleasant experience, but waking up alone on a cold stone floor was worse.

Ginny’s body was still sprawled in her own blood when the strange star magic that had tingled in her blood when she had been crowned Princess of Unicorns started awakening inside of her. It started as a tiny pinprick of light in her eyes, still open and staring sightlessly. A tiny white bit of starlight glimmered for a moment in her eyes and then slowly moved through her body, illuminating more and more as it went. First her eyes, then her face, her hair, her neck, her body, her legs, and her arms, until starlight was shooting from her fingertips. The cold magic wove itself tightly around her, tendrils like icy fingers stroking up and down her spine, healing where the dagger had struck her, and then Ginny slowly blinked.

She sat up, the white starlight flickering around her as it prepared to slip away again, back to where it had come from.

Ron’s screams split the air and the light shone brighter than ever as wrath swept through her veins.

She had followed the screams, still wrapped in the white fury that anyone would dare make her brother scream that way.

None of the misdirection spells dared touch her as she made her way through the caverns, and when she saw the metal doors ahead, she raised one hand and they flew open soundlessly. Ron’s screams were louder now, and she entered the courtyard, her hand still extended. The white magic running through her blood was like an extension of her body now. She knew how to use it without knowing how she knew, and it took only a thought to send the magic shooting forward and crashing into Copper, who was laughing at her brother’s screams.

After Copper had fallen behind the altar, she turned to Ron, unconscious and shackled to the pillar. She touched his face with her hand, white magic flickering into him, soothing away the pain still echoing inside of, and waking him. He looked at her and his eyes filled up with tears.

“You’re a ghost,” he said.

She smiled. “I’m not.” She touched the shackles on his wrists and the shackles fell away. Ron sunk slowly to the snow, cradling his bleeding wrists to his chest.

“Ginny,” Draco called softly, and she turned to him. His eyes were darker than she’d ever seen them, and he was trying to smile at her. She could tell he was trying very hard not to cry. With a single thought, she undid his shackles as well, and than Harry’s and Hermione’s.

No one approached her. They all seemed terrified. Her hair was crackling with static, vines of white light still snaked all around her, and she was still floating above the snow. Harry went to Ron instead, and Hermione followed him, checking to see if he was really all right.

Finally, Draco took a hesitant step towards Ginny. “What’s happening to you?” He asked.

Ginny’s voice was quiet, nearly toneless. “He made me immortal.”

“Immortal?” Ron whispered, looking terrified.

“Ginny, what’s happened to you?” Hermione cried, rising to her feet and stepping towards her.

Ginny didn’t reply; she was watching the stone altar, waiting… Draco glanced at Hermione and said, “He crowned her.”

Hermione didn’t understand but she didn’t waste time asking. “Gin. You can stop this now. Whatever it is, you can stop it. He’s gone.”

“I can’t,” Ginny replied simply. “It’s not finished yet. He is immortal too.” She could feel him stirring, the white light was waking in his body too, healing it. Her eyes flickered past the altar to the dark line of trees on the other end of the courtyard. There were shadows flickering there, creatures moving through the trees, and even as she watched, Adrieyl stepped forward, into the courtyard. Following her, other unicorns stepped forward, watching and waiting, their eyes flashing.

“Ginny,” Ron cried. “Please, this is crazy. Stop.”

“He rises,” she said simply, and at that moment, Copper, flickering with the same magic, rose from behind the altar, his face twisted with fury. He rose straight up in the air until he was hovering above the altar, looking like a fallen angel.

He snarled and shot a bolt of white lightning at her. Ginny flicked one hand almost lazily and the lightening fizzled out like it had been a candle she had snuffed.

“I never should have trusted you!” Copper howled, moving towards her so quickly that Ginny could barely see him coming. She soared towards him, mostly to get him away from the others before he could think to hurt them, and they slammed into each other in a blaze of white sparks.

He was snarling, his fingers snapping with sparks as they wrapped around her throat, and Ginny let him. It didn’t matter.

“Kill them!” he shrieked to the unicorns, who were gathering at his back watching the strange fight happening in the air. It was almost like Ginny and Copper were dancing, spinning around and around as his fingers closed about her throat. Ginny grabbed his shoulders. “Kill them all!” He gestured to Draco, Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were all shouting things Ginny couldn’t hear through the buzzing of white fire in her ears. Copper’s fingers were wrapped around her throat and for a moment, Ginny was distracted, fearing the unicorns would slaughter the others on the ground.

They were standing still in the snow, watching.

“Adrieyl,” she called.

Ginny.

“Don’t kill them,” she begged.

The alpha unicorn, when she replied, sounded gently chiding. We wouldn’t, Princess. Not unless you commanded it, Princess.

Ginny’s eyes flew open as full realization hit her. They would follow her orders over his. Copper’s furious eyes were staring into hers, nearly identical to Draco’s but still very different, and Ginny could see those mad lights still swirling inside them, driven even faster by the white sparks glowing there. “Take it away,” she whispered mentally. “Take away The Gift.”

It will be done as you command, Princess, Adrieyl replied gently.

There was a snapping sound and the white lights dancing around Copper slowly winked out. The unicorns had gifted him with immortality, and now they had taken it back.

Ginny’s hands still clutched his shoulders, and that was the only thing that prevented him from falling as the magic that had held him up disappeared. His eyes widened and bore into hers. Ginny, knowing she had just condemned him to die and not caring, stared calmly back. All the years he had stolen from the unicorns crept up on him quickly, and Ginny watched as he aged five hundred years in a moment. His skin turned gray and wrinkled and slowly rotted away, falling in chunks that turned to dust before they hit the ground. His muscles deteriorated after the skin was gone, turning to dust that swirling around them both as they continued to spin through the air. He screamed in agony, the muscles that worked his lips falling away and leaving bone. His robes dropped away from his skeleton and he started twitching, his mad eyes still staring into Ginny’s calm ones as he fought the death he had escaped years ago.

Finally his eyes went dark and they dried up in his skull. His bones turned to brown dust in her hands and slowly fell to the snow below.

Ginny was still spinning by herself now, the magic having drained nearly all of her energy. Her arms went limp and then flew out around her as she twirled around, her head falling back. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the nighttime sky, glittering with cold starlight, and then she closed her eyes, her body falling from the sky and landing heavily in the snow.

Draco was the first to reach her, the others were too horrified by what they had just seen to move. Draco, living with his father, had seen worse.

The white lights were flickering weakly around her still, and as he fell to the snow beside her, they finally calmed and went out. Her eyes were closed he was afraid, for a moment, that she was dead. He touched her face and she turned into the warmth of his palm with a tiny moan. Her skin was freezing.

“Is she okay?” Hermione breathed, joining him beside her.

“She’s alive,” he replied.

Harry and Ron were now kneeling on her other side. “What was that?” Harry asked quietly.

Draco glanced at them and then back down at Ginny. “He crowned her Princess of Unicorns,” he explained quietly. “It made her immortal, like him. I think he thought it would mean he had more power over her, but unicorns don’t work that way. He didn’t count on them following her orders over his.”

The lead unicorn had walked forward, standing now at Ginny’s head. She leaned forward, nuzzling Ginny’s pale face, and Ginny whimpered, opening her eyes. She glanced first at Ron, then at Hermione, Harry, and finally Draco.

“I killed him,” she said, her voice husky.

Draco nodded. “You had to.”

She sat up, Ron grabbing her arm to support her, and then hissed, “I’m glad he’s dead. He made Ron scream.”

“I’m all right,” Ron told her, still looking a little scared of her. Then he pulled her against him and hugged her tightly. “I thought you were dead,” he whispered.

“Ginny,” Harry said, licking his lips nervously. “How exactly did you kill him? It looked like he just fell apart up there.”

She shrugged, pulling away from Ron and getting to her feet. She stumbled a little but caught her balance, still looking pale and weak. “The unicorns gift the Prince and Princess with immortality. They’re a matriarchal society, meaning they follow the Princess’s orders over the Prince’s. I ordered them to take it away from him and they did. He aged over five hundred years suddenly and turned to dust.

Draco was watching her worriedly. She looked like she was about to fall over. Her face was abnormally pale, her freckles standing out even more than usual, and there were black shadows under her eyes. She turned to face the unicorn, forcing a weak smile. “Want to know the funniest part?” she asked. “Even now I can’t tell you what happened the night it all started. The bastard is dead, but I am still bound to him.” She started laughing, but it was a painful kind of laughing that soon turned into tears, and before anyone could comfort her, she had fallen against the unicorn, burying her face in its mane and sobbing.

Draco shifted awkwardly, glancing away from Ginny and the others. Hermione touched his shoulder.

“You can tell us,” she said softly.

He nodded once. “I can.”

“Will you?”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anymore. But I will tell you if you want, when we get back to Hogwarts. I think whatever magic that was, it drained Ginny, and if we stay out here much longer, she’ll collapse again.”

Hermione studied his face solemnly, probably wondering why he cared, but she didn’t ask. “We had better get back.”

Harry looked at Ginny, whose head still rested on the unicorn, her eyes closed. “How are we going to get Ginny back to Hogwarts? She looks like she’s about to collapse.”

Ginny’s eyes opened and she straightened, turning towards them. Her face was streaked with tears and her hair still sticky with the sleeping draught she’d fallen into. “Adrieyl says she’ll carry me,” she told them. “I’ll be all right. She also says that now that Copper is dead, the charms in the caverns don’t work anymore, so we can walk through there. I know the way. She’ll meet us on the other side.”

She started walking towards the door and she stumbled. Draco was the first to catch her and Ron shoved him out of the way, holding Ginny’s arm himself. Harry went to her other side and together they started helping her out of the courtyard, Hermione trailing behind. Draco watched, scowling.

He was surprised when Hermione turned around, waiting for him. “Are you coming?” she called.

He caught up to her. “Why did you wait?”

She shrugged. “Couldn’t just leave you here. Besides, I think…” she shrugged, “we owe you more for helping Ginny than we know.”

Draco didn’t bother to reply and they walked out of the courtyard together.

Adrieyl carried Ginny on her back, leading the others through the forest and back to the grounds of Hogwarts. Ron walked on one side of the unicorn, watching Ginny nervously to make sure she didn’t fall, and the others trailed along behind.

When they got to the front doors, Ron lifted Ginny off Adrieyl’s back. Ginny hugged the unicorn tightly and then Adrieyl turned and ran back into the forest. Watching her go, Ginny took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain standing. She felt so weak.

“Are you all right?” Draco asked, studying her worriedly.

“She’s fine,” Ron snapped, taking her arm. “C’mon, Gin, I’ll help you.”

Ginny looked over her shoulder at Draco and smiled shakily at him as she let Ron drag her into the castle. “I’m all right,” she told him, and he nodded at her, watching miserably as Harry held the door open for them both and they slipped inside.

He still felt guilty. It had, after all, been his fault.

Hermione still stood on the steps watching him, and Draco finally looked at her, glaring. “What?”

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he snapped.

“You look like your pet dog just died or something.”

“I don’t have a pet dog.”

She sighed, coming down the steps and grabbing his arms. “Listen to me, all right, Draco Malfoy? I don’t like you, so I’m not going to repeat myself for your benefit. Whatever happened back there wasn’t your fault. You may be a horrible bully and a prat besides, but I know even you wouldn’t have purposely caused any of that. Harry told me some of what Copper said to him in that courtyard and I think I know enough to get the general idea of what was going on. I know that it wasn’t your fault. So forget it, all right? Everything is fine now, Ginny will be all right, and everything’s all right. I know we owe you a lot for whatever you did to make sure Ginny came out of that alive, and you are not responsible for the actions of your ancestors hundreds of years ago, so this wasn’t your fault.”

Draco jerked away from her. “Why do you even care if I feel guilty?” he snarled.

“I don’t. But I can tell that Ginny does, so I’m just saying what I’m sure she would have said if she hadn’t been dragged away by her brother.” She turned to go and then paused, glancing over her shoulder. “You’ll tell us everything that happened tomorrow, won’t you?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

She nodded and slipped into the castle. A few moments later, Draco walked inside as well.