Heart of Glass

Chapter Three

"Look, Malfoy, this is not your corridor and you can't threaten me. This hall is for all students to use and I will report you if you don't stop harassing me!" Ginny yelled. It had been several weeks since she'd heard the voice, but she had had numerous migraines since then. Each and every migraine was worse than its predecessor, and Ginny was seriously considering consulting Madame Pomfrey on the subject if they didn't start going away on their own.

"Report me for what?" he sneered.

"For not letting me use this hall!"

"They'll just tell you to use another hall. And maybe give me a 'talking to'. Now seriously, go away. You're trying my patience."

"I'm not going anywhere," she harrumphed stubbornly, crossing her arms and leaning against a stone wall. "Why do you have to use this hallway, anyway?"

He growled in frustration. "Why are you bothering me?!"

"I want to sit down here!"

"Oh fine!" he snapped. "I don't care anymore! Sit in the damn hallway all you like! Just don't talk to me and don't start wailing and crying and complaining about your head!"

"That's all I wanted!" she snapped coldly, slumping down opposite him.

"Do you have to sit so close?"

"This is where I was the last time."

"The last time what?"

"Never mind," she said, brushing the subject away. He grumbled at her, and then moved down the hallway about ten feet. "Why do you come down here?"

"I'm not going to chat with you. If you keep talking to me you're out again!"

"This isn't your ruddy hallway!" she shouted.

~

Ginny awoke with a start. She heard voices coming closer to her cubicle and realized very quickly it was the hysterical voice of her mother and the calm-yet-shaky voice of her father. She snapped her eyes shut again and began to feign a light snore.

"Oh, my poor baby girl," Molly sobbed. "Look at her, Arthur!"

"I can see her," he said quietly. Her body was still not healed completely, and telltale signs of the attack were still clearly evident.

"She needs her rest," Madame Pomfrey insisted. "She's being released this afternoon, but for now she needs all the sleep she can get."

"I don't understand it," Molly said, regaining some of her composure. "Skipping classes? That's not like Ginny. And they still don't know what happened to her?"

"Afraid not," Arthur said sadly. "Dumbledore's looking into it, but as for now the only people who know would be Ginny and her attacker."

"Mum?" Ginny said, pretending to wake up.

"OH!" Molly squealed, running to Ginny's side.

"Be gentle with her!" Madame Pomfrey nearly shrieked.

"Of course, of course," Molly said, hugging her gingerly. "Oh Ginny, what do you remember? Who did it? Who did this to you?"

"I can't say," she replied.

"Do you mean you don't remember, or you don't want to say who? Or did they threaten you, tell you not to say anything?"

"Stop interrogating me, mum."

"I'm sorry darling but I have to know what happened."

"None of the other students are at risk."

"Who did this to you?"

"It's all right mum... it was just a fight..."

"Just a fight?!" she yelled, becoming more flustered than before. "No, Ginny! No one does this to my little girl! Ginny, you almost died... how can you say it was just a fight?"

"They didn't mean it. It's between me and them. It's fine. Stop investigating and tell Dumbledore to stop looking into it. It was nothing."

"Ginny I - "

"All right, all right," said Madame Pomfrey. "If she doesn't get her rest she's not going to be discharged. Everybody out."

"Ginny, you can't just brush this away," said Molly softly. "You were on the brink of death, Ginny. Don't you understand what that means?"

"Yes, mother," she said coldly. "Shan't I remind everyone of three years ago? I was pretty damn near to death then."

Molly just looked sadly at her little girl, and then stood up. "Fine," she replied with the same coldness. "You say it's nothing? It's nothing. We'll go talk to Dumbledore now."

"Well actually, dear, we can't. He's not here," Arthur interjected. She spun around and gave him a look. "Oh. Yes, but we will. Rest assured young lady, we will speak to him!" Molly stalked out of the cubicle. Arthur walked over to Ginny and gently kissed her forehead. "Don't worry about your mother, dear." Then he went chasing after Molly as she was almost out of the hospital wing.

Ginny settled back down into her bed. "Madame Pomfrey?" she said meekly.

"Yes?"

"I'm still not feeling well... do you think it would be possible to spend another night here?"

"I'll come back and check on you when you're supposed to be being discharged. We'll see how you're doing then."

"Thank you," she said quietly. Madame Pomfrey nodded and disappeared behind the curtain. Ginny closed her eyes and heard a small voice in the back of her mind, reminding her she was supposed to be worrying about something. "Oh the letter," she said aloud. As if on cue, Hermione appeared. "You're back?"

"We need to talk."

~

Time passed and the two rivals somehow found a peace and shared the hallway. Before either knew it they were making conversation occasionally. In the beginning it consisted of not much at all. A brief 'Hullo' followed by a 'How long are you going to be down here?' was all that passed between the two for a time. Then one day, while Draco was busy scrawling something on some parchment, Ginny heard the voice again.

"Ginny," it said softly. She didn't know what to do. Respond aloud? Or think a response? Oddly, this time her head wasn't pounding. Her vision was decreasing, however, and everything was becoming increasingly dim. "Ginny," it called playfully.

"Who's there?" she said out loud.

"Not more people," Draco sighed angrily.

"No need for that," she heard the voice hiss.

"Sorry, guess no one's there," she said sheepishly, trying to open her eyes wider. She could barely see Draco and he was sitting roughly four feet away.

"Better not be," he grumbled.

'Who's there?' she thought.

"I need you to do something for me." Ginny sat silently while the voice whispered things in the back of her mind. "I'm here to stay," it finished.

'This could get annoying very quickly,' she thought.

"I can hear everything you think."

"That is a serious invasion of privacy!" she said in disgust.

"What is?" Draco said, looking up suddenly. Ginny then realized she could see nothing at all.

"What have you done to me? I'm blind!" she yelled to the voice. However, Draco, not hearing the voice, had no idea what she was talking about.

"Okay, I should have stated in the rules that you're not allowed to cry about anything. No wailing and general freaking out about anything."

'Why can't I see?' she thought desperately. "I can't see!" she said out loud. "What have you done!"

"Nothing! I've just been sitting here!"

"Not you!"

"Who else is down here?!" Draco demanded.

'Who is that boy?' the voice asked.

"Let me see again and I'll tell you!" she said angrily.

"What are you yelling about?!" Suddenly Ginny's eyesight returned.

"Draco Malfoy!" she shouted.

"I did nothing to you!" he said irritably. "You can't accuse me of making you blind!"

'Ah, the Malfoy boy. Let me see him - think of him.'

"Who are you!"

'You're making yourself look quite crazy.'

"Have you gone insane!" Draco said, more as an accusation than a question. Ginny stood up and walked over to Draco, knelt down in front of him and stared at his face.

"There!" she said. "Now leave me alone!" Draco pushed her away.

"Be glad I have a class to get to," he said hotly, jumping to his feet and gliding away. He actually had no classes that day at all, rather just wanted to get away from her. "If you're down here tomorrow, you're asking for it," he snarled.

"Not your corridor!" she spat after him as he disappeared.

~

"Did you take my letter?" Ginny said, propping herself up.

Hermione hesitated. "No."

"You're lying!"

"Just be quiet! I need to ask you something."

"What?" Ginny snarled.

"You'll answer honestly?"

"You didn't, what makes you think I will?"

"Fine, yes, I took the letter back. I had this bad feeling... I had to see it. And you were so cryptic before, saying it was for everyone... Ginny what does the letter mean?"

"None of your business! I can't believe you snuck in here and stole my letter! I had you pegged in a higher category than that, Hermione. I never thought of you as a common thief! Some friend you are!"

"There's one part that concerns me. Actually, there are quite a few..."

"I don't care! Give it back!"

"Not until you answer me!" Hermione said, clenching her fists. Ginny scowled and sat silently staring at her. "The part about... Malfoy," she said in disgust.

"A lie. To upset my family."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Look these are my problems and I'm dealing with them! Okay?"

"You weren't really attacked, were you?"

"No!"

"Oh, Ginny..." she said sadly, sitting down in the chair.

"Look, those are my issues, my lies, a fabricated story to explain things - because no one can understand what's really going on, okay?!"

"You sure went into detail about this voice..."

"Hermione, give me that letter back right now." Hermione pulled the crumpled note out of her pocket and gave it to Ginny. "We're done. Consider us no longer friends. I still can't believe you did that."

"Everything happens for a reason, Gin. You didn't die, I took that letter back... maybe those are signs you're not supposed to die... So many people love you, you really didn't need to," she looked around and dropped her voice, "try to commit suicide..."

"You can never understand what I'm going through."

"And it's not that voice you wrote about?"

"No! I told you that."

"Fine, okay." Ginny rolled over so she wasn't facing Hermione. Hermione wrung her hands and felt an overwhelming amount of guilt. "Look, Ginny... I won't say anything to anyone, I won't even speak to you again if you don't want me to, but only if you promise me one thing. Please don't attempt suicide again."

"I'm not going to!" she said furiously.

"Okay then, I won't say anything... I'm sorry I took your letter..." She stood up to leave but then another part of the letter jumped out at her. "One last thing, Gin."

"What?"

"The part about Harry... was that written just to hurt him, too? That wasn't real, right?"

It was Ginny's turn to hesitate. "Right."

"Okay then, I'm going. Bye."

"Good riddance."

~

Ginny left the corridor with whispers swirling around inside her brain. Some she could understand and some were no more than white noise. She tried her best to ignore them but their constant presence wreaked havoc on her attention span and rationality. She found herself spending more time in the corridor than anywhere else, sitting quietly listening to the constant noise. Draco often watched her; she never noticed him doing so. He didn't know what to make of her. She was growing paler and thinner - not that he particularly cared, of course. If she starved herself to death it was one less person to hate. But he couldn't help noticing as well that she had changed a lot over the months. There was a list of things that were different. She never spoke to him anymore, which he was grateful for but at the same time he knew it was odd. She was quite the little chatterbox before, and for every insult he threw out, she had one to bounce back. But not anymore; he would greet her in a cutting fashion, and she wouldn't reply at all. Not a cocky look, acerbic comeback, nothing. She'd simply slide down along the wall and sit there, staring at the floor, sometimes muttering under her breath. This new girl was hardly a Weasley anymore, and he was realizing this. And one day, he decided that, instead of speculating further, he would attempt to interrogate her.

She came down to the corridor quietly as usual, and sat down in her usual place. "Back again?" he said stupidly, knowing she came to the corridor every morning. She said nothing, simply wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. He decided to be direct. "What's wrong with you? I mean, aside from what I already know."

"What?" she said distractedly.

"Why are you acting like that?" he asked, then thought, 'Why do I care?'

"Like what?"

"Never mind."

"Am I acting differently?"

"I don't know."

"Okay," she said softly, never once looking at him.

"There! That! That's different."

"Shh, I'm trying to listen."

"Listen to what?" he said exasperatedly. "You've been saying that for half a year now. 'Shh, I'm trying to listen. Shh, I'm trying to listen.' I've been down here as often as you have and I never hear anything!"

"It's in my head," she said, turning and looking at him. "And down here is always quiet. You never talk to me," she said, then muttering, "why would you?"

"Never mind, then. I don't know why I brought it up." He sat quietly for only a few moments before blurting, "In your head? Are you insane?" 'Why am I still talking?' he thought desperately.

"I'm not insane," she said matter-of-factly. "He's very interested in you. He says you can do great things. I don't doubt it. Your whole family probably could."

"What? Who? Who's he?"

"I don't know his name."

"The man in your head?"

"Yeah."

'Oh, shut up!' he thought. "I doubt you're not insane. Hearing voices..."

"At first I thought I was - but I'm not. He says I'm an important part to the puzzle."

"What puzzle? What are you babbling about?"

"Look, I came down here to listen, not to talk. And since when do you care about me in the least?"

"I don't care about you," he said disgustedly. "Even hearing you say that makes me feel ill."

"Then quit talking to me."

"I don't think I'm feeling well... I mean, striking up a conversation with you? I must not be well. Maybe I'll go see the nurse." He rose and strode past her, but before he went up the stairs he said, "You're turning into a skeleton, you'd better eat something." Then both he and she thought, 'What the hell was that?'

~

"Wake up!"

"We meet again," she smiled coyly as she came to. Draco once again shoved her legs out of his way and sat on the edge of her bed. It was late and very dark. She could barely make him out, except for his hair which seemed to glow.

"Got that letter back?"

"Yeah."

"Where was it?"

"Hermione took it."

"Did she read it?"

"Yep."

"What did you tell her?"

"They were all lies to hurt my family, she could never understand what I was really going through, blah, blah, blah."

"Good job," he said absentmindedly. "Did she buy it?"

"Think so."

"Is she going to say anything?"

"Nope."

"Where's the note?"

"Destroyed."

"Well, now that that's taken care of," he said with the slightest sigh of relief, getting to his feet.

"I'm going to do it. Tomorrow night."

"Do what?"

"Kill him."

Draco smiled at her and sat back down.