The Scarlet is Within

She ran through the mist of grey that she could feel hated her with a passion. Please, she thought wildly, let me find him. The road was wide and narrow all at once and nothing was in sight save a swirling darkness. Loose red hair fell about her shoulders and into her eyes as she ran, searching for even a strand of silver, part of a poignant memory. No, it could not just be a past memory yet...

Rain started to pour and dead flowers showered about, littering her hair and bare arms. They melted and froze on her skin; they were tears of ice that someone, somewhere, was crying from above. They blended sharply with those of a fallen angel here on earth...into puddles with no colour at all.

"Draco," she whispered, her heart shattering and slicing her skin from within into crimson. "I can't find you, and it's too late."

Tears bled like a broken string of pearls, down her small face; into the shadows of her neck and shoulders, so pale in the moonlight. The freckles had disappeared along with the luminous light, and she tossed and turned in her bed as a wakening thought struck her slumbering mind.

Draco had said, one night long ago, that her freckles were beautiful. Then he had proceeded to try and kiss every one of them, leaving pink blotches behind.

Ginny woke with a painful start and glared into the moonlight for a split second before drawing the two folds of cloth together violently. "Stupid curtains," she mumbled, "washing away my freckles." Then she realized what she had said and suddenly began to laugh silently, her thin frame, through which her collarbones showed prominently, trembling.

She rubbed her eyes and was surprised to find her eyelashes and cheeks streaked with fresh tracks of tears. The nightmare from last night abruptly hit her and quiet sobs soon joined the disappearing laughter.

But no one would hear Ginny's cries or laughter for she was secluded far away from her family, who undoubtedly thought she was dead. And Draco..., whom she had vowed to protect, was in some place that may as well be another world.

Ginny took a shuddering breath. It seemed like her troubles had been going on for an eternity, but she could remember when it all started as if it were just yesterday.

In the lush Virginia hills
they kept her as long as they could
but when the time came

how could they hold her against slipping away
to become an endless red river

-a life giving river
her kin and blood are freely given
and with a "goodbye" there she goes

"Miss Weasley," Snape said, his voice slicing through the cold and completely unlike the norm.

The urgency had caused seventeen-year old Ginny Weasley to turn her head, half-draped in a black cloak. She was on her way back from Quidditch practice and was shivering slightly, not wanting anything more than to return to Gryffindor Tower. "What is it, Professor?"

"I know this is a bad time, being Christmas Eve, but something dark is happening as we speak. You are acquainted with Mr. Malfoy, correct?"

"Y-yes," Ginny replied, blushing as she remembered what had taken place that one night a month ago in the Astronomy Tower. They had not spoken since then, and the memory was uncomfortably stirred up once again. "But we are not on speaking terms."

"This is no small matter, and I force myself to trust you not to let that stand in the way," the potions master replied, a hint of sarcasm creeping back into his voice, which disappeared as quickly as it had happened. "Draco's parents were murdered last night, due to Lucius's reluctance to join the dark ranks after months in Azkaban, as you have undoubtly heard. Now the Death Eaters are after Mr. Malfoy, who is in unspeakable danger. He must go into hiding."

"What does this have to do with me?" Ginny asked, bewildered and frightened.

"You are who he asked for," Snape said firmly, his tone leaving no room for further questioning. "Become his Secret Keeper, Miss Weasley, or he will die at the mercy of the Dark Lord."

"But...why can't someone else-"

"The Fidelius Charm," Snape snarled, "is cast within the one that the person himself chooses. You're who he has chosen, so decide now. We have no time to spare."

And that was how Ginny Weasley became Draco's Secret Keeper. She had disappeared off to Wylam, an unknown town in Britain, and Ginny had no idea why she was giving up her life for someone who never did anything for her in return. All she knew was that a certain silvery-blond haired boy was in peril and the very thought cut into her heart like a cold blade.

There had been no time to tell her family anything and everything was done to create an invisible but impeccable barrier against Ginny and her past. All ties were severed and her family only knew she had disappeared, never to return.

so hundreds of years go by
(the red road carved up by sharp knife)
she's a girl out working her trade
and she loses a little each day
to what she has never learned
beyond the innocence she forgot
ask her what it is reflected in her eyes
She won't know what it stands for

The first few weeks were agony for she was always alone; she could speak to no one in fear that they would be on the dark side. She was ready to give up on a number of occasions and always cursed herself for accepting the Fidelus Charm. Draco was just one of many people in dire danger, just like Harry always was. She often asked herself why she had chosen to protect Draco instead of leaving Harry and her family's side, and also why she didn't just give up and betray her role as a Secret Keeper. The first question was impossible to answer and it may have had something to do with what happened in the Astronomy Tower, but Ginny never chose to dwell on it. She followed her heart and she wasn't one to doubt its decisions.

As for the latter question, Ginny distinctly remembered a night in the Gryffindor common room, only a few months before her final departure. She couldn't sleep that night for insecure dreams haunted her sleep, and she'd come down to find Harry on one of the scarlet couches. He was staring into the dark golden flames, as if hoping that they would swallow him up.

She'd stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching his moody profile until he sensed someone else there.

"Ginny?"

She moved away from the inky shadows and sat down next to him without a trace of embarrassment. Her infatuation with Harry had long ended back in her Fifth Year, and now they were just friends. Good friends, who understood each other even without words. They had sat like that before in other places, by the lake, on the Quidditch pitch, and even once in the Room of Requirement, but always with Hermione and Ron, never alone.

Harry turned to face her, his green eyes unreadable. Just like Draco's grey ones were all the time. "You should be in bed, Ginny."

"Who are you to talk?" she retorted gently. "Besides, I can't sleep."

"I know," He sighed and turned back to the fire. "I can't either."

After a while, he suddenly spoke again. "Does he still haunt you in your dreams?"

"No..." Ginny said slowly, knowing who it was Harry spoke of. "Tom is fading away slowly and although he will always be a part of me... I've grown up, you know, and Tom Riddle can't hurt me anymore. Even Voldemort, who he has become, isn't really one of my concerns. I'm worried about those who are sought after, like you, Harry. You are careful, but I worry so much that you'll do something rash and be hurt. Hermione feels the same way, just as she's done for the past six years ever since she became friends with you."

"Yes...I cause too much worry in everyone," Harry said quietly, his voice strangely bitter. "Everyone's concerned with the welfare of the Boy-Who-Lived-Who-Everyone-Expects-To-Save-The-World-Someday. Gin, no one understands and I know you won't either when you hear what I have to say. I'm not a hero. My parents were the heroes who died to save me, their pathetic son who's protected by their undying love and therefore always manages to escape Voldemort's plots."

Ginny knew it wasn't right to talk then, and although words of comfort were borne on her tongue she swallowed them and stared into the flames , listening to them crackle and hiss.

"I know I should be searching for Voldemort to kill him or something, so I can squish everyone's constant fear and worry. But I'm selfish. Yes, Ginny, selfish. All I want is my parents to be alive again, and I want it so badly that it haunts me every moment of night and day. I'd even sacrifice myself. I wish I could turn back time and somehow make sure I wasn't born so Voldemort wouldn't want to kill me so badly. So my parents would still be alive."

"No, you don't, Harry," Ginny spoke up, soft determination in her voice to prove him wrong.

"Yes, I do!" Harry leaned his head back against the soft cushions. "I'm always wanting to turn back time. I wish I could go back to Third year and kill Wormtail once and for all. That...traitor who betrayed my parents, and whom Voldemort has to thank for his renewed life. Why didn't I kill the rat when I had the chance? It all depended on him and he killed them. How could anyone have had the heart to turn on the ones who hung onto life with a slim finger hold?" he asked angrily.

"I don't know, Harry," Ginny had replied, biting her lip and feeling hollow inside. "I'm really sorry, I don't know the answers to your questions."

James Potter had been Wormtail's best friend and protector, and Peter betrayed him, which was unforgivable. Draco wasn't Ginny's friend though, and more like her enemy. But Ginny had a feeling that somehow, betraying your enemy was even worse. She vowed never to break her promise to Snape and Draco, and that she would never do to Draco what Peter had done to Harry's parents.

Another stream of tears were born from their miserable waiting, and trickled slowly down Ginny's face. Memories and the past were what brought her the greatest pain, and another one resurfaced. Betrayal... never had so many uses been found for just one word.

A flash of black across the faded pavement, and scarlet tumbled down among jagged stones of grey.

Only a freezing voice lifted her back to wretched consciousness, "Virginia Weasley."

"No," she whispered, knowing the voice.

"No? No one says no to the Dark Lord, my pet," drawled Voldemort, his voice enchanted to resemble how it had once been, when he was still Tom Riddle.

"I'm not," Ginny bit her lip halfway through, tasting metallic blood.

"Let's stop this exchange, and you can listen to my terms, Ginny."

"Terms?" her voice sounded frail and distant, even to her own ears.

"Do you love your brother, Miss Weasley?" The cool voice was mocking on the word 'love'.

"No! You can't- who-" Ginny tried to throw herself at Tom, but invisible bonds held her in place.

"I can and I will," Voldemort said quietly. "Do you love Ron? He is unconscious, but if he were awake he'd be very disappointed to know what you've done, my dear Virginia. And how you're hiding something that seems to be worth more than him, who is your faithful brother."

There was nothing she could do. Ron was the one who had been most protective of her, shielding her as well as he could against the cold and dark, never letting her date someone he didn't approve of. If he knew of what happened with Malfoy...

Malfoy. The name jerked her back to reality. "Why?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Why do you want him so badly?"

Voldemort didn't need clarification on who "him" was. "Virginia, you will never understand the deep chasm between my choices and power. Nor will you ever know of how a mind twisted by the world's cruelty and fear can work...you are far too innocent. Now, will you accept or not?"

Ginny almost said yes, her face betrayed all, but cruelty liked to flirt with the desperate. She heard once again Harry's words in the Gryffindor common room so long ago....and meanwhile, in her mind's eye, a thread of white-blonde hair streaked through it, and a pair of silver eyes haunted her with their deadened look.

"No," she said quietly, emotion lacking in her voice and spirit, and Disapparated. She did not wish to witness her brother's death by any means.

she may betray all that she loves
and even wait for their savior to come
and in some things, maybe he'll be right
but as always the thing that he loves
he will change from her sunrise to clockwise to soul trading
still she'll lay down her body and soul
to cover him all the same

she will betray

Ginny slipped under the coverlet, and despite its warmth she felt as cold as ice. Everything had gone horribly wrong. Her only choices; to betray her brother, her dearest blood kin, or to betray Draco, whom she could not for honor, or was it only that?

Draco had not disappeared, as far as she knew, but she didn't know where he was. She discovered that even when one was in hiding, where the only emotions were supposedly fear, other things could surface. She now knew why she had said yes to Snape that night- she loved Draco Malfoy, for all his emotionless words and cold nature. He would never love her back, but she would give him all in return.

Ginny supposed she deserved this anyway, for loving someone with no heart, for giving up her life without giving Life a chance, for betraying her family and the world which had been her guardian. But none of it mattered anymore.

Really, it was ironical how much it didn't matter anymore, for Draco Malfoy fell that moment on his own accord. He didn't think much of Ginny, who was only another one of them he played in the world that had done him only wrong. Secret Keeper; he'd needed one, and Ginny was the first name to find itself into his wasted mind. She was just a person who treated him with less than cruelty, and he could depend on her, that much Draco knew.

If he had been less tormented by the cruel world, and had his heart not been fashioned from ice, he may have discovered he loved her deep down.

But Draco would allow nothing more to hurt him, which love gave a terrible permission to go so. And only he himself would plunge the blade which brought about blood not red, but sharp silver bordering on the edge of black. There was no need to go on living, to continue to stain the world with his existence. The Malfoy line was disappearing rapidly, and the last sarcastic thought which twisted his mind was that they should have married at least one person who was not a Death Eater and consequentially tended to die off quickly.

how could they hold her against slipping away
to become an endless red river

-a life giving river
her kin and blood are freely given
and with a "goodbye" there she goes

Ginny felt him die, and the charm with which she had been bound vanished into a past of sorrow. She went with tears falling unconsciously to her owl to send a last letter to her family, asking them for forgiveness which she knew that she may never receive.

Then she walked outside, where it was as she expected; grey and misty whereas the moon had disappeared. The tears froze on her cheeks, her eyelashes, along with the steady raindrops. My dream self was right; it is too late and I'm sorry for failing you just like the rest of the world has always done unto you. It was never kind to me either, nor was I in return. But in the end, I regret nothing that I've done.

She thought back to her dream; when she had been searching for a strand of silver hair as one of her many poignant memories. Were you ever even a memory of mine, Draco? Thine hair is vibrant but cannot move mountains still of thought...

And then with a vicious spell she took her last breath. It was one of the most deadly and cruel dark curses, the Conglacius Curse, and turned her bloodstream into ice. Ginny gave her dying smile alongside the agony, which attempted to wash away her sins but instead froze them in place. All along her life, she had been flirting with Death and sleeping with Betrayal. Nothing would change.

The mist of grey only left with daybreak, which lit a fallen angel's body strewn with shriveled flowers, the colour of dust. There was no wound on her pale limbs, but if one could have see her body within would they have realized the terrible wrongs a world can do to two young children, represented here by only one. Her veins were translucent and brittle with frost, blue and violet and black all at once. Only in one place a few drops of scarlet remained- where her heart was once shattered into shards that had sliced her skin from within.

Oh Virginia
do you remember
when the land held your hand
oh Virginia
she will let you back in
oh Virginia
you can't remember your name...