Osiris Curse

Ginny lay in bed, utterly dreading what was coming tomorrow. Not only would she be having potions and Transfiguration, but also she would be having Muggle Studies.

The class had gone from her favorite to the most formidable, all because of that damned Malfoy. Sure, they wouldn't be working on their project, seeing as they'd finished and turned it in, but they still had to sit next to each other since the seating from the first class became permanent.

"I was a complete and utter idiot!" Ginny thought to herself, "How could I have ever thought of him as a friend?"

The light snoring from the surrounding beds let her know that she was awake well into the night.

"I'm never going to get to sleep if I don't get this off my chest! I need someone's advice!" she concluded.

She began going through a list of people she could talk to, "Kat? No, were not very close, she wouldn't understand. Celeste? Elaine? No, they're just like Kat. Ron?" The name of her brother caused her to snicker without much mirth.

"I could just see his face, if I were to tell him I was upset because Malfoy hurt me. And not only that but, the fact that I'm hurt because I had considered him a sort-of friend until this afternoon, would send him into conniptions! He'd burst into the Slytherin dormitories and kill him on the spot!" she thought to herself, enjoying the mental picture of Malfoy rolling on the floor in pain. Not only until she heard the sound of her own evil laughter did she shake her head and continue.

"Harry?" This caused her to blush several shades of red. Never, she'd be to embarrassed.

"Hermione? Yea, that could work. She wouldn't tell Harry or Ron if I asked her not to. She gives good advice, and her two best friends are guys, so she knows that boys can be idiots. Hermione it is!" she decided, and with that ran up to the next dormitory.

Being as quiet as she could as to not wake Pavarti or Lavender, Ginny ran towards Hermione's bed.

Yanking the curtains away she ran up to the bed's edge. Ginny pulled the curtains back around and cast a silencing spell. She didn't want anyone to hear what she had to say, plus, Lavendar and Pavarti weren't the best secret keepers. She tapped Hermione on the shoulder.

"Hermione, wake up! C'mon, wake up Hermione!" she whispered at the same time as poking Hermione hard in the shoulder.

"Huh? What? What izzit?" Hermione groaned, obviously disgruntled.

Ginny stepped back and waited for Hermione to get all her senses back.

Hermione slowly sat up and yawned. Blinking several times she looked around.

"Ginny? Why on earth are you waking me up in the middle of the night?" she asked.

Ginny couldn't resist the urge and said, "It's not the middle of the night! What are you talking about? It's 10:00 a.m! You slept through your first two classes!"

"WHAT!?" Hermione screeched and immediately jumped out of bed. "Oh my god, oh my god! My chances at Head Girl are gone! Professor McGonnagall will never forgive me! What will everyone say? I'm going to kill Harry and Ron! Why would they leave me behind? They're such insufferable prats!" she babbled as she scurried frantically back and forth.

Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm and said will snickering, "Calm down, I was kidding! Class won't start for another couple of hours."

Hermione scowled and sat down on the bed next to Ginny.

"You can be so much like your brother sometimes!"

This caused Ginny to scowl as well.

"I am nothing like Ron! He's an immature goof and I am a mature young lady!"

"Yes, that's why you woke me up extremely early and played a prank on me," Hermione retorted, but without any anger in her voice, just a tinge of annoyance.

Ginny's countenance changed once again into a very somber expression.

"Well, that's not why I came up here," Ginny said.

Hermione could detect the sadness in the younger girl's voice and immediately softened her expression.

"Well, then why are you waking me up at this early hour? Is something wrong?"

"Um... look can I please ask you to promise not to tell Ron or Harry about this?"

"My lips are sealed."

"And do you promise to keep a very open mind about what I'm about to tell you?"

"Ginny? Are you... pregnant?" Hermione asked with astonishment.

Ginny's face contorted with mortification.

"No! Of course not! God, you sound like my mom!"

"Ok, good. If you were, Ron would kill you and whomever it was who got you pregnant. I mean, you sure you're not pregnant? I've heard some girls start at a very early age."

"I'M NOT PREGNANT!" Ginny yelled, thanking god she had put a silencing spell on the curtains.

"No need to yell! So, what do you want to tell me?"

"Well... I don't know how to start so I'll just start talking and hopefully it'll come out right."

And so Ginny told Hermione everything. She began from the concert, in which she had Hermione swear never to say anything or she'd be forced to spill about Hermione's crush on Ron. Ginny felt horrible about breaking the promise, but really Draco broke it first, and Hermione wouldn't quite understand the situation without knowing about it. Ginny told all about how the worked together and how he made her a glass rose. Then about Draco's insults back in the Great Hall.

When Ginny finished, she had a dry lump caught in her throat. Hermione sat quietly throughout her whole story, her expression never changing.

"Wow," was all Hermione said and then there was silence.

"You really think Malfoy has a nice side to him?" Hermione added.

"Yes, well, no... well... I thought he did, then he became so mean," Ginny said, sort of wistfully.

"I hate to say this Gin, but Draco is mean. His father is a Death-Eater, he was raised to be a spoiled brat, your families have a long-running rivalry; I mean how could he be anything but mean and despicable and detestable and-"

"Ok, I get it!" Ginny exclaimed.

Hermione looked sheepish and said, "Sorry, I got a bit carried away there, huh?"

"Um... yea!"

Both girls began to giggle.

Hermione stopped laughing first and said, "Look Gin, maybe next time you see Malfoy you'll be able to tell how you feel about him. Maybe this is just a little phase that started from the concert. Which, may I add, Ron would have a field day if he knew."

"Yea, I can see it now. He probably wouldn't be able to move he'd be paralyzed with laughter. Thanks Herm, for the advice. I'm glad I can trust you."

"No problem! Now run back to bed. Sleep is important for being able to fully grasp everything taught during the school day."

Ginny rolled her eyes and ran down to bed, feeling considerably better than before.

Though, Ginny highly doubted she would tell Malfoy her "feelings," as Hermione had so gracefully put it.

But that was before she fell asleep. In her dream, she was in her gray place once again.

Except, this was different. This was new and yet familiar, all too familiar. Ginny knew she was experiencing dejavu, but she couldn't place it. There was a nagging voice in the back of her head, however, that said she knew this and she didn't like it.

Ginny moved in the gray expanse with no sense of where she was or where she was going. It wasn't really her though. Well she had a sense of auto-recognition, except she didn't quite have a physical embodiment. It wasn't a place where there was solid image of yourself or surroundings. It wasn't a place where you were complex. Everything was simplified. She wasn't Ginny Weasley, she was just... just something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was something she only knew by her heart, there were no words for it. It was as if her past life meant nothing, her future as well. It was a moment of Now. She was just her soul, if that made sense. She couldn't quite understand it either.

Her veins surged with a feeling of power. Well, her veins weren't quite there but her soul was flooded with a sense of supreme command. A new word flooded her thoughts, followed by others. It was almost a language, but not quite. Yet, she understood. Everything in the world made sense.

Ginny had unlocked it. She had unlocked the secret of everything. The great question of "Why?" was answered. It all made perfect sense! She went through a period of great elation. Then she began to feel it.

Everything she'd gained was being stripped away from her, painfully. It was all spinning away from her. She lashed out, trying to grasp if only a single piece of the utopia she'd discovered. And there was nothing.

She felt emotionally naked. As if her whole being had been forcibly removed from her, leaving her as just an empty shell. She wept metaphysical tears.

Then she heard it.

It was incoherent at first, as if someone was speaking softly from far away. I began to get louder but sounded as it were being gargled underwater. Then it started getting clearer.

"...ome...ee...el...raaan...co...m...da...ann...."

Ginny strained to listen.

"Come to me, my Beldaran......" a voice hissed.

Beldaran! That was it! That was her being. That's who she was, her missing part that had been found. The sound of the name gave her a renewed strength and being.

"Yes... that is it..." the voice hissed.

The power she was gaining was filtering out once again. Ginny felt like an addict, desperately in need of the feeling of elation it caused.

"Thank you, my sweet, my Beldaran. Until next time." The voice hissed once more.

A darkness threw itself at her, enveloping her...

Sweating Ginny thrashed out in bed. Panting, Ginny took a moment to realize where she was: the Gyrffindor girl's fourth year dormitory.* Ginny tried to remember what had happened. All she could remember was a sense of happiness, a sense of emptiness, and a word... no, a name. What was it?

Beldaran

Yes, that was it! The meaning of it, she didn't know, but she sensed that whatever strange things that'd been happening to her lately were all connected with it. She knew it.

Ginny wasn't eleven anymore. Whatever was happening, she'd figure it out.

No one was fooling Ginny this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny sat in the midst of utter chaos that is the Gryffindor table. As a buttered roll went flying by her face, she smiled. "So much like home..." she thought to herself.

In front of her was Colin, talking to his brother about something muggle called a television. Apparently, this 'television' was something he was considering asking Dumbledore to add in the common rooms. Ginny had no interest in this conversation and turned to survey the rest of her surroundings. Next to her were Hermione and Ron, who were currently arguing about whether skiving History of Magic was a good idea. Harry sat across from them watching the repartee with a look of amusement.

"Mione, no one pays attention to Binn's anyway! It's like we're not even there, except we are, just stuck in a dusty classroom, when we could be having fun!" Ron said, amazingly enough, making sense.

"What do you mean you don't pay attention?!" Hermione asked, mortified. "Do you realize, you need to learn your history to get anywhere in life? Anyway, what kind of example would you be setting as a Prefect to the younger students if you just skived off class?"

"A fun one," Ron said blandly.

"Honestly! Here, you are given the privilege of learning new and exciting things and you try and weasel out of it!"

"But it's not new and exciting! It's old and boring! It's about as interesting as watching Harry try to tame his hair! Well, ok that's always to fun to watch, but History of Magic is still boring!"

"Hey!" Harry piped up.

His comment went unnoticed as the battle between Ron and Hermione raged on.

Harry gave Ginny a look that clearly said that this could go on for awhile. Ginny gave a small smile and then ducked seeing as Hermione had just thrown another buttered roll at Ron and missed. Ron began to immediately retort,

"You have the worst aim, Mione! Ow! Oh now you decide to learn how to throw! When you throw a roll you miss but a fork you aim perfectly! I have to go to the hospital wing now! I'm going to bleed to death!"

That was Ron, always the exaggerated baby.

She finished her breakfast and then grabbed her bag, ready to head to her class.

"I'm heading to class, guys, but I'll see you later," Ginny said as she checked to make sure she had everything in her bag.

Hermione gave her a small smile and said goodbye then asked Ron icily, "Don't you think we should be doing the same?"

Ron grunted in discontent, which Hermione took as a yes and cheered up immensely. Ginny suspected the only reason he agreed was that he didn't want to have another fork thrown at him. She could understand that.

Ginny headed out through the Great Doors and started up the stairs, still chuckling about breakfast.

Once past the doors, Ginny saw a couple of gossipy Hufflepuffs to one side and to the other side was Draco Malfoy with several Slytherins who he was currently chatting up a storm with. "No doubt telling them all about how he's You-Know-Who's number one Death Eater, and a whole bunch of nonsense like that," she thought.

"You know," she continued to reason with herself, "He did break his end of the deal..." Ginny's face twisted into a very evil grin.

Making sure Draco still hadn't seen her; she went over to the Hufflepuffs. "This couldn't be more perfect!" she thought as she got near.

She recognized one of the girls, what was her name? Amelia! That was it!

"Amelia! How are you?" she said, smiling a sickeningly fake smile.

Amelia gave a nervous smile back, as if unsure whether Ginny would bite. Her friends regarded her similarly.

"Um, Hey Ginny. I'm fine and you?"

Ginny reverted into full gossip mode, which she accomplished by pretending she was Lavendar or Pavarti. Which, it wasn't at all too hard.

"Well, I heard the best piece of gossip! Gossip so good that people will be talking about this for weeks! Want to hear it?"

"Do we ever!" Amelia responded glancing at her friends.

"Well, you didn't hear it from me, but..." she trailed off, trying to maintain a point of high suspension.

"But what?!" All the Hufflepuffs said vehemently.

All the Slytherins turned to see the group that was causing so much noise. They all turned back to their conversations except Draco who gave Ginny a suspicious look then smiled a small smile with a look like, "You wouldn't believe how boring these people are! Rather be talking with you." He turned back to the group and again turned on the Malfoy charm. (Which only works on Slytherins. All other houses are perfectly immune. In fact sometimes it causes a member of another house to get quite sick.)

There he went again! Messing with her head! What was he up to?

"Ginny! What was your great piece of gossip?" Amelia asked eagerly.

Should she tell them? He could be so nice sometimes, like a friend. Then she remembered yesterday's comments. No! He couldn't get away with breaking his end of the deal! It wasn't fair! Ginny took a big breath and said,

"Well, I happen to know that someone saw Draco Malfoy; you do know who he is right?"

"Of course! The brat of Slytherin! The prince of evil! Any other bad titles! The guy over there surrounded by his evil kind!" a kid said and they all laughed; except Ginny, who forced a weak one. She noticed they began to head into the Great Hall, Draco's silvery-blonde hair disappearing behind the dark mahogany doors. With an odd feeling in her stomach, Ginny continued

"Yes, well, someone, who shall remain anonymous, saw Draco Malfoy, at the free Celestina Warbeck concert this summer. Turns out he quite enjoys her music. I suppose he's not the tough guy he thinks he is. He was actually dancing to the music," she said as nonchalantly as she could manage. So he hadn't been dancing to the music, but she needed permanent reputation damage.

All the Hufflepuffs gasped then burst into giggles. The giggles quickly morphed into raucous laughter. Soon many people were leaning on each other for support seeing as their own knees had given way.

"Yeah right. C'mon, really what's the piece of gossip?" Amelia finally asked.

They hadn't believed her!

"No, I'm serious!"

"Really?" a Hufflepuff girl asked incredulously. "No joke?"

"No joke. But you will keep this between us right? That could be so embarrassing!" Ginny said in a very phony voice, knowing they would never keep this to themselves.

"Oh! Of course not!" They all said with a mischievous gleam in their eyes.

Just as Ginny planned. By the end of the day, everyone would know. Also, by the end of the day, the story would probably grow and Draco would be more embarrassed than ever.

Ginny should feel very triumphant, and she did. But she couldn't ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her mind. Then a thought struck her.

When Draco found out that she told, how would he react?

Ginny decided she'd watch her back a little more carefully from now on, but still delighted in the fact that she got Malfoy back better than the Trio ever could have done. That would teach him.

Anyone walking past would have seen Ginny Weasley laughing to herself all the way to her first class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny sat in Defense Against Dark Arts, which tended to be quite a fun class. Despite her appearance, Mrs. Figg could be quite a good teacher.

They were currently covering the creation of the Unforgivable Curses and what exactly each did.

She did not like, Professor Mad-Eye Moody (well Barty Crouch), actually perform the curses but she did go into detail.

Many students were quite disappointed and began to whisper amongst themselves.

Ginny could hear snippets of the conversation as she diligently took notes.

"Hey did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"That Draco Malfoy sings karaoke in pubs to Celestina Warbeck!"

"No way! You're kidding!"

"It's true! Apparently he made up a dance routine for it too!

Ginny snickered to herself about how this story was growing. How people could believe a story that wild proved her point about the intelligence of most students at Hogwarts. But what did it matter? By the end of the day, Draco's reputation would be about ruined; it'd be ripped to shreds. Then she could take those little pieces and stomp on them, and then she could feed them to Pigwidgeon.

This was worth pretty much every insult a Malfoy had ever thrown at a Weasley.

My, my, quite an accomplishment for a young Weasley, quite an accomplishment indeed.