Jigsaw

Chapter 12: Heroes and Villains

He is running to the Gryffindor tower. His mind is flashing with images of her, her face glowing red with embarrassment and happiness and her freckles standing out clear as day against her pale skin.

He barely notices that he is nearing the Fat Lady until he feels himself collide with something hard.

He falls onto his back and feels his head strike stone. It hurts enough to stun him for a moment, but then he is scrambling to his feet to see what it is he ran into.

And he finds himself staring straight at Harry Potter.

"Potter, what in bloody hell are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" he responds, rubbing his forehead, where their heads must have collided. "What are you doing on this side of the school?"

Well," Draco says smoothly, dusting off the front of his black trousers. "It’s a free school. I can go anywhere I want."

Harry is standing now, and turning away.

"Besides," he continues, "I was looking for a certain redhead we both know. Have you seen her?"

"What do you want with Ginny?"

"That, Potter, is none of your business."

Harry glares at him. "You stay away from her Malfoy."

"I don’t think that’s your place to say, Pothead. Now, have you seen her or not?"

"I don’t care what you think you have going with her, it had better stop."

"Really?" Draco asks sarcastically, cocking an eyebrow. "And what do you intend to do about it?"

"Well, I’m sure Ginny will come to her senses eventually. I mean, sure, she didn’t take it to heart this morning, but –"

"Wait. You talked to Ginny about this, this morning?"

"Yeah," Harry says levelly, meeting Draco’s angry gaze. "Yeah, I did."

"Potter, you are a moron! A bloody effing moron!"

"What in hell do you mean, calling me a moron?"

"You really know nothing, do you? Do you have any idea what you may have just done?"

"I haven’t done anything!"

"You should consider yourself lucky that I am in a hurry right now, because if I wasn’t, I would hex you into oblivion. But no, now I have to go play the bloody Hero, because you already played the part of the Evil Villain."

Harry stares at him in bemusement.

"Oh, but don’t worry. When I get my Triumphant Return, we’ll be hexing up a storm."

Chapter 13: Blood of the Earth

She is running. She isn’t sure where she is going, only that she must get away. Away from Harry. Away from Hogwart’s. Away from life.

She wishes that Draco was with her. She has a strange hunch that if he were, she would feel a whole world better. But he undoubtedly has better things to do.

Her mind is on Harry. On what he said.

And the fact that he is right.

Ron would have rather died than seen his sister with a Malfoy.

But we haven’t even done anything. I haven’t even kissed him.

But that isn’t for lack of wanting. And maybe wanting him does make me as bad as he is.

But how bad is he? Really? Sure, he’s a sarcastic bastard most of the time, but lately he has been . . .

What? Sweet? That’s not exactly the word.

Just...

Different.

She is outside now, running toward Hagrid’s hut.

And towards the edge of the forest.

--

Professor Vector’s room is empty. Not that he really expected her to be there anyway. Too predictable.

Wherever she is going, she doesn’t want to be found.

Which is precisely why I need to find her so badly.

He is sighing loudly, pacing beside one of the windows, when he sees a flash of red out of the corner of his eye.

He turns his attention to the window, and sees a tiny figure running toward the Forbidden Forest.

A tiny, red haired figure.

–

Ginny trips over a tree root and falls face first onto the ground. Her tears mix with the dirt on her face. She struggles to her feet, and then collapses once more.

She feels sick, sick and disgusted with herself.

She sits down, indian style and shrugs off her robes, tossing them to the ground next to her.

And pulls out the razor.

As she cuts, her vision goes slightly blurry.

The world begins to spin in front of her.

She drops the blade and is able to take in the blood running down her arms before all goes black.

--

Draco runs as fast as he can to the edge of the forest.

There, he stops, his deep-seated fear of the dark depths of the forest returning to him in a rush. He recalls his first year, when he had to go in for a detention, with Potter, of all people. He knows Harry was laughing at him for his fear. But the forest was always his one weakness.

Before her, that is.

He takes a few deep breaths before burying the fear under his determination to find Ginny before something really bad happens.

Unless it already has.

He pushes that thought away and starts running once more.

--

It is fairly deep into the forest when he finally catches anther glimpse of red hair.

He slows to a walk, so as not to frighten her, and makes his way toward her.

But when he is closer, he feels his heart drop into his stomach.

It is Ginny, alright, but she is unconscious, in a puddle of her own blood.