Crepúsculo

Author's Notes: Thanks to Soz for the beta. Sorry for the long wait between chapters, as always. I started writing this fic before OotP, so it's only based on canon up through GoF although there are some mentions of things that will sound familiar from later canon, if you look for them.

Crepúsculo

Chapter Eight

The Other Side

Once the decision had been made, it was entirely too easy to continue. Entirely too easy for Ginny's feet to lead her to deserted hallways, to empty classrooms, to the room at the top of the North Tower where Draco was waiting. It was effortless, almost: she barely had to think of when she might find a free moment to be with him. Entire days seemed full of time to snatch away. And if she was neglecting her schoolwork, if she was sometimes late for Quidditch practice, no one noticed, no one said anything. It was November, now, moving quickly into winter, and people were beginning to retreat into themselves, to ask fewer questions. If that made it easier for Ginny to meet with Draco, she certainly wasn't complaining.

She was giddy every time she went to meet him, and every time she left him the only thing she could think of when they could meet again. She could not get enough of him. They could never meet for long, though. Much as she wanted him, Ginny was not stupid. They were being reckless enough as it was; there was no need to take unnecessary risks. Their encounters were always brief.

Except in the North Tower.

The paintings along the spiral staircase did not frighten Ginny any longer. They had become utterly familiar to her, now that she saw them nearly every day. At the top of the stairs the door was unlocked. Ginny pulled it open and entered, locking it behind her.

Draco was reading in the armchair by the fire, as he often did when waiting for her to arrive. He was always there before her, no matter how she hurried. She didn't know how he managed it. She half-wondered if he'd found a way to Apparate within the castle walls.

In contrast to the hallways the little round room was toasty from the fire. Ginny had on her thick winter cloak and layers beneath it, but Draco wore only a thin sweater and looked completely at ease. He hadn't even acknowledged her presence, but she was sure he was simply engrossed in his book. She didn't really mind waiting. In fact she enjoyed having this excuse to watch him. His face was molded into an expression of intense concentration. Unconsciously he tugged at the hair beside his ear, twisted it between his fingers. With effort Ginny resisted the urge to reach out and touch it herself, take his fingers in hers . . . But here in the tower room there was no rush. There would be plenty of time for that.

She took off her winter cloak and draped it over the table. Beneath the cloak she was wearing a jumper her mother had knitted for her, and below that her school uniform. Were it not for the Heating Charms on her skirt and stockings she didn't know how she would survive the winter. It was only the beginning of November now. She hated to think how much colder it was going to get.

But not in the room at the top of the tower. She took off the Weasley Jumper. She was wearing the one with a Gryffindor lion knitted on it, just like the one Mum had knitted for Harry for Christmas years ago. She'd begged Mum to knit her one just like it, which Mum had done, but then she'd been too embarrassed to wear it anytime Harry would be around . . . how silly she'd been. Next came off the school jumper, then the tie. She unbuckled her shoes. Finally, as she began to peel off her stockings, she felt Draco's eyes on her.

"What were you reading?" she asked, continuing to remove the stocking from her left leg. Deliberately she did it slowly, to see if she could provoke a reaction. At first it didn't look likely, but then, for the briefest of moments, Draco's jaw slackened. Inwardly she smirked.

"Arithmancy theory," Draco said finally, after she'd almost forgotten she'd asked a question.

"Fascinating," Ginny said, removing the other stocking.

"It was, actually."

Ginny moved her hands to her throat, began to unbutton her blouse.

"Here," Draco said, pulling her towards him. "Let me."

Teasing him with a bit of her leg, the hollow of her throat, had been one thing, but Draco's hands ghosting over her sternum, her breasts, was quite another. She closed her eyes for a moment, giving in to the feel of it. The blouse slipped off her shoulders. She arched her back to make it easier to remove and opened her eyes just in time to see Draco's face centimeters away from hers. He pulled her down on top of him and crushed his mouth against hers. Beneath her his body was hard and lean, and oh, how she wanted him. For the briefest of moments she knew that right now she would promise anything he asked . . . But then he was pulling off his jumper and unbuttoning his trousers and Ginny didn't think anymore at all.

-----

A week later it was so cold that the Heating Charms on the castle could barely keep the place above freezing. Dumbledore decided to redirect the strength of the charms into the classrooms and turn off the heat in the hallways entirely. The halls were always drafty in winter, but it was miserable going between classes now. Ginny took to wearing her dragonhide Potions gloves over her ordinary wool ones, and one day Cora even went so far as to wrap herself in her duvet for class. It was entirely unnoticeable beneath her winter cloak, except for the fact that it made her approximately three times her ordinary width and she kept bumping into people and doorframes. Ginny was a bit jealous: Cora's face looked distinctly less blue than it had the day before--at least, the part of it she could see through Cora's balaclava.

No one had the slightest idea what was causing this cold. It was the coldest it had been in the winter at Hogwarts in fifty-odd years, according to the school records, and it wasn't even December yet. There were all sorts of outlandish rumors going around: a volcano had erupted in the South Pacific and had thrown off the world's climate (except that Ginny was fairly certain the cold was Scotland-specific); Dementors were breeding (which caused cold, McGonagall had explained one day after growing sick of hearing students whisper theories to each other instead of taking notes, but also caused fog, of which they had had none, so would everyone please shut up and pay attention?); and even that the Dark Lord had cast a giant Freezing Charm on the northern part of Britain.

As for the third rumor, the method of causing the cold was unlikely enough--who had ever heard of casting a Freezing Charm over an entire region?--but even more bizarre was the notion that the Dark Lord was behind it. It had been well more than two years since Harry Potter had come out of the Third Task clutching Cedric Diggory's body and yelling that You-Know-Who had returned. Officially the Ministry hadn't believed him, but enough others had that it had seemed like maybe they'd stand a chance if the Dark Lord attacked . . . And then nothing had happened. For more than two years, there had not been a single sign of You-Know-Who. The Death Eaters Harry had named as answering to the Dark Lord's call were doing what they usually did, being solicitors or Ministry executioners or rich men who didn't work. Maybe there were still suspicions surrounding them, but that was mostly from the war that had ended sixteen years ago, not from anything new they had done.

It wasn't that people didn't believe Harry. It was just--if the Dark Lord had risen, where was he now? What was he doing? If he really wanted to rid the world of Muggleborns and take over Britain, why hadn't he tried to do so already?

Most people just weren't thinking about him anymore. Which was why Ginny was curious. What had made the Dark Lord appear in the realm of possibilities again? Was someone just overly imaginative, or was there more to it than that?

It just seemed unlikely that he would be back, and doing something like trying to freeze Britain to death. From everything Ginny knew about You-Know-Who, if he were going to return, he would do so in some overly dramatic fashion, exploding bridges or murdering Muggles. The volcanic eruption theory seemed more likely than that You-Know-Who was behind the cold, and that was really saying something. Mostly Ginny just hoped it would get warmer.

-----

On the third Friday in November it was so cold that Ginny was actually wearing her dragonhide gloves in class. It made taking notes significantly more difficult, which wouldn't have been such a problem were it not for the fact that Flitwick had specifically said at the start of class that this material was going to be covered on the final in June. Seeing as it was November and the idea of June was so far-fetched as to seem entirely improbable, Ginny wasn't particularly concerned about the final at the moment; but she'd been with Draco before class, in a tiny, freezing broom closet, and by the time she'd arrived the only seats left were the ones at the very front of the room, where Flitwick couldn't fail to notice it if she weren't dutifully recording every word of the lesson.

He was lecturing at an incredible rate this morning, too, which made her already-clumsy handwriting even more illegible. ". . . There are three main varieties of Influence Charms: Persuasive, Dissuasive and Strengthening. Persuasive Influence Charms work to convince the subject that he wants to do something he had not previously intended to do. Dissuasive Influence Charms convince the subject not to do something he had previously intended to do, and Strengthening Influence Charms move the subject's opinion further in the direction it already tended.

"An example of a Persuasive variant is a Desirable Charm, sometimes used in advertising. Muggle Repelling Charms fall under the category of Dissuasive Charms, and Strengthening Charms have historically been used in Ministerial elections to influence swing voters. There are serious restrictions on the use of all Influence Charms today, however, as Influence Charms can be considered Dark magic depending on the context in which they are used. The wizarding world could not exist as it currently does without Influence Charms, as they are largely responsible for preventing the Muggle world at large from learning of our existence; however, it should be noted that Influence Charms are the direct predecessors of one of the Unforgivables, the Imperius Curse.

"The main distinction between Influence Charms and the Imperius Curse is that Influence Charms are cast on an object with which the subject comes into contact--Muggle Repelling Charms, for instance, are cast on fences or buildings--whereas the Imperius Curse is cast direct on the subject himself. Also, the effects of Influence Charms end when the subject is no longer in contact with the object upon which the charm was cast, whereas the effects of the Imperius Curse end only when the countercurse has been cast upon the subject.

"However, before the creation of the Imperius Curse by Admalgius Filius in 1286, he and others developed some extremely dangerous hybrids. If you turn to page 327 in the text, you can see the most infamous of these hybrids, developed by Salazar Slytherin . . ."

Ginny fumbled with her Charms book. Flipping pages while wearing dragonhide gloves was nearly impossible, but she wasn't about to take them off. After a struggle she managed to get to page 382--wasn't that close enough?--then, with considerable effort, 297. 318 . . . finally, 327.

There was a column of text on the left, a picture at the top of the page and another on the bottom. Ginny didn't really notice what she was looking at at first, but then her eye caught on the picture at the bottom. Her breath stuck in her throat. There, in her textbook, was her necklace. It was unmistakable: the milky gray stone, the blue flecks, the intricate silver of the backing . . . With effort Ginny refrained from clutching at her neck. Instead she forced herself to place her hands on the table in front of her, to read the caption beside the picture:

According to legend, Salazar Slytherin used this necklace to seduce Rowena Ravenclaw, who had been in love with Godric Gryffindor, his rival. He gave the necklace to her as a gift. It was meant to have taken Ravenclaw's preexisting feelings for Gryffindor and shifted them towards Slytherin instead. Gryffindor purportedly learned what Slytherin had done, a discovery which further strained their already-crumbling relationship . . .

The necklace might have been used to other, more devious ends in the centuries since that time, but as far as history is aware, Slytherin's only use for the necklace was to make Ravenclaw fall in love with him.

There was more information down side of the page, which Ginny began to read: Walter of Brighton used another hybrid in 1134 to convince Meredith Black to marry him so that he could gain control of her family's lands . . . Slytherin's necklace passed out of the record after 1735, and some historians argue that it was nothing more than a myth from the start . . . Oh, it wasn't a myth; Ginny knew it all too well. She was wearing this myth around her neck, and she knew from the sinking in her gut that it wasn't a myth, that it couldn't be. She needed to tear it from her neck immediately, but she waited. She couldn't do such a thing in front of the class. She couldn't have that many witnesses. Thank goodness Jeremy wasn't in Charms with her: he would have recognized the necklace immediately. He would have Charms soon, though, and Flitwick would teach the same class, and he would see the necklace . . . but no, she had more immediate things to worry about; she would deal with that when it came up.

She looked down at her book, thinking to read more, but there was a commotion at the back of the room: Laraby Wilkinson was squawking behind her, flailing her arms wildly. Her sleeves and the desk in front of her were on fire.

"She was trying to keep herself warm!" yelled Mike, snorting laughter, as Flitwick rushed to the back of the room and began trying to douse the fire. Finite Incantatem only made the flames grow higher, but it went out quickly after Flitwick Summoned some water.

Laraby shrieked somehow even louder when Flitwick dumped water on her as she had when she'd been burning, and everyone else was yelling: casting Drying Charms on their clothes, laughing at Laraby's plight, yelling because everyone else was yelling and why not? It was easy for Ginny to slip out of the room unnoticed. There were still thirty minutes left in the lesson, but Ginny was fairly certain that they weren't going to get anything else done.

She didn't really know where she was planning to go until she found herself at the entrance to the North Tower. Draco came here often even during the day, she knew, but she knew also that he wouldn't be here right now: he had double Arithmancy on Fridays, and he never skipped that class. She had at least thirty minutes undisturbed--and for once, that was exactly what she wanted, was to be away from Draco. Because of this necklace . . .

Ginny closed and locked the door, though she had no fear that anyone other than Draco would come looking here. She slumped down in the armchair and told herself to calm down. She couldn't be sure yet that the necklace she'd seen in the book was really hers, could she? But no--the moment she'd seen it, she'd known. Who could have possibly given it to her?

She thought back to that morning on the Hogwarts Express, when Jeremy had picked it up off the ground and given it to her. "It must have fallen out of your pocket," wasn't that what he'd said? How did she know Jeremy hadn't given it to her, pretending to be unaware of its existence? He was a good actor, she knew. But no, it hadn't been Jeremy. Why would he have given her such a thing? She couldn't think of a single reason. Not only that, she knew Jeremy. He hadn't been lying when he'd said the necklace had fallen out of her pocket on the train; his surprise had been as great as hers.

Who else had she seen that morning? Cora, Maggie, Mike, Laraby . . . but she hadn't been close enough to any of them for them to have slipped a necklace into her pocket. She'd barely sat in the compartment for a minute before Jeremy had pulled her out into the hall. It couldn't have been any of them. And before that she'd been in the compartment with Harry, Ron and Hermione. The idea that any of them could have given it to her was laughable. One of them, in possession of a necklace created by Salazar Slytherin? She couldn't think of a more ridiculous idea.

There was always the possibility that it had been given to her by a random person, on Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters maybe, or in Kings Cross proper, before she'd gotten on the train . . . but that too was unlikely. She was only thinking that because there was another possibility, the most obvious one, and yet out of all people she most wanted it not to be him: Draco, of course. In truth, she had thought of him first, but she had wanted to exhaust all other possibilities before admitting it to herself. And much as she'd wanted it not to be true that it had been him, it must be. Who else could it have been?

She thought about the fight that morning on the Hogwarts Express. There was nothing abnormal about Draco Malfoy picking a fight with Harry and Ron, but when she thought about it now, there had really been no reason for the fight. Unless he'd been planning it as a distraction. Malfoy would have known that Harry and Ron couldn't resist a fight--not that that was a secret; Ginny rather suspected that the majority of wizarding Britain was well aware of that fact--and what better time to plant the necklace, than when everyone was preoccupied? She couldn't think of a specific moment when Malfoy would have done it, but he was sneaky; she had just missed it.

As to why he would have done it . . . She delayed the thought as long as she could, but it kept coming: what was the biggest thing that had changed in her life since September first? She had fallen in love with Draco. (The thought gave her pause, but as quickly as she had thought it she knew it was true: she had fallen in love with Draco, she was in love with him.) She could pinpoint the beginning of the whole thing exactly, too. Before September first there had been not a hint of such feelings, and even on the first, when Malfoy had entered their compartment, she hadn't felt anything other than the usual hatred for him. Only later, after she'd put the necklace on, had she felt anything different: that nausea during the Opening Feast. She'd looked at Draco and then she'd felt sick--surely she should have noticed the timing there, especially when Draco had followed her to the toilets afterwards. And yet at the time she hadn't noticed a connection between the events. How blind she'd been! Of course she wouldn't just fall in love with Draco Malfoy out of nowhere. Of course there would have been some sort of impetus.

But why would Draco (Malfoy, call him Malfoy) have wanted her to fall in love with him in the first place? What good would it do him if she were in love with him? That was the part that didn't make sense.

Ginny realized suddenly that through all of this musing she had been twisting the necklace around and around on her sternum, that she still hadn't taken it off. Her thought in Flitwick's class had been to rip it off her neck, but really there was no need for such dramatics. After Laraby's performance there had been enough of that for one day already.

Ginny reached around her neck and undid the clasp, catching the necklace and cupping it in her hand. The necklace was warm from her body heat. It was a pretty piece of jewelry but there was nothing extraordinary about it. Experimentally she placed it on the floor. She didn't feel any different, not touching it. Weren't you supposed to feel different, coming out from under the Imperius Curse? She knew this wasn't the Imperius Curse, not exactly, but if the necklace had been influencing her in some way, wouldn't she notice the lack of that influence?

Maybe she would only notice the different when she saw Draco again. The necklace hadn't had any effect on her when she'd first put it on, either. It was only after she'd seen him in the Great Hall that anything had changed. Maybe the same was true for coming out from under the effects of the necklace: she had to see Draco for things to change.

A sense of caution she hadn't known she possessed crept into her thoughts. She must not rush up to him and confront him about the necklace. If he had given it to her (and she knew that he had; she just didn't want to let go of the near-impossible chance that she was wrong) then she needed to be careful around him. Who could say why he had given her that necklace? She didn't know, but whatever the reason, it couldn't be good. And now that she was thinking of danger, dozens of other signs that she should have had cause to fear him sprang to mind, the incident in the Shrieking Shack foremost among them. Looking back at that now, it seemed impossible that she could have not been afraid of him. And yet she had gone to him every time he'd asked. Almost always she hadn't meant to go, and yet every time he'd told her to meet him somewhere, she had found herself in the North Tower, in the Weaponry Room, wherever he'd said. She hadn't thought about why she would go meet him. Why hadn't that seemed strange to her? Why hadn't she had the slightest bit of curiosity?

Two more things became clear to her: first, that she must do something with the necklace. She thought to destroy it, but she didn't know how, so for now she would hide it. Second, she needed to see Draco as soon as possible. She needed to be sure that it was indeed he who had given her the necklace. She knew already that it was true, and yet she needed to find it out from him. When she saw him she would know for sure.

She felt slightly better now that she had thought things through. Carefully she tucked the necklace into the bottom of her book bag and returned to her room, where she hid the necklace at the bottom of her trunk. Later she would come up with a better hiding place for it. Right now, she was going to find Draco.