Walking Fire

Chapter Two: The Silver Mask

By Arianrhod

The early spring sunshine struck though the heavy cloud cover and began to warm my shivering body. I stopped my mindless running and looked around. I was surprised to find myself near the Quidditch pitch.

I checked my watch, eight o'clock. Early morning Quidditch practice would be nearly over and I could walk back up to the school with Ginny. Not to mention I'd be able to sit and watch Harry Potter flying for a few minutes which should be enough to cheer anyone up.

My mind made up, I hurried up to the wooden seats and looked around expectantly. No flyers in bright Gryffindor red looped or circled in the air above me. I looked down at the pitch to see Ginny standing chatting to fellow chaser Natalie McDonald and the team's keeper, Parvati Patil. The third chaser, Andrew Bell (who was every bit as good as his sister) was racing beater Richard Fisher up and down the pitch, narrowly missing Harry who stood, arms folded, foot tapping, glaring impatiently at the door of the changing rooms.

At that moment Ginny saw me and came zooming up. She grinned.

"Hoping to see Harry fly?"

"Shut up, Gin. And just for the record, I was passing and I thought you'd be nearly done so we could go have breakfast," I said, blushing slightly.

Ginny's eyes misted at the word,

"Breakfast, mmmmmmmh, don't torment me. I'm so hungry, our dear team captain had us all up at five to practice but we haven't even started yet because my darling brother has decided not to show."

I looked at her incredulously,

"Haven't started? Where the hell is he then? Hasn't anyone been to look?" I asked thinking of the argument in the rose garden. Should I tell Ginny? I wondered guiltily. I opened my mouth to say something but luckily at that moment there was a distraction down on the pitch. This distraction came in the way of Ron bursting out of the changing rooms, slamming the door behind him. Everyone stared at the normally laid-back beater in astonishment, none except Ginny and Harry I'd guess had ever seen him this annoyed.

Harry started his how-dare-you-be-late-and-almost-miss-practice speech but Ron seemed to hardly hear him. It the end Harry gave up and announced that they'd have a half hour practice now and extra long practice tomorrow and anyone who was late to that he would personally skin alive then force to eat their own innards. Ginny flew back down trying desperately to keep a straight face.

And so I was treated to half an hour of watching Ginny, Natalie and Andrew shoot around the pitch throwing the Quaffle with precision that amazed me, half an hour of Ron missing bludgers or hitting them far harder then was needed, half an hour of Richard trying to manage two bludgers on his own and swearing at Ron and a glorious half hour watching Harry fly like.. like...well, like Harry.

~

Ginny and I trudged back up to the school where we met Laura and Marianne for breakfast and so pottered through our day.

Four o'clock found us sitting around a table in the Common Room doing our homework. Laura and Ginny were copying my answers to the Charms questions, Marianne struggling to draw a star chart for Astronomy, and since I had done my Charms and didn't take Astronomy (because I do have some vague traces of common sense) I was doing Arithmancy. In fact I was using Ginny's text book because a bottle of pulverised newt liver shattered in my bag last term and I still haven't got around to replacing everything.

I turned the page to start the next problem and was surprised to find a piece of folded paper tucked up against the binding. It was none of my business, I knew that. I tried really hard to carry on with the Arithmancy problem. Really hard, but the temptation was too great, I couldn't concentrate.

Carefully I looked at the piece of paper, there was nothing I could see that would give away its contents. I checked that none of the other three were looking, they weren't, all were absorbed in their homework. Quickly, hating myself, I flipped the paper open. On was scrawled a short message:

Ginny,

Meet me on the bridge, 1a.m. on Monday.

Don't be late.

It wasn't signed. Presumably Ginny knew who it was from. Maybe he or she'd given to her face to face. But then why would they have written it down. Then I began to wonder, did she often do this? Wander around at night? Meeting this person? Did anyone else know? Questions thundered through my mind.

I was suddenly aware that I was sitting staring at the note, hastily I folded it up again and thrust it back into the book. It was then I saw something else. There had been something inside the folded note that had fallen out when I opened it. A single, golden rose petal.

~

The note and the rose petal preyed on my mind all day. The thought of Ginny walking out alone in the grounds in the dark after the shadow and screams from last night was unbearable.

I was half inclined to tell Ron about it but he seemed to have problems of his own at the moment. I could have told Harry but I was too shy. Or I could have told Hermione but then I'd have to admit I'd read Ginny's private note which didn't make me sound like a very good friend. I briefly hesitated over telling Laura or Marianne but what could they do to protect her? Anyway they might go straight to Ginny and tell her I'd been prying.

Finally I decided I'd have to go after her my self and run for help if anything happened. So that evening I stayed down in the common room talking to Richard and his friends when Ginny, then Laura and Marianne, went up to bed. I waited until I thought they'd be asleep before I went up and quietly lay, fully clothed on top of my blankets, the curtains drawn around me as I figured Ginny was. I kept checking my watch and sure enough, at twenty to one, I heard Ginny get up as quietly as she could and creep down to the common room. She was doing well, I only heard her because I was listening out. If I hadn't been expecting her to be getting up I could have been awake and still not disturbed.

I followed her down and hung back in the shadows of the stairwell until she had reached the portrait and climbed out. She was lucky, the only people left in the common room were Lavender Brown and Dean Thomas on the sofa nearest the fire and they were both too occupied to notice either of us slip out of the portrait hole.

I followed a ways behind Ginny as we snuck through the school and out into the night. There was a gusty night breeze blowing and the cloud cover kept shifting making moon and star light come in unexpected times and places which made it hard for me to stay in darkness. But she never looked back. She wasn't expecting to be followed and I felt a rush of guilt at betraying my best friend's trusting nature.

Most people living Ginny's life would have learnt the hard way at age eleven not to trust, not to think people won't harm you. But not Ginny. She continued to assume, against all evidence that the world was a good place and everyone was nice underneath it all. I had tried to explain before now that some people are simply complete bastards with no redeeming qualities and that's that but she didn't believe me.

Finally we rounded the last curve of the lake bank and saw ahead the river that feeds it. Not far from where it joins the lake it is crossed by a bridge, a small wooden structure that arches over it with rails along the sides. We've all enjoyed many a game of Pooh Sticks there as have I'm sure every Hogwarts student since the bridge was built. Ginny made for the bridge but I stay concealed higher up on the lake bank.

She occupied herself for awhile playing Pooh Sticks on her own by finding two sticks and seeing which one was the first to the other side. She kept checking her watch, impatient, and she looked around expectantly but no-one else was coming. At last she sank down, leaning against one side of the railings, her legs tucked up and her arms around them. She sat like that for a long time, barely moving, her chin on her arms. Waiting.

It began to rain, well drizzle really, but I was cold and damp from the ground anyway. I couldn't get over the cheek of whoever this person Ginny was meeting was. He or she had specifically told her not to be late and two hours later there was no sign of them. Then I knew. They weren't coming. This had all been for nothing.

As if the same thought had occurred to Ginny she wearily dragged herself up and began to trudge back up to the school as she passed close by me I saw she was crying. I felt awful. So intrusive and nosy but also awful for Ginny herself. Still, I did feel relief that there had been no appearance of the shadow from last night.

Suddenly I froze, there was something moving in the trees beside me. I peered in and saw a shape wearing a mask of some kind watching Ginny greedily. It turned slightly and the moonlight caught the mask of beaten silver with a cruel smile.