Regret and Betrayal

Chapter Twelve

Awakening a Heart of Stone

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"My heart will never be stone as long as you say that you love me."

Ginny opened her eyes to a dimly lit room. Her eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness but when they did, her eyes opened wide at the room she was in. She didn't know where she was but it was obviously a room in a home, a very rich home. She struggled to move, but when she did her side came into contact with another body. She turned to it slowly.

It was Draco.

He was unconscious and his hands and legs were tied tight, considering the red marks that were showing around his wrists. His mouth was gagged and he wasn't moving. She untied the cloth from his mouth and undid the ropes at his hands before starting on his feet. She shook him but he didn't move. She knew that she couldn't wake him if she tried and gave up on it. She looked around the room.

Paintings hung on the walls in, no doubt real, golden frames that overlooked green pastures and wooded areas. There was a large desk at one end a short distance from the middle of the wall. She continued around the room, squinting to the near darkness. At the other end were two people. She gasped when she realised who they were.

It was Lesley and a man she could barely recognize because his head had fallen forward.

He was unconscious but Lesley had just awoken.

"Lesley," Ginny hissed.

Lesley looked up at her recognizing her instantly. She tried to speak but nothing came out of her mouth. She started to fidget but found that she couldn't move very far, her hands and feet were tied. As she wriggled she made contact with the man next to her. She turned to him and raised his head with her hands. She knew him, but she didn't know his name. She remembered dancing with him at the wedding. She let him go and went back to trying to loosen the ropes bonding her hands and legs. She continued to squirm and her eyes drifted around the room. When her eyes landed on the desk by the wall that was near to where Ginny sat on the ground, she suddenly stopped and the concentration of getting out of the ropes left her face.

Her hands dropped into her lap and her eyes stayed on the wall, her mouth more or less hanging open. Ginny frowned and turned to the wall to see what she was looking at. Above the desk, hanging in splendor, was a huge painting of a room of some sort. It had two doors, one on each side, and two small paintings next to each. One of the small paintings seemed to be of another room and... she squinted to see what it was. As they focused, the door in front of her opened.

As she caught a glance of who it was, her breath caught in her throat and she looked around to the ground beside her just to make sure. Her eyes went back to the man who had walked through the door.

It was Draco.

What the... she thought.

He sauntered in and took a look to the far side of the room before turning to Ginny on the floor. He saw Lesley awake and staring at him with her hands and legs still fidgeting to free herself from the ropes. He smiled and set his eyes on Ginny, and then the smile left immediately.

He was wearing the exact same suit from the wedding they had both attended. His hair was the same, his face was the same, and even the way he walked was the same. He leaned on the side of the desk nearest to her and just stared resting his chin in his hand as if she were a complex equation he was trying to figure out. She shrank back from the intensity of his gaze. Not just from the fact that they seemed to bore a hole straight through her but because they had something in them. Many things actually. Grief, anger, confusion, betrayal. He seemed to be trying to figure something out as he looked at her and, as he did, all the emotions he felt at the time showed in his eyes.

He lifted himself onto the desk, breaking their contact. As he landed, he let out a sharp breath and sighed.

"So, my dear Virginia, do you know why you're here?" he said suddenly.

She jumped at his voice. It sounded so much like him, but which one was which? She looked down to the other Draco on the ground.

As she thought, he grew impatient with her and cocked an eyebrow. "I asked you a question, I would expect an answer." He picked at his nails.

As a response, she shook her head.

"Do I get a vocal answer with that?" he asked her.

She sat still, not that she could move much anyway. "Um, no, no I don't know why I'm here."

He nodded slowly. "And your boyfriend there, I suppose you don't know why he's here either." He pointed to the unconscious Draco lying on the ground.

She followed his hand and looked at the Draco on the floor next to her. She shook her head. "No, I don't."

He nodded again looking away. "I see." He jumped off of the desk and crouched down beside her. He leaned toward her and held her chin so that she was looking into his eyes. "And me, do you know why I'm here? Do you know who I am?"

She shook her head again.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You always had a habit of doing that when you were around me," he smiled. He saw her frown in confusion. "Are you sure you don't know?" He waited for her to shake her head again. "Well then, let me remind you." He leaned even closer and brushed his lips against hers. She looked into his gray eyes for as long as she could before getting lost in the sensation and closing them. As they closed, his hands traveled to her shoulders and squeezed making her mouth open to his when she gasped.

She frowned when the grip did not relent and gasped in pain as his nails dug into her shoulder. Her eyes opened to his staring back at her and he smirked malevolently.

She brought a hand to her mouth, she knew that smirk. She had seen it before, she knew she had. She thought back to all the times she had seen him sport it. It tracked for a while and she didn't noticed when he had gotten up and walked back to the desk. He leaned against it with his hands as he pushed some unimportant papers to the side to sit on it again. The brush of the papers caused her to look up and as she did her eyes widened, he smirked again. Then it hit her.

The day she had gone to Draco's office.

She looked to her side at the body of Draco beside her with instant regret flooding her. All those things she had said to him, when she hadn't believed him. She told him to stay away from her, to not hurt her anymore. She hated him for doing that to her, for treating her that way.

But it wasn't even him. At least, she didn't think so. Which one was which?

She turned back to the man at the desk with curiosity in her eyes. His eyes were boring into her. He saw that she was beginning to put things together but that she still wasn't sure if it was him.

"Allow me to assist you in your decision," he said as if reading her mind. He ran a hand through his hair and the platinum blonde strands turned dark at his touch. She gasped as, one by one, he started changing his appearance until he was standing in his true self and her eyes looked at him in horror.

She suddenly realised something else as she brought the same hand to her mouth.

She knew that kiss. Cyrus.

Her breathing became shallow and she sure that she had begun to hyperventilate. "Cyrus?" she heard and turned to the side she had heard it from.

Draco sat up and stared at him. "Cyrus, what are you doing here?" He brought his hand to his head, it was throbbing. He winced as he touched it missing the small proud smile Cyrus had on his face when he did so.

Cyrus smiled like a mischievous teenager. "I was chatting up your girlfriend," he said with ease as if they were old friends, which Cyrus knew very well they weren't. Not anymore.

Draco rolled his eyes and turned to Ginny eyeing her darkly, she was having trouble breathing. "Are you alright?" he asked her suddenly concerned.

She looked at the two of them, from one to the other, more than once before finding her voice. "You - you know him?" she asked between breaths pointing to Cyrus who was still leaning on the desk.

"Him?" he pointed. She nodded vigorously. "Oh, yeah, he's my cousin."

Her mouth hung open and she looked up at Cyrus who had crossed his arms and smirked at her knowingly once more. "Wh - what?" She felt like fainting, which she was very close to doing.

"Ginny, are you feeling okay?" He put a hand on her back. Her heart was pounding through her chest, she felt like it was going to explode.

Cyrus cocked an eyebrow in intrigue. She hasn't mentioned me? Oh Ginny, I'm wounded. He smiled knowingly. Well, this will be fun. He smiled. "She's just having a bit of trouble adjusting to our relation. She's bit surprised I should think, she was always difficult to read at times like these."

Draco frowned and turned to Ginny. She hadn't stopped looking at Cyrus. He wasn't sure if it was confusion or fear. "You know my cousin?" She turned to him and he almost gasped at her eyes. There was so much... pain. She was almost in tears. He recognized it immediately and remembered his words to her almost two weeks ago.

My god Ginny, what did he do to you?

It was him.

Cyrus carried on as if nothing was happening. "I wouldn't blame her for feeling so strange to tell you the truth. I mean," he began listing on his fingers, "she's been through my father, me, your father, you and your ancestor. Kinda working her way through, wouldn't you say?" He gave a sly grin at Draco's solemn face and huffed. "You, of all people, must know how it feels to go from one sister to the next, and so on until you're tired of them in general." He shrugged. "You have no right to judge her."

"And you, of all people, should have learned by now to move right along with me. You never could let go of anything could you? I guess it's the omen of the youths in the family. Never let go of anything you still think you own." He kept his face set. He had always rubbed it in Cyrus' face that he was older than him. It was a ritual of sorts that they never could get rid of.

Suddenly Cyrus grew solemn again and straightened at the desk. He took a few steps forward until he was standing over Draco. He looked down on him with a frightening look, one he had never used before. It made Ginny quiver.

"Listen well. I have never, nor will I ever be jealous of what you have. I, unlike you, know when to move on to greener pastures." A small smile came onto his face but there was still a grave part of anger in his voice. "And don't be fooled by my appearance." He waited for the confused look on Draco's features and smiled wider. "You're not my elder, Draco. I've got a lot of years on you." His head snapped around as the door opened behind him. The door opened wide until it hit the wall next to it softly leaving a large doorway gaping behind them. His father walked through the doorway with another boy who looked no older than eighteen. He carried a case in his hand and watched the scene in front of him. He looked at his son standing over his cousin and guessed what had probably gone on.

"Cyrus, leave them. I have a few questions of my own to ask them." He put the case down and sat at the desk, watching the pair on the ground wearily. His eyes wondered over to the other side of the room and noticed two people he did not know. "Who are they?" he asked with curiosity.

"You don't recognize them father?" He looked at the two extra hostages he had brought with him. He knew that they were close friends of Draco and Ginny. He knew the woman by heart as Lesley-Anne, a true replica of Maleyna's lady in waiting. The man, he had been surprised t find him at all. He wasn't even sure that it was him but he brought him anyway. He thought his father would clarify it for him. He had more than proved, after all, that he never forgot a face.

"No, I can't say that I've seen - wait, the man." He narrowed his eyes to look at him better. "Lift his head for me." Cyrus stretched out his arm toward the man who sat against the wall unconscious. He raised his fingers and the man's head did the same. Paethozar gasped in amazement. "Christian?" he said looking at his son. "The guard, where did you find him?"

Draco looked over and saw his best friend playing the puppet to Cyrus' hands. Blaise?

***

Paethozar took the phial from the young man he had entered the room with. "Have you met Rayon, Draco? He is very skilled in potions, I believe he just graduated with honors." He smiled wickedly as he poured the substance into Draco's mouth and watched as it coughed its way down his throat. He waited a few minutes until he saw the dizziness in Draco's eyes and crossed his arms. "Where is the stone, Draco?" He eyed his nephew with a calm malice. Draco looked toward the young man Paethozar had walked in with; he went to lean against a far wall. He didn't say a word. It was as if he were mute.

Draco struggled against the veritaserum but it was too strong. He looked at Ginny and suddenly the concentrated face he had donned since they shoved it down his throat vanished.

It was gone.

"Well, where is it?" Paethozar said as his patience grew thin. They were now on their second hour and they had found out nothing.

He brought his gaze back to his uncle. He stared at him in mild shock. "I don't know," he said. It was the plain and simple truth. He sounded surprised.

"You don't know?" he echoed with an asking expression.

"Yes," he said with a slight surprised smile. "I don't know."

Paethozar's face creased in frustration. He would have thought he was lying but the Veritaserum made that impossible. Zacharin must have given him the stone. Either that or he still had it with him. If so, then he must know where Zacharin is.

"Where is Zacharin?" he asked him.

Draco struggled once more. He knew he had the answer to this, which was what made it all the more harder to resist answering. In the end he had to relent. He looked up from the chair they had seated him in and stared at the large painting that covered the whole wall behind them.

"He's behind you," he let out in a resigned sigh.

Paethozar and Cyrus looked around to see nothing but a large painting. Paethozar turned back with an irritating look, Cyrus did a double take and kept on staring at it when something caught his eye.

"Don't play games with me, where is he?" He hadn't noticed when Cyrus had left the edge of the desk to get closer to the painting.

"I already told you," he said following Cyrus with his eyes, "he's behind you." Paethozar frowned at his looks and turned once again to see his son standing on a chair and looking at the painting on one of the doors.

"Son, what are you looking at?"

He brought his head closer to the canvas. "Zacharin," he stated simply.

"What?" he said getting up and coming to see what he was talking about.

"Zacharin." He pointed to the small painting on the door. It had a small cabin surrounded by a field on it. He would have dismissed this any other day, except that there was a man who had just closed the door to the cabin that looked a lot like the man they were trying to find.

Paethozar turned to Draco. "How did you get him in here?"

"With help from an artist."

"Who?" he asked out of interest.

"Her." He turned around and pointed to Lesley with his eyes. Lesley looked up at them in surprise and horror.

"Her?" he looked over at the woman that was staring at them, her eyes diverted to the man next to her who had begun to stir.

"How did she get him in there?"

"She didn't." Paethozar was getting tired with these round-about answers.

"How did you put Zacharin into the painting, Draco?" he let out in a sharp and irritated breath.

"I used a spell."

He closed his eyes in frustration. If this man didn't tell him what he wanted to hear he was liable to waste everything he had worked for and just kill him. No wonder Lucius is like he is. I'm surprised he lasted this long. "And that would be?" he prompted.

Draco leaned forward. "I'm not allowed to tell you, it's a secret," he whispered. He was glad he could find a way to tell the truth without actually doing it. At least his father was good for something.

Paethozar gripped the bridge of his nose and frowned. He turned to his son and nodded. Draco watched Cyrus with a wary eye as he started to walk to Ginny. His eyes opened wide when Cyrus took out his wand and pointed it to her temple while holding her firmly in place with her hair. She gasped as he tugged hard and looked pleadingly at Draco. Rayon, who had originally seemed indifferent, cocked an eyebrow at this becoming suddenly interested in the situation.

"No! You can't," Draco exclaimed before he could help it. "If you do you'll never know where the stone is." He bit his lip and mentally reprimanded himself for letting that slip.

His facial expression lightened to an airy confident smile. "Oh really, she knows where it is?" He looked toward Ginny and scanned her up and down.

"No."

His eyes narrowed. "Then why don't you tell me," he said, his gaze returning to his nephew slowly.

"I already told you, I don't know where it is. I did... but it's gone." He was kicking himself, he really was.

Paethozar's hands went to each side of his nephew. He leaned on the arms of the chair and glared into Draco's eyes so that he could see the seriousness of the situation. "Tell - me - the spell."

Draco ground his teeth but it was no use. "Abierto." That was it; there was no point in turning back now.

"Ah," he said as he raised his hand toward the painting and repeated the words.

The paint in the room that hung on the wall started moving slowly. It distorted around until it engulfed the speaker of the spell. Paethozar quickly grabbed hold of the front of Draco's shirt, Cyrus grasped at the last second before they all disappeared.

***

They opened their eyes to a matt-gray room. Draco, suddenly standing instead of being bound to the chair shut the door behind him and walked forward. They were already here so they might as well go the rest of the way.

"Come on," he said as he opened the next door to... black space.

He frowned. The two behind him stopped in their tracks and looked at the nothingness in front of them.

"Well?" Paethozar said.

"Erm," Draco said to himself. Then his features smoothed. "Oh I remember, hold this door," he said to Cyrus.

Cyrus looked at his father who nodded his approval and held the door knob as Draco went to the other door and opened it. "Shut it now." Cyrus did as he was told and they all walked through onto a grassy plane.

The sun was setting as it was in the real world and the cabin looked even more rural than usual. In the dusky light the wood looked darker and it reminded him of a cabin he owned in France. He cocked his head to the side and continued walking toward it.

"Your artist did all this?" Paethozar asked.

"Yes, she's good isn't she?" Draco walked up the steps and knocked on the door.

"Very," he answered as he finished looking around and brought his gaze to the door.

A silence followed before the door was cracked open. As Zacharin poked his head outside of the door, Draco was knocked aside to the porch floor as the door was blown off its hinges. Splinters splattered everywhere and he had to cover himself with his arms to stop flakes and sharp pieces of wood from attacking him full force.

Zacharin fell into the cabin's living room onto the floor and looked up at the face of his attacker as the dust cleared in the room. His eyes opened wide and he tried to scramble to his feet thoroughly afraid. He had foreseen it and had been preparing himself ever since but that didn't mean his ex-employer slash 'kind of father,' didn't frighten him.

"Why hello, Zacharin." Cyrus walked in casually behind him and looked at the man scrambling about on the floor. Would you care to tell me where you've hidden my stone and perhaps... my daughter?"

***

Ginny looked at the spaces previously occupied by the three men. Common sense then told her to look at the painting. There they were. They walked through the doors and leaving the room empty once again. Her eyes drifted to the wide open door in the room she was in. Rayon was watching them with a tedious interest, wondering what they were planning on doing next.

She got up and practically ran toward Lesley at the other end of the room conscious of Rayon's eyes following her. She had no idea who he was but she was sure he was not someone to go to and ask for help.

Blaise was now fully awake and was just staring at the painting on the wall. "What the hell was that?" he asked as his hands were untied with a reversal spell.

Lesley answered him, she was the only appropriate person to do so. "A little something I like to call 'Two ways through,' I do recall it was meant to show the difference in reality and make believe." Lesley's eyes didn't leave it either, even when Ginny was untying her bonds.

He pointed to it. "You made that?" He didn't turn but knew that she nodded. "Well, Draco said you were good but he didn't do you justice at all." Lesley turned and Blaise smiled at her.

Ginny rolled her eyes. Really, here of all places. "Can we do this later? I really want to get out of here."

"What about Dra-," Lesley began but was cut off due to the large explosion that just happened in the room of the painting. Both doors were blown off the hinges and two bodies were sliding across the room after landing on the floor in front of the desk while Paethozar and Cyrus looked at them from the room in the frame.

Lesley looked up at it and smiled. He had closed the doors before getting out. Her trap worked.

As Zacharin pushed himself up he coughed and looked at Draco. "We have to destroy that stone." Draco nodded and looked at Ginny still on the ground.

"Blaise, get them out of here-." He ducked as the painting itself blew up behind them. When they turned around there was a gaping hole noticeable through the amount of dust that floated around. Blaise joined Ginny to stand and gave Lesley a hand to do the same.

The room grew quiet.

Zacharin and Draco looked around through the mist. All that was visible was the light through the hole where the painting used to be.

"How dare you!" they heard roar through the room. They all covered their ears. He and Zacharin stood up and walked briskly over to Ginny. Zacharin grabbed her shoulders.

He began to shake her. "Where is the stone? You can destroy it, where is it?" he exclaimed desperately.

Ginny's forehead creased in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she said shrugging him off.

Draco took over and shoved Zacharin to the side. "Zacharin, get out of here. I'll take care of it." Zacharin nodded and apparated out of the room. He looked at Ginny hard to make her concentrate. He had to find that necklace. "Ginny, the necklace I gave you, where-." He froze, mouth open and fell silent, shoving her to the wall. She was so angry she didn't hear the gasp coming from Lesley and Blaise.

"Ow! That hurt," she said sharply and pushed him off but he wouldn't let go.

His mouth hardly moved. He closed his eyes to force the words out. "G-Ginny, if you have it, use it-." He shoved her against the wall again, freezing in pain. "You have to..." He finished with his eyes closed as he slid to the floor.

"Draco?" She followed him to the ground with her eyes. After falling he didn't move, not once. She looked up and saw a man in the mist of the dust around them all with his hand out and pointing directly to where Draco had been. Tears began to swell in her eyes. Her breathing sped up and her heart began to beat fast. As she closed them the tears fell full force.

He was dead.

"I was wondering when he would get out of the way." Paethozar turned and went to the case he had brought with him.

As he opened it, Ginny grabbed the chain around her neck, feeling the pendant on her chest grow warm, then hot and then scolding. She winced and held it away from her chest to stop it from burning through as voices filled her head from everywhere. They were speaking loud at first but then softer. It sounded like English but she couldn't understand a word. Then they were gone. When she looked down at the pendant, she saw there was no mark on her chest even though it felt like it burned her. Slowly, she put it back down. It had gone stone cold and it had transfigured itself back into the pendant Draco gave to her. She knit her brows in concentration and looked closer; the inside was not clear anymore, it had a dark object in it.

"Now, miss Virginia." She snapped her gaze to the man who had just killed his nephew and almost fell backwards to the overwhelming feeling that took her. She wasn't sure what it was but it was extremely powerful and it was filling her to the brim with it. It felt dangerous and painful. Then, all she felt was hatred, nothing else but hurt and anger and hatred. Her heart began to pound devastatingly hard in her chest and she grabbed at her heart, wincing at the pain. She distantly heard some thing crack. "I will give you one chance," he said with his back to her. "Do you know where the stone is?"

She closed her eyes and squeezed them tight gritting her teeth. It felt overpowering and exhausting, she felt like passing out. When she opened them again and it was as if she was looking from another person's body. Her mouth was moving but there was something else speaking.

"No." She stated it simply so that he could catch the hatred laced in her voice. He did and turned at it. He didn't notice when the other parts of the stone in the case began to tremble slightly. "And I don't care. I hate you and everything you are about. You and your ideals have done nothing but cause me pain. I hate you."

Ginny blinked, becoming herself again, where did that come from?

"That's nice to know dear."

"I'm glad to hear you enjoy my mood, Aztarophe." His gaze snapped up and he glared at her.

He looked offended. "What did you call me? How do you know that name?"

"You heard me." Her eyes narrowed and the hate inside of her filled to the brim. Suddenly, it became too much to control and she felt like falling to the ground.

The stones in the case flew at her and encircled her several times. Those voices filled her head again and she realised she was hearing chants and words that she couldn't understand. She closed her eyes; they brought a peace that she hadn't felt in a long time. The soothing words sounded like they were coming from a woman. She opened her eyes and thought she was seeing things when she saw a vision of a woman in white in front of her, she was speaking in time with the words. She had a pleading face as if asking for permission. Ginny didn't know what for but somehow felt that she was supposed to give it to her, so she nodded. The woman's face gave a warm smile but turned serious when she spun to look at Draco's uncle. The loathing in her face almost matched the loathing that had filled Ginny's heart.

Ginny braced herself when she saw the woman stepping backwards without taking her eyes off the man. Then she was gone.

The power was unbelievable. She could feel it throughout her veins, running its course through her spine to her feet and fingertips. The stones were still circling her as if they were a force field of some sort. She looked around at them; they were getting closer and closer. She looked down; she hadn't noticed when she had left the ground.

Memories filled her. Some she didn't know, seeing a man and a woman walking hand in hand, seeing fine furnished rooms and a dark haired woman that looked like her running laughing and screaming form her husband. Some she did know from her dreams. Running through a forest with blood on her hands. Remembering the reason for that blood. She turned to look at Draco and that was like the last straw. The stoned crashed into her sending a surge of energy through the room in the form of a large transparent wave that threw everyone back. Draco rolled to the wall and hit it hard. Ginny screamed aloud, the pain was too much to bear as the pieces cut through to her heart. She expected blood to fall but nothing came.

Then, it was gone.

Everything was gone; there were no feelings at all.

That was, until all the hate and hurt and anger filled her again, overwhelming her and bringing on that exhaustion again. She felt like she was going to fall but there was something holding her up no matter what.

Maleyna.

Ginny suddenly remembered the fairytale she had read a few weeks ago and understood where all the power was coming from. Maleyna was, after all, a God. Ginny drew back and let Maleyna continue. She knew she had to sit this one out, this was not her fight.

Maleyna turned to Draco and ran to him, kneeling at his side.

"Not again, please you can't leave me again," she heard. "How-how did this happen?" Ginny somehow had the feeling that Maleyna was talking to her.

"His uncle," she thought quietly.

"Uncle?" She paused when Ginny's memory flashed before her and she saw the man who had ruined her life so many centuries ago.

"Aztarophe." She rose and turned to the man who was watching her in disbelief.

"Aztarophe," she repeated to the room and the man in front of her.

He continued to stare at her and her dreamlike form, hovering over the ground. Her hair swam around her as if she was underwater and her eyes burned with hateful tears.

"Maleyna?" he said unsure. Her eyes flickered at the sound of her name. As she drifted forward, she stopped at Cyrus and turned to him.

Her look softened momentarily. She shook her head at him and touched his chin. "You were always my favourite," she said quietly and smiled. He looked up at her, not believing what he was hearing.

"What?" he whispered.

She shook her head in question. "You have been given so much, Cyrus. Why are you throwing it away, for him?" She gestured toward Aztarophe who was watching the pair and wishing he knew what they were saying. "She loves you," she said purposefully and waited for him to look at her. "Go to her."

"How do you-," he began but she shushed him with a finger on his lips.

"Where do you think dead Gods go?" She looked up and smiled when he did the same. "I may have been dead, but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching you." He looked back at her. "He's damaged you, but you've been given another chance. Don't waste it," she said quietly as he lowered his head, "this time." He snapped his head up and saw the disappointment in her eyes. He knew she was talking about Ginny.

She turned from him and continued gliding towards Aztarophe. Her expression hardened quickly at the sight of him. "You killed him."

"Who?" he asked.

"Azrael, you killed him again." She held her ground.

He shook a finger at her teasingly. "If you remember, Maleyna, you were the one behind the dagger, not me." He leaned on what was left of the desk behind him.

"That wasn't my fault!" she yelled and lashed out at him with a bright blue orb that shot out jolts. It barely missed him.

He was completely taken-back. "You - you still have your powers?"

She relaxed. "No," she said looking at him. "I have hers." She lashed out again and this time she didn't miss him.

He flew through the gaping hole behind the desk hitting a side of it as he did. She could hear rubble shifting as he slid across the floor. She knew he was coming back, he may not be so somber when he returned. She braced herself in time to catch a hex thrown in her direction, it hit her in the stomach and she cried out before falling to the ground.

"Do - not - mess with me, Maleyna! I have a purpose for that stone, hand it over." His eyes grew wide when she stood up with a smile on her face as if nothing had happened. "Wh-."

"Pain," she said with a cocked eyebrow. "I don't feel it, remember?" She stepped forward. "But when I took this - thing out of me, I felt so free even when it all came flooding back in. I still hate you, I always have. This girl you've tracked down, though, she seems to hate you just as much. My emotions just... elevate it a little. It's still there though. It gives me all the power I need to kill you." She pushed at him with another electric orb and he hit the desk. She kept firing at him with each hand, one after the other, until she couldn't see him for all the light around him. The brightness filled the room and everyone, even Rayon, who had paid no attention to them whatsoever, raised their arms to protect their eyes.

She stopped and waited. She wasn't surprised to hear his laughter amidst the clearing dust. "All that power, Maleyna, and you can't hit me once?" He laughed again.

When the dust finally cleared, the room fell deathly silent save his laughter. Cyrus had taken to looking up and around the room. Lesley and Blaise were stunned into silence with the sight they saw.

"Look around you, Aztarophe," Maleyna said to him. He did so and inwardly gasped at what he saw. Tens of hundreds of the orbs she had been firing hovered around and over him. There was no way that he could dodge them, even if he did try to run or apparate. "Who says I was aiming for you?" He looked at her in horror.

That was the very first and last time that Aztarophe had ever felt what fear was. He was about to lose his life, and he knew it full well.

"Maleyna, you can't blame me for loving you, can you?" he tried.

Her face grew solemn. "Where was that reasoning when I loved Azrael? He is dead, again, because of that same reason. Because you just can't let anything go. You own nothing in this world and I will make sure that you will own nothing in the next. Acercarse!" she yelled and all the orbs drew nearer, faster and faster until they all compressed into him. You could hear his screaming amidst the noise and the light.

The light slowly died. She watched the dark area he had occupied, it was saddening.

"Ginny?" she heard. She took in a surprised breath and turned slowly knowing it probably wasn't true but wanted to keep the belief for as long as possible. Her breath caught in her throat and she almost sobbed when she turned to see the man standing before her.

Azrael.

Rayon gasped. So it is true, he thought and apparated immediately. He had gotten all the proof he had come for.

"Azrael? You're alive, ho-?" Then she remembered. When she had removed the stone before, he had come back to life. It was only feasible that it would work going in too.

"Ginny, is that you? What's happened to you?" He reached out and inched closer to the bright aura around her. She reached forward.

"The stone is feeding on her." They stopped reaching and turned. Cyrus stepped out of the shadows and Draco eyed him darkly. Cyrus raised his arms in surrender. "I don't expect reunions Malfoy, but I am telling the truth."

Draco turned to the woman before him. "Is this true?" She nodded sadly.

"I'm sorry," she said softly.

"Well, where is she, can I talk to her?"

She shook her head. "She's gone." A lump formed in Draco's throat.

"Gone?" he echoed. He let go of the woman but kept looking directly into her eyes. They were identical, same eyes, same face, and same figure. He would never have known. But of course he would.

"Illam exsecrationem deriva averte, illud malum expelle!" he heard and a bright flash came at them.

The woman fell onto him. Her spirit fell straight through him and he heard something fall to the ground. It skidded away rather fast but a dark-haired woman stayed in his arms heavy and half dead so he didn't get to catch it. He looked straight forward. Cyrus stood with his wand outstretched and staring at them both.

"Take her to the hospital quickly; she'll be alright if you get her some help. The stone is still trying to feed on power. You need to get anything living out of this house now before it gets agitated and lashes out."

"What do you mean?" He tried to think where his staff was and then remembered he had given them the day off for the wedding. They had gone off somewhere for a day out apparently.

"I mean, if it can't get it from her, it'll try a wider area." He opened his arms to the rest of the house. "I guess about a mile or so." He smiled and looked at her. "Be good to her." He then apparated out of the house.

Then a slight rumbling went through the house.

Draco then remembered that out of all the staff members he had told to take leave, one was still here. "Altair!" he yelled and scooped Ginny up in his arms.

"What?" she asked as she appeared. "I am not in the mood for another shouting match."

"Get Sebastian and apparate more than a mile away from here on the grounds." She hesitated, not sure what he meant. "Now!" he said sternly. She did was she was told.

"Blaise, get her out of here," he said gesturing to Lesley. Blaise grabbed hold of her and apparated. Draco did the same seconds later and found himself on the grass outside watching the house from a safe distance away.

Altair appeared next and went to him instantly with Sebastian holding her hand. "What the hell is going-."

The house behind them exploded. They shielded themselves as shards of the house went flying everywhere.

"Holy Merlin," he said after the bright flash had died down. He saw a large mushroom shaped cloud hovering over the large space where his house used to be.

"Draco, you're bleeding all over her," Altair said to him. He looked down distracted, there was indeed blood on his shirt.

"Here, I'll take her," Blaise said. Draco handed her over and looked at his shirt front as Blaise laid her on the grass. He then did a double take. As he looked down, he noticed that he was not cut in any way. Curses didn't unusually break the skin and even if they did... He gasped at this thought and looked down at Ginny.

He was hit from behind.

His face went pale. "It's not mine," he said as if traumatized.

"What?" Lesley said as she looked up from her friend.

"The blood, it's not mine."

***

"Well, I have good news and I have bad news." The doctor came out with a grave look on his face.

"What is it?" Mrs. Weasley said standing up. She had been on edge ever since Lesley had apparated to The Burrow and told her. She had instantly called for Arthur and rushed to St. Mungo's. She had contacted the rest of the family from there. They had been operating on her daughter for hours and they had gotten no word. She was glad for a distraction as she was not sure how much longer she could keep her sons from asking so many questions about Draco's presence or away from him altogether.

"We were able to stop the bleeding, eventually. She has lost a lot of blood and power." She paused.

"What's the good news?" Mr. Weasley coaxed.

She looked at Mr. Weasley with regret. "That was the good news. The bad news is that she's in a coma."

A soft thud on the ground signified that Bill Weasley had fainted. Nurses nearby rushed to his aid.

Draco sat down on a chair, any chair as long as it was one. He raked his hands through his hair.

"Drakas?" he heard. He looked up to see Mr. Weasley looking down at him. He looked at Ginny's father questioningly "Molly told me. She knows our daughter well you know. Don't worry it's okay. I'm not angry at you, and neither is Molly. Don't blame yourself son. You brought her here and sent for us immediately. We couldn't thank you any more."

"Mrs. Weasley, could I have a word?" the doctor prompted.

Molly looked up from Bill. "Yes of course." Mrs. Weasley followed the doctor out.

"I am not sure how to put this, there is extra good news but I wasn't sure if I should share it with the whole family."

"Well, what is it?" she said perturbed. If there was something to be happy about at least there was cause to stop worrying a little.

"Well. You're daughter. Seeing as she is in a coma, we don't know how long she will be comatose and we were worried-."

"How is this good news?" she asked.

"Well, there is the issue of the baby. He's alive, but if she stays comatose, you will need to make a choice."

***

She had gone over the last scenario of her life that she could remember a thousand times. She recalled the room, wherever it was supposed to be. She could remember the brightness of everything, the fighting - barely. She wasn't exactly all there. She had left the most of it to Maleyna; it was her fight not Ginny's. She remembered all the people in the room. Lesley and Blaise, Aztarophe or Paethozar she still wasn't sure who, Cyrus, Zacharin and Draco.

Draco. There was not one second of her time there that she had not thought about him, how she missed him. She loved him she couldn't help it.

The sun had gone but the sky still remained, standing in all it's glory. She watched the sunset, again. It had paled to an almost dreamlike state. She had come to realise this over the time she was there, all of it was just a dream it had to be. She knew this now because everything was different here, and yet it was still the same. She looked out into that same orange - scarlet sky leaning over the balcony that overlooked that familiar garden. It looked the same way. That's how she had known for once and for all that this was all a dream. Everything looked the same here. But she knew that outside of all of it, everything she knew, everything she had felt or seen or heard had drastically changed.

Ginny didn't know how long she had been there, all the days seemed to pass by quite rapidly. She had seen no one, heard nothing and had wanted nothing.

Peace.

For the first time in her life she was at peace. All the people were gone, the complications were gone. The fighting had all gone, all she felt was peace.

The wind blew and Ginny closed her eyes in contentment taking in the air, it smelled clean and fresh and new. As the light dimmed her eyelids she screwed her eyes tight and turned her head away from it and went inside promising to catch it the next day. She wondered if this was heaven, she had heard Harry talk about it sometimes, how muggles say heaven is what we see it to be. But if so, why would she see heaven as Draco's estate? No she couldn't be there.

The first few days she had spent there, she was almost certain that she was dead. But then there were the voices. They had confirmed otherwise. They were talking to her as if she were still in the room. She heard her mother and her brothers. Sometimes they were arguing but she just chose to ignore it. The one person she had not heard though was Draco. She had listened out for him but gave up on it as the days went by.

She crossed the hall into the living room allowing her hands to run over the smooth surface of the chairs remembering the first time she had sat on them next to Fredrik and Joseph.

She looked over into the far corner of the room at the bar. She had done this countless times since she had been there. Recalling everything she knew about the house so that she could remember where that room was. Everyday she tried to fill in the blanks but everyday it was not anywhere to be seen.

She walked silently upstairs and along the corridor to her room. She looked to the end where she knew the bathroom was, and then she looked on the walls as she passed them. Just like in the great hall, it looked like there were pillars fused into the walls, which made them stick out smoothly. On each of the pillars there were ornaments - little cherubs with their arms out - every few steps or so, like a pattern 'one, two, three, four, five ornament, one two three-.' She stopped on one of the pillars. It was that same cherub, it used to stick out to her because unlike any of the others this one was not facing you as you passed it by; instead it was placed on the side adjacent to the wall. It had looked strange to her and she had wondered how no one could have noticed it. To her it had almost become like a land mark, because she always knew where to go from there.

But this time it did not stick out on the wall mainly because it was not on the wall anymore but on the floor, broken. She bent down to pick it up preparing to replace it on the wall. However, when she did she realised there was no infused pillar to place it on, it was gone. She looked on the other side of the square infused pillar that side was still sticking out. It was just on the left side that the pillar had not come out of the wall.

As if the wall had moved altogether and knocked it off.

That's strange, she thought. Oh I'll never be able to get out of here. She leaned on the wall pressing her back on it for support. Then she heard something, like a crack and she almost lost her balance. She got up immediately and turned toward the wall again. It was then that she noticed a small crack in the wall.

***

"Get away from me Ginny." Draco waved her off for the seventh time in a week. Just like all the other times, his hand went straight through her, he knew it would but he still had hoped that it could banish her away from him.

"Why? You don't like hearing what you've done to me? You killed me, Draco. I'm lying half dead here because of you. Why did you have to give me the stone? Why? You knew what it was and you still did it. You condemned me to this. I hate you."

"Go away!" he sobbed.

"Fine, if that's what you want, but I'll be back for you. You can't escape your conscience, Draco. I had hope in you. You destroyed it. You destroyed me. I hope you're happy, that's all I ever wanted you know, your happiness."

Then, she was gone.

***

It had moved.

What the-? She pressed on the wall harder. It moved again. Oh my -. She continued pushing until she came to a small discolored shape on the inside of the pillar, where the cherub went. She smiled to herself eager to see what was on the other side, maybe now she could get out of there.

As the wall broke free, a bright light filled her eyes. The air tasted metallic, blood had spilled here. She cringed and carefully made her way through the shards of glass and wood and stone that crammed the floor. It was shaped as the corner of a house, but the far sides and the ceiling were gone. The sky was darkening even more from the sunset with breaks of yellow and orange that shone through the clouds.

"Every silver lining has a cloud, isn't that what all muggles say in bad situations?" she heard in her ear. "Isn't that what he told you?"

Ginny turned. A woman dressed in scarlet and jade green robes was approaching her from the far corner of the room. The fading light caught a shard of glass in her hand. It shone reflecting a stray ray of sunlight. The floor crunched, echoing her every footstep until she was close enough for Ginny to see the jade with scarlet speckles in her eyes.

"Who are you?" Ginny asked suddenly realising that she was not moving her mouth.

"My name is of no importance now. I am part of what brought you into this situation in the first place." Her eyes saddened. "For that I want to apologize, which is something that I have been doing for a long time. You have just not been here to hear it."

"Here, you've been here all this time. Well why didn't you call out or something?"

The woman smiled. "I have been here on this world yes, but not in here with you. Not for long anyway. I am also in a facility which you all call a hospital. I had to put myself into your condition to project myself to you."

"How did you know I would be here?"

"Let's just say I know a man who can see into the future. I have been waiting a while for you to get here."

"Wait, did you say my condition? What condition?"

The woman looked at her in a way that made Ginny wonder. "You don't know?"

"No."

"You're in a coma."

Ginny's mouth opened and closed a series of times before her legs gave way. She slid to the floor a little confused and shocked but then she understood why she couldn't leave and why everything was the same. Deep down she didn't want it to.

"For decades," the woman continued looking away from Ginny, "I stayed with Zacharin and I helped him hide from my father. I had no power and if I used it my father would've find us and the final piece of the stone. But he found us anyway when Zacharin tried to get to Azrael as he is now. He attacked me, his only daughter, he attacked me not caring if it hurt or not. I have hated him ever since. I never knew how it felt to be on the receiving end of his temper."

"Your Father? You had the stone. You're Rebecca aren't you?"

"Yes I am," she said keeping her eyes away. "I am the one that was born into the family which was set out to destroy you - or your former self, whoever you are now." She turned toward Ginny. "I fell in love with a man who only loved me because he thought..." she sighed. "He thought I was somebody else." Her eyes reflected remorse. "But I became impatient all that time and having no power, so I studied the prophecies of my father's diviners and I knew that if he was destroyed then I would become all that he was before he made - mistakes," she said looking Ginny up and down.

"I swore that I would right all he did once so that I could start anew once I was able to use what I was born to have. Once I became powerful enough to do so, and now I can." She backed away as if tired and bent over clutching her stomach.

Ginny went to help her. She was freezing cold. "Are you sure, you don't look all powerful to me."

The woman glared at her. She knew that stare. It was the same look that Cyrus got when he was annoyed. Seeing as Paethozar was her father too, that made her his sister. Once upon a time she could have been Ginny's sister in law. She came back to the woman before her. With those looks she was getting she knew she had made the right choice.

"The body I am in is dying, being exposed to this time so quickly after coming out of hiding is making me grow older rapidly to the age I am now. In reality I should have been dead by now. I haven't got much time."

"Time for what?" Ginny questioned but Rebecca carried on as if nothing had happened. She stood up ignoring her pain placing her right hand over Ginny's heart and the left on her own.

"You have to know, I just wanted Azrael to be happy. I thought I was in love with him." She smiled to herself. "Turns out my feelings were just redirected."

"You mean, Draco?"

"Whoever he is to you, he will always be Azrael to me. Get ready."

"Why would you do this for me?"

"I'm not," she said slowly closing her eyes and suppressing her pain, "this is for me. To get what I want, I have to clear my slate. That means giving Azrael what he wants, and what he wants... is you." She paused breathing shallowly. "This way I can right a wrong that should have been fixed a long time ago. Now just relax," she exhaled out of breath.

A bright surge of energy ran through Ginny and for a second it was all that she could feel until something was being pushed into her hand. Rebecca closed Ginny's hand over it so that she couldn't see what it was. The light was getting brighter."

"Tell Azrael that I can finally let him go," she heard, "and that I'm sorry." Then it was dark.

***

Suddenly loud noises and a series of beeping flooded into her ears. A bright light, but not as bright as before, lit up behind her eyelids. Ginny almost had to put her hands over her ears to block out the noise. It wouldn't stop. She almost missed her comatose haven.

Slowly, Ginny opened her eyes. They hurt as if she had screwed them too tight for a long time. She blinked, that ceiling, she had seen that ceiling before. She was in the hospital.

I am also in a facility which you all call a hospital. Rebecca's here too.

As everything came into her vision the sounds seemed to multiply tenfold, there was even more beeping sounds.

"What's that all about?" she heard barely, it was a voice that she recognized. With that thought she looked around her bed.

More or less her whole family stood at the edge of her bed. From the looks of it she took up more than one cubicle. On her left she could see the shadows of doctors and nurses gathering around a bed. It was where all the beeping was coming from.

She looked to the rest of her 'compartment,' the curtains were drawn all the way around them and her bed lay in the middle. Her eyes were attracted to a crack in the curtains where Charlie had stuck his head out to see what was going on with the bed next door.

"Well, it looks and sounds like a woman just went into arrest."

Then, the beeping stopped. It was replaced by a single carried note that echoed through the room.

"Oh dear," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Ginny, you're awake!" Fred called. At that everyone turned and engulfed her.

"Oh Hermione dear go and get a doctor for us." Hermione left quickly. "Ginny, darling, are you alright?" The doctor came in parting the family as she did so.

"Alright everyone, please leave for a minute, she needs some air."

"But we're her family," George said.

"Yes and I'm a qualified Doctor, please leave." Reluctantly and slowly they all left, leaving a quite large and depressing empty space as they did so.

"Well, aren't you just short of a miracle? There were bets on whether you'd actually wake up. Odds were against you."

"You mean I'm meant to be dead?"

"Not entirely, you were in a coma which routine analysis said that you were not meant to wake up from. You're lucky you weren't the girl next door."

"Why?"

"Well she was diagnosed with the same condition as you. A severe loss of blood and power. Many witches that lose that amount have known to die immediately. She's been here for about two months, after a man attacked her she used all she had to fight him off. Some kind hearted man brought her in."

"What was her name?"

The doctor looked to the ceiling trying to think. "Um, I think he said her name was Rebecca, yes that's it. No last name you know, just Rebecca."

Ginny understood then why Rebecca didn't have much time. It was probably her father that did it to her. "A man, who?"

"Well," she said, trying to find the right words. "He was kind of tall. He was young but he had a sort of ancient look about him. It sounds crazy but to me he looked like he was a lot older than he said he was. Like he had been young for a long time."

"That's not crazy," Ginny said remembering what Rebecca had told her.

"You'd think that wouldn't you? Any way just about a week ago hours before you got here, she had a dramatic increase in her power readings and when I say dramatic I mean it, there were things floating about and everything. We even had to call in the minister. She was a special one alright-."

You have no idea, Ginny thought.

"- We were watching her and waiting to see if she would actually wake up. The minister said he would like a chat with her, but now she gone."

A week ago? "I've been here for a whole week?"

"Yes you have, but somehow you've had a more fortunate end by being able to become conscious, healthy and ready to leave. But you can't go just yet, we still need to run some tests on you. You know, figure out how you managed it all."

"Don't believe in miracles doctor?"

"Not in this profession honey," she said walking toward the exit of the curtains.

"Doctor?" Ginny called. The Doctor turned. "Has anyone come to see me?"

"Did you not just see me parting the red sea to get to you?"

"No," Ginny laughed. "Has anyone else?" she clenched her fists; it was then that she felt something in her hand.

The doctor eyed her with playful eyes. "Oh, you mean a certain blonde, totally gorgeous and young man that answers to the name of Malfoy? Yes he has been in here, only in the night though after visiting hours, but never with your family."

"Thank you Doctor." She turned and left. Ginny unclenched her hands and looked down into her palm. It glinted in the light of the lamps above her head. The light from it in her eyes cast her mind back to the more or less piece of a room she had met Rebecca. The shard of what she thought had been glass was actually metal. It was the back of her pendant that came on the necklace Draco had given her. Domatium, as Cho had called it was said to be indestructible. Apparently it was true, not even the explosion that blew up the whole house destroyed it. She turned it over and read the inscription.

The world is waiting for you,

Here's a map to show you the way...

Draco

I have to find him, she thought to herself. Slowly she turned over and tried to ease herself off of the bed. Then, she fell to the floor.

Shit.

***

Rebecca opened her eyes. Sitting up, her hair fell forward over the shirt she was wearing as she gasped loudly and her hands balled up into fists in the sheets. She squinted from the light in the room even though it was dim. She looked around the room at the windows, covered in dark organza to filter in light moderately, and wished they were covered in a heavier material. She brought up her hands to her face to rub at them. They hurt badly and she shut them tight.

"Welcome to the land of the living. I trust you slept well." She stopped rubbing them and paused. She knew that voice. She took her hands down and opened her eyes turning to the other side of the room. She looked at him for a while before he smiled.

"You look a lot better than before, are you okay now?" she said concerned. Her throat was hoarse and she put her hand on her neck where it hurt.

"It's not me you have to look out for right now. How are you feeling?" She grimaced.

She squinted at the window. "My eyes hurt a little and my throat hurts."

He laughed a little. "That's because they've been out of use for about two months. It'll go away," he nodded.

"How do you know?" she said rubbing them harder. He grabbed her hands and held them tight, fighting them down to the bed sheets.

"Have you suddenly forgotten what I am? Trust me, I know these things," he smiled at her.

She rolled her eyes. "So you can see health problems now too?" she laughed. He looked at her.

He brought his hand around to her cheek and pushed the hair back out of her face behind her ears. "No, I only see you now." She stopped laughing.

"What?" She looked at him closely trying to figure out what he meant by that.

He shifted on the bed and stood up. "I brought you something. I found it walking around outside," he said louder than usual.

She frowned. They would have to get back to that conversation later. Why does he always have to change the subject? She shrugged it off and looked down at herself. He was right; the burning in her eyes had died down. She looked at her hands and felt her face. She sighed heavily. She would have to get used to this body until she mastered her powers again. "Is it an animal? If it is I don't want it." She focused on her right hand, her wand hand. It was paler than her previous hand, the fingers were a little fatter than hers and the nails were bitten down. Where did he find you? she thought to herself. She shook it off; she didn't want to think about that. She looked at the five fingers and envisioned them as her own, concentrating as hard as she could. After what seemed like forever, the pale hand began to mould slowly, the fingers became more slender and the nails grew longer.

Then they stopped and returned to the pale hand it was before.

She stretched the muscles wincing. "Dammit," she whispered. She'd just have to practice more that's all.

He watched her and smiled. He knew she couldn't stay like that for long. He had gotten that body especially so she would practice with it. He gave a slight nod thinking of the right words to use. "It used to be an animal."

She looked at him after giving up on her hand. She sighed frustrated, "What? What kind of an answer is that, 'It used to be an animal,' what did you do to it?"

He raised his hands in surrender. "I didn't do anything to him, he turned up by himself. If anything I think it was Maleyna. He's downstairs."

She pulled off the sheets and tried to stand up. Instantly, she fell down. "What the bloody hell?" she said from the floor.

"You haven't used them in a while. Here," he said picking her up. He put his hands on her legs and began to speak under his breath. She felt heat saturate into her legs and she almost winced at it. Then, as quickly as it had come, it disappeared. He stood up and held out his hand.

"What did you do?" she asked.

He waited for her to take his hand. "Care to try once more? He's waiting for you."

"Who?"

He smiled. "Someone I know you'll want to see."

He led her outside to look over the balcony to the stairs. She saw a man standing by the fireplace and playing with a few other bits on the marble shelf over it before moving to the pokers on the side. Then, she knew instantly who it was. Her breath caught in her throat and she looked at Zacharin and at the faint smile on his face. He nodded to her and nudged her in the direction of the stairs. Slowly, she began walking down the steps toward the living room. Each step making the lump larger in her throat. She hadn't seen him in years, well she had but not in person. She wondered if he missed her, if he had ever thought about her when she was gone.

She had always felt guilty about the person he had become. She had watched it progress in the past few years, knowing that if she hadn't gone he would still be the neutral party he was when they were children. He had had to fight it alone. She wasn't sure after all this time if he had forgiven her for it. She used to watch him in his room looking into the fire, looking out the window, always looking at something and afraid to touch it. She had been worried about him then but the worrying increased drastically when he began to touch everything he saw.

Paethozar had scarred him deeply, and it was her fault.

She stopped at the entrance and turned to Zacharin on the stairs, he had been walking at an even slower pace behind her making sure she knew he was behind her. She knew she needed to do this on her own and she was grateful for him being there to push her to it. She was quite sure that if he wasn't she would be running in the other direction. Fear and anticipation crammed her as she looked at him and he pushed her forward with his eyes. He was right, she had to do this. She took a soft, deep breath in.

"Cyrus?" she said softly.

He spun around and looked at the woman in front of him. He frowned and she swallowed hard. She finally saw his eyes seeing her instead of through her and she almost gasped at it. The years of hurt he had endured doubled when he could focus them on her. She felt like hiding, running, apparating, anything. He was the only person that could make her do that and she had always hated it. But she had no rights to hide, he was her older brother and she had left him to rot with her father. She deserved whatever he dealt to her.

She knew he would force him to come around and there had been plenty of time to go back for him. Her older brother had been an innocent bystander and she had taken part in stripping him of the innocence she had never understood, but respected anyway.

She could never forgive herself for doing that and she was sure that he couldn't either.

"Who-." His features smoothed as he looked at her closely. Zacharin had told him she was in a different body. He knew she would still be getting used to her magic, he had had to do it on a number of occasions, he couldn't count how many bodies he had gone through. "Rebecca?" he said unsure.

She nodded silently and he sighed as tears began to stream down her eyes. His arms went to his side and she gave a small smiled at his gesture. He was waiting for her to make the first move, to accept or reject him. She wasn't sure what to do, shouldn't it be her that was supposed to be doing this? Cyrus waited. When she didn't move he sniffed and nodded in understanding.

He didn't blame her. He had done too much to be forgiven for.

He looked at Zacharin who had finished walking down the stairs and was looking at the two of them. She turned to see what he was looking at and saw Zacharin behind her and watching them in disbelief. All this time of wishing she had her brother with her and hating herself for leaving him and she couldn't take the opportunity when it was given to her. She just didn't want to be rejected by her brother, she couldn't take it. She lost her mother a long time ago and she had already lost her father. Losing him just wasn't an option. But if she didn't do this now, she would never know.

Cyrus blinked slowly. He understood completely. Things just couldn't be the same and he knew it, he didn't even know why he had come. She shook that thought off. Of course he knew why he had come, he wanted to reconcile with his sister. To get things back the way they were, to leave the past were it belonged. Behind them. But he knew it was a long shot, it was just worth the try. He hid the burning sensation he was having behind his eyes and began to walk past her.

As he started to move, she shifted forward and blocked his exit. He flinched, not sure what she was going to do. He had done a lot to deserve anything she threw at him.

Cyrus waited for the outburst, the slap, the kick, any kind of punishment for what he had done. He began to count all of the wrong things he would need to atone for and mentally checked them off in his mind. He expected to be hit with a curse, a hex or something. She moved forward faster from the entrance and was practically running when she reached him to throw her arms around him. She let out a contented sob and held him tighter around his neck. He almost fell at the force of it and hesitated. They had never done this before. Hugging was not something that came about often in their childhood. When he heard her crying, he sighed returning her tight embrace.

"I missed you," she sniffed into his shoulder.

He took in a deep breath and let it out in relief. "I missed you too," he said closing his eyes finally allowing the tears to fall.

***

Ginny walked through the open field after getting off the train. She was glad she remembered the rejuvenation charm. She wasn't sure that it would work on dead legs but she was glad she risked it. She looked around and ignored people watching her in a St Mungo's doctor's coat over the excuse for a hospital robe. If she remembered correctly, her house was east of the station. She continued walking and cursing the stupid Ministry's policy on hospital patients not allowed to do magic if they ever escaped.

Who comes up with these things anyway? If my father had anything to do with this I'll kill him.

She walked for another half hour until a small dot appeared on the distance. She stopped noticing it and her eyes widened. She was almost there. She began to run toward it. After running quite a few yards she slowed down and panted. The house was further away than she had expected. She wondered if it would matter to apparate from here to the house. By the time they found her she would have gotten what she wanted. She hoped what she had heard when she was comatose was true, if not, she had wasted her journey. She sighed giving up and apparated into the kitchen. Looking around she sighed in relief at seeing Draco's clothes on the couch.

So he is here, she thought. She looked around and walked past the dining table to look out to the garden. Where is he? She opened the door and walked outside to look up at the windows. They were all closed and showed no signs of anyone.

That was when she heard the humming.

She turned jumping from the surprise of it. She looked around the garden. There was no one in it. That meant that it was coming from the lake. She walked briskly to it and saw him by the tree drifting into sleep humming a lullaby that she recognized instantly.

Draco sat on the grass overlooking the river, which ran into the lake, from the bank. He never knew something so large and flatly uninteresting could be so beautiful and calming when you sat down and listened to it. He knew why Ginny would say this was her favourite place. It was better than being in the house, both the burrow and his. He would still have to wait for it to be rebuilt. He missed his home, despite the large emptiness of it, it was still his home. He missed his bed, he missed the soft feathers under his head at night. He missed his shower that adjusted itself for him and not the other way round.

He frowned, even household items reminded him of her. He remembered that shower at the end of the hall, how he had heard her singing. He had heard her mother sing it a few times when she would wash the dishes. It was true that it more or less kicked in near water. That was why he was here. He had been lying on the couch when she was washing them and it had instantly blessed him into slumber. That was the first time he had slept all week. He had been humming the song ever since trying to sleep again. He sighed when he heard this beautiful singing that sent him even deeper into sleep as he thought of Ginny, again. Though he knew it was a dream, he allowed himself to sink into the notes until he snapped out of it and awoke to find Ginny looking over him.

Draco jumped and quickly rushed to his feet. He sighed and turned away from her thoroughly uninterested in what she had to say this time. "Get away from me, I dont need this right now," he called walking off.

Ginny got to her feet cautiously; this was not the reception she was hoping for. "Draco, what's wrong? It's me," she said in a comforting way. Hoping it could calm him down.

Draco had heard this before and he had fallen for it too many times in the past week. "No, it isn't." He was shaking his head profusely. "Just get away from me, leave me alone!"

Ginny reached forward to touch his face now full of disorder or fear, she couldn't tell, but he flung it away scratching her as he did so. "Don't - touch me," he said slowly as if he had warned her of this before.

Ginny looked down at her hand. She could see the white line now turning red on her hand, as she gripped it, it began to sting. "That - hurt," she said shortly to him. But Draco wasn't listening, he was too busy staring at her then at his hands and then at hers.

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I hurt you?" he finally said. He spoke as if he were trying very hard to believe it.

"Yes you did," Ginny answered sharply almost angry, if this is what she trekked through the forest for he was greatly mistaken.

"I touched you?" he began to reach forward.

"I think we've established that, Draco, honestly I don't know why I bothered getting out of there in the first place. I ran away to get skinned. I should have stayed; at least they'll skin you for a reason." But her expression changed instantly when she saw the look on his face. He still wasn't listening to her he just continued looking at her hand, reaching toward it with an apprehension. As soon as he took hold of it a great weight lifted and realisation seemed to dawn him.

"You're... real?" he said with a smile dropping his shoulders. Ginny looked at him and her face changed into a smile too.

"Yes I am."

"You're really here," he said in a breathless tone pulling her toward him and holding her tightly. She wanted to tell him that she couldn't breathe and to let her go a little but thought better of it considering the mood he was in. It was some time that passed as he just held her there. No person around and no sounds but the wind in the trees and the river fumbling wildly as it tripped over the pebbles and rocks in its path. But he had to let her go. Her apparitions may not have been real but they spoke the truth. When they had started he had found it easy to ignore. At first. But it became harder as her sharp edged words began slicing into his heart.

"You killed me Draco; I hope you're happy with yourself. I told you to stay away but you couldn't could you?"

He suddenly pulled away. "I have to leave."

She frowned. "But Draco, I just got here."

"Yes, that's why I have to leave." He looked away but forced himself to look back. If he didn't look at her, she wouldn't believe it. "Ginny, I can't see you anymore." He had to practically force it out.

Her smile slowly fell from her face as she realised he was serious. "Wh- what? What are you saying, why are you doing this?" He moved forward.

"No." He warded her again. "Don't come near me. This would be much easier if you just didn't come near me."

She tried to look into his eyes but they were heavily guarded. "Let me guess. You don't love me anymore," she said with slight disbelief. "You think that you almost killed me but you didn't. That wasn't us-."

"Exactly," he said sternly. "It wasn't me or you. It was a King and a Goddess who just weren't meant to be but loved each other anyway." He sighed. "It was hopeless. They were fools to believe it would last. There were too many obstacles."

Ginny's face became set, she knew where this was going. "Draco, don't do this-."

"They weren't my feelings Ginny." He fought back the tears from forming and backed away. "They were his. I - I don't love you." He forced himself to keep the stare. She was shaking her head, begging him not to continue. He took in a deep breath. "I never have." With that he apparated.

Ginny stared at the space that he had previously occupied wondering if it had really taken place. The tears flooded her face with a vengeance and she grasped at the grass beneath her when she fell to the ground. "No, this can't be happening." The wind picked up and blew harder around her.

She rocked herself backwards and forwards consoling herself and trying to stop the shaking from the cold wind that continued to blow full force around her like a whirlwind. She snapped out of it long enough to notice that nowhere else seemed to be upset by this wind but her. She looked straight ahead as she saw a young man standing in front of her with his hand out. She recognized him from somewhere but couldn't pinpoint it.

She looked at him strangely. Have I seen you before, she thought to herself before getting cut from her thoughts.

"Come with me," was all he said as he took out a silver time turner from his shirt. She paused to look at it. She knew that time turner. His patience grew thin. "Get up." He waited.

Despite herself, Ginny rose from her spot on the grass. He looped the chain around her and turned the top before flipping it upside down.