The Soul Keeper

Chapter 11: "Now who´s being stupid?"

All was quiet as Ginny left her common room; the only sound that could be heard was the soft yawn of the Fat Lady when her sleep was interrupted. Of course that was to be expected, it was the middle of the night. Almost twelve o´clock. Ginny would have been out of there sooner, if she hadn´t had to wait so long for everyone to go to bed.

By the time eleven o´clock had come, she had convinced herself they were going to stay up forever. Eventually, they all did wonder up to their dorms in small groups. Two here, three there, until everyone was gone and Ginny could sneak out without being seen.

She had taken Harry´s cloak earlier, sneaking into the boy´s dormitory to get it after she had made sure that none of the boys were around. Thankfully, it had been easy enough to find, lying on top of a pile of old clothes in the trunk under his bed. Hopefully he wouldn´t miss it before she got a chance to put it back. If he did, Ginny was sure she would have a lot of explaining to do. And what she was doing was not something that one exactly looks forward to.

As the portrait hole closed softly behind her, she peeked out cautiously from under Harry´s invisibility cloak, hoping against hope that no one had seen the door mysteriously open and close for no reason. Fortunately, there was no one about this time of night, not even Filch and Mrs. Norris, his suspiciously intelligent cat.

Ginny breathed a sigh of relief, but the feeling was short lived. She had barely begun to experience it when the remembrance of what she and Draco were about to do silenced her. They were sneaking into the restricted section; that was serious. She knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had done it often enough, but it was a new experience for her. For once it seemed as if she were going to be the one having the adventure this time. Too bad she didn´t have a best friend to come along, instead, she was going with the next worst thing, her number one enemy.

No, that wasn´t quite true, she reminded herself. Just because Draco was her brother´s worst enemy didn´t make him hers. She just normally thought it did. Here lately, those thoughts had begun to change. Draco was cold, arrogant, and irritating, but he wasn´t totally unfeeling. She knew that now.

Making sure the cloak was pulled tight about her so that no part of her could be seen (it would look very strange if someone happened to see part of a leg moving down the corridor, for instance), she traveled quickly and silently down the hall, heading all the time towards the staircase that lead into the dungeons and, consequently, the Slytherin common room.

Upon arriving at the top of the stairs, she sat herself on the first step and prepared to wait. Draco was supposed to meet her at midnight, but Ginny didn´t really know his punctuality record. Sitting was more comfortable too.

He arrived on time, climbing silently up the stairway as the clock struck twelve. Ginny watched in silence as he ascended, awed by the sight of him. He´d apparently cleaned himself up a bit, and his light hair shone in the darkness, almost like a halo crowning the head of an angel.

She quivered slightly at the thought, realizing how true it was. He had the disposition of the devil, and the face of an angel; quite a startling contrast, but too true to be ignored. Ginny watched him approach, content to be still until he was almost upon her.

Then he stopped a few steps down from her and whispered uncertainly, " Weasley?"

" Yeah, I´m here," she replied as softly, pulling the cloak off her. " Come on, let´s get going. This place is giving me the creeps."

She didn´t know why she had admitted that to him. Stupidity, she guessed. But he didn´t comment, his mind clearly more worried about the situation on hand. Only when he walked up the last few steps and came to stand beside her did she realize what one cloak and two people meant. They were going to have to share. That meant being huddled close together...

Draco didn´t seem perturbed in the least by this thought. He calmly took the cloak from her, pulling it over him and then handing her the other end to wrap around herself. Ginny complied without thinking, and they set off back down the corridor, this time in the direction of the library.

The steps were the hardest part. Trying to keep the one cloak over two people, one of who was holding a candle, and ascend the stairs without being seen proved quite difficult. It also meant that as the lighter of the two, Ginny was often the one to lose her balance and almost tumble down the stairs.

The first time this happened, Draco´s arm shot out quicker than Ginny would have thought possible, and seemingly of it´s own accord. As he gently lifted her back to her feet, careful not to look her in the eye, he stared at his arm as if in shock. The look seemed to say, " how could you betray me like that?".

The candle had fallen forgotten from her hand when she fell, the wick blown out, but when she whispered that they needed to go back and pick it up, it was impossible to find.

" Leave it," Draco finally told her. " I'll find it later." They were forced to continue in almost complete darkness.

After that first incident, Ginny tried to be more careful on the stairs, and succeeded in catching herself quickly if she started to trip. Draco´s assistance was not needed again, though Ginny half hoped it would be. Then again, he might just let her fall the next time, not really knowing why he had caught her in the first place...

Her thoughts revolved around this incident all the way to the library (when they weren´t concentrated on not falling); she couldn´t get the feel of his arm around her waist out of her head. She supposed she must be going crazy, but if she was, she didn´t think she really wanted to be sane after all.

She didn´t know it, but Draco´s mind was going almost along the same track, except he wasn´t as certain about how he felt. His thoughts kept rushing from excitement at the feeling he had experienced for the few seconds she was in his arms, and utter mortification at what he had done. The former took up most of his attention.

After they had gotten past all the stairs, the rest of the trip was easy, and they reached the library in no time. It was darker than the corridors, which had the advantage of a few lit torches spread here and there. In the library, it was complete darkness.

Ginny reached for her wand, preparing to light their way, but Draco´s hand on her arm stopped her. She opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but he had anticipated that and he clamped his hand over it before she could make a sound.

Wondering what was wrong with him, she struggled, before realizing that his eyes were fixed on something near the back of the library. She turned her gaze that way, her heart leaping into her throat at the thought of what would happen if they were caught.

Filch was standing there, a small lantern illuminating the area immediately around him. " There´s no one here precious, let´s go have a look in the dungeons. It was only last week we caught some of those Slytherins sneaking around there, remember?"

Ginny came to the conclusion that he must be talking to his cat; there was no one else in sight. With bated breath, she watched as Filch and Mrs. Norris turned and headed their direction.

Draco removed his hand from her mouth, taking her hand instead and gently pulling her back out of the way, while making sure the cloak stayed around them both to conceal them from Filch´s eyes.

Only when the old (and slightly insane, in Ginny's opinion) caretaker was out the door did Ginny dare to breathe again. She was just about to tell Draco thank you for not getting them caught, but as if he had read her mind, she felt his soft breath at her ear, stirring her hair slightly, and sending chills racing up her spine.

" Shh," he whispered quietly, his voice so faint she could barely hear it. She got the message though, and was glad she had when not a minute later Filch barged back into the library, took one last suspicious look around, (clearly he had been expecting to find someone) and headed disappointedly down the corridor again.

This time, Draco released her and took a step back, pulling the cloak off them.

" It´s safe now," he told her, still using the same quiet voice.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Her heart was pounding too quickly to be normal, and she knew it had nothing to do with the close call they had just had.

Draco seemed to be experiencing something similar, for he didn´t seem quite able to catch his breath, and his features kept alternating between a grimace and what could almost have been a smile. She didn´t know what was causing that.

The grimace won out in the end, but it quickly disappeared as soon as he regained his emotionless façade. Honestly, did the boy ever smile?

Draco having recovered himself now, allowed her no time for daydreaming, and quickly ordered her to follow him. She obeyed, not liking his commanding attitude, but not angry enough to get in a fight over it.

At first, they walked in silence, but then a question Ginny had momentarily forgotten resurfaced in her mind and she had to ask it. " How did you know he was going to come back?"

Draco shrugged, as if answering was beneath him, but he told her anyway. " It´s a habit he´s gotten into in the past couple of years. He always comes back into a room about a minute after he left it to see if he could catch anyone who might have been hiding."

" Oh," Ginny said wondering how Draco would know what Filch´s habits were. " I take it you know from experience?"

A nod. Obviously Harry, Ron, and Hermione weren´t the only one´s who did more than their fair share of sneaking around.

Draco read the look on her face, and had to suppress a slight smile, which only succeeded in making him irritated at himself. What was wrong with him? He was doing it again. Allowing her to get to him like that. "STOP IT," he ordered himself sternly. He couldn´t afford to get mixed up in something as petty as a relationship with a Weasley. He just couldn´t.

He thought that Ginny might press her advantage and ask him exactly what he had been doing sneaking around at night, but she didn´t. It seemed that she had decided she´d rather not know, and that suited him perfectly. It might be a tad uncomfortable to explain that half the time that he´d been out at night was because of one girl or another.

They came to the area where the restricted section was located, and Draco looked at the ropes draped around the area doubtfully. He knew there was a charm, or spells put around them so that they couldn´t just move them or walk over them, but he also knew the password changed daily.

Ginny, however, had no knowledge of the spell, and would have proceeded to simply step over the ropes if Draco hadn´t stopped her with a grip of iron.

" Did you really think it would be that simple, Weasley? They´re spelled," he pointed out, indicating the ropes.

" Oops," Ginny murmured, not having much else to say. Why hadn´t she thought

of that? She was going to get them both caught if she wasn´t careful.

" There´s a password that releases the spell, but it´s changed every day,"

Draco explained knowledgeably.

" And let me guess, you just happen to know what it is." Ginny remarked sarcastically. She was fast tiring of his superior attitude.

" Actually, no, I don´t."

" What?!!" This was even worse than his attitude. How had he hoped to get around the spells without knowing the password?

" Quiet down!" Draco hissed fiercely. " Do you want to bring Filch back in here?"

Ginny´s shake of the head answered his question.

" Good. Now as to this password, I said I didn´t know it. I didn´t say I couldn´t get it."

Ginny´s eyebrows rose. " And how are you going to go about accomplishing this?"

Draco´s smirk couldn´t have gotten any bigger if she had put it under a microscope. " You know that Madame Pince doesn´t have the best memory in the world, right?"

" Yeah..." The librarian had proved this often enough.

" So to remember the password-it changes so often-she writes it down. And do you know where she puts it?"

Ginny didn´t.

" She tapes it under her desk."

" Which is right over there," Ginny concluded, pointing back the way they had come. She knew where his thoughts were heading now.

" Exactly," Draco confirmed, a triumphant look increasing his usual smugness.

Without waiting for anything more to be said, he marched over to Madame Pince´s desk and proceeded to inspect its underside.

" Got it," he told her, walking quickly back. " Thank Merlin for bad memories."

Ginny didn´t reply; only watched as he extracted his wand from the inside pocket of his robe and pointed at the rope. " Book."

Suddenly Ginny felt a pressure she hadn´t even noticed was there disappear, and she felt much lighter. The spell had been removed.

" How did that work?" she asked curiously. She´d never heard an ordinary word used like a spell before.

" Yet another mysterious mystery of Hogwarts. A regular word used as a strong protective spell," he paused, sounding right on the verge of revealing amazing intelligence, making Ginny give him and impatient glance.

"Well?"

"Don´t ask me how they did it," Draco told her with a careless shrug.

Ginny rolled her eyes, but said no more. It was obvious that he really didn´t know, or else she would have had to press him more. As it was, she let the subject drop.

" So we can go through now?" she asked.

A single nod was the only confirmation she got, but it was enough. She stepped carefully over the rope, not completely trusting of Draco´s haughty confidence. Just because it seemed like he had gotten the spell off the place didn´t mean he had.

The rope was passed without incident, and Ginny let out a breath of relief that she hadn´t realized she´d been holding. Draco smirked at her as he stepped over beside her. " See?" his look seemed to say.

Ginny didn´t say anything, turning her gaze away from that smug face and heading to the row of shelves that were lined up in front of her. Where to start? There were so many.

She stood lost for a moment, before beginning the arduous task of searching through titles. The names of some of the books alone were enough to make a creeping sensation sneak up her back and her hair stand on end. It was hard to believe that Hogwarts could carry such evil looking books as The Dark Wizards Guide to Deadly Curses, or Seven Ways to Get Revenge; Permanently.

She knew they were only used as references, but it was still frightening to think of the powerful knowledge they contained being used by the wrong person for the wrong reasons.

So engrossed was she in her musings that she didn´t notice when Draco came to stand beside her, looking slightly amused. When Ginny finally did notice his presence, she couldn´t think of anything that might be remotely funny. Then again, she didn´t happen to have what was probably a warped sense of humor either.

" What did you say was the name of the book?" he asked her quietly.

" Dark Magical Necklaces and Their Dark Purposes," Ginny repeated the title, sounding like she was repeating a phrase that had been memorized since childhood.

She watched curiously as Draco held his wand up. " Accio, Dark Magical Necklaces and Their Dark Purposes," he intoned clearly.

A book from the far end of the second shelf flew into his hand with a slight snapping sound, and Ginny had to work to keep herself from revealing her embarrassment. Why hadn´t she thought of using the summoning spell?

Oh well. She snatched the book from Draco´s hand before he could protest, determined to prove that she was worth something in this little escapade of theirs. She turned the pages hurriedly, searching for something, anything, about the necklace that Draco still, and was even now holding in his hand.

He didn´t even try to take the book back he just waited calmly.

But Draco was more affected than he let on. In fact, he had to work very hard not to let his emotionless expression turn into a fierce grimace. Thank God he´d learned self-control at such an early age that it was already engraved firmly in his very being. He waited as patiently as possible for Ginny to find what they were looking for, wishing the whole time that he could snatch it out of her hands.

Well, he could, of course, but he wouldn´t. He had seen the look in her eyes and knew that she wanted to do something that would prove she was worthy to be there, even if it was something so minor as looking up a necklace in a library book. He could understand that too. It was probably one of the few things he had in common with her: the need to prove himself.

Ginny found the page she was looking for quickly; the image of the Soul Keeper stood out like dark mud on freshly fallen snow. " Here it is," she whispered quietly, and was about to read it out loud when Draco grabbed her wrist.

" Come on, we´ll look at it somewhere else," his voice was commanding.

" But wouldn´t it be easier to just read it here and put it right back?" Ginny didn´t know what else he could be planning on doing.

" Just come on, Ginny," Draco almost asked rather than ordered, his voice slightly softer. " I have reasons for not wanting to read it here."

" Okay..." Ginny agreed, wondering what Draco could possibly have in mind. She followed him back across the rope, pausing briefly while he put the ward back in place, and then on out of the library without speaking, clutching the book close to her side, and occasionally sneaking sideways glances at the mysterious boy who walked beside her. Would he ever become less of an enigma to her? Or was she destined to fall hard for the one thing she could not, should not, have?

They were almost back to the corridor that led back to the Slytherin common room and to the dungeons when Draco stopped in mid-stride. " I almost forgot something," he whispered to her from under the cover of the cloak. " Wait here." He started to take the cloak off of himself, but Ginny protested insistently.

" No! Don´t be stupid! If you take off the cloak, you´ll more than likely get caught by Filch, and then we won´t be able to put the book back. I don´t know how to let down the ward. I`ll come with you."

She spoke sensibly, and Draco would have had to be a fool not to see it. " Fine," he agreed, his look silently adding confidently, but I wouldn't have gotten caught. " Follow me."

They set off down an adjoining corridor leading the opposite way from their intended direction, right toward the Great Hall. As they went, both listened closely for the sound of footsteps or anything else that might betray the presence of another person. It seemed fate had finally decided to lend them a hand, because they made it all the way to the corridor outside the Hall without incident.

Taking a cautious glance around, Draco stepped out from under the cloak and quickly placed himself in front of the wall, where, Ginny realized, the sign-up sheet for Dumbledore´s challenge still hung. They had said that it would not be removed until Monday morning. But what was Draco going to do, surely he couldn´t be...

Why on earth would Draco Malfoy have anything to do with one of Dumbledore´s clever schemes to get students to study harder? It wasn´t that he didn´t realize what the whole thing was really for. If Ginny had been able to see through it, then she would bet her life that Draco had. Maybe he just wanted to earn his house 100 points. After all, wasn´t that why most of them had signed up?

Draco´s face didn´t seem to invite any questions when he turned back around and settled the cloak around him, so Ginny didn´t ask. It was probably one of the wisest things she had done in a long time.

No one spoke as they went back through the halls, retracing their steps all the way back to the Slytherin staircase. There Draco reached for the book, obviously expecting her to give it to him, but Ginny refused, shaking her head vehemently.

" No way. If I gave this to you now, I wouldn´t have a chance of finding out what I want to know." She didn´t add that what she wanted to know happened to be exactly what he did. She didn´t need to.

" Fine," he snapped, a little taken aback at her sudden change in attitude. A second ago she had looked about as meek and obedient as a trained slave, but now the light was back in her eyes as she looked at him challengingly. And for some reason, he almost smiled. He liked her better that way. No wait, I didn´t mean that..." We´ll have to take it to the Slytherin common room if you want to read it tonight."

Ginny started to open her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. " No buts, Weasley. If we read it out here, we´d almost certainly get caught. Now who´s being stupid?" He said the last with a trademark smirk, eyes amused.

Ginny nodded stiffly. Why, oh why did he have to be right most of the time? Why couldn´t he just screw up really bad one time-just one time- so she could laugh in his face about it? Of course, she reasoned, it would be better for that time not to happen until I wasn´t around until afterwards...

She waited until they had descended the steps and Draco was about to say the password before she spoke again. " Wait! What if there are people up?"

" There aren´t," Draco answered, as sure of himself as if he could see through the wall and had already looked. " When Slytherins can´t sleep, they don´t go to the common room."

" They go...somewhere else," Draco answered evasively, quickly saying the

password and pulling her inside so that she didn´t have time to ask any more. With a small clang, the wall closed up behind them again, and Ginny Weasley found herself staring into darkness of the Slytherin Common Room.