The Soul Keeper

Chapter 12: The Kiss?

The common room was large, probably a little bigger than Gryffindor Tower, and there was a completely different feeling in the air, a total change of atmosphere from what Ginny was used to. The sudden change was almost oppressive to her, and she had to take several deep breaths to adjust herself and calm her nerves.

Draco, watching her, nodded. " Yes, the air is different here. Heavier, if you´d like."

" Why?"

" Some people say that the mood of a place is affected by the attitudes and feelings of the people who live there. Undoubtedly, Slytherins aren´t as carefree and happy as the rest of the houses."

" Undoubtedly," Ginny murmured, too absorbed in trying to understand the underlying meaning of his words to give a proper answer. As she stood silently, lost in her own reflections and observances, Draco walked over to one of the few, slightly comfortable looking couches (the rest looked about as soft of one of Hagrid´s rock cakes) and sat down.

" Really, Weasley, I know you´re impressed, being that you probably haven´t ever seen anything this grand before, but can´t you pick some other time to admire the rich decorum?" he asked after a few minutes, his face expressionless. Only a slight glint in his silver-gray eyes revealed any hint of his growing impatience.

Ginny jumped at the sound of his voice, so out of place in the absolute quiet. Remembering what they were there for, she tore her gaze away from the high stone arches and the blank faces of the stone figures carved there, their haughty expressions etched eternally into the stone. Their sightless eyes made her spine tingle, and she wondered how anyone could possibly stand to sit down here and be watched by them constantly.

Evidently, the ever-present stares didn´t bother Draco at all. He was as relaxed and composed here as if it were the most natural thing in the world for old stone figures to glare at the living. He was probably more comfortable here than at Malfoy Manor, his own home.

" Slytherins finest." Draco had seen the direction she had been gazing in, and apparently decided to play tour guide. " The best witches and wizards the house has ever produced, all the way from Salazar Slytherin himself to Aldure Baning, who discovered that mixing the petals of a red rose with the scale of a dragon in a solution of hornet´s poison would give the drinker the ability to control another´s dream for five minutes. Quite a brilliant guy, actually. Of course, he also got himself put in Azkaban for killing his enemies through their dream selves... but all in all, brilliant."

Draco smirked slightly when Ginny failed to look impressed. " Not your kind of scientist, huh? Well he wasn`t nearly as bad as-"

Ginny sat down beside him suddenly and put the book in his lap, more out of the need to get him to shut up than impatience. She did not want to here about the evil escapades of the past Slytherin heroes. It was way too creepy.

Taking the hint, Draco feigned a sigh. " Ah well, not everyone´s fit to handle the amazing tales of the Slytherins, I suppose."

In spite of herself, Ginny found a small grin playing at the edges of her mouth. Draco was making jokes again; he must be feeling a little better about her. She hoped.

Indeed, Draco was feeling better, his earlier weariness had almost disappeared, and he was beginning to experience a strange, not-quite-happy-but-fairly-close feeling that one usually encounters after having miraculously survived something that should have killed you instantly. That was how he was beginning to feel about the fight with the necklace now that the shock had worn off. He should have been under it´s complete control now, but he wasn´t, thanks to the pretty, brown-eyed girl sitting beside him. It was one of those rare emotions that no one can feel and not share at least a little bit. His way of letting some of that out was to joke with her.

And the fact that it really didn´t feel that awful to do it kept him from shutting himself off completely from her again.

It gratified him to see the small smile tugging at her lips, and he had the insane desire to turn it into a full-fledged one. " So, what kinds of stories do you Gryffindors sit around telling? The heroic adventures of The Boy Who Lived, the Weasel, and the Walking Textbook?"

This time, Ginny not only smiled, she couldn´t help laughing as well. And when she looked over at Draco, expecting to see his normal blank face in spite of the playful words, she was surprised to see him smiling.

It wasn´t the bright, brilliant smile of Harry´s that caused every girl within a one-mile radius to stop and stare, but it made Ginny´s heart beat faster all the same. It was exactly the kind of smile that you´d expect to see on a handsome, mysterious, keeps-to-himself guy on the rare occasions that they did take pleasure from something. It was a grin that Ginny wouldn´t have traded for a thousand Galleons.

To her, it meant more than that Draco had actually found something funny. It meant that something was changing between them again. Something more than the smile itself could ever betray. It meant that the walls Draco had built around himself were coming down, stone by stone. It would only be a matter of time before Ginny could peer through the gap, and only a little longer after that that she could walk through completely.

Feeling her stare, Draco tilted his face to look at her, their eyes meeting in the flickering light of the fire that Draco had started upon their entrance. They stayed that way for a long moment, not moving, neither one of them hardly daring to breathe. Slowly, oh so slowly, Draco leaned his head down towards hers.

His lips had barely brushed hers when he jerked back abruptly, a look of utter surprise on his face, like he couldn´t believe what he had almost done. " Sorry," he muttered in a low voice, almost angrily.

Ginny didn´t answer; she was to shocked at the sudden removal of his warm form away from hers. She had wanted that kiss, had dreamt of it for days, and when she was finally about to get it, he changed his mind! The lousy jerk. Did he think it was fair to treat her that way, playing on her emotions and then abruptly ending the game before she was ready to call it quits?

If he sensed her anger, Draco showed no sign of it, probably because he was too absorbed in his own feelings. " Let´s read this quickly so we can get it back to the library before anyone discovers it´s missing."

Ginny wanted to ask exactly who he thought was going to miss a library book at a quarter to one in the morning, but she refrained, knowing he was just trying to make an excuse that sounded halfway plausible. Besides, it really wouldn´t be good to wake up the whole of Slytherin house with a loud argument, as theirs tended to be.

So she didn´t answer, but she moved away from him on the couch, retreating back to the opposite side as far as she could, giving the impression that she couldn´t get far enough away from him. That was how Draco saw it anyway.

Actually, Ginny had moved away so that she wouldn´t be tempted to slap him, which was all too likely to happen if she got any angrier. The last time she had felt like this, Draco had ended up in the hospital wing with a broken arm. One of the teachers was sure to notice the undeniable print of a hand across Draco´s face and her guilty looks and avoidance of him the next day, if she allowed her anger free reign. And since they knew about the incident with the broom, it wouldn´t take much to put two and two together. Heck, even Snape could manage that.

Draco picked the book up off his lap, trying hard to look like he was actually concentrating on looking for the page with the Soul Keeper on it. He was really trying to decide why he had broken off the kiss. What had caused him to do such a thing? No wait, wrong question. What had caused him to even attempt to kiss Ginny Weasley in the first place? And what´s more, she had actually let him!

He had felt sure that she would pull back, horrified, but she hadn´t. Instead, she had surprised them both by leaning forward almost eagerly. She had wanted that as bad as he had. But why had he stopped? The Malfoy part of him was arguing that it was a good thing he had come to his senses and stopped, she was a WEASLEY. The other part of himself, the part he´d only recently come to know, insisted that he hadn´t wanted to rush things, or push her too fast.

But the other part of him knew the truth. The part he seldom even gave a thought to was the only one that knew the real reason. He was scared, more scared than he had ever been in his entire life. If she hadn´t been in the room with him, keeping him in check, he was sure his hands would have been shaking. It was a fear more profound than even the one he´d faced in the library today when he risked losing his free will.

The kind of fear he´d only heard other people talk about, when they didn´t think anyone could hear them. Or the fear often mentioned in books; the fear of something so completely strange and alien to the person that they could think of nothing else. That was the kind of fear that possessed him now. He was scared that if he...allowed himself to go any farther with what he was feeling, he would be completely overpowered by it. It was a strange sensation for one who had feared so little previously, and for someone who had never loved.

It was something that would require a lot of thought before he went on with it, and unfortunately, he didn´t have that right now, and he probably wouldn´t until he got the Soul Keeper out of the way. He didn´t like having to push Ginny aside as he did, but she would understand, maybe not now, but later.

Besides, just because he couldn´t kiss her right then didn´t mean that they had to be enemies. There could be an in between, and Draco was prepared to settle for that for now. Hopefully she would be too.

He looked up from his idle page turning and saw her watching him. " You know where it is," he told her, handing her the book with a look that asked her to find the right page.

Without a word, Ginny took the book from him and quickly found what they were looking for.

" The Soul Kee-" she began, but stopped suddenly, looking around anxiously. " No one will here us will they?" she asked in a quieter voice.

" Well, they wouldn´t if you didn´t have to shout from all the way across the couch."

She stared at him for a second, trying to judge what he meant by that, and not being quite able to decide whether she should move back over or not.

Rolling his eyes, Draco solved the problem for her by moving over himself. He was sure not to get too close, Ginny noticed, but he didn´t sit far enough away to make her think he didn´t want to touch her. It was a comfortable distance, the one usually placed between good friends. Well, it was something at least.

Looking back down at the book, she started again. " The Soul Keeper was allegedly created by Salazar Slytherin himself, back in the 12^th century. It was supposedly serpent shaped, with ruby eyes, and made of the finest silver. From what our sources say, the necklace had one purpose. It was created to-"

Here Ginny paused, obviously reading ahead in her mind.

" What?!" Draco asked impatiently. " It was created to what?"

When Ginny still didn´t answer her, his stretched patience ran out and he snatched the book from her and began reading out loud himself while Ginny watched and listened, her face pale with the disastrous knowledge the book contained.

"It was created to capture the souls of mortal men and hold them imprisoned for as long as the owner of the pendant wished. While we don´t know exactly what Slytherin himself intended to do with his creation, we can be sure from past experience that it would not have been good. The ruby eyes of the snake ensnare its victims, creating a link between them and it, so that when they are killed (presumably by Slytherin at that precise moment) their souls were sucked into the necklace." Here Draco paused. " That doesn´t sound good, does it?"

Ginny shook her head wordlessly. A necklace that could capture souls? Why would anyone want to do that? What purpose could it possibly serve? Her questions were only partly answered when Draco continued.

" It is believed that Salazar was going to use the captured souls to benefit his own rise to power, but was unable to fulfill his plan because of his own mysterious death. With his disappearance, the necklace has faded from existence as well, until no one is certain whether it ever even existed at all."

" They are now," Ginny muttered darkly, causing Draco to glance up at her in surprise. Ginny saw nothing funny in the situation, but a small smile was on Draco´s lips. She did note, however, that there was no such amusement in his eyes. He was as well aware of the enormity of their discovery- or lack thereof- as she. Few questions had been answered, and many more raised.

First in Ginny´s mind; what did all of this have to do with Draco? What was Salazar trying to accomplish?

Draco, who was still watching her face closely, seemed to read her thoughts, but could offer no explanation or assurance. She knew as much as he did now, that was apparent. It also meant that there was a lot more to figure out. Such as why Salazar, if indeed, it was him, had picked now to start trying to take over someone´s body. The necklace had been around for years, even if few had ever seen it. Why had no one else noticed it´s mysterious qualities?

Draco was just as puzzled. There were so many questions, and too few answers. He was beginning to form an idea where this was all headed, but he knew Ginny couldn´t see it. She wasn´t used to thinking the way he did. She had no reason to, for she had been surrounded by her family her entire life. She had grown up thinking the world was a safe place after the fall of Voldemort. Draco, meanwhile, had learned to think differently, and he knew better. One Dark Lord might be gone, but there would always be another to take his place. It was a lesson Draco had learned well. The only thing was, he´d never thought about the possibility of a thousand year old evil rising from the grave. Now it was something he would have to think about.

But for the moment, he knew there was nothing more they could do except get some sleep. They both had classes tomorrow, and Draco knew Ginny detested the thought of falling asleep in them as much as he did.

Decided, he closed the book- it had no more to tell them- and stood up slowly. Ginny started to rise too, and he automatically reached out his hand to help her up. This time, he didn´t even think about where the gesture had come from, and acted as though it were the most natural thing in the world. It seemed too stupid and petty to worry about being a good Slytherin when his house´s namesake was as good as rising from the dead to take control of him. When you looked at it in that light, worrying about your feelings for a girl was idiotic. He knew he would have to fight that war later, but for now, he had other things to worry about.

At first, Ginny was surprised at the offered hand, but it soon disappeared as she let Draco pull her to her feet. As he seemed preoccupied for the moment, Ginny took the time to examine him closely.

He seemed deep in thought, like something was troubling him. Okay, that was pure genius. Of course something´s bothering him, he just found out that one of the Hogwarts founders wanted control of his body for some unknown reason, probably to help steal souls or something.

The thought made Ginny feel weak. She tried to imagine Draco standing at the side of Salazar Slytherin, helping him to kill innocents and extract their souls, but she just couldn´t do it. It was easy enough to see Slytherin, she knew his face from the portraits hung about the common room, and especially the large stone carving of him that was chiseled into the ceiling. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn´t picture Draco standing beside him. Something in her cried out that it was wrong, that Draco could never do that, could never be bad- evil- enough to do something like that.

But a small part of her wondered; what if? After all, what did she really know about the young Malfoy, besides the fact that he was an excellent flier, had the clearest, gray eyes she´d ever seen-a color that was bright as the sun, but dark as ebony all at once- and that his light blonde hair looked better when he left it hanging down in front of him than when he slicked it back as he used to, the way he always stood tall, his back straight and proud, but with enough of a relaxed position so that he looked like he owned the world, but was not quite arrogant enough to claim it.

Those were all things that anyone with half a brain could see, if they would just take the time to look. Though they might not see them in quite the same light...

There, Ginny was suddenly overcome with the vivid memory of the way his lips felt lightly pressed against hers, and her entire thought process was ruined. Only the sound of Draco´s voice could have woken her from her dream like trance and called her back to reality, and after Draco had finished his own inner musings, he quickly obliged her.

" Ginny?" He shook her softly by the arm, being abnormally gentle. " Are you awake in there?"

" Huh?" She blinked stupidly. " Oh, yeah, I´m fine, just thinking." Okay, get a grip. Weren´t you just thinking about how much you hated him a few minutes ago? Now there could be a puddle of your drool at his feet. The terrifying idea snapped her back into reality completely, and she glanced quickly towards the floor.

Nope, no puddle, that was a relief. It meant that no one knew her private thoughts except for her, and that was a very good thing. It was also a huge load off her back when she discovered that Draco seemed to have no clue as to where her betraying thoughts had just led her. It was almost abnormal how well Draco could read her sometimes. How he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking.

Draco nodded at her statement, he had been thinking very hard himself. " Look, it´s getting late. I think it was time we both headed for bed. There´s nothing more we can do tonight anyway, it would do us both some good to sleep so we can make it through classes tomorrow."

He was telling her to leave? Already? They hadn`t even figured out what they were going to do yet! " What about-"

" We´ll worry about that later. And don´t come looking for me. I´ll find you, and we can figure out how to discuss this matter in private."

There were no other objections Ginny could voice that would allow her to prolong her stay, and she had to admit that they could do no more for now. " Alright," she agreed. " But if you don´t find me before ten tomorrow night(that was when everyone had to be in their common rooms), I´m going to march right down here and find you."

And she meant it, Draco could tell by the firm set of her jaw. " Okay, okay, don´t worry about it. I´ll come up with something. There has to be a secret way for us to meet without anyone finding out about it..." He just hoped he could find out what that was.

" Wait a minute," Ginny suddenly blurted out excitedly. " You signed up for that challenge program didn´t you?"

" Yeah..." Draco really didn´t see where she was headed with this.

" So you´ll have to work with a partner, and I´ll have to work with a partner, probably somewhere where no one can find out what our challenge is..." She trailed off, knowing he´d caught her train of thought.

" So we make sure that we´re partners." Draco finished.

" Exactly."

Draco chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully, a bad habit he´d had for years, but never bothered getting rid of. It wasn´t like he normally did it in front of other people. This was an exception. " Great plan," he told her finally, " but it´ll never work."

" Why not?" The grin that had been forming on Ginny´s face suddenly fell, and she looked at him a bit indignantly, her pride hurt at having her idea so immediately and firmly rejected.

" For one thing," Draco began, gazing at her levelly, " the headmaster, and all the professors are involved in the process of choosing the partners. While we might able to influence one of them, with spells or such, we could never do all of them, at least not without them finding out."

Okay, Ginny admitted, that made sense. But Draco wasn´t done yet.

" For another," he continued, a hint of the old smugness that had been absent from his voice for the past five minutes coming back, " we don´t even know how they´re doing the choosing. It could be as simple as drawing names out of a hat, or as complicated as a matching spell that tells them who would work best with who. It would be like begging for trouble to mess with one of their spells. And I, personally, despise begging."

" It´s already past one in the morning, they´ll be matching up partners in just a few hours. There is no way we can find out in time."

" Fine," Ginny muttered exasperatedly, " You come up with a brilliant idea then. You´re supposed to be so good at that."

" I will," Draco told her, the perfect picture of calm serenity, while Ginny, meanwhile, could hardly force herself to be still she was so apprehensive. " But not tonight. I want some sleep, and you need some whether you want it or not. I´ll figure something out later. Now come on, I´ll walk you to your common room."

Ginny had been all prepared to deliver another protest, but his last words stopped her, almost making her choke. " You´ll what?" she gasped unbelievingly.

" I said I´ll walk you to Gryffindor Tower." Draco didn´t even look uncomfortable. It was as if it was a perfectly reasonable thing for him to do, and he would never have even thought of doing otherwise.

" But...why?" Ginny couldn´t help thinking of all the times the other girls had talked about having a boy walk them home, or to their common room, and feeling slightly jealous at the thought that she´d never had anyone do that for her. Now that it seemed like it might happen, she was kind of unnerved. It didn´t help that the offer had come from Draco, and had been totally unexpected at that.

" Um..okay," she managed to finally get out in a small voice. What else could she say? She´d practically been dreaming of something like this to happen since...well, a while ago, several days at least.

As they exited the Slytherin common room and began the trip to Gryffindor Tower, both of them huddled under Harry´s invisibility cloak together, she wasn´t sure what to think. Draco was being so much more...polite... to her now than he had ever been before, and she wasn´t quite sure how to take it. Did it mean he liked her, or did he just want to be friends?

In the mental turmoil these thoughts caused, Ginny had just about forgotten the problem with the Soul Keeper. At least until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, and Draco reminded her once again that he would find her, and not to make a big scene by looking for him.

As if she would. The last thing she wanted was to draw everyone´s attention and have them asking questions she didn´t want asked. After assuring him of this fact, she had turned and started to head through the portrait hole when a strong hand caught her arm and gently turned her back around.

" Ginny?"

" Yes?" she replied timidly. Draco´s eyes were an unusual color, one she´d never seen before. No, that wasn´t true; she had seen it once, just about half an hour earlier, when he-

" Goodnight," Draco whispered, leaning down quickly and planting a gentle kiss on her lips before she could react. He pulled away as quickly as he had come, turning without a sound and disappearing back around the corner.

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It was only later, as Ginny lay in bed remembering that kiss, her first real kiss (in her opinion the almost-kiss earlier didn´t count) when she realized something that she had missed in the thrill of the moment. Draco had left the invisibility cloak with her, and had to walk back without one. He could have been caught!

It was to late to act on that thought now, and Ginny wished she´d had enough sense to realize it earlier before she´d let him do it. She could have put the cloak back later...Well, no, that really wouldn´t have worked very well. Harry might have missed it by then. As it was, she had returned it safe and sound, without anyone being any wiser. A simple silencing charm had allowed her to slip into the boys' room undetected, and the moon had been just bright enough to see by as it shone in through the windows. It had been almost too easy.

A large yawn issued from out of her little four-post bed, and a few minutes later, Ginny´s eyes closed in sleep, a smile on her face. Her thoughts had already reverted back to the memory of Draco´s intense face, the way his lips had felt so warm, so alive as they pressed gently on hers, and the way it had felt so right. Like it was meant to be.