Captured By A Dragon

Chapter Fourteen: The Keeper of Venom

Ginny was asleep in the Malfoy Manor, in the same bed where she was put. She seemed to be having very odd dreams, dreams that consisted of Lucius killing Draco off while Ginny screamed in a corner or Lucius killing her while Draco was at Hogwarts, thinking that she was safe in her common room.

In another dream, Ginny was asleep in the same bed when Draco came into the room. He'd sit on the bed, nothing out of the ordinary, and when Ginny woke up to find him sitting there, she would smile and kiss him and was assured she was going back to Hogwarts. The he'd vanish in gray smoke.

After every dream (or should I say nightmare), she would wake up, breathing hard and sweating as if she were just running. Ginny didn't know why she was even having these dreams in the first place, but then realized where she was, who she was with, and that no one would come and save her in time.

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"Where could she have gone?"

"What's happened?"

"Did you hear about the Weasley girl?"

"Gone?"

"Maybe she ran away!"

"Do you suppose she could have flown off?"

"Gone!"

Whispers flew from table to table in the Great Hall that morning, everybody talking about how Ginny had suddenly disappeared over the night. Somehow it must've finally leaked out into the school by all of the Gryffindors, and, to Draco's surprise, the Slytherins at his table were all looking very smug about this.

"Blaise!" Draco exclaimed, glaring at his friend, who looked like he was actually smirking.

"What?" said Blaise, one eyebrow raised. Draco swallowed and flushed. Was he going to tell his best friend off just for smirking? When he did it the most out of all the Slytherins?

"N-nothing," he mumbled, and he went back to eating his breakfast, looking back up at Blaise every now and then with angry eyes.

All of the sudden, disrupting the loudness of the Great Hall, Dumbledore stood up and everybody fell completely silent.

"There has been a disappearance of a Hogwarts student, as many of you may know," he said croakily, staring down at them all. Nothing seemed to be heard, not even the distant hoot of an owl outside or the shuffle of feet under a table.

"Ginny Weasley has indeed gone missing."

At once, the silence was broken. Several students started whispering again and Draco distinctly saw that the Slytherin smirks had gotten wider, including Blaise's.

Dumbledore got them quiet again by clearing his throat loudly and slowly the whispering ceased.

"I do not wish to have any of you students looking for her or being concerned for her safety. I assure every student that she will return safely."

Draco knew that Dumbledore really did not mean this, but understood it was so none of them got too worried; he saw out of the corner of his eye that Blaise was really smiling now, looking like he was enjoying all of this.

Dumbledore cleared his throat even louder, and, once again, the Great Hall was quiet.

"The Quidditch game today between Slytherin and Ravenclaw shall not be postponed, so I expect all of the House teams be prepared. Thank you."

Dumbledore sat back down and everybody started eating again, looking fearfully at one another.

Suddenly, with dawning apprehension, Draco remembered the Quidditch game today and clenched his fists furiously. How could he have forgotten? Blaise reminded him yesterday in Transfiguration. But, of course, he was absorbed in the fact that he would be meeting Ginny when classes were over, so it most obviously slipped his mind.

Draco got up and walked out of the Great Hall, not even telling Blaise where he was going. He didn't even need to speak to Blaise anymore if he was pleased about his girlfriend vanishing. Then Draco also remembered how nobody even knew that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, nobody even knew that the girl everyone thought of this shy, little weakling was kidnapped. There was no hiding it, Draco knew that the scream belonged Ginny now, and she was kidnapped.

But... by whom?

Tons of names popped up in Draco's mind as he was facing the entrance of the Slytherin common room.

"Parseltongue," he muttered, and right before he entered the common room, he bumped into none other than...

"Draco!" gasped Pansy Parkinson, running straight into him. Pansy had the face of a pug, though which many people noticed, they did not criticize as they knew that her and her gang of Slytherin girls would probably do something horrible if the leader of the pack was made fun of. She clutched one of Draco's arms and looked up at him eagerly.

Draco stared down at her for a long period of time and saw some sparkle in her dark eyes, some sort of excitement. He knew this was probably a bad thing, so he wiggled her off of his arm and went right past her to his dormitory.

Pansy turned and followed him.

"Oh, Draco, how awful it is to have that Weasley girl go missing on such an important day as this!" she said rather sarcastically, but Draco paid no attention. He went under the bed and retrieved his trunk, opened it, put it on the bed, and stared back at Pansy.

"Important day as this?" he repeated, looking confused. "What are you talking about, Parkinson?"

Draco immediately regretted saying this as Pansy's puglike face was turned into a pout. He calling her 'Parkinson' had clearly offended her. Pansy decided not to say anything about it, however, and answered him in what sounded like a high-pitched frilly voice.

"The Quidditch match, Draco. Against Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw's in the lead of the Quidditch Cup, and if we beat them we'll be right under Gryffindor. You're going, aren't you?"

Draco seriously considered just kicking Pansy right out of his dormitory, he hated the way she goggled at him like some fancy dress in a shop window. He sighed and started piling all of his things into his trunk, ignoring the gasp he heard to his side where Pansy was standing.

"Are you running away?" she asked incredulously, walking closer and goggling at him some more with her eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.

Draco looked back at her with no certain emotion on his face.

"I'm leaving, but I'm coming back," he said.

Pansy gasped again.

"Well where are you going? You can't just leave, I mean... what will I do without you?" her voice was shrill as if she had just gotten the worst news of her life. Draco just rolled his eyes at her.

"Stop acting like you're my girlfriend, I already have one."

He closed his trunk with a loud snap that echoed in the cold dungeons and he started walking out of the dormitory, Pansy trailing behind him.

"You already have...?"

And before Pansy could say anything more, Draco was gone.

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Ginny was sitting at the edge of the bed, staring down at the floor. She was bored out of her mind, something she was not used to because something unusual was always happening at Hogwarts.

But Ginny was not at Hogwarts.

She was at the Malfoy Manor, a much different place. The manor was so quiet all the time, as if nobody was living in there at all. Several times Ginny saw what was unmistakably a house elf crack open the door, look at her, then squeal loudly and slam the door shut.

There was only one window in the room, a small window in which only a little baby could fit in, and there was dim light coming from it. Suddenly, making Ginny jump about a foot off the bed, a snowy owl came flying through the small window and landed on the bed.

Ginny stared at it for awhile before realizing that it had an envelope attached to its leg, and she mouthed the word 'Ohhhh' as she took it off and the beautiful owl flew away.

At first thought she suspected it might've been from Harry because he was the only one she knew with a snowy owl, but apparently he wasn't.

Ginny,

Sorry I haven't responded to you as soon as you may like, but I dunno what Malfoy's problem may be. Probably a madman or something. Anyway, George and I here and making oodles of money in Hogsmeade, our stuff's selling more than Zonko's! Of course, the man hates us now, but... easy come, easy go. Like my owl? Yes, she's a beaut. Got her down in Diagon Alley. Named her Molly just to irritate Mum. Hope you're having a nice year!

Love,

Fred

Not only was Fred's letter late, but it didn't even give advice on Draco (not that she needed it; this just made her angry).

So much to rely on Fred.

Breaking her train of thought, the door opened. Ginny hastily stuffed the letter down her shirt and turned around, swallowing when she saw Lucius standing there, looking livid.

"I have just seen an owl fly into this room. Did it send you a letter?" he asked coldly, looking at her with malice. Something about that look made her nervous just answering his question.

"Er - no."

Malfoy scowled at her and his eyes moved downward to the letter sticking out in her shirt. He smirked and walked over to her, holding out his hand.

"Give me the letter, Weasley," he demanded, and Ginny immediately did so.

Malfoy read over the letter, his scowl getting bigger as he went. When he was finished, he crumpled up the letter in his hands and picked up Ginny by the arm, his fingernails digging into her skin. She winced in pain.

"MADMAN, AM I? WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!" he roared, and they trudged into the hall, a narrow passageway with several doors on each side.

Malfoy turned left and scurried down the hall, Ginny at his side. She was practically running to keep up with him as they turned into a door at the right.

The room was bright and square, and looked like some kind of family room. It was filled with black leather couches and soft, ruby red carpet. Above them was a humongous gold chandelier, as big as a full-grown Blast-Ended Skrewt. It was lined up with candles and it seemed to be giving off a very distinguished glow.

Lucius pushed Ginny onto one of the sofas and she looked up at him in fear, curling up in her spot.

"Want to see what a madman can do?" he said venomously, taking his wand out of his robe pocket.