Twins

Snape swung the door of the potions classroom open and the chattering pupils went silent. At the far end of the damp dungeon, at the desk sat a girl.

When the door opened she turned her gray eyes towards the teacher and slid down from the table, making every boy in the room think about totally different things than potions. She made her way against the dumbstruck potions master and she dumbfounded the students by slapping Snape across his cheek. Hard. The girl then stood on her tiptoes and kissed the place where she had left a burning mark.

"For turning your back on me, then turning back," she whispered. She walked past the crowd of 6^th year Gryffindors and Slytherins that parted to let her out.

"What are you waiting for? Sit down and prepare your things!" Snape barked and swept through the dungeon. All students hurriedly sat down except for one. Harry Potter was the first to utter the question everyone asked themselves.

"Who was the girl, Professor Snape?"

"No one who would want to date you, Potter. Now show me that Professor Dumbledore has not asked for you to be in this Advanced Potions class only because he has a soft spot for you. Sit!" With burning cheeks Harry sat down as the Slytherins snickered.

***

"I just couldn't keep my fat mouth shut, could I? I had to give Snape the chance to insult me," Harry exclaimed with a pink flush still lingering on his cheeks.

"We all wanted to ask him, mate. You just happened to be the first," Ron said.

" I wonder what he would have said if Malfoy asked..." Harry said.

"He would probably give him the girl's name, address, and diary," Ron answered

"Oh, let it go, Harry. Let's go out to the lake and do our homework since we don't have any DADA. I can't believe Professor Dumbledore didn't find a teacher..." Hermione said gesturing towards the high windows where the autumn sun shone in, painting patterns on the stone floor. Harry, who wasn't quite as fond of the tree by the lake now when he had seen his father and Snape there, nodded reluctantly.

Suddenly Ron called, "Last one to the tree is Filch's secret love!" and set off into a run. To Harry's surprise Hermione went after him. Hermione used to roll her eyes at Ron when he did things like this, before pulling out a book from her bag and walk slowly after them with her nose in it. Harry realized that if he didn't hurry he would be last to the tree. He broke into a run and for the moment the girl at Snape's lesson was totally forgotten.

***

Ginny glanced at her watch again. If he didn't come soon her friends would start to wonder where she had gone. There was a faint crack from the door and Ginny looked up to see when he came in.

As he put on the Silencing charm and the Locking charm with his back towards her she noticed how tall he had become over the summer. When he turned around Ginny had to catch her breath. He had still the same fine blonde hair, silver eyes, and impeccable clothing. But his features had sharpened: his high cheekbones that made Lavender Brown jealous stood out in bold relief, his chest had become broader, and the scrawniness had turned into a lean and well shaped body. Despite his height, he didn't move as awkwardly as her brothers had, but with a catlike grace. It annoyed Ginny. Couldn't there be any flaw on this boy's appearance? Did he have to perfect? It was inhuman. But all Malfoys looked that way; it was one of the privileges being born in the powerful family. Maybe it came naturally along with power.

She gathered herself and greeted him, "Malfoy. I've read about the attacks in the paper. How much is true?"

"Most of it. The Dark Lord started to send out raids almost immediately after he was discovered. Five muggles dead, three Aurors are imprisoned at Opacus, and Father is out."

"Out? But he was discovered at the Ministry!" Draco went over to the window and leaned against the wall. Without turning his head towards her he carried on.

"He bribed some people at Azkaban. Since the dementors left there have been Aurors guarding. The judge didn't mind getting richer either. He's out." Ginny sat silent watching him stand there, the moonlight shining in through the leaded window painting a check pattern on his pale features. He looked like a king or knight in a fairy tale illustration. The angelic look that was the ideal for a hero or good saviour and far from the truth.

If there was something she had learned, it was that nothing is what it seems.

"He's going to be the next Minister of Magic."

"He can't be! There must be an election first."

Draco turned around and faced her, his eyes so cold that Ginny shuddered when she met them. With low voice he said, "Haven't I told you, Weasley, that there is nothing this man cannot do? Can't does not exist to him. It is just a pointless word."

"But...an election..." Ginny said as even more of the world she knew crumpled. She looked as she had done the first time she had happened to see the scars on his back from times when his father had been displeased with him.

"Do you think that he cannot manipulate the votes for his profit? I thought you weren't so naive anymore." Ginny just gave him a tired look and he went silent. "He has been disgustingly happy all summer. He decided to be kind and show me that he was proud of my spying on Potter through you. He taught me the Unforgivables." Too restless to be still, he started pacing as a caged animal. Suddenly driven by a feeling to tell everything from the sickening evening he began. "He called up a house elf, then he put the Imperious Curse on it. He made it break its own arms...then he took it off and it understood what it had done and screamed. So he killed it and laughed." The simplicity of his words made her understand what he had felt. He never talked about feelings but she had learned to interpret the almost invisible hints. He stopped pacing and looked up, his eyes totally blank.

"I have to teach them to you." Ginny felt as someone had kicked away her legs and she was falling, deeper and deeper into a black hole. Memories flashed by: the day Draco Malfoy had approached her, telling her that what his father had meant to do with the diary frighten her to join the Dark side, to become a spy. Then saying that the only chance she had to survive was obey. Or pretend to obey. That she had to pretend to be spying on her friends...

"Why?" The blonde boy with the pointy face looked at the girl in front of him as if she was totally stupid.

"Are you daft, Weasley? He needs an inside spy to watch Potter. I'm not close enough." The old pain came up again. The day when he had offered Potter his friendship that he had rejected. He had never gotten so beaten up before.

" You are worthless, Draco. You could not even befriend a Gryffindor fool. Potter chose a Weasley over you. You do not deserve the name of Malfoy..." his father's voice rung in his ears. That night when he lay in his bed, with hurt pride and body, he swore that one day he would beat Potter, beat him in anything and until then he would torture him where it hurt the most. His heart.

He returned to the present.

"But why me?" The redheaded girl said, clutching her books to her chest.

"My Father thinks that you are the weakest link of Potters friends. I know he's wrong since I've been watching you. With training and time I think you've got what it takes." Neither of them noticed the unintentional compliment.

Ginny asked, "What does it take?"

"Your world."

Ginny had not understood what he meant but she had learned that it was true. She had lost the illusions of a good world and people with hearts. How many times had she cried in front of Draco when he told her the last reports from his father? But today was not one of those times; she was stronger than that and she had to do what was best for the world.

She met his gaze and calmly asked him, "Where do we practice?"

"In a deserted classroom on third floor." Draco replied. For a moment he felt sorry because he had brought innocent Ginny Weasley into a complicated and cruel life. Because he had stolen her world. He recognized the feeling, it was the same sensation he had felt when Ginny had happened to see his scars...

He had summoned her after a Gryffindor - Slytherin quidditch match, (Gryffindor won of course), to the Slytherin changing rooms. She had come in without knocking and found him shirtless. He had turned to ask her if she hadn't any manners at all but swallowed it when he met her shocked expression. Tears had risen in her brown eyes and with trembling voice she said, "He...he beats you."

Damn her, he didn't need any tears; he needed a sensible partner who he could work with. Not a pitying, scared girl who could hug him and tell him that ́everything would be alright́.

"No actually it's our house-elf who beats me when I've been a naughty boy." If it was not against the Malfoy rules he would roll his eyes. When her eyes remained downcast, he said so quietly it was almost not audible, "Hey, Weasley there are worse things than getting beaten up." Words can hurt so much more; the pain doesn't wear off. The wounds can't be seen but they never heal and scar completely. They just stay as a sore spot inside you...

Ginny did not understand how he could defend the awful man that didn't have any right to call himself a father. To her a father was not only the man that made you, but he was an important part of your life; a person to love and admire.

When he had looked into her confused eyes, he understood why it made Weasleys so angry when you insulted their parents.

For some unknown reason he wished that she could live the normal life she pretended to do...

He straightened up and was about to say something when there was a knock on the door. Without giving himself time to think, he ran his hands through his hair and ruffled it, unbuttoned his shirt at the neck, and opened the door looking irritated and cold. Outside stood Colin Creevey, whose friendly smile turned into a nervous scowl.

"What do you want, Creevey? I'm busy here." Colin stuttered something. Draco's expression turned from irritated to amused and he snidely asked, "You want to join me and Pansy? I thought you liked boys, Creevey?"

Colin's face became the same shade of red as Ginny's hair and he managed to stutter out, "Looking...Ginny Weasley..." Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Were you looking for a Weasley in the same room as I am currently in?" he asked as if Colin was incredibly slow.

"Didn't know you were here."

"Apparently. Now run off and play and leave me alone. Next time I won't be so kind." Colin fled and Draco closed the door and faced Ginny, who was shaking with silent laughter.

"What's so funny?" he asked, wonderingly. He had thought she would be angry because he had insulted her friend.

"Parkinson? You pretended you were snogging Parkinson!" Ginny knew what Draco thought about Pansy Parkinson, an ugly girl in the Slytherin house. He smirked as Ginny sobered up and pretended as if that smirk did not affect her at all. She scolded herself in her mind. 'Get a grip! Just because he has gotten handsome over the summer, you don't need to become all air-headed. He's still the same, cold jerk as last year.

Draco walked over and sat down opposite her as they started to work on their letter to Dumbledore. They sent reports to him without signing them, charming the letters so no one could know whom they were from. He had no idea who the reports came from but they were valuable to him and the Order. Draco and Ginny had been one of his 'sources' for some years now. When they had finished the letter, they stayed for a while and discussed next step.

"You must have closer information!" Draco exclaimed as Ginny told him about the Trio during the summer.

"They always shut themselves in, Malfoy. They are a unity; a closed door with no keyhole. I can't get closer. I'm the 'little sister' to them!"

"Then show them that you're not," Draco said, looking as if it was something that did not concern him at all.

"How, Malfoy? How do I erase the picture of a little girl they see when they look at me?"

"Don't focus on all of them. Take Potter, the only boy that is not related to you in the trio and seduce him."

"I beg your pardon? Seduce him? He could bloody well be my brother!" Ginny shouted, very disturbed by the feeling that it would be a nice revenge on Harry after his ignorance of her crush in past years.

"Well, he isn't. Just become a little closer to him. Use his weak heart and hero complex."

"You make me sick!"

"Look, Weasel. Do you think this is a game of some sort? This is not about what you or I want. This is a war and we have to use the advantages we have. If you can't do so, you're not suited for this." Ginny was fuming. If there was something she hated, it was when people said or implied that there was something she was not able to do because she was too small or too afraid.

"You can't get anyone better in Gryffindor to do it!"

"Then prove it, Weaslette." Still he had not raised his voice once. He rose graciously and went for the door. "I summon you in a bit, try to find out what Dumbledore does about the prisoners at Opacus."

Just as DA, they used galleons (which had been Ginny's idea). All Malfoy had said was, 'Aren't people going to be a bit suspicious when you walk around with two galleons in your pocket?'

'Very funny Malfoy and very mature,' she had answered him, adopting his lazy drawl.

He could never be totally content about anything. He was a hopeless perfectionist. Must be terrible to wake up every morning and feel that something was wrong.

Draco nodded at her and went out with the usual smirk in place. Ginny sat for a while in the deserted room where they usually met. A dusty place that did not seem to fill any certain purpose more than being a store for weird and broken objects. Some pulpits without legs stood in the corner and opposite her there was a sofa that looked like it once had been a guinea pig since it still sported fur and whiskers. The only light was the starlight that seeped through the leaded window.

Ginny shuddered. The shadows had deepened and the darkness had crept a far bit closer. It was not that she was afraid of the dark or anything. It just made her uncomfortable. She stood up and walked out of the door with a much heavier heart than when she had arrived.

***

A silence settled as the girl that had appeared in the 6^th years' Potions class came through the double doors of the Great Hall. Rumours travelled fast at Hogwarts and there wasn't one student that had not heard about the girl who slapped Snape.

He, himself, was watching the girl with intent, unreadable eyes as she made her way towards the staff table, seemingly oblivious to all the eyes that were staring at her.

With her eyes fixed at the headmaster she came closer and leaned over the table to whisper something in his ear. He nodded and gestured towards the empty seat beside him. As the girl sat down, it was quiet enough to hear a pin fall.

Dumbledore held the excitement for some more seconds before he said, "Let's welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Sarah Trotter."