Behind the Facade

Chapter 1

Virginia Weasley woke up. She remembered Draco's visit as she went through the motions of getting up. Today she had to get down to 12, Grimmauld Place. The survivors of the Second War (not all of them; no-one could be trusted, so they never all met at one time, so they couldn't be got rid of all in one go) had to meet to decide on what to do next, apart from survive. Their latest scam to get The Dark Lord near Harry Potter had failed miserably. This was partly down to Ginny's design. If one killed the other, depending on who it was, either her or Draco would be killed or at least flung in Azkaban. Ginny knew the day would come when she would get so fed up of her façade that she would stand up and yell, "The Dark Lord wants to kill you too, as soon as possible, so why don't you just go up and knock on the door of the Riddle House?" Of course, she wasn't meant to know that the Riddle House even existed, let alone that it was Voldemort's base, but she had been possessed by him, so she had odd memories from the life of Tom Riddle. They would come to her, as though from a past life. She would suddenly stop and think, "I've been here before." She had been going with Hary to find where Voldemort had returned to power, in the hope that that might give them a clue to how to destroy him. They had been walking down a street a tiny town, Little Hangleton, and she had seen a big house, old but in ruins. Ginny had had a feeling that all was not as it seemed when a man suddenly appeared in the street and hurried towards it, and when she suddenly recognised it as the Riddle House. Harry had seen nothing; he had found the graveyard. Harry had knelt on the grass for about half an hour, remembering Cedric and his fight with the Dark Lord. Ginny had investigated the full graveyard. She found the graves of three Riddles. A Tom, a Marvolo and, to her horror, a Virginia. All were close by and had dates of about sixty years previously on. She found another two memories then; one where she was standing here in the rain, watching three coffins being lowered into the ground, and another one, of going into the Riddle House when it looked well kept and presentable. She paled as she probed that memory, and had found a convenient bush to throw up behind. She knew the Dark Lord had killed his grandparents and father, but to watch through his eyes as he did so and feel him feel nothing...She knew that was the Dark Lord's greatest weapon, and weakness. Harry had a heart. She was beginning to doubt if she had one.

Hermione was puzzled. Ginny had that haunted look again. Her eyes were wide against her pale face, and it was plain to see she wasn't taking a word of the meeting in. Or maybe she was. Ginny's eyes flicked over to Hermione. She gave a weak smile, then looked back at Harry. Could she still be in mourning over Harry's announcement that he would not be romantically involved if-until, he had quickly corrected it to, he killed Voldemort? Hermione doubted it. Although Ginny's choice of words had given the game away ('given up on Harry'), Hermione had a feeling Ginny didn't still like Harry. And that wouldn't account for Ginny's new dry outlook on life, and her sarcastic sense of humour, or that little smile she would occasionally get on her face, like she was humouring some children while secretly thinking how stupid they were being.

Hermione was puzzled. She wasn't often puzzled, and when puzzled she took it as a personal insult, and would do everything she could to find out the cause.

"This may go against everything that's been said for the past age, but why don't we just send, like, a diplomat? I'm sure the Dark Lord's pretty keen on meeting Harry in battle too, preferably before they both die of old age." Finally. She had done it.

"NEVER!" thundered Ron, standing up and sending his chair flying. "I will not negotiate with SCUM!"

Ron had taken the death of Charlie particularly hard.

"It is an idea we've never considered before though, Ron." Said Hermione, looking at Ginny. "But it is a fairly radical idea. I mean, we can't just waste a member of the Order on wandering up to the door to Voldemort's base-wherever that is-and saying, 'hey, want a peace deal?'"

Ginny shrugged. "It was just an idea."

As Ginny got up to go, Hermione watched her intently. There had been something wrong with that conversation-apart from the whole idea of negotiation-that Hermione was unable to put her finger on. Just yet at least. Hermione gave up and put it to the back of mind. It would come to her eventually.