The Arcs of Destiny

Chapter III:

Of Muggles & Nightmares

'So why are you running away?

Why are you running away? '

-Hoobastank, Running Away

"I still can't believe Harry would let that bastard live with him," Ron said, his fists clenching as he and Ginny walked up the stone pathway to their house. "I still don't believe the Dursleys would let that slimeball live with them."

"You haven't stopped talking about Malfoy since we left the phone booth," Ginny cried exasperatedly. Then she added with a smile, "Why is that? Are you in love with him?"

Ron froze on the pathway and turned to Ginny with the most horrified expression she had ever seen on him. She laughed while he said, "I'm gonna puke."

"Oh, leave him alone, Ron," Ginny said, starting to walk up the steps to the front door. "He probably has a perfectly good reason for picking Harry to live with. Besides, even you would let him stay." She reached the door now and pushed it open, looking back at Ron.

"You know I wouldn't!" Ron shouted, an even more horrified expression on his face. He started up the steps. "You're pulling my leg."

Ginny turned around and walked inside and called over her shoulder, "The expression on your face is priceless!" She giggled as Ron turned his nose up at her and closed the door.

"Where have you been?" a stern voice called from the kitchen.

Ginny and Ron turned a corner and found that the whole family was awake and sitting around the table. Ginny put her drawing and pencil crayons on a chair and realized that her clothes were still a little bit wet and muddy. She looked at Ron who caught her eye and shrugged.

"I went swimming after I finished my drawing," she lied to her mother. "A-and Ron went to call Harry because it was the best time he could think of and calling Harry is faster."

"Why did you feel the need to call Harry at such a time in the morning?" Molly asked Ron, a frown twitching at her lips.

"For no reason, actually," Ron said, almost whimpering. "I-I just thought I saw him here."

"Really?" Molly asked, skeptically. Both Ginny and Ron nodded incredulously, and to make matters worse, they both smiled innocently. "You're both lying. I can see your wisdom teeth. Tell it in full, you two, and don't leave anything out."

Ginny sighed and, along with Ron, explained everything that had happened.

"And guess who is staying with Harry?" Ginny asked her family. "Ron would only talk about it, oh, a hundred times."

"Who?" Arthur asked, his brows crinkling.

"You will never believe it, Dad," Ron said. "Draco Malfoy."

"Malfoy?!" the whole audience said as one.

"I know, eh?" Ron asked, shaking his head. "I feel so sorry for Harry."

After that, Ginny changed into drier clothes and hung her drawing up on the wall in her room. Then she sat on her bed which had gold coverlets and leafed through Witch Weekly. She had picked this bedroom because it was decked in a variety of golden hues, a colour she loved. Plus, it had the largest walk-in closet in the house and beyond the closet was her own private bathroom which was decorated in soft pinks. She sighed and leaned back against the many pillows on the bed. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Ginny said, loud enough for the person on the other side of the door.

Molly opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind her. She wore a tired but concerned expression on her face. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked Ginny.

Ginny nodded slowly. "I'm okay, Mom," she told her mother. "But thanks for asking."

Molly smiled. "If you need anything, you know where to find me."

Ginny smiled as her mother left the room and the peace and quiet fell on the room again. She lay her head back against the pillows and closed her eyes, sleepiness falling on her again.

*****

After lunch when all the chores were done, Harry and Draco escaped the house to go to the nearest market for food for Aunt Petunia. The pair walked down in silence. They hadn't spoken to each other since breakfast and Harry had millions of questions he wanted to ask Draco. Finally, he broke the silence, not standing the curiousity any longer.

"How did you get here?" Harry asked as they walked into the market.

"Caught a cab," Draco said shortly, looking around the store.

"A Muggle cab?" Harry asked, astonished that Draco would do such a thing.

"No, you idiot," Draco replied, walking towards some fruit for Dudley's diet with Harry following him. "You stick out your wand hand, you get the Knight bus. You stick out your non-wand hand, you get the Knight taxi. You stick out any foot and you trip someone."

Harry nodded as he grabbed some grapefruit and kiwis and stuck them into separate clear bags. Draco grabbed some apples and oranges and put them in bags, then wandered over to the vegetables. He grabbed carrots, a head of lettuce, and some radishes while Harry took a loaf of whole wheat bread off the bread rack. He joined Draco at the fish counter and Draco pointed to the lobsters.

"How are we going to get those?" Draco asked.

"Excuse me?" Harry called to a short, round man with a white apron on. The man turned to look at him. "We would like five lobsters cooked, please." Draco looked incredulously at Harry.

"It will take 20 minutes," the man said. Harry nodded and left the counter with Draco following. Harry stopped at the first aisle he came to and Draco nearly ran into him. He pulled out the shopping list Petunia had given him.

"Are we all going to eat a large lobster each?" Draco asked as Harry walked down the aisle and grabbed a box of crackers.

"Actually, we'll be sharing a whole lobster with Petunia," Harry told him. "But if it comes down to it, then, yeah."

"I can't eat all that," Draco muttered. "Crazy Muggles. Don't they know that I don't eat as much as they do in a day when I'm on my regular diet schedule?"

He started to swear and Harry rolled his eyes, although he was impressed with the originality. Sweeping down another aisle and grabbing cans of soup, he cut in on Draco's swearing session to say, "We're lucky to be eating this much at all, so count your lucky stars, not your lucky swear words."

"Funny, Potter," Draco said sarcastically, leaning on a shelf while Harry grabbed a salt box. "Ha ha."

Harry snorted and turned down another aisle. Draco followed him and looked over Harry's shoulder at the grocery list. He then started to look for some of the groceries and plucked them off the shelf when he found them, putting them into the cart Harry had grabbed when they had passed the carts.

Harry raised his eyebrows and said, "Think we're being graded?"

Draco snorted. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you're helping me get the groceries," Harry answered. "I would've thought you would have made me do it and-"

"Sitting back and just watching you do all the bloody work is bloody boring," Draco cut in, suddenly angry. He chucked a bag of pasta into the cart causing the bag to break open and all the pasta to spill out. "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed, bending down.

Harry looked around to see if anyone noticed. Satisfied that no one did, he bent down and started picking up all the pasta off the floor and stuffing it in the bag. When all the pasta was off the floor and out of the cart, Harry placed the bag behind all the other pasta bags and took a new one.

"Gosh, I didn't know Harry Potter had the guts to hide a broken bag," Draco drawled, his usual self showing through.

Harry raised an eyebrow and checked the list again. "There is nothing left to look for," he announced. "We might as well pay for this stuff and then go and get the lobsters and pay for them."

"Okay then, Chief Muggle," Draco sneered. Harry ignored him and they went to the cashier to pay. Soon they were laden down with grocery bags. They went to get the lobsters and paid for them, getting them a lot cheaper than Uncle Vernon had thought. Harry looked at the prices and saw that the store was having a 'Four 4 One' sale on the lobsters.

The pair left the store and Harry steered them onto a different route which was longer so they wouldn't have to deal with the Dursleys so quickly. They walked along in silence and didn't stop until Draco froze, looking at a small store between two supermarkets. A sign above the door read "The Witches' Brew".

"Ha! I gotta see this," Draco said, a smirk twisting the corners of his lips. He walked into the store and Harry followed him nervously.

Inside the store, it was musty and dark with only small stuff hanging on the walls. Shelves upon shelves of books and magic supplies were cramped into the small shop. Draco and Harry put their bags on the floor by two particular big shelves and started to look around. There were poisons and unidentifiable potions, plus potion ingredients like essence of squid and toad eyes. Books of all sizes, colours, and quality lined the shelves, their covers collecting dust, with titles like the Book of Shadows and 1001 Ways To Cure Forgetfulness.

One book stood out to Harry. It was between all the others and was a dull blue with gold trimmings. There was no title on the cover and the edges of the covers were peeling and cracking. Draco joined him out of curiousity when he saw Harry in a kind of trance over the book and picked it up off the shelf. He opened the cover and blew away the dust, revealing the title of "Arcs of the Unknown". Soon, he was in a trance over it and was flipping the pages slowly and carefully. Dark green cursive writing flowed over the pages outlining spells, enchantments, and ancient rituals.

"That's Dark magic, Draco," Harry chided, looking around the shop to make sure no one was watching. "It's coming off in waves. I can feel it."

Draco ignored him and continued to look at the pages. "Let's buy it," Draco said, suddenly excited. "Using the Dursleys money."

"Are you kidding?" Harry asked incredulously. "The Dursleys'll be pissed."

Draco ignored Harry for the second time. He turned to a man standing a ways from them who had long grey hair, tattoos visible on his neck, and a motorcycle jacket. "Hey, hi," Draco said to him. "Look after our shopping bags or there'll be hell to pay. Big time. If you even touch those bags, you'll have to answer to the Dark Lord and trust me, he doesn't like Muggles."

"Malfoy!" Harry exclaimed, scaring both the guy and Draco. "Don't scare the poor guy."

Draco smirked and he and Harry went to the cashier to pay for the book. Harry gave Draco the Dursleys' money so that Draco could pay for it and Harry walked back to the grocery bags where the man was standing patiently.

"I'm not touching it," the man said, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"That's good, that's good," Harry said, gathering up some bags. "You can go now."

"Thank you," the man said. "Oh, and tell your friend, Draco Malfoy, that the Lord Voldemort hasn't touched me in years and can't for more to come."

Harry was dumbstruck. How the hell did this guy know about Draco and Voldemort? Soon, Draco was back and was gathering up his half of the bags and the man had already left.

"Let's go to that cafe across the street to look at this book," Draco suggested as they emerged from the shop and he started to cross the street, but Harry hung back.

"The groceries will go bad if we don't get them home," Harry said. "And then we can come back here and look at the book. But first we need to come up with a plan. How are we going to explain to the Dursleys about the missing money? I could say that you went on a rampage and bought the book or, that you bought the book. Which excuse shall we use?"

"Tattletale," Draco muttered under his breath but Harry caught it.

"I heard that!" Harry said, grinning. They continued on their way to the Dursleys quietly thinking about any excuses for the missing money that could be useful.

"How about we rip up the receipt?" Harry suggested, earning a raised eyebrow from Draco. "Just say that the lobsters were really expensive and the man didn't give us a receipt."

"That could work," Draco agreed as they turned a corner onto Privet Drive. They stopped at a garbage can. "Since, we're already here, we don't have much of a choice, now do we?"

Harry shook his head and took out the receipt for the lobsters and ripped it up, putting it in the garbage can next to them.

"Ready?" Draco asked.

"Ready," Harry said and they kept walking down the street to Number 4.

*****

She was running, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her hair flew behind her, tangling in the wind. She was running from something. Something very evil was hunting her.

The hallways were endless, vast and dark. Scraps of furniture stood against the walls, collecting dust. Cobwebs were spun all over the walls and the paint was peeling. There were doors everywhere, shut tight and locked. The only ones open were those with stairs or more hallways behind them. She did not dare to go through those doors. She kept to the hallway she was on which twisted out of sight.

There was a sudden roar and a bright flame rose up in front of her. She dodged the flame, nearly colliding into an old desk. She kept running as fast as she could, knowing the flame was following her.

Something was moving up ahead, but through the dark she couldn't see what it was. It moved closer to her and she slowed down, forgetting the flame was still behind her, but it didn't matter. The flame had slowed down too.

Suddenly, the person down the hall was wreathed in flame and she recognized the guy as the one from the alley. Then the person changed. His whole appearance morphed into something else, something quite out of the ordinary...and then she screamed.

***

Hermione bolted upright in her bed, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. She felt like she had been running a marathon. She swung her legs off the bed and walked out into the hallway and into the bathroom. Looking into the bathroom mirror, she surveyed herself.

"I look like hell," she whispered. She sighed and walked back into her bedroom. She felt a sudden tingle on her left cheek and she moved to brush it away with the back of her hand. When she brought her hand back down, she discovered that there was a bright red substance on it.

She gasped and ran to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. There was quite a long cut on her cheek and blood was starting to trickle out of it. She turned on the faucet and washed out the cut and washed her hands. Then she hurried into the living room and turned on her father's laptop.

The clock on the computer desktop read 10:52 pm. Her parents had already went to bed which meant that Hermione would be able to search the Internet again for information about the spell the demon guy performed. She searched message boards, chat lines, websites, and even guestbooks when she finally found the answer.

On a message board called Dark-Net, she found a whole topic devoted to Dark rituals. One of the regulars had posted a thread about a Dark book called the Arcs of the Unknown. It had tons of spells and information in it including a spell to transfer powers which sounded like what the demon guy did. The only problem was that using the book was extremely dangerous, which diminished Hermione's hopes of finding the book and using the counter spell. Little did she know that Draco and Harry had just bought the book.

*****

The Dursleys had accepted the excuse that Draco and Harry had given them about the missing money. They even gave Harry more Muggle money so he and Draco could go to that cafe Draco saw to read the Arcs of the Unknown. As a matter of fact, Harry and Draco were on their way to the cafe right now.

"Well, that was easy," Harry commented as the boys turned onto the street the cafe was on.

"A little too easy," Draco said. "I like a challenge."

"Duly noted," Harry said. The pair didn't speak until the got to the cafe, Java. Harry ordered an iced cappuccino and Draco did the same. When they got their drinks, they took them to the diner downstairs. They settled at a booth behind two girls in a line of booths in front of the cashier with a fence on the booth on the cashier's side. Draco took out the book and opened it carefully, laying it down on the table in front of him. He flipped through the pages reading the titles of each spell.

"'How to Keep Your Lover From Cheating'," Draco read aloud to Harry. "'To Tame a Chucabra.' 'Ten Love Potions.' I guess they aren't illegal."

"This is Dark magic, Draco," Harry said impatiently. "I would expect you of all people to know that."

Draco ignored him and kept reading. "'Astral Projection.' 'To Tame a Cow'? Are they serious?"

"Probably," Harry answered. Draco ignored him again and kept reading.

'Draught of the Undead.' 'Dormina Aquois De Modi.' 'Ten Poisonous Vines and What They Do.' 'The Realm of the Living Dead.' 'An Introduction to Pi'?"

"Skip that one," Harry said, sipping his iced cappuccino. "It's not exactly magic."

Draco nodded. He was about to keep reading out more titles when he was interrupted by a man at the bar holding a small stick with a handle in his hand up to the bartender's throat.

"Everybody, don't move!" the man shouted. He turned to the bartender. "Or this girl is going to get shot along with a couple of other people."

"Draco, down," Harry whispered out of the corner of his mouth. Harry ducked under the table as quick as lightning. Draco looked at the man at the bar. He was getting the bartender to open the cashier and hand him the money. Seeing his chance, Draco grabbed the book and slid underneath the table, joining Harry.

Underneath the table was a small space which meant that Draco and Harry would be squished together. Draco kneeled down with the book in his lap, his shoulder crushed up against Harry's and their thighs touching. It became hot and beads of sweat began to form, trickling down Draco's forehead. He ignored this and concentrated on what was happening at the bar.

There was a loud noise like short and abrupt thunder and a scream. Suddenly, a girl was crying and Draco tried to twist around to see what was happening through one of the small holes in the fencing but his face nearly collided with Harry's. Harry shifted so that he wasn't kneeling anymore and bumped into Draco, sitting on his thigh.

"Oww," Draco whispered, giving Harry a deathly look. "Don't ever stand on my leg again."

Harry stretched his legs out, ignoring Draco. There was another loud noise like thunder and a few screams. The man was shouting something at someone, but whatever it was, Draco couldn't hear it.

"I wish I had a cellphone," Harry whispered dejectedly.

"Why?" Draco asked, interested. "What is a cellphone?"

"A cellphone is like a phone that we Muggles use to talk to someone over a long distance in real time," Harry replied, "except it doesn't have a cord. It would be great to use now so that we could call the police."

There was a scraping sound like a chair or table being pushed along the floor. Draco shifted so that he was sitting like Harry as well and leaned his head against the fencing, closing his eyes. It was weird that a boy from a family that hated Muggles should be caught in a Muggle robbery. It was also weird that he should be sitting so closely to the Boy Who Lived, or more commonly known as his mortal enemy. Thousands of witches (and even some wizards) would kill to be in his shoes.

There were several screams and Draco's eyes flew open. He looked at Harry who shrugged his shoulders. Unable to contain his curiousity any longer, he put the book on the seat and turned over onto his knees and looked out of one of the small holes in the fencing. There were a couple people lying on the floor with puddles of blood pooling around them. A new guy was holding that robber's ("What is that weapon called?" Draco asked. Harry said, "A-") gun and the robber was now holding a knife, ready to attack the guy. The guy with the gun was about to pull the trigger when the robber dashed forward and stabbed him with the knife, grabbing the gun with his other hand. Draco winced as the new guy slid to the floor by the counter and he looked away.

"I don't want any more of you challenging me again," the robber yelled. "You got it?"

There was a chorus of 'yes's. Draco looked at the book on the seat and was struck with the idea of using the book. He leaned forward and started to flip through the pages, eager to get out of this situation.

"What are you doing?" Harry whispered, leaning forward to look over Draco's shoulder.

"There might be a spell in here that can help us," Draco answered. He flipped through the pages frantically.

"You can't do a spell here," Harry told him. "Once the Muggles see magic, you'll be on the six o'clock news and get a mix of good and bad publicity. Next thing you know, you're doing talk shows and book signings and being taken by the government and disected."

"Look, do you wanna stop this guy or not?" Draco whispered back to Harry, irritated.

Harry sighed. "There must be a spell in there that the Muggles wouldn't be able to see. Something that we can say and is not noticeable."

Draco flipped the page and came upon a telekinesis spell. "'Envokes telekinesis from the inner being of the caster, enabling him to move things with his mind.' Should we try that?"

Harry crawled to the entrance of the booth and looked around. "There are other people hiding under their booths so they might've been able to call the police. There is a guy by the door, but only close enough so that he can shoot anyone who dares to try and escape. If we open the door from here, the police might have a better chance of getting in. If you want to, try the spell."

Draco nodded and turned back to the page he was on. He took a deep breath and read aloud the spell. "Bring me what I myself cannot find, the key to an escape from my bind."

It felt like centuries to Draco as he waited for Harry to say that the door was opening. He felt a sudden warmth inside of him and he concentrated on the door opening, willing it to open, then was startled out of his reverie when Harry cried out.

"The door is opening," Harry said, grinning, as he crawled back under the booth. "You freaked the guy by the door."

Another century passed as Draco and Harry waited with baited breath for any sign of police officers. "FREEZE!" someone shouted. Draco looked out of the fencing and saw that people in black uniforms were pouring into the diner with long guns. After a bit of a struggle, the two robbers were finally arrested and the injured were taken care of.

"It worked," Draco said excitedly and slid back onto his seat next to the book. Harry got back onto his seat and took a sip from his iced cappuccino.

"We probably have to give statements to the police," Harry commented suddenly he became frantic. "Put the book away!"

"Why?" Draco asked.

"Just put the damn book away," Harry whispered hoarsely to Draco. Not a minute later did one of the policemen come over to their table with a small notepad in his hand. He asked the two boys questions about the hold-up and they answered as truthfully as they could, leaving out the part about the spell that gave Draco the power to open the door. Then he left and the boys were free to leave the restaurant; Draco picking the book up from his lap where he had hidden it.

"Did you think that the policeman was going to steal the book for a love spell?" Draco asked as they walked out of the cafe into the bright sunshine.

"Just in case," Harry answered. He sighed and Draco looked sideways at him. Harry's cheeks were flushed and he was biting his lower lip, staring at the ground. Even though he couldn't see Harry's eyes, he knew confusion lay behind them.

*****

She walked calmly down a hall, the sunlight slanting through the windows, patterns dancing on the floor. The hallway was blindingly bright. She paused as the sunlight bounced off the floor and directly hit her eyes. She covered her eyes and kept moving forward.

The hallway stretched on for as long as she could see. The windows were made of stained glass and drawings of crosses and people adorned them. Halfway down the hall from where she was standing in was bright. The hallway she needed to walk into was dark as night.

She felt drawn to the darkness like a moth to a flame. She needed to get into that part of the hallway. It called to her, drawing her near. Suddenly, she could press her hand to the glass and she looked into the darkness.

Footsteps rang through the hallway behind her and she turned around expecting to see Harry, but instead she saw Draco. His blonde hair shone brightly in the sunlight and his cheeks were rosy. His chest was bare and he wore blue jeans that hugged his hips tightly. She sucked in her breath as he drew level to her and put a hand on his chest which was amazingly hot.

"You cannot go in there," she whispered to him, her brown eyes raking his lean and muscular body.

A slight smirk tugged on his lips as he leaned down and placed his lips on top of hers. His tongue slid along her top lip and she opened her mouth, allowing his tongue access. Soon they were kissing fiercely when a crack was heard. She drew back and surveyed the glass separating the light and the dark hallways. A crack shaped like a lightning bolt was quickly forming in the glass. Suddenly the glass shattered and fell to pieces on the floor.

"Are you sure about that?" Draco whispered into her ear, his lips softly brushing her skin. He straightened and took her hand and they walked into the darkness. Soon the darkness swept over the sunlight in the other half of the hallway, engulfing it and bringing them into complete shadow.

She looked back, stunned, at the suddenly dark hallway and shivered, not sure that she wanted to be there anymore. Noticing her shiver, Draco pulled a soft white turtleneck sweater out of thin air and fitted it over her head. It glittered in the darkness and Draco smiled sadly.

Suddenly a voice cut through the darkness. It was a young girl's and she was singing. Moonlight spilled through the arched windows, illuminating the girl who was a short distance away and had long blonde hair and scratches on her face and arms. She held a large book in her hands.

"Can't even talk, Can't even cry. No they aren't the Gentlemen, But something is coming by.

Gotta lock your doors, Gotta hide your keys. They're restless and rowdy, And they don't say please.

No they aren't happy, No they aren't fake. You're gonna need this book, Or they'll leave you in a wake.

Time is passing by, Time might even stop. It's the end of the world And you might be on top.

Concentrate hard, Play the game fair. If you get this one right, They won't even dare.

My time has ended, So might yours. Time is counting down And she's already on her course."

Suddenly the girl disappeared in a halo of lights. Ginny looked at Draco and screamed.

***

Ginny gasped and sat up in her bed, her breathing coming fast. She went over the dream in her mind again and it was surprisingly clear. The only thing she didn't remember is why she had screamed when she looked at Draco. She supposed it was a message. Something bad was about to happen to the world, but why did she get the dream?

There was nothing special about Virginia Weasley. In her first year at Hogwarts, she had found Tom Riddle's diary and he had made her do things that she wouldn't have otherwise done, like kill the school chickens, but that was mainly the only adventure she had taken. The rest of the years after that were pretty normal for her. She had made a couple of friends and she still had a crush on Harry Potter. She got good grades and loved to read, write, and draw. She had taken an interest in the science of Muggles like her father and took Muggle Studies, occasionally giving Hermione the viewpoints and main ideas when she was interested. She was just an ordinary witch in Hogwarts.

So why did she get this dream? Deciding she should tell someone she could trust would be able to find out anything she needed (which left Ron out), she jumped up and fished some paper out of her drawer and started to write all that she could remember of the dream, including the song. An owl the size of a tennis ball flew through her window and landed next to Ginny on the night stand. She finished writing and fluffled the owl's feathers while he hooted happily.

"You're just in time, Pig," Ginny told the owl. "It so happens that I need this letter to be delivered to Hermione." She tied the letter to the owl's leg and watched as he happily soared through the window, glad to deliver a letter.