The Arcs of Destiny

Chapter XI:

Forgiving

'Where'd you go, I don't know

I know that I need you in this heart of mine

So baby please, come back to me

I know I can't live my life without you'

~ Destiny's Child, Where'd You Go?

*

The sun was starting to rise when the little girl appeared again before Draco. The girl's blonde curls glowed in the light of the fireplace which was the only source of light in the room. The heavy drapes of the window were closed, shutting off all the light from the newly-rising sun.

The girl looked up at Draco from the seat she had taken by the fire. Another champagne flute flew from her hand to his hand. He sat on his bed, flute in hand, not surprised at all. He had already drank five potions that morning, each given to him right on the hour by the girl. He was starting to get so used to it, that he was almost getting used to the taste. Well, almost.

"This is your last potion, Mister Malfoy," the little girl said to him. "Drink it up."

"What's so great about these potions?" Draco asked, looking at the glass in his hand warily.

"They make you strong," the little girl said after a moment's hesitation. "They also act as vitamins towards your body. The rest I cannot tell you."

She looked back at the fireplace again. Draco grimaced as he took a sip of the potion. It still tasted the same: the same disgusting of flavour that was coming close to resembling what a cat would have dug up from out of the garbage. He bent his head back to gulp the rest down but stopped, the flute resting at the bottom of his lip. He looked down into the liquid and frowned. Something was moving inside. He hadn't notcied this before and began to grow suspicious.

He snuck a look at the little girl to see if she was looking. She wasn't. So he leaned over to the side table where a small plant stood and placed the flute behind it. Then, he realized that she would need to take the flute back so he carefully opened the drawer of the side table and quickly found a small container. He poured the rest of the potion into that container and hid it behind the plant.

"Done," he said, holding up the empty flute. The little girl looked at him and vanished, along with the flute.

Draco looked back at the plant, knowing that the container with the rest of the potion in it was behind there. He looked away quickly and decided to browse the bookshelves.

****

Ginny sat on the floor in her cell, thinking about the plan. The sun was already starting to come up which meant that she had been in the cell for nearly six hours. She hadn't received any more visions, which she supposed was a good thing, and she had fully recovered from being electrocuted earlier. Jason had told her what she had to do and she was going to do it, but first she needed to summon up a lot of courage.

Not a minute later did Galan reappear outside her cell. She held a ring of keys in her hand and looked squarely at Ginny.

"It's time," she said. She began opening the lock on the cell while Ginny slowly got up. The lock clicked and Galan slid open the door. Ginny walked slowly through and looked into Jason's cell. He was sleeping on the floor by the window. When her shadow passed over him though, he opened one eye and gave a small nod and she looked away quickly, thinking that Galan might see.

Jason looked much more different than Ginny had pictured him. She thought he would be a blonde, but he wasn't. He had short black hair that pointed upwards in the front and a short goatee, with black eyes. Remembering what Jason looked like brought Ginny back to the task at hand. Jason's nod meant that the plan would go ahead as planned.

Galan led the way through the hallways. They were littered with old furniture and cobwebs. Only small candles lit the hallways, following the pair everywhere they went, illuminating the peeling paint and dust. The building seemed to have thousands of disused hallways. There were also thousands of doors on either side of these hallways, some opened and some locked, that also led onto other hallways and staircases as well as rooms.

The hallway twisted out of sight and Galan disappeared around the corner with one of the candles following her. Ginny had slowly been following her and still had a ways to go. She quickened her pace and the rest of the candles that were following her did the same. As she passed by an open door, she thought she saw a man, but when she doubled back, she only saw another hallway. She ran around the corner quickly and found Galan waiting for her, arms folded. Ginny's heart quickened, worried about what Galan might do, but Galan only pointed a finger at a lock in a doorknob and the door creaked open.

"Wait here," Galan said, and she went inside the room. Ginny peered around the doorjamb and saw a richly decorated room with a blonde-haired boy sitting on the bed with books in front of him. "You have a visitor," she heard the brunette say, causing Draco to look up in confusion. Galan walked back to the door and Ginny quickly rushed back to her place, not eager to be caught looking inside the room when she probably wasn't supposed to.

Galan caught Ginny's arm and half-dragged her inside the room. The hand suddenly disappeared and Ginny looked back to see that Galan had disappeared and the door had closed.

"Ginny?" Draco called from the bed. Ginny slowly turned around to see Draco getting up from the bed, looking her over. "You're alright. What are you doing here?"

"Galan made me come," Ginny replied. "What about you? How are you doing?"

Something unexplainable passed over Draco's features. He turned away towards the small table in the middle of the room. For some reason, his tense features were oddly appealing to Ginny. "I'm fine," he said, although not sounding it.

"You don't sound it," Ginny said, folding her arms.

"I said I'm fine," Draco repeated, putting his hands on the table for support.

"Oh, yeah right," Ginny whined, warming up. "Look at you, you're shaking with anger which you used to easily control before-"

She had hardly finished her sentence when Draco picked up a vase off the table and hurled it at the door, missing her by inches. Ginny jumped as the vase smashed to thousands of pieces by the door and felt water fly onto the back of her shirt. Bad, bad, Ginny, she scolded herself. He's a demon so he is going to be a bit violent. Do not provoke him!

"Get out," Draco muttered, looking at her. There was no emotion on his face and Ginny was about to ask why she had to leave when he suddenly shouted, "Get out and don't ever come back again!"

Ginny jumped for the second time and her breath caught in her throat. Draco turned around and faced the window this time. He was shaking like crazy now and it worried Ginny. She slowly crossed over to the door and bent down, picking up the flowers that had been in the vase. They were tall, scarlet flowers with yellow veins on the inside. She recognized them immediately from Herbology. Professor Sprout had thousands of these growing in her private greenhouse. They were called salpiglossis, or painted tongues, and they were from Chile.

Ginny straightened with the flowers in her hands. She looked back at Draco and found him staring at her. When she looked at him, he quickly turned away, but she knew she had seen regret in his eyes. This meant that there was still a chance to save him.

The door opened suddenly and Galan came through. She pulled Ginny outside and pushed her around the corner. Ginny paused as she thought she heard more things breaking in Draco's room, but Galan pushed her farther down the hallway, making her move. As they walked back to the cells, she made a mental note of where they were going.

****

Hermione looked down at the book in her hands. She re-read the Teleportation Spell as the boys looked for magically-hardened mercury charms that might be laying around the house. She had just finished reading the spell when she heard a crash from upstairs. She looked up to the ceiling and was startled to see dust falling down.

"Eureka!" Ron shouted from upstairs. He had the pleasurable task of looking for a charm in the upstairs bedrooms while Hermione did the first floor and Harry did the basement. She had already found a charm, shaped in the form of a crescent moon, hanging on the wall of the living room and had clipped it onto her own necklace.

Hermione shook her head as Ron came running down the stairs. "Where'd you find it?" she asked.

Ron shifted uncomfortably and the smile died down somewhat. "In my parents' closet," he replied, clipping it onto his watch. Off of a look from Hermione, he continued. "In a box...that I'm not supposed to look in."

Hermione snorted as Harry came up the stairs from the basement. "Found one," he reported, holding up a shooting star charm. "Is that it?"

"That's all that the spell calls for," Hermione said, standing up. "The charms should work. They're supposed to act as guiding agents. You know, who's going and who's not, that type of thing." She got out three pieces of paper and handed one to each of the boys. Ron and Harry came to stand beside her, looking at the slip of paper in their hands. "That is the spell we have to say and think about where we are going while saying the spell. Together on three, two, one..." In one, they read aloud:

"Far and near and across the skies

Is the place calling me there.

Before and after the sun's cheerful rise

Will I find myself in the place I desire."

Hermione looked around. Nothing was happening. She looked at Harry who was looking around as well, confused. Ron was standing stock-still, apparently waiting for something to happen.

"What went--" Hermione started, but she didn't finish her sentence as a funnel appeared around the threesome and they were pulled in. Half a second later, the funnel had disappeared and they were standing in the middle of the forest.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed, looking around. "This method of transportation is so much better than a portkey!"

He had barely finished his sentence when Hermione felt the ground beneath her give way. A large hole was made and she and Harry fell into the room below. She looked up when she landed on the ground. The room was very small with stone walls and one door. There were shelves stacked with supplies around the walls and she guessed that they had fallen into some sort of a cellar. Harry sat on the ground next to her, shaking dirt out of his hair, but they weren't the only ones in the cellar.

"Are you alright?" Ron called from the hole. He had lain down on his stomach and was peering in over the rim of the hole.

"We're fine," Hermione answered. She got to her feet and dusted the dirt off her jeans and t-shirt.

"Speak for yourself," Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Hermione looked into the shadows of the cellar. "Hello?" she called out, coming closer. A foot was out in the open, but quickly darted back into the shadows. "We don't bite. You don't have anything to be afraid of."

"Who are you talking to, Herm?" Ron asked.

"There's someone else in here," Hermione told him, not taking her eyes off of the place where the foot had disappeared. "It's okay, you know. You can come out."

A tense silence filled the room. Finally, the person came into the light of the moon that came through the hole in the roof of the cellar. The person was tall and had red hair, the same red hair that Ron had. Hermione gasped. The man was shaking and his face was streaked with tears, grime, and dried blood. His long arms were crisscrossed with long gashes and there was also blood underneath his fingernails.

"Percy?" Ron asked, shocked.

Percy looked up towards the hole, frightened. He was about to back away when Hermione caught his arm in a reassuring grip and said, "Percy, it's okay. It's just us. Ron, Hermione, and Harry?" A sudden thought crept into her head and she asked, "Don't you remember us?"

Percy shook his head. Harry stood up and joined Hermione. "I'm Harry," he said to Percy. He nodded his head towards Hermione. "This is Hermione and up there is your youngest brother, Ron. What happened to you?"

Percy shrugged his shoulders. "I-I don't know. All I remember is waking up and..finding these hooded figures over me. They tortured me and I escaped...into here. They might find me here. We have to leave."

"Well, we would need--" Hermione started, but was cut off as the rest of the roof caved in. Piles of dirt and grass mixed together with Ron fell on them. Ron flattened them all to the ground.

Hermione spit out the grass that had fallen into her mouth. "Yuck," she said, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand where it was clean. She moved Ron's legs from on top of her and began to get up, once again dusting dirt off her clothes and shaking it out of her hair. She looked up at the hole which had gotten bigger with the cave-in. Then, she looked down at Ron who had rolled onto his back with Harry and Percy struggling to get out from underneath him. "Look for another mercury charm for Percy. There are so many supplies on these shelves so there should be at least one."

Hermione, Harry, and Ron rifled through the objects on the shelves leaving Percy to stand in the middle of the room, watching them. The shelf was filled with odd things such as jars of apple juice or some yellow liquid like that, and spider legs. It wasn't two minutes when Ron started to say, "Eur--"

"Ron!" Hermione and Harry said at the same time.

Ron grinned mischieviously and held up a charm. "Found one," he said and gave it to Percy. "Clip that on. It'll help you to teleport."

Percy did as he was told and clipped it onto his watch. "We are all going to say the spell at the same time," Hermione told him. "Ron will share his spell with you, and it should teleport us back to Paradise Manor. So, in order for it to work for you, you need to think about Paradise Manor while you say the spell. Got it? Just think of the name, it should get you there." Percy nodded. "Okay, on the count of three. Three, two one..."

The group began to read the spell together. When they finished, they waited patiently. Then, the funnel appeared around them and brought them back home.

****

Galan led Ginny the rest of the way through the building back to her cell. Ginny still had the painted flowers in her hand and was feigning sadness for Galan's benefit. That was part of the plan: to trick Galan into thinking that the Master's plan had actually worked, when Ginny knew full well that it hadn't. She faked a sniffle as they turned down the last corridor. The door at the end of the hall led to the cells. Ginny looked back at the corridor behind her and bowed her head as Galan covered the remaining length of hallway, opened the door and pushed her in. Ginny could see movement in Jason's cell and looked up to see Jason watching her with apprehension, eyebrows raised in questioning. He lowered them, and raised them again, that being the second signal. Ginny turned to Galan and punched her flat on the nose.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Ginny shouted, shaking her hand and whimpering. She hadn't expected it to hurt so much, but it was for a good cause. Galan fell down, didn't she?

"Wow, it actually worked," Jason said, chuckling. "No damage so far."

"No damage?!" Ginny asked incredulously. "I think my hand has something to say to that!"

"Well, Galan is down and I think that you should be on your way now."

"I guess so," Ginny said, looking at Galan who was lying on the floor, blood coming out of her nose. "I didn't expect her to fall down so easily."

"Which is why you should leave...like right now, before she wakes up."

"Thank you, Jason."

"You're welcome," Jason said, smiling at her. "And don't you forget to come back and get me!"

"I won't," Ginny said, grinning as well. "Bye!"

"Bye!" Jason said as Ginny ran out of the room. She ran as fast as she could down the hallways. She remembered most of them, but had to backtrack a couple of times to get back down the right hallway.

She arrived at Draco's door out of breath and still holding the flowers. She took a moment to relax her breathing and realized that inside the room was quiet. She knocked on the door and waited tensely for the door to open. She heard footsteps amid the silence inside and soon the door was opening slowly, revealing a very frazzled Draco who had scratches on his hands.

"What are--" Draco started, but Ginny didn't waste any time. Looking behind her for Galan or anyone else who would've seen her, she pushed past Draco inside and looked around.

"Oh my god, Draco," she said, taking in the mess around the room. "Which tornado broke into your room and destroyed it?" she asked, turning around to look at Draco. He was wearing a plaid shirt that was open, revealing his chest which had several cuts across it, and had on faded blue jeans.

"No tornado," he answered, holding up his hands for her to see them more clearly. She took his hands and examined them closer. They had deep cuts with fragments of wood and glass in them. "Just me."

"And what a great natural disaster you are," Ginny said, with a smile. She was hoping to lighten the mood a bit and was rewarded with a light chuckle from Draco.

"I'm glad...that you're here," he said slowly. She looked up into his eyes and saw that there was anxiousness and hope in them. He continued, looking down at his hands. "I didn't mean what I said before, you know, about you never coming back again. I was just afraid of what you would think of me when I tell you that I'm a--"

"Demon?" Ginny asked, before he could say it. He nodded, slightly shocked that she already knew. "I already know since Galan kind of told me and there was this guy in the cell next to me who is also a demon and he helped me break out. But that's not important at the moment. What is important-" she turned around to look at the room "-is that we get this place straightened up."

"Yeah, I guess I sorta did a little too much damage," Draco said from behind her. The bed had been torn apart and the bookshelves had been knocked down, their books spilled all over the floor. The table was upturned and a chair looked like it had been put into the fireplace to burn. Glass littered the floor and dresser drawers with clothes spilling out of them were piled on the floor. The only piece of furniture that was untouched was a side table by the bed that had a plant on it. "Some of it was destroyed using my powers. The demonic ones, you know."

Ginny felt something being pulled out of her hand and turned around to see Draco taking the flowers and putting them into a vase. He crossed the room and put them on the side table next to the plant. "Watch this," he said, sounding like a little kid who was very proud of what he was going to do. He waved a hand over the vase and it filled with water. "See? Isn't that cool?"

Ginny couldn't help but smile. "When I'm through with you, you'll be the best good demon the world has ever seen," she said.

He surprised her by kneeling down and bending over, saying, "I live to serve you."

She giggled and pulled him up by the arm. "Let's get started on this room, shall we?" she said, walking into the middle of the room.

"Nah, I'll get started," Draco said, pulling her over to a chair that was lying on its side on the floor. He righted the chair and dusted it off with the wave of his hand. Then, he sat Ginny in the chair. "You sit."

"I have a feeling that you're going to enjoy this cleaning," Ginny said, shifting to get comfortable and trying to hide a laugh.

Draco considered this for a moment and then said, "Yep." He began to clear the room using his magic. "I've never cleaned a room before. I never had to since we had house-elves, but I think I might like it, especially since I won't be doing it manually." The dresser drawers, bookshelves, table and chairs righted themselves and the books flew back onto the shelves. The clothes went back into the dresser and the bed came back together. Soon, the room was back to its original state. "Done," he said.

"Perfect," Ginny said, looking about the room.