Call to Destiny

Chapter 9

To Kill or Not to Kill?

Ginny and the rest of the girls came into the gym talking animated. Alexis was telling a story about how her six year old brother, Andrew, had locked himself in his room and then tried to climb out the window of his second floor bedroom.

"So, I'm in my room, right? Just talking on the phone and all the sudden I hear this thump, thump, thump, bang, bang, bang, 'OW! OW! OW!' and I run outside and there he is hanging from the porch roof with a bird's nest on his head!"

The five girls erupted into hysterical laughter.

"I swear! It looked like something from a cartoon or something!" Alexis proclaimed.

"Oookay," Ryan said, looking very confused.

"What in the world are you yakking about?" Nick asked, clearly not seeing the humor.

Maria waved his question aside. "You had to hear it from the beginning."

Ginny fought down hysterical giggles as she spoke. "Reminds me of the time my twin brothers, Fred and George chased my other brother, Ron, out the-"

"How many brothers do you have?" David asked incredulously.

Ginny shook her head. "Too many."

"Let's see," Draco began, ignoring Ginny's glare. "There's the one with the Dragons, the treasure hunter, the one with the stick up his arse, the two identical ones, and Weasel King."

Juliana had been keeping count. "Six? You have six brothers?"

"I thought one was bad," Alexis said laughing.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Ignore Draco. There's Charlie, Bill, Percy, Fred and George and Ron." She turned to Draco. "I'm wondering how you know what all my brothers do. We're supposed to be the scum of the earth, remember?"

A strange look flitted onto Draco's face. Could it have been hurt? Ginny couldn't tell, because as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

"You'd be surprised at the things I know, Weaslette," he said and tweaked her nose.

Ginny scowled at him, but he only smirked back at her.

"Good morning all," Kiara said coming into the room, a big black duffle bag slung over her shoulder. She was wearing a pair of dark jeans, brown leather boots, and a black t-shirt. Her brown hair fell down her back in tangled waves. She looked distinctly tired, as though she hadn't gotten any sleep. There were dark circles under her eyes and all in all she looked a bit ill.

"Morning," they all chorused.

She looked at them suspiciously. "Who are you and what have you done with my Warriors?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Roby asked feigning hurt.

"It means, you all are getting along and my Warriors do not get along. Especially these two," she indicated to Draco and Ginny who were standing next to each other.

"We had a bonding night," Alexis said by way of explanation.

"Yeah," Sage added. "Truth or Dare forms very close relationships." She tried to intertwine her fingers together, didn't work, tried again, didn't work, tried-

"Oh, forget it," she sighed.

The Wildcat laughed. "Well, about time! You lot were driving me crazy," Then she turned serious. "You'll need to get along tonight."

Everyone immediately stopped messing around. The Wildcat sat down on a pile of mats and the Warriors drew closer.

"Tonight, we go demon hunting. I'm putting you into pairs, and I will assign you a part of the Hillcrest Cemetery to patrol. I've heard through the grapevine, that there will be a demonic gathering there tonight that we will need to stop at all costs. The demons aren't very strong, lower level ones actually. Still, you'll need all your strength and wits about you. When I dismiss you, I want you and your partner to pick your weapons, potions and so on. Get ready. Now, first we have Roby and Maria, Alexis and Ryan, then Nick and Juli, David, you and Sage, and Ginny with Draco. I'll be out there, but only if things get out of hand, alright?"

There were affirmative nods to this.

"Are you alright, Kiara?" Maria asked, looking concerned.

The Wildcat raised her eyebrows. "Why do you ask?"

Maria shrugged. "You look a little tired, is all." Tired was an understatement, Ginny thought.

Kiara sighed. "I just released a bit more of your powers and the ritual was a bit draining."

"You gave us more powers for tonight, right?" Draco asked, furrowing his brow.

"Yes," Kiara said nodding. "Enough about me though, shoo, go, get ready."

The almost Warriors left the gym in silence, all lost in their own thoughts.

Draco and Ginny made their way back to their rooms, now cleaned up after last night.

"Do you think she's gonna die soon?" Ginny asked gently.

Draco looked at her. His silver eyes always seemed to penetrate right into her. As though he could read her mind. Would he see what she was really trying to ask?

"She wouldn't send us out there if she didn't think we were ready," he said.

Ginny nodded.

Of course he saw.

~

DING. DING. DING. DING. DING. DING. DING. DING. DING. DING. DING. DING.

Eleven o'clock, Ginny concluded, counting the dings of the clock tower. She and Draco had been patrolling a section of the cemetery for two very uneventful hours. Two very uneventful and silent hours. Ginny swung her arm and caught her crossbow on her jeans.

Muttering curses under her breath, she stopped to fix her jeans. Draco had also stopped and was watching her.

"Ugh," Ginny muttered, getting more hopelessly tangled. She fussed with it for a few more seconds.

"Aha!" she exclaimed, sliding the crossbow away from her body.

Draco shook his head, obviously amused. Ginny decided not to comment, and they kept walking. They'd agreed, after much arguing that Ginny was better with the crossbow, and therefore more qualified to shoot any demons they may come across. Ginny scowled. Draco had a nasty habit of trying to take on everything himself, leaving her with nothing to do.

"So," she began, trying to start a conversation. "Nice weather we're having."

Draco raised his eyebrows at her.

"Maybe not," she decided looking away.

"Weaslette, you amuse me."

"Nice to know," Ginny said sarcastically. Draco chuckled and they walked on in silence.

They were just passing by the abnormally large tombstone of Mary Catherine Danes (December 22^nd 1888- August 31 1934 "Beloved Sister, Mother and Aunt") for the fifth time when Draco spoke up.

"Ginny?" he asked suddenly, making her jump.

"What?" she asked, try to return to the state of sleepy calm she'd been in a moment previous. Although that probably wasn't a very good state to be in if a demon attacked, she mused.

"Do you-"

Suddenly he grabbed her upper arm and dragged her behind Mary.

"What the-" she hissed, but Draco shushed her. He pointed to her left; Ginny peeked out from behind the tombstone just a bit.

Walking on the path perpendicular to the one they had just been on, were two demons. Both of whom, seemed quite upset about something.

"So what's this gathering Roku was talking about?" the one on the left muttered.

"All I see's a bunch of dead humans," the other grumbled.

Ginny was so mesmerized that she hadn't heard Draco move, so imagine her shock when she felt Draco's lips brushing her ear.

"After they pass, we'll jump out," he whispered. "You shoot the one on the right, I'll get the other."

Ginny only nodded in reply.

The two grumbling goons passed them and Draco silently got out from behind the tombstone, and not looking at her, motioned for Ginny to follow him. He looked at the demons, then looked back at her, and nodded.

Ginny silently raised her crossbow and aimed it at the demon's back. Later she would marvel at the calm that had sized her in that moment.

She closed one eye and put her finger on the trigger. She aligned the arrow with the demon's back, right where his heart would be on the other side. Steadily she pulled the trigger. She saw, as though in slow motion, how the arrow launched from the bow and flew. Flew, straight into the demon's heart. In a burst of fire, the demon vanished.

Ginny had made her first real vanquish.

The now vanquished demon's companion whirled around.

"Hi," Draco smirked.

The demon's face contorted and with an angry yell he launched himself at Draco. Draco dogged easily. The demon screamed something in a foreign language into the night air.

No sooner had he and Draco resumed the fight, more demons appeared. Five more to be exact. All identical to the first two. They saw Draco fighting with their fellow, and then they saw Ginny. With cries of rage, the five demons threw themselves at her.

Soon she was showered by punches and blows, she beat them off as best she could, but she was outnumbered. Dropping her crossbow, Ginny got into a fighting stance. She was just about to punch the demon in front of her, when he suddenly fell over. Ginny leapt to the side to avoid being crushed and saw one of Draco's knives lodged in its back.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" she bellowed. "That could have gone straight through into me!"

"I had to take that chance!" Draco yelled, punching the demon attacking him in the nose.

The demons, as it turned out, were stupider than they were strong. As Ginny had yelled at Draco, they had just stepped back and watched. Ginny grabbed her crossbow (with magically refilling arrows) and aimed.

One down, four to go.

Ginny lost herself in the battle. The sounds, the sights, the sensations. All of it felt so familiar. As though she had been doing this for eternity, as though she had been born to do this. A long time ago a fire had burned within her, but it had gone out. Now it was lit again, and she'd be damned if she let it go out.

She ducked a demon's punch and swept her leg under his feet, knocking him to the ground. She picked up his athame and plunged it into his chest. Ginny staggered back, a little off balance, and watched the demon vanish in flame.

The night sounded strange to her ears now. It wasn't noise, no. It was the lack of noise. Ginny looked around for Draco.

Or anybody.

The cemetery was silent, nothing stirred and Ginny was alone.

Had they...? No, they couldn't have. Draco was too smart, too strong. But, still, anything could have happened.

The sick feeling of panic began to seep through her. Then, out of the silence Ginny saw, in the corner of her eye, something fly at her from the right. A burst of fire soared overhead as she was knocked to the ground. The wind was knocked out of her before she could even react.

Ginny's mind was faster than her body. She realized that whoever, whatever, had just knocked her down, had saved her life. She turned her head to see who, or what, had saved her.

Silver storm clouds stared back.

Draco got up and extended a hand to her quickly.

"Come on," he said, and pulled her to her feet.

Two more demons (where had they come from) flew at them.

Ginny ducked and dodged, punched and kicked. She was careful not to get too lost in the battle this time around though. She spun and pinned one of the demons against Mary Danes' headstone, her knife quivering at his throat.

"Where are the rest?" she asked.

The demon shook his head. Ginny pressed the knife closer to his neck.

"I don't know!" he gasped.

"You don't know?" Ginny asked, momentarily stupefied. She'd been expecting a rude answer or at least a protest. The demon's eyes widened as he looked over her shoulder.

Ginny spun around, and the demon kicked her to the ground. He used her shocked state as an opportunity to shimmer away. Ginny lay on her stomach on the ground, stunned that he had tricked her so easily.

The sounds of battle died away, and Draco came up to her. He extended his hand to her. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Ginny took the offered hand, ashamed and embarrassed.

"We did pretty good," he said.

Ginny stared incredulously at him. " Good? Good? I was tricked! Tricked! And by the oldest trick in the book, no less!"

"You were caught up in the moment?" Draco offered.

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "That was a perfect opportunity to mock me, but instead you offer me an excuse? I hate to quote Kiara, but who are you and what have you done with Draco?"

"I'm in a generous mood," he shrugged.

Ginny picked up her knife off the ground and brushed the dust off on the leg of her jeans.

"Shall we?" Draco asked, motioning to the path.

"Why not?" Ginny sighed.

"Never answer a question with a question," Draco said smirking.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "That's so stupid. Why can't you answer a question with a question?"

Draco shrugged, hands in his pockets. "Beats me."

~

DING. DING. DING. DING. The clock tower of the cemetery chimed four in the morning as Ginny and Draco crashed into their apartment.

"I won!" Ginny crowed, raising her arms, palms open to the sky, and then immediately collapsing into a chair.

Since nothing else exciting happened, they had deiced to race from the cemetery to their apartments, which was quite far indeed. The prize was first one to take a shower. Speaking of which, Ginny thought getting up.

"You cheated," Draco panted, leaning on the couch.

"I did not!" she protested, hands on hips.

"Maybe you didn't ," Draco shrugged and shot for the bathroom.

Ginny's mouth fell open.

"You rat!" she yelled.

"I'd prefer snake!" he shouted through the door.

Ginny shook her head, not believing that she had been tricked twice in one night. How? She marveled. I though I was smarter than that. Looking towards the kitchen, she decided to snack on something while she waiting for Draco to be done. Well, actually she'd have time to eat a three course meal before Draco was done, but that wasn't the point.

Ginny took a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream out of the fridge, muttering about snakes, rats and ferrets.

Really, she thought. He takes more time in the shower than Lavender and Pravati combined. Ginny shook her head thinking of the two. She wondered what they would say if they knew that she was currently living with Draco Malfoy under one roof. Ginny snickered at the thought. She'd always wanted to prove herself to them, well, not just to them, but to everyone. Here was her chance, and she couldn't tell a soul.

"Just my luck," she muttered. Finally, when the chance comes along when she can prove to everyone that she's not a little girl, she has to stay quiet. Ginny sometimes wanted to cry at the injustice of it all. It really wasn't fair. Why did some people have everything, and others either nothing or the bare minimum?

Ginny's thoughts strayed to Draco. She wondered what Hogwarts would be like this coming year. It'd be so odd having been so close to him this summer, and then having to pretend to be mortal enemies again. Well, close might not be the right word to use. Where they close? Sure they'd spent a lot of time together and befriended each other, but were they close? There had been the kiss... Ginny's mind trailed off. She smiled a little at the memory of the previous night. She shook herself. Really now, it was just a stupid little game of Truth or Dare. It didn't mean that he liked her like that. Ginny stubbornly extinguished the little flare of hope within her. She couldn't like him like that, she just couldn't. But he was quite good looking.

Ginny shook herself again. Shut up brain, she thought.

"Your turn," Draco said, coming into the kitchen and shocking Ginny out of her thoughts.

Ginny looked at him. He was wearing a pair of black pajama pants and a white t-shirt. His wet hair was slicked back except for a little piece that fell into his eyes.

"And I was just starting on dessert. Too bad you missed the first two courses. They were absolutely delicious," Ginny said, surprised at her own daring.

Draco chuckled, getting a plastic spoon out of a drawer. "I see the Weaslette has been spending too much time around me."

Ginny raised her eyebrows as he sat down across from her. "What is that supposed to mean? And don't you even think about eating my ice cream."

He ignored her and stole the pint from her.

"Hey!"

"What? It's not like you could eat all of it," Draco paused. "Well, you could, but I won't let you. Don't want to mess up that perfect figure you now have, do you?"

Ginny pursed her lips, arms crossed on the table in front of her. "I don't know whether to be offended or flattered."

Draco chuckled. "Make what you will of my comment."

"Goodnight, Draco," Ginny said pointedly, getting up and heading towards the bathroom.

"Night, Gin," he called.

Ginny turned around and look at him with a puzzled expression on her face.

"What?" Draco asked.

Ginny shook her head. "Nothing."

She turned back around, a smile on her face.

He'd called her 'Gin.' Nobody had called her that in years, seeing as she'd hated it when she was younger. Now, however, she liked the sound of it.

Especially coming from Draco.