All Harry Potter Characters don't belong to me.
The Source - Chapter Thirty Six
"Speaking"
<Thinking>
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For the next few days Ginny spent every minute of every day being in the company of other people, because she knew that rumours would start quickly if people noticed she was alone. They would then jump to conclusions as to where she was and with whom. This had a negative impact on Ginny's business because she couldn't go around collecting her parchments or spy on other people.
Ginny hadn't spoken to or seen Draco after that night in his room, and she really missed him. His Medicine was now made my Madame Pomfrey and he had to go to the hospital wing every night to collect it. Ginny knew that if she really wanted to see him she could do it without anyone knowing, but this incident with the photo had woken her up from the dream like state of her friendship with Draco. He was going to leave soon, and she would have to get used to him not being here. She also had to let go now, while she could, and before she got too attached to him. The photos and Ron knowing about them was just an excuse to break it off earlier.
Ginny sat in the common room in a seat where people could see her but was still far enough in the corner so she could have some much needed privacy. Ginny looked like she was reading a book but in fact she had been staring at the same page for ten minutes thinking about Draco and wondering what he was doing. She was now a whole week behind in her news and especially now that she couldn't see Draco and also couldn't spy, she didn't know what he had been up to recently, and it was really bugging her.
<You're just being stupid, Ginny,> she berated herself. <He's going to be leaving next year anyways and then you wouldn't know anything about what he's doing. Get out of the habit and forget about him!>
Ginny slammed her book shut and got up from the seat to head for the portrait. Ginny then remembered that she shouldn't be alone so she dragged Colin along with her. Amy didn't mind that Colin was going with Ginny. She knew that they were very good friends and that Ginny wasn't interested in him that way.
Ginny was just walking quietly while Colin followed her. She was heading for the kitchens to get something to eat and Colin didn't complain. They entered the Kitchen and a few House elves started fussing over them.
"What would you like Miss?" A female house elf asked.
Ginny smiled down at her. "Just some of your wonderfully delicious cheese cakes please."
The elf walked to a table and carried it over to where Ginny was but then slipped and the cake smashed to the ground.
Ginny walked over to where the elf was and bent down to help her. "Are you alright?" Ginny asked the elf.
"Sorry miss," The elf said and then started banging her head on the floor.
The elf's behaviour was unnerving Ginny so she held back the elf's head and thought quickly. "It's alright," Ginny was saying. "I don't like cheesecake that much anyway, how about some of the pound cake. Could you get me that?"
The house elf immediately stopped hitting her head and walked away quickly to get the cake. Ginny sighed in relief and sat down at a table next to Colin with a sad face.
"Disappointed at not getting some of the Cheese cake that you really love?" Colin asked.
Ginny smiled weakly and shook her head. "I live in a family with six brothers Colin; I'm well accustomed to not getting what I want. Not getting a piece of cake is nothing compared to other things I've wanted but never got."
The house elf had come back and placed a cake on the table along with two plates, two forks, a knife and a jug of custard.
Ginny cut the cake up and gave Colin and herself a piece, each drenched in custard.
"Pound cake is still nice." Ginny commented and then ate her cake with as much satisfaction she could muster.
Colin ate his cake half heartedly as he was observing Ginny. He could tell she was forcing on that happy face, not because of the cake but because of someone in particular.
"Is there someone to replace Malfoy?" Colin asked.
Ginny froze for a slight second but then continued to eat.
"Answer me Ginny," Colin continued "Who's going to be second best if you can't have Malfoy?"
"I don't know what you are talking about, Colin," Ginny said icily.
Colin was getting annoyed. "Talk to me Ginny. Why are you doing this to yourself? What is it between you and Malfoy?"
"There is nothing between us," Ginny said firmly.
"If there really was nothing, then you wouldn't be acting this way," Colin said. "Why won't you tell me what's happening?"
There was a moment of silence before Ginny answered him.
"You don't know what its like," She said with a tremor in her voice and looked at Colin with watery eyes.
"Then explain it to me," he said desperately.
Ginny looked at Colin and then took a deep breath. "Do you know that toy store on the corner of Diagon Alley?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah," Colin said while nodding his head and wondering where this was going.
"When I was seven years old my Mum took me to Diagon Alley to get school supplies for my brothers and we walked past that toy store. In the window display was the most beautiful snow globe I had ever seen; it had a fairy in it and glitter falling all around, it was absolutely wonderful and I just had to have it. I asked mum to buy it but was devastated when she said we didn't have enough money and pulled me away from the store, but that didn't stop me. I went back to that store every year so that I could at least look at it, and after three years of saving up my allowance I finally had enough money to buy it. I went in there on Christmas Eve one year all excited and happy about being able to buy that snow globe; I lifted it from the shelf smiling widely as I took it to the counter. There was another family at the counter paying for their things so I waited patiently but the couples little girl saw the snow globe I was holding and told her daddy she wanted one too. The father asked the shop keeper if he could have one but the one I was holding was the last. The father didn't look too happy and the shop keeper was scared that the man would not buy his things so he took the globe from my hands. I asked him what he was doing and he said to me 'grubby little girls don't deserve to have such beautiful things' and then he sold it the man. I ran out of that store to my Mum and cried in her arms. I knew there was nothing she could do about it and I never blamed her for that incident." Ginny looked away from Colin and wrapped her arms around herself.
"Hope is a very painful thing you know?" Ginny continued speaking with a tremor in her voice. "Having high hopes for something and then to have them shattered is the worst feeling that a person could possibly feel. There is a saying that goes, the higher you hope the harder you fall. How true that is."
Colin felt really bad for Ginny and hugged her so she could know that he was here for her. Ginny buried her head in Colin's shoulder and cried quietly.
"I don't want to hope, Colin," Ginny said in between sobs. "I don't want to have this feeling for him."
Colin knew that Ginny's story was the explanation to the weird relationship she had with Draco.
Ginny sniffled and looked up at Colin. "I won't make that same mistake twice Colin. I won't get my hopes up only to have them shattered. Giving something up early on is better than having them removed when you thought you had it."
Ginny took a deep breath and controlled her crying. She gave Colin a weak smile and then patted his hand.
"Thank you," She said, "I needed to get that out."
"Any time, Ginny," Colin said before they both left the kitchens in silence.
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Ever since Ginny had left, Draco felt angry because she would not put in the effort to be with him. He then started to question himself. Why was it important to him that she be near? Draco refused to believe that it was love, so his subconscious erased that possibility instantly, which then made him very confused.
<I guess it's because she's the only one who really knows me> He concluded.
People at Hogwarts know of Draco's powerful side, his friends in Italy know his friendly side and his Mother knows his gentler side. Ginny was like a combination of all of them and it comforted him to know that he didn't have to change masks for her.
Draco's anger quickly disappeared and loneliness replaced it. All the nights without seeing her, all the things he couldn't discuss with her and all the smiles he couldn't show her. He missed her terribly but there was nothing he could do about it so he went into denial.
<I am Draco Malfoy> he thought <I don't need anyone, I never need.>
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Draco's medical responsibilities had now been transferred to Madame Pomfrey and so he had to go down to collect his medicine every night.
The photo incident happened a week ago and people had started to slowly forget about it, though Ron was still keeping an eye on Ginny. Business was back to normal for Ginny, now that she didn't see it was necessary to have someone prove where she was every minute of every day.
It was on a very normal day that Ginny received an Owl from her outside Source. The letter from him explained that it had taken this long to get her this information because apparently a Felicity Lateris didn't even exist.
Dear V.
I could not trace a Felicity Lateris in all of England, Scotland or even Ireland. I retraced her steps and used the photo you supplied to trace her background to be originated from Bulgaria. Her real name is Felicity Caruso and was an orphan but was adopted by an unknown man 7 years ago.
She lived in Bulgaria for 15 years until she moved to England with the adopted man 2 years ago. It was at that same time she was initiated by the Dark Lord making her an official Death Eater.
No other information on her after she was initiated has been found and it seems that she was deliberately made to seem non existent after that. No one in England has heard about her, not even the Death Eaters, and this Mystery man is also unknown.
From X
X was a spy/detective/informant whatever you want to call it, but it just meant that he was hired to find out information about people, except he specialised in the dark side of the wizarding world and was friends with many of the Death Eaters. Ginny didn't know if X was a Death Eater himself but she didn't really care because X was a very nice person. Ginny had never met X in person before but X knew who Ginny was.
Ginny first encountered X when one of the richer kids at school wanted to know who the Source really was and hired X to find out. Since this kids father was one of X's friends he had to do it. X had found out who Ginny was very easily but was impressed at how good Ginny was, even though she was very young. He had sent Ginny a letter telling her that a kid at school was investigating her and he even taught her how to protect herself. Ginny had ended up threatening the kid with one of his very secret secrets so the kid told X to stop investigating. After that incident X had sent a letter congratulation Ginny on how she was really talented and from that day on, whenever Ginny needed any outside information she would ask X for help, and he was more than happy to help her.
"I have to tell Dumbledore," Ginny whispered to herself and then stuffed the piece of paper in her pocket and ran down her dorm stairs.
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Felicity was sitting in her room reading a letter from her guardian.
Your identity has been revealed. Report back to me now, with or without the item.
Felicity scrunched up the letter and threw it into her bin. <I'll go back just as soon as I finish my business with the Weasley>
Felicity then picked up her wand and walked out of her room. She made her way to the Hospital wing because she knew Ginny spent most of her time there.
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On her way to Dumbledore's office Ginny ran into someone and caused them both to fall over. Ginny was apologising none stop but was knocked unconscious and dragged out of the school.
Ginny cracked her eyes opened slowly and cringed at the pain at the back of her head. She tried to move her hands to touch her head but found that she couldn't and so she opened her eyes fully to see what was going on. Ginny saw that she was tied up and dangled from a tree over the lake. She struggled to get free but it was no use. The last thing she remembered was crashing into someone and then blacking out.
"Enjoying the view?" said a voice from below.
Ginny looked down and saw Felicity smirking up at her. "What are you doing Lateris?" Ginny called down to her.
Felicity smiled some more before hopping onto her broom so she could fly up and talk to Ginny face to face. Felicity was now hovering next to a struggling Ginny.
"There's no use trying," Felicity purred, "I'm very good at tying people up."
"From experience I suppose," Ginny snapped.
"You're a sharp one," Felicity said. "I've never resorted to killing a girl so she would stop pestering my man."
Ginny's eyes widened slightly but then she composed herself quickly. She would not show Felicity her fear.
"That's right," Felicity continued, "I'm going to kill you Weasley, because you wouldn't leave my Draco alone."
"He is not your Draco," Ginny growled.
"And he wont be yours either when I'm done," Felicity said while smiling evilly. She then took out a knife and held it at the rope holding Ginny up on the tree. "You will die slowly for stealing him from me."
Felicity then started to glide the knife slowly over the rope so that it would fray little by little. Felicity watched in amusement at Ginny struggling to get free; seeing her victims panic was always fun.
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Draco was sitting through a very boring Prefects meeting when there was a sharp pain on the pinkie finger on his right hand. Draco held his hand up and he could see the ring he wore on his finger glowing red. Draco stood up so quickly that his chair fell backwards and startled the meeting to a stop.
"What are you doing, Malfoy?" Hermione asked sounding very annoyed.
All the people in the room were also looking at Draco weirdly and was wondering what was going on. Draco felt the ring burn his finger even more and so he clenched his hand into a fist. <Ginny must be in trouble>
Draco ran out of the room quickly and tore the ring off his finger while running down the hall. He stopped after a while and looked through the ring. He concentrated hard and then he could see a fuzzy tree and then a large area shimmering. <The lake> Draco then started running towards the outside as fast as he could.
The ring he wore on his hand was actually the other half of the bangle Draco had given Ginny for her birthday. The bangle was actually a tracking device and Draco's ring was the tracer. The bangle would send a kind of message to the ring when the wearer was in danger and the Ring would react and tell the ring wearer that something was wrong. Draco had never used this before so he didn't know exactly what it meant when the ring started to burn his finger, and it was also why he couldn't see very clearly where Ginny was through the ring. But he did know that she was some where near the lake and that she was in danger.
Draco burst through the front door of the castle and ran towards the lake. As soon as he was close enough, he saw that Ginny was tied up on the tree while Felicity was floating above her on a broom. Draco quickly put two and two together to conclude that Felicity was going to make Ginny fall into the water and let her drown.
"Stop Lateris," Draco yelled as he was running closer towards the lake.
Felicity stopped her cutting and turned her head to see who had spoken. She smirked at Draco before speaking.
"If I can't have you, no one will," She said before slashing the knife across the rope and Ginny fell down towards the lake still bound by the ropes.
Ginny screamed but it was short because she stopped at soon as she hit the water. Draco ripped his cloak off immediately and dived into the water ignoring a smirking Felicity who was flying off on her broom, back to her guardian.
End of Chapter Thirty Six. Thanks for reading and I Hope you Review.
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