It was a cold December morning in the Gryffindor sixth year girl's dormitory and Ginny was trying to get her friends out of their beds.
"Bloody hell, it's eight in the morning. On a Saturday. You aren't supposed to be awake." Sarah, Ginny's roommate, said when Ginny shook her awake.
"It's snowing, that makes it different, now get up."
"Ginny." She whined.
"Sarah." Ginny responded in the same whiney tone and they both started laughing, "Come on, you just don't want to get up because you know I'll beat you in a snowball fight."
"Yeah right," Sarah mumbled into her pillow.
"Then prove it."
"No, too tired."
"Loser," Ginny huffed. "All right, I'll take pity on you, but you realise this is only because I don't think you could deal with the utter defeat and humiliation you would suffer at my hands."
"All right, all right, I'm getting up, but you have to make me hot chocolate for this."
"Yes!" Ginny screamed "Come on, Jenny's already taking a shower. You know her; she has to be clean before she gets dirty."
"Ugh, she's way too into hygiene"
"Hey!" said an indignant voice from the doorway, "At least I'm not like you people. I don't think I could stand going for days without washing myself."
"Not days, just hours. You know, like normal people." Sarah said, sniggering as she slipped on a pair of pants and some boots.
"I'm normal, right Ginny?" Jenny asked.
"Uh, I don't think I'll get involved in this one." Ginny said, backing away. "Anyways, don't you guys want to go down now? We might miss the snowfall otherwise."
"I'm normal!"
At that Ginny ran down the stairs and out the portrait hole with Sarah and Jenny chasing after her.
When they stepped out onto the school grounds they stopped and stared at the snow covered, yet untouched, wonderland. Sarah was the first to recover, picking up some snow and shoving it down Jenny's back. Jenny screamed, she picked up some as well, threw it and -
"Missed! Ha!" Sarah screamed.
"That was NOT nice!" Jenny shouted back as she tried to extract the melting snow from under her jacket, two jumpers, two sweaters, shirt and tank top. "It's so cold, burrrr."
Ginny, who had, until that moment, stayed on the sidelines, then got a snowball and, while Sarah was still laughing and pointing at Jenny, threw it right into her face.
"Agh! That was low Ginny." She said as she wiped the snow from her face.
"You know me, always waiting for the opportune moment." Ginny shouted back as she ran away, only turning back to throw a snowball at Jenny who screamed and came after her as well. The three of them came to edge of the lake. It had frozen over.
"It should be safe, right Ginny? Sarah?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah, people have gone out before and no one's ever gotten hurt." Sarah said.
"You don't sound very sure" said Ginny right before Jenny, in a rare moment of spontaneity, pushed Ginny onto the ice.
Sarah pushed Jenny on as well and they all started sliding around. Picking up snow that had fallen onto the ice and throwing it at each other, occasionally trying to stand up long enough to get somewhere.
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Up in the heavens two deities were viewing the situation with interest.
"You know, it's a pity that most of her family are too concerned with what the Salvation is doing to concentrate on this girl" said Mirhe as she watched the girls playing in the snow.
"Her family are not so bad; I've seen and created much worse. They at least care about her well being" replied Vehka who was connecting to her sister's mind to view the scene as well. She couldn't view mortal's faces or hear their conversations without her help.
"The fact that you are the Goddess of Destruction wouldn't have any effect on your opinion, would it?"
"I do what must be done, and playing with mortals is so amusing."
"Yes, well, that aside, this girl is important." Mirhe said, her mind still connected to Vehka's.
"How so?"
"To the plan, she is meant to play her part and aid the Salvation in his acts to defeat the coming shadows."
"Ah, the death eaters. Will she die?" Vehka asked, her lips quirking up into a smile at the thought.
"You know as well as I that that has not been decided yet, have a little patience." Mirhe broke the connection, stopping Vehka from gazing at the girl for too long.
"She's the one with the red hair, yes?" Vehka said, "Darker than fire?"
"Yes, we need to assign her a protector until she can fight for herself in the final battle. Should we assign one of her brothers? Maybe the Salvation Himself would be a good choice. I'm sure both of her friends would care for her admirably." Mirhe said as she contemplated the options.
"No, no," said Vehka impatiently "it has to be someone who is totally infatuated with her, who is willing to spend large amounts of time with the girl. Her parents are too preoccupied with the Salvation as are her brothers, as you said and the Salvation has his own problems. Her friends are not with her all day, they split up too often. It has to be the boy."
"Which boy?" Mirhe asked confused.
Vehka sighed, "The one who has fallen in love with her right under your nose. You would do well to keep a keener eye on your charges."
"Hmm, I'm not sure though. I feel the need to test him."
"You're just biased because I created him."
"No I'm not" Mirhe said, offended. "Anyways, I need you to create an emergency for him to play the hero in. Just make sure there is a contingency plan in case he doesn't pull through, remember that we don't want her to die yet. I'll make sure he sees it."
"Of course." said Vehka as she started to thin the ice under Ginny's feet.
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Draco was dreaming, he knew he was dreaming because in real life Ginny would never be doing these things. She wouldn't be sitting on his lap under a tree in the grounds giving a few kisses or sitting in the three broomsticks sharing a butterbeer like the other couples. She /definitely/ wouldn't be doing any of the less . . . innocent things he had come up with in his sleep.
When his dream stopped being of him taking off something Ginny looked rather edible wearing and changed to her playing in the snow with her friends on the ice, he knew something wasn't right. His subconscious wouldn't willingly change one image for the other. Also, this new dream felt altogether too real, like he was watching it in time with the rest of the world. But Merlin, he thought as he watched her throw a snowball at Serrie or Sammi or whatever her name was, she was beautiful. Even with a face red from the cold and hair messy because of the wind (not to mention those awful robes), he was captivated. He had an insane impulse to reach out and touch her, convinced that he was only meters away from holding her hand.
Draco saw it as if in slow motion. Ginny had tried to stand up and had fallen back down, as she hit the ice it broke into pieces and she disappeared underneath. At that moment Draco sat bolt upright in his bed, somehow he knew that this was no ordinary dream. He drew a heavy oak chair over to a spot beneath the window high up on the wall of his room in the dungeons and, standing on the chair looking out the window he tried to see through the drizzle of snow to the lake. He finally made out two figures, one was bending over trying to pull something up while the other ran for the castle.
/That's Gin she's trying to pull up/ he thought in a panic. Thinking fast, he grabbed his cloak and broom and ran out of the Slytherin dorms, the common room, and the great hall and onto the grounds. He flew towards the lake searching for the Ginny. He finally caught her friend unsuccessfully trying to pull her out onto the ice while simultaneously trying not to fall in. Flying over he saw that Ginny was losing strength. The girl with Ginny spotted him and waved him over with one hand while holding Ginny with the other. Draco grabbed Ginny's hand with both of his and, using the brooms strength as well as his own, hauled her out of the water. He flew over to the snow covered ground and wrapped her in his cloak before picking her up. Ginny groaned, then she lost consciousness.
"Where are you taking her?" asked her friend.
"Where do you think?" Draco was livid, how could they have been so stupid? He was angry and scared for her, "To the hospital wing you idiot."
"Sorry. But - "
But Draco didn't want to hear the rest of what she would have said, he had to take her to madam Pomphrey fast. He couldn't think clearly through his fear and the fuzzy questions going through his head were not helping.
When he reached the castle he cast /mobilicorpus/ on her and led her to the hospital wing where he set her down on one of the beds still covered in his cloak.
Madam Pomphrey came out of the wing in time to see him enter, "Mr. Malfoy, what are you doing - " she stopped and stared at Ginny "Oh my Lord" she whispered, then with more authority and much more urgency she said "Get out, all of you" to Draco and both of Ginny's friends who had somehow found their way to his side. "You" she pointed at Sarah, "go get professor McGonagall now, she's in the staff room."
When Sarah went off, Jenny was left with only a very scared, angry seventeen year old boy for company.
"Um, are you okay?" she asked when she saw the pensive look on his face.
"Do I look `okay' to you?"
"I wanted to thank you, for helping us."
Draco didn't answer, he was going to stay long enough to know if Ginny was alright and that was all. He didn't need to deal with her idiot friends. In his mind they were just as much to blame as Ginny herself for her fall through the ice. All he wanted was some time to sort through his feelings.
"Um, seriously, maybe you should get yourself checked or something. You seem like you're in shock. I mean, I know that you've gotten pretty close with Gin recently but you have to loosen up. I'm sure Ginny will be alright."
"Will you just /shut up/ Jessi or Jenna or whatever your name is. How would you know that she's going to be okay? You tell me how, and then I'll calm down." Draco said this all quietly but his words cut into Jenny than she would have liked them to.
"I don't know but even if she isn't, there's nothing we can do now, is there?" The truth was that she was worried as well. It had all been suppressed during the accident but now that she could do nothing, all her fears were coming to a head.
"I suppose." Draco said, more to shut her up than anything else. Inside he was wondering why this was happening, why they hadn't used their wands and if there was anything else they could do. "Why didn't you use your wands?"
"None of us had brought ours; we were too caught up with the falling snow."
This statement stoked up Draco's hitherto dormant anger. "What?! How could you have forgotten your wands? Are you all idiots?"
Jenny recoiled slightly, "I'm sorry, we didn't think - "
"That much is obvious. Just don't, I don't want to hear it."
Jenny was quiet for a moment before she said "How did you know we were out there?" Again, Draco didn't answer, he was trying to come to grips with that question as well.
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Hours passed, McGonagall had come and gone, Jenny and Sarah had also left and Professor Snape had asked him to go back to his dorm, he had refused. When madam Pomphrey finally emerged telling him that Ginny was going to be alright he asked if he could stay with her. She had said yes if he didn't make a sound, so he fell asleep by her side and the deities were pleased, they had found a protector.
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A/N: Hope you liked this chapter. If there's anything you don't get about Mirhe and Vehka just say so in a review or email. Most of it will be explained in the next chapter anyways.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything related to him. I only own the plot.