Unofficial Portkey Archive

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Hey! Long time no see! First of all I wanted to apologize to all those who I left waiting for so long but, as I've been telling you and, for that matter, boring you about, I had the bloody PSU exams (local examinations to get into university) and I couldn't devote myself to write for some time.

Fortunately it's over... for better or for worse... Hopefully I didn't do too bad and I'll get into a decent university next year. Thanks to all those who supported me and wished me luck!

Anyway! I'm sure you didn't check this page out to know about me, did you? It's okay, I'm a fanfic reader too, so I'll shut my mouth right away and proceed with the next chapter of this hopefully exciting story. Hope you like!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK Rowling's amazing characters. However the plot and the new characters are all mine.

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Chapter XII: TAKING THE RIGHT PATH

"M- m- master?" came a shaky voice. "M- m- Master G- Gray?"

"Wihler! Good, I've been waiting all day for you to contact me, are you out yet?" the hoarse voice with evident anxiety inquired.

"Well, I- I- Sir- Your highness, you'll see... It's uh... that I- didn't quite -"

"Stop stuttering like an idiot, you pillock and be a man, for pity's sake!" the impatient voice commanded gruffly. "Now, I'll make this plain for you so that your useless, mononeuronic brain can understand: Is she with you now or is she not?"

"Your majesty, I- With me? You mean like right here next to me or just -"

"Is she!" he urged.

"Well no, technically no, my Lord, not exactly but you see, I -"

"You - are - a disgrace, Wihler! How did you -? How could you possibly -?" he begun, with evident disgust, then he groaned and sighed, in an attempt to ease his contempt.

"Sir! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, your highness," Chad's fearful voice begun whining. Then he sobbed uncontrollably.

"Sorry?" he replied, snorting. "Sorry!" he repeated, shouting. "Wihler you should be dead right now, how can you possibly wake up every day knowing that you represent such an offence to the magic world? No! To the human race!"

"Oh, I know Master Gray," he continued, his voice breaking into a lame cry. "I really do know, and I'm so sorry..." he added, moaning desperately.

"Stop that, you sissy!" demanded the deep, infuriated voice. "Crying will take you nowhere right now," he scolded.

"Oh, Master Gray, I've failed you so... I - I," he paused to sob again and stridently blow his nose. "But there is one last chance, your highness,"

"No, is there really?" inquired the overpowering Master, sarcastically amazed. "What is it now? You're planning to ask her politely to accompany you to my castle? Huh?" The subject remained silent in obvious shame. "Answer me!" he demanded.

"No, your majesty," he shyly begun. "That's not quite it," he added, his voice regaining a little confidence.

"I'm listening, though I warn you; I'm not taking any more bullcrap from you, I'm not!" the Master threatened.

"My Lord, she is going to be sent to Dunklerdrache -"

"What!" interrupted the grave voice. "Why!" he asked with evident concern.

"Something about that blonde guy I told you about, again".

"Malfoy," he hissed, between gritted teeth.

"Yes, him," he replied. "It doesn't really matter, Sir, she -".

"What do you mean 'it doesn't really matter', you mindless idiot! Do you realize what they would do to her in such a place? Oh, Wihler, what I'm going to do to that lame arse of yours when you get here, I swear-"

"With all due respect, your highness..." the vassal dared to interrupt. "That is IF she ever gets there..." he suggested.

"What so you -!" the dark prince scowled roughly, then he paused for a second and added. "Oh..." he uttered "I see..."

"Yes, Master Gray, I think I can do something about that," Chad suggested.

His master breathed in heavily, and then sighed.

"You better," he finally replied. "This is it," he whispered.

"Yes! I know, My Lord! It's perfect!" said the subject enthusiastically.

"No!" he scowled. "You don't," The vassal remained in inquisitive silence. "This," he proceeded, "is your last chance, Wihler," he sentenced. "If you fail me this one last time, I swear I'll have you locked away, and I don't care whatever promise I made to have you as my Councilor," he added marking his words, after which Chad swallowed hard with fright. "I think I can live without such an incompetent councilor as yourself anyway".

A prolonged silence followed in which it could be sensed that the air was so dense, it could've been cut with a knife.

"Report to me in five hours, Wihler," Prince Dylan commanded. "And there better be good news," he added threateningly, resuming the conversation.

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Meanwhile, an uneasy blonde with a concerned look on his face paced from one corner of his luxuriously decorated room to the other, with his shirt completely unbuttoned.

He suddenly stopped and grumbled aloud.

"Why, God Damn it! Why!" he yelled.

He felt so powerless in his room, without being able to do or say anything about it. After the fieldtrip was called to a halt, Draco had made a remarkable attempt of pulling out the truth but, unfortunately, everyone refused to believe him, especially Mr. Blanchard, who was always willing to believe any wrong-doings from him.

The blonde lifted a glass of scotch and swallowed its content in one single gulp. Then he stared for a while, his eyes fixated in the glass' design, when he suddenly raised it and threw it violently to the corner, causing the fine crystal to shatter into a million pieces with a shrilling noise.

"That bloody son of a bitch; I can't believe I had him for a friend for so long, how could he -? Why did he -?" his mind wouldn't give him a rest. "What the hell did I do to him that would make him do something like that? Why does he hate me so much all of a sudden!" A million questions rushed through his head. "Though in some way..." a thought hit him.

The fact was that, all in all, Draco begun realizing that maybe it wasn't about him. Maybe it didn't have anything to do with him at all... After all, Draco had only earned a month worth of detention but, given the circumstances, Blaise could've even caused his expulsion; Mr. Blanchard would've believed anything from him.

No, Blaise was even protecting Draco all the time...

*Flashback*

..."Well, anyway, Draco wouldn't kill me, right? Because we've been best mates since forever and all"...

*End of Flashback*

"Then why?" the blonde wondered, impatiently. "If it wasn't because of me then why would he -" he abruptly stopped talking as realizations hit him. "Ginny!" he yelled aloud. "He wanted her out!" The blonde grunted, trying to ease his vexation.

*Flashback*

"...now it's too late and you're about to contaminate our most prestigious blood with that of our sworn enemy, the filth out of the filth, scum out of the scum, by none less than screwing a Weasley..."

"God, Draco! What the fuck are you doing, mate? What did this bitch do to you that made you change your feelings in this way?"

"Being a Malfoy is a matter of dignity and honour, you know?" he added. "You were born one, and so you shall die..."

*End of Flashback*

These words kept echoing in his mind as he finally begun to understand what his old friend's real motives where.

"He was just trying to protect me," he finally uttered.

Blaise knew how Draco had always felt about the Weasleys; how he had always planned to marry, if necessary, to a pure-blooded, preferably blonde Slytherin. Someone like Pansy Parkinson, perhaps. They had even sworn an oath to watch over the other's interests and that, no matter what, they would see that the other wasn't drawn into what they referred to as "the ill doctrine".

The blonde sighed heavily and ran a hand through his sleek hair. He now understood everything; how foolish he had been for loathing his friend so...

"He was right," he thought. "He was absolutely right". What was his relationship with Ginny anyway? Draco sniggered. "I'm like her fucking friend with benefits, for Merlin's sake..."

They had never seen each other naked, they had never had sex. God! They had never even got to second base properly without her supposed "something- aches"...

Then what were his feelings towards her?

Draco walked towards his desk and rested his hands over its smooth surface, with his head leaning down and his eyes closed.

"Ginny..." he furrowed his brow upon the memory of those vivid chocolate eyes, that flaming, red hair, those pale pink, delicate lips that drove him crazy...

"Why can't I get rid of her? Why does she keep battering inside my head?" as he said this, Draco ran a hand across his desk, throwing everything that was on it to the floor.

"What could I possibly do about it anyway?" he kept tormenting himself. "It's not as if I hadn't tried to reveal the truth! They were definitely not willing to listen to me, why should I feel guilty? It just can't be, it isn't meant to be," he unsuccessfully tried to convince himself. "What am I possibly supposed to do? Hug a pillow and cry myself to sleep? Not a chance... Not while I still have some dignity left".

*Flashback*

"Why are you so god damn arrogant, Draco? Why can't you just accept that you've got feelings as well as anybody else! You're not made out of stone, you know!"

*End of Flashback*

"Then who do you think you are? Do you presume to know me well enough as to tell me how I feel? Alright, then tell me! What do I feel for you, huh? You think you're smart? Then bloody answer me!" he yelled, his face reddening with the strike of emotions.

"Love?" he sarcastically suggested, chortling.

Draco wouldn't dare to use the "l" word to describe anything that remotely concerned him... To fall in love...

"What the hell is that supposed to mean anyway?" the blonde wondered, as he pulled his trousers down and lied over his bed, wearing only a pair of boxers. "I mean, yeah, we've spent some... pretty interesting time together, but... love?"

A Malfoy surely didn't fall in love. Therefore, he could forget any girl he chose to and he could hence let that one woman go. What made her different? Nothing.

"Being a Malfoy is a matter of dignity and honour, you know? You were born one, and so you shall die..."

"...Ginevra..." came a deep, throaty voice that the red-head had never heard before. "...my lady..." he added. "...come to me..." A cool breath caressed her right ear, sending a tingling jolt up her spine, as he commanded this. "... my queen..."

A cold shiver ran up her spine as she pressed her eyelids together, beginning to feel aware of her senses once again. Her right cheek was pressed against a smooth, but unendurably cold surface. She knew she wasn't in Draco's bedroom anymore.

"What -?" she drowsily wondered as she opened her eyes, not reacting quite yet, dumbfounded because of her disturbing dream and the tiring day that had preceded that morning. "Where -?" With furrowed brows and an unbelieving look, Ginny inspected the place she was in.

Three walls and an exit. The walls and the floor made of frigid paving stones and the exit effectively obstructed by thick steel bars.

Ginny suddenly gasped aloud and gaped her eyes, cornering herself to the nearest wall as realizations hit her.

She had been there before; she was locked in Hogwarts basement dungeons.

A thousand images begun rushing through her head and it pained her so much to remember that she took her hands to the sides of her head and pressed hard in the hope to make it stop, to make it disappear.

Blaise. His hand crawling painfully up her thigh. Then a powerful beam of light. Then darkness. Then nothing.

*Flashback*

"You'll see how you will enjoy this so much that, in the end, you will probably beg me for more," he added, moving his hand between her thighs.

*End of Flashback*

"What the hell happened?" she thought, panting, feeling despairingly powerless about it. How she would've liked to kick that bastard where it most hurt him. Again…

She closed her eyes roughly, grimacing at the thought of what could've happened in the forest.

Then again...

Ginny's face of anguish immediately turned to one of extreme sadness and disgust at the same time.

"That's not really what bothers me the most," she thought, tears rushing to her eyes. "How could he say that? How could he be such a fake, such a hypocrite, such a -" she paused to groan with contempt. "Bastard!" she yelled. "After all those days, after all those wonderful moments..." she added. "He just, He-" she sobbed.

"He was just... fooling me the whole time," Ginny rubbed her eyes roughly to wipe her tears away. "And to think that I - that I -I thought that I -" she begun stuttering, unable to form the words.

Then the red-head focused her eyes in a luxurious piece of jewelry that was still pinned to her chest and sighed. She read the inscription once again.

"Tui mens apud tui cor"

She used to think it meant so much that he had given something like that to her, but now...

"Your mind in consequence of your heart my ass," she hissed, grabbing it roughly, ready to tore it off her uniform. But when she had her hand tightly pressed around it, something stopped her from ripping it off. She shut her eyes strongly and slowly let go of it. Then sighed again.

"It doesn't even matter anymore..." she thought. "But somehow I can't avoid thinking that - Maybe he-," she muttered. "Oh I hate him so much I could -!"

Her thoughts were interrupted by noises coming from the end of the corridor where loud steps were heard as they made their way towards her cell.

The red-head instantly recognized the plump figure of his visitor as a loud, shrieking meow was heard along too.

"Move that sorry piece of arse, you maggot; your time has come," he commanded gruffly, as he opened the cell's door with a heavy hold of keys.

"Time?" she inquired, standing up, defensively.

"You heard me."

"Time for what?"

"Why, to Dunklerdrache, of course, where else?" he relied sardonically. "Now come here!" he demanded, grabbing her wrist and throwing her out of the cell abruptly

"Dunklerdrache? But I - I don't understand this!" Ginny uttered, looking in every direction as if she was searching for an answer. "What did I do!"

Filch did not answer and solely limited to grumble with aversion.

"Why? Why, in Merlin's name why?" she blurted out, desperately.

"Be-cause, once again you would refuse to stick to the rules, you vermin! Now keep walking or I'll whip your arse to the main exit!" he threatened with a vicious look on his face.

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When she arrived to the staff main entrance, Ginny was surprised to discover that there wasn't a conventional carriage, moved by threstals, waiting for her, but rather an odd one, that was tied to two horses instead; a brown and a white one. She knew she would've definitely been able to see the threstals this time, for she had unfortunately seen many people die during the war...

"Why are they using horses?"

"That is none of your business," scolded Filch, as he let go of her.

"The air is not safe anymore," came a stern voice behind them.

Ginny turned to face his once savior Mr. Blanchard.

"We got these recently for that matter," he added. "They're taking you to your destination," he said and looked away.

Ginny somehow had the feeling that the man was disappointed, but it was killing her not to know why.

"A student of ours is taking you to the station," he continued, in a monotonous tone, making Ginny notice that a person in a black cape and hood was sitting in the front, holding the reins. "And a person will pick you up at Dunklerdrache".

Mr. Blanchard then came near to the rider.

"Ride safe, Wihler," he told him and patted the boy on the shoulder, without getting a response.

The man slowly walked away and Filch grabbed her arm to get her into the carriage.

"Sir!" Ginny dared to call, making him stop on his tracks, without turning to stare at her. "Why?" she cried, her eyes beginning to fill with tears, overwhelmed by the emotions.

"Because you left me no other choice," he briefly replied.

"C'mon, get into the carriage, you vermin! Stop wasting my time!" Filch called.

"Noo!" she yelled, breaking into a disconsolate cry. "Please, I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything!" she kept screaming, until she was inside the cabin and Filch slapped the horse in the flank, making the carriage move at full speed.

Inside, Ginny sobbed and moaned, staring at the window, where the landscape kept changing. After a while, she gave up and decided there was nothing she could do.

"Why did it have to be like that?" she wondered, tears running down her cheeks. Not only was she being taken to the most horrible place on Earth, but she was also being separated from the persons she loved the most. "Bekka..." she uttered. "Vicky..." The thought of never seeing them again ached in her heart. "Draco..."

Ginny pressed her fists firmly, hating herself for admitting she would unavoidably miss him too.

Suddenly, an idea hit her.

"If they're going to rape me, or even kill me at Dunklerdrache," she begun. "Then I've got nothing to lose," she told herself.

She wiped her tears away and focused her eyes in the door's handle.

"Please let it be open, God. Please give me that..." she pleaded, taking hold of the handle and slowly turning it around, proving that it was completely unlocked.

"Yes!" she uttered, as the roaring noise from the outside filled her ears.

They were riding so fast that Ginny could barely tell anything apart, but she knew they were riding next to high grass and bushes.

She opened the door widely and stood up as her heart begun to throb faster by the second, adrenaline flowing wildly through her veins.

"Alright Ginny, on the count of three," she told herself to give her courage, as the carriage kept moving and the door swayed threateningly. "One..." she uttered. "Two..." she said, taking firm grip over the sides of the exit.

Then, after a brief pause that seemed to last for ages, she gathered courage and did it.

"Three!" she yelled and jumped out of the carriage, closing her eyes and covering her head with her arms.

Her body rolled a couple of meters and then she opened her eyes.

She was still alive.

"Woo hoo!" she cried mirthfully, standing up. "I did it!"

She couldn't believe she had managed to come out completely unharmed, except for a couple of scratches.

"I'm free!" she cried, turning around to face the road.

Ginny stared at the carriage, which kept running through the next turn.

"Ha!" she exclaimed pridefully, resting her hands on her hips.

Then she heard horses neighing and the noise from the carriage's wheels moving, was no longer heard.

The carriage had stopped.

"Bugger!" she cursed and begun racing through the forest, as fast as her legs could take her.

Ginny was panting violently from the exhaustion and, after a while, she couldn't feel her legs anymore, when suddenly her foot came across something that made her trip, and fall abruptly to the floor.

The red-head moaned with confusion and pain. Then she raised her look and recognized a slimy creature she remembered seeing in a book at Hagrid's hut before.

The boomslang's yellow eyes stared into hers menacingly, standing just a couple of inches away.

Ginny's heart rate rose again and she tried her best to ease her feelings and breathe as gently as she could, without even blinking.

"Oh my God," she kept thinking. "So much for my freedom, I suppose". It was all so deliciously ironic, it made her want to laugh aloud and spit at the destiny in the face.

The beast crawled a little closer. So close, that when it stuck its tongue out to smell Ginny's scent, it tickled her nose and she felt the desperate need to sneeze.

"Oh, no," she thought. "Not now..." she pleaded, but her body didn't listen to her.

She found herself lost in these thoughts, breathing in to make sure that that last sneeze was her most pleasurable one ever.

"If this sneeze will cost me my life, then it better be the most God damn ecstatic sneeze a person has ever produced," she told herself.

Ginny was ready to release that sneeze, when a loud gallop was heard from nearby. The snake looked away for a second in the direction where the gallops were heard and the next second, as she stridently sneezed, the carriage's rider, over a beautiful white horse was diving in to hold Ginny's waist and pull her up, behind him.

He didn't even stop to do all of this, but kept galloping at full speed, leaving the red-head with no other choice other than taking a firm grip of his chest. Soon enough, they were out of the woods and into a green prairie.

Ginny was still shocked from the events and it wasn't until then that she finally reacted.

"Hey!" she yelled, her voice partially suffocated because of the wind. "What do you think you're doing!" she added. "Put me down!"

But the hooded rider kept running, without bothering to reply at all.

"Great," she thought. "Just... peachy..." No matter what she did, she was unavoidably going to end up at Dunklerdrache, there certainly was no escape. "My luck," she told herself and snorted.

Ginny sighed heavily, when she noticed there was a high barrier of bushes right in front of them and the rider didn't make the least gesture to turn or stop.

"Hey! What are you doing! Stop it or you will get us both killed!" she yelled but, upon seeing that he was determined not to listen to her, she saw herself obliged to wrap her arms even more tightly around him, with her face pressed against his back and her eyes strongly closed.

Soon, she felt the horse jumping and remaining in the air for what seemed forever, until they finally landed safely on the other side, but kept galloping at a constant speed.

When she opened her eyes and saw moving prairies at the side she was looking at, she sighed with relief.

"Wow, that was very -" she stopped abruptly upon noticing that the rider's hood had fallen back after they jumped, "impressive..." she uttered, dumbfounded with what she was seeing.

Unmistakable golden locks of hair were waving in front of her eyes and the now uncovered rider slightly turned his head.

"I know," he uttered, with a smirk.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

HA! I bet you didn't see that one coming did you? Yes, I couldn't possibly make our dearest Ginny go to that awful place... *shivers at the thought*

What next? Jeez... I don't know... But I have the hunch that there's a certain person who won't be so happy about these last events...

So well, as always, I encourage you to review this chappie and drop your opinion and comments, they're all very important to me, so press that little button at the end of the page and review plz. Maybe a decent amount will get me to update before the holidays, wouldn't it make a nice Christmas present from me to you all?

Lots of love to chappie 11's REVIEWERS: **hunnee**, **Peanut**, **Adrial**, **~Lady_of_the_Horses~**, **kirara**, **Olivia Weasley**, **crackedribs**, **sevenofseven**, **Tomlove01**, **frecklegirl87**, **Momentyne**, **ElvenPrincess**, **div**, **reneeweber**, **serenity237**, **Tears_ofthe_Phoenix**, **laila**, **Evil Evor**, **chocolatefroggie**, **PhoenixSong**, **essence**, **emvee**, **Tiff**, **pink_tomate**, **Liz81**, **chrestomanci_04**, **ferret gurl**, **monagy3**, **Dj Mandy B**, **lilmissfeltonluver** and a bunch of **Anonymous**

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