AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Oh my god... I'm so sorry to leave you hanging in a cliff hanger like that and then just disappear like that. The thing is I'm on my summer vacations, which means I haven't really been home much lately (I was actually in the beach the whole time P).
Plus, I've had to think and rethink lots of things about the fic and how things are going to develop from now on. You wouldn't want me to write loads of crap, do you?
And yet you've been so amazingly good to me! I got so many reviews from last chapter... honestly, you make my days, guys.
Anyway, enough of that, on to chappie 15!
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 XV: AT LAST WE MEET
It was as if every muscle in her body had suddenly frozen and, as much as she wanted to step back, she couldn't possibly move an inch.
What was this feeling? She didn't know.
The air, the smell, the humidity... It all seemed as if in that exact place, in that precise moment, time and space had unpremeditatedly stopped and all there was left were the two of them... and darkness.
The red-head felt as if her senses were completely and utterly enticed by the presence of this mysterious man.
"I - I -," she begun stuttering, as she felt the stable rhythm of the man's breathing and she begun to wonder whether perhaps that bloody corset was too tight after all. "Who ? Are you ? I mean..." she regret, already knowing the answer.
The Prince sniggered silently.
"Don't you know that already, Ginevra?" he replied in the most velvety voice Ginny remembered ever hearing.
"I can't see you," she managed to utter, gathering strenght as her eyes wondered over the darkness in front of her eyes, where she could only picture what the man before her looked like.
However, though she couldn't see him, Ginny could guess a smirk in the man's face.
"A necessary evil," he uttered. "To see..." he explained.
"What - what do you mean?" she asked, unsure.
"Inflammatio," he mumbled and as if a switch had just been pressed, a roaring fire instantly lit up in the huge fireplace that was located right next to them.
Ginny uttered a deafened moan at the sudden surprise and covered her eyes that had still to adjust to the light.
"God, you're beautiful," she heard him say in that throaty voice of his.
Ginny felt her cheeks burning at this words and she slowly forced her hands off her eyes, to find that the feeling would only accentuate at the sight of the man standing before her.
His towering figure surpassed her by more than a head and a black hood partially covered some of his fine, ebony hair that fell in sleek, wavy locks. It amazed her to see what fine features he had: his cheekbones seemed to be carved in marble and his lips were pale and probably lacking the pretence to smile, but still lusciously smooth and inviting.
However, the first thing she noticed were his smoky eyes that, despite the lurking provided by some dark locks of hair that hung carelessly, were evidently coloured in an intense icy blue, that was framed by black, heavy eyelashes.
In that moment, Ginny saw in them a glow so painfully blinding that she wished she could unlock her eyes from their sight.
But she couldn't.
And they were as fixed in hers as hers were in his.
"Your highness," Ginny slowly begun, trying her best to find the right words to address him with some dignity and be able to overcome the fact that he was so unenduringly...
She breathed in deeply, as if to say something smart and then sighed back.
"God, I don't know were to start," she whispered.
"Why is it so difficult to talk to him! Come on Ginny, say something for Merlin's sake!" she kept repeating herself, hoping that he would say something instead, thus resuming the conversation.
But he didn't and kept gazing at her with a fixed smirk, as if he knew exactly what she was going to say.
Ginny sighed again.
"Damn the clichés and formalities, just spit it out!" she cursed herself.
"This - this is all a mistake, you see," she blabbed out, as she felt the anguish tying a knot up her throat. "I - I don't really know how I got here or - or why I am here, I just know that I've been confused with someone I'm most definitely not and I just want to clear things out before it's too late!" she added, looking at him with pleading eyes, as if she feared he would hurt her.
"God, you're in big trouble, Ginevra!" she told herself.
The silence that followed was deafening. It was as if he was scanning her whole life and background through her eyes.
"A mistake?" he finally inquired.
"What? Mr. Perfect can't possibly conceive the idea of making mistakes, is that it?" she thought.
Ginny didn't dare answer. Why was she so intimidated?
"Because I'm only standing inches from like the most powerful wizard ever, not to mention dangerously gorgeous," she replied herself sarcastically. "Why bloody not be cool about it all, huh?" she added, mentally.
"Life often is," he added, huskily. "Yet we stand here, you and I..." he drawled. "And it seems the only real mistake are the few inches that hold us apart," he added, causing every hair in the red-head's body to prick up. "That void that separates two souls that were born," he added, grabbing her right hand and taking her to his cold lips, pausing before kissing it. "to be one," he uttered, delivering a soft kiss on the top of her hand.
Ginny gaped her eyes at the feeling of his touch. He was so surprisingly warm, yet his eyes seemed to be undressing her with every word.
"Your highness, you confuse me with someone else," she insisted, carefully removing her hand. "I'm just a servant of Morkdrage School of Dark Arts, I- I don't have anything to do here, honest," she assured.
"It is you who is confused, my lady, and with much reason, I'm sure. But I beg you, do not worry, for all shall be revealed at the right time," he added, with an eloquence that begun to drive the red-head crazy. "Eleven years," he added. "At last we meet".
"Huh?" she limited to utter, gaping her mouth open in what she was sure must've been the less princessy grimace ever. "I'm not who you think I am," she whispered, looking away.
"No," he replied, smoothly. "It is you who refuses to believe who you really are," he added, raising her chin with his elegant, long hands. "You are much more than you think you are, Ginevra," he uttered in a raspy voice that resembled a loud whisper. "And the fact that you have remained ignorant of this truth for so long, is precisely what has kept you pure and true throughout the times".
Ginny gazed at his eyes... They seemed so honest, yet so cold and mysterious. His look was hardened and distant, but she wondered the reason.
"I'm no queen..." she finally sighed.
"You're right," he replied. "You're not," he added, causing Ginny to furrow her brow in confusion. "But you soon will be, the day we bind our destinies."
"Bind our destinies? What on Earth was that supposed to mean?" she desperately thought. "He's the bloody Dark Prince, what business could he possibly have with a filthy servant as myself?"
"Why would you want to do that?" she inquired. "Who are you? Aren't you supposed to be the new Dark Lord, or Darkness Prince or whatever?"
They had been talking for a while now, but still nothing seemed to make sense in the red-head's mind.
Dylan snorted softly.
"You often cannot be seen as anything else when you carry such a burden, can you?" he replied, staring down, which caused his eyes to be completely covered by his black hair, that contrasted intensely with his pale and smooth semblance.
The words remembered her of those that one day he listened a young blonde say.
"So you're not evil?" she asked, in confusion.
"Evil?" he snorted, furrowing his brow. "I like to call myself a free spirit, imprisoned in a dark pit of mischief and nuisance that yes, rules my life," he explained matter-of-factly.
"You were a Death Eater?" Ginny continued to interrogate.
"As much as I was an Auror," he ironically commented. "I would never be under the command of anyone, least of all those useless, simpleminded idiots".
"Then," she hesitated at her following question. "Then what gives you the right to be the Dark Lord?" she dared ask.
"You mean, besides the fact that I defeated the supposedly most powerful wizard before me?" he suggested, snottily.
The red-head felt so stupid at this words... Of course she should've thought about it. If he had indeed defeated Voldemort, it would make him the most powerful wizard alive.
His eyes travelled towards the fire and there was something dark about his expression again.
"Fear..." he added, flashing her a sudden look, that seemed to pierce her eyes.
"F -fear?" the red-head repeated, focusing her eyes for a second in his full lips that instantly smirked at her brief gaze.
Ginny flushed upon realising that she had unintentionally wondered how they tasted and cursed herself for that.
"I can't help it and neither can anybody else," he limited to explain, licking his lower lip to moisten it. "I was born to it and it has been both my blessing and my curse," he added, pacing around her. "Don't you feel it?"
The question caught Ginny unaware.
"Shivers up your spine..." he breathed over her neck as he passed behind her, sending a jolt of electricity. "The thumping of your heart..." he added in a whisper.
Of course she could feel it! Merlin! Her heart was practically coming out of her mouth with such violent thuds.
It almost pained her to feel his eyes undressing her like that, but she couldn't possibly confront him. How would he react? He was the Darkness Prince after all, right? She would just have to endure his prying eyes for the time being.
"The tingling of your lips?" he added, running a smooth finger over her pale pink lips, that almost ached when he took it back.
"I - really - don't -"
"You can't help it, can you?" he snorted and then sighed, as he stared at the flames that caused his eyes to squint a little.
"I am bound to be here," he continued. "Because there is no man who can possibly overrule me or my powers. I am invincible and my magic has no limits, as myself," he snapped.
"But no one had ever heard of you for the past years. How come a wizard of your power and might remain unknown for so much time? I mean, someone would've known you!" Ginny replied in confusion.
"I chose it to be so," he uttered, his face shimmering with an unearthly glow provided by the fire. "I've lived in darkness most of my life. Hiding in sunless pits and lurid shadows, like a spectre," he added. "Inanimate, deceased, lifeless..."
His words would've sound melancholic and dramatic in any other's voice, but instead they were strong and obscure, in an impersonal way...
"Until there was a light," he drawled, turning to her. "Amidst the dark," he added. "And my mind was blurred no more".
Ginny had chosen to gaze at the fire, as if she could find consistent answers to her questions among the flames.
"I knew what I wanted and how to accomplish it. I was no longer going to endure the gnawing excruciation I had been subjected to in the past. And those who stood in my way would either ally... or perish," he sentenced, darkly.
"And where do I fit in in these plans of yours?" she inquired. "Your highness," she added, cautiously.
"There shouldn't be any place for such formalities between us, Ginevra," he drawled. "Dylan is my name".
"Yes," she replied obediently "Dylan". It felt so lustful to even pronounce his name.
"You were that light, Ginevra," he answered. "The memory that you have always been," he added, reducing the already few inches between them to scarcely the space for a suffocated breath: "And shall irrevocably remain," he continued, holding her softly by the hips with one hand, while the other run up her back up to her bare shoulders. "Forever mine," he added, touching a particular spot in Ginny's shoulder that immediately reacted to his touch.
Her birthmark.
The red-head moaned slightly, upon feeling that the area felt like an open wound against his fingers, that were now busy taking firm grip of her waist, so that she wouldn't collapse to the floor out of the sudden impact.
Ginny noticed how he did all of this naturally, as if all that was happening was perfectly normal and predictable. His expression didn't even change as he held her.
"What in Merlin's name is going on?" she thought, desperately. It was all so bizarre.
"What do you want from me?" she added in a weak voice, unable to endure being deprived from his support.
"Want..." he uttered in a cold voice. "I want you to yield..." he whispered. "To surrender," he added, at the entrance of her ear. "To me..."
"You want to turn me into some Darkness Queen," she inquired, remembering Ellie's words.
"That, you already are," he simply replied. "You were born to it and there's no way you can possibly avoid it," he added, making her push him away and step back, panting.
"No!" she moaned, straightening her dress and feeling shivery, as cold quickly replaced the spots were his hands had previously been.
But he remained unperturbed, as if he was anticipating her every move.
"The question is, my lady," he proceeded. "Are you willing to be seduced by that obscure force? That inherent drive that lies within you, just waiting to be freed?" he added.
"What on Earth is he saying!" she wondered in despair, trying to regain her breath. "I'm no queen, nor a dark one for that matter! What am I supposed to reply!"
"Can't you feel it, Ginevra?"
Her name felt so sinful in his lips.
"It's like a beast, waiting to be awoken," he uttered, disappearing in a flash and reappearing by her side. "A forbidden fruit, craving to be eaten," he drawled in her ear.
"I would never head that way," she sentenced. "It goes against everything I believe in," she added.
"You might fancy it too much, is that it?"
Ginny glared at him in disapproval.
"And once you've got a glimpse of it, you can't possibly turn back, can you?" he drawled, sensuously.
"Never!" she scowled, stepping back, her fists clenched and her eyes flaming fire.
"Are you sure?" he inquired with a look that would have tempted the most frigid woman into sin.
"Why wouldn't I?" she doubted, trying her best to avoid his captivating eyes.
"What proves you so certain of something you've never even..."
This time he apparated some scarce inches from her lips.
"... tasted?" he whispered, allowing his cool breath to caress her tongue, before she backed up with a muffled whimper.
"Stop that!" she scowled, referring to his sudden apparitions. "Because it's... bad!" she yelled. "I mean, it's wrong! Merlin! I don't even know why I'm answering this bloody questions!"
He was playing games with her mind and there was nothing she could possibly hate more at times like those, because deep inside, she knew that she didn't stand to chance of winning next to someone like... him.
"Wrong?" he sniggered. "What exactly could possibly make it wrong?"
She gasped and hesitated at the answer. She knew why evil was a bad thing, but she didn't quite know how to put it in words. It was something so obvious, yet somewhat intangible.
"People get hurt," she confidently answered after a while.
"All the time," he snapped.
"What do you mean?"
"You think you're good and honest, don't you?" he uttered as he paced around the dimly lit hall room, without ever unlocking his eyes from hers. "But you have hurt many, haven't you?"
"What do you know?" she blurted out, gruffly.
"More than you wish I did, I'm afraid," was his simple, but assertive answer.
Ginny glared at him and was impressed yet again by his seemingly perfect features. His nose, so manly and precise, and that chin cut in such unblemished sharp angles.
"I know that people have hurt you and your feelings," he explained. "A lot lately," he added, noticing that her eyes were hard, but obviously fighting against the tears. "And you have wished those people to die and suffer many times..."
"But I would never -"
"Hurt them?" he interrupted. "Not even the people who have made your life miserable?" he continued, pacing around her. "Not even those who have attempted and even managed to destroy your hopes and dreams? Those who have deceived you, making you feel that you might be happy after all, but then abandoned you, giving you false hopes?"
"You don't know me! Leave me alone!" she yelled, covering her ears defensively and pressing her eyelids together.
How could he possibly know about her? He spoke as though he didn't only know her, but also her sentimental situation.
"I can help you, Ginevra," he uttered soothingly, grabbing her by the shoulders, which surprisingly enough, didn't shrug to his touch. "We're meant to be together and you know it, deep down inside, but you're scared of it, aren't you?"
"Don't," she whispered. Her hands collapsed against his lean chest, trying effortlessly to pull him back, without yet opening her eyes.
"Your happiness lies with me and by my side only," he explained. "I have the power to give you all you ever dreamed of and I'd sell my soul if I knew it would make you love me back," he said, to which the red-head snapped her eyes open to meet his blue depths. "And you will," he sentenced, smirking.
"My... heart belongs to another," she wearily replied, looking down. "I cannot retrieve your love".
"Now," he hurried to snap. "But it's only a matter of time before you forget him and open yourself to me," the man assured.
"'Him'? Did he just say 'him'! But how? Who is he referring to? He couldn't possibly..." she thought.
His intriguing statement caused Ginny to look up and gather the strength to push him back with evident vexation.
"I doubt it," she hissed.
"I don't," he conceitedly stated, without even blinking or removing his smirk.
"You cannot change me," the red-head snapped back, deeply offended by his over-confidence.
"No?" he inquired
"Why are you so bloody confident that you even could?" she hissed. "God! Men such as yourself would commit suicide if they fell from the peak of their own ego, wouldn't you? I mean, Merlin! You don't even know me, for Merlin's sake! Why do you insist so much?"
Even then, his semblance didn't fall. It was as if nothing could possibly affect him.
"Because I've seen you," he replied. "I know what you have to go through... every time," he added. "And I'm sure you would like it," he sentenced.
Ginny remained speechless once again and merely gazed into his eyes, hoping to read him in any possible way, but his eyes were dark, and shadowy and mysterious. They were clear, yet it was like he was shielding some dark truth behind those light pits.
"There're just some things that I can't avoid, some things will never change," she sighed.
"Is that an excuse?" he inquired.
"Why me?" she asked, defeatedly.
Dylan hesitated for a second at the question.
"Because you are the only one who saw right through me," he drawled, walking towards the exit.
"Where are you going?" asked a confused red-head.
He spun his head around slightly, so that Ginny could only get a glimpse of his perfectly defined side view, and full lips that now curled into a half-smirk.
"A ruler has things to do, my lady," he replied, huskily. "I will meet you at supper".
Ginny even felt slightly embarrassed that she had previously asked the question. He made it sound as though she didn't want him to leave.
But did she, really?
Upon her silence, Dylan walked with steady, graceful steps towards the huge doors that slid open at his arrival.
Ginny merely stood there, mesmerised in the steady movement of his black cape that hung from his wide shoulders, when he saw him stop, without turning.
"But remember, my lady," he uttered, her heart beginning to throb faster at the sound of his velvety voice. "There are no choices," he drawled "only fate".
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Ha ha! So there you go! He's not Harry, nor Tom Riddle, or anyone! He's my character, so please stop insisting! Everything is for a reason. I know it would be cool if he was Harry but he's not, you'll see why!
Now as always I encourage you in the nicest way to drop a review as this was a particularly tough chappie to write, so it would seriously mean a lot.
By the way, in case you haven't noticed, I've also begun to write a new fic, so if you've got a couple of minutes, I guess it's worth a read. Here's the summary:
CASTAWAYS: Harry and Ginny are spending their dream honeymoon in a luxurious five star cruise, where an irritating blonde is also travelling. When the ship wrecks and Ginny and Draco end up in a deserted island in the middle of the Caribbean, will they learn to live together? Will they survive? And is the island really deserted after all? Read to find out!
Anyway, as a way to make it up to you all for the delay, I made sure I answered every single review for chapter 14, so if you reviewed, you'll be glad to find an answer!
Special THANKS to my reviewers: **clueless** **Ghanima Atredes** **Goldmund** **down2earthangl85** **hunnee** **Adrial** **div** **Robyn** **Mage of all Trades** **katElynDear** **lilmissfeltonluver** **Tears_ofthe_Phoenix** **Momentyne** **Elven-Princess** **chocolatefroggie** **xlostx0652** **Mrs_Felton** **th3daysgrace** **Peanut** **ChildOfDarkness** **G_Dficlover** **chrestomanci_04** **serenity237** **~Lady_of_the_Horses~** and the faithful **Anonymous**
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