**Author's Note: Following is a very short prologue for "House Unity: Unified." I realize, in one of my author's notes of HU fics past, I referred to this story as "United." I had to pick one or the other. I'm a spazz. Anyway, this story is D/G and takes place two years after the first two House Unity stories. Happy reading. I truly hope you enjoy it.**
Prologue - The Things That Unify
Trust.
It has no definition here, among these people. They have no concept of the word. A twisted sense of loyalty is the closest they can come, and even that does not extend to one another, but only to him, to the Dark Lord.
In darkened corners accustomed to many wayward dealings, a wizard sits. He may as well be part of the shadows, so still is he, so dark is his hooded face.
He waits for another, a trustless acolyte, and fancies himself deepening with the shadows as the light from the windows wanes with dusk.
His mind is deepening, too, for he has a task at hand.
When his companion comes-friend, they whisper, standing lip to ear, and what mockery, what ill use of the word!
They sit.
One of them will not rise again from his chair, and his essence will never leave that corner.
Mistrust.
They are unified in it, and the death of one of their own is one more bond.
~~~
Two years.
Many things could happen in two years, and many things did.
Marriage-Ron and Luna, in formal black and frilly white respectively. Ron had looked somewhat confused, a little awed when Luna had come walking down the aisle. In the end, though, he'd done just fine and hadn't missed a single word. Well, almost hadn't.
Birth-Harmony Jane, a squalling child with a prodigious head of curly black hair and pretty hazel eyes. Hermione had sworn herself too rational to come unglued during childbirth-she was a modern woman, she insisted, pointing out her and Harry's unmarried status as an example- but Ginny had been forced to take away the witch's wand for fear she would emasculate Harry with it.
Death-Minerva McGonagall had lived and served more than people who lived to be thrice her age, and it was said the heavy Stunning she'd gotten signaled the beginning of the end.
War-No one could say how it had started, really, only that it had, creeping into their lives with a slyness that surprised only the unprepared. The Order, among others, were prepared as they could be.
Secrets-Though in days of war they were common, there were two who had the most secrets, who had the biggest secret. Though Ginny's family knew about Draco, albeit begrudgingly, his father still had no idea, nor would he ever. Draco had vowed upon his return from the life of Drake Mallory that those two parts of him would stay separate. His family would never mix with Ginny. Nor would his family's loyalties.
Lies-With any secrets, there are plenty of these, and though Ginny hated living them, she appreciated what liberties they afforded her.
Two years passed, Draco and Ginny had both graduated, and a war was upon them.
Though houses had been unified, there was now a much bigger division at stake.