Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Fourteen A:

Ginny straddled the line between the Lusty Forest and the Mystical Mountains, making sure everyone got through. At one point she had to even push a few, Ron specifically, and the minute they all had crossed the border the reality of their actions weighed on them. It was suffocated.

Flashes of skin on skin, cries of pleasure, red, white, pink, against a tree, on her stomach, the images came like a strobe light, completely incapacitating her for a full five minutes before she glanced up to gaze at the man that had kept her at 100 degrees for most of the trip.

Draco clearly comprehended the situation as he shifted his weight and nervously cleared his throat. His sexy silver blue eyes darkened as he examined her and she knew exactly what he was thinking. She knew because she wanted it too.

Was this the backlash? An after effect? Because really, how was it possible to want someone so much that you completely forget their past, who they are, what they've done to you-how?

Ginny was panting as she stared hungrily at his toned chest and full lips, wanting desperately to forget her conscious gnawing at the back of her mind and throw herself at him. If there was ever a time she wanted to surrender it was now. Hell she was close to begging him.

She whimpered, licked her bottom lip, and quickly averted her gaze. How she'd gotten the strength was a mystery. Her body was on fire like hot lava spilling everywhere and it hurt. The difference was they weren't in that forest and her actions now mattered.

Ginny managed to lift her eyes and focus on everyone else.

If the moment wasn't so viscerally damaging it would have been comical, the awkward exchange between Hermione and Harry, Ron's utter embarrassment, Cela's aloofness. In a different situation Ginny would have cracked a joke and made light of the situation.

"Let's take a moment," Hermione whispered, her chocolate brown eyes never leaving Harry's green ones.

They went in one direction, not overly far away, but enough so that they wouldn't be overheard. Ron and Cela followed the example going in the opposite direction, leaving Ginny awkwardly standing ten feet away from Draco, not willing to turn and face the music.

"Ginny-"

"How could I let you do that to me?" she gasped suddenly and she cringed at the accusatory tone in her voice. She didn't mean it the way it came out; she was just as much at fault as he was. She shook her head in disbelief as more of the sex crazed memories started to fill her, her eyes were brimming with unshed tears.

"I recall you doing some rather," she heard him pause and take a shaky breath before continuing his sentence, "unsavory things as well to me."

"I-I'm sorry," her voice cracked.

"You shouldn't be."

"I know I should be," she continued to ramble to the tree in front of her, still refusing to turn around. "I can't believe the-I-what?"

She flinched as she felt his hand land on her shoulder and swiftly jerked away finally facing him only to see his hands raised in a calming surrender pose.

"Don't be sorry because I'm not. I recognize it was too much too fast, but I'm anything but sorry," he spoke softly, before coming within inches of her face to reach out and clutch either side of her shoulders. "We work well together Ginny, the necklace, that bloody curse, this journey, it's like -"

"I'll just have to punch you if you say fate," Ginny mumbled, "and you're clearly still overcome with the after results of leaving the forest."

"We had sex before we left for this journey and I don't know about you but it was just as good as those mind blowing times in that hellish forest. Don't regret that we were together."

Ginny shook her head a tear finally slipping free. "I'm not like that. I'm not dirty-"

He pulled her closer dropping his forehead to hers. "None of what we did was dirty. Do you understand? It was so fucking brilliant that I'm still shaking from it. Do you feel me shaking? Do you feel me?" he whispered the last part.

She watched as his eyes dropped down to her lips, as he leaned forward to gently brush his against hers. She shivered at the sweet perfection of the moment. He didn't think she was a slag, he didn't think she was dirty.

He said it was brilliant.

A strangled sob escaped her and she immediately plastered herself to him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She grimaced as teeth clashed from the hard kiss and managed to pull away enough so that it didn't hurt, just enough pressure to be perfect, but it was then that she felt a sharp, gut wrenching pain in her back, the fire from before was nothing compared to this, and the wetness that surround the burn seeped into her back.

"Draco," she whispered, her mouth dropping open from an agonizing pain.

Darkness, a shadow, it was too bad that wasn't just her passing out either. Whatever grabbed her, whatever was clutching claws into her back was huge, at least seven feet tall, with a jagged, almost a white leathery string like wing span. Ginny turned her head slightly, seeing blue skin wrapped around bloody flesh covered teeth grinning in her face before she felt the ground slip from her feet and the air rushed in around her.

"GINNY!!"

He couldn't speak, he couldn't blink, all he could do was blink as he looked at the bluish purple horned demon, it's large white, tattered wings flapping, pulling Ginny from his arms. The wind was so strong as it flapped away that he'd almost fallen on his bum. And he screamed; screamed from fear, from the panic welling in his chest as he watched Ginny's pain filled eyes look up at him in desperation just before the beast snatched her.

"GINNY!!" He remembered screaming.

"Ginny," he whispered.

His voice was raw now because it was all he could do, scream. He couldn't fly, couldn't the irony just slap him in the face any harder, because he could fly back home with his broom, but here in this nightmarish place it wasn't allowed. Here all he could do was cry out for her, he was nothing here. He wasn't Draco Malfoy son of one of the most powerful death eaters and richest man of the wizarding world, Lucius Malfoy. His genius in Potions and Dark Arts were worthless. He was just a boy watching someone he wanted, needed, someone he cared about get taken from him.

He couldn't even manage to hold on to her. She literally slipped from his grasp.

"They must've been watching the entrance," Cela spoke so calmly Draco found himself gritting his teeth with anger.

"What the hell was that thing?" Ron demanded.

Cela sighed, tossing her hair behind her shoulders. "I told you before entering, the vulture humanoids."

"You said they had black wings!" Draco growled.

Cela nodded. "The young ones do. It's very rare for an old one to be out hunting like that. The good news is that you said she had a bloody mouth."

Draco nodded. "Yes though I fail to see any good news coming from this situation."

"It's eaten already. When these creatures eat, they consume enough for two days. That's our time window if we plan to save Ginny."

"I'm sure there's bad news," Harry commented.

Hermione nodded, quickly pulling her unruly hair back into a pony tail. "Isn't there always?"

Ron nodded.

"How are your mountain climbing skills?"

"Brilliant," Draco spoke sarcastically. "Let me guess the highest point of the highest, rockiest mountain."

Cela's eyes twinkled. "In one, I'm rather excited for this adventure."

"And I'm sure Ginny's just thrilled. They're probably sprinkling her with salt and pepper," Ron grumbled.

Cela didn't answer immediately, rather just went to grab Ginny's clothing bag. "It's not `they're'."

"What?" Hermione asked, catching the tone in Cela's voice.

"I said-"

Hermione clucked her tongue and shook her head, stopping the elf from continuing. "I heard what you said, what do you mean? We really don't have time for these riddles."

Cela's eyes flashed red before she coolly answered. "Speak that way to me again and I'll leave you to rot. These creatures do not hunt in packs and share. They are ravenous carnivorous beasts that don't have a sharing bone in their body and there are thousands in the Mystical Mountains. So though they prefer female elf's, food is still few and far between because of their appetites. Anyone of us will do. We need to keep our wits because I guarantee you I won't go after any of you, only Ginny."

Draco spoke before Ron could manage a rude retort. "Understood! Now let's stop fiddling around and start looking. That window of time is not enough."

"Agreed," Cela nodded and started left towards the rockiest path.

"That goes straight up," Ron complained.

"Soon there will not be a path and then you will know the meaning of `straight up,'" Cela called. "Let's move!"

"Hang on Gin, we're coming," Draco whispered, following at a gallop after Cela.

"Cahn't `ave ya rottin'," the bird like lady screeched.

Her voice was like nails on a chalk board, poorly accented, like the lady purposely chose to speak with a fake English accent, and the high nasally tone, with every word raising on octave.

"What are you?"

"I do not speak nor play with my food," the voice boomed, deep, strong, almost like a girlish man.

The sudden change in tone was so quick that Ginny did a double take; just to be sure it wasn't two different birds. The first voice was playful, happy even regardless of how irritating Ginny found it was so, but this voice was offended.

Ginny gasped as she felt a quick slash of the razor sharp nails slice down the back of what was left of her shirt and when a wet liquid ooze spilled over the fingernail cuts in her back she had to keep herself from gagging at the rotten smell of vomit and dirt. The bird packed it in to the wound none too gently.

"Vomity, vomity, pour vous, my vomity vomity pour vous, my healing wonder," she sang horribly as she danced around Ginny who was lying on a cold rocky ground in a dark cave that was most definitely on top of a very high mountain.

Was that French? Ginny wondered silently watching the female bird closely, noting that if it weren't for the horns, wings, and skin color, she would be a normal woman, well a naked woman at least.

"Please," Ginny started.

The female looked more like a bird when angry; her movements were jerky, her eyes wide and bulging, and her nose pointing straight, her wings even ruffled. "If you insist on talking I'll not give you my bites anesthesia when I eat you. We Mountain Raptors like to keep the prey alive when eating them. Fresh is best I always say."

Oh Merlin, Draco, please save me, Ginny thought. Harry, it would really be great if you could pull off the impossible again too.

To be continued…

Snippet of Part B:

This was the first time Draco actually understood the meaning of `afraid of heights'. As a Quidditch player, he'd sometimes go five hundred feet in the air on his broom, if not more, but without that broom, with just his hands and feet gripping jagged edges of mountain, the fear was setting in. His body was trembling, shaking with that dread that any minute he'd slip, though if anyone asked he could blame it on exertion. After all this was no easy task.

As they had started climbing the foot holes and places to grab onto had been close together, but when the ground started to lose its visibility he found himself having to practically leap to get to the other footing. He couldn't see how the girls were doing it, but both Granger and the elf seem to be fairing better than the men.

Though he was extremely fit, mountain climbing was a whole other sport that under better circumstances should have required training. This was not a mountain any beginner should take on, especially without the proper tools.

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I wanted to have this out yesterday at ten pages, it just didn't happen. So I decided to break it up into two different parts. I want to add a lot more to this chapter, so until further notice consider it a rough draft. Thanks to everyone for sticking with the story for so long and please point out inconsistencies!

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