---Chapter Seven---
Visits to Pansy and the Beginnings of a Plot!
Lunch with Draco had been perfect. They had not touched any sensitive subjects for now, and had only caught up with each other's lives. There was one awkward moment when Draco had mentioned Oliver accidentally, but it had been completely forgotten in the next five minutes. Ginny sighed and hugged her pillow to herself. She was lying on the couch, thinking about him. It had been wonderful. She couldn't get over it. Cloud nine and all that. And the food had been great, too.
Ginny pulled her knees up to her chest, troubled expression in place. What was it that they said? If something that should be really hard turns out to be really easy, someone's screwing with you. Be suspicious. There probably wasn't someone who was 'screwing with her', but there was so many unresolved issues between them. Things wouldn't be so great forever, or likely for much longer. It had, Ginny remembered, always been a bit of a thrill when they had argued, though.
Ginny recalled the time they had fought over his father, and while the subject had been very serious, his face stuck out in her mind. He was so emotional, with his hair disheveled and eyes ablaze. To get someone like Draco Malfoy in such a state was an…adrenaline rush, for lack of a better word. To make a crack in that armor was just…hot. There was really no other way to describe it. Ginny had had to really restrain herself from getting him angry on purpose. And she could not help wondering if he was the same now. He laughed more, and smiled more, but she hadn't been near him long enough to know if this was just circumstances.
Without thinking, she rolled off the couch and headed towards the fireplace, wand in hand. She had to floo, as she didn't know where Pansy lived. The floo powder was thrown into the newly lit fireplace, and Ginny stepped in and called "Parkinson Manor", praying that it was the right place.
She began to spin rapidly and consciously kept her elbows at her sides. The nauseating feeling abated a bit, and still feeling slightly disoriented from moving so speedily, she recovered quickly, being used to it. She found herself in a smallish, but immaculate room. Looking around and seeing no human life, she pulled out her wand and muttered a spell to alert any residents of a newcomer's presence. Preparing herself for a short wait, she studied the room carefully. There were a couple portraits that looked at least a few decades old, and two couches on either side of a small table. If this is only the floo room, Ginny thought, eyeing the couches, than it might take longer than I expected. But it didn't. In the next minute or so, an older woman walked in.
"It was wise of you to not exit the room," she told Ginny, voice cracking a bit with age. "The wards in old houses of older families can be very dangerous."
"What do you mean?"
"You don't think they would let just anyone waltz around their home, do you? There are wards around the room preventing anyone from leaving," the lady said as though it were perfectly obvious.
"Oh," said Ginny. The woman studied her for a moment.
"I must ask you your name and purpose, young lady," her commanding mouth sounded.
"My name is Ginny Weasley. I'm looking for Dr. Parkinson? I'm not entirely sure she lives here."
"You are in luck, Miss Weasley. The Mistress is staying here at the moment. Though I do not know if she will take such…late visitors," said the woman in a disapproving tone. Ginny blushed. It was only around eight. "I shall go and request an audience for you," the woman continued. With a small pop, she was gone.
Before Ginny had time to sit on a couch, there was another pop.
"Ginny! I've been waiting for you to come forever! Tell me what happened!" Pansy said warmly. "And please excuse Ms. Bagnall. She's very old fashioned. I'm sorry if she was rude."
"Pansy," Ginny started. "I need…to talk to you about something." Ginny suddenly felt embarrassed. She had grown close to Pansy during her stay at the hospital, but could she really talk about Draco with her?
"I just…I went out with Draco today," Ginny blurted out. The smile that had appeared on Pansy's face was smug.
"I know. Aren't you going to tell me about it?"
"Actually, I wanted to ask you some questions about him."
"About what?"
Ginny looked around uncomfortably. "Maybe we should sit?"
Pansy looked struck for a second. "I am so sorry! Let's move to the lounge. We can talk as much as you want."
**
By the time Pansy got the hot chocolate she insisted they have, and sit them down in a nice room close to her own, half an hour had passed.
"Ginny Weasley, tell me everything." You could never accuse Pansy Parkinson of beating around the bush. When off-duty, she was a gossiping mess.
"Well…we met at the park on Tuesday," Ginny started nervously.
"I thought you were going to have lunch today," Pansy said, her face falling at the new information, disappointed that she was misinformed.
"No, we met by accident. Then we went for coffee. And then I mortally embarrassed myself."
"What did you do?"
"I practically jumped him right on the street in muggle London, then I was literally dragging him to my apartment while he pleaded with me to take it slow, and then I proclaimed my undying love while trying to persuade him that I didn't need to wait.
There was shocked silence. Pansy took a moment to decide which part was the most bizarre.
"He was saying he wanted to take it slow?"
"Yeah. Something about not wanting me to regret anything. I felt like such an idiot!" Ginny let the frustrations of the past days out. "I was practically begging him for sex. I just…it just all came back down on me. Like all the feelings from before rushed into my head, magnified with time. He was so sweet, and all I could think about was if he was still amazing in the sack. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life."
"I'm sure he was feeling the same, Ginny. Did you still go to lunch on Thursday?"
"It was perfect. That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," Ginny said, happy to move on to a subject that didn't make her want to jump off a bridge. "We had such a great time. We didn't talk about anything…that would be too personal. But he seemed a bit different. He's…smiley and stuff."
Pansy began to laugh. "That's what you were worried about? Ginny, I assure you, he is as much of a bastard as ever. He just knows when to tone it down now. He'll probably be a bit weird for a bit, but it's just because he doesn't want to scare you off."
"Scare me off? I'm the one who threw myself at him! Besides, he knows I think he's sexy when he's mean."
"Ginny," Pansy looked for a second as though she was going to laugh again, "Draco is just being cautious. He'll come around. The more your around him the quicker it will happen. Anyway, what happened today?"
Ginny sighed in what sounded like a cross between happiness and anguish. "I think I'm still in love with him."
"That's good! Why are you upset?"
"Because I've only actually seen him three times in nine years, and I should not be feeling the same as I did when I saw him everyday."
Pansy rolled her eyes. "I'm going to tell you something that you never heard from me. Get it?"
Ginny nodded her head obediently.
"Good. Did you know Draco has a picture of you hidden in his desk?"
"What?"
"Yes. He is so in love with you, Ginny Weasley, that when I think about it I want to vomit."
"But-"
"But nothing. When you told him that you loved him after coffee, what did he say?"
"That he still loved me too," Ginny said shyly.
"Well there you go. Does Draco Malfoy lie?" Pansy looked shocked for a second before she said quickly, "I mean…to you. He said it himself. And if the former Ice Prince of Slytherin tells you that he loves you after one date, then you have no choice but to believe him."
"I don't understand. He's a fucking serial dater! Haven't you seen him in all the magazines? Why, after all these years, would he still want me?" asked Ginny in a voice so confused and distressed that Pansy wanted to hug her. And Pansy Parkinson did not hug.
"That's how it is with guys like Draco. He will jump from girl to girl; it's just his personality. But there will only be a small amount of people who can hold his attention. And when they do, they hold it for a very long time. You seem to have really stuck in his mind, Ginny. For him, there is something different about you, something he will always try to figure out but never will. And that's how you'll keep him. Never let him find out."
"Find out what?"
"I don't know. I may know Draco, but I'm not in his mind. You'll have to discover what makes him so attracted to you and exploit it to keep him."
Ginny slouched into the couch and tried to think. After a while, she looked at Pansy, who was staring at her oddly.
"What do you think it is?"
There was a short silence before Pansy said, "I don't think it's a part of your personality. Personalities are mortal. I think it must be something in your magic that makes him naturally attracted to you."
"My magic?"
Pansy hesitated, as if debating whether she should tell Ginny the truth. "Yes. Magic is the part of you that is forever. I think it must be something in Draco's magic that is attracted to yours on a supernatural level. Someone like him is bred from birth to not believe in something like love. It must have been something truly spectacular to make him so certain that he loves you. To have him so hooked, it just isn't natural. I believe in the old magic, Ginny. Do you?"
Ginny thought for a while. She knew vaguely what Pansy was talking about. The old magic was something of a myth. The idea that magic, as humans had labeled it, was in everything. It powered everything, was what everything needed just to simply exist. It was all part of a whole, everyone belonged to it. Animals, plants, even the smallest atom…everything there was. There were certain things that had a better connection to the old magic than others, like trees and cats, to name a few. With wizards…the idea was that witches and wizards had the unique power to wield the old magic. It wasn't given by merit, just a natural anomaly. Ginny supposed that she believed in it a bit, people like Dumbledore proved it in a way. Those who could take themselves closer to the old magic were supposed to be more powerful. Dumbledore, she knew, was one of the few who strongly believed in the old ways still. But she had never really thought about them. It occurred to her that while such ideals were considered old fashioned and ridiculous by today's society, the older families in the wizarding world were probably those who still believed.
She looked at Pansy and decided to test her idea now.
"Pansy, are the old ways still practiced in the old wizarding families?"
Pansy closed her eyes and was silent for a long time.
"I should have known you would figure it out. It was stupid of me to go into such detail. But now that you know, I suppose I could tell you what I know about it. But you must promise, Ginny, to never speak of this with any outsiders. Ever. You cannot fathom the importance of this."
Ginny nodded, her curiosity rising to enormous heights.
"No. Say it. Swear it, swear on your magic that you will never speak of it to any outsiders."
Ginny began to realize that she might not want to know, as the seriousness of Pansy's expression sunk in.
"Is Draco an outsider?"
Pansy nearly smiled. "No. He is not."
"Then I swear on my magic that I will never speak of this to an outsider."
"Good. You know the oldest families, don't you Ginny? The ones with the blood most pure of all?"
"Not really. The Malfoy's are one, aren't they?"
"Yes. There are ten. The Black's, the Malfoy's, the Dumbledore's, The Zabini's, the Rookwood's, the Clearwater's, the Prewett's, the Snape's, the Vance's and the…the Wilkes's. Though the Blacks have been…somewhat tainted, Professor Snape is the last of that line, and the number of Prewett's dwindled rapidly over the past decade or so."
"The Prewett's?"
"Yes. Why?"
"My mother is a Prewett!"
Pansy frowned. "The you should know all about this. The knowledge is passed down through the generations. Teaching the daughters is especially important."
Ginny's eyes grew furious for a moment, but then the anger retreated. Her mother would wait. She shook her head slightly.
"Go on." Pansy looked at her curiously, but continued.
"Anyway, those families are the oldest families in the wizarding world. They are the ones who are supposed to be practicing the old ways."
"What about the Parkinson's?"
Pansy smiled grimly. "We are not in that league. I know because my grandmother was a Rookwood. She didn't teach my father, because she disapproved of the Death Eaters, but she taught me."
"What happened to her?" asked Ginny gently.
"She died," Pansy said firmly, making it clear that the subject was closed. "Many of the old families are abandoning the laws. Yours, for instance. The Malfoy's went too deep with Voldemort to be still practicing, as did the Rookwood's, the Wilkes's, and the Black's with a few exceptions. In fact, there are very few who still follow the old ways. But that doesn't concern you yet. Those families are supposed to be the ones who…guided the rest. They were the elite, the ones who were close enough to the magic to be able to rise above those lesser than them. They ended up being the most powerful and respected families that still exist today. And now they are the only old families out of them all. I'm sorry to say Ginny, that they've all declined sadly over the years. It's somewhat of a secret, the whole philosophy of the old magic. A secret that has been preserved for centuries. That's why it's so important that you never talk about it."
"But didn't everyone know all about the old magic at one point?" Ginny asked curiously.
"Not all of it." Pansy paused, thinking carefully. "Even knowing what you know now is dangerous. Imagine what would happen if everyone knew that some people were better than them, that some are magical leaders? People hate inequality, or what they think it is. And from what I gather, the whole of the secret they've got going is something extremely important. My grandmother would never tell me about it. And anyways, Ginny, I have only a very vague understanding of the whole idea. I just know a bit about the roles of the old families along with some history. I already gave you the basic gist about what I know."
"Then how would I find out?" Ginny asked. Why do I feel like I need to know this?
"You could ask Draco. Or even your mother. But I don't know if you'd be allowed. I mean, you're not a born Prewett, but maybe…"
"Maybe what?"
"I wonder if they ever tell their wives," Pansy said with a flicker of humor spreading across her face.
"Pansy! We've only had two dates!" Ginny cried indignantly, not knowing she was rising to the bait.
"Oh, come on. Where do you think this will go, anyway?" Pansy got up and pulled on a rope hanging near the fireplace. A house elf appeared suddenly.
"Miss?" it squeaked.
"Bring us some ice cream, Tally," Pansy turned around and asked Ginny what flavor she would like. Ginny was still slightly dazed from Pansy's earlier comment.
"Oh, mint chocolate chip, please."
The house elf disappeared and Pansy sat back down.
"I am so in the mood for ice cream right now. Anyway, guess what hottie ended up in my office today?"
"Who?" Ginny asked, feeling the girlish curiosity rise up in her.
"Orsino Thruston."
"No way! The drummer for the Weird Sisters?"
"I know!"
And the girl talk began. It went well into the night, too.
AN: I have a huge craving for ice cream right now. Ugh. Anyway, this chapter is the beginning of the actual plot! That I made up while I was writing it. *looks away embarrassed* Thus the chapter title. So…the old magic philosophy was partly ripped from the idea of Gaia (which I know about from watching Final Fantasy the Movie) and Jewish Kabalistic beliefs (or what my minor knowledge understands.). Yes, I am Jewish. And I got nearly all the name ideas from http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/wizards_list.html So thank you very much to them. And I go off to write the next chapter! *marches off with sword in hand-I mean pencil…*