Chapter 7: Solitude is a Matter of the Mind
A few days had passed since the evening Draco and Ginny held each other. He was no longer sharing a body with Ginny by the time she woke up each morning. She was able to sleep better now having that little comfort in knowing Draco was still there on a spiritual plane. Once Bill and Charlie had caught wind of what Percy had done, it had taken all of the brothers to hunt for Percy. Even their father joined them. Molly was beside herself, of course, about the whole ordeal but one never wants to see her own son causing havoc among the siblings.
Lizzie came to the realization that while being at Hogwarts had its advantages of being away from the problems at home, it didn't exactly create solitude for her. Solitude was a matter of the mind, she thought. Even Michael, her boyfriend, knew she wasn't herself while knowing her father was still in the coma like state and her mother was acting strange to her. Granted, she couldn't completely understand her mother's ways but she knew her mother was happy so she didn't complain anymore. She remembered back to the days when her father hadn't been there before Adrian was born. She remembered the days she would witness her mother clinging onto Colin, sobbing and being held by him. She knew her mother was happier when she was with her husband. She only wished her mother could feel that happiness again. She stared silently at a picture of the whole family.
"Hey," a voice said from behind her.
Lizzie turned to see Michael approaching and he hugged her gently as he sat down on her bed. She leaned into him and closed her eyes. The Slytherin ice queen had become somewhat icier since her father had been in this coma. She had a tough exterior but deep down, she was simply a daddy's girl and there was no need to hide that fact at times. If it was up to her, and if she didn't respect her mother's wishes, she would have personally gone after her uncle who had caused her mother pain in the first place.
"Mum! Let me go after him!" Lizzie argued. "Let me go after him! He doesn't deserve to live."
"Lizzie," Ginny replied trying to be patient with her daughter, "you can not go after my brother. Granted, he is a complete idiot and totally disgraces the likes of my own mum but he is my brother. You will not go after him out of respect for me, do you understand? Is that clear?"
"Yes, but I do not like this," Lizzie replied. "I agree with Uncle Ron and the rest of them, he should be hung from the nearest tree."
"Well, we all feel that way at times, but it wouldn't be legal to murder my own brother," Ginny replied. "Trust me, I've thought about it before."
Lizzie snickered at the words and grinned. Perhaps her mother was more like herself than she realized. She looked at her father and grinned. He would come out of this, she knew it, she just knew it. She wasn't born special for nothing. She just knew things. She hadn't dared to tell her parents or anyone for that matter of her new recent gift, the gift of foresight. She was also able to move things with her mind. While she hadn't quite mastered that trick yet, she was getting there. She was sure with this new power of hers, she was sure she could do some serious harm to her Uncle Percy.
Draco chuckled at hearing the thoughts of his daughter. He had gotten better at tuning into his other senses while he couldn't use any of his senses physically. He knew she didn't understand why Ginny was acting the way she was, as if she wasn't completely worried about him anymore. He wasn't born yesterday either. He knew about her recent developments in her gifts, the gift of foresight and the gift of being able to move objects with her mind. Draco was able to do the same but just didn't tell anybody about it, including Ginny or his own mother, Narcissa. He had been working on telepathically speaking to Percy through his own mind. He hadn't had a chance before but now that he knew he could invade people's bodies at whim, perhaps he believed he could do the same thing to their minds, wherever they were at the time.
Michael continued to stroke her back and play with her hair as she leaned back into him and sighed. "I'm going to murder him," she said coldly.
"You know you can't go after him," Michael replied. "Your Mum would have a fit if you did."
Lizzie stood and looked out the window of her room, the very spot where Draco used to do the same thing actually, just stare and think out the window. If it were up to Draco, he would have done the same.
"Lizzie," Draco spoke to her telepathically. "I understand that you want to go after Percy. I know you want to kill him but, for your Mum's sake, don't kill him. Just bring him back for her to do that herself."
"I'm going," Lizzie stated after hearing her father's words in her mind.
"But--"
"No, I'm going. You can't stop me." She turned and looked at Michael who was looking at her with disappointed eyes. "Don't worry, I won't kill him. I'm just going to scare him a little."
"Or maybe a lot, considering it's you."
She smiled and then kissed him. "Thanks."
After she said goodbye to Michael, she apparated away to wherever Percy was staying. She landed in a cold and dreary place. She couldn't quite place where she was exactly. The walls were old and dark, the floors were creaky and small, and hardly any sunlight had ever gotten a chance to appear in this wretched place. The place looked somewhat familiar but she couldn't remember exactly. A bird flew above her head and it nearly scared the life out of her. She followed the bird with her eyes as it lead her to another hallway filled with darkness.
"Lumos," she whispered quietly.
As soon as she had a little bit of light, she saw that the place was simply just in major need of a housecleaning project. If only her mother had seen this place, she would go right into a fit to be sure. She continued walking slowly towards the hallway. How strange that there were not any portraits hanging on the walls, only blank walls leading to the only portrait at the end of the hallway. The portrait looked very familiar, she even looked like the lady in the portrait.
The portrait woke up and stared at her. "You have the Prewitt eyes," it said to her.
"Excuse me?"
"You are in the Prewitt household, my dear, and you are also a member of it, an extended member I believe," it continued. "You were able to apparate in because of your family blood. Only the purest of the Prewitt's can get into this house."
"But I am a Malfoy, not a Prewitt," Lizzie stated.
"Yes, but you were born from a Prewitt line," the portrait stated. "Your mother's mother was a direct Prewitt, in fact, the room I am guarding belonged to your great-grandmother. She was simply the purest of them all. I also know why you are here," the portrait continued while Lizzie just stared at her. "You are here to find your Uncle Percy."
Lizzie nodded at the fact. "Yes, I am. He has been awful to our family. He should not be allowed to be in our family any longer."
The portrait snickered. "My dear, we can not choose who is born into our family, we can only choose who marries into it. Believe me, I would not have wanted to accept my brother, Nicholas, into the family but he was born into this family so there's really not any choice left in the matter."
"Where is he then? Where is Uncle Percy? I want whatever spell he used on my father to be lifted. I am tired of seeing my mother in distress because of what he did," Lizzie asked.
The portrait looked at her a little more before speaking. "My dear, he is, in fact, in this household this very moment," she paused to take in Lizzie's reactions to these words. She was exactly like a Prewitt in that she was ready to kill at any moment. "He is, in fact, behind my portrait but I am sorry, I will not let you in. You would have to talk to your mother about this to get me to open for you."
"Why?"
"Because I am your great-grandmother and this room protects family members from hurting their kind," she said, "and you, my dear Elizabeth, are in the mood to kill. I should know, I used to carry around that look all the time. You're a Slytherin aren't you?"
"How did you know?"
"Because I also have a portrait hanging in your room there," it said.
"I haven't seen it," Lizzie said.
"That's because it's an empty portrait frame. I don't go there very often. I left it alone once your mother started seeing your father secretly in school. They claimed to have met much later after school but I assure you, that is far from the truth. Had Ginny's parents, my daughter, and my son-in-law known about this, Molly would have gone into a fit at the time. Poor thing, she's exactly like her father."
Lizzie wondered if this portrait, claiming to be her great grandmother, was either crazy or just extremely wise for her age.
"I'm not crazy, Elizabeth," the portrait interrupted her thoughts. "I can read minds too, you know. You got that gift from me."
"I'm sorry, Grandmother---"
"My name is Portrabella," Portrabella said. "I know it's an odd name but my mother was into odd sounding names that sounded high and important, somewhat similar to your mother's name being Ginevra. We were named for the importance of our status in society."
"Well, I'm sorry for thinking you were a bit off your rocker then," Lizzie stated. "But I simply just want to find him and bring him back to Mum and let her deal with him."
"My dear, Elizabeth, you underestimate yourself. Don't you think your Mum would bring all of the rest of her brothers into help her? That would be one big massacre just towards one member of the family. We cannot create a situation and not expect there to be consequences. I will not stand for my family to have a rift between the branches."
Portrabella stared at her great granddaughter for a moment before proceeding to speak. "If you truly want to gain access to seeing your uncle, go to my other daughter, Meredith Prewitt, Molly's older sister. They certainly are not as big of a family as my dear Molly chose to be but they are both in the same mind frame."
"Where can I find her?"
"She resides in New Zealand," Portrabella said in disgust. "Maybe when you go to speak to her, you could persuade her to come back and take over this household. Goodness knows my son never chose to come back and hold me when I was still alive, to help me keep this place in order. Molly always could keep things perfect. Drove me crazy at times but now I wish she would do that a little bit more. William never would help out with household chores. You wouldn't perhaps like to help me out would you?"
"And do what exactly?"
"My you are your father's child, my dear. Help me clean my house up a little bit. Do you think I enjoy looking out into this dark hallway? I want more portraits to be up on the walls so that I can go anywhere in my house. Come on child, use that brain of yours."
"Just perform a simple cleaning spell for her and she'll be happy," Lizzie heard her father's voice say in her head as he also was chuckling a little bit as well.
Lizzie muttered a few spells in each direction and instantly things looked better.
"Lights please?"
She muttered a spell to fix the lights as well and it was done.
"Thank you," Portrabella said. "Now, go find your Aunt Meredith and convince her to come back." People in this family sure were bossy, Lizzie thought. "I heard that, young lady," Portrabella stated. "Where do you think you got it? From your father? No doubt a little but we aren't known as the Prewitt's for nothing." After that, Lizzie nodded and apparated away to her mother's home.
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