Кассандра Клэр - Draco Veritas

"I can't help it," he said. "Oh, I found Ginny, by the way. She bit my head off. Thanks for sending me off on that fun expedition. Maybe tomorrow you can send me out to offer Snape a backrub."

Hermione ignored Harry's sarcasm; she knew this was his way of dealing with tension. "Bit your head off? That's not like Ginny. Are you sure you didn't misunderstand?"

Harry shrugged. "Well, she called me an oblivious moron pig. But maybe she meant it in a nice way."

Hermione was mystified. "How weird. Maybe she had a fight with Seamus?"

"Possibly." Harry did not sound as if he cared. "Are you off to the Potions dungeon?"

"I am, actually." They'd been taking turns helping Snape with his attempts to find the antidote, although Hermione suspected Snape neither wanted nor needed the assistance and that this was something Dumbledore had arranged to give Harry, Hermione and Ginny the impression that they were not completely useless. "Did you want to come?" Hermione asked, beginning to walk off down the corridor.

"I can't — I'm supposed to be talking to Sirius in the common room this afternoon. I'm meant to be helping Snape tomorrow morning instead. He made me promise to show up at the crack of dawn." Harry made a face, falling into step beside Hermione. "I think he just wants me to miss opening presents on Christmas morning."

"So we'll do our presents in the afternoon instead," said Hermione, and patted his shoulder lightly. "We can make a party out of it. It would be good if we had something cheerful to do. And besides, it wouldn't be the same opening presents Christmas morning without — "

"— Without Ron. I know," said Harry, his eyes gone opaque.

"Harry — "

But he evaded her reaching hand. "I'll see you later," he said, and set off towards Gryffindor Tower.

Hermione sighed and veered the other direction, heading down the east stairs to the library to pick up the book she'd left there last night. She had borrowed it from Snape's laboratory and could imagine the heinous punishments that would be visited upon her if she lost it.

To her surprise, Ginny was in the library when she went in, sitting at one of the long wooden tables with a book open in front of her and a distant look on her face. She glanced up when Hermione sat down across from her, but her expression hardly changed. "Hi," she said coldly.

Hermione reached into her cloak pocket, took out the second of Blaise's barrettes, and set it down on the table in front of Ginny. "Put this on your cloak," she said.

Ginny looked at it with minimal interest. "Is that one of Blaise's?" she asked.

Hermione, who had explained the story of Blaise's midnight Burrow visit to Ginny the previous day, nodded. "Draco says they're all right."

"Isn't that wonderful." Ginny could not have spoken with less enthusiasm had she been describing an upcoming date with Professor Flitwick.

"Ginny…" Hermione began, speaking carefully. "Is something wrong?"

"No." Ginny spoke with her eyes on the table. "But I need your help with something. A spell."

"What kind of spell?"

"I know there's a spell that will tell you when a magical object was created," Ginny said. Her hand had gone to her throat and was twisting the gold chain that lay against her lightly freckled collarbone. "But I can't find it, and I'm sort of in a hurry…"

"Ginny," said Hermione severely. "You're not planning on using that Time-Turner of yours again, are you?"

Ginny's eyes darted up and met hers: they were dark with a complex mixture of anger and resentment and a hurt that Hermione couldn't quite put her finger on. "Draco told you?"

"Well, yes," said Hermione, surprised. "He knew I wouldn't tell anyone, and he was asking if there were any ill-effects to using a Time-Turner too much — "

"He's probably told Harry as well," said Ginny bitterly. "I suppose I should have assumed he wouldn't keep anything from either of you."

"Yes, well, there are ill-effects, Ginny. It takes a toll on your body, going back and forth like that — "

"You used to do it every day!"

"But I only went back an hour. You went back years. And there aren't just ill-effects for you, there are all sorts of rules and regulations about using a Temportal Enhancement Device so that you don't change the past. You've been awfully careless-"

Ginny's dark eyes blazed. "I have not been careless."

"It's not that I don't appreciate what you did," Hermione said evenly.

"This book is invaluable-" She pushed the Liber-Damnatis across the table at Ginny. "But that doesn't mean it wasn't stupid of you to take it. Do we really want something of Lucius Malfoy's here in our possession? I know you have the best intentions, Ginny, but intentions aren't always what we…" She trailed off, seeing the cold expression on Ginny's face. "Fine.

Never mind. Just — send that book back to the Manor. I've made a copy of it, and I'd rather the original was out of Hogwarts, just to be safe."

Ginny was trembling all over as she stared at the book lying on the table between them. "I can't believe you all," she said in a coldly quiet voice. "If it wasn't for me, Harry and Draco would still be stuck at the top of that bloody tower. I saved their lives. A little gratitude from at least one of you would be nice!"

"We are grateful-"

Ginny said a word so rude that it left Hermione blinking in surprise. "You don't act it. All you do is patronize me, and as for Draco and Harry, they wouldn't notice if I dropped dead on the floor. I don't know how you can stand it. Doesn't it bother you?"

Hermione was taken aback. "Doesn't what bother me?"

"Draco and Harry," said Ginny.

Hermione frowned. "I don't know what you mean. What about Draco and Harry?"

Ginny laughed; it was a short, unpleasant sound. "Doesn't the way they are with each other bother you? Like nothing else matters and nothing else exists. They've turned so much into each other that I hardly know which of them is which anymore. Ask Harry a question, you get an answer from Draco. When Harry's not in the infirmary he's so jumpy he bites off your head if you say anything. He just wanders around the Potions laboratory, dropping vials and spilling powders and looking miserable."

"Of course he's miserable," Hermione said. "He's got every reason to be miserable."

"He goes around saying Draco isn't going to die," said Ginny. Her hand was still at her throat, worrying the gold chain there. The charms on her bracelet clinked lightly as her hand moved.

"And most of him believes that, but some small part of him is probably terrified," said Hermione. "This is the way he's dealing with being frightened. We're all frightened. If you're asking me if I'm sorry they're friends, well, I'm not. I'm glad Draco has Harry to take care of him and I'm glad Harry has Draco to take care of him. Neither of them ever had any proper family before. I don't know why I'd be bothered by that."

"If I were you," said Ginny, her voice flat with a harsh clarity, "I'd be afraid that if Draco dies, he'll take Harry right along with him."

Hermione very carefully put her book down. "I don't know what you mean."

"Because you don't want to!" Ginny's released her hold on her bracelet and let her hands drop to the table. "You say 'they're friends,' like they're ordinary friends, but I've got friends, Hermione, and we're not like that.

They're dependent, both of them, like the other one was some kind of… of addictive drug they need to stay alive. How is it good for either of them to be like that? Like half a person? It's so painful and terrible it hurts me just to look at them."

"Painful?" Hermione was bewildered, and beneath the bewilderment was a small but growing anger. "Terrible? I don't see anything painful or terrible about it. Of course they don't have an ordinary friendship; they aren't ordinary people. Do ordinary people have to face death every day? If you're going to be friends with Harry you have to know that you might die because of it. You have to be willing to face death for him. And Draco would. He'd die for Harry. If Harry needed him, he'd run a thousand miles to be with him. If he couldn't run, he'd walk. If both his legs were broken, he'd crawl. Everyone else wants the world saved and they expect Harry to do it. Well, Draco doesn't care about saving the world. He cares about Harry. And someone has to put Harry first, because God knows he isn't allowed to himself."