'Not in my family.' Fleur shook her head. 'If a child does not display some evidence of magical ability before the age of fourteen, they will be disowned from the family, sent to live in a Muggle orphanage. The child cannot inherit, and no one in the family can have contact with them any more.'
Ginny stared. 'Thats horrible!'
'My family is just like Dracos. Very old, and proud of their wizarding blood. Squibs do not exist, and if they do 'appen, they are made to not exist any more.' Fleurs voice was bitter. 'Gabrielle is very fragile. She 'as no magic, but she suffers from many ailments that only magic can 'elp. It is my belief that were she abandoned to live among Muggles, she would soon die.'
'Fleur…' She reached out to touch the other girls arm, then drew back. 'But I don?t understand why…'
'I wanted to get a source of power,' said Fleur bitterly. 'I thought, if I could do that, I could channel some of it towards Gabrielle. 'Elp her….I tried to get Professor Lupin to talk to me about it at school.
He told me there are ways to transfer magic from very powerful objects to people. I tried to use the sword, but it would not let me keep it. But 'aving it even for a short time called the Snake Lords attention to me. He contacted me. Promised to 'elp Gabrielle if I would agree to be 'is Source. 'E said it would be for a brief time.'
'He lied, then,' said Ginny.
'No. 'E did not lie. It will be for a brief time. I am dying.' Her eyes went to Ginnys. 'You understand, though? I thought I was 'elping my sister. You would do the same, for one of your brothers, wouldn?t you?'
'I would,' said Ginny softly. Then she paused. 'Well. Possibly not Percy.'
Fleurs smile lit up her face. She was still, even weak as she was, amazingly pretty. Ginny would have been jealous, only she felt much to awful for her to manage it.
'I understand,' said Ginny, serious again. 'I don?t know if I would have done the same thing. I couldn?t bear to do anything that would hurt Harry or Draco.'
'I didn?t know. I thought 'e wanted them only to fight the manticore. I knew they could do it. Together, they are very powerful, much more so than they know. And 'Arry has killed monsters before.'
Ginny shook her head. 'What would Slytherin do if he could hear you saying all this?'
'Kill me, I am sure. It pains me to even say such things about him,' said Fleur. 'But 'e thinks I am weak. Not a danger. 'E is so powerful, so strong, you 'ave no idea what 'e is capable of. It would take an army to stand against him.'
Ginny felt her heart sink — then flip. 'An army?' she echoed.
'An army,' said Fleur firmly. 'You 'ave not seen the power 'e commands. The creatures that flock to serve 'im. There are hundreds. Thousands. And when 'e travels, more will rise and join
'im. In 'is time, he destroyed whole armies at a blow, wiped them out with lightning, drowned them in sorcerous floods. 'E once made a whole army that was rising against 'im disappear without a trace.
The Ministry is not prepared for this. They cannot understand it. It is not as it was a thousand years ago, when people still believed in miracles and in true evil. They cannot be prepared for this.'
'You sound as if you?re sure he?ll win,' said Ginny, her voice low and steady.
'I am sure,' said Fleur, looking towards the window. 'I see no other way.'
There was a short silence. Then Ginny got to her feet, and picked up the Invisibility Cloak, and handed it to Fleur. 'When Draco gets back,' she said softly. 'Give this to him. Tell him to take it back to Harry.'
Fleur stared. 'But why? Where are you going? Don?t you need it?'
Ginny put her hand to the Time-Turner around her throat, and shook her head. 'Not where I?m going, I don?t,' she said.
'But what will Draco say when 'e comes back and you are gone?'
'Draco,' said Ginny, with satisfaction, 'will be very, very annoyed,' and with that, she walked out of the room. Outside the door, she leaned against it for a moment, looking up and down the corridor, her heart pounding. Then she glanced down at the Time-Turner, hesitated for a brief moment — and flipped it over.
For a moment, Sirius just goggled. Then, he took a few steps forward across the room, grabbed Draco, and hugged him hard. He could feel how thin the boy had gotten, the bones of his shoulders poking through even the thick material of his silver cloak, and for just a moment, Draco returned the embrace, his hands gripping Sirius? back as tightly and awkwardly as if no one had ever hugged him before, his head buried in Siriuss shoulder.
Then he pushed him away, and took a step back, shaking his head.
'Don?t do that.'
'We thought you might be dead,' said Sirius, by way of explanation, and knowing he sounded a bit like someones mother.
Draco grinned without mirth. 'I was. I got better.'
'Draco — ' Sirius took another step forward when, to his everlasting astonishment, Draco reached behind him, and grabbed one of the long, tasselled spearlike weapons off the wall, and pointed it at him.
'Don?t come any closer,' he said.
Sirius just stared at him, his mouth open. Once again his eyes scanned the room, this time more slowly, taking in the rich tapestries, the gleam of the firelight off the weaponry, and Draco himself, all gold and silver and black, looking as much as if he belonged there as if he were a general piece of the decoration.
'What the hell,' said Sirius, 'is that? And why are you pointing it at me?'
Draco looked down at the metal object in his hand and shrugged.
'Its a pike. Made by Giants. Strong enough to punch through a stone door. Why?'
Sirius narrowed his eyes. 'Raven said I should wait here to meet with Slytherins general. Is that…'
'You?re looking at him,' said Draco with a sort of desperate amusement. 'Like the uniform?'
