children — '
Ginny goggled at Ben. 'You have children?'
'Just the one,' said Ben absently.
'Gah,' said Ginny, nearly speechless.
'Aside from the fact that you sound like a puffed-up poncy git in this brilliant epistle of yours, it looks like you?re planning to get yourself killed?' snapped Gareth, still glaring at his cousin. 'You moron.'
'I am not a moron.'
'I beg to differ.'
'All right, thats it,' said Ben, grabbed Gareth by the back of his cloak, and commenced dragging him into the tent. He glanced back over his shoulder at Ginny, and called 'Just give us a minute, will you?' before they vanished, and the tent flap closed behind them.
Quite unrepentantly, Ginny raced up and put her ear to the flap.
She could only make out muffled words of the conversation that was taking place inside — 'sodding git', 'get yourself killed why don?t you', 'always me having to look out for you,' and 'not going to do anything just because you say so.'
Ginny sighed to herself. If they really were anything like Draco and Harry, this could go on for hours without ever getting to any good bits. She reached forward and pulled the tent flap back, and stuck her head inside.
Ben and Gareth were standing about five feet from each other, both yelling. Ben was scarlet in the face; Gareth, a bit like Draco, evinced his anger only by looking colder than ever. He was looking so cold, in fact, that Ginny wouldn?t have been surprised if the arm he was pointing stiffly at Ben had broken off at the elbow and shattered on the ground like an icicle. He swung around and glared at Ginny.
'What do you want?'
'And hello to you too,' she replied. 'Look, don?t you think its Bens decision what he wants to do? I appreciate that hes your cousin — '
'Second cousin,' said both Gareth and Ben, in unison.
'Whatever. The point is, its his business. And I think its very brave of him. Nobody else in my time knows what he knows, is as equipped to fight this battle as he is. He could be the instrument that destroys the Snake Lord once and for all, which would be a wonderful thing-' she broke off, realizing with a sudden jolt that she was talking about Gareths father.
'This has nothing to do with him being my father,' said Gareth, spitting the words out as if they were poison bullets. 'I loathe him.
In the morning when I wake, I curse his memory. If the recollection of him could be wiped from the face of the wizarding world, if it would only please me.'
Ginny gaped at him. 'Then what? I don?t understand.'
'You can?t win against him,' said Gareth simply. 'Hes too powerful. It took the power of the houses of Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff combined to bring him down, and even then he couldn?t be killed. What can you do? You?re only children. He?ll destroy you all, massacre your armies where they stand, and carve flutes for veela children out of your bleached bones.'
'Gareth,' said Ben, with a certain warning exasperation.
'We have something they didn?t have,' said Ginny, confidently.
'What?'
'The Heir of Slytherin on our side.'
Gareth looked at her narrowly. 'Are you sure?'
'Yes,' said Ginny, with a certainty she didn?t feel.
Gareth glanced at Ben, his eyes wide and inquiring. Ben looked exasperated. 'I was trying to tell you, Gareth. The prophecy, do you understand now? I have to go.'
'The prophecy,' said Gareth, sounding disgusted. 'Its just a prophecy, just a bunch of words. Its not like it came from on high.'
'Actually, it did,' Ben pointed out gently. 'Thats what a prophecy is.'
The Heir of Slytherin, now looking slightly deflated, looked back at Ginny. 'He could still get killed,' he said, indicating Ben with a wave of his hand.
'I?ll be there to protect him,' said Ginny staunchly, and she saw Ben grin behind his hand.
'You,' said Gareth with disdain, 'are a girl.'
Ginny felt her ears turn red. She was about to take Gareth to task for his medieval outlook, when she realized that while his outlook certainly was medieval, there was a good reason for it. In fact, as far as history was concerned, medieval, for Gareth, would be progressive.
'Shes an Heir,' said Ben, briefly.
Gareth looked mutinous. 'Then I want to go with you.'
'You can?t. You haven?t got an heir,' pointed out Ben, looking weary. 'If you died, that would be the end of the Slytherin line. And that would alter history.'
'So I?m being left out because I haven?t procreated?' Gareth snapped.
'Yes,' said Ben, with finality.
'That doesn?t seem fair.'
