Ginny suddenly realized that she didn?t know anything about Bens family. Professor Binnsclass was all about battles and dates, and if he ever talked about the Founders, she must?ve slept through class.
'Do you have any brothers, or does being the Heir mean you?re the only guy, or in my case, girl, in your generation? Harry, Hermione and Draco — they?re all only children, and I?m the only girl in my family. Is that how this Heir thing works?'
'Well, Helga has a few daughters, and the oldest is the Heir. There is only one child who carries Rowena s blood, and I do have a few half-brothers and a sister, but…'
'What about Gareth?'
'I don?t even think he knows how many children Slytherin created.
The Snake Lord selected him as the Heir when he was about five, I think. Gareth doesn?t talk about how it happened. We used to play together when we were children,' he said. 'I think he still feels a pretty heavy burden about his father being responsible for so much death. Even though its not as if they really knew each other.'
'I?m surprised you all let him live,' said Ginny, and Ben turned a very surprised expression on her.
'Kill Gareth? I?ll give you that hes annoying, but…'
'Its not that, its just that hes the Heir of Slytherin, isn?t he? Kill him, and you could end the line. Slytherin might never rise. I?m not telling you to do it, obviously,' she added hastily, 'since it would screw up history anyway, I?m just surprised that it never came up.
In fact, why does the spell to open the Orb call for the presence of all four Heirs? Why the Heir of Slytherin? Isn?t the prophecy that the ultimate Heir of Slytherin will be evil?'
'You ask a lot of questions,' said Ben, his voice faint with tiredness.
'Why is that?'
'I?m a girl with six older brothers. I?ve always had to ask a lot of questions, just to get one straight answer.'
She heard Ben roll over onto his stomach and sigh. When she glanced over she saw him looking at her, resting his chin on his folded hands. 'My father went to see Slytherin to ask him to give up the battle he was waging,' he said, in a remote sort of tone.
'Slytherin invited him into his library, and when my father turned to shut the door, stabbed him through the back with his sword.
There were servants there who witnessed some of what happened next. Slytherin bent over him where he lay on the ground, watching him die, but as my father died he left his curse — . The dying curse of one of Gryffindor blood is always potent. The curse was that as Salazar, his own cousin and once best friend, had murdered him, so he cursed Slytherin that he would one day be destroyed by his own blood and flesh.' He sighed again, and put his hands over his face.
His next words were muffled. 'Rowena was mindful of that when she created the Orb spell. I think she also was being a little protective of Gareth. He was only eight at the time, and she would have been looking for a way to make sure he was protected after his father was…removed.'
'It seems so complicated, and like it hinges on so many tiny little things,' said Ginny doubtfully. 'How can you hang a whole spell, a whole prophecy, on the choices of someone who hasn?t even been born?'
' If it seems complex thats because it is. And even making it simpler wouldn?t make time and the flow of destiny any easier to manipulate. Helga told me once, 'Time bears destiny towards its inevitable realization. You can neither raise your hand to turn it aside, nor raise your sword to hold it back. Even the wisest man cannot know what tragic flaw may in the end prove essential to the whole.?'
'A tragic flaw?' Ginny let her head fall back as she gazed up at the sky, which had darkened to charcoal. She thought of Draco. If anyone was tragically flawed, he was. Oh boy, was he flawed. Well, not physically.
She grinned to herself in the dark, and rolled over onto her stomach. 'Ben?' she said, and was about to ask him if they would be leaving right away or waiting until first thing in the morning, when she realized, from the light sound of him snoring, that he had already fallen asleep.
* * * * *
Hermione had been worried that they would run into guards on their way to the Orb; she had been worried that the resident monsters of the castle would delay them, or worse yet, they?d bump into Slytherin himself. The biggest obstacle to progress however, turned out to be the fact that Ron and Draco flatly refused to get along. Every few feet they would stop and snap at each other. Ron stepped on Dracos toe on purpose; Draco stuck out his foot and tripped Ron. And so on. Hermione glanced over at Harry as they turned a corner, and he rolled his eyes. 'I thought Draco was supposed to be walking ahead of us, making it look like we belong here?' she hissed at Harry, who sighed and whirled around.
'Okay, Draco get over — what are you two doing? Look, theres no need to put him in a headlock — ouch, that looks painful. Stop it.'
Draco and Ron separated, glaring at each other. Hermione sighed.
They were in a dark narrow corridor lined with suits of armor. The ceiling disappeared into darkness and cobwebs. Draco had been right; this part of the castle looked quite thoroughly disused. Their voices echoed softly off the stone walls.
'What are you arguing about?' Harry demanded, arms crossed over his chest.
'Weasley implied I wasn?t to be trusted,' said Draco blandly, looking at Harry. 'Then he stood on my foot.'
'You tripped me,' snapped Ron.
'After you stood on my foot.'
Ron changed tack. 'Where the hell are you leading us anyway, Malfoy? Into a trap?'
Draco snorted in disgust. The two boys had paused in a shadowed doorway, snarling at each other. Hermione came to stand beside Harry, praying that they wouldn?t be seen. 'Yeah, thats right, Weasley, its a trap,' Draco snapped, the sarcasm in his voice so thick you could have cut it with a knife. 'Its a trap and you figured it out. Because, you know, its not like I haven?t had plenty of opportunities to murder the lot of you, were I so inclined. Its not like Harry hasn?t got the means to kill me hanging around his neck, if he wants to use it — '
Ron glanced over at Harry. 'Use it,' he said. 'Please use it.'
