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.'
Ginny's hands where they gripped the edge of the table were white. 'So Draco's supposed to do what? Sacrifice himself for Harry? Die in his place?
He idolizes Harry. It's not fair.'
'Harry's everything good he's ever wanted to be,' Hermione said quietly.
'He loves him like you love the better part of yourself.'
'Harry has flaws,' Ginny said. 'We all have flaws.'
'I know. But if Draco doesn't see them, what's the harm in that?'
'Because it makes him hate himself!' Ginny almost shouted. 'And love, I thought, is supposed to make you stronger, not weaker. It's supposed to be something to live for, not die for. But you don't care. You don't care about him any more than any of you care about me. But you'll see. You'll see what it's like when they shut you out just like you and Harry and my brother used to shut me out for all those years and years. All those things Tom did to me and you never cared or noticed because you never looked
— you just saw what you wanted to see — just like Harry looks at Draco and sees what he wants to see — I could have died right in front of you just like Draco's doing now and you wouldn't have cared — '
'Ginny!' Hermione exclaimed, getting to her feet so quickly that she almost knocked over her chair. 'That's not true.'
'The hell it isn't,' Ginny shot back, and now her eyes were bright with angry tears. She scrabbled for her book-bag, shoved the Liber-Damnatis into it, and stood up, throwing her bag over her shoulder. 'And I don't want that stupid barrette — I wouldn't want anything that belonged to Blaise — she's nothing but a — a prostitute! You all make me sick!'
Hermione flinched back as Ginny flung the jeweled ornament at her feet: it landed there with a faint clink. She knelt to pick it up and stayed there for a moment, on her knees, feeling as if she never wanted to get up again.
'Origio,' she said finally, looking down at the barrette in her hand.
'Origio — that's the spell you wanted.'
Ginny said nothing. By the time Hermione had straightened up, she was gone.
It had taken Percy almost two days, but finally he had managed to get his makeshift new office into a
