was wildly tangled, his dark eyes brilliant. He looked at her and gave a little whoop of surprise, the lit wand in his right hand dipping as he lowered it.
'Ginny?'
'Oh-yes, it's me,' she said, feeling awkward. 'Sorry, did I catch you at a bad time?'
'I was sleeping,' he said, with a shrug.
'How'd you know I was here, anyway?'
He pointed towards the desk. 'You touched my private papers. They're warded.'
'Oh,' she said. There was a short silence, then she smiled at him. 'Well, it's a good thing, anyway, because I was looking for you. Gareth, too, actually.'
'Gareth?' Ben perched himself on the edge of the desk. 'I'm sure he'll be along. He takes longer to wake up than I do.'
Ginny leaned against one of the long tables. 'When are you, Benjamin?'
'Fine, thanks.' He paused and blinked at her. 'Did you say when am I? I'm in my own time, Ginny, surely you must have set your Time-Turner to a year?'
'I did,' she mused, 'but…I mean, you know me, so clearly we've already met and you've probably already been to the future and brought your army there and- what happened to them, anyway?'
He waved a hand. 'All in good time. Why are you here now?'
She squinted at him. 'Have you already come forward in time to my house to see me? About five days after the new year, in 1996?'
He looked startled. 'No. Why would I do that?'
'No reason.'
'It sounds like a bit of a lark, going forward again,' he said, raking a hand through the unruly hair so like Harry's. Then he smiled. 'I hear Gareth.'
Ginny, who hadn't heard anything, looked up in surprise. A moment later the door opened and the Heir of Slytherin came in, wrapped in a shockingly purple robe, his hair every which way. He took a look at her and groaned. 'You again?'
Ginny frowned. 'I don't suppose it would make any difference if I told you that in the future, you're very fond of me?'
'I wouldn't believe you.' He sat down on the desk next to Ben and glared.
'What do you need now? You can't have any more soldiers, we sent the ones you used off to-'
'Who says I need anything? Maybe I just stopped by to chat,' said Ginny in an injured tone.
Gareth raised an eyebrow. 'Did you?'
'No,' she admitted. 'I need your bracelet.'
'You need my what?'
'The red band you wear around your wrist,' she said. 'At least-I've seen you wear it…do you have it on now?'
Gareth glanced at Ben, who shrugged. With a sigh, he rolled up the left sleeve of his purple robe. There on his wrist was the runic band, a red glasslike band that seemed to glow from within with a dull fire. 'I always wear it,' he said. 'Every day since I was a child.'
Ginny bit her lip. 'I ah, need to borrow it.'
Ben choked back a laugh. 'You need to borrow it? Ginny, it's an object of awesome protective power, forged by Slytherin himself, made to protect his son. I don't think Gareth's going to let you borrow it.'
'It's important,' said Ginny in a thin, determined voice. 'It might save Draco's life.'
Gareth frowned. 'Who?'
'The Heir of Slytherin in her time,' said Ben. 'I'm afraid, Ginny, that you're going to have to explain a little better than that.'
So Ginny explained. She told them about the runic band, its first appearance amid dire warnings, the gifting of it to Harry, and the later poisoning and decline of Draco. She told them how Harry had used the band to save himself, how Draco lay near death, how his father had told them that only the blood of silver dragons could save him. She began to tell them about the rune on the band that matched the rune for silver dragons, but Gareth cut her off.
'I see where this is going,' he said, slight discomfort in his voice. 'I can't give you the band, Ginny.'
Why not? she wanted to demand, but she bit it back. 'Then-then can you take me to a silver dragon? Lucius said they lived a thousand years ago-that's now, isn't it?'
Ben and Gareth exchanged a long and helpless look. 'There are no silver dragons now,' said Ben, at last. 'Slytherin caused them all to be destroyed-after all, he made them. That was when I was a child. Helga's Time- Turner won't take you back that far. She made it after they were gone.'
'Then I have to have the bracelet,' Ginny said. 'Please? I know it's important to you-that your father made it for you…'
She trailed off. She'd never felt so much like a stupid little girl, here begging these two powerful and ancient wizards (well, all right, they weren't that ancient at the moment) for a bracelet that might or might not save her boyfriend (not that he was actually her boyfriend, either.) They must think she was so stupid. She imagined Blaise's disappointed face when she returned with nothing…
'I can't give it to you,' said Gareth, 'because the band comes off me only when I die. It's enchanted. I'm awfully sorry.'
He did look sorry, too.
'Does it have the blood of silver dragons in it?' Ginny asked in a small voice, hating herself for asking.
'Yes,' said Gareth. 'And if the cataplasm is anything like what I think it is…'
'Cataplasm?' said Ginny.
'The poison,' said Gareth. 'It sounds like one of my father's, though those were notoriously antidote- resistant.' He shook his head. 'There's no point talking about it. I'm sorry.'
You said that already, Ginny thought. But, sunk in her own misery, she said nothing.
'I'm sorry, too, that you came all this way for no reward,' said Ben, jumping down from the desk. 'Should I get you a Strengthening Potion?
You look very pale.'
Ginny nodded blindly, not really seeing him as he shuffled out of the room, like a dark untidy shadow. She was seeing Draco in her head, lying on that bed in the infirmary, like a statue carved out of ivory and bones, no color in him at all as the life drained away…
'Ginny.' It was Gareth, looking at her thoughtfully. He was very like Draco, which made it hard to look at him- a grown-up Draco, which her Draco, now, would never be. 'I have an idea. I have to tell it to you now-Ben won't like it much.'
She glanced up at him. 'What is it?'
He leaned forward and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. 'You must have books in your time-histories of the past?'
She nodded.
'Are we-the Heirs of the Founders-mentioned in any of them?'
She blinked at him. Of all the times to indulge in an ego trip…'Yes,' she said shortly. 'You all are.'
'With timelines? Of important dates and the like?'
She nodded.
'Then you must know when I die,' he said.
'When you die?' She divined, then, what he meant, and gaped at him.
'Everyone dies,' he said, serenely. 'When I was your age, I didn't expect to make it through the next ten years, much less the next twenty or fifty…you do see what I'm driving at, don't you?'
'I think so,' said Ginny. 'You want me to come back to the moment you die and- take the runic band?'
'As long as I don't die being hacked into pieces or set on fire,' said Gareth. 'Then it might be difficult for you to locate the band, you know, among the remains.'
