Psukhe

Chapter One

By Mell8

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"The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing... It is true, however, that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly."

Draco Malfoy shook his head free of his old teacher's voice and focused. The Muggle at his feet was bound, gagged, and blindfolded but his mind was wide-open to Draco's careful prodding.

Draco rifled through thoughts of childhood, a wife and kids, work, an affair; all the memories and thoughts of the Muggle were pulled out and poked by Draco's ungentle hand.

"Damn it!" Malfoy swore and shoved himself from the Muggle mind. "I've mastered Occlumency and Legilimency. I can slip into a person's mind and see anything, no matter how well hidden, and I'm better than Snape ever was, maybe I'm even better than the Dark Lord is." He paced across the floor, occasionally kicking the Muggle with the toe of his dragon-hide boots. "But I still can't do it!"

He threw himself into a rickety chair and ran a hand through his blond hair.

"Again then," he sighed and lifted his wand.

"Imperio, Diffindo." The ropes fell away as the severing charm worked and the Muggle stood under the Imperius Curse as Draco directed him.

"Now, don't move," Draco ordered coldly. He focused his thoughts and slid into the Muggle mind.

The Muggle's mind was blank, calm, and completely serene. Draco could sense what the Muggle was feeling as he floated around. This was nothing new as he had already extensively studied the effects of the Imperius Curse on the mind.

Draco slid in deeper, wary of the spell's effects on his own mind, and searched around. It had to be here, the reason the Imperius Curse was able to take over so easily. There had to be something in the mind that the Curse hit, something that he could affect with Legilimency so he could manipulate the mind without the need for breakable spells.

Potter had proven years ago in Professor Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts class that he could throw off the Imperius Curse. Potter had then proven that Voldemort could enter his mind and send messages that influenced the idiot boy's decisions a year later.

But Voldemort had only been able to influence Potter. Only by possessing Potter could he control the scarred boy completely, and Potter had thrown that off quickly enough.

No, what Draco was looking for was something stronger, deeper, and much more powerful. He wanted to be able to go into a person's mind, and, once he bypassed the meager defenses, could make them do whatever he wished.

He wanted complete mind control. Nothing less would suffice.

He slid out of the Muggle's mind as the door to his study opened.

"Another failure?" she asked softly as she set down a tray of tea and cookies.

He groaned and nodded. "I just can't find what makes the Curse work. If I could figure out exactly what functions of thinking it influenced I could go in there with only Legilimency and get the same effect. But I can't figure it out!"

She poured him a cup of tea and handed him a chocolate chip cookie, her favorite flavor but he wasn't complaining.

"I've had a thought," she said slowly around a large bite of cookie. She swallowed and continued. "I don't know if you'll like it but," she took a deep breath. "Muggles have a type of technology that takes moving pictures of the brain. I was thinking that if you took a Muggle under the Curse and put him in that machine, you could see what parts of the brain are being affected. The Muggles can tell you what part of the brain controls what body functions. We match up the part affected by the Curse with its functions and you can focus your Legilimency on that."

Draco slowly put down his cup as her idea formed and expanded. "That could work," he said slowly. His cookie lay forgotten as he stood and began to pace.

"We would need to break into a Muggle hospital and force the doctors to use the machines for us," she said as she stood. She put a gentle hand on his arm to stop his pacing. "But that would be easy enough with magic."

"You're brilliant," he breathed and bent down to capture her lips with his.

She kissed back eagerly, her hands sliding up his chest to grip his shoulders. His hands gently slid up her hips and waist to settle on her breasts. She gasped into his mouth as he squeezed and rolled the small mounds in his hands and tweaked a hardening point between two fingers.

Clothes were discarded and she was soon purring underneath him in what had become a familiar dance over the past few years.

III

"Look!" Draco said excitedly to her. "Before I put the Curse on the Muggle there were a lot of lights moving around on the picture of his brain." He gestured to the MRI neural-imaging machine and the picture of the brain a doctor was manipulating. "Now all that color is just concentrated on that one point."

"My diagnosis would be that the outlying functions of the patient's brain have died. Only that one point seems to be working… That's the Medulla Oblongata," the doctor said stiffly as he tapped the lit part of the computer screen with a pudgy finger. "It controls the heartbeat and breathing, the involuntary functions of the body."

"That's the stuff that we can't change with the Curse," she said with a nod. "It's near impossible to make someone stop their own heart when they're under the influence of the Curse. Draco, try making him move a finger or something."

They both gasped as a flash of light moved from the Medulla Oblongata to another section of the brain and then down to the body.

"That went to the Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum, voluntary movement," the doctor added at their blank looks. "Then it went down the Spinal Cord, probably all the way down to the finger. I've never seen anything like this!"

"And you won't remember this when we leave either," she said under her breath.

Draco shot her a warning look before sitting gracefully down in a chair. "I'm going in," he said to her as he closed his eyes. "Keep a watch on the machines and make sure none of the Muggles do anything dodgy."

"Right," she said with a nod. "Good luck, Draco."

He smirked once before slipping away into the Muggle's mind. The serene blankness was the same as usual and at first Draco was unable to figure out where to go. Then he thought about the heartbeat. Involuntary functions, not thoughts, were what gave the human mind some control even with the Curse in place. He needed to find that.

He pushed his way through the surface thoughts and through the maze of this Muggle's mind with practiced ease. He had been in these deep thoughts before so it was deceptively effortless to go past them again.

But all he found were the thoughts the Muggle wasn't even aware ran through his mind. There was nothing about the heartbeat or breathing.

He growled and opened his eyes to see her dancing excitedly.

"What?" he snarled testily.

"Look, doctor play that back again, look Draco." She pointed to the computer screen the doctor was fiddling with. "This is what happened when you went in!"

A bright white light flashed in the brain and began traveling around in a circle in just one small spot.

"That's the, what did you call it doctor?" she asked excitedly.

"Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum," the doctor answered blankly. It looked like she had Imperioused him to keep him under control. "For reasoning, emotions, and voluntary movement."

"But you were the only light flashing though there," she continued. "None of the light from the Medulla Oblongata moved."

"I know," he hissed. "I couldn't figure out how to enter that part of the brain. It seems that I'm stuck in one small part."

"But that's it Draco! You're mentally in the brain already, but my guess is you're only going through his thoughts, the reasoning part of the Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum."

"Yes," he sighed. "That's what Legilimency does. I'm trying to change it, make it more powerful so I can control minds like I do with the Curse."

"Exactly, Draco," she breathed. "You're trying to change it! That means that you can't go into the mind the same way, not if you want to get different results."

"Of course!" Draco whispered. He kissed her quickly. "I usually just slide into the mind and meld with the surface thoughts before delving deeper. I need to do something different."

"What else is there besides the surface thoughts that you can make initial contact with?" she asked with a smile.

"I'm not sure. Let's go find out." He closed his eyes and was gone.

The surface thoughts were immediately apparent and he almost fell into the same usual path of entering them, but was able to hold himself back at the last minute. What else was there for him to find? He brushed around the thoughts and sensed something else. It wasn't thoughts or anything he could accurately describe with words, but it was tangible and strong. He explored around and quickly realized that while this was not the Medulla Oblongata, it was a very interesting part to investigate. If he pressed like this he felt the body respond and the muscles would twitch when he directed them.

It would take more practice to perfect the technique but he had learned how to make a person's body move against their will. It still wasn't the level of mind control he was looking for, but it was a large step in the right direction.

"Draco! We've got to go. The Ministry's detected our magic use in front of Muggles and are coming here."

Draco woke himself and shook his head to focus. "Their memories?" he asked.

"Already modified. Do you want to bring along your pet?" she asked with a small gesture towards his favorite experiment lying under the MRI.

"Yes," he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room. The second his finger touched his experiment they Disparated.

III

Ginny Weasley wandered downstairs and into the kitchen at nearly one o'clock in the afternoon. Her long red hair was mussed with sleep and her brown eyes were only open enough to keep her from running into a wall or falling down the stairs. She had gotten home late and had decided to sleep in for once, but it was clear that she needed much more sleep before she was fully awake.

"Ginny, you're finally out of bed!" Molly stood up from the table where she was nursing a cup of tea and bustled over to the counter. She pulled out food she had left under warming spells and set out a small breakfast for her daughter.

"Good morning, Mum," Ginny said with a smile.

"It's afternoon, Ginny," Molly said with a reproving smile as she poured her youngest child a glass of juice. "And you just missed a letter from Harry, Hermione and Ron. Their search is going successfully and they expect to be stopping home for a visit sometime within the next week!" Molly sat across from her daughter and pulled over her cup of tea. She eyed Ginny speculatively as she mentioned Harry's name, no doubt expecting a response or at least a small blush, but Ginny disappointed her.

Molly did not know what had happened with Ginny and Harry over the past year, but when her baby girl had returned from her sixth year at Hogwarts she did not seem to hold any feelings for Harry. It disappointed Molly immensely as she had always expected Harry to enter the family through marriage with Ginny, but if he did not make Ginny happy then Molly could forget about that small dream. Still, it would be nice to know what had made her daughter change her mind about the messy-haired boy.

Ginny ate slowly and ignored the side ways looks from her mother. She had been getting them ever since June when she had come home from school and had brushed past Harry without even a hello.

Truthfully, she had never felt anything beyond mild annoyance towards Harry Potter. Kissing him after the Quidditch match in her fifth year had been a mistake and she had thought to rectify it, but it was too late. He had already heard about her spit-swap with Potter and had sent her away.

Ginny had continued to be with Harry, both because her brother seemed pleased with the arrangement and because it annoyed Him even more. She had hated herself for letting Harry touch her and for letting herself believe that Harry could save her from Him. But then Harry had abandoned her and He had come back. She soon realized that she didn't want to be saved from Him; she loved Him and wanted to be with Him forever.

Of course it had taken a lot of apologies on her part for even thinking of touching Harry and He had to grovel at her feet and promise her the moon for daring to abandon her, but now they were together and she could not be happier.

There was still the small matter of her mum not knowing, but that would soon be rectified when Ginny got on the train for school and disappeared en-route. There was absolutely no way she would be going back to school, not when he had already taught her all the magic she needed to know. No, right now Ginny needed to be at his side and there was only one more month until she turned seventeen and would be considered "of age" in the Wizarding World.

"Have you been listening to me at all, Ginny?"

"Sorry, Mum," Ginny managed to look sheepish. "I guess I'm still asleep," she added when her mother glared.

"As I've been saying, it's been quite a few months since they've come home so I expect this house to be spotless. Now, Hermione will be staying in your room so I want it to be cleaned. Also, I think Ron's room has gotten a bit dusty. You'll need to air it out and spray some anti-dust potion. Oh, there's so much to do!" Molly clapped her hands together excitedly.

Ginny sighed and stood to take her empty plate to the sink. "I'd better get started if I want to be done by lunch," she said as she headed to the stairs. "Mum, I've got plans to meet a friend after lunch but I should be back before dinner."

"But Ginny, you were out with a friend till late last night. I worry for you, you know. It's dangerous with You-Know-Who lurking around and," she lowered her voice, "there was an article in the paper this morning about an attack on a Muggle hospital. My guess is that the war will begin to escalate soon so be careful."

"I'm always careful, Mum. Honest, I know that there are Death Eaters and I can recognize the warning signs so I can get out in time." Ginny walked up the stairs, effectively ending any response from her mother, and entered her pigsty of a room.

"So," she muttered to herself. "I'm supposed to meet him in two hours. I can spend an hour in this room and a half hour in Ron's room and that'll give me a little time to clean myself up before I go." Ginny sighed and bent down to pick up the first of many dirty shirts that needed to go into the laundry hamper.

III

The fact that she was running late was no surprise but it still annoyed Draco immensely. It was a common occurrence for him to be sitting alone in the corner booth in the back of this grimy pub in Knockturn Alley, sometimes for a half an hour, waiting for her to arrive.

"Sorry I'm late," she smiled down at him and slid into the booth across from him. "My Mum's got me on cleaning duty because the trio are planning on coming home for a quick visit."

"I'm guessing that means that you won't be able to sneak away to meet with me when they come home." Draco signaled the barman for a drink for his lady.

Ginny nodded and sighed, "I'm sorry Draco. I know how close you are to the answer and I want to be there every step of the way, but my mother is not going to let me go off to "meet with a friend" while Harry, Ron, and Hermione are home." She took the Fire-Whiskey from the bartender and stared into the amber depths.

"Gin, I know you want to be there when I finally figure it out, Hell, I want you to be there too, but I can't stop my experimenting when I'm so close." Draco ran a hand through his hair and watched her take a sip of whiskey.

Ginny sighed and put her glass back on the table a bit harder than was necessary. "Whatever," she pulled out a small notebook from her pocket and handed it over. "I forgot to give you this last night and now that my Mum is on a cleaning rampage I didn't want to leave anything lying about for her to find."

Draco flipped through the notebook and stopped at the picture of a human brain. "What's this?" He pointed to two small Xs that marked two spots on the brain.

"This first X is the Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum. It's where you usually enter the mind and read thoughts. This second X is the new place you went last night. The doctor called it the Cerebellum and said that it controlled balance, posture, movement, and muscle coordination." She leaned back into the back of the bench and watched him think for a second before continuing.

"The best part," Ginny smiled and pulled the notebook her way, "was that while you were in the Cerebellum, you were also in the Frontal Lobe at the same time."

"How does that work?" Draco asked with a lifted eyebrow.

Ginny took a fortifying sip of whiskey before continuing. "At first you were just in the Cerebellum but when you began to expand your experimenting the light that represented you on the computer screen expanded as well. What were you trying to do?"

Draco shrugged. "I wasn't trying to do anything really, but I did find that if I, how do I explain this, ummm—flexed my mind in a certain way—I could get the Muggle to move the way I wanted him to."

She bounced excitedly in her seat. "That's it! See, the Cerebellum controls movement and muscle coordination and the Frontal Lobe controls voluntary movement. They're connected and have to be manipulated simultaneously to get the body to move. Normally the brain will do that automatically. My guess is that the already existing connection between the two separate parts helped to guide you into making him move."

Draco looked thoughtful for a moment. "So what you're saying is that once I perfect this, I can make someone move against their will."

She nodded. "Yeah, their legs will be moving one way while their mind will be screaming "what the hell?" and will probably try to fight you for control."

"But if I figure out how to control their minds…" Draco smirked.

"Then there won't be any fighting at all!" Ginny finished with a smile. "We're so close!"

"And once I figure out how to do this I can teach you." Draco raised his glass and clicked it against hers in a toast.

"All I've got to do is get better at Legilimency," she shrugged.

"You can block me out most of the time with your Occlumency," Draco said with a soft smile. "That's an excellent achievement."

"I know," she smiled. "But you're so much stronger that you can manipulate other parts of the brain. I can barely find my way through the maze of thoughts without getting lost."

"So when you come to live with me in September we can practice." Draco leaned over the table and pecked her on the lips. "Come home with me. I can show you how to make a Muggle dance."

She giggled. "I have to be home by six, but until then I'm all yours."

III

This dream was a memory from Ginny's fourth year at Hogwarts, she knew that, but it still felt so real, as if she were back in the library in truth instead of sleeping soundly in her bed at the Burrow.

Ginny bent over her potions homework with an angry snarl. She flipped her long red hair over her shoulder and swore again.

Snape had told her to add a foot to her three foot homework assignment because her hair had touched the potion they were working on in class. While Ginny was glad that she hadn't received a detention too, Snape didn't have to give her an entire foot. There was only so much she could write about newts' eyes and their properties in potion making.

Ginny looked around the library hoping to find Hermione or someone else she could beg for help, but instead found that the library was deserted.

With a gasp Ginny glanced down at her watch. It was exactly curfew. If she hurried she ought to be able to get back to Gryffindor tower without being caught. Ginny rushed to stuff her schoolbooks into her bag and was just hurrying past the last table when something shiny caught her eye.

She almost kept walking, but stopped and went over to it instead. She didn't want someone's pet to eat whatever it was and get sick.

She found a silver, heart-shaped locket lying innocently on the table and picked it up. With careful fingers she popped it open and couldn't keep the snarl off her face. The locket must belong to some girl in Slytherin because inside was Draco Malfoy's picture smirking haughtily up at her. Ginny angrily poked his face with a stiff finger and went to throw the locket in the rubbish bin.

There was a hard pull on her navel and she screamed as a Portkey pulled her from the library.

"It works!"

The first thing she heard when her feet touched solid ground was a voice crowing in happiness.

Ginny stared dumbly down at the locket before looking up to see a Slytherin colored dorm. At least she was still in Hogwarts.

"What was that?" she whispered as she slowly turned to face the other occupant of the room.

Draco Malfoy's blond hair was bent over a piece of parchment he was scribbling notes on. He didn't look up from his notes as he pulled over another parchment and began to scribble on that one too.

"It's a one-shot Portkey. I made it myself. It'll take you to the person in the picture when you touch it. The best part is that it never loses its power. If I were to go into the other room and you were to touch the picture again you would be transported into the other room with me."

He finally turned around to look at her and she saw that his wand was pointed at her.

"Now, sorry but I'm afraid I'll be erasing your memory now," he said with a cold smirk. "Hand over the locket please."

"If you were just going to erase my memory why did you tell me what the locket does?" Ginny asked with wide eyes. She slowly held out the hand holding the locket but did not release it into his waiting hand.

He sighed. "I needed to tell someone about my success. Now let go of the locket!"

"This is a brilliant invention," Ginny said quickly but her wide eyes told them both that she had not meant to say that. She blushed and let go of the locket.

Malfoy caught it but his eyes were still focused on her face.

"Do you really think so?" he asked with a gasp. "Then would you be willing to tell me if there are any kinks in this invention?" He rushed on, his excitement getting the better of his mouth. "Because I can't test it myself so there might be a way for it to fail that I haven't found yet."

Ginny couldn't help laughing at the eagerness this boy felt and held up her hands to stop his tirade.

"Of course I'll help you," she said between giggles, "but only if you promise not to erase my memory."

She watched as Malfoy checked himself and noticed just whom he was talking to. The sneer slid into place and his lip curled in disgust.

"As if I would ever need the help of a dirt poor, Mudblood loving, Weasley." His wand pointed right at her chest and Ginny could see the spell on his lips.

"Nonsense," she waved her hand in the air as if dismissing something. Now that she had seen Draco Malfoy unguarded and human she would not be fooled by his hard façade. "I did notice something that definitely needs to be fixed. When I first touched the picture I had the time to pull my hand away and if I wished I could have let go of the locket entirely. There was too much of a time lapse between when I activated the Portkey and when it worked."

The thoughtful Malfoy was back and his wand was forgotten on a side table as he pulled some tools off his desk and began to tinker with the inside of the locket. He pulled over an entire sheaf of parchment and began perusing pages of notes and calculations.

"You're right," he gasped as Ginny finally decided that it would be okay if she took a seat across from Malfoy. "There is a time lapse. I don't believe I didn't see that before." He opened up the inside of the locket and poked and prodded it excitedly.

After nearly ten minutes he snapped the locket closed and handed it to her. "I'm going to go into the other room. When I say go, you touch the picture." He stood but she stopped him with a careful hand.

"No memory charms?" she asked softly and looked meaningfully down at the locket clutched in her hand.

He sighed but nodded. "As long as you don't tell anyone Weasley."

Ginny waited for his signal before touching the photograph. The effect this time was instantaneous. Ginny was flung onto Malfoy and couldn't keep herself from laughing with him at their success.

Days passed in a jumble of fast moving images that were quickly forgotten by Ginny's dreaming mind. Finally her mind focused in on another memory of a few weeks before the end of term her fourth year.

"Shouldn't you be studying for O.W.L.'s?" Ginny said as she lay on Draco's bed. Draco looked up from the book he was busy charming to open itself to the page or chapter he specified with a snort.

"Study for those easy tests?" he laughed. "My father made sure I had all the material for my O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s memorized and perfected by my second year at Hogwarts. I've been purposefully getting answers wrong on my tests for years because I don't want to be top of the class. Besides, I prefer to experiment with stuff like this than study. Come over here and hold this."

"Only if you explain what the Hell you're doing," Ginny answered as she levered herself off the bed. "I'm always helping you with various experiments but you never teach me how you do these amazing things."

"Then come on over here and I'll teach you how to make a book follow your every wish," he laughed and she couldn't help smiling happily back.

"We can still do this next year right?" Ginny asked after a while of learning about how mathematical calculations could be melded with magic.

"If you want to," Draco said with a shy smile that Ginny would never have expected a Malfoy to be capable of. Her family had always told her how terrible the Malfoy's were and her first year and the Chamber of Secrets had cemented that. But now she was learning that while Draco did have his rough spots he could be just as nice a person as anyone else Ginny knew.

"Then yes, I will definitely come," she answered with a smile.

There had been a number of times over the past few months when Ron had nearly caught her sneaking off to work with Draco. Luckily Ron and his two friends were too busy figuring out what to do with Umbridge to really take notice of her absences.

"I wish you didn't follow Professor Umbridge around like a starving dog asking for treats," Ginny muttered. "It makes it difficult to believe that you're really a nice person under all that hatred and bigotry."

He groaned. "I don't have a choice in the matter. My father said to follow Umbridge's orders and until I'm seventeen and of legal age I have to do what he says. Besides, I've never hurt you with my Inquisitorial Squad status."

"I suppose," Ginny sighed. "I just don't like seeing you being so awful."

He shifted closer to her to help point out a mistake she had made. "Don't forget to carry the two. What would you prefer to see me do then?"

She looked up and caught his grey eyes with her own brown ones. "You can be such a nice person. I don't understand why you hide that."

"Because you're the only person I've ever met who deserves to meet the real me," he whispered and glanced quickly down at her lips before refocusing on her eyes.

She looked surprised and then pleased and when he slowly bent his head forward she did not pull away. Their lips met with mind-numbing intensity.

The dream faded and Ginny floated for a while in a blank dream space that was actually rather nice. Time passed and Ginny began to realize that dawn was fast approaching as was her birthday and the day that the trio would be coming home. She fought to wake but was taken back into her memories one last time.

"You're supposed to WHAT?"

"You did WHAT?"

Their screeches were simultaneous and grating with shock and horror.

"Yes, I kissed Harry, but it was an accident. You're telling me that I've been helping you fix the vanishing cabinets all year because you want to kill Dumbledore! I think what you've done is much worse."

"Not from my perspective," Draco snarled. "I had sex with you, I loved you, and this is how you repay me!"

She sobbed. "I didn't mean to, you have to listen, Draco!" But he turned his head away from her and ignored her pleas.

Only when she had closed the door behind her did he allow himself to cry.

The alarm ringing finally woke Ginny from her dreams and her mother was soon calling up the staircase to tell Ginny that breakfast was ready.

When she got downstairs Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the table digging into bacon and eggs. They looked up long enough to nod a welcome to Ginny before burying themselves in their food again.

"At least Hermione is chewing before she swallows," Ginny sneered to herself before putting on a smile and taking her seat at the table.

"Isn't it wonderful!" Molly smiled happily as she served her daughter. "They came in last night."

"Yes, that's wonderful," Ginny said, but even though her voice sounded enthusiastic her head was bent low over her plate so her expression would stay hidden.

Molly took no notice of her daughter. "Ginny, your presents are in the living room. Would you like to open them now?"

"Okay, Mum." Ginny pushed aside the remains of her breakfast and went to get her presents.

The book from Hermione, the Quidditch gloves from Ron, and the necklace from Harry all received a solemn "thank you" from Ginny. The beautiful new set of dress robes from her parents earned Molly a hug and a smile.

But it was the small package from one of Ginny's friends that finally got a big reaction. It was a small box with holes cut in it so Molly had a good idea what Ginny had gotten.

Ginny opened the card on the top and smiled. "For September, when Dragon and Ginger meet again."

Ginny squealed happily and opened the box to find a tiny sleeping white kitten and a picture of an equally tiny red kitten. Around the white kitten's neck was a silver locket and when Ginny carefully popped it open Molly could see a miniature photograph of the red kitten.

"Who are Dragon and Ginger?" Molly asked as Ginny carefully picked up the tiny kitten.

"This is Dragon," Ginny said as she smoothed down the white fur on her kitten's back. "The red cat, Ginger, belongs to a friend. It means that we'll bring our cats together in September."

Molly smiled. Finally she had her answer to why Ginny no longer loved Harry. Her baby girl had found another boy to love. Molly watched happily as Ginny gathered up her gifts and went upstairs.

Days passed and Ginny was only able to meet up with Draco one last time before September first rolled around. She had used the excuse of going to Diagon Alley to buy schoolbooks to meet with Draco at the usual spot down Knockturn Alley.

Ginny was saddened to hear that he had been unable to make any further progress over the past few weeks but at the same time was secretly glad because that meant she hadn't missed anything important.

"Now Ginny, I want to get a letter from you every week." Molly Weasley hugged her daughter while Arthur lifted her trunk onto the train.

The whistle blew loudly and the conductor called for the last stragglers to get onto the train. Ginny smiled at her Mum, hugged her father and climbed aboard.

"Remember to write, Ginny!" Molly called after the slowly moving train. Ginny waved out the window but did not answer. She didn't want to promise something that she could not do.

"Three hours," Ginny whispered as she hoisted Dragon's cage onto her hip. "I only have to wait three hours before leaving this horrid place."

It wasn't hard to find an empty compartment as even fewer students had returned this year than last year.

She pulled Dragon out and settled him on her lap with a small sigh. "You know," she said as she stroked his soft ears, "for a while I thought that I would be stuck with Harry for the rest of my life." The cat purred and she laughed and stroked his ears again.

"I was going out with Harry and Draco didn't like that even though he told me to go out with other people to help keep our relationship a secret." Ginny smiled sadly down at her kitten, wondering why she was even telling him this but feeling the need to continue anyway.

"Then when Draco's plan to kill Dumbledore and to use the vanishing cabinets to bring Death Eaters into the school was successful I thought that I would never see him again. He would be off with the Death Eaters and I would be back with the Order of the Phoenix waiting for Harry to end the war and to hear that Draco had been sent to Azkaban."

The cat kneaded its claws into Ginny's thigh and she hissed in pain. The kitten circled twice on her lap before settling down again with his tail covering his eyes.

"Fine," Ginny grumped. "Go to sleep. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop talking. I've still got two and a half hours to wait."

She brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and continued.

"Do you know what Draco did, Dragon?" She fluffed the kitten's tail and giggled when he lazily slashed a claw in her direction. "He basically went and told Voldemort to fuck off then used one of his one-shot Portkeys to catapult himself into my lap; though where he got my picture is beyond me. He explained about the threat on his mother and I explained that the entire fiasco with Harry was an accident and it was like our relationship had not been on hiatus for a couple of months. I helped Draco go into hiding and now I'm going to join him."

Ginny smiled happily and leaned back in her seat.

"And then we'll learn how to control minds and take over the world. Gods I love him!"

A couple of hours later Ginny gathered her belongings, gently popped open the locket around Dragon's neck, and touched the picture inside.

The Portkey dropped her into Draco's lap and he let his red kitten, Ginger, run off so he could gather her into his arms and kiss her hello.

III

"What do you mean, "Ginny never made it to school"? I saw her get on the train myself!" Molly Weasley sank into a kitchen chair and angrily wiped the tears from her eyes before they could fall.

"That's what I don't understand, Molly. I had Aurors and Order members running regular sweeps of the train and it's warded against Apparition. I don't understand how your daughter could have disappeared." Minerva McGonagall's head floated in the kitchen fire. A hand appeared in the flames to rub a tired wrinkle from the aging Headmistress's face before disappearing again.

"Could someone have gotten onto the train without the guards being aware?" Molly asked through another repressed sob.

"Impossible, Molly. I've already checked and there is no way that someone got onto the train that could have taken your daughter. Will you check your clock?"

Molly gasped and shot up from her chair. "Of course," Molly hiccupped as she rushed from the room. She came back to the kitchen over ten minutes later with a bewildered look on her face. "Minerva, the clock says that Ginny is home but I've just searched the entire building and she isn't anywhere to be found."

"Could the clock be malfunctioning?" McGonagall asked gently.

"No, no. That's not possible." A fresh batch of tears formed and began to drip down her cheeks.

"Then Ginny must be somewhere that she feels is home. Listen, Molly. You keep watch on your clock. I believe that Ginny is safe as long as her clock hand points to home or other safe descriptions."

"Can you really think that?" Molly gently put the clock down on the table and futilely wiped at her eyes again.

"You said it yourself, the clock cannot be wrong. Ginny is somewhere that she feels safe and at home and while that certainly does not mean that we will not search for her, it does mean that she is okay."

Molly nodded and pulled out a handkerchief to mop at her face with. "Thank you, Minerva."

"You're welcome, Molly. Keep strong for Harry. Ginny will be back before you know it."

III

A.N.

The quote at the beginning is taken directly from the mouth of Severus Snape from when he was teaching Harry Occlumency in Order of the Phoenix.

All knowledge of the brain is from Google so blame them if I got anything wrong.

Thanks for reading!

Mell8