Shadows

Chapter Four: Dark Clouds

Author's Note: It was my birthday this week, so enjoy a bonus chapter. Happy my birthday.

As Ginny slept, her candles continued to burn. Wax dripped down them, forming pools on her windowsill and dripping down the edge like a water droplet. The smoke from the candles curled high into the air, and the smell from the smoke, wax and the sweet smells of wine and roses and wildflowers filled her room. Hours after she'd fallen asleep, the flame on the blue candle began to grow as it ran out of wick, sparking bits of fire around it. One of the sparks touched the curtain, which caused a spark. That spark grew into a flame. The flame fed on the fabric and oxygen around it, slowly building until it was more than a single flame, but a bright fire that sent dangerous sparks around the room.

Smoke began to fill the small bedroom, and Shikoba woke, uneasy. It nudged it's sleeping mistress, but she didn't stir. She was deep asleep, lost in the kind of dreams that hold you down in them no matter how you try to escape. By the time she would wake, her bed could be aflame. The bird squawked, trying to wake her again to no avail.

From somewhere above Ginny, soft thunder sounded. The air above her bed began to swirl and then to form white clouds that turned to silver, grey and then nearly to black. Heavy raindrops fell from the clouds above her, putting out the fire and soaking everything but the books and the bed, including Shikoba and Ginny. The flames gone, the storm dispersed and the thunder rolled one last time. A bright flash of lightning and it was over.

While Ginny slept, she had pushed her blankets to the foot of her bed. Now her quilt seemed to float along the surface of the bed and around Ginny's body, protecting her from the now chilly air in her room. Ginny groaned, and then rolled from her left side to her right. Shikoba curled up beside her and fell back asleep.

-

Ginny woke the next morning, blinking from the sun streaming in through her window. Odd, she thought the curtains had been closed...she turned her head to glare at them, and sat up suddenly when she noticed that half of one was missing. Further examination showed the evidence of rain everywhere but her bed and bookshelf.

She threw the quilt off of her and leapt out of bed and then ran her hand over the ledge of her window, feeling it still slightly slick, like the floor beneath her bare feet. Her candles were almost completely – oh. Oh. She'd been so exhausted, she left the candles burning all night. They must have caught the curtain on fire. And then...what? Had she cast some sort of spell in her sleep?

You are not quite that powerful yet, dear Kore.

Ginny's eyed widened. For a little while, she'd almost forgotten all about him.

"Wait..." she mouthed the words more then said them. But that didn't matter; he claimed to hear her thoughts anyway. "Did you – did you st...?"

Start the fire? Or stop it?

"Start," she said, but immediately shook her head. "Stop. Both?"

Why would I both start and stop the fire?

"Stop, then," Ginny decided, staring blankly out her window and the wide open field that was filled with sunshine. "Did you put it out?"

Yes, I did.

"But...why?" she asked, genuinely confused as to why the Dark Lord would put out a fire in her bedroom, after all the rest he'd done to her. There was a long silence, and Ginny reached up to touch the bottom of what was left of her curtain. The blackened edge of the curtain fell into her hand and turned to ash.