Traitoress

Unanswered Questions

Harry Potter watched the snow beginning to fall as he sat on watch in the night. Ron had arrived back yesterday, they had found the sword and destroyed the locket…but he wasn’t happy, not at all. Ginny Weasley had disappeared, and there was no trace of her anywhere. He’d broken up with Ginny several months ago, and although he knew she’d moved on, he hadn’t had a chance to.

"Harry?" Hermione’s voice sounded behind him and he heard her open the flap of the tent with her wand. A hot jealousy rose within him as he clenched his fist around the blackthorn wood he hated so much.

"What is it?" he said irritably.

"I know you must be upset about Ginny…" she said, "but we need to get on with finding the other horcruxes."

He sighed. "Yes, I know…" he did not move from the spot, and Hermione smiled and sat down beside him, leaning her head on his arm. They sat there contentedly for a while, before Harry noticed Hermione seemed to have something on her mind.

"What is it?" he said again, but this time he was gentler.

"You know when you told me about when Ron destroyed the horcrux?" she said hesitantly, before sighing and saying, "You know what? It doesn’t matter."

"Yes it does!" Harry grinned. "I want to know."

"You said you loved me as a sister…" Hermione wasn’t looking at him and her face was bright red. "I was wondering…just as a sister?"

Harry froze as he thought about what she’d just said. This was Hermione he was thinking about. How could he and Hermione date? But then, he reasoned, we both need a rebound relationship, me and Ginny, her and Ron - although they never really took off - and where else are we going to get one?

He smiled at her and put his gloved hand on her cheek and she smiled hopefully. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

"I’m thinking…let’s give us a try," Harry leant in and kissed her very softly. He was about to pull away when she slid her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, winding her hands into his hair.

- - - - -

Draco glared at Ginny as he showed her along a majestic corridor in Malfoy Manor towards her room. Finally, he said, "I don’t trust you, Weasley."

"It’s Ginny," she answered, "And I wouldn’t trust me in your position either."

"Is that some kind of threat?" Malfoy hissed, his grey eyes glowering at her as she walked beside him.

"No," she said, unfazed by his hostility, "I’m just saying it’s difficult to trust me when I look from your perspective."

They walked on down the corridor in silence for a few minutes.

"You’re right," Malfoy conceded. "I don’t trust you, and I don’t think I ever will."

"And why’s that?" Ginny asked, sounding like she couldn’t care less.

"You’re a Gryffindor!" he shouted. "Worse than that, you’re a Weasley! And you’re dating POTTER!"

Ginny didn’t even seem to notice he was yelling, but instead just replied, "I’m not a Gryffindor, I’m not a Weasley, and I’m not dating Harry Potter."

Malfoy stared at her for a minute, before swearing. "What the Hell are you talking about?"

"I’m talking about the Chamber of Secrets," she answered matter-of-factly. "You can only enter the Chamber if you can speak Parseltongue. And who are the only people who can speak Parseltongue? The descendants of Salazar Slytherin."

"But you’re a…you’re a WEASLEY!" they had stopped in the deserted corridor now, and were face-to-face.

"No, I’m not," she answered. "I’m adopted."

Malfoy stared at her for a minute. Then he asked, "Does the Dark Lord know?"

"Yes, he does," she answered. "I’m not a pure-blood. I’m a tri-blood. My great-Grandfather was called Marvolo Riddle. His son, Morfin, had a little boy who he called Korin, who was my father, and a pure-blood."

"Shit!" Malfoy exclaimed. "You’re related to the Dark Lord!" Then he regained his icy cool. "A tri-blood - as in one pure-blood parent and one half-blood parent?" he asked. "Those are rare…pure-bloods don’t tend to marry anyone but other pure-bloods."

"Yes. My mother was Sikliana Fyra, a half-blood," Ginny said. "She died trying to make herself a pure-blood. My father went to Azkaban for kidnapping several muggles for her to test her theories on, and died there about ten months later. My mother died when I was only a year old. From there the Weasleys took me in on Dumbledore’s orders."

"If you are related to the Dark Lord, then why aren’t you in Slytherin?" Malfoy asked, curious to know more.

"I am," she answered. "But Dumbledore and Mrs Weasley didn’t want anyone else knowing about my real family, so they tampered with the Sorting. When I went to Dumbledore’s office after the Chamber of Secrets in my first year, I tried the Sorting Hat again while he spoke to my ‘parents’. It said Slytherin."

He said nothing after she revealed this, and after a moment she began to walk down the corridor again. He overtook her and stood in front of her. "How do I know you’re telling the truth?"

"Trust me, and trust the Dark Lord," she replied. "I won’t lie to you, you can believe that much."