Never Again!

Chapter 8

Malfoy was the second apprentice?

I stared at Malfoy as he sat down. His eyes roamed the compartment, his eyes lingering a bit as they met mine. Finally, I broke his gaze and looked to Professor Dumbledore.

"Now that we are all here, I shall introduce everyone," Dumbledore said. When he came to Malfoy and me, everyone in the compartment stiffened. I knew why and what they were thinking. They thought I looked very much like Ginny Weasley, but they couldn't believe that I could be her. They all believed me to be dead.

"And now, I would like to introduce Mr. Malfoy, who will be a Potions Master apprentice, but we also have another..." Everyone turned to look at me; I felt face burning and looked down into my lap.

"This will be quite a shock to you all. Just over a week ago, I discovered that Miss Weasley did not die along with the rest of her family the night Voldemort attacked the Burrow."

Everyone gasped; I scowled. Why did Dumbledore say that as if he still believed the rest of my family was dead? Didn't anyone know that they were still alive? Silently I cursed myself for not reading the wizarding papers anymore. I hadn't touched a newspaper since I had read about Voldemort's attack on my family. I looked up and found that Dumbledore was watching me closely. I remained silent; I decided not to correct his statement that made it sound as if the Weasleys were dead. I knew that Malfoy had made that mistake when he had said that he read in the papers that my family died three months ago. But I didn't care if he was right or not. I tuned out Dumbledore's voice and began thinking about things I had been trying not to think about over the past week. Why hadn't I been transported to Grimmauld Place? Why hadn't I received an Aztec Amulet? Pushing those thoughts out of my mind, I tried to concentrate on what Dumbledore was saying.

"...and so, once we arrive, a house elf will take you to your new living quarters. There, you need to create your own password with the portraits outside your rooms. Once you've settled in, please join the feast in the Great Hall."

I murmured my acknowledgement, as did everyone else. Dumbledore stood up to leave the compartment, and I followed him.

"Could I talk to you, Headmaster?" I asked, staring daggers at him.

"Come now, Miss Weasley, you should call me Albus and of course we can talk."

We stepped through the door and walked over to an empty compartment. As soon as the door closed behind us, I began interrogating him.

"What did you mean when you said 'did not die with the rest of her family?' It sounds to me like nobody knows that the Weasleys are still alive..." I trailed off, my voice betraying my bitterness.

"As you surely know, I attempted to contact you multiple times during the week before September 1^st; you seemed to have been avoiding me."

I hung my head, embarrassed. It was true. I had received owls from Dumbledore, but the letters lay on my table, unopened. I wasn't ready to speak with him again.

"When your family arrived at Grimmauld Place, the Order had a meeting. It seemed that Voldemort had come to the Burrow to torture and kill the entire Weasley family, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Voldemort seemed to think that everyone had perished, so we felt it necessary for all of them to go into hiding."

Dumbledore's explanation angered me. "Why! Why was that necessary? Tom never focused on my family in particular! Sure, he hates the Weasleys, but he only goes after the people that are a threat to him. The Weasleys are well known but don't have that much influence in the wizarding world! It's only Harry that he might go after, but we all knew that before the attack and we didn't go into hiding then! He won't single my family out again," I stated firmly, ending my rant.

Dumbledore seemed surprised by my outburst, nevertheless continued on calmly.

"The Weasleys are a symbol to the wizarding world; they are a family that had opposed Voldemort for many years, everyone knows this. The Order believed that Voldemort wanted to kill the Weasleys to strike fear in the wizarding world. Therefore, it was imperative they go into hiding!"

"The Order...the Order..." I said nastily. "Who came up with that brilliant theory? Tom doesn't operate like that! He goes after people who threaten his position or people who can give him something he wants. He knows better than to go after the most protected family in the world just because of their 'symbol status' and for protecting Harry, when his only reason to do so would be to frighten people!" I sneered.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrow. "And how is it that you know this, Miss Weasley? How do you know what Voldemort will or will not do?"

"Shit," I thought. I had let my emotions get the best of me again.

"Uh...I-it's just a guess, really...um..." I stammered, trying to think of something to change the subject. "Here's a question - why didn't I go into hiding when you found out I was alive?"

"I asked you where you've been and you told me the story. You talked about your adopted daughter, Elizabeth Weasley. I see how much you care about Elizabeth when you talk about her. Your love and willingness to protect her runs deep already and I knew you wouldn't go into hiding if it meant leaving her with somebody else."

I opened my mouth to argue again, but stopped short. He was right, I couldn't leave Lizz now. Nevertheless, I was still furious about the whole situation. I tried to appear calm outwardly, but on the inside, I was still seething. How could this, this, overgrown bearded troll just stand here in front of me and act so calm....

- "you know, he WAS right about you not leaving Lizz for anything," an annoying voice in the back of my mind said.

- "yeah...well...he's WRONG about the rest!"

"Well Miss Weasley," Dumbledore said, "it is time for me to take my leave. I think I will go try and find the lunch trolley and get some lemon drops...I always have wondered why she never stops by the teacher's compartments..." he muttered as he left.

I found myself alone in the compartment. I decided to stay in there by myself; I didn't want to be around anyone else at the moment. The rest of the trip went without incident, but not without some worrying on my part. Was Lizz okay? Was she making friends? "Stop it!" I thought to myself, "Lizz will be fine!"

As Hogwarts came into view, I sighed and blinked back tears. This was the first time that I had been back since that awful day. Once the train rolled into the station, the teachers disembarked and got into the carriages, and then the students followed. I tried to catch a glimpse of Lizz, but couldn't find her anywhere in the crowd. I stepped into a carriage, but stopped short when I realized that Malfoy was in there already.

"Great!" I groaned.

"Yeah...well, I'm not too happy about it either, Weaslette! So shut your trap!" he snapped, obviously offended.

"No need to get all defensive on me, Ferret!" I retorted, trying to suppress a grin. "Ferret, that name never gets old..." I thought to myself.

"I'm not defensive!" he muttered.

"Spoken like a five-year-old," I sniggered. He glared at me, but said nothing in return. The rest of the trip to the castle passed in silence. When we arrived, we both got out hurriedly. House elves were standing there, ready to take us to our living quarters. As we walked through the corridors, I looked around at everyone. All of the teachers were talking to each other in hushed voices. I glanced at Malfoy and saw that he was talking to Snape. He looked at me at precisely the same time and we both averted our eyes. The other teachers began breaking off and turning down different corridors until it was only Malfoy and me following our house elves.

One of the house elves, who had introduced herself to us as Tammy, suddenly tripped and fell to the ground.

"Oh!" I cried as I rushed forward to help her.

"Pathetic," Malfoy drawled. The house elf stood up quickly, looking embarrassed.

"Tammy is so sorry Misses and Mister...so sorry! Tammy will not do it again...oh!" She was quickly working herself into a tizzy.

"It's all right, don't worry about it," I said to Tammy while glaring at Malfoy. "What a jerk!" I thought.

As it turned out, my living quarters were at the end of a long corridor on the seventh floor and to my dismay, it was directly across from Malfoy. The elves left quickly after informing us that the first word directed to our portrait would become our password and it could only be changed by us. Malfoy and I glowered at each other for a moment before turning to our portraits.

I examined my portrait; it was of beautiful lake with trees and bushes all around. "Fiducia," I told my portrait. It swung forward to let me in.

I entered my new home and inspected it. It was really very nice, with a furnished living room, a small kitchen, bathroom and a rather large bedroom. All in all...not bad. I plopped on my couch, wishing that I could be back at the Burrow with my family. But those days were long gone...

"Well Ginny," I thought, "this is your new life...deal with it!"