INTERTWINING ROADS

CHAPTER 16: PAVING THE PATH

"You better believe it red." Blaise said.

"Oh, I believe you Blaise. I am just feeling sorry for the poor girl who has to deal with you." Ginny said.

"Haha... you crack me up red." Blaise said.

"You will be red if I get down there to hit the shit out of you." Ginny said, keeping the remaining glass ornaments in the cupboard while standing atop the double ladder.

"You are the only person who has made it this far alive after calling her by that name." Harry said, leaning on the kitchen counter, drinking coffee.

"Consider yourself lucky Zabini." Ginny said, climbing down the ladder.

"Why are you using a ladder anyways? Just wave, and you're done." Blaise said.

"Exercise." Ginny said.

"I can see that you need it." Blaise mumbled.

Harry choked out his coffee while Ginny was outraged.

"ARE YOU CALLING ME FAT, ZABINI???!" Ginny shouted.

"NO! No. Definitely not. You look lovely Ginny. I was just joking." Blaise said, backing away from the fiery red head.

Ginny huffed and went into the living room.

Harry recovered from his minor choking incident and turned to Blaise.

"You clearly don't value your life." Harry mumbled. "Anyway, we have to leave now. Kingsley has news." Harry said while grabbing some floo powder and stepping into the fireplace.

"Yeah sure. Bye red!" Blaise hollered and disappeared after Harry, before Ginny could kill him.
---

"I have received news. A murder has been committed. A body of a man named Reed Hill was found in the ministry's auror department. The forensics department confirmed the identity and the cause of death. It was found that he was strangled and choked by vines that originated from his stomach. This particular type of death was used as a punishment in the very beginning of our magical history." Kingsley said to the aurors seated before him.

"These vines grew from a crystalline, amber colored seed called 'the river of life'. Ironic name for a seed of death. They were cultivated for punishment purposes specifically before their banishment. They were eradicated from existence, according to ministry records. But how this man got one in his stomach, remains a mystery." Kingsley reported.

"But why were they cultivated specifically for punishing people?" Ron asked.

"The problem with this seed was that, it needed living flesh to grow. When someone eats them, it pierces all of their arteries and veins and grows inside them. Painful death awaits anyone who eats them. It grew accidentally when a very powerful herbologist got involved in a fight in a greenhouse where most of his rare and dangerous hybrids were grown. His blood was soaked up by this plant and it grew on him, killing him. The remaining person stole everything and experimented a little more and created stable hybrids. It was popular with the early azkaban punishers." Kingsley said.

Everyone gulped. No one deserved that torture.

"I have to ask our herbology specialists to work on this plant and figure out a way to create more seeds. Our enemies are powerful. We need to find a potion that nullifies the seed, that even when eaten, does not kill the eater. Potion makers have to work on the double once that is found." Kingsley said.

"That was the defence plan. Now, reports. Pleione? Jack? Rolf? Walter?" Kingsley asked.

"Using soul searching, Reed Hill was facing a man who was rather skeleton like. His body and face was hooded. That was the only thing I could pick up. That man's picture was pretty clear though. It would be safe to think that it was him who fed that seed to Reed." Pleione said.