~Chapter Three~

Ginny sighed and put a hand to her forehead, rubbing gently, "We're not going to find anything," she said, shoving a large book off her lap and letting it fall to the ground with a thud.  "It's no use Hermione, just give up." She pushed a stack of books across the bed towards Hermione and leaned back against the pillow, closing her eyes in defeat.

Hermione frowned, "It has to be here somewhere…I can't imagine that my books wouldn't have anything on it! We just have to keep looking," she said stubbornly as she picked up the book Ginny had been leafing through, "It has to be here."

"No it doesn't!" Ginny snapped, "I told you, we're giving up." She pulled the book away from Hermione and set it on top of the others, "Just give it a rest, I'm sick of this.  Why don't we do something fun? Go grab our brooms and join the guys…"

Hermione frowned again and looked at her, "I can't believe you're quitting Virginia Weasley!  I never labeled you as a quitter!"

"I'm not a quitter Hermione!" She snapped angrily "I just know when to quit, which apparently you don't!  This has to do with me, not you, so just give up! I told you I don't want to look anymore."

"Well you can give up, but I'm not," Hermione said as she grabbed another book and opened it.

Ginny pushed it out of her hands, making it slide off her lap and onto the floor where it landed with a large thud.  Hermione's eyes went wide and she whirled around on Ginny angrily, "Excuse me if I don't enjoy sitting around watching you pity yourself when we could actually be doing something!"

"I'm not pitying myself," Ginny replied an angry edge to her voice, "I'm merely giving into the inevitable!  To what has to be done, what is going to happen!  Why get my hopes up?"

"Nothing is set in stone," Hermione frowned.

"Maybe not in the muggle world, but in the wizarding world, some are!" Ginny said angrily.

Hermione was just about to respond angrily when the door opened and Ron stepped into the doorway, his cheeks red from being out in the sun for a long period of time, and his shirt sticking to him like a second skin from all the sweat, "What in bloody hell is going on?" He asked picking up the book off the floor and smoothing out the pages before handing it back to Hermione.

"Ginny's given up," Hermione accused, throwing a glare at Ginny before turning back to Ron.  "We could find something, but she won't even try!"

Ron looked over at Ginny, and then back at Hermione, "Maybe she's had enough looking for now…maybe later," he said, trying to calm both of them down. 

"Maybe I just don't want to think about it anymore!" Ginny said tears coming to her eyes, "maybe I just want to forget about it for right now!" She crossed her arms and turned away from the both of them.

Ron sighed, "Ginny…" He put an arm on her shoulder comfortingly, "We don't have to talk about it right now, we can just do something else… like chess, or…we could go play more quidditch, or go for a swim in the lake…" He looked over at Hermione pointedly, "Right?"

"Um…right," Hermione said, nodding as she put the book down on top of the others, "Maybe some other time we can look through them, or Harry and I could look while you go do something else…"

Ginny sighed, "Fine, let's just go swimming or something." She didn't really feel like doing anything at the moment, but if it got her mind off the wizard promise and Draco Malfoy, and if it would mean that they would leave her alone for a while, then she figured it would be all right.

"Why don't you and Harry go and get ready, and Ginny and I will meet you down there," Hermione responded ushering Ron out of the room.  When he was gone she shut the door and sighed, "I'm sorry Ginny, I should have realized that this isn't easy for you, and it wouldn't be something you'd want to do…"

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," Ginny sighed, "you were only trying to help, I just need some time where I'm not thinking about it.  You know, just something fun."  She shrugged, "Maybe swimming will be just what the doctor ordered."

Hermione nodded, already digging around in her trunk for her swimsuit, "Besides, it's such a nice day," she said idly as she grabbed it from the bottom and disappeared behind Ginny's dresser to change, only her head visible from the top.

Ginny nodded, grabbed her swimsuit, and changed quickly, "Come on, maybe we can beat the guys down there," she smiled and grabbed two towels, and when Hermione was finished changing, she opened the door and headed down the stairs, Hermione running after her.

Outside it was a nice clear day, and although it was hot, there was a slight breeze that made it bearable.  Ginny kicked off her shoes and walked through their backyard, careful not to step on any of the gnomes who had found their way back into the yard.  The lake in the back was not huge, but it wouldn't be called small either.  Unlike many lakes, the water in this one was crystal clear, and always at the perfect temperature, having been bewitched by her father.  Leaving her towel on the grass, Ginny walked out into the water, and waited for Ron, Hermione, and Harry to join her.

Hermione left her towel next to Ginny's and walked in, ducking under once, pushing the hair out of her eyes, and came up, floating on her back, "It's so nice out here," she said as she closed her eyes, letting herself drift along.

"It's always been one of my favorite places," Ginny said and ducked under the water again, coming up, "Dad has it charmed so that it never gets dirty or too cold."  She ran her hand along the top of the water, "Although I imagine it wouldn't be too cold today even if it was at its normal temperature."

Hermione nodded, and continued to float on her back, her eyes closed.  "I wonder where Harry and Ron are," she said and a second later, she found out when two large splashes hit her, and she looked up to see Harry and Ron had jumped in.  She pushed the water out of her eyes and sighed, "Some of us were enjoying a relaxing time until you jumped in!"

Ginny laughed and splashed her, "Relax Hermione, it's not a big deal." She looked over at Harry and laughed, "you know usually you take your glasses off before you get into the water."

Harry shrugged sheepishly. "I know, but I have this string that muggles use to hold them on," he showed her, "and Hermione put a spell on them so I can still see when they're wet…so I figure it's not a big deal." He smiled and ducked under the water.

Ron shook his head. "Muggles have always been odd sorts," he said as he sunk into the water so that only his head was showing.

Hermione splashed him, "Hey! I'm half muggle you know."

"I know," Ron grinned, "thank you for proving my point!"  She rolled her eyes and started to float on her back again. 

A few hours later, Ginny got out of the water and put her towel around her waist, "I'm all wrinkled like a prune!" She laughed.

Harry shrugged, "But the look works for you," he grinned sitting next to her, Ginny rolled her eyes as Ron sat down next to her, and Hermione next to him.  She laid back and looked up at the sky. 

"Hmm…" Harry said as he studied the clouds and then pointed to one, "that one looks like a dog."

Ginny studied it for a minute and shook her head, "No, it's more like a cat."

"Nope, you're both wrong," Ron said smugly, "its a dragon."

Hermione laughed, "A dragon? You've got to be joking, it's clearly a wolf."

Ron studied the cloud again and shook his head, "Nope, I still see a dragon."

Ginny smiled as she listened to them and closed her eyes, slowly starting to fall asleep, when she felt someone nudge her shoulder, "I think Mom's calling us," Ron said.  Ginny paused, and sure enough she could hear her mother's voice.

"Virginia Weasley get in here right now!" her mother called.

Ginny sighed, "Come on you guys."  She stood up and wrapped the towel around her waist again, pushing a wet piece of hair out of her eyes, "We better get back, she probably wants help with dinner or something…" She slid her shoes on and started back through the yard, the other three at her heels, and when she entered the room, she called, "I'm here Mum!"  Not seeing her mother in the kitchen, she headed into the living room and stopped short.  Seated on the worn sofa was her grandmother, Alice Lemmons, and on the other side of her, her parents.  Standing next to the fireplace, a smirk on his face, stood Draco Malfoy, and seated stiffly on two chairs next to the fireplace were Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy.  Seated on a chair and looking very impatient was a man Ginny didn't recognize.

"Hello Virginia," Draco smirked as he watched her, "You look a little wet."

Ginny looked over at her mother.  "What are they doing here?" She hissed, as Ron, Hermione and Harry came in behind her.

"Malfoy," Ron sneered angrily and started towards him, but Hermione put a hand on his arm.

"Weasley, Potter," Draco sneered as he looked over at them, "having a good summer I take it?  Trapped in this…what do you call it again? A house…a burrow?" 

"Get out of here," Ron said his voice stern. 

"Ronald Weasley," Molly said standing up and walking over to them, "The Malfoys are our guests… we need to speak with them and Ginny alone." She stressed the word "alone".  "Why don't you and Harry and Hermione go to Diagon Alley and see Fred and George? You haven't been to the joke shop lately."

Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione interrupted, "That sounds lovely Mrs. Weasley, we'll be back in a few hours." She grabbed Ron and Harry's hands and dragged them out of the room.

Ginny watched them go, and wrapped her towel around her more, suddenly self-conscious,  "And why don't you go change?" Molly suggested, "And be quick about it… we don't want to wait all day."

Ginny nodded absently and turned and ran up the stairs.  After drying off, she quickly pulled on a pair of shorts and a top and pulled her wet hair up into a ponytail after running a brush through it.  As she looked in the mirror, she sighed.  She looked like a mess, but knew there was no time to do anything about it now; besides, there wasn't anyone downstairs she was trying to impress.  When she came back downstairs, there were three new people in the room, only one of which she recognized as her grandfather, Paul Lemmons, who was notorious for being late.

"Ginny," Molly said as she came in, "we need to all talk. This is William T. Bloor from the Ministry of Magic, he deals with Wizarding Promises and contracts," She pointed to the man who Ginny hadn't recognized.

He stood up and shook her hand with a tense smile, "Nice to meet you Virginia."

"Ginny," she corrected and shook his hand.  He appeared to be about her father's age, with thin brown hair, and blue eyes.  He was dressed in dress robes, sporting the ministry of magic logo, and was carrying a briefcase of some sort.

He nodded, "of course, Ginny," he smiled and sat back down.

"This is Alucard Black, Draco's grandfather," Molly continued and pushed her gently towards him.  Ginny reached out and shook his hand, as he nodded curtly, but said nothing.  She imagined he had looked very much like Lucius had when he was younger; with piercing eyes and hair that was almost white.  She couldn't tell if it had originally been that color, or turned white from age.  There was something about his look that made her skin crawl, and she hurriedly pulled her hand back and turned to the older woman standing next to him.

"And this is his wife, and Draco's grandmother, Drucilla Black," Molly continued. 

Ginny nodded and shook the woman's hand as well, "Nice to meet you," she said politely, and the woman echoed the greeting, Ginny nodded and retreated quickly back to her seat, wondering what was going on.  This was not her idea of a pleasant afternoon, stuck in a room with two generations of Malfoys, and her grandparents and parents.  Ordinarily, she would have been thrilled to see her grandmother, but right now, she was on her list of people she would rather not see for as long as possible.  She pulled a chair up next to the sofa, and sat in it, her mother on her left.

"Now," William started and pulled out a spherical object, placing it in the center of the table.  "I have read and re-read the conditions of this agreement, and I can find no loopholes, not to say it isn't valid." He pulled some papers out of a briefcase and set it on the table.  "This meeting is not to authenticate the actual promise itself, but to sign the necessary papers, and obviously look at the agreement itself." He placed his hand on the sphere.  "What I have here is a pensieve, it contains the actual agreement inside. Do I hear any objections to opening it?"

"Just get on with it," Narcissa's father snapped, "I don't have all day, I'm an old man, I'd just like to get this over with, and get home.  This is a waste of time!"

"You were the one who put the deal in place!" Ginny's grandfather retorted, "it is you who were in debt to me, not the other way around!  Just live with it, and let us go through the necessary steps!"

His eyes flashed, and he turned back to William, "Fine," he snapped, obviously upset at the fact that someone dare remind him this was all his entire fault.

"Now I understand that you might not like everything you see in here…" William started, and Ginny took her eyes off the pensieve when she felt someone watching her, and looked up to catch Draco's eye.  He smirked and turned his attention to Mr. Bloor.  "But we do have to get through it all, so if there are no unnecessary interruptions, we should be done with it as quickly as possible." 

He opened the pensieve and as Ginny watched, she slowly saw the room disappear, and she found herself in a very old, plain kitchen.  There were four people in the room, two of which she recognized immediately as her grandparents, and as she watched her grandmother she was shocked to see how closely her own mother resembled her.  Two others were seated at a table, a bag of money on the table between them, they were holding hands, coffee cups sitting in front of them. 

Ginny's grandmother was busy enchanting brushes to wash the dishes for her before she too took a seat at the table.  She reached out to see if she could touch anything in front of her, and then scolded herself, of course she couldn't, it was just a memory, yet it seemed so real.

~*Start Flash Back*~

"You owe a thousand galleons," Paul said as he took a sip of his coffee, "I won't accept just half of it."

"We… don't have the rest," Drucilla responded, looking down at the bag between them, "this is all we have."

"Well it's not good enough," he snapped and pushed the bag back.  "We agreed that we would loan you the money and you would repay us within three months!"

"What are we supposed to do? We don't have the money!" Alucard responded.  "What do you want?"

"My money," he answered evenly and looked at them across the table, "I suppose I'll just have to go to Gringotts and have your pay checks sent to me directly…"

"No!" Alucard said quickly, "If you do that then we won't have anything to live on!"

"That's not my problem," came the response from Paul.

"What if…what if we gave you something else?" Drucilla spoke up.

"What could you give us?" Alice asked, sitting down next to her husband, taking his hand.

Drucilla looked over at her husband, "Well…"

He sighed and placed a hand on her stomach, and watched her, a silent agreement going on between them, and he looked up and said finally, "Drucilla is pregnant, you can have our son."

"Your son?" Alice repeated, and looked over at Paul, who nodded, "I suppose that will work.  But you have to promise- it has to be a wizard promise- wizard honor."

He nodded, "of course…"

"And there will be certain terms and conditions," Paul continued.

"Just name them," Alucard said quickly, "We'll agree to them."

"They must marry before his seventeenth birthday," he said, "They must produce a child, and must be married three years." He paused. "And it must be passed down from generation to generation until it is fulfilled."

"Never!" He snapped angrily, "I will never agree to that, if we promise this now and it does not get fulfilled, we will not be in debt to you for the years to come!" 

"Fine," Paul shrugged, "I can always contact Gringotts; you will just have to live on a smaller salary, move into a smaller house, make new friends… it doesn't bother me."

"If I had known you would be like this Paul, I would have never asked you for money!" He snapped angrily.

"I learned from you…remember Alucard?" He said as he watched him, "all those years…you told me how to be a good businessman, and now when the tables are turned you don't like it."

Alucard glared at him, fuming, Drucilla paled as she looked over at her husband, who's hand had dropped from her stomach onto his own lap, his shoulders tense, his jaw set, "Fine," he said after a long time, "I'll agree to those terms."  He glanced over at his wife, and something flashed in his eyes but was gone a second later.  "I'll agree to those terms," he said again, with a little more conviction.  "But our debt must be cleared after that."

Paul nodded, "Agreed," he replied, and pulled out a quill, and started to write down the agreement, including everything they had agreed on.  When he was done, they both signed and dated it, sealing it with their wands, and then they both touched the tips of their wands together, and a flash of light came out from each, clouding the view of anything else.  When it was over, they both slipped their wands back into their pockets.

"It was nice doing business with you," Alucard said curtly, and he stood up, pulling his wife up with him, leaving the room, without looking back or saying anything else.

~*End Flash Back*~

The memory ended as the pensieve closed, and there was a, eerie silence in the air.  Ginny shifted, still not sure she believed what she had seen.  "Now then," William said, breaking the silence, "I have the original document here…signed and dated." He set it out on the table, "It is authentic; we have checked it for flaws, and it is iron clad and completely binding."  He watched everyone, and when no one moved to double check the document, or say anything, he cleared his throat and said, "Right, so, all we have to have done is these two documents signed, by both Mr. Black and Mr. Lemmons, then both Ginny and Draco."  He placed a rather expensive looking quill on the table, "I will notarize it," he added as he waited for someone to step forward.

"What…what if I don't sign it now?" Ginny asked as she looked up, brought of the daze she was still in, her eyes flickering up from the closed pensieve to the piece of paper laying on the table.

William frowned, "Well Ginny, the papers have to be signed today.  They need to be processed, and it won't be long before Draco here turns 17.  He turns seventeen in July," he replied.

Ginny took a deep breath, and looked over at her parents.  "Just sign Ginny," Molly said softly as she watched her, "there is nothing else we can do."

"Draco," Lucius said, and cocked his head towards the quill, "sign, and get this over with." He scowled as he watched the document, and Draco stepped over to it, picking up the quill.  He studied it for a minute.  "Don't just stand there like an idiot," Lucius scowled, "Sign the bloody paper so we can get out of this hellhole."

Ginny glanced over at her mother who quickly tensed and held her head a little higher, "Go on, after Draco is done Ginny," she said tensely, and Ginny sighed, stood up, and stepped over to the table.

Draco leaned down over the paper and signed with a flourish, Draco Malfoy.  He then dated it and handed the pen to Ginny with a smirk on his face, "Here you go darling," he said in a mocking tone.

Ginny glared and pulled the quill away from him, and brought it down to the document, pausing an inch above the paper, letting the tip of the quill hover for a minute.  She looked over at her parents, who nodded solemnly, and she quickly brought it down and signed her name, her signature missing the usual flourish, and looking rather plain next to Draco's.  When she had signed it, she put down the pen and backed up slowly, and sat down, biting her lip, trying not to cry.

Alucard stepped forward and signed his name quickly, his signature slanted and rushed, before throwing the quill toward Paul, who caught it, with an angry look on his face, the ink leaving a stain on his hand.  He too signed the paper before he handed it back to William.  "Very good," William said with a smile, his cheeriness lost on the group, "Well then…" He put the paper back in his brief case and closed it after notarizing it.  "I wish you all a good summer…" He shook everyone's hand and grabbed a handful of floo powder, and shouted clearly, "Ministry of Magic!"

When he had gone, Lucius stood up and said, "Come Draco, Narcissa, it is time to go."  He did not waste his time on the formal goodbyes, he simply walked out the door, careful to hold his robes up slightly so they did not drag on the floor, which he scowled at in distaste.  Narcissa followed, wordlessly, too wrapped up in her own thoughts to say goodbye.  Draco, after scowling at Ginny and the Weasleys, left the room as well.  The Blacks had slipped out while William was using floo powder to get to the Ministry, and all that was left of them were their empty chairs.

Molly sighed as she began to straighten up.  No one knew what to say; finally Paul broke the silence, "Insufferable lot," he said.  "I can't believe I even lent them money in the first place."

Alice frowned and looked at him, "Oh be quiet Paul, it's been a long day, let it go, I'm sure no one wants to talk about this anymore."

Ginny nodded and stood up, "I'm…I'm going to my room," she said and hurried up the stairs, determined not to cry in front of them. 

"Maybe I should go see if she's okay," Molly said standing up, "I'm sure this all upset her very much…"

"Well of course it did! It's a Malfoy," Paul said with a frown as he settled back against the cushions.

"Leave her be," Alice said after giving her husband a look, "She'll just want time to herself…to think, and I'm sure we're the last people she wants to see after all this."

Molly sighed, "I suppose you're right, I better get dinner started…Ron will be back soon with Harry and Hermione, and Fred and George said they were closing up the joke shop early to come home for dinner…" She looked slightly frazzled as she stood up and headed into the kitchen.

Arthur, who had been silent during the whole ordeal, not trust himself not to lash out at the Malfoys, now spoke up, "I'll help you." He stood and followed his wife into the kitchen, everyone lapsing into silence again.