"What?" he asked as she stared up at the darkness of the canopy.

"I didn't say anything," she whispered back.

"You don't have to. I can practically hear your brain churning from over here. What is it that has you so preoccupied you can't sleep?" he tried again.

"Nothing that cannot wait until the morning. You need to get some sleep." Reaching through the darkness, her hand found his arm. She trailed her fingers down it as far as she could reach, stopping at his elbow. Her thumb drew small circles around the curve of his arm.

"So do you. Out with it, Weasley," he insisted. She could practically hear his sigh, and she hadn't even broached the topic yet. It was the worst possible timing, and yet she was hardly going to get a better opening to bring it up than the one he'd just demanded.

"It really isn't a good time," she confessed, owning up to her fear. The last thing she wanted was a fight. She hardly saw him anymore and when she did, he was so stressed out from work that the smallest thing seemed to set him off. As it was, they already spent half their time fighting. It certainly hadn't been a good day by any means, but it hadn't been a particularly bad one, either, and she didn't want to ruin it now.

"There's never a good time," he said with another heavy sigh. She felt, rather than heard, him shifting in the bed, "But now I'm alert and won't be able to sleep either until you tell me what's bothering you. So out with it already so we can both get some sleep before I have to be up again."

Ginny refused to roll to face him. Instead, she continued to stare at the canopy as she turned the idea over and over in her head. Finally she said, "You need a break from work. And I thought we could go on a trip. Just the two of us. Mum has offered to watch Severus for us."

"Just the two of us?" He scoffed aloud. "I didn't realize that was even possible anymore."

"That's my point. We haven't been on a trip since Severus was born. And you need a little time off from work before you come completely unwound. You need a break. We need a break."

"Mmm, and this doesn't have anything to do with the reunion coming up in two weeks?" he asked.

Her stomach dropped. How did he know about the reunion? She knew for a fact that he was no longer in touch with any of his colleagues, and her family and friends had sworn up and down that they wouldn't even mention it in passing until she'd had a chance to discuss it with him.

"Don't make yourself sick trying to figure out who told me first," he said with another heavy sigh. It seemed the only sound he was capable of making these days. "You seem to forget that I went there too. My owl came the day before yours. I'm rather surprised you got an invite yourself."

Ginny's temper flared at his insinuation, but she bit her tongue. Lashing out at him now was the worst possible method of getting what she wanted. If she had any chance of convincing him to go, it was by playing sweet. And slightly stupid. "Of course your own came. I just wasn't sure if you'd even had a chance to look at it yet. You've hardly been home in ages, and it's not like you sit around reading the post when you do make it back."

"I'm going to save us both some time and headache, Weasley. The answer is no. And, just so that we're clear, spending a weekend in that place with those people is not what I would classify as spending some time alone."

"We wouldn't have to spend all the time with the others," she protested. "Granted, there are a few scheduled events throughout the weekend, but most of the time is left open. And it's such a big place that even if there is a substantial turn out, there will be plenty of places to find some privacy."

"The answer's still no." She felt him shift again, this time turning his back to her as he pulled the covers up. It was a defensive move he resorted to, trying to put literal space between them during an argument.

"Malfoy-"

"I swear on my wand, Weasley-"

"Just hear me out-"

"No," he snapped as he shot up in bed and turned to face her. Even in the darkness, she could read the irritation and anger in his face, "You listen to me. In what planet are you living on right now? In what universe would you ever think I would want to go back to that place?"

"You loved it there," she protested. "I cannot count the number of times you have bragged about how many different girls you shagged while you were there."

"Be that as it may, that is not my point. My point is that we've grown a lot since we were last there. I, for one, would like to think I've grown for the better. So I'm not exactly thrilled about the idea of going back and reliving what I was like back then."

"I wouldn't want to relive what you were like either," Ginny agreed. "You were a major prat. But that's not the point. Just stepping foot in the place is not going to suddenly change your personality. You aren't going to magically morph back into a former version of yourself."

"You are missing the point."

"You haven't made your point!" As hard as she tried to remain level headed, her Weasley temperament was not behaving.

"If I can get time off from work, which is highly unlikely, but if I could, do you really think I'm going to spend it around a bunch of people who are going to ostracize me? You think my ideal weekend off from work is being around a bunch of people who are going to judge me and remind me of what an asshole I was? I'll let you in on a little secret, Weasley. It's not."

"You really think that much of yourself, eh?" It was entirely the wrong route to take, but he had an innate way of pushing her buttons just so. "You really think that these people who haven't seen each other in over a decade are going to have nothing better to do than sit around and gossip about you? Get over yourself."

His hand caught her arm in the dark as he moved wordlessly towards her. He was on her within a second, his body pressing hers into the mattress. "No," she snapped, shoving him back to his side of the bed. "No," she repeated adamantly, as much to herself as to him. "This is not one of those arguments, Malfoy. You don't just get to push it off and ignore it. Apart from Harry and Hermione and Luna, I haven't seen any of my friends in ages. I want to go back. To see everyone and to play a scrummage game of Quidditch. I want to get out of this house and away from the joke shop. And, strike me down for even saying this, but I want a few days off from Severus.

"I'm exhausted. You're exhausted. It'll be good for us."

"I know you have this mindset where you believe that if you just keep talking, I'll suddenly change my mind. But the answer is still no. And the answer is still going to be no, no matter how many times you ask. So just give it a rest. I'm not in the mood."

"You stay here, then. Mum's already going to have James and Roxanne, so she'll take Severus for the weekend regardless. I'll go to the reunion, and you can mope around this bloody manor all you want, alone."

"Dammit-"

"Oh, no. Don't you 'dammit' me," she snapped as she shoved the duvet away and climbed out of the massive bed.

"Where are you going?" he demanded, snatching his wand from his nightstand. "Lumos," he said, catching her silhouette as she pulled her robe up her slender shoulders and wrapped it around her.

"I am going to go sleep in one of the other hundred beds in this bloody house tonight," she yelled back at him. She tried so hard not to raise her voice. Not for her sake or for his, but to keep from waking Severus, who slept only two doors down the hallway.

He scrambled out of the bed as well, foregoing his robe as he stalked across the room after her. She'd already reached the door and was turning the handle when he caught her wrist and pulled her hand away. "You don't get to leave."

"If I stay, then you're leaving. Take your pick."

"Dammit, Ginny!" He slammed the fist not holding his wand against the door by her head.

"What? What?" she practically screamed it the second time.

"Every bloody night it's like this. Why?"

"Because this is our life now!" she said with almost a delirious laugh. "I burn myself out at the shop, and then come home to a demanding three-year-old that breaks everything he touches. And you work yourself sick at the hospital and come home pissed at the world. We don't have the energy left to do anything but fight."

"I'm tired of it. All of it."

"Really?" she asked, the word dripping with sarcasm. "Because I'm having a hell of a good time with it."

They stared each other down in the shadows casted from the light at the tip of his wand. He looked ghostly with his pale blond hair, and she looked like a girl set ablaze with anger. "I don't know how to do this anymore," she told him, her voice barely a whisper now. "You only seek me out for comfort, and I'm tired of being used. I want to be wanted. You don't even see me anymore. You don't see anything."

"Can we not do this tonight?" he asked wearily. It always came back to the same six words.

Ginny laughed softly, somewhat hysterically, as she lifted her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes. Taking in a jagged breath, she moved her hand to his cheek, her wet thumb brushing his soft, pale skin. "Good night, Malfoy," she said with a resigned kiss. Then her hand returned to the handle, and she slipped out the door almost silently. And all he could do was stand there, frozen, thinking that her 'good night' had sounded an awful lot like 'good-bye'.