Author's Note: I have been away too long guys, sorry to keep you waiting but i hope you enjoy this. Towards the last few lines i got very emotional because i can't believe what's happening...i'm soo happy about it! (wow im making it sound like i dont even plan the story line, i do i promise) anyway enough babbling...just enjoy and review :D
When Ginny woke in the morning her body complained loudly about being moved, hardly surprising considering the recent lack of sleep, care and attention she'd given it. But despite protesting legs she groggily got up and left the station.
When she'd walked a good few blocks she felt a lot better and a lot more like breakfast. Ginny nipped over to the first Starbucks she saw and ordered a muffin and coffee. If I eat like this for much longer I may as well take out shares in a few coffee companies. She sat down at a table near the back, she was getting paranoid about windows because she was convinced that Death Eaters were everywhere sad really when I think about it. She thought, before opening Draco's diary again, there must be something I missed…the cure to what?
--
"I wonder what she can have found in there?" Draco paced the hall looking back at the dejected forms that now littered the kitchen. Bill, Charlie and Mr and Mrs Weasley sat on chairs around the table, all sustaining various injuries. Ron cradled Hermione in his arms to one side of the room, everyone else was slumped against the walls with obvious spaces where Eloise Midgeon and Colin Creevey would have been; had they returned alive. Draco couldn't look at them for shame. For shame of doing nothing for too long when he could have been helping, for shame of the mark that was burnt deeper than just his skin. Then it hit him, the mark. But she wouldn't really go there would she? Maybe she would…shit but would I? Can I trust my parents anymore?
--
As soon as Ginny saw the sketch of the mark drawn behind the words of the chapter about the cure, she knew what she had to do. To hell with not trusting the Malfoy's, they might be her only hope. She paid for her order and walked briskly from the café, thinking hard. She knew she'd never get through the gates at Malfoy manner that was for sure, but maybe if she aparated directly to Draco's room she could bypass the security. Highly unlikely, but it was the only plan she had. She found a deserted subway soon enough and ducked inside, Malfoy Manor, Draco's Bedroom, She thought as hard as she could, clutching the diary to her chest fearfully.
With a crack she appeared in a darkened room. It was huge, nearly the size of the Weasley's top floor, but there was none of the character of the Burrow. Dark furniture, dark walls, the odd Slytherin emblem or motto emblazoned here and there, but nothing that showed her any of Draco. With a flip of her stomach she laid a hand, just briefly, on the covers of Draco's bed. Then she swiftly fled the room. She ran down the stairs and hadn't even reached the bottom when she saw the two wands covering her; Ginny slowed to a walk and drew her own wand. Already she had misgivings about coming here.
"Give me one reason why we shouldn't turn you in Weasley." The tired voice of Lucious Malfoy reached Ginny's ears. She looked from him to his wife and was almost moved by pity, they weren't old, and yet they looked it. They looked tired, and dirty and scared…was that even possible?
"Because the Dark Lord would kill you as soon as look at you. You're a deserter, you've got no one now, no one to pay you and no one you can turn me in to."
"Insolent child." Lucious spat at her, but allowed her to continue to the bottom of the stairs.
"I have an offer for you." She was greeted with stony silence, and gulped before finding her voice again. "Can you cure it?"
"I don't know what you mean." Narcissa's cold voice was barely a whisper as she turned away from Ginny. Suddenly Ginny found her strength growing, where the words were coming from she had no idea, but come they did.
"Look at you both. You're pathetic. You're nothing. Look what you left behind."
"Quiet child, or I swear I'll kill you." Mr Malfoy strode towards her and jabbed his wand at her throat, Ginny knew now she was on the right track and didn't raise her wand in defence.
"If you were going to kill me, you would have done it already." He lowered his wand slightly,
"Leave." He muttered, "Leave us and let them come for us, we've accepted our fate, maybe you should accept yours."
"You used two be young and beautiful," She was addressing Narcissa more than Lucious now, "You two used to be the highest of aristocracy, the most favoured of His workers, utterly in love with one another. But you were smart too, some of the brightest of your time, you saw what was going down long before anyone else, maybe even before Dumbledore…and you were working on a cure for the Dark Mark."
"It was useless." Lucious whispered,
"If you cured it, would others follow you?" Narcissa began to walk away again. Ginny grabbed her arm suddenly over come with desperation, "Please! You might be the last hope. If you can cure it, then maybe, just maybe we might stand a chance in this. We might even be able to find out how it keeps following me everywhere." Narcissa's finger nails gripped Ginny's arm tighter, she looked at her strangely,
"You're following it."
"What?"
"That's how it starts, when the Dark Lord wants to capture someone he has connections with. He'd been close to you, he knows you and he knows your mind. It's not following you. Everywhere you go, everywhere you apparate it's pulling you towards it. Even here, you were pulled here by the Dark Mark and the more people He recruits the stronger it will become; harder and harder to resist." Mrs Malfoy's voice cracked and she dropped Ginny's arm.
"Oh god!" Then it all fitted into place. Her thinking of St Mungo's at the exact time the Death Eaters had, the Graffiti she saw everywhere, the Death Eaters in the square at Grimauld Place; it all made sense and scared her. "Would they follow?" She asked again,
"No. They're lost." Lucious whispered,
"Yes!" Narcissa's voice cut through his, "I know they would."
"If you cure it for me I can offer you protection, allegiance to the side."
"We would we want allegiance to the side that's losing." Mr Malfoy rounded on her,
"Because it might be your last hope." Then what Ginny witnessed next was something far beyond her understanding, beyond what she had always been told about the Malfoy's. Lucious and his wife looked at each other over Ginny's head. Tears welled in Mrs Malfoy's eyes and she nodded at her husband. He suddenly side stepped around Ginny and grabbed his wife by the arms, kissing her lips passionately. Ginny could have cried that's Draco and me, she thought sadly.
"We'll do it." Narcissa told her. Ginny nodded gratefully,
"I need to ask you one more favour. Do you know where your son is?" She hardly dared to breathe, the moment she needed could be so close to her it was unbearable.
"Go up to his room." Mrs Malfoy told her,
"But wh-?"
"Just do it."
Ginny took the stairs two at a time, she hadn't taken a breath for what felt like several minutes now, she could hardly dare to believe that what she wanted might be actually be within her reach after so long. She swung open the door to his bedroom and managed to catch her breath for the first time in what felt like years,
"Draco." She whispered it, the name sounding foreign in her mouth,
"Ginny." His grey eyes met hers and neither could move.
