Author's Note: aw its been a while, iv missed u guys :) sorry iv abandoned u, hopefully this short chapter will lead u into what will be the final countdown...testing ginny to the limit!!! xpleasereviewiloveyouallx
"Ginny are you sure you want to do this?" Draco looked at their packed suitcases and expectant Ginny and regretted ever mentioning that they could run away.
"Yes!" Ginny insisted, still smiling, "This is what we should have done years ago." Draco nodded and she smiled more, then he shook his head.
"You're wrong."
"Pardon?" Ginny rounded on him sharply, "What do you mean I'm wrong?"
"I mean we have to fight Ginny, do our duty."
"Our duty?" She squealed furiously, "Our duty? We did our effing duty for the last two years, we broke our hearts and now your saying we should do it again?"
"Yes." Draco replied evenly, "If you're the girl I love then you know we have to."
"Now you're wrong." Ginny turned away bitterly, her dream had just collapsed, quite dramatically, right before her eyes. "I'm not going to fight again, I'm not going to lose you-"
"Ginny you wont." Draco cut in loudly, she raised her eyebrows, hand poised in what would have been a comical way with underwear in, ready to be put in the suitcase. "I have something I- I should have told you earlier." He muttered. Ginny dropped her underwear and came to stand right in front of him, eyes imploring,
"What do you mean, Draco?" She begged,
"I mean if things ever got so bad that…I wouldn't let it happen." He shook his head and strode to a cabinet on the other side of the room, magically unlocking it with a movement of his hand. Ginny dashed after him and watched as he bent, removed a vial of purple liquid, and held it up to the light for her. "You see?"
"I see it. I don't see what you're trying to tell me though." She tapped her foot a little impatiently,
"I made this potion, so that if life ever got so bad for us, we would drink it and it would freeze our bodies and we'd stay imprisoned and hidden in this castle. We'd tell Hermione and when the time was right, when the world is one in which we can live together happily then she, or whoever she'd passed the secret to, would wake us up with the same potion and it would be reversed. We wouldn't have aged, we wouldn't have lost our love for each other."
"Oh Draco! Oh I love you." She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately, "Yes! If it ever gets too bad then we will take it. Oh Dray." They kissed more and Draco managed to free a hand to place the bottle down on a nearby surface. When Ginny came up for air she glanced at the cupboard and asked, "What are those other potions in there?" Draco glowered,
"I wasn't exactly I happy child. I made lots of poisons and things, though I never would have used them, I was a coward. You made me brave." Ginny shook her head, he would never believe that he was brave but then, he didn't see himself through her rose tinted spectacles.
"Let's not fight though." She told him,
"I thought we just agreed-"
"I agreed not to run." She interjected, "I didn't agree that we would fight, can't we just let Harry defeat him and then we carry on life as normal? That's what was meant to happen." Draco sighed and thought about arguing, then decided he couldn't, it wasn't worth it. "Mmm…let's have sex." Ginny murmured into his neck, Draco kissed her roughly and laughed finally,
"Now those are the words I've been waiting to hear for hours."
-*-
Everyone who was capable, all the people they had ever known and could ever rely on were waiting in Grimauld place. Hermione looked to Ron, her brave fiancé, to direct them.
"We can't wait any longer," He insisted "If we move now we'll be less obvious under cover of night. We'll move directly to Godric's Hollow now and set up a defence. We have everyone here from Cho's house who is able to fight, those spread out across the country will join us at rendezvous points- we can do this! We have nearly 200 people willing to fight for us."
"Wait!" There was a scream from the door and everyone seemed to forget the security checks as a flustered Cho dashed forwards.
"What is it?" Hermione went straight to her friend.
"Harry!" She gasped, "They found a way out, they're going to Godric's Hollow. The students are safe in Hogwarts and everyone who can fight is leaving as we speak. I don't know how, but they managed to get out." Muttering sprang up all through the kitchen, hall and stairs where people had gathered. Hermione looked at Ron, who almost found it in him to smile.
"That's fantastic!" He roared and all the Weasley brothers jumped up,
"Here, here!" A hearty cry echoed through their ranks.
"Thank you Cho, we're going to join them now."
"I'm coming too." Cho told them decisively,
"Cho you can't!" Hermione cried, "You're carrying Harry's baby, what if- what if…?" She couldn't bring herself to end the sentence.
"I know." Cho gulped, "But I wouldn't have it any other way. You can't stop me." She added for Ron's benefit. "And if I don't make it, so be it, I will have seen Harry one last time- he wouldn't love me if I didn't fight, in the same way I wouldn't love him if he didn't and you and Hermione wouldn't be able to love each other any other way." There were nods and murmurs of agreement around the room. Everyone who was there, was there for a love of one kind or another.
"So…" With all the excitement Ron was struggling to form a plan, "We go to Godric's hollow via a few wizarding villages to free those still alive- my parents and others. And when we get there, which will be before the Dark Lord, we will join forces with Harry's troop and set up and all round defence, centred on the house in question, and we will stop Him." Towards the end it became less of a plan and more of a rousing speech and he knew from the faces around that they'd waited long enough.
-*-
"Draco don't you dare! Don't even think about it!" Ginny yelled down the stairs after him, then when he didn't stop she hurtled down and grabbed him roughly, "Don't even think about leaving me here, you can't go and fight, you'll be the first person he kills."
"That never stopped Potter."
"Oh what? Is this some kind of Macho-Match between you and Harry? Now you have to prove you're as much of a man as he is, or something?"
"No. You're being ridiculous." Ginny knew she was but it didn't bother her.
"Ok, what if they're not still at Grimauld Place?"
"Then they'll be some sign of where they're marching to."
"Oh and where do you think that will be?" She asked sarcastically.
"I think it's Hogwarts- to free Harry and end the war."
"Please, they would never go there, they wouldn't want to endanger Hogwarts and its students ever again. They'll have gone to confront Tom directly and take the ministry; if we're going to go anywhere we should be going there."
"We? I thought you were staying here, not fighting." Draco scoffed,
"Yes, but if I have to then I'll come with you to the ministry to fight with you all."
"Well I'm going to Hogwarts, you can go where you want Ginnerva." And with a pop Draco had vanished.
"Damn it." Ginny said louder than she expected, making a nearby house-elf jump. She ran full tilt upstairs to get dressed, she was going to the Ministry, where she knew they'd be, to prove to Draco she was still Ginny who could fight.