"Well. I'm gone for one bloody minute and Hermione starts shagging death eaters." Ron's voice held laughter and a little bitterness.

Hermione opened her eyes to see Ron's face leaning over the back of the couch, looking down at her. And him. Draco was wrapped around her, shirtless and pale in the morning sunlight. She wasn't sure how the two of them fit on the small Common Room couch, but the intimacy of their position was rather…undeniable. She hadn't thought through the meaning of any of it, not after the trauma of yesterday. And now Ron knew. Great.

"Good morning Ronald."

"Morning 'Mione." Ron's grin was vicious. He turned to Malfoy with a smirk of his own. "Good morning Malfoy."

Malfoy's old aristocratic drawl was strong in the morning. "What are you doing here Weasley?"

"Came to let you all know- the wards are down." Ron's smile turned genuine.

Hermione and Draco tried to sit up equally fast, their shoulders bumping, Draco's masculine and minty smell crashing into Hermione, reminding her of the very pleasant evening before. His hair was a mess and her fingers itched to comb through it. "What?!" They gasped in near unison, Draco's voice dark and unbelieving, Hermione full of curious hope.

"Yep. They came down last night." Ron confirmed, nodding at Harry and Ginny as they stumbled sleepily down the stairs from the boys' rooms. Under his breath, Ron muttered. "Godric's socks, is everyone here shagging?" Hermione didn't think anyone else heard him, but Draco silently smirked.

Ignoring Harry and Ginny's suspicious entrance, Hermione erupted into questions, standing and trying to subtly find pants before remembering they were by Draco's bed. She self-consciously pulled Draco's t-shirt as low as it would go. "How? How did you find out? Is Narcissa safe? Did Bellatrix show her face? Ron why aren't you telling us the details?!"

Everyone looked at her, standing there, pants-less and rapidly reciting questions at a terrible decible.

Ron waved his wand silently and a pair of Hermione's muggle denims came flying down the girls' dormitory stairs. Hermione caught them and Ron grinned almost sadistically. "I promised I would let her tell you."


It had taken more patience than came naturally to Ginny to get a drunken Harry into bed. If she hadn't been almost completely sober herself, her brain still processing the prophecy and the new couple curled up on the couch that they had stumbled past, she would have been tempted by him. He had been behaving like one of her most favorite versions of himself, kind and flirtatious and generous and goofy. Her Harry. The one the Daily Prophet and the Auror Department didn't know, the one the other girls he had dated briefly had probably never met. The one that came out when he was joking with Ron after a long summer day spent in the Burrow's yard. She had fallen asleep in one of the untouched beds in the boys' dorm, not willing to gamble the likelihood of accidentally seeing anything between her best friend and Malfoy if she walked through the common room to her own bed.

She had awakened to find Harry still passed out in his bed, hair ruffled, the little marks that usually sat on the bridge of his nose from his glasses erased. Ginny had wanted to crawl into the covers with him, find his warm-from-sleep chest with her small hands, freckle kisses on his cheeks and forehead and collarbone. She imagined he would groan sleepily and roll over, straddling her, hovering over her with his strong shoulders and wild green eyes, his near-blindness forcing him to squint and get so close to her face that their noses would touch, making it impossible for her not to reach up to him and touch his nervous lips to hers. Forcing herself to remember her priorities, Ginny had instead shaken Harry's shoulder and offered him a Pepper-Up Potion and his glasses when he sat up, the sheets sliding down his bare chest. "I think I hear Ron downstairs."

It must have taken Harry a minute to realize that Ron must be seeing what they had seen last night, and another for him to gather his strength for the battle between his two best friends that he was sure to get in the middle of. Ginny helped him find his slippers before following him down the stairs, groggily rubbing her own eyes and running tired fingers through her ratted hair.

Only a moment later, Hermione started losing her mind, and Ginny's tired brain had to guess what she was going on about. She looked over at Harry, finding his eyes focused on Hermione, working out the puzzle himself. Malfoy was watching her too, his eyes flashing adoration and amusement in turn. Ron seemed glazed over a bit, and tired himself. He watched Hermione with a lazy interest before he brought a pair of pants flying at Hermione's head. "I promised I would let Narcissa tell you."

Wait. Ginny spoke for the first time to the group. "I spoke to her yesterday, what's happened?"

Hermione and Draco answered at once, excitement and anxiety echoing in their voices. "The wards are down!"

"Bloody hell" Harry mumbled from his stance beside her. Ginny almost reached out a hand to grab his, for comfort, for safety, for some sense that they still had any control in this situation. She took a step away from him instead, remembering her role as she saw so many pairs of eyes fall to her for guidance. She found Ron, his blue eyes so unlike her own. "Where is she, Ron?"

"St Mungo's." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Malfoy jump up in worry. "She's awake and she doesn't appear hurt, we just brought her there because we figured it would be secure, and to get checked out."

Ginny nodded, putting a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Good call."

"Why would she need to get checked out?" The question came with a small growl from Malfoy, who was hovering oddly near Hermione, as though he wanted to put his arm around her but wouldn't.

Ron shuffled his feet, turning to look at the blonde. "Last night, I saw a light turn on that we don't see often, and I thought it was odd. So, I sent my patronus in to ask Narcissa if she was safe." Ron looked around at the whole team, and Ginny nodded to encourage him. "We all did that from time to time, all the guards." Harry nodded at Draco, who looked at him for confirmation of these orders. "Usually, Narcissa- your mum- always sent her patronus back right away so that everybody knew she was safe, but last night she didn't send it back. So, I tested the wards and Apparated in. I figured the worst that could happen is they don't let me, but she could be in trouble. Honestly, I was even more worried when they did let me in because I wondered if Bellatrix had gotten through." Everyone stared at him, and Ginny saw the fear in Malfoy's face, and felt the nervous tension in her own. There was only one question in anyone's mind: had Bellatrix been there?

Ron's eyes found the floor. "I don't know if she was there or not. I found Narcissa in the dining room. She was passed out on the floor, but there were no marks on her." Ron looked exhausted from the re-telling.

Ginny stepped towards her brother once more, wrapping him in a short hug. "You did the right thing, Ron. You may have just gotten to her in time."

Ginny turned behind her to find Harry's face hard and conflicted. It eerily reminded her of Sirius, or even Mad-eye Moody. He spoke in a low, clear, authoritative voice that made her look at the ground. "You didn't take backup, you didn't ask permission to enter, and you didn't call me." Ron started to stumble excuses, remembering that Harry was, after all, his boss. "You're suspended for a month, Ron. To be spent with us and studying the rulebook." Ron stiffened, angry and relieved at once. He nodded once at Harry, who softened. "I'm glad you're okay. But you have to take backup on missions like this. What if she had been in there?"

"Yes, sir." Ron nodded, and Ginny recognized his new posture as one of a soldier, rather than a friend. He would stand like that until Harry relieved him. It was astonishing, and she hated to see her brother like this when he had just saved Narcissa's life. And Harry was punishing him for his heroic actions. With a small nod, Harry relieved Ron, who relaxed his posture back to normal, but he had the look of a dog that had been chastised and his grin was gone.

"Do you think it would overwhelm her if we all visited?" Ginny wasn't sure if Hermione's small voice was addressing Ron, Malfoy, or even Harry, who had just commanded so much ordered respect in the suddenly claustrophobic common room.

It was Ron who answered. "She asked for everyone on the list."


The small room in St. Mungo's Hospital had a door marked Private and two Aurors who stood on either side of this door. Hermione wondered if it was a bit too much, but she wouldn't say so out loud. Instead, she inhaled through her nose, leaning forward oh so slightly, so that she could smell Draco on the shirt of his that she had yet to remove. It was so much better than that hospital smell of muddy potions and herbal tea and a faint rotting smell that was likely a potion or charm but to her signified the presence of death. Hermione had all of her walls up today. After yesterday's…intimate drama, she wasn't taking any chances relying on Draco's strong, experienced occlumency. Her own novice barriers would have to grow stronger today.

Silently, Hermione tried to move yesterday, which had become like a song stuck on repeat in her head she had replayed it so many times, to the other side of the fence, to clear that internal yard of any distracting memories that sent shivers up her spine or made her grind her thighs together in anxious, heated, excitement. But his scent, she would hold on to. She had just gotten access to it, and she didn't know when it would fade. The loose white t-shirt and muggle jeans wasn't a normal outfit for her or for the wizarding world, and she saw more than a few witches in the halls of St. Mungo's give her second looks, but whenever Draco's eyes wandered over to her, she could swear that his eyes lit up with something akin to pride. Hermione didn't expect Draco to tell his mother about the two of them, and she wouldn't have told Ron so soon if it had been up to her, but at least today he would know when he looked over that nothing had changed since last night.

Harry spoke to the Auror at the door just as he had spoken to the medi-witch at the front desk. It was something, Hermione thought, watching regular witches and wizards, especially younger ones like these two, interact with Harry. To them he was a giant, a hero. And to her he was so normal. Sometimes when she looked at him, she didn't even see the Head Auror, sometimes he still looked thirteen and orphaned, with perpetually broken glasses and more insecurities than burdens. The Auror nodded and opened the door, moving aside to let the group of them through. As they moved into the room as a group, Hermione felt a hand on her lower back. She inhaled. Draco. And that quickly, his hand was gone as he moved past her towards his mother.


There was something uncomfortably intimate about seeing his mother in bed. Draco couldn't remember the last time he had seen her outside of at least daily witches' robes. She looked too small, too casual, in cotton hospital robes that made her look like every other patient here. It felt wrong, when Draco knew her rightful place was in garbs far finer than this.

It made him look down at himself, and he realized he hadn't worn a suit in almost a month. Realizing how comfortable he had become with the Gryffindors, with Granger, Draco tried to fight off the sudden urge towards cruelty or formality, those familiar guards. Instead, he gripped his mother's petite, pale hand. It was all worth it, he reminded himself, as the tiny ache in his heart that had been burning since this morning had brought Weasley's poorly delivered news finally calmed. She was safe.

They both were, a quiet voice in his head whispered. And somehow he, foolish former Death Eater bullying prat that he was, had become a man with two women to protect, and both of them whole and safe in one room. Draco exhaled, checking the strength of his internal walls and finding Hermione's eyes from across the room where she stood next to her friends.

"Draco, my dear." Narcissa's voice was warm and honeyed. He hugged his mum, tighter than normal.

"It's such a relief to see that you're safe." He whispered, though the rest of the group was giving them enough space that he didn't need to. "and I'm so glad you're out of there."

As he pulled away, he noticed the smallest hesitation and an almost eerie reflection of his own smirk appeared on his mother's face. He ignored it.

" —Narcissa" Ginny corrected herself at Narcissa's raised brow. "I'm sorry ma'am, I'm not used to addressing you in person."

Ever the hostess, even from her hospital bed, Narcissa lifted the hand not being held by her son and reached out to Ginny. "I suppose our friendship was borne rather strangely, wasn't it Miss Weasley?"

Ginny blushed as she walked towards the bed and took Narcissa's graceful hand in her own. "Yes ma'am." Draco moved to stand near his mother's shoulders, not eager to leave her side.

"You have a question, my dear?"

"I apologize" Draco wondered if he had ever heard the stubborn DA leader apologize with so much humility before. He almost rolled his eyes at his mother's strange powers. "They can certainly wait until you are feeling better."

Narcissa leaned forward. "Oh no, dear, you should have questions. And they ought to be answered as soon as possible."

Draco watched Ginny swallow. "Could you tell me what happened last night, Narcissa? Anything you can remember will be helpful."

Narcissa smiled, a small line of a grin that implied laughter and the knowledge of a secret and complete control. It was very Slytherin, and Draco had strange flashes of Blaise Zabini wearing the same expression whenever there was gossip only he was privy to. "We may need to go a bit further back than that."


"The first thing you must know is that I am sorry that I lied to you." Ginny held back from expressing her surprise. She knew better. Strong women, certainly mothers who had seen their children through a war, did not appreciate theater or false humility. Ginny had known Narcissa wasn't sharing everything since the day she didn't show up to go to her safe house. She just didn't know what the woman was hiding. Or if she would ever share. Narcissa continued. "My imprisonment was self-inflicted, to be quite frank. The wards keeping me in and others out were my own creation, an old mix of spells I used to protect Draco during his infancy." Ginny watched the slightest blush grace Draco's cheeks as his eyes flashed towards Hermione, then down at the ground. Narcissa looked at Ginny. "I hope you take no offense to this decision I made my dear, I know you have a wonderful network at your disposal. But I know my sister, and I know my home. If I'm going to be under attack, I'd much rather have the advantage of familiarity with the battleground. I also knew you would put guards up, whereas you may not at a safehouse where you felt you had more control. I assumed that, even if Bella managed somehow to get in, she might at least be intimidated by all the guards, or think it wasn't worth it. If she did come in, well let's just say I've dueled her before. Once I met you, I was even more assured that you would understand my reasoning."

Ginny nodded slowly, a smile rising on her lips. Narcissa was even more powerful, and far more cunning, then she had guessed. "Of course, Narcissa. I can respect that." Ginny pressed her lips together, thinking. "May I ask what exactly the wards were?"

"Oh yes. The wards I put around the manor essentially measure a witch or wizard's intention towards Draco." Mouths opened around the room in surprise. Ron nudged Hermione as if to say "You were right."

"You see, I designed them when he was first born, in the midst of the first war. I've always been a rather protective mother, I'm sure you're familiar with the struggles that comes with, Miss Weasley." Ginny nodded with a small smile, wondering privately if Narcissa and her own mother would actually get along quite well.

"But why did you use them now, when he wasn't with you?"

Narcissa nodded primly, as if to say she was getting to it in her own time. "My sister is unreliable, certainly. And unstable. She is terrifying when she wants to be, as many of you here can attest." She made intentional, compassionate eye-contact with Hermione, who was sitting uncomfortably in a chair across the room. Hermione was forced to look away in acknowledgment. "I do not hesitate to believe that she could have genuine intentions to hurt my only son. However, she has always been a true and good sister to me, and I think her deepest heart would never allow her to enter my home with the strict intention to hurt me. Therefore, the wards that would actually keep her out would be those that protected my son, even though he wasn't there."

Harry cleared his throat, and Ginny had nearly forgotten that he and Ron were in the room, standing quietly in the corner. "Excuse me, Mrs. Malfoy. Only, we tried house elves that-I assume- wouldn't have any intention to hurt Malfoy, and they were unable to get past the wards. Do you know why…?" Harry seemed unsure how to finish his own question, hesitant about calling attention to the Malfoy's prejudice against the creatures after it was too late.

But Narcissa nodded at him. "Very clever, Mr. Potter. You are correct in assuming that, had they been Bellatrix's wards, she would not deign to remember the powerful magic of house elves." Ginny could practically feel Hermione admiring the woman in front of her. "My wards, however, only allow you entrance if you have true devotion and intention to give care for my son. Any neutral feelings or feelings of duty that an Auror, or perhaps a house elf, might have, would not be enough."

Hermione's voice came quietly from the chair behind Ginny's back. "That's incredibly powerful magic." Ginny wasn't sure Hermione was speaking to anyone or simply murmuring in awe. Narcissa demurred, bowing her head with a small smile at the compliment.

But Ginny still had questions. "Narcissa. What made you take the wards down?"

"Ah. Here is where we get into some trouble. The wards break if someone passes through them. Hence, why I was stuck and could not come and go as I pleased." For the first time, the blonde witch looked down at her lap, avoiding Ginny or Draco's eye-contact. "I am not the one that took down the wards." She looked up at Draco, at her side and looking very protective. "And I do not know who did. I woke up on the floor of the dining room, that young man-" she tilted her head towards Ron with a polite smile- "asking if I was safe and if Bellatrix was there."

"And you're sure you weren't hurt?" The voice was Malfoy's, only somehow deeper and quieter and more serious than he had been in their strange pseudo-holiday weeks at Hogwarts.

Narcissa nodded. "I think I would remember it, or have marks of some kind. I'm a bit sore, but I suspect that is as much from being house-ridden as anything." She met her son's eyes. "There is no cause to worry about me my son. In fact, you protected me quite well these last weeks, though you did not realize it."

Ginny watched Narcissa lean into Draco's hand on her shoulder and she found Malfoy's eyes. He cleared his throat. "We should let you rest, mother." Narcissa didn't argue, nodding primly.

As the group filtered out of the small room, Ginny stood from the bed but hesitated.

"Narcissa…" Ginny tried to remember that she was the General of Dumbledore's Army, and had a right to this question nagging at her. "What makes you so sure that Bellatrix wants to hurt Draco, but not you?...You were on the list as well."

The older woman sighed, and for the first time Ginny saw how tired and too-pale she looked. "My sister is a very powerful witch, Ginny. But she doesn't always think ahead. She's rash, angry, self-serving." Narcissa was quiet. A less stubborn person wouldn't have waited for her to speak again, but Ginny felt an answer sitting on the careful woman's tongue. When she spoke, her voice cracked. "I may have told a small lie earlier. For Draco's sake. Ginny. I will protect my son…and everything he loves…with my last breath, but when Bellatrix comes for me, I do not intend to run, or to hide. I know what she is capable of, and I am not afraid."


Ginny left St. Mungo's in a daze, her mind spinning with Narcissa's words. Determined not to return to Hogwarts immediately, she found the nearest apparition point and closed her eyes, opening them in an alley next to a brilliant purple door.

On this late summer day, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes was bubbling with children and teenagers who had never been possessed by Dark Lords or made into horcruxes in their infancy. Ginny did some math in her head. These kids didn't even remember war, didn't even know the persistent low hum of fear that Ginny saw on Hermione's face everytime she heard the word "mudblood". Sitting on a windowsill, Ginny shut her eyes and enjoyed the bustling sound in the large store on the other side of the wall. She leaned back and felt the sun on the glass pane warm her shoulders. Would these kids even need to fight? Be comforted by prophecies? Have their mothers concoct powerful spells because of their own families? Would the girls hovering over George's love potions find genuine love, only to fall apart when he started working for a fascist organization and wouldn't stop fighting to save the world even when he had already died to do it? Ginny scoffed at herself. I think that one is just you, Gin.

Ginny hopped down from her seat and began to pace, thinking of Narcissa's final words that only she had heard. She intended to fight Bellatrix. So did Hermione. Two women that had tried hiding, tried blending in, tried the gentle approach, and found it unsatisfactory. It was supposed to be Ginny's job to protect them, both. But she couldn't keep them from fighting a battle that felt, to be honest, much more theirs than hers. Harry had only defeated Voldemort when he had finally taken control and had Ron and Hermione to support him. Ginny stopped pacing. Alright then. She took a deep breath, counting to ten and finding it easy. Decision made.

Now for that other thing. She let herself fall into the nearest folding chair and sighed. Harry.

She was going to need more room to pace.


It must have been midnight when Hermione and Draco bashfully got up from the couch in the Hufflepuff Common Room and headed towards the boys' dorm together.

Ron looked at Harry, slumped in a yellow armchair near the fire. "Gross. Where are we supposed to sleep?"

Harry shrugged, unable to deal with Ron's jealousy when Ginny had yet to return from her mysterious errands.

"It doesn't bother you? Hermione and Malfoy?"

Harry shook his head, rubbing his temples to fight off the oncoming headache of worry. "Not really. He's been taking care of her this whole time, if you haven't noticed."

Ron scoffed. "I noticed."

Harry chuckled lowly. "I don't think you get to be jealous anymore, mate."

"I'mnotjealous" Ron mumbled under his breath unconvincingly. "Didn't blow up finding them without any bloody pants on this morning did I?"

Harry breathed out a laugh. "That was something."

Ron joined in on the laugher. "Did you see she had a damn hicky? Used to lose her mind if I left a mark!" He mocked Hermione's voice playfully. "Ronald! Your mum will see!" Harry laughed, despite knowing that Hermione wouldn't appreciate the imitation.

They didn't hear the Common Room door open, but Ginny interrupted their laughter. "That's because you boys never got the bad end of mum's lecture on "scarlet women." Harry grinned with relief at Ginny's easy presence. She slipped into her Molly impression effortlessly. "Ginevra! You may as well shout it to the world that you're loose! And wild! Do you want everyone to know you let that boy get under your shirt?!"

Harry stopped laughing, feeling the warmth of an embarrassed blush bloom onto his cheeks. "I never…" But Ron was laughing so hard he was doubling over, falling out of his chair, and Ginny just raised a brow at him, as if challenging him to lie.

She leaned into him, letting him sink deeper into his seat as she followed, her hands on the arms of the chair. "I told her if you were going to save the Wizarding World, the least I could do was let you under my shirt." Harry heard Ron cough something about going to bed, and heard him leave. Ginny didn't even look behind her.

"Where were you?" Harry's question came out in a breath, unable to break the intense eye contact she had established hovering over him.

Ginny licked her lips, drawing Harry's focus. She breathed deeply and her chest moved. Harry was uncomfortably aware of how in control she was of his attention. "I needed to think."

"You were gone for hours." It was an effort to keep this conversation going when she was so startlingly close. She shrugged a single shoulder to her ear, maintaining her pose over him. Harry bit the inside of his lips, daring himself. The whisper came from deep in his throat. "Are you done thinking?" The red head nodded slowly, her eyes not leaving his, her lips curving into a mischievous shape that Harry needed to kiss away. He leaned forward to do so, but suddenly she was pulling back, and Harry remembered her request so many weeks ago, her need to find Bellatrix. "Oh…" the sound barely escaped his mouth before she shook her head, dropping her head to one side and offering him her hand. She pulled him out of the chair and they were so close he could have leaned into her mouth without a second thought, but she was gone again, her hand pulling him towards the boy's dorm rooms. Harry looked at the door leading to Ron, Draco, and even Hermione. "But…" Ginny only shook her head, and opened a different door, marked Third Years.

Harry stood in the doorway, watching Ginny silently undressing, the light of the moon pouring in through the open window, silhouetting her form. Swallowing hard, he shut the door behind them and followed her inside.


A/N: Sorry for the wait! Again! Agh! Work is a lot and it's election season here in the U.S. which means lots of volunteering on my end. Updates are going to be sporadic for awhile, but I can absolutely promise that I will not abandon this story! I'm very determined. I have also asked for some alpha help so the writer's block that has been haunting our little story should be solved soon as well! In the meantime you are all amazing readers and your reviews give me life.