Disclaimer: If you recognise it, it's not mine.

AN: Thanks for all the reviews; I used them on Miss Susan to get her to finally beta this chapter. Scroll of +4 Flattery strikes again. Cursed

Ginny woke.

And wasn't sick, though it came pretty close. She curled up on her stomach and gagged, the next few minutes whirling a little bit, Harry holding her hair out of her face and her stomach turning over and over. Malfoy shoved a metal bowl into her hands and she clutched gratefully at it.

Ow. Sore head, sore eyes, stomach felt like a clenched fist, ow. She pushed the bowl away and rested her head in her hands, curled into a facedown knot under tangled sheets. Harry let go of her hair. It fell tangled, tangles and tangles. She dimly heard him saying something to Malfoy, and realised that though she was still dressed, someone had taken off her shoes. Wondered vaguely who it had been.

"Get up, Ginny," Malfoy said impatiently.

She thought about it for a moment. "Feel awful," she offered.

"I've got painkillers. Come on, up you get."

She uncurled a little, because damned if Malfoy was going to manhandle her into a chair. Laughter – not hers. "Feel dizzy," she said, sitting up against the headboard. Her hair fell down around her face. Couldn't seem to be able to lift her head. Too heavy. She thought a little about essaying a moan, in the faint hope that someone would shower her, brush her hair and teeth, get those painkillers into her system, and get rid of the marks Tom had left on her.

"She'll be fine," Malfoy was saying. She hadn't heard what Harry had asked him, only the sound of his voice. "Here, pull her hair back and give her this."

Okay, that was nice. Harry's hands moved very gently over her hair, umm, that was very nice. And he was careful with the hair tie, tying it just tightly enough to hold a low ponytail. Then he put a glass of water in her hands, and it was like blood. Didn't know what she meant. Was the human body ninety percent water, or only seventy-five? She couldn't remember. Ninety percent seemed a bit high.

"My head," she said, letting Harry change the glass with a small potion vial, "my head. Feels. My head feels . . . really awful."

"Like a hangover," Harry was saying. Malfoy probably nodded. Ginny was finding it pretty hard to believe that they were really co-operating like this without gouts of blood flying all over the place. Maybe she was still dreaming – no, there was no way she could dream a potion this foul-tasting. Two small white pills. She knocked them back with the dregs of the potion, what the fuck, only two? It was Malfoy who took this vial, cold hands. A hot cup of coffee. Hot. Really fucking hot. Probably it was the potion starting to work that made her think to move her hands – oh, so that was what handles were for.

Horrible potion. But the knot in her stomach was starting to ease up, and her head felt slightly less heavy.

She put out her hand. "Pills."

"You've had them," Malfoy replied callously, turning away from her bed. He looked pissed off. Started to gather up schoolbooks, as though a tidy room could possibly mean anything.

"My head. My fucking head."

"You're lucky it wasn't Cruciatus then, aren't you?"

Harry glared death at Malfoy. "Shut up," he said viciously.

Slam. Her photo album crashed onto the dresser. "No, I don't think I will," Malfoy said, and turned to stare coldly at Ginny. "I think I won't actually shut up, and do you know why?" He spoke too rapidly. It was scaring her. "I think I'd like to ask you what in fuck's name you thought you were doing in that bathroom, what - "

"Malfoy - " He rode right over whatever she'd wanted to say.

" - What exactly you thought you were doing there with your devil boyfriend. Oh I'm sorry, don't I mean husband?"

Okay. There it was. It was out. Felt like she was falling down down down, far too fast. Harry looked down at his hands. Malfoy just kept staring.

Ginny shook her head slowly, helplessly. "It was his idea. I didn't think it made sense either, but - "

" – But he just said 'Gosh Ginny, let's get married' and when he put it that way, why not?" Malfoy laughed. It must have been laughter, because it wasn't quite spitting at her feet. Then his face changed, and she turned to see Harry, his wand held with quiet menace.

"Give me one reason to hex you blind, just one."

Tears in her throat. Forcing them down with a mouthful of hot coffee. Malfoy snorted and turned away. Harry lowered his wand, but didn't put it back in his pocket.

"It wasn't like that," Ginny said. God, she felt like shit, and to make it worse, she didn't really know what it had been like. "There was a reason for it, I just don't know what it is yet."

It sounded weak, even to her.

"But why'd you go to meet him? How did you even know he was in the castle?" Harry asked.

Then, Ginny realised that neither of them ever said his name. Malfoy was free and easy with the Volde-fucking-morts and the Lord Toms, but she and Harry never said it. Never to one another, anyway.

Did it mean something? Anything? Would it mean that the stars wouldn't fall out of the sky?

"It's the other way round," she said, as though she hadn't thought any of that stuff. "He knew when I was in that bathroom. I don't know how."

"There are spells," Malfoy said, unexpectedly. "Complicated, but not impossible. They can let the caster carry a map, or a description, of the whereabouts of another person."

"You making this up? I've never heard of anything like that." Ginny said.

Malfoy shook his head grimly. "They're not used much, because they can only be cast on a very close family member. Not even siblings qualify, unless they're twins. You can only cast it on your twin, your parents, your children . . ."

Harry hung his head. "Or your wife," he finished.

Malfoy didn't say anything.

Ginny put her cup on the bedside table, and moved gingerly out from under the covers. Sitting up with her feet dangling off the side of the bed was like sitting up in bed, only made her head ache slightly more. Harry obligingly shifted so she could get out.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Sleeping in a bra was really uncomfortable, as it turned out. "To have a shower," Ginny said. "I have to get down to dinner tonight."

Harry shoved his wand into his pocket and stood up. "Oh, shit. I forgot. There's somewhere I have to go - "

"Is it Dumbledore?" she asked.

Couldn't he sit back down like a normal person? She'd spent her whole life looking up at Harry, it felt like, and her neck hurt and there was a bowl in her bed.

He hesitated, then shook his head.

Malfoy laughed again, harshly, a sound like knives come crashing down on metal. "Granger and Weasley then," he said.

"They found out," Harry said to her. Pleading for her to understand. "They already knew."

Ginny stared at nothing. "Ron knows?" Felt rather than saw him nod. It wasn't the end of everything, so why did it feel like it?

"Tell them they're wrong," Malfoy said.

"No."

They both looked at her. "All right," she said, "You can talk to them. I know you're going to anyway. Maybe they'll have some ideas, even. I don't know."

She got up, ignoring her head. Started choosing some fresh clothes.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked. Malfoy was staring at her, still looking so angry. Ginny resisted the urge to shout at them.

"Yes," she said instead, "I'm sure. I'm going to have a shower, you can go talk to them, and Malfoy will do whatever Malfoy does in the meantime and I will see you at dinner. All right?"

Ginny didn't start to cry until she was safely in the shower, and was sure that Harry had gone.