Thanks to all readers and reviewers, especially amethyst-rose and tryntee13 !
I don't know where all of my readers are (obviously!), but I DO know that we're all facing a lot of restrictions on where we can go and what we can do right now. But we can all get through it and survive COVID. If your national/state/city authorities are telling you to stay home, DO EET. We all need to work together to survive this thing. And think of all the D/G fics you can read while you're stuck at home!
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"Listen to me-" Draco began.
"No. You've tried to feed me that lie one too many times. Never again, Malfoy; never again." Ginny backed away, around the marble fountain. He followed her.
"Listen, Weasley. Do you remember the night in the Malfoy rooms at the Crystal Palace, a week before Halloween night—no, look at me—when I swore to you that I'd tell you the truth about everything, except that one thing I needed to hold back?" he asked urgently.
She had tried as hard as she could to forget that night, and failed, failed, miserably failed, as she knew all too well now. "And I suppose now you're going to tell me it's about that one thing."
"Yes. So you do understand. All right, then let's—"
"No, there isn't going to be any let's! It just happens to be about that thing. Isn't that convenient."
Draco gave a short, sharp laugh. "No. No, that's the last word I'd use to describe it. If I could only explain this to you!"
"But you can't, can you?" She whirled on him. "This has happened too many damn times, and I remember them all, Malfoy! I haven't forgotten any of them in the past year and a half. This is one too many. This is over the limit at last."
"If I could tell you—" His face contorted in frustration. "Weasley, you'd understand immediately that this time is different, that it's simply not in the same category as the rest-"
"So you can't tell me about anything related to the one thing. All right, Malfoy. How about why you told me that we had to go to the Ball tonight, that we didn't have any choice, that we'd be automatically drawn here? Blaise told me tonight that wasn't true. Did he lie to me?"
"No," said Draco. He spoke as if the word had cost him more than he could ever afford to give.
Ginny sat staring at him for a long moment. She realized slowly just how convinced she had been that he would say yes instead. Some small part of her had even been ready to convince herself that she believed him if he'd told her that Blaise had lied. But now he'd said no.
"I…" She tried to remember the rest of her angry script. "The second time you found me upstairs in the balcony, you were disturbed as hell about something that had just happened," she said. "I know you were, Malfoy. Did that have to do with this thing you can't tell me about as well?"
Draco pressed his lips tightly together. Ginny wished that he would speak. Finally, he gave her a short nod.
A chill crept up her spine. She found herself wishing that she had not asked him at all, and hating herself for that cowardly wish.
"Why did you really talk to that protocol-elf?" she asked. Her voice sounded too loud to her own ears. "What were you trying to find out? Whatever it was, did you learn it? Was it important? Tell me, Malfoy, why don't you?"
"Weasley, for gods' sake, can't you trust me for just a little while longer?" asked Draco.
"So you could have told me that much, anyway," said Ginny.
He rubbed his forehead. He looked so tired, she thought. Utterly exhausted, in fact. She couldn't give in, she told herself over and over. She could not give in.
"Are you all right, Malfoy?" she finally asked. "Or are you going to pass out on me, on top of everything else?"
"I'm perfectly all right," said Draco.
"You're not," said Ginny. "You've never been less all right in your life. Why can't you even admit that?"
"I…" began Draco. Looking at him, she knew that she was right. He needs me, she thought. He really does. Draco Malfoy needs me. It was an incredible thought. Shocking, even.
She knew she was right. But he would not say the words. Her hand lay on the iron bench, and so did his. She looked down. He would not meet her halfway. He would not move so much as one inch.
"Draco!" called a shrill voice from somewhere behind them. "Oh, Draco… oh."
A rosebush parted. Astoria's thin face peeped out. "I hope I haven't interrupted anything."
"You didn't," said Ginny.
"I need to talk to you, darling," she said to Draco.
"It can wait," said Draco.
"No. It can't."
"Really, I believe that it can."
"I see. You're talking to her." Astoria's eyes took on a speculative look. "I wonder why?"
"It's most certainly nothing with which you need to concern yourself, Astoria."
"Well, I can't help but wonder what you've been telling her, Draco."
"What does she mean?" asked Ginny.
"I haven't the slightest idea," said Draco.
"Don't you," said Ginny. "Really."
"Come with me, Draco," said Astoria. "We need to talk." She put special stress on the words.
"I believe I've already indicated that I don't think I'd be particularly interested in the conversation, Astoria."
"Oh, I think you'll be very interested indeed in this subject, Draco."
"Would I?" asked Draco. "Really? I doubt it, somehow. I'm not the slightest bit interested in anything you have to say to me any longer,
Astoria."
"Oh, I disagree. I think you would be," said Astoria.
What an exchange of looks between them, thought Ginny. She could have read an entire book in what Draco and Astoria were saying to each other there, if she'd only known the language they were using.
"I truly do, Draco." Astoria's eyes were like narrow, burning slits of sapphire. "You see, I have something I'd like to show you."
Draco scowled at her. "All right. Are you happy now? I'll follow you in a moment. Get out of here, Astoria."
"I suppose you want to exchange tender words with your little-"
"Not another word." He continued to stare at Astoria until she blanched and disappeared into the green foliage.
He turned to Ginny.
"I'll come for you, Weasley," said Draco. He gave a long, long sigh. "But you've got to get out of here now." His voice sounded very sad. "Damn it. It's not safe to stay here by this point; there isn't a single room I could send you to. I'll send Marcus Flint to find you; I think he's the only one who's still about someplace. Go to… I don't know…. Go to your flat in London, all right? And then wait for me. Just wait. I'll come for you."
Wait for me. Those were the words that he had said to her all those long months ago in an alleyway behind an art gallery in May when Harry Potter closed in upon them with his gang of Aurors echoed in her ears like a mocking ghost. "Are you joking, Malfoy? You can't really think I'm going to do that."
"I swear by every god or demon or anything else there is that I'll come to you as soon as I can. If you'll just wait for me. Just this once," said Draco.
"No," she said flatly. "Don't you want to go with your wife? She's waiting for you."
He winced. "I don't want to go anywhere with Astoria; can't you understand that?"
"Tell me this, Malfoy. Just this one thing. She said she wants to show you something. Is it located in the same place you said you'd like to take me?"
Draco sat motionless for a second, and then sank his head into his hands. "Ginny, for gods' sake!" he mumbled.
Ginny. She set her teeth. She would not, could not, be moved. "You can either go with Astoria—wherever she really wants you to go- or you can stay with me. Make your choice, Malfoy."
Something in the hedges rustled. Ginny turned to look. Astoria's head appeared again.
"Draco," she said in a very calm voice, "you've made me wait a bit too long."
"I told you that I'd be with you in a few minutes, Astoria," said Draco without turning round.
"Well, it's been a few minutes more than I wanted to wait. We need to continue the conversation, and I don't believe that you'd like it if I started it up again in front of her. "
"What?" asked Ginny.
"Uh—" said Draco.
"That was her," Ginny said flatly. "Wasn't it. You were talking to Astoria before."
"Of course he was," said Astoria, sounding amused. "We were in the shrubbery right over there—or don't you remember, Draco darling?"
Ginny stood rooted to the spot. Damn him! And her, of course, but mostly him, she thought.
"We've really got loads to discuss," said Astoria, "so we'll be leaving, if you don't mind too terribly much, Weasley?"
I certainly shouldn't, Ginny thought grimly. She couldn't afford to do. The cost to herself would be too high. She should know better by now- wouldn't she ever learn?
At the sounds of footsteps, she jerked her head up to see that Astoria was already gone, and that Draco was headed away from her.
"I'm not done talking to you yet, Draco Malfoy!" Ginny raised the hem of her dress and started running after him. She saw immediately that he wasn't going back to the double doors leading into the small dining room where the desserts had been laid out and where she and Draco had presented the sketches and the proposal for the sculptures, but rather the other way. Ginny ran through a narrow pathway between clipped hedges, following them both. There was another door all the way on the other side of the small conservatory, she now saw. It was set into a stone wall covered with espaliered vines, almost invisible under the overgrowth.
Draco turned back to her. "Don't you have a brain in that stubborn Weasley head of yours? Stop putting yourself in danger by following me! I'll hex you. I swear I will."
"I'd like to see you- try it—Malfoy!" Ginny ran faster.
The door at the end of the hedges opened. Astoria stood on the other side. Ginny skidded to a halt, Draco only slightly ahead of her.
Astoria ignored her and turned to Draco. "Once and for all, come with me," she said to him, "or you'll regret it, Draco. And so will she."
He cast Ginny an agonized look. Then he went with Astoria.
Ginny reached for the door, and her hand stopped at the brass knob. She stared down at her own fingers. They weren't moving. She could make them move, of course, but what was the point? She could turn the knob and run to… well, to whatever was beyond the door; she could cry Draco, Draco, at the top of her lungs and run after him, but what difference would it really make? What was the point anymore? He had turned away from her, and he left with his wife of his own free will. Whatever the reason really was, he would not tell her.
Wait for me….
The sad, mocking echo of Draco's words curled round her like the mists rising past her thighs, her waist, her hips. The green door began to blur before her eyes.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped. She truly had no idea how long she'd been standing there.
Daphne stood behind her, breathing hard, as if she'd been running or walking quickly. "Thank all the gods," she said under her breath. "Ginny. I just ran across Draco. He said you were here; he told me to find you and get you out."
Ginny blinked. "Daphne…" She looked round the room. "What's happened?" The mists were so thick now that she couldn't even see the other girl clearly.
"This is a dangerous time to be here, Ginny. We could easily be trapped between the worlds. Come on."
Ginny didn't move. Something was nagging at her. "Where's Marcus Flint?"
"He left a long time ago. So did everybody else."
"But why didn't you leave?"
"I…I was trying to find you."
"No, you weren't," said Ginny. "Draco said he was going to send Marcus, because he was probably the last one here. That means that he couldn't have possibly known you were here when he said it. That must have been twenty minutes ago, at least."
Daphne avoided her eyes, and Ginny knew.
"There was more to this than just your coming here with Gaylord Humperdinck," said Ginny. "That's right, isn't it?"
Daphne said nothing.
"I knew it all along," said Ginny, more than half to herself.
"Ginny, please." Daphne looked at her with huge eyes. "I'm so torn," she managed to get out after a few moment's pause.
"You stayed to talk to Astoria," said Ginny.
"Yes," whispered Daphne. "No matter what Astoria is, or what she's done, she's my sister. And I tried desperately to talk her out of what she's trying to do. I told her that she needed to give up before it was too late."
"What do you mean, what she's trying to do?" asked Ginny. "Or aren't you going to tell me, I suppose? That seems to be the theme of the evening for everyone."
"No. I'll tell you," said Daphne. "Astoria is still trying to get Draco to consummate the marriage with her, and she's getting desperate. I didn't tell you earlier because it wouldn't have done any good, Ginny. And before you lose your temper and call me a traitorous bitch, would you have done any differently if it were one of your brothers?"
No. She wouldn't have done. "What was Astoria doing when you left her? Will you tell me that?" asked Ginny.
Daphne nodded. "She said she was about to make one last attempt to convince Draco. I couldn't talk her out of that. She refused to tell me exactly how she planned to try, but you already saw the tack she was taking. I think she's going to do her best to convince Draco that she was at the meeting with Nott only because she wanted to help him."
"What a load of shite," said Ginny, automatically. It was, of course, but there was something else about what Daphne was saying that nagged at her. Something did not sound right. She didn't feel that the other girl was deliberately trying to hide anything, not anymore; but if she could just go through what she'd said word by word, she could figure it out…
"Of course it is," said Daphne. "She ran off and I couldn't find her. Then Draco found me just about a minute later and asked me to get you out. Do you see now how it all is? Will you go with me, Ginny? We've got to get out of here; it's getting more dangerous by the minute. You can see Draco again tomorrow, when it's safe—"
"So that means I'm supposed to just go back to my flat and wait for him to make up his mind about exactly what he's going to do?" snapped Ginny. "I suppose he convinced you to talk me into that little plan."
"I didn't say that, Ginny; we only had about thirty seconds to talk, and that was hardly long enough for him to tell me about any plan he had. But really, we've got to get out!"
"Wait," said Ginny. She knew what it was that had been bothering her now. "Daphne, when was this? I mean, when did you find Astoria by herself, when she said she was looking for Draco? Was it a while ago?"
"No. Maybe ten minutes; I don't know anymore. Ginny—"
"That's it," said Ginny. "I last saw her with Draco. When you saw her and then him separately, it wasn't before I'd seen them together; it was after. He got away from her, or she lost him, or something, but what I don't understand is why she lied and said she was still looking for him and hadn't found him yet… unless… unless…"
She saw that Daphne had gone completely white.
"Unless Astoria didn't want you to know that she already had," finished Ginny. "But why, Daphne?"
"I don't know, but… that's what I saw," whispered Daphne. "Months ago."
A chill seeped into Ginny's chest that had nothing to do with the mists. "In that vision you had back in May?"
"Yes. My sister finding Draco, and then losing him again. But I didn't know what it meant; I didn't even understand at the time that it was on the night of the Pureblood Ball."
"But…" Ginny wasn't sure if she didn't know what to ask, or if she knew all too well. "But why would that be important?"
"I don't know what these things mean," said Daphne. "I only see them, and they're disconnected from everything else. They never make any sense. I'd give anything if they did."
A voice called behind them, deep and strong. Dean's voice, Ginny realized at once. "Daphne! Daphne, where are you?"
"You ran away from Dean," guessed Ginny.
"I had to," said Daphne. "Ginny, I had to find Astoria."
"But you've got to go with him now."
The other girl shook her head. "No, Ginny; you do. I've got to find Astoria again even if it takes me all night. If there's a way to stop this-" Daphne glanced round. "Come on. The mists are closing; in a few minutes, you won't be able to get out at all."
Oh, fuck, what should I do?
She should get out, of course. Common sense told her that. Anyone but an utter fool would get out. Draco had gone and left her alone, and there was no reason at all for her to stay.
"Come on, Ginny," repeated Daphne. "Go with Dean. He'll get you out of here safely."
Something flew past Ginny's cheek and landed on her finger. She turned to see a shimmering black and white butterfly with long swallowtail wings that looked like an elegantly cut tailcoat. In one feeler, it held a tiny parchment. It gave a sort of bow and held it out to her. Ginny took it between two of her fingers. It unrolled as the butterfly flew away.
Something clicked. She remembered the thing she had felt brushing against her cheek both times she had been walking in the balcony earlier that evening. She had swatted it away. She hadn't accepted it, and that was what both Luna and Daphne had needed to do before they could actually read what had been written to them.
The butterfly has been following me all night, thought Ginny. Perhaps I simply never gave it a chance to find me before.
The parchment unrolled in the air in front of her, the letters a fiery black, as if smoldering out at her from a great depth.
Weasley— I was perhaps not entirely honest when I spoke to you a few moments ago. I may not have told you all that was really in my mind, or explained it correctly. I-
The last letter twisted, as if in pain.
I didn't want to go with Astoria. That was the truth, only the truth, I swear to you. I wanted nothing less.
The letters contracted and expanded, trembling, hesitating.
I want—I need-I-
The letters had been an elegant, backhand cursive, but they suddenly broke and became jagged and desperate, and the parchment shook. The words appeared in slashes of rapid darkness.
I want you. Ginny, I need you. I need to tell you all the truth, I need your help, and then I need you, just you; I need you more than words can- -Draco-
The name disappeared as the parchment went up in a flash of green flame. The butterfly flew away up to the ceiling and vanished.
As swiftly as a butterfly soaring over a bottomless chasm, Ginny turned and ran into the mists, towards the door that led into the unknown. She heard Daphne's footsteps pattering somewhere behind her.
"Ginny! Ginny, come back! Daphne!" She heard Dean calling after two of the girls he had loved. If Luna hadn't already left, he could make it three. Again, she felt that stab of regret. But still, she left, because she could do no other thing; because the words she had read pulsed relentlessly in her mind, and she knew they would do until she knew just how much truth really lay behind them. Even if it was none at all.
Ginny. I need you. Draco.
