Chapter 23

()()()

Easter was falling in the first week of April this year, and Ginny was counting down the days. She was still chatting with Harry regularly, and corresponding with Ron, Hermione and Luna, signing all of her letters 'Matilda', which was a name that would probably haunt her forever. Fleur, Tonks and the Twins would stop by regularly to hang out with her, and she was helping Fleur with a bit of the wedding preparation, which went by a lot faster when her mum wasn't around second guessing every decision Fleur made.

Their relationship, Fleur's and her mums, was doing a lot better since Fleur got injured getting the Cup from Gringotts. The way Bill had taken care of her after and her mum witnessing it, it seemed to have finally shown the stubborn Molly Weasley that those two were very serious about being together. Something that, in Ginny's opinion, her mum should have cottoned on to earlier. Fleur had been helping with the Order, befriended Ginny, and proven herself time and time again.

Now it was just regular 'Mother of the Groom interjecting herself on the wedding prep' stuff that they would get their hawks up over.

But soon, soon Harry would be staying at Grimmauld for a week straight, and Ron would be at the Burrow.

Easter dinner was going to be held at the Order, but Ginny was promised she would be allowed over to the Burrow a few times when there were other people visiting and she would be just another head in the crown like she had been at Harry's birthday dinner before she'd moved to Grimmauld permanently. She was excited to get the chance to go back home and fly again, but by staying where she was with Harry during his holiday there would be plenty of time for it to just be the two of them again, like it had been the previous summer; but with snogging this time.

Just a few more days and Harry would be there. Just a few more minutes and he should be calling her on the mirror.

She'd made a decision too. They'd been talking a lot and sharing little insights. He'd told her a few things that he hadn't even mentioned to Ron in their six years of friendship about what the Dursley's had actually been like to live with. By now, if they had been physically together, then the physical part of their relationship would have progressed much further than it had before he left for Hogwarts.

Ginny wanted him to know that she was open to them progressing things further over this short time they would get together, without her needing to say the words out loud. So, she pulled on the skimpy pajama's that Fleur had gotten her the previous summer. The one's that he'd already seen her in, but they were even tighter on her now that she'd grown a little more. Her breasts were nearly popping out of the top now, and the bottoms were incredibly tight. As she surveyed herself in the mirror though it didn't look too risqué or trashy. She wasn't 'giving away the farm' either.

She wanted to tease him a bit. She wanted him to want her.

Nearly three months and all they'd been able to do was talk and tell each other how much they missed the other. But those were still the baby steps of the relationship. When he was there with her next week, she wanted his hands on her. She wanted to feel how much he missed her. She needed him to know that he could let her know without using his words.

Ginny was nervous about him seeing her like this, but she wanted to see his reaction to her brazenness as well.

Another reason for this was that they always seemed to wind up talking about Order business. Their chats were always full of tales of Dumbledore being told how to pronounce 'Open' and 'Stairs' in Parseltongue, so he could get through the entrance to the Chamber by himself, and the two of them theorizing over Snape's progress with Malfoy or his obsession with Harry's mum, and Sirius and Mrs. Tonk's project with the Muggle/Magic method of getting rid of the Dark Mark.

Not sexy stuff.

Ginny was staring in the mirror in her room and chewing her lip over whether she had the nerve to follow through on this when the mirror started vibrating.

'Okay,' she thought. 'He doesn't have to know right from the off what you're wearing. Just start chatting and then maybe 'accidentally' let the mirror slip a bit.'

Laying on the bed on her stomach she swiped the surface to allow the call to come through. "Hey Sailor," she purred in her usual faux sultry greeting.

"Hey Babe," Harry grinned back at her, trying not to chuckle at his own greeting.

They'd both been trying out terms of endearment on each other as a sort of joke, but 'Gin' seemed to be the closest to a serious one Harry could manage.

"How was Quidditch practice?" Ginny asked. She could see he was still in his jersey; he didn't look to have been sweating though.

"Weather was perfect for it. Went a little easy on everyone since we still have weeks before our next game. I'll ramp it up when we get back after the holidays."

"Well I hope you don't take it easy on me when we pop over to the Burrow during your visit. We are absolutely playing a few rounds with a Quaffle with Ron," she told him. She was itching to get on a broom again.

"That'd be great! You were amazing last summer."

"You mean the one time that I was able to play with you on your birthday?" she grinned. "You could tell just from that?" Ginny rolled onto her back then and held the mirror up above her, intentionally letting it be high enough that he would see the low cut of her top.

"Y-yeah," his voice faltered slightly and she saw his eyes were looking down to her cleavage.

"Something wrong?" she asked, trying not to sound like she was teasing him. There wasn't any chance she wanted him to feel like he shouldn't be looking at her like that. "Just a moment, this isn't very comfortable." She rolled back over and propped the mirror up against the pillows, stretching out on her side, her one hand playing with the hem of her shirt, the other arm bent at the elbow and propping up her head, hand buried in her hair. He should have been able to see her from her head to the cut off of her tight short bottoms now.

Harry's face moved closer to his mirror and his eyes were rather wide now. "N-nothing," he said. "H-how are your lessons going?"

Ginny looked down at her top, playing with the hem at the bottom, "same old, same old." She knew he wasn't interested in her schooling. Looking back up at the mirror she saw that he was too caught up giving her a good looking up and down to listen to anything she said anyways. "Harry?" she asked softly. "If I show you something, do you promise to keep it to yourself?"

Harry's eyes locked back on hers and he had a dazed expression. "Of-of course," he managed with a strained voice.

"I'll need you to say the actual words," she teased.

"I swear. Gin, I'd never. I mean," he gave a swallow, "this is just between us. I wouldn't ever tell. Um, whatever your comfortable I mean."

Ginny bit her lip in amusement. He was rather cute when he was all flustered. Right now his face was turning pink, but his pupils looked to be quite dilated.

"That's good. I've wanted you to see for a while. And with you coming here in just a few days," she trailed off as she sat up and moved the mirror so it tilted a bit more to compensate for the height. She played a little more with the hem of her top. Harry's nose was almost pressed up against his mirror now.

Not wanting to tease him any more she turned a bit sideways and lifted the one side of her top.

To show him her tattoo.

Harry's jaw dropped, "wha? When did you get that?"

Ginny chuckled, "last September. Sirius and I were both bummed about you going back to school, so he thought we needed to do something a little reckless to get us in a better mood."

"He took you to get a tattoo?!" he asked astounded.

"You won't tell anyone you've seen it, will you?" she asked.

"No, I swear! I. Well, it looks great. I love it!" he grinned.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Think Sirius will take me to get one?" he asked.

Ginny had no doubt that Sirius would love the opportunity to have that kind of bonding experience with Harry. "Yes," she told him very assuredly. "But if you ask him, you better not mention anything about knowing I have one."

"Why not?" his brow furrowed.

"What do you think will be his follow up question to you knowing?" she raised her eyebrow. "What do you think he'll assume we got up to when you saw it?"

"Swimming?" he offered weakly.

"Mmhmm, or he'll assume I took my top off for you, like you thought I was about to a minute ago," she said wryly.

"I. Well, I wasn't…. sure," he offered lamely, a small amount of color coming to his face.

"Nothing to be shy about," she grinned. "That's what I wanted you to think I was going to do."

"Minx."

"Just for you," she told him in a sultry voice.

"God, I can't wait to see you again," he breathed out.

"Same here," she replied in kind. "And I've discovered something that'll make your stay a little more… enjoyable."

"Oh?" he was intrigued.

"I was tidying up the other day in the closet here. Turns out, there's a false back, a hidden compartment that joins my room… to yours," she bit her lip in a grin.

"You mean, we-we could, and-and no one would," he started, unwilling to be the one who said it plainly.

"Yep," she told him straight, "we could little sleepovers every night and no one would be the wiser." He was still looking hopefully dumbfounded with her brazenness. "The way I see it, we have three months of catching up to do."

"That's quite a bit of catching up in a short time," the blush had left his face and now there was just a look she could on interpret as lust and excitement. Her being the one making the suggestions seemed to have made Harry much more at ease with his own desires.

"I know," she said in a near whisper, stroking the side of the mirror, "we'll have to make the most of every unsupervised moment."

There was a sudden noise outside Ginny's bedroom door and she turned her head sharply towards it. "Shh," she put her finger to her mouth for Harry to stay quiet and strained her ears. There was a lot of shuffling going past her door. More than Kreacher, Dobby or Sirius would make. "Something's happening," she whispered to Harry. "Give me a moment."

Ginny slid off the bed and went to press her ear against the door. She heard the murmur of a few voices, at least two men and one woman. She couldn't make out what they were saying though. It was late, after ten o'clock, and the Order wouldn't be bringing anyone upstairs unless it was an emergency. She kept listening as their voices went up to the next level and heard them go into the room above her, Harry's room.

The floors between rooms were silenced, so she couldn't tell what was going on in there, but she had a way to find out.

"There were people in the hallway and they've gone into your room upstairs," she told Harry, almost looking for his assurance that he would do what she was about to if the situations were reversed.

"Did you recognize any voices?" he asked.

"I think it could have been Sirius and Snape? They were talking in really low tones. There was a woman with them, but I couldn't make out anything that was being said."

"Just how curious are you?" he asked.

Ginny just gave him a look. Of course, she was going to snoop. "I'll be right back," she told him.

"Wait," he stopped her. "You're, um, not going to let them see you dressed like that, are you?"

"Don't worry, this was just for your benefit," she grinned and went to her dresser to pull on one of her brothers' shirts. "Better?" she asked, holding her arms out for his approval of her wardrobe.

"Much," he chuckled. "I'll wait for you to get back."

Ginny blew him a kiss and a wink and went to her closet. It had amazed and excited her when she found this surprise the other week. She'd been asked by her mum to go through her clothes and figure out what still fit, by that she meant 'fit appropriately', not 'what can you still manage to pull on'. Ginny had taken everything out of the closet and noticed a loose panel, then she managed to pry it off and found a small stairway. It looked like it might have been used by the House Elf at one point, but hadn't in a long time as it was covered in dust and cobwebs. She climbed her way up the stairs and found herself in the room Ron and Harry had occupied at Christmas.

The stairs had kept going and it looked like they went to every floor of the house, but right now, these two rooms were all she cared about just then.

She'd tested out the noise level of the small access panel that went into the closet of the room above hers and knew she could get into the closet silently but she disillusioned herself just in case.

The closet door was closed in the room above her, but she could hear the voices clearly under the door.

"You are certain he will sleep through this entire process?" came Snape's voice.

"He won't feel a thing, Severus. He is completely out. You've dosed him, Sirius has dosed him. He won't be awake or feeling anything until tomorrow. He'll likely be very tired for the next few days, but he will recover quickly and be perfectly healthy and hidden away somewhere else before you know it."

Ginny was fairly certain that voice belonged to Andromeda Tonks. Her hand came to her mouth as she realized that they must have gotten Draco Malfoy. They were trying to rid him of the Dark Mark tonight!

"I know that Narcissa will be questioning me. The more assured I feel, the better assured I will be able to have her feel," Snape stated.

"The real question is whether the brat is going to try something once he's awake tomorrow," Sirius said. "You did have to kidnap him after all."

"It is for his own good," Snape said quietly.

Whoa, Ginny thought. She knew that Snape had been trying to convince Draco to leave the Death Eaters in his subtle ways. Apparently subtlety wasn't cutting it. Three days before Easter break, only two full days of classes he would be missing, so there was a chance that his fellow students wouldn't be too curious about his absence, and Riddle wouldn't be expecting him until all the other students got back.

She wasn't going to be able to observe what it was they were doing to try and rid him of the Mark without giving herself away, so she climbed back through the hole in the closet and went back down to her room, carefully replacing the doors on both sides of the passageway.

"Malfoy is here," she told Harry when she got back to her bed.

"What?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah, he's here, and they are attempting to remove his Mark right now, upstairs," she started. "Harry. They didn't take him because he wanted to go," she told him importantly. "They kidnapped him."

Harry stared at her hard as he processed that, then his expression turned slightly dubious. "You mean Snape kidnapped him?"

"Apparently he dosed him with something, then Sirius dosed him again when he got here," she relayed what she'd overheard. "Harry? What exactly is Snape's relationship with Malfoy?" she asked curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"He just. He kind of sounded like Malfoy was more to him than simply a student in his house. Not quite at the same level as what Sirius is to you, but… could he be Malfoy's Godfather, or equivalent?" she wondered. "I mean, it might just be because he is so young and just trapped in this impossible situation, but I have a feeling it's more than that."

"There might be," Harry thought on it. "Snape's always praised the git, turned a blind eye to some of the crap he pulled. You should have seen it after Malfoy got 'attacked' by Buckbeak. It was ridiculous. I don't think he's his Godfather though. I don't know anything about Snape being close with Lucius Malfoy."

"Sounds like he might be close with Narcissa Malfoy though," Ginny told him.

"Think he might be cheating on his imaginary girlfriend?" Harry quipped, then instantly regretted it if the expression on his face was any indication. "Too soon," he gave a shiver.

"Boys and girls can be friends without there being something else behind it," Ginny rolled her eyes. "Like you and Hermione," she pointed out blatantly.

"Yes, I know," he sighed, clearly resisting the urge to roll his own eyes. "Do you think Malfoy's still going to be there when I get there?"

Ginny gave an unsure hug. "There's a chance. It sounds like he'll need a few days of recovery, then they want to hide him somewhere."

"But... then he might see you."

"He also might be confined to the room there," she pointed out, then gave a small groan. "I feel like there's less reason for me to be hiding from the other members of the Order. If Malfoy finds out that I live here, that I'm alive, then that's it. I'm done hiding from the rest of them."

"I've been wondering about that for a while," Harry nodded solemnly. "There are enough people that know, and everything that we learned about Him down there has already been used against him. Since we've gotten Dobby over to our side now as well, we know that Snape is the only one playing both sides."

"It'd be great not to have to hide in my own house," she frowned. "Well. This isn't my house, but you know what I mean."

"I do," he said. "Ginny, it's getting late. I'll check in with you tomorrow? Same time?"

"Okay. I'll keep an eye on the Malfoy situation. See if I can find out how the experiment went and how long he'll be stuck here."

"And, Ginny?" Harry said. "Can I see your tattoo one more time?" he asked with a blush and a grin.

Ginny giggled and pulled off her brother's shirt and lifted the side of her top again for him to see the Phoenix leaving the bird cage on her side.

"Not quite as great as seeing you topless, but still awesome," he told her cheekily.

"Hmm, maybe you just needed to ask me nicely," she purred teasingly.

"Really?" his eyes grew wide and hopeful.

"Why don't you practice that and we'll see how convincing you can be in a few days time, when you're physically here to enjoy it." She wasn't sure if she'd follow through with that, but it was fun to tease him about it.

()()()

Ginny awoke early the next morning and couldn't hear any movement about the house. Checking the time she saw it was only six. Generally, she would just roll over and go back to sleep for another hour, but she was too curious about what was going on in the room above hers.

Creeping out of her bed she pulled on her brother's t-shirt again and went to the back of her closet, climbing up the stairs and slipping into the closet of the other room. At the door she listened hard for any sounds. But there was nothing, there was no sound of machinery, no snoring, nothing that she could make out from her hiding space.

Awkwardly, she lowered herself to the floor to try and see under the crack in the door. From her vantage point she could see the rug and a few chairs that were placed around the bed in the room, but there weren't any shoes that were on the floor by the bed.

Standing back up she wondered over her options. There was a chance that there was still someone in there with him, but they might be asleep.

If it was Sirius then she probably wouldn't get in too much trouble for this, but if it was Snape then he would have her head. Malfoy, if he was awake, might not even know what to make of her being there and could think she was just a figment of his imagination. She wasn't sure what Mrs. Tonks would do, she didn't know about Ginny, so she might scream, then everyone would know what she'd done.

How badly did she need the visual? She knew Malfoy was there. She knew what they were doing, but she couldn't help wanting to see it for herself, to know if the experiment was working or not.

Deciding to just push on through the closet carefully she steeled herself, bracing for angry voices reprimanding her. But, as she gently pushed open the door to the room she saw it was empty, save for one person looking pale as death in the bed.

Doing a quick survey of the room she took in the Muggle medical equipment that was occupying most of the space on once side of the bed. It didn't look to be doing anything at the moment but taking up space. There were three chairs that were set up around the bed and they were all vacant.

Wanting to be quick about it she tiptoed over to stand beside the bed and peered down at the boy tucked under the blanket. His face and left arm were the only parts of him not covered. Ginny nearly threw up at the sight of his left forearm. It looked like they had simply cut away his tattoo, leaving a gaping wound in his flesh that was being held open by pins in four corners of his forearm.

It was no wonder he was so pale!

Holding a hand over her mouth she started backing away from the bed, not wanting to look at it anymore, but not being able to look away either.

Malfoy's eyelids started to flutter a bit. Ginny wasn't sure if he was on a potion that would make him stay asleep, or forget anything that was currently happening to him, but knowing that he might open his eyes and see her there had her dropping to the floor and crawling back towards the closet. Surely he wouldn't have the strength to sit up and see what/who it was that was closing the closet door?

With her heart beating furiously in her chest she sneaked back into her room and once she'd replaced the panel at the back of her closet and closed the closet door she let a shudder run through her body. That had been a disgusting sight. She supposed it was necessary for what they were doing; remove the tattoo and run his blood through that filter thingy.

But if it had worked then why were they keeping his arm wound open? Couldn't they just heal him up and send him on his merry way into hiding on the other side of the planet?

Not bothering to wait until their chat tonight she grabbed the mirror out from under her bed and called for Harry.

"Mmwuza," came Harry's sleepy greeting.

"I saw him, and it's so gross," she blurted out to him with a pained expression.

"What?" he started rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Malfoy," she whispered.

Harry stared at her and she watched as the sleepy look in his eyes cleared away. "You saw him?" the need to know everything was evident in his voice.

Ginny resisted the urge to vomit again at the memory of his wound. "I did, and let me tell you, I am never going to be a Healer." She tried to take a calming breath and push away the nausea.

"What did they do to him?" he asked, looking a little horrified himself at her reaction.

"They," she raised her arm and touched where his Mark had been. "It's gone now, but not healed, or even bandaged, it's just… there. Or, not there. I could see," she had to close her eyes and try really hard not to dry heave.

"Are you scared of blood?" Harry asked her curiously.

"No," she shook her head. "If it was just a cut or something, then I wouldn't be like this. I've killed and skinned animals for god's sake, but this is different. This is a person! And he is missing a stretch of skin!"

"You going to be okay?" he wondered.

Letting out a slow breath she nodded, keeping her eyes closed a moment. "Yeah, I'll get over it, but I really don't think I want pork tenderloin for a while," she gagged again.

"Gross," Harry made a face.

"Urgh," another shiver ran through her body. "Anyways. He's completely knocked out and there wasn't anyone in his room when I checked. I don't think I want to check again."

"Yeah, you look a bit pale," Harry commented.

"Sorry to wake you up so early. Just had to tell someone."

"Don't worry about it," he shook his head dismissively. "Glad you told me."

Ginny had a hard time concentrating on her studies that day. Remus didn't seem too frustrated with how many times she asked him to repeat what he'd said. She just kept thinking about the gaping wound.

"I know Malfoy's here," she finally burst out when Sirius brought some lunch down to the basement for the three of them.

Sirius exchanged a look with Remus, "did you hear us bring him in last night?"

Ginny nodded. She wasn't going to tell them that she'd actually been into the room and seen him, there was plenty of information she could get without having to divulge that. She wasn't sure if Sirius even knew about the secret passageway.

"He'll be here for a few days, but it is unlikely that you'll have to interact with him," Sirius told her. "Andromeda, Mrs. Tonks, is seeing to him. He's got a few treatments that he needs to do over the next few days, but we're going to try and get him out of here as soon as possible."

"Is he bedridden?"

"Yes. He might get a bit of his strength back between the treatments but considering what we've had to do…" Sirius paused and considered what he should tell her for a moment. "It is unlikely that he'll leave that room."

"What if he does?" she asked carefully.

Sirius and Remus shared a look then both turned their eyes back on her.

"What is it you're asking?" Remus questioned.

"What if he leaves his room and see's… something?" Initially she wondered what would happen if he saw her, but what if he saw Dobby, or anything else from the Order operation. What if he looked out the window and could tell where he was?

Sirius pursed his lips. "I don't know if he's being Obliviated before we send him on his way," he told her honestly, "but we'll do what we have to."

Ginny nodded and looked down at her sandwich. "I don't want to hide anymore," she said quietly.

"Ginny," Remus started sadly. "Ginny if it is known that you-"

"Just the Order," she cut him off. "Everything that has been learned from the Chamber has been dealt with. What if just the Order knew about me. Then I wouldn't have to miss mealtimes, I wouldn't have to be disillusioned all the time. There are only so many left that don't know, and there are so many that do."

Both men were hesitant to make any sort of promises.

"It's slipped up before. That's how Luna and Hermione know about me. They took it alright, the others in the Order probably will as well. They don't need to know about exactly what I went through, or that there was anything to be discovered down there, or even where 'there' was." She waited for some sort of expression from either of them that they might think it was an idea worth considering. "If one of you is on my side about this then I'll be that much easier to convince the others."

Still the two men sat there with sad and contemplative expressions on their faces.

Ginny's shoulders sagged and she leaned back in her chair, looking morosely down at the half-eaten sandwich in her hands. "Just. Can you please think about it?" She was asking as dejectedly as she could manage, trying to appeal to the side of them that might feel sorry for her.

All she seemed to be doing was making them uncomfortable though. Neither of them liked being the bearer of bad news.

Perhaps if she just barged in on an Order meeting and said 'oops', then no one would have to bring it up, it would just be out there.

"Is there another reason I'm being kept from everyone?" she looked up and asked them suddenly. "Do you think there is another spy among us?"

"We have learned the hard way that one can never be too careful," Remus told her honestly. "We don't know what might happen if too many people know about you."

"And yet they are allowed to know about Grimmauld Place?" she countered. "If they are trustworthy enough to know about Order Headquarters, then they should be trustworthy enough to know about me."

"Perhaps you should discuss this with Dumbledore or your parents," Remus suggested.

Ginny was about ready to scoff at him. If she asked her parents, they would just ask Dumbledore. If she asked Dumbledore he would say that he was sure her parents would want her as safe as possible, and that meant staying hidden from the rest of the Order.

Well, there was an Order meeting that night, one that she was supposed to be hidden in her room for.

Which meant that Ginny was pacing back and forth in her room that evening as she worked up the nerve to go against everyone else's wishes for her. The meeting had started and she was supposed to stay upstairs and be a good girl.

Well, she'd been a good girl for long enough. Nearly a year and a half now.

Perhaps she should bring this up after the Easter Holidays, that way she wouldn't be receiving some kind of punishment when Harry was there. But then she wouldn't have to stay either upstairs or in the basement while Harry was here and he was allowed to roam the house and get pulled into conversations during mealtimes and such.

Weighing the pro's and con's was making her lose her nerve.

Gripping her doorknob she twisted it and pulled it open. Hesitantly she started walking, each step feeling heavier than ever as she moved further into the hall and formulated her excuses in her mind.

"Hey," called a voice from behind her.

Ginny started and swung around to see that Malfoy was out of his room and attempting to make it down the stairs, staring at her curiously. He was gripping the bannister with his one good arm and looking like he was about to fall over.

"Who are you?" he asked her.

()()()