A/N: Thanks so much for reading. And sorry for the terrible cliffie last week.

I hope those of you who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas. And to everyone, Happy New Year!

The Safe House

Chapter Thirty-Four

George felt Ginny embracing him before he even realized that she had been standing there. She was crying into his chest, and the baby was crying, too, as he was trapped between his mother and his uncle. George looked up at his mother and another witch standing across the room. He wrapped his arm around Ginny's shoulders and leaned over her, whispering, "I'm here. It's okay. Go through to my flat. I will get your things."

He stood up straight and stepped in front of Ginny. "Mum? What's going on? Why is Ginny here and why is she crying? She looks terrified. Where is Draco?"

"George. Um, well, something terrible has happened; your sister has been lied to and manipulated. Malfoy has altered her memories and performed who knows what else on her. This is Healer Cerletti, and she is here to help Ginny recover her real memories."

He briefly looked at the other woman. "I'm taking Ginny and Thuban with me."

Healer Cerletti stepped forward and spoke calmly, "No, Mr. Weasley. Please, we are in the middle of a session. It really would be best for your – "

Ginny had taken the Floo powder and vanished with the baby into the flames.

George looked behind him and smiled. He turned back to his mother. "Are all of her things upstairs?"

Molly followed him up the stairs, slowly drawing her wand from her apron. "George, no! You don't know what you're doing. If you take her, she may never recover. We need to help her."

Before she could lock him in the room, he turned quickly and performed a Full-Body Bind on her. He grabbed her quickly, preventing her from falling, and gently leaned her against the wall. He cringed when he saw the rage in her eyes. "Sorry, Mum. Some day you will thank me when Ginny starts speaking to you again."

He ran in the room, gathered everything back into the suitcases, and levitated the luggage in front of him as he descended the stairs. He paused in front of the witch, who was waiting for Molly to return. "My mum is upstairs. You may need to help her. If you have hurt Ginny, well, God help you." He smiled at the dumbfounded witch before shoving the luggage into the fireplace and disappearing right after them.

ooo

Ginny stood in the familiar flat, staring at the fireplace and wishing for the hundredth time that she had a wand, when she heard a soft cough from behind. She turned quickly and saw Pansy Parkinson with her hands raised, no wand in sight.

"Ginny? I can see that your stupid brother forgot to tell you I am here. I'm Pansy, Pansy Parkinson."

"I know who you are! What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you."

"You're here to help Harry!" She turned back to the Floo, but she did not see the powder.

"I thought you might try to run." Pansy held up the Floo powder. "I am not here to help Harry. I'm here because I want to help you and your husband. … I've seen Draco."

"You've seen him? How is he?"

"He's fine. Brassed off, but fine. My house is now the new prison for detainees and low-risk criminals. That's where he is, and that's how I found him. I would take you to him, but that's the first place they are going to look for you. We have to be very careful on how we proceed, but he met with the litigator today and your friend, Luna Lovegood, will be running a piece on him in the paper tomorrow."

"Luna? I'm such a bad friend, I haven't asked about her once. Can I see her?"

"Yes, in fact, you need to see her in order to give her your side of the story. George already sent her an owl today about that. She really wants to see you, and she said that we could meet her tomorrow for lunch."

"When can I see Draco?"

"I would love to sneak you in to see him, but I think as soon as the paper comes out tomorrow, he will be under surveillance. And as I said, they will be expecting you. We hope it will be by early next week. Blaise Zabini is his litigator. He met with Draco this morning, and afterwards he was going straight to the Ministry to file some paperwork. He is going to force them to state official charges, which will mean that they cannot keep hiding him. Once the article hits tomorrow and the Ministry claims their charges against him, Blaise can proceed with getting the paperwork to prove that you are his wife."

"What if I'm not really his wife?"

"Don't think like that. And if for some reason your marriage is not registered, then we will come up with another way. It's just a matter of time before you will see him again. I know you must be worried about him, and he's really worried about you, both of you." She stepped closer and put her hand to her mouth as she gazed into those familiar grey eyes. "He said he looked like him. Oh my goodness. He's a perfect copy of him, isn't he?"

"Almost." Ginny shrugged and then smiled as she noticed that Pansy had tears in her eyes. "His name is Thuban."

"Oh, that's right - from the Draco constellation. Hi, Thuban!" She smiled at Ginny and stepped closer. "Can I hold him?"

Ginny stepped away. "I'm sorry. I can't let you do that."

"Oh, Ginny, I'm sorry. I read your note yesterday. I can't imagine what you have been through."

"You read my note?" She looked surprised, but then she formed a sly smile. "Are you dating my brother?"

"What! Oh no, no, no. No, we are just friends. I found Draco and then came to George to tell him what was happening. He found your note whilst I was here. That's all."

Ginny pursed her lips in thought before slowly asking, "Are you still with Harry?"

"Um, probably not after this." Pansy laughed, but she then bit her lip and looked at the redhead. "Do you care?"

"I used to. I even hated you. But now, I'm glad he had someone." She saw the brief flash of pain in the other witch's eyes. Ginny could still hear Harry's words declaring his love for her from the night before, and she felt sorry for Pansy. "Maybe he will understand this some day."

Pansy rolled her eyes and waved her hand as if she didn't care.

Ginny smirked. "Probably not. He's not really the forgiving type."

They both smiled knowingly and then burst out laughing. Pansy shook her head, asking, "Is it terrible that I'm glad he can't have you?"

"Is it terrible that I don't want him? He is the saviour of the wizarding world."

"Yes, there's that. But he's not a very happy saviour."

Ginny chortled, "Yeah, he was never very good at being happy."

George entered the flat to see them giggling together. He shut down his Floo and turned back to the witches. "Well, ladies, it's done. Mum probably wants to kill me, but I had to do what I had to do."

Ginny turned quickly towards her brother, her eyes wide. "What did you do, George?"

"Cast a Full-Body Bind on her, left her in the hall. I've seen her angry before, but I don't think I've ever seen her look like that. Speaking of which, glad you didn't scratch Pansy's eyes out, Gin. Was a bit worried about this reunion, probably should've warned you." He walked over to Ginny and hugged her. "Let me see my nephew. Please."

Ginny took a deep breath and then handed Thuban to her brother. "This is your Uncle George. You remember him, Thuban? He's funny."

George held Thuban close and tickled his tummy, earning a few giggles and a swipe across the face. "Well, he definitely is your son. No matter what those tests showed."

Her eyes darkened and she spoke with a low voice. "He's mine."

Pansy joined them and smiled at the baby. "Of course he is."

Ginny stroked his white-blond hair lovingly before sitting down on the sofa. "I could kill Ron. When I returned from here, Thuban was screaming, and I thought I was going to lose my mind."

Pansy gave her a sympathetic nod, but then she clasped her hands. "Don't get too comfy. We need to move you. And probably like now. Your mum will contact Harry immediately."

"Where?"

Pansy's eyes sparkled, and she gushed, "My new place. It's Muggle! No one knows about it but George and Narcissa. She's waiting for you there. She's going to simply combust when she sees this little guy."

"All right. I'll take the luggage and the baby." George checked to make sure his sister trusted him to take her son. "Pansy, you take Ginny. Let's go."

Ginny stood from the sofa and briefly wondered about Apparating whilst she could be pregnant. She knew the earlier in the pregnancy the safer she would be, and she had already figured that she could only be a few weeks along. So she took Pansy's arm and felt herself being pulled into the familiar vortex.

ooo

They appeared in a hallway of a building. It was very clean, with plush carpet and tan walls.

Ginny looked at Pansy. "Where are we?"

"London. It's a very nice building. George helped me find it today. So it's still very bare inside, but that means we get to go shopping. It's perfect because we're the only flat on this floor."

Ginny gave her a perplexed look. "And it really is Muggle?"

"Oh," she giggled. "I know. I can't believe I'm living here. But I think it will be safest for now."

"She didn't know a thing about Anti-Muggle wards." George grinned at Ginny and then turned to the other witch. "What would you do without me, Sweets?"

Pansy rolled her eyes and then continued, "I set up some Anti-Apparation wards on the flat - just in case. And there's no Floo network, of course, so we will have to be careful Apparating into the hall." She turned to the door and used a key to open it.

They stepped inside and Ginny noticed immediately that the flat was almost empty. There was only a small sofa and table in the first room. Still, she sighed in relief. George placed Thuban back in her arms, and he took her luggage down the hall to their new bedroom.

Narcissa entered from a joining room and froze when she saw them. Her beautiful face crumpled into tears as she walked quickly over to Ginny.

"Ginevra, I'm so happy to meet you. I'm Narcissa." She was weeping and smiling, her words getting caught in her throat. "And this is Thuban?" She placed both hands to her chest and shook her head in disbelief.

Ginny felt her own eyes watering with tears. This had been the reception she had dreamt of whilst still in the Safe House. This was what she had hoped her own mother would have done. "Yes, do you want to hold him?"

"Yes!" Narcissa gingerly took the baby into her arms. "Oh my! You look just like your daddy." She kissed his head and rocked him. Thuban smiled at her and reached up to her face. "Hi, little prince. I'm your grandmother, but you can call me Nana."

Thuban looked over at Ginny, checking in with her, and she smiled encouragingly at him. "It's okay, Snitch. Nana loves you. Can you give her a kiss?"

He giggled and then pressed his little lips to Narcissa's cheek, not really puckering them, but it didn't matter to the witch. She laughed joyfully at her first kiss from her first grandchild and then kissed him back.

Narcissa balanced Thuban on her hip, and used her free arm to embrace Ginny. "Thank you. Words cannot express how grateful I am for you. I know you saved him. … Draco loves you both so much. I'm just so glad he has found happiness."

Thuban climbed onto Ginny whilst the two witches were embracing and buried his head into her neck. Ginny kissed his head and smiled at her mother-in-law. "He's still getting used to people. I haven't let anyone hold him for more than a few minutes."

Narcissa could see the sadness in Ginny's eyes. She sweetly replied, "He knows you need him right now. He's being a good boy and taking care of his mummy."

It wasn't long before Thuban wanted to eat, and the four of them made their way to a small Muggle diner near the block of flats. Ginny finally let Pansy hold the baby during dinner, and she was surprised to see the other witch acting so friendly and cheerful. She also noticed that her brother was very comfortable around Pansy, leaning into her as they laughed, touching her hand occasionally, teasing her like he used to tease Fred.

Ginny wanted to discuss Draco's case and to know more about what would be happening.

Unfortunately, whenever someone mentioned Draco, Thuban would look around and ask for his daddy, which made her tear up again. George made the decision to let Narcissa inform Ginny about what was happening after Thuban went to sleep, and he and Pansy would go shopping for some needed items at the flat.

After returning to their new home, it took Ginny a long time to get Thuban to settle down. This had always been Draco's job, and now that the little boy was free to run and play, that was all he wanted to do. Ginny had opened up the luggage, and Narcissa let her use her wand to unpack many of their things, including all of his toys. The two witches were sitting on the sofa, watching Thuban play with several items, babbling to himself and his toys. Occasionally, he would start to get drowsy and come over to Ginny, laying his head against legs, but as soon as she would try to lift him up, he would quickly crawl away from her.

Narcissa chuckled at the baby, and she turned to Ginny. "So tell me all about your pregnancy. Was it easy? I had the worst time with," she paused and glanced at Thuban, "his father. I always wanted more children, but the Healers didn't think it would be wise for me to get pregnant again."

"I'm sorry, Narcissa. I didn't know." She smiled as she thought about her own pregnancy. "Um, well, I didn't have any real problems, other than not knowing what I was doing. My morning sickness started late, but it wasn't too bad. I could hardly eat anything for about two weeks, but then it started to pass. He was wonderful. He took very good care of me the entire time, even when I was a little barmy with hormones. I was in labour for about eleven hours, and the delivery was a little scary. I lost a lot of blood, but we were prepared for that, and heknew exactly what to do. So, overall it was pretty normal. Of course, once Thuban was born, it didn't matter how hard any of it was. We were so happy; we both couldn't stop smiling. That is until we couldn't stop yawning. It was really hard not having any help those first few weeks, but we also had no jobs to worry about. I'm sure others have had it far worse."

"It's hard for me to picture him as a father still. I can't wait to see them together." She tittered a bit at the thought. "Lucius was never as affectionate as I would have liked. He loved us, and we both knew that, but … I think he regretted never being more demonstrative with our son. … He risked his life to protect you. Did you know that?"

"My parents told me that he knew Severus had rescued me." She stood up and bent down to check on Thuban, who had finally succumbed to sleep, clutching his stuffed dragon and lying on his tummy. "He's out. We can say Draco again." She chuckled and then sat back down. "He's so smart. Was Draco a fast learner at this age? Narcissa?"

She suddenly turned to Ginny, coming out of a daze. "Lucius came to me the night before Voldemort was defeated. He was the one who revealed where Voldemort was hiding. He brought some memories to me. … He had to kill Severus. They were friends, but Severus was willing to sacrifice himself. He didn't want Voldemort to discover where you were. Lucius told me that he wanted to protect you, that he did it for you, to make things right for the terrible things he did to you." She sighed and shook her head sadly. "I know my husband was not always a good man, but I take comfort in knowing that, in the end, he made the right choices."

"I forgave him a long time ago, Narcissa. And I know that he didn't intentionally hand an eleven-year-old girl a Horcrux. I also know what he did to protect me, but I didn't know about Severus. Does Draco know?"

"Yes, I told him yesterday. It's hard for him, knowing what his father had to do, but also that he will never be able to thank Lucius."

"I know he hoped to be able to work on their relationship." She sighed. "I wish he could have seen him just once more."

"He left some of his favourite memories of Draco. Hopefully, he will be able to see them soon."

"That will mean so much to him. He has worried that he would be like his father, but I told him that he has already made different choices. Maybe in the end, he helped Lucius make better choices, too."

The blonde nodded her head and smiled. "I like that. Thank you, Ginevra."

"Narcissa? You have missed so much these last few years. I may have something for you."

"For me? Having you all in my life is more than I could ever ask for."

"Are you sure? Because I think there could be more." She grinned. "Narcissa, this stays between us, but I think I might be pregnant again."

"Oh, Ginevra! That's wonderful!"

"I want you to perform the test. I don't even have a wand, and I had wanted Draco to do it, but he won't have his wand either. Besides, this can be something special for you."

"I'm so honoured." She reached forward and embraced her new daughter.

Together they watched the wand gently pass over Ginny's lower abdomen, Narcissa speaking the words of the spell with much hope and love.

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A/N: Thanks to my beta, SometimeSelkie.

So they're out of the Burrow! And Narcissa has finally met her grandson. From here on out, it will be building up to the trial. Sorry it's kind of short. Please, tell me your thoughts!