Going upstairs proved to be much harder than coming downstairs. Each step Draco took was long and obviously painful. He never showed his pain, though Ginny could see the fatigue Draco felt at the top of the staircase. When they reached the bed Draco was using, he collapsed into the mattress and let his head sink back into the pillows letting a long breath escape him. Ginny helped his legs shift into bed and wrapped the blankets around his body.
"Thank you, love." Draco half smiled with his eyes closed.
"You don't have to thank me anything." Ginny returned sitting on the bed next to Draco. He moved his hand closest to Ginny on her lap and began rubbing her knuckles.
"Are you doing ok? I mean, that's a silly question obviously, but is there something I can get you to help you at the moment?" Ginny asked.
"No, I'll be fine, nothing I can't handle." Draco smiled.
"Knock knock!" Flur entered the room carrying a large tray with sandwiches stacked in a small tower and iced tea.
"Wow, that looks delicious." Draco pushed himself upright and let a small grunt escape while doing so.
"Mum says in a few days you'll be back on your feet." Bill supplied.
"She's an incredible healer. I couldn't do half what she's done." Draco replied as Flur arranged the tray on Draco's lap. "I thought I was a goner for sure."
"We all did." Ginny whispered. Draco's hand squeezed her hand in reassurance and in attempts of giving her comfort.
"Mum had to be a good healer to deal with our shenanigans." Bill chuckled in attempts to lighten the mood. "Anyway, you two enjoy. Let us know if you need anything else. Lupin and Mum, possibly Tonks, should be here in a few hours."
"Thanks Bill, and thanks for the sandwiches, Flur." Draco smiled picking up a triangle.
"Iz waz nothing." Flur smiled following her husband out the bedroom. Bill, in good nature, closed the door behind them leaving Ginny and Draco to enjoy sandwiches and their company.
"I did not expect you to be here, not that I don't want you around." Draco added hastily. They had finished their meal, and the tray had been discarded to the dresser so Ginny would have room to lay against Draco on the bed. He idly combed his fingers through her fiery hair and she drew circles into his chest. She lifted her head off of his chest before answering.
"It's Christmas break. I thought about staying at Hogwarts, but it seemed like I would be more useful at home. Plus, Mum is a wreck with Ron and Harry gone, so I thought it would be best to be home. I actually just got home two days ago. They didn't tell me anything that happened until they organized the rescue squad. When they told us you were held prisioner, I thought-"
"Shh, I'm right here." Draco pulled her head closer to his chest.
"I don't know what I would have done if you had died."
"You would have grieved, but picked yourself up and won this war because you are a brave," Draco kissed her forehead, "Incredible," Draco kissed the tip of her nose, "Powerful witch." Draco kissed her lips and began to melt into her touch. The pain that coursed through his body seemed to disappear as electricity shot through his body.
"I love you, Draco." Ginny whispered when they parted.
"I love you, Ginevra." Draco whispered, his piercing blue eyes catching her soft brown ones.
Lupin and Tonks arrived a few minutes before Molly did. Bill quickly explained the situation, leaving out the Ginny and Draco being in love part, while Ginny busied herself in the kitchen as to not arouse suspicion. Lupin and Tonks seemed to expect the trio to break away from Draco at some point and were not surprised at all. Molly however seemed very confused over the news. Under the assurances of Lupin, Molly calmed her questions and made her way to Draco's room to check on his wounds. She had Ginny follow her while Billy, Lupin and Tonks discussed the next steps to follow.
"Good morning, dear," Molly chirped as she and Ginny entered the room.
"Good morning, Mrs. Weasley." Draco smiled as he pushed himself upright against the headboard.
"How are you feeling?" Mrs. Weasley asked she moved to the side of the bed.
"Considerably better, thank you." Draco answered politely.
"Would you mind removing your shirt so we could assess your injuries?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"Of course," Draco shifted himself so he was sitting on the bed facing the wall opposite to Molly and began unbuttoning his shirt. As he let his shirt slide off, the large laceration to his back seemed more like a crater to his spine to Ginny. Without realizing her actions, Ginny sucked in a deep breath at the sight of the wound. Immediately Molly and Draco looked at her reaction.
"Ginny, we don't show the patient any signs of emotion towards their wounds. That only scares them." Molly reminded her daughter lightly.
"Sorry." Ginny mumbled busying herself with finding the healing cream in her mother's medical bag.
"How is it feeling?" Molly asked lightly.
"Not bad," Draco responded lightly.
"I'm going to touch around the area and I want you to tell me what the pain is on a scale of 1-10. This tells me what kind of nerve damage you are going to have, so please answer honestly."
"Yes mam." Draco smiled.
As Molly began touching the skin lightly around the area, Draco was able to calmly tell her the pain was beginning to grow worse telling Molly the nerve damage Draco was going to have was mild. She finished by cleaning the wound and adding cream to his wound before covering the wound with fresh gauze. Before leaving the shoulder, she placed a numbing charm on the wound before moving to Draco's side.
Twenty minutes later, Draco's wounds had been cleaned and dressed. Tonks and Lupin had found themselves in Draco's room as Ginny and Molly cleaned up the old bandages.
"Good to see you upright." Lupin gave Draco a warm smile.
"Good to be upright, sir." Draco replied, "I'm assuming you want to know what happened too."
"I wouldn't mind hearing what happened, but I'm more concerned about what you and your team found and what you have left." Lupin pulled a chair around near the bed while Tonks took a seat on the edge of the bed. Draco suddenly realized how long he had been in the field as he just noticed a round bulge in Tonks' stomach.
"Wow, congratulations!" Draco genuinely smiled between the two.
"It was a bit of a surprise for us too." Tonks beamed as Lupin squeezed her hand, his face showing equal excitement.
"Were about three months along, so this little tyke will be popping out just in time to see spring." Lupin's voice was carefree and light, nothing Draco had ever heard before.
"I've always said," Molly gave a huge Mrs. Weasley smile, "that the best things happen during the darkest times."
"I'm just glad someone got his head of his arse long enough to marry me." Tonks gave her husband a teasing smile.
"Yes yes, wearing someone down is the best way to convince them to marry you." Lupin gave his wife a wink before turning his attention on Draco. "I would love to keep talking about such pleasantries, but we really do need to know what you have found."
"Ginny, out." Molly pushed her daughter towards the door.
"Actually, Molly, if you wouldn't mind, I think it would be good for Ginny to know what is going on." Lupin stopped Molly's movements.
"Absolutely not, she's only sixteen!" Molly argued.
"I know she's young, but she could be the asset we need to put everything together. We need someone on the inside of Hogwarts giving us information. It's not ideal, but nobody would suspect her as she is only sixteen. All Order members are 17 or older. Everything is changing so much and the Death Eaters have the, advantage of having control of Hogwarts. We need to know what's happening there. We also have our suspicions that there is a Horcrux hidden inside Hogwarts, we need Ginny to keep that safe, if Ginny is willing of course."
"No! All of my children are fighting in this war and I have let them do their job, but she isn't even an adult yet, I will not-"
"Mum, I want to fight. I want to do everything I can." Ginny cut off her mother. "Lupin is right, Hogwarts is being controlled by the Death Eaters. Some of us left from the DA have been gathering information that we can and I think we could really make a difference in this. I'm already in this mess, Mum. I might as well have the information to make a difference."
Shocked by her daughter's words, Molly stood quietly. Slowly tears began to overflow Molly's eyes and stream down her face as she grabbed her daughter into a tight embrace.
"I guess I don't have a choice in the matter." Molly finally sobbed out into Ginny's shoulder.
"Don't worry about me, Mum." Ginny smiled, "The twins made sure I grew up tough."
Molly laughed through her tears, "Are you sure this is what you want to do? This is very dangerous and nobody would expect you to do this."
"I'm sure Mum." Ginny looked straight into her mother's eyes. "I want to do everything I can to make sure You-Know-Who and his army is destroyed."
Molly, though still unsure about her thoughts on her daughter joining the Order so young, nodded her head and left the room. Tonks gave Ginny an encouraging smile as Ginny pulled the untouched chair closer to the bed.
"Nobody expects you to do what you are about to do, and nobody would think any less of you if you didn't want to do this." Lupin told Ginny seriously.
"I'm well aware of the risks," Ginny replied, her features unwavering, "I want to do this."
"Ok then. Draco, why don't you start by telling us what you have found." Lupin smiled pulling out a piece of blank parchment. He mumbled an incantation and ink appeared on the page.
"The locket, and we destroyed it." Draco began and Lupin made a mark over the picture depicting a locket. "And Helga Hufflepuff's Cup is in Bellatrix's vault. I am working on how to get that out. I am confident that Ravenclaw's Diadem is hidden in Hogwarts somewhere, it would be somewhere that You-Know-Who wouldn't be able to find. I believe the young You-Know-Who convinced the ghost of Ravenclaw to give him her diadem, and then once he made it a Horcrux, I believe she hid it which is why nobody knows where it is. This Horcrux has never made You-Know-Who worry, which tells me its hidden in a place nobody can find."
"Potter believes that You-Know-Who is keeping a Horcrux close to him, and that's one I have been struggling with. I can't think of anything he wears."
"What about a living thing?" Tonks suggested.
"A living thing?" Draco repeated, "Is that even possible?"
"It hasn't been documented, but its possible. A piece of his soul just needs to attach itself to something during the kill. Is possible that he projected his soul into something living should it be on the scene of the kill without any other powerful objects nearby." Lupin agreed.
"Nagini." Draco offered. "If it is true that a Horcrux can be on a living thing, that snake would be it. He keeps Nagini closer to him than anything. That's the only thing I could imagine he would protect with his life."
"What if that's because it is his life." Ginny suggested. "If I had a bit of my soul in something, I would want to protect that with my life, even if that was the only attachment I had to that thing."
"Anything else odd about the snake?" Lupin asked.
"Nagini can understand You-Know-Who and they can almost have conversations together. I know You-Know-Who is a parseltoung though, so that might not be the answer."
"Might not, but it might explain why he would use a snake as a Horcrux."
"Say Nagini is a Horcrux," Draco began, "how do we get close enough to kill it?"
"Nagini would have to be the last Horcrux and we cannot let You-Know-Who even being to suspect we know about Nagini."
"That means we still have to figure out one more. Assuming Nagini is actually a Horcrux." Draco leaned back into the pillows.
"We will figure it out, you've done amazing things so far. You've figured out more than the whole Order has figured out in nearly 20 years."
"Anything else we need to know about?" Tonks asked.
"Not much unfortunately, what do you about Sirius' brother, Regulus?"
"He was a Slytherin at Hogwarts, graduated a few years before Sirius. They weren't close, but Sirius wasn't close with anyone in his family. He became a Death Eater as soon as he turned 17 and was built ranks quickly. The curious thing was he stayed in contact with Sirius even after he took the mark. He never asked about Sirius' life, but kept contact. We always thought it was to keep tabs on Sirius in hopes to convert him. About a year before he died, he kept telling Sirius that he was getting close to something and he acted like a crazy person. We were convinced he received the Crucio punishment too many times and lost his mind. They never found his body, but his house elf lost the bond to Regulus, so we all knew he had died."
"I had a chat with Kreature a while back." Draco began, "The locket we carried around was Regulus', apparently he had figured out the Horcruxes before anyone else. He took Kreature with him to find the real locket and told him to destroy it. Kreature couldn't destroy it, but was able to bring us the real locket and a Basilisk fang from Hogwarts."
"How was that possible, nobody can apparate-"
"Inside or outside Hogwarts, yeah I know." Draco gave a mischievous smile, "But house-elves can travel through even the most powerful wards providing it is their owner's wishes. My father would send his house-elf to Hogwarts to check in on my fairly frequently, but the house-elf could not apparte into Hogwarts on their own terms."
"Clever." Lupin smiled understandingly. "So Harry sent Kreature to Hogwarts."
"Actually, sir, that was the rather ingenious part. You see, Kreature still had unfulfilled orders from Regulus, so all I did was tell him he could get into the dungeons of Hogwarts and retrieve a Basilisk fang and Kreature did the rest of the work for me."
"Brilliant." Tonks praised. "I didn't know house-elves had that ability."
"House-elves have much more power than we could imagine, wizards just happened to be clever enough to make them our slaves." Draco nodded.
"You should join S.P.E.W., Hermione would be thrilled to have another member." Ginny teased.
"I'd rather keep my piece of mind that I am as far away from that club as possible." Draco replied lightly. "Do you know if Sirius kept any letters from Regulus or if Regulus kept a journal of his findings? If he found the locket, he might have figured out the others."
"Hm," Lupin leaned back in his chair thinking. "I can't recall Regulus saying anything in his letters, but he might have. Whether Sirius kept them is a different question. He was always a pack rat, but there were things he was quick to throw out."
"I think it is worth a visit to Grimald Palace if you don't mind."
"As soon as you're on your feet again, we will check it out." Lupin agreed.
"Ok, we've pieced together Draco's side of things. How's Hogwarts, Ginny?" Tonks asked turning the conversation to Ginny.
"Well, not great." Ginny gave a humorless chuckle. "Snape is Headmaster and taking orders from You-Know-Who. Professors don't have control of anything anymore. The Carrow twins are taking care of detentions now, they really love making older students use unforgiveable curses on the younger students. First years are getting beaten for getting lost or being a minute late to class. Most of us older students have been stepping in for the younger students. They don't care as long as they have someone to beat up. Madam Pomphrey isn't allowed to heal any students except Slytherins. We've all kinda figured out how to do simple healing charms. Other than that, nothing serious has happened yet. From what I am hearing, when the 7th years graduate, You-Know-Who is going to force them to take the Dark Mark and if they refuse he's going to kill them."
"Then we have our deadline to take back Hogwarts." Lupin nodded gravely. "Do your best to keep everyone in good spirits despite what is happening. We lost all contact with any Order members inside Hogwarts so we are going to rely on you for communication. Is there any way you can think of to send messages to us without being detected?"
Ginny looked to Draco as if asking for permission. Draco nodded slowly before turning to Lupin and Tonks. "We have a two-way journal of sorts. Only we can see what is written on the pages and only we can open the journal. It looks blank to anyone else. We've been communicating through that for the last few months, but that could be the best way to send messages."
"I don't doubt the magic between these journals, but who made these journals?" Tonks asked.
"I did. I modified the same charms Tom Riddle used on his diary. His was much more advanced and dangerous, but I assure you nobody else can read what Ginny and I write in these journals."
"Ok, that sounds like a good plan." Lupin nodded in agreement, "Ginny, for now I want you to figure out how to get close to The Grey Lady, she is going to be key to finding and destroying the diadem. If you find the diadem, do you have a way to destroy it?"
"I have an extra Basilisk fang you can take." Draco offered.
"Ginny, are you ok with that?"
"Absolutely." Ginny nodded eagerly.
"Excellent. We'll leave you alone for a while. Rest up, Draco, you have a lot of healing to go." Lupin and Tonks stood ending their meeting.
"Pleasure seeing you again." Draco extended his left arm as he did not trust his right arm at the moment. Lupin grasped the extended hand and Tonks waved.
"We'll see you soon, Draco." Tonks smiled warmly before leaving Ginny and Draco to silence.
"So, my badass girlfriend is a secret agent." Draco smiled mischievously at Ginny.
"You hardly ever call me your girlfriend." Ginny whispered sinking into the bed facing Draco.
"It seems appropriate, I mean, we did just tell most of your family and all." Draco chuckled as Ginny pressed her lips against his chapped ones. The kiss started slow and full of passion, but quickly fire rose between the two as their longing for each other in the last few months showed. Draco wrapped his good arm around Ginny's waist and pulled her closer to him so she straddled his lap now. Ginny pushed for a deeper kiss and ran a hand up Draco's now long blonde hair. When her fingers reached the top of his head, she pulled her hand down slowly pulling a groan from Draco's throat.
"How you seduce me, witch." Draco whispered as they broke the kiss for air.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ginny replied with a teasing smile. The exact smile that had driven Draco insane for the last four months. Draco responded by placing hungry kisses along Ginny's neck. He was careful not to leave a mark, but bit softly on the skin that connected Ginny's neck with her collar bone. A moan of pleasure escaped Ginny as she allowed Draco's body to overtake her will-power. As Draco began working his way up Ginny's neck placing soft and wet kisses along her skin, Ginny pushed her hands underneath his night shirt pulling the tight and muscular skin closer to her own.
"I've missed you so much." Ginny whispered as Draco reached her earlobe.
"Not as much as I have missed you, love." Draco whispered into her ear making every nerve in her body to jump in excitement.