~***~

Disclaimer: It's not mine, don't sue.

~***~

3. Road Of Trials

~***~

I know we never meant to fall

But the moment that my eyes met yours

Our hearts went tumbling

Before we knew what happened

And now that I'm looking back

You know I get the feeling that

We started givin' up

Just to keep from givin' in

Oh, we've been down the roughest roads

I know we've gone so far, and come so close

The Tuesdays, I'll Be Here

~***~

Ginny couldn't keep herself from marveling over the fact that she was actually back at Hogwarts, and in her fifth year no less.

She walked along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and kept catching herself staring at little things that she'd remembered noticing in the past – tiny cracks in the walls at certain points, the trick step on the stairs, the suits of armor squeaking as the helms turned to watch their progress – it was all so strange, the width and breadth of it all, after having existed in such a tiny, controlled space for so long.

She breathed a great sigh of relief when they reached the Library and found it thankfully empty. She collapsed against a table after a cursory look around. It was a good thing Draco wasn't around – she didn't think he would buy anything she had to say easily.

Ginny raised a hand to her forehead and tried to stop staring at Harry – the three of them were giving her odd looks, but there was a particular, concerned warmth in his green gaze that made her remember –

She pulled her eyes from his abruptly. They dropped unwillingly to his hands.

How many times had he touched her, soothed her, held her with those hands – she recalled how they felt on her skin, slightly rough from years of Quidditch, but always so incredibly gentle - his fingers curled into a tight fist as she watched, and her eyes shot back up to his face, and the look hidden in his own made her catch her breath.

Draco's weren't the only person's feelings she'd been completely blind to. How had she been so stupid? Slouching about all selfish and pathetic, feeling sorry for herself because Harry had blown her off. All those times she'd thought Harry had been annoyed with her, or ignoring her, there had been signals – she knew them now, as well as she'd come to know him.

Ginny groaned in confusion and reached for a chair. She knew she and Harry were well suited, in more ways than one, as they'd found out – another groan – but it wasn't meant to be. But she couldn't deny her happiness at seeing him again, and the feelings she had for him still. This was not going to be easy…

Meanwhile Ron was growing ever more impatient. 'Big surprise there,' thought Ginny wryly. She couldn't bring herself to be annoyed – she still far too relieved to see him alive and well.

Tomorrow she'd probably want to slug him just like always, but tonight she felt inclined to swallow any ire his words produced. She couldn't spend the precious little energy she had left being angry with Ron – she needed it to try and work around the huge tangle in her mind.

God, what was she going to tell them?

~***~

Draco looked up from his book with an irritated growl when he caught the sound of footsteps entering the library.

It wasn't that he found the text in his hands incredibly engrossing – in truth he was having an exceptionally hard time concentrating on it – but he wanted to be alone, and he wasn't in any mood to listen to some trysting couple snogging in the stacks.

Ginny had been acting insanely earlier, and her actions in the corridor had been altogether far too unsettling. He'd been caught off his guard completely. It was as if she'd changed into a completely different person nearly before his eyes, a person who knew too much about him, and also knew exactly what she wanted.

Apparently it had been him.

Her assertiveness had thrown him, he had to admit. He'd become so used to her guarded, innocent, confused state of mind since she'd regained her memory. She'd been so easy to manipulate, a constant source of amusement – 'befriending' her had been just another way to annoy Potter.

But then she'd slugged him that day in Potions - and he'd fallen, hard. He hadn't admitted it to himself for a long time – but little by little he'd come to realize how much he'd felt for her. It was there, all the signs – she was one of the very few people who could make him lose his head completely. That day he'd slugged her back, the instantaneous, uncharacteristic remorse he'd felt when he'd struck her back, the crazy impulse to kiss her in the passage, and the ominous ache in his chest when she'd looked so lost and begun to cry. There had been so many times he couldn't count. Noone else had ever had such an effect on him.

Who else could have prompted him to nearly throttle her in front of the bloody Headmaster himself?

"So, am I to understand you beat up Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley?"

A very small, very unwilling smile crossed his lips as he stared at the book in his hands. He still felt slightly murderous whenever he remembered that particular afternoon…and then that evening, when he'd seen her sitting on the steps, looking as if her world had just ended…

"Feeling sorry for yourself, Weasley?"

 "What do you want?'

"Absolutely nothing. I just wondered if you were all right - really, am I that bad…"

"I hate it when you try to act kind."

"Oh? Tell me, would you be happier if I slapped you again?"

. "Too late – I already asked you to throw me out of a window – you missed your opportunity."

 "It's not that bad, you know - Potter's frigging blind, even with those stupid specs,"

 "What, are you out for my blood, Malfoy? Sorry, the diner's closed."

"Have you told them, yet, Weasley?"

 "It's none of your business, Mal-ferret – and just in case you were thinking about blackmail, don't bother. I don't know how you found out – listening at the door after the Headmaster dismissed you, no doubt, you dirty slithering sneak! I'm telling them the minute I can get them alone-although, I don't doubt you'll go running off at the mouth about it to everyone else."

 "You think you know everything, do you? Well, you don't."

Draco found himself clenching his teeth. Her accusation had actually hurt – not that it hadn't been entirely true…

Draco scowled at the memories and set the book aside. He wasn't going to sit there all night and subject himself to remembering just how Ginny Weasley had caused his heart's downfall – and this after a long lecture about self-control.

" - stay detached. You have to separate yourself, if not physically, then emotionally. Love is a weakness, and it will screw you rotten every chance it gets…"

'Too bad you can't follow your own ruddy advice, Malfoy,' Draco thought to himself in disgust.

"- okay? Listen, I'm sorry I gave you all the brush off – "

" 'Brush off?' You turned traitor, you little brat! Might as well have run off to join you-know-who!"

Draco frowned, and rose silently from his chair by the windows. He crossed the floor and peered around one of the bookcases to see Ginny sitting tiredly in a chair at a table near the entrance, surrounded by Gryffindor's own Dream Team.

He watched Potter watching Ginny, and felt the same old urge to rip the boy's throat out with his bare hands. He saw the indecisive movement the other boy made, as if he might go to her.

"Do it," Draco urged him in his mind, a black rage suddenly twisting his gut. "Do it – touch her, Potter, so I can finally have the perfect excuse to waste you – "

"Shut – up, Ron! I said I was sorry – besides, what I have to tell you right now is far more important than some piddling immature rivalry!"

Draco blinked, and relaxed slightly. He didn't think he'd ever heard Ginny sound so authoritative.

From the silence, he didn't think any of the others had either. 

He watched Ginny stand up, and was again surprised by the apparent change in her. She began to pace, and although her head and shoulders drooped as if she were exhausted, she was carrying herself with the easy, attractive grace he'd seen in women several years older.

He narrowed his eyes speculatively as he ran his eyes over the girl/woman who was Ginny and yet not.

Something was rotten in Hogwarts…

~***~

"Jesus, all right, Gin. Don't get your bleedin' tits in a wringer," Ron grumbled after a long quiet moment.

"Ron Weasley!" Hermione chastised him in a hiss.

Ginny couldn't suppress a grin. "That's our Ron," she murmured, shaking her head.

"Ginny – what is it you have to tell us?"

She paused in her frantic pacing to look up and see Harry watching her solemnly.

"I – I'm scared if I tell you, you'll think I'm crazy. I'm not even sure if I should be telling you. I mean – "

"Did Malfoy try something?" Harry asked abruptly, his tone suddenly as icy as death.

"No! Draco – no, he didn't try anything for God's sake…" Ginny rolled her eyes, and pressed her fingertips to her temples. She took a deep breath.

"I…I'm not really me."

There was a long silence. Ron snorted.

"What I mean is, I am me, I'm just not the me that you know, right now – "

"Malfoy put you up to this, Gin?" Ron asked, his eyes narrowed fiercely.

"Ron – "

"Do we look like a bunch of frigging berks, here? What the hell are you trying to pull?"

"I'm not trying to pull anything, Ron! It's hard to explain! I'm Ginny, yes, but my mind – I'm from the future. Our future!" Ginny threw her hands up in the air. "I had this wish, and I - I came back to try and fix things – "

"Oh, this is bloody brilliant," Ron sneered, crossing his arms. "How long have you and Malfoy been planning this?"

Ginny wanted to bang her head into the wall in frustration. "It's true!"

"Tell us exactly what happened, Ginny," Hermione insisted.

"I can't believe you're listening to this!" Ron snapped in outrage, his cheeks a livid red.

"Ron, I came back to save you!" Ginny blurted stupidly.

Her brother paled significantly.

She cursed. "Listen to me. A year after you graduate, Sirius Black is abducted by Voldemort – "

Harry's dark brows suddenly snapped together. "How do you know about Sirius?" He looked over at Ron in panic. "How does she know about Sirius?"

Ron looked at him helplessly and shrugged.

"It…it doesn't matter. The point is, he's captured, and Harry, you…you go after him, to save him. Ron and Hermione go too, but as far as we know, you never knew they followed," Ginny paused, and wet her lips.

"We?" Harry asked quietly.

"Hermione and I – "

"Oh my God," Hermione suddenly whispered, sinking down into a chair.

"A-are you saying…Harry and I …died?" Asked Ron in a hushed voice.

Ginny closed her eyes, and returned to her own seat. Her silence was answer enough.

"Was it Voldemort?" Harry asked tonelessly.

"I don't know, Harry. We didn't even really know if you were truly…gone, really. You were missing for over a year after. Sirius was murdered before you even got there, Hermione told me. And Ron…" she trailed off and looked at her brother with teary eyes.

"Go on, I want to know," Ron said gruffly.

"Hermione said that all the Death Eaters were present. A-and that Draco Malfoy was among them."

"I knew it!" Ron breathed, his blue eyes flashing. "That frigging tosser "

"Hermione said it 'looked' like Draco was the one who killed you, but she couldn't be sure," Ginny said in a rush. "She said everything was dark, and too much was going on to be sure…but they convicted him, gave him the Kiss anyway, because he wore the mark - " her throat became too choked for her to talk.

"He killed me?" Ron roared in furious disbelief, his pride apparently very bruised.

"Oh my God," Hermione said again, her voice trembling. It had hit the other girl hard, her news. It was rare to see Hogwarts future Head Girl so uncharacteristically inarticulate.

"Was he defeated?"

Ginny hardly dared to look at Harry. He was watching her closely, his green eyes suspiciously bright.

She rested her forehead on the heel of her hand and stared with blurred eyes down at the tabletop. "Yes – presumably. When you disappeared…so did he."

It was deathly quiet for long minutes, and Ginny felt horrible. Maybe she'd been wrong to tell them –

"I don't know about you lot, but I'm all for getting pissed to the bloody gills," a cold voice said from nearby, making them all jump.

Ginny leapt up, nearly overturning her chair, her heart thudding in her throat. "Draco!"

~***~

Draco now understood that old saying about eavesdropping.

He was destined to be as good as dead before he even turned nineteen.

What was that load about him bearing the mark of Death Eater?  There was no way in hell. He might have killed Weasley, he didn't doubt that, the boy doubtless had it coming – but there was no way he was becoming a brainless automaton like his father and rest of Voldemort's followers…

He waited for Ron Weasley to start shouting, and try to throttle him where he stood, but the room remained silent.

"This is all my fault," Ginny muttered, a hand over her eyes.

Draco swallowed, and crossed his arms in a deceptively careless fashion. "Is it, now? Why don't you explain, Ginny dearest. I'm sure we all just dying to know," he forced himself to drawl boredly.

Granger sobbed suddenly, and lifted her head to glare at him, before she looked up at Weasley with her heart in her eyes and stood up, racing from the room in tears.

"'Mione, wait!" Ron called, and tore after her with a curse.

Potter sent him a death's head glare. "That was totally unnecessary, Malfoy,"

"Piss off, Scarhead. Looks like it's your lucky day, eh? Now at least you have a goal in life. You know how much time you've got left to try and get laid before you finally kick off – "

"Knock it off, Draco," Ginny said dully. "Just stop."

Draco continued to glare back at Harry for a long moment, and then he sighed. "Well? Out with it, Gin."

Ginny twisted her hands together nervously.

"He's right," Potter surprised him by saying "We need to know what's going on, Ginny. Why do you think it's all your fault?"

Ginny raised her head to look at them both, pushing her long curls over her shoulder. Her voice sounded agonized. She really was convinced it was all her fault.

"It's my fault because…I took the wrong path, I guess you could say."

Draco felt his heart wrench to a stop. His eyes shot to Potter's, and he saw a triumphant gleam in the hated green eyes.

"You think it all happened because you chose the wrong…person?" Harry prompted gently, obviously thinking she was just taking the blame.

"No, I know it's my fault. I wished to be taken back to the moment in time when things changed, when whatever happened to make things turn out badly, did."

Draco stared at Ginny, saw her soft, velvety brown eyes linger on him just an instant longer then they should have…and then he very slowly smirked.

It all made sense now, Ginny crying in the corridor over nothing, Ginny speaking in the past tense, Ginny acting so out of character –

He looked back at Potter, and saw the other boy's head drop forward slightly in defeat.

The smirk turned into a full blown wicked grin, so wide it hurt his face. There was no doubt about it, anymore.

Ginny was his…

~***~

TBC

(A/N: I'm so very sorry about the wait everyone! I apologize if this wasn't the best chapter, I've had so little time! I have to go, but make sure you let me know your opinions on this chapter, because they do matter very much!!! Thanks so much! ~Lee)