Disclaimer: These things get so old after you write them 16 times..I don't
own HP characters!
A/N: Thank all of you for all the great reviews! Keep 'em coming! They're absolutely spiffing! I think with the next chapter I will wrap this story up. I could have gone ahead and combined them, but I don't have it written, and I needed to get something posted for all of you! So enjoy...
Piercing the Darkness
Chapter 16 Almost Forgiven
******
All of the Weasley family was waiting for Ginny outside the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey wouldn't allow more than a few people in the wing while she was working.
As Ginny and Draco approached, Mrs. Weasley ran over and threw her arms around Ginny.
"Oh Ginny!" she cried. "I was so worried!"
"It's alright now mum." Ginny said, trying to calm her mother. Although deep down she felt that nothing was right anymore.
"Is Professor Dumbledore going to be okay?" She asked.
Mr. Weasley and the six boys came over to all greet Ginny as well.
"Remus, Harry, Hermione, and many of the teachers are in there with him now..." Arthur answered. "They're working hard to make sure that he'll be alright." He drifted off, and looked towards Malfoy who was being very quiet.
"I heard what happened." Arthur said to Draco quietly. "And although your true intentions in this whole situation may never be known, I guess I owe you my daughter's life."
Draco didn't respond. He didn't feel as though he should be getting thanked. He had known from the very beginning what he should have done, but he had turned away from it. And what was his excuse for that? Draco didn't know. Maybe he had wanted to know what it would be like to follow in his father's footsteps. Or maybe he had thought that he was doing the right thing, that it would have been the only way to protect Ginny.
But looking at the empty and anguished expression on Ginny's face....he knew he had not protected her from anything.
Ron, Fred, and George Weasley were all glaring at him. Draco knew that they would not be so quick to forgive and forget. Would Ginny be able to?
He turned silently away from all of the Weasley's and felt their stares as he walked away.
******
Ginny watched Draco leave with mixed emotions. Part of her wanted to scream at him, and demand an answer to why he had done that to her. The other part wanted nothing more to forgive him, and make everything right.
She looked up at her mum. Molly smiled at her daughter, and released her from her tight grip.
"I know," she whispered to Ginny. "It's hard to understand."
Ginny kissed her mother's cheek thankfully; her mother understood what she was feeling.
Ginny ran down the hall after Draco. She found him in the Entrance Hall. He wouldn't look at her, as he threw on a cloak and stepped near the large double doors.
"Where are you going?" Ginny asked quietly.
He still didn't turn around, but instead opened the door and stared out into the darkness. The darkness that held the bodies of Voldemort's late followers.
"I don't really know." The wind swept his almost white hair back as Ginny watched his chest heave up and down. "Away I suppose. There is nothing here for me...there has never been." But even as he said it he turned to Ginny-the only one here that he wanted most...needed most. Her green eyes captivated him for a moment, and he forced himself to look down. But looking down meant looking at her shapely legs, causing him to inwardly groan. It was definitely best if he left he decided. He had already put everyone through quite enough.
"Don't go." Ginny's words pierced him.
"Don't make this more difficult." He responded firmly. "I have to."
"What is out there for you to go to?" Ginny asked, raising her voice. "Certainly not your father."
Draco leaned against the doorpost and sighed.
"I don't know Ginny!"
"You didn't even go in to see Dumbledore!" Ginny continued. "As much as I know you hate to admit it, you saved his life! And Harry's life!" she dropped her gaze down to the floor. "And mine as well."
She glanced up just as he did. Their eyes connected.
"But I also put you in danger." Draco said, pouring out his guilty conscience. "And I did it willingly Ginny! Willingly!" he repeated, his voice breaking just a bit. "I put my life before the one whom I cared for most! What kind of a person does that?" He asked turning his back to her, and leaning one arm against the door and hanging his head. "You know just as well as I do, that I should have taken us both to Dumbledore in the very beginning. But I let my pride, fear, and selfishness get in the way! And because of that you had to suffer."
Ginny listened with a heavy heart. He had just admitted his feelings about her. But she had suffered. She was still suffering, and she didn't know if it would ever go away. The things she had had to experience had put an internal scar on her for the rest of her life. Was she ready to forgive him for that? When he had appeared as a Death Eater earlier at the cottage, had all of that been an act? Or had it been his true feelings? She remembered a part of the conversation they had at the cottage, as she was surrounded by Death Eaters-
~"Trust." Ginny had said. "I put trust in you Malfoy."
"Did you really?" he had asked. "Did you really ever put trust in me-the one who put you through all of this? The one who has always hated your family? The one who pretended that he cared for you?"~
She remembered the way those words had affected her. Those words had put a barrier in her heart towards him.
She could ask him if it had all been an act. But there was no way of knowing if his answer would be the truth or not.
Ginny just stared at him silently and miserably. He stood up straight and prepared to leave.
"I am truly sorry." He said before striding out the door.
Ginny did what her soul commanded. She ran after him.
"Draco!" She cried as she stumbled towards him. He turned around in surprise as she threw herself into his arms. "You can't leave me now!" she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Not after all we've been through together!"
He brought his hand up to her face and gently wiped away her tears. The vanilla scent of her hair reached his nose as a large wind blew from behind her. At that moment the clouds in the sky rolled back, revealing the full moon, and casting a glow on the two's faces.
"May I warm them for you?" Draco asked as he ran a finger over her frozen lips.
She didn't respond, only moved closer, putting her arms inside his robes and wrapping them around his body. He did the same, and they came together, the chill of the wind not affecting either of them as the heat radiated from their bodies. Draco laid his lips on hers, and they immediately parted allowing him into her soul. He took her hungrily at first, almost too roughly, but then he became steadily gentler.
They finally pulled away, and walked arm in arm up to the doors, before disuniting and heading their separate ways. Ginny back to Gryffindor, and Draco back to Slytherin. The way it had always been.
******
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the twins were waiting for Ginny as she entered the Common Room. Both Hermione and Harry came over to give her hugs and welcome her back.
"I'm really really sorry that you had to go through that Ginny." Harry said morosely. "I wish that you hadn't been there to see it. But you have to understand why I was so unrelenting as I killed Voldemort."
Ginny nodded and Harry continued.
"He killed my parents, he would have killed me and you, and he tried to kill Dumbledore. I'm sorry you had to see me stab him, but he deserved it Ginny. He deserved an even more painful death than that.."
Ginny felt her eyes tearing up again as Harry spoke. His tone was relieved but hardened. She couldn't have imagined holding that knife and killing Voldemort. With a wand it was different-it didn't seem as bad. But to have someone's blood on your own hands, even if it was Voldemort, would be an unconceivable thing in Ginny's sight. She would not have been able to do it.
"We're all really proud of you Harry." Ginny said.
"Yeah." The others all agreed.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it had you not been there." He paused uncertainly. "And if Malfoy hadn't been there."
"Fate surprises us all at some point in life." Hermione said wisely. "Who would have thought that Malfoy would be the one to help defeat the dark lord?"
"That still doesn't make up for what he did." Ron said. Ginny had known that it would be coming. "He should never have taken Ginny."
"He didn't hurt you in any way Ginny?" Fred asked.
Ginny sighed and fiddled with her hair.
"No Fred, it was okay for the most part."
Ron seemed to be getting angrier no matter how much Ginny tried to assure him that no bodily harm had come to her.
"Tell us what happened." George said. "We got your letter."
"Oh you did! I knew that owl could do it!"
She launched into the whole story- leaving out a few parts she'd rather not have any of her brothers hear. And it was very early in the morning before she finished and they all retired.
******
"Glad to have you back."
Ginny heard that from a lot of the Gryffindor students the next day. Most of them assumed that she had been ill. Others gave her questioning stares but didn't ask.
Rumors were flying around about a lot of things also. Some wondering were Draco had been all that time, and others more concerned about Dumbledore.
"I heard someone say Professor Dumbledore got into a fight with a very powerful house-elf!" One of the Hufflepuff first years said as she walked down the hall with her friend. Ginny cast an amused glance at them as she passed by. If only they knew.
She was headed to the Infirmary to see Dumbledore before lunch. She was very nervous and didn't have any idea what kind of state he would be in.
Mrs. Pomfrey let her in, although very reluctantly.
"He really doesn't need to be disturbed right now. But since you were there last night I suppose I ought to let you see him."
"Thank you Madame Pomfrey." She said. She had tried not to think of last night's occurrences. Although the kiss she had shared with Draco was ever present on her mind.
The nurse led her over to a door on the other side of the room. Ginny had never been in this room, and had always wondered what it held. Her eyes widened in surprise as Madame Pomfrey ushered her in and then closed the door.
It was a beautiful room decorated all in scarlet with deep green drapes surrounding a richly furnished bed. It had a velvety scarlet bedspread that looked sinfully soft.
But Ginny's eyes soon found themselves focused on the person lying in the bed. A person that seemed barely recognizable to her.
She lowered herself into a chair next to his bed. He was snoring softly, and his beard would flutter every time he breathed out. His face was an unnatural pale and seemed too thin.
Ginny leaned over and grasped his hand. As she did, the light in the room cast itself upon Dumbledore's forehead, and she gasped at what she saw.
A lightning-bolt shaped scar was just barely visible on his wrinkled forehead. The similarity between his and Harry's was almost identical. Harry had received his scar because of his mother's love and protection for him. So how had Dumbledore received his? The answer was very clear in Ginny's mind. The love that Draco had shown by risking his life, and casting the patronus must have done it. It just seemed so odd and foreign to her. Draco Malfoy showing enough love to leave a mark?
Her thoughts were interrupted as Madame Pomfrey opened the door and told her it was time to go. Ginny bent down to lay a soft kiss on Dumbledore's cheek, before heading silently to her next class.
******
Draco had to see Ginny again. He thought he might go crazy if he didn't. She seemed to be the only one who could give him any comfort and peace. Her touch and gaze was so relaxing and of great solace to him.
He hadn't gone to any of his classes today. A lot of his house members had questioned his absence but he had brushed it off and yelled at them to leave him alone. And so they did.
But he was beginning to regret not going to classes today. It would have helped to keep his mind off Ginny and everything that had happened last night. He finally decided that he would write her a letter before heading to dinner.
He got off his favorite chair in the Slytherin Common Room and went in search of some parchment. He had to feel her again...and he had to know if she had forgiven him.
A/N: I'm going to try and personally respond to all the great reviews by way of author's note or e-mail. But I really do love all of you! I get so depressed sometimes and I just come in here and read them, and it makes me feel so much better!! I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible..like everysingle member of my very large family is in town and life is hectic. But I'll try! Happy Thanksgiving! Oh, I started a new story, and I would love for you all to check it out!
A/N: Thank all of you for all the great reviews! Keep 'em coming! They're absolutely spiffing! I think with the next chapter I will wrap this story up. I could have gone ahead and combined them, but I don't have it written, and I needed to get something posted for all of you! So enjoy...
Piercing the Darkness
Chapter 16 Almost Forgiven
******
All of the Weasley family was waiting for Ginny outside the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey wouldn't allow more than a few people in the wing while she was working.
As Ginny and Draco approached, Mrs. Weasley ran over and threw her arms around Ginny.
"Oh Ginny!" she cried. "I was so worried!"
"It's alright now mum." Ginny said, trying to calm her mother. Although deep down she felt that nothing was right anymore.
"Is Professor Dumbledore going to be okay?" She asked.
Mr. Weasley and the six boys came over to all greet Ginny as well.
"Remus, Harry, Hermione, and many of the teachers are in there with him now..." Arthur answered. "They're working hard to make sure that he'll be alright." He drifted off, and looked towards Malfoy who was being very quiet.
"I heard what happened." Arthur said to Draco quietly. "And although your true intentions in this whole situation may never be known, I guess I owe you my daughter's life."
Draco didn't respond. He didn't feel as though he should be getting thanked. He had known from the very beginning what he should have done, but he had turned away from it. And what was his excuse for that? Draco didn't know. Maybe he had wanted to know what it would be like to follow in his father's footsteps. Or maybe he had thought that he was doing the right thing, that it would have been the only way to protect Ginny.
But looking at the empty and anguished expression on Ginny's face....he knew he had not protected her from anything.
Ron, Fred, and George Weasley were all glaring at him. Draco knew that they would not be so quick to forgive and forget. Would Ginny be able to?
He turned silently away from all of the Weasley's and felt their stares as he walked away.
******
Ginny watched Draco leave with mixed emotions. Part of her wanted to scream at him, and demand an answer to why he had done that to her. The other part wanted nothing more to forgive him, and make everything right.
She looked up at her mum. Molly smiled at her daughter, and released her from her tight grip.
"I know," she whispered to Ginny. "It's hard to understand."
Ginny kissed her mother's cheek thankfully; her mother understood what she was feeling.
Ginny ran down the hall after Draco. She found him in the Entrance Hall. He wouldn't look at her, as he threw on a cloak and stepped near the large double doors.
"Where are you going?" Ginny asked quietly.
He still didn't turn around, but instead opened the door and stared out into the darkness. The darkness that held the bodies of Voldemort's late followers.
"I don't really know." The wind swept his almost white hair back as Ginny watched his chest heave up and down. "Away I suppose. There is nothing here for me...there has never been." But even as he said it he turned to Ginny-the only one here that he wanted most...needed most. Her green eyes captivated him for a moment, and he forced himself to look down. But looking down meant looking at her shapely legs, causing him to inwardly groan. It was definitely best if he left he decided. He had already put everyone through quite enough.
"Don't go." Ginny's words pierced him.
"Don't make this more difficult." He responded firmly. "I have to."
"What is out there for you to go to?" Ginny asked, raising her voice. "Certainly not your father."
Draco leaned against the doorpost and sighed.
"I don't know Ginny!"
"You didn't even go in to see Dumbledore!" Ginny continued. "As much as I know you hate to admit it, you saved his life! And Harry's life!" she dropped her gaze down to the floor. "And mine as well."
She glanced up just as he did. Their eyes connected.
"But I also put you in danger." Draco said, pouring out his guilty conscience. "And I did it willingly Ginny! Willingly!" he repeated, his voice breaking just a bit. "I put my life before the one whom I cared for most! What kind of a person does that?" He asked turning his back to her, and leaning one arm against the door and hanging his head. "You know just as well as I do, that I should have taken us both to Dumbledore in the very beginning. But I let my pride, fear, and selfishness get in the way! And because of that you had to suffer."
Ginny listened with a heavy heart. He had just admitted his feelings about her. But she had suffered. She was still suffering, and she didn't know if it would ever go away. The things she had had to experience had put an internal scar on her for the rest of her life. Was she ready to forgive him for that? When he had appeared as a Death Eater earlier at the cottage, had all of that been an act? Or had it been his true feelings? She remembered a part of the conversation they had at the cottage, as she was surrounded by Death Eaters-
~"Trust." Ginny had said. "I put trust in you Malfoy."
"Did you really?" he had asked. "Did you really ever put trust in me-the one who put you through all of this? The one who has always hated your family? The one who pretended that he cared for you?"~
She remembered the way those words had affected her. Those words had put a barrier in her heart towards him.
She could ask him if it had all been an act. But there was no way of knowing if his answer would be the truth or not.
Ginny just stared at him silently and miserably. He stood up straight and prepared to leave.
"I am truly sorry." He said before striding out the door.
Ginny did what her soul commanded. She ran after him.
"Draco!" She cried as she stumbled towards him. He turned around in surprise as she threw herself into his arms. "You can't leave me now!" she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Not after all we've been through together!"
He brought his hand up to her face and gently wiped away her tears. The vanilla scent of her hair reached his nose as a large wind blew from behind her. At that moment the clouds in the sky rolled back, revealing the full moon, and casting a glow on the two's faces.
"May I warm them for you?" Draco asked as he ran a finger over her frozen lips.
She didn't respond, only moved closer, putting her arms inside his robes and wrapping them around his body. He did the same, and they came together, the chill of the wind not affecting either of them as the heat radiated from their bodies. Draco laid his lips on hers, and they immediately parted allowing him into her soul. He took her hungrily at first, almost too roughly, but then he became steadily gentler.
They finally pulled away, and walked arm in arm up to the doors, before disuniting and heading their separate ways. Ginny back to Gryffindor, and Draco back to Slytherin. The way it had always been.
******
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the twins were waiting for Ginny as she entered the Common Room. Both Hermione and Harry came over to give her hugs and welcome her back.
"I'm really really sorry that you had to go through that Ginny." Harry said morosely. "I wish that you hadn't been there to see it. But you have to understand why I was so unrelenting as I killed Voldemort."
Ginny nodded and Harry continued.
"He killed my parents, he would have killed me and you, and he tried to kill Dumbledore. I'm sorry you had to see me stab him, but he deserved it Ginny. He deserved an even more painful death than that.."
Ginny felt her eyes tearing up again as Harry spoke. His tone was relieved but hardened. She couldn't have imagined holding that knife and killing Voldemort. With a wand it was different-it didn't seem as bad. But to have someone's blood on your own hands, even if it was Voldemort, would be an unconceivable thing in Ginny's sight. She would not have been able to do it.
"We're all really proud of you Harry." Ginny said.
"Yeah." The others all agreed.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it had you not been there." He paused uncertainly. "And if Malfoy hadn't been there."
"Fate surprises us all at some point in life." Hermione said wisely. "Who would have thought that Malfoy would be the one to help defeat the dark lord?"
"That still doesn't make up for what he did." Ron said. Ginny had known that it would be coming. "He should never have taken Ginny."
"He didn't hurt you in any way Ginny?" Fred asked.
Ginny sighed and fiddled with her hair.
"No Fred, it was okay for the most part."
Ron seemed to be getting angrier no matter how much Ginny tried to assure him that no bodily harm had come to her.
"Tell us what happened." George said. "We got your letter."
"Oh you did! I knew that owl could do it!"
She launched into the whole story- leaving out a few parts she'd rather not have any of her brothers hear. And it was very early in the morning before she finished and they all retired.
******
"Glad to have you back."
Ginny heard that from a lot of the Gryffindor students the next day. Most of them assumed that she had been ill. Others gave her questioning stares but didn't ask.
Rumors were flying around about a lot of things also. Some wondering were Draco had been all that time, and others more concerned about Dumbledore.
"I heard someone say Professor Dumbledore got into a fight with a very powerful house-elf!" One of the Hufflepuff first years said as she walked down the hall with her friend. Ginny cast an amused glance at them as she passed by. If only they knew.
She was headed to the Infirmary to see Dumbledore before lunch. She was very nervous and didn't have any idea what kind of state he would be in.
Mrs. Pomfrey let her in, although very reluctantly.
"He really doesn't need to be disturbed right now. But since you were there last night I suppose I ought to let you see him."
"Thank you Madame Pomfrey." She said. She had tried not to think of last night's occurrences. Although the kiss she had shared with Draco was ever present on her mind.
The nurse led her over to a door on the other side of the room. Ginny had never been in this room, and had always wondered what it held. Her eyes widened in surprise as Madame Pomfrey ushered her in and then closed the door.
It was a beautiful room decorated all in scarlet with deep green drapes surrounding a richly furnished bed. It had a velvety scarlet bedspread that looked sinfully soft.
But Ginny's eyes soon found themselves focused on the person lying in the bed. A person that seemed barely recognizable to her.
She lowered herself into a chair next to his bed. He was snoring softly, and his beard would flutter every time he breathed out. His face was an unnatural pale and seemed too thin.
Ginny leaned over and grasped his hand. As she did, the light in the room cast itself upon Dumbledore's forehead, and she gasped at what she saw.
A lightning-bolt shaped scar was just barely visible on his wrinkled forehead. The similarity between his and Harry's was almost identical. Harry had received his scar because of his mother's love and protection for him. So how had Dumbledore received his? The answer was very clear in Ginny's mind. The love that Draco had shown by risking his life, and casting the patronus must have done it. It just seemed so odd and foreign to her. Draco Malfoy showing enough love to leave a mark?
Her thoughts were interrupted as Madame Pomfrey opened the door and told her it was time to go. Ginny bent down to lay a soft kiss on Dumbledore's cheek, before heading silently to her next class.
******
Draco had to see Ginny again. He thought he might go crazy if he didn't. She seemed to be the only one who could give him any comfort and peace. Her touch and gaze was so relaxing and of great solace to him.
He hadn't gone to any of his classes today. A lot of his house members had questioned his absence but he had brushed it off and yelled at them to leave him alone. And so they did.
But he was beginning to regret not going to classes today. It would have helped to keep his mind off Ginny and everything that had happened last night. He finally decided that he would write her a letter before heading to dinner.
He got off his favorite chair in the Slytherin Common Room and went in search of some parchment. He had to feel her again...and he had to know if she had forgiven him.
A/N: I'm going to try and personally respond to all the great reviews by way of author's note or e-mail. But I really do love all of you! I get so depressed sometimes and I just come in here and read them, and it makes me feel so much better!! I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible..like everysingle member of my very large family is in town and life is hectic. But I'll try! Happy Thanksgiving! Oh, I started a new story, and I would love for you all to check it out!