Chapter 20

"This is bloody complicated, I love it! What if we –" Ginny entered the piano room to see someone already sitting at the piano. "Draco?" He looked up with a start; he had been pensively admiring the white and black keys of the piano.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to ..." He trailed off and looked back at the ground sheepishly. "I'll just go." He got up and started out of the piano room, but Zi caught his arm. He looked up at her questioningly.

"You two need to talk, I'm going to go get some hot chocolate from the kitchens. I'll meet you back in the Dormitory in say an hour?" Ginny nodded wordlessly as Zi gently pushed Draco back into the room and left. Draco stared sheepishly at the ground as Ginny walked over to the piano bench and sat down. She studied him for a moment before she gingerly placed her fingers over the piano keys and started to play. A few moments later, Draco looked up as he heard her voice.

You never know how much I really love you
You'll never know how much I really care

Listen, do you want to know a secret
Do you promise not to tell, woh, woh, woh
Closer, let me whisper in your ear

Ginny smiled as Draco stared at her. She knew what was bothering him, or she had a pretty good idea. The only problem was getting him to admit it to her.

Say the words you long to hear
I'm in love with you, oo

Listen, do you want to know a secret
Do you promise not to tell, woh, woh, woh
Closer, let me whisper in your ear

Say the words you long to hear
I'm in love with you, oo

Draco swallowed and looked away; he didn't want to involve Ginny in what was going on. But if he continued to stare at her, he would have spilled everything before he even knew what was going on.

I've known a secret for a week or two
Nobody knows just we two

Listen, do you want to know a secret
Do you promise not to tell, woh, woh, woh
Closer, let me whisper in your ear

Say the words you long to hear
I'm in love with you, oo, oo

As Ginny finished playing the closing chords of the song, Draco made a good attempt at not looking at her. Ginny sighed exasperatedly, got up off the bench, and walked over to him. When he still avoided her gaze, she put her hands on the sides of his face and kissed him very passionately. She pulled away and smiled at him. Draco sighed, smiling, as Ginny returned to the bench.

"You gonna tell me what's really bothering you or do I have to snog you senseless?" Draco chuckled nervously; sometimes he hated the fact that Ginny could read him like a book. She seemed to be able to read a lot of people ... but the fact that she could read Draco, who considered himself to be one of the least readable people on the planet, was a tad bit scary.

"It's nothing, Gin –"

"Bullshit! What'd Lucius do?"

"How did you know it had anything to do with Lucius ... oh shit! Ginny! Why do you insist on doing that to me?!" Ginny smiled, her features softening a great deal. She got up again and walked over to Draco. She pressed her hands on his shoulders, forcing him to sit down on the ground. She sat down next to him and slung her legs over his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Draco, I love you. It worries me when you don't tell me things, so I have to employ my brilliant powers of deduction to figure out what's wrong." Ginny laughed but suddenly got a little more serious. "Draco, please tell me what's wrong." Draco sighed and finally looked her in the eyes. He knew, in doing that, that it was all over and launched into his explanation.

"Mum sent me an owl ... she's going back to live with that bastard. Says he's getting counseling and doing better with his anger issues. We all know that's a load of bloody shit. Then he sent me an owl saying that he wants to spend some father son time with me. Ruddy bastard." Draco's fists clenched involuntarily. Ginny pulled him forward and hugged him tightly. "And Mum ... mum told me who he killed." Ginny was surprised to feel Draco's shoulders shudder slightly with a silent sob, but kept him enveloped in her hug nonetheless.

"Who did he kill?"

"No ... Ginny I can't tell you. I can't get you involved in this!" Draco picked Ginny up around the waist, set her on the ground next to him, got up and stormed out of the Music Wing. Ginny sighed as silent tears started to course down her cheeks.

Why in the sodding hell is he shutting me out like this? What did I do? Why ... what happened to him that night? What did Lucius do to him? And whom did Lucius kill? Ginny buried her face in her hands as the tears started to flow more freely and thoughts buzzed through her head.

Great Hall

"Dra—Malfoy can I talk to you for a second?" Zi glared at the Slytherins that were giving her dirty looks.

"What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you, so get your bloody arse up and outside right now!" Draco rolled his eyes and smirked at his friends, before getting up and following Zi out of the Great Hall. Draco continued to follow her until she pulled him into an empty classroom and whirled around to face him. She gave him a look that could kill causing Draco to step back a little.

"What did you say to Ginny?" He averted his eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"My ass! I found Ginny crying in the Music Wing about an hour ago. I took her up to our Dormitory right after I found her. Hasn't said a word to me the whole time. She even refused to come down to dinner! Now I want to know what the bloody hell you said to her!" Zi was positively fuming, her fists were clenched at her sides, and she was breathing very heavily, making an attempt not to pummel Draco.

"It's nothing important." Draco started to leave, but Zi caught his arm and shoved him against the wall. Draco was surprised at how strong she actually was.

"Nothing important my fat, sodding ass! My best friend is laying on her bed crying right now and I want to know why!" Draco sighed and sat down on one of the desks.

"I can't do this ... I can't get her involved like this. If she ever got hurt I would never, ever forgive myself. You don't understand that! If I tell her things, she'll know and they'll have a reason to ... to kill her! Don't you get that! Bloody hell!" Draco slammed his fists on the desk.

"Miss Chang, I was wondering if I could talk to Mr. Malfoy alone for a moment." Draco and Zi looked up to see Professor Snape standing at the door of the classroom. Zi nodded timidly and hurried out of the room after throwing Draco another glare. "I believe we would have a little more privacy if we talked in my office, Draco." Draco nodded and stood up, avoiding his godfather's eyes. He followed Professor Snape down into the dungeons and eventually to his office. He closed the door once he and Draco were both inside and sat down on the desk, motioning for Draco to sit down in the chair in front of the desk. "Now would you care to explain why you have Miss Weasley in tears and Miss Chang about ready to pummel you?"

"I umm ... I insulted her family," Draco lied.

"Draco, you and I both know that's a lie. So why don't you tell me what's troubling your relationship with Miss Weasley?" Draco's eyes got very wide and he swallowed hard.

"You ... you know about our ... our relationship?" Professor Snape chuckled.

"Yes, Draco, I've known for some time. Your mother told me the details over Christmas, but I've known there was something going for a while now."

"Oh." Draco slumped slightly in his chair and stared at the floor. "If I tell her what's going on, my dream ... it will come true! He'll kill her ... I know he will. He'll find out and kill her to get me to become a Death Eater." Draco buried his face in his hands as he heard Snape sigh sharply.

"Your mother has informed me of something rather surprising as of late. She believes that Miss Weasley is your Amor Semper, among other things, which I am not allowed to disclose to you. If you really want to avoid the path your father took, then I suggest you find Miss Weasley and make up." Draco sighed and shook his head, both in frustration as well as shock.

"Do you think she's my Amor Semper?"

"To be perfectly candid, yes, I do. Miss Weasley has done wonders for your attitude and I have noticed that you are actually enjoying life, as opposed to just tolerating it. However, I do understand why you are reluctant to tell her about what happened at the Manor during the holidays. How much have you told her so far?" Draco paused a moment, recalling the conversation he had had with Ginny in the Hospital Wing.

"Just that Lucius hurt me and I heard someone get Avada Kedavra'd. I didn't ever think he'd kill him ... Mum's been a wreck over it. I can't believe that she's going back to live with that bastard." Draco's fists clenched involuntarily and he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"I know that Michael had been more of a father figure to you than anyone else –"

"Except you." Snape nodded his head with a slight smile.

"So how are you holding up after your uncle's murder?" Draco shrugged. His Mum only had one sister, so Michael was his only uncle; Lucius didn't have any siblings. They were kinder purebloods than the Malfoys. Narcissa and her sister were extremely close; Michael made attempts to get Lucius out of the Death Eater ring, but to no avail. He tried to protect Draco as best he could, when he was around. But Lucius was around far more often than Michael was.

"Death is pretty common in the Malfoy household, what do you want me to say?" Draco forcibly bit back the emotions that were trying to come through; there were only two people on this planet he showed his emotions to, his mother and Ginny. And it would stay that way; he wanted to cry, yes, but he wasn't going to let himself do that ... not now at least.

"Draco, I know you don't want Ginny to get hurt, but if you shut her out like this it will end up all the worse for you both. Think about this for a moment, what if this is your one chance? Are you really prepared to loose her?" Draco blinked several times, digesting the question.

"No ... no I'm not. But is it fair for me to ask her to be with me if it's going to be so hard, like the curse says?" Snape smiled down at his godson.

"I think you and Miss Weasley have some things to discuss." With that, he stood up and walked out of the office, leaving Draco alone with his thoughts. Draco thought for a moment; deciding he couldn't tell Ginny ... not yet at least.

A/N: Alrighty! Please don't flame me! Trust me for a few more chapters! This is my first beta'd chapter ever posted on ! Do the happy dance with me everyone! Many, many thanks to my beta, Sandofia! She's the best! Kinda scary how Snape knows, huh? I hope you all liked this! Please review!

DarkRose: You have so many issues man! LOL, no Zi doesn't sleep in her own bed because she gets lonely at night and sleeps in Ginny's bed. You sick minded perve! Anywho, Time To Burn is giving me creative issues, so I dunno when that will be updated. I'm Still Here (the next chapter) is finished, but it was shit so I re-did it and emailed it to my beta. We're still trying to fix it, so it should be up ... eventually, LOL. How did you like this one?

MasterHarperMenolly: Okay, message for you from my friend: "You so need to write a story! I mean with a pen name like that, only good things could come!" LOL, I'm sorry. School has been rather horrible lately ... dunno why, meh. I hope it was still okay though, how was this one?

Mz.Sammiz: Haha, thank you so much!

LunarianPrincess: Yay! That makes me really happy! I wasn't sure if the whole Ginny prank thing was to OOC, but I'm glad it worked! How was this one?

Paintedsecrets: Y M C A!!!! Haha! That's great! Dude, not just a sequel! This is the first in a series of three! And then there's more after that of course! I promise you that Lucius will die before I write my last story in this chain. LOL, I can't wait to read it! Haha, either way you meant it, it was still funny! I use all flames to roast marshmallows! Haha, I really don't like Cho ... at all. So I used my creative license and made her a bitch, sorry! shrugs! "Where has Rum gone?" (if you know what that is from you get 1,000,000 kudo points!) How was this?

CoolMilena: Okay, he got angry because he hates it when her brothers prank people for no reason and he thought she was doing the same thing. Phoenix is boring because nothing cool ever happens, and no bands ever come here. They always skip over us! tear Anywho, are you a freshmen or an 8th grader? Either way, it doesn't really matter to me because you are cool! I'm a sophomore. How was this chapter?

Hoppers: Haha, thank you so much! I am so flattered! I try and post pretty fast, but they have to go through my beta now (which I love btw). And I've not been feeling the creative love lately so the next one may not be up for a while. I'll try and post! How was this one?

HarryPotterFan670: Haha, I'm glad I put you in suspense! Mwahahaha! I will make my best attempt to read your story soon! Bad new is, my English teacher just assigned our Term Paper ... its at least 20 pages long! AHH! Anywho, thanks so much please let me know what you thought of this one!

Annabeave: Thanks so much! Look for that in the next chapter! I know, Charlie is soooo cool. He's there a lot in the sequel so watch for that! I will try and read your story, but with my English Term Paper being assigned I see my time slipping through my fingers. I will make a good attempt! I am so very flattered! I always like to respond to reviewers, I think they deserve it for taking the time to write a review! How was this one?

Lil Bre: Aww! tear Yeah, hates me! I can't even see my reviews on my computer. I have to at them on my laptop! GRR! Anywho, that's awesome. Gah! That sucks ... my math is really easy because I've already taken Geometry twice, LOL. Thanks again, how was this?

Inukaino: Haha, I can't make any promises! But don't lose too much sleep over it! LOL, I'm still mad at him for that (that's kind of bizarre if you think about it). The disclaimer thing is a joke with my friend ... it doesn't really make sense so I won't try and explain, suffice it to say she would be mad if I didn't do a disclaimer. How was this one?

oODemon-AngelOo: Thank you so much! Don't worry, the only way I'd stop writing this story before it was finished was if evil cheeky monkeys captured my, sucked out my brain with a straw, and made me eat pickled liver for a month. Haha, little hyper today. But thanks so much for reviewing, how was this one?