Announcing to all my fans...yes, I am still alive okay, but debate has been taking my time up. Honors Policy Debate, and I've got a fucking 95.1...beat that, bitches. That's practically a 115 percent in a regular class...okay, well, here's CHAPTER FOUR, THE FINAL CHAPTER!!!

Both of them pulled away quickly and made to look around the room. However both their eyes met again, and they examined each other's faces, and the awkwardness arose once more.

They leaned in again, fast, like two teens afraid of being caught by their parents.

Their lips pressed together and at first the kiss was dry and weak, as before.

But Ginny scooted closer to Draco, unsure of what to do with her hands. She decided to rest them in his hair and on the back of his neck. Malfoy pressed her back onto the bed, and Ginny shifted.

After a little, the kiss was hot and wet and sensuous and Ginny was swimming in a sea of overwhelming sensations. She didn't have any part of her mind left to contemplate the fact of just what she was doing with Draco Malfoy, as she was concentrating on staying afloat.

His hand then, stunningly gentle, ran over her ribs in a soft caress just as his teeth nipped her lips.

Ginny gave a shuddering breath, and lifted her head to kiss him. It became a contest, and Ginny had just caught his lower lip between hers when his fingers began to run circles on her stomach through the soft fabric of the robe.

She pressed her body into his, and he pushed back. His fingers tread nimbly on her skin, on her body, avoiding her breasts purposefully, and once again Ginny was trapped in a lush, sumptuous world of a tumult of feelings and she frowned slightly through the kiss.

Most of those feelings were the wrong ones.

But she was warmer than she had been in months, nearly years, and his weight on her was protective, and unlike before. She sighed into his mouth, and she became aware of him doing the same.

The kiss slowed, to an agonizing pace. Draco's fingers were rising, higher and higher, and he touched her lightly on her breast, feeling for the beat of her heart. He began to untie the knot in the robe, tentatively, and slowly pushed the cloth loose.

More of her body slowly became visible, the pale skin of her breast growing in the dim firelight.

Suddenly the spell was broken, and Ginny shifted uncomfortably, moving away from him. She stood quickly and tied the robe shut again, looking all around the room for a diversion, while he did the same and made to adjust his clothes.

Ginny let out a hesitant, "Um." And found the diversion she was looking for. "Hey, a window. Don't know how I didn't see it before."

She rushed over to it, her voice too loud. She stuck her head out of the window and breathed in the night air, anything to get the heady scent of his soap, his sweat, his saliva away from her nostrils. There was the scent of trees, a smell that she had nearly forgotten, and the air was saturated. A thunderstorm was on its way.

She leaned on the sill for a little, looking out on the moon. "Well, let's get to it." Ginny walked back over to him.

"It's early yet."

"Sure, but if you think you're going to kill me and not bury me, you've got another thing coming." She crossed her arms. "I hope you have a few shovels."

He looked up at her. "Come on. You can have some of my mother's clothes."

"Mother's clothes?"

Malfoy stood and left the room. "Yes. This was my mother's house before she ever married my father. No one knows, really, because how many people would call my mother Narcissa Black?"

Ginny followed, quiet. She was going to die. She didn't need new clothes. He walked into another room, and began rummaging around in a dresser. "You see, my mum didn't do anything much when my father married her, because when he was young, he had already made a name for himself. After the marriage, he presented to her a manor that had been in his family for centuries. She never really cleaned up this house, especially since she came here when she lost the baby."

Ginny looked at him, the breath catching in her throat.

"'Lost the baby'?"

Malfoy stopped, and leaned forward on the dresser. "Yes. My mum was pregnant when my father married her. They loved each other of course, but it wouldn't be good for either of them to be parents without marriage. My mother went traveling with my father, backpacking over Siberia, looking for ways to expand their fortunes."

He paused, and reached for a dress. "Sorry, I don't think there's any underwear." He paused. "Wait, here's a pair."

"And then?" Ginny prompted softly, taking the dress and underwear from him.

"And then she lost the baby. Miscarriage. When she did, she came back here without my father, until finally one day she showed up again at the Manor, ready for a new life."

"And they had you." She gazed down at the floor.

"Yes. They had me." He ran his hands through his hair. "Well, come on." He lead her out of the room after she had changed, and out of the house completely.

Ginny just had to stop and twirl, and fall onto the grass.

"Don't do that. Something might crawl up between your legs." He gave a little laugh.

Ginny scowled at him.

Malfoy gave her a few minutes before picking up a shovel that was leaning against the whitewashed sides of the house, and pointed to a giant hulking shadow about a quarter of a mile away. "I'm sure you'd rather be buried in the trees that you've missed for a month?" He asked, moving towards the shape.

"Yes." She nodded, standing up from the ground. "Get another shovel. I'll help you."

He shook his head, no. "It's not your job. I should do it." Then he led Ginny to the woods, and the heady scent of decaying bark and leaves floated past on the slight nighttime breeze.

Ginny loved it.

She closed her eyes, briefly, inhaling the scent of the earth around her and, unlike the dank scents of a stone-lined cellar, it was the scent of life that entranced her so. In the cell, the only smell she came across was the scent of her own sweat, her own moldy fear and anger, the rank of her own body, until finally she became immune to these smells.

Malfoy walked next to her instead of in front, and looked at her for a moment. He would surely regret this later, and those flashes of another life hit him, sending a deep pang of melancholy into his heart. Her hair hung in half dry tendrils around her face and her almond shaped eyes were closed. He turned away, and moved in front of her to lead her.

He reached a good place, around several boulders and small fields of scented clover and fern, and paused in the middle of a particularly large one. "Is here a nice enough spot?" He said, and any observer would have thought they were going to have a late night picnic, or set up a tent.

The moon shone through in the middle of the patch and Ginny reached down, picking a clover. She lifted it to him and gave it to him, and he saw the four leaves.

"Hell, with four leaf clovers all over the place? Why not." Ginny couldn't at the moment see any Leprechauns, but she knew they were there, sleeping under dock leaves. They had passed hundreds of dock plants on the way.

He stared down at the clover in his hand and Ginny picked it up from him and tore it apart, scattering the leaves. She laughed nervously. "Well let's get to it then."

Malfoy nodded, feeling as torn as the clover. His eyes strayed from the shovel to her face and she saw him fidget.

Ginny pretended not to notice.

There was, after all, no need to make a hard situation any harder.

She heard the first clump of clover-covered dirt being torn up and Malfoy placed it gently behind himself, so as to plug it back into the earth to continue to grow. Ginny sat down and watched, feeling helpless without a wand or shovel to help him.

He was very strong, despite his weakling appearance. It must have been the pale color of his skin that made him look so anemic. Ginny stared at him as he dug, placing the dirt gently to the side, and gradually using his wand to soften the dirt or get rid of large obstructions. His voice, she noticed, was very masculine. It wasn't deep, no, but it was as though you were being roasted alive and frozen to death at the same time when he spoke to you. Actually, it didn't even have to be to you, she mused. His voice held power anyway. Ginny noticed the fine trails of sweat that began to travel down his temples and neck, and in the small of his back and at his armpits. He worked, the rhythmic sound of the shovel nearly putting her to sleep. But it would be wrong of her to sleep when he was digging so strenuously.

Ginny could see he was tiring and tried to take the shovel, but he snatched it away from her and threw a small pebble down the front of her blouse. He cackled while she struggled to remove it.

"Oh sure, it's all fun and good times when someone has so good of an aim. Until one of those rocks misses and pokes out an eye." Ginny muttered curtly, throwing the pebble at him. It hit him harmlessly in the groin and he smiled.

"Not too bad of an aim you have yourself."

"Bill taught me." She smiled fondly and opened her eyes, which she had unwittingly shut.

"What else did your brothers teach you?" Malfoy asked, to pass the time and silence. He began to shovel this time, trying to quiet his strokes a little.

"Lots of little things." Ginny trailed off. "Mostly bad things." She shifted on the clovers, sitting on her forelegs and leaning towards him on her elbows. "Actually, the whole bad thing was really Fred and George. They taught me how to steal, pickpocket, you know. Open locks and things without magic." Ginny smiled again. "Bill and Charlie taught me things about animals. Charlie, he was the one who taught me how to stay alive if I ever got lost in the woods or forests, and Bill taught me all about money."

"What about Ron? And the other one, Perdy or something."

"Percy? Hah, the only thing he taught me was about cauldron bottoms. Ron taught me how to play chess." Ginny sat up. "Let me help. I feel useless, and that's the last thing I want to feel before I die."

"Calm down will you? Just do something. I will not, however, let you help me dig your grave." Ginny sighed loudly.

Malfoy sighed back at her. "Do whatever you want. Except this." He almost hoped she would run. He hadn't excluded that, and he was already beginning to feel the regret he knew would be coming.

Ginny sighed again, more dramatically this time. Malfoy looked in her direction, sending an exasperated glare. A few seconds later, she began to hum. It was a slow, lazy song, and the noise was soft and eerie. She hummed, the same melody that seemed to never tire either of them, for nearly five minutes before she stopped.

Malfoy nearly flung the shovel over his shoulder when she finished.

He tried not to look at her, and he knew she was doing the same.

About an hour later, Malfoy had dug a hole, five feet deep and roughly five feet long.

"It's very deep, isn't it?" She asked as he clambered from the bottom and fell onto a heap of collected dirt.

"So the animals won't come for your remains." He said shortly, gasping for breath.

Ginny nodded. They both stood up, and Ginny faced him. "Well..." Ginny started.

"Well..." Malfoy tried to continue.

Ginny realized then that if she didn't do it, he wouldn't do it either. She leaped into his arms, which opened at the last millisecond.

At the force of her hug, he nearly toppled backwards into the hole, and that would have made for an interesting tale. But he righted himself, almost by magic.

Ginny pressed her face into his chest, breathing in the scent of his sweat and his soap and the dirt which now surrounded them. She felt a few tears, long delayed tears, leak from her eyes and mingle with the damp front of his shirt. She felt him bring dirty hands up to her hair, and he buried his face in her curled tresses. He inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of his soap on her, smelling not so masculine but instead feminine.

She drew a shuddering breath as she pulled away, but he held her tighter and looked into her eyes.

Malfoy leaned forward and kissed her with the passion of a man who had been exiled into a country with no women, and he wrapped his arms as far as possible around her to kiss her more deeply. Ginny met his eagerness with a passion of her own, and she felt something cold and wet hit her on the jaw. As he gently bit her bottom lip, Ginny snuck a peak.

The moonlight shone dimly on a small wet trail on his cheek. Just one.

He pulled himself away, looking ready to bludgeon himself with the shovel, after kissing her gently on her eyelids.

"I...I..." Malfoy stammered hoarsely. Ginny pressed a hand to his lips to silence him, and she pulled his wand from his pocket to hand it to him. He received it reluctantly.

Ginny stood there. "Just do it Malfoy." She kept her brown eyes open, and didn't falter. "Quickly." She didn't cry or plead.

'Never cry, never plead.' She thought. 'Go down strong.'

He took a step back. He aimed his wand.

And then he looked away, wiping his face quickly and harshly on his sleeve. He turned back to her, his face set in a resolute manner, but moved again.

She stood, resolute and regal enough for a queen. He heard the soft trills of her voice in the shower, the low humming of her in the clovers. He saw the curves of a body wasted away, not by lack of food, but by lack of attention and love. He saw the face of someone who had endured so much more than he had ever thought would be inflicted upon her.

He saw a caged bird, a wild thing, meant to be flitting in and out of the trees.

"Go." He muttered hoarsely. "Leave."

Ginny grasped his hand in hers, and pointed the wand at her own neck. "Please. Just do it."

At the precise moment he muttered "I...I can't...", a spell came flying through the trees. The shot of red exploded off of the dirt pile. They heard someone yelling.

"Up ahead! I think they might be farther ahead! Quickly! Get ready to send up sparks, boys, I got a good feelin' about this one!"

Ginny frantically turned to Malfoy. "Quickly! They've come! They've found you! Kill me and run!"

Malfoy stared, transfixed. "I can't kill you! Not today!"

Ginny groaned impatiently. "Goddamit Malfoy, what a great fucking time to grow a bloody conscience." She prodded him. "Just fucking aim, and say it!"

"No."

"Well what are we going to do, run off into the sunrise together? Where will we go?" She asked, looking into the darkness for the Aurors. "I'm much deeper into this relationship than I thought I would be when I was captured." She said sardonically, as though she hated herself for it.

She probably did.

He grasped her hand then, and it was as close to a yes as she was going to get. They took off running at the sound of crashing in the brush.

The bracken tore at their legs, twigs scratching at their arms and faces. The rocks poked their feet through the thin soles of their shoes, the dirt and rotting leaves flying up and staining their calves.

And then Malfoy stopped. It was only briefly, and they ran further. Ginny thought he just tripped, but then they reached the edge of the woods, and the fading moon was trading light with the just rising sun.

The blood on the back of his shirt told her what had happened to him. The hole in both his shirt and his skin were large.

Ginny hoped that he had shoved his wand back in his pocket. He let her search and didn't fight her. She felt the pockets of his slacksand gasped in relief. It was there. "Malfoy, Malfoy...lie down." She ordered, but he wouldn't listen.

"Keep running. I'll stay. Go somewhere, meet up with your brothers. Your friends." Ginny looked into his eyes.

"Granted, it's you who's messed up my life enough for you to be forced to save it, but I think I may as well repay the favor."

"Don't," he half-joked. "I'll just kill you tomorrow. I told you, not today." Ginny ignored him.

She whispered something, but Malfoy was transfixed by the sight of his shoes getting stained with blood. He smiled.

Ginny thought he felt better, until she looked where he was looking.

The blood was spilling out of his shoes, and giving a little laugh,he collapsed.

"Malfoy!" Ginny said. She tried not to be too loud, because she knewHarry was coming. She could feel the air thickening. "Malfoy, you idiot! Wake up, please, just wake up for a little while!" She shook him and he looked at her with half-closed eyes.

"I've got a plan, Malfoy, just concentrate...and...and I promise as soon as we finish, you can sleep. For as long as you like." She got very breathless then, as though the mere thought of him sleeping forever was unbearable.

"As...as long as...I like?" He muttered, his head in the dead leaves on the ground.

"Yes. Yes, now concentrate!" She brushed a beetle away that was threatening to crawl on his sleeve.

"And you'll...be there, when I wake?"

"God, yes, just pay attention!"

"On what?" He shut his eyes all the way.

"Think of the little hill we passed. Just a while ago."

"Hm." He nodded slowly.

"Now apparate Malfoy, and you can sleep, you can sleep, just apparate!" She turned to look over her shoulder, and she shook him again. "Apparate!"

Her arms felt very strange, like a wind was blowing past them, and she fought it to wrap them around Malfoy.

He was cold, the blood on his shirt wet and chilling.

Ginny felt sick then, and suddenly she knew, and she could have killed herself.

They'd been splinched, or caught, or something.

But the grass was underneath her, the grass beginning to glow with the light of the sun. Then she looked down, the blood staining her skin. Malfoy was pale, so much paler than she'd ever thought he could be.

She sighed. Thank god she'd paid attention in class. She had only apparated a few hundred feet, not much. The Aurors would be able to tell she had apparated, but it had been so close to where she was before that the coordinates would be so confusing that the wouldn't understand.

Auror Training coupled with Hogwarts certainly taught many things.

And at least, at the very least, she thought as she checked his wrist, he wasn't dead yet.

"What a...what a crappy sleep..."

Ginny looked at Malfoy. His lips were barely moving. He was speaking so softly that his voice was toneless.

"Sh, Malfoy, be quiet."

"I'm awake..." He muttered. "You're still here."

Ginny touched the wound on his back, which was not bleeding so much. "Yes. Yes, I'm here. I'm going to fix you up, and you'll be fine, don't worry."

Somewhere, a cardinal chirped, and the sounds of the Aurors were far away.

Mwahahahahahahah how did you like that one, huh huh? That is the very LAST chapter! I have left you sooooo high and dry, that it would certainly be mean to not give you an epilogue. I might not write one though...

But if I don't give you an epilogue, I WILL give you a sequel. Even if I give you an epilogue, I may give you a sequel.

But I don't know...I could just take the sequel and make it into a new story by changing around the characters....

Hehe. Cor I'm evil. I was going to leave you at the part where he asks her if she'll still be there when he wakes, but that was too Satan-esque, even for me. So, there you go, and leave me a comment on if you want an epilogue, sequel, or yes, a little bit of BOTH.