Disclaimer: I do not any of Harry Potter.

Man, am I getting pounded by projects, papers, and unfortunately exams will be reaching in soon enough. What a pain.

Brittney – Well normally I'm not very fond of Ginny/Draco either so I suppose it's somewhat ironic I've written it into my story…

High Serpent King – Good stuff. And as to those two things, I'm going through lots of fun trying to juggle them and remembering the time frames they're in.

Emily – Well I think the whole Riddle thing took everyone off guard, which is good since a few too mysteries were being solved by you guys. It'll keep you busy, right?

Dancerrdw – thanks!

Jdrcrm – Thanks a lot as well!

Alright everyone, sorry again for the late update.

Chapter 42 – "What? You don't like Valentine's Day?"

2 weeks after Ginny's experience with the Slytherins…

Ginny quickly scanned the Great Hall for her companion. At first it had been somewhat awkward having to spend most of her free time that wasn't in either the common room or the Great Hall with Draco, but it was getting better. Most awkward had been her friends' reactions. Many of them had even appealed to a stoic Harry, telling her that she was just "looking for a replacement for Dean." After a while of Harry's refusing to intervene, her friends threw up their hands, a couple starting to disassociate themselves with her (Colin Creevey being the most significant among them) and the rest just spending their time with her when they could. Occasionally, they still pressed her to stop, but Ginny always refused passively and changed the subject. What was making Ginny's head spin was that she was unsure of she would even listen to their advice had Dumbledore's orders not been involved. After an initial period of awkwardness, the two of them had both relaxed (relatively) around each other. Everybody, even Ron, always knew that Draco was smart, but Ginny was still surprised to find it out herself. Not to mention, she was grateful that Draco's seeming companionship had saved her from many a fight, stray sixth and seventh-year Slytherins merely glaring instead of chasing now, which was definitely a step up.

All in all, considering the circumstances, her life was pretty good.

So where was Draco?

Ginny decided it was best to just wait in the Great Hall with Harry, who had decided that the increasingly empty Great Hall was somewhat dangerous to Ginny's health. Ginny chatted with Harry for about ten minutes until Draco walked in slowly from the front entrance. Ginny walked up to greet him with an uncertain Harry trailing behind. Ginny didn't say anything as she approached him, but it was more and more obvious as she did that Draco had had little to no sleep. His eyes were bloodshot, his posture and walk slightly slumped, and altogether looked like he had no energy.

"Did you get any sleep?"

"Not much, no…" Draco said evasively. Ginny decided that this was obviously something important, but decided to lay off, merely giving him a strange look that he strenuously avoided.

"You know I can do it today if you want me to," Harry said, looking Draco straight in the eyes. Ginny turned around and looked at Harry, seeing that he had obviously intuited something that she hadn't. Harry, though, just continued to look straight at Draco.

Draco shook his head slowly. "No, you've got work to do."

"Alright, what are you guys talking about?" Ginny interrupted suddenly.

Harry nodded solemnly and abruptly grinned. "I'll leave you two together then," he said, and then swept off.

The night before, 1:00 in the morning.

Draco Malfoy woke up in the bloody middle of the night to feel his dark mark burning badly. Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Like lightning, Draco sprang up, dressing ultra-fast and starting to sprint loudly down the halls of the massive Hogwarts. Turning corners, he finally reached the doors of the Great Hall, stopping to catch his breath, then sprinted outside, running fearlessly towards the Forbidden Forest. He kept sprinting madly through the forest until he finally located a Thestral. He mounted it.

"To the edge of the forest," Draco whispered. The Thestral quickly took off and flew quickly to the edge of the Hogwarts grounds. Draco stumbled off, just passing the edge of the boundaries before Apparating out, straight to the Death Eater meeting. His Dark Mark was burning worse and worse as he did, warning him of how he was late, until he finally arrived and the Dark Mark abruptly started fading. Draco drew a sigh and sat down at his Death Eater seat, right next to Lucius. Fortunately enough, nobody had noticed his arrival except the people next to him as Voldemort had already been talking.

"Weasley's alive. We must find a way to break through to the Headquarters. Dumbledore will likely relocate as soon as possible, so we must act fast."

Voldemort suddenly left, but first, turned a piercing gaze straight into Draco. Draco felt the Legilimency probing his mind. Thanks to his father, though, Draco had been an adept Occlumens for many years. Voldemort and Draco locked into stares, and then, with a crack Voldemort was gone.

A livid Lucius Malfoy then turned his gaze to his son.

"Why have you been stopping Crabbe and Goyle? You're ruining the plan."

Draco's head started to spin. The plan? "What do you mean?"

"The plan – dear God, don't tell my you didn't get information from Crabbe on the meeting you missed."

Suddenly, the puzzle pieces started to fit together. Draco remembered – there had been a meeting that he had missed. Soon after, the harassments to Ginny had started. And Crabbe and Goyle… they were Death Eaters. He had never found out what plans had been laid out in the meeting.

Now he knew.

"I guess it slipped my mind."

"Well, don't forget it next time. Now, you better leave, in case Dumbledore notices your absence. And don't think that I won't be confronting you about this."

An exhausted Draco nodded and wearily readied himself for Apparation, hoping that he was up to it. He reappeared right on the edge of the grounds, mounted the Thestral, and never got any sleep for the rest of the night. Crabbe and Goyle, thankfully, had missed the meeting, but Draco was monumentally afraid – what if he was revealed as protecting Ginny? Even though he hadn't heard of the plan, that wouldn't provide a sufficient alibi for helping her out earlier on, or the fight with the rest of the Slytherins.

So very early in the morning, as the rays of sunlight had just started to slip in through Hogwarts, Draco had finally clothed himself and went over to consult with Dumbledore.

Two weeks later…

Ron did say he would be in soon, didn't he? Hermione glanced up back at the clock for what had to be the twelfth or so time in the past couple minutes. It had been fifteen or so minutes since she had left Ron out there, and he still hadn't come back. Fifteen minutes really isn't that long, though. Is it? Hermione glanced up at the clock before slamming the book down, startling Woodbury and Lupin who were poring over haphazardly organized sheets of paper strewn all over the table.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Lupin asked.

"Nothing – I'm just nervous. I think I'll go get Ron," she offered as an explanation. Woodbury nodded.

"Probably a good idea. People shouldn't be out too long outside alone, even with Dumbledore's barrier."

Hermione started to slip on her jacket before the door burst open with a heavy-breathing and sheet-white pale Ron.

"Tom Riddle – he's alive!"

Back to Malfoy and Dumbledore…

This idea is bloody crazy. After lengthy discussion with each other, Malfoy and Dumbledore had finally reached a conclusion about what to do. However, Malfoy was still coming to grips with the ramifications of it.

Dumbledore nodded. "So we're agreed then. In that case, you should probably get to Miss Weasley. She's likely to be very nervous about you."

That's an odd statement. Draco chose to ignore it, though. He had begun to enjoy his time with Ginny lately, but felt sorry for her because he thought that he might be alienating some of her friends from her. In fact, he knew some of them had. But there was nothing to be done about it. While at first it had been awkward between the two of them, Draco had come to like Ginny's sense of humor. Draco nodded and walked slowly out towards the Great Hall.

Okay, so why don't I just review everything in my head. I will tell Potter to go up to see Dumbledore. Dumbledore will tell Potter the plan. As soon as there is a Death Eater meeting I will say a Vibrating Spell that Dumbledore just taught me. It will make Potter's wand vibrate. The two of us will then make Dumbledore and McGonagall's wands do the same. Hagrid will have already made sure that there will be no Thestrals in the Forbidden Forest so they can't escape. Potter, McGonagall, and Dumbledore will then proceed to corner Crabbe and Goyle and take them prisoner in a Hogwarts Castle Room. They will then proceed to be kept prisoner until the absolute first moment we can let them go.

The reason this was making Draco's head spin so much was that he had now realized he was immersed completely in a full-scale war. While it was true that they weren't really hurting Crabbe and Goyle and weren't doing anything that the two didn't deserve, it still seemed brutal. Necessarily so, though. The battle had been his first shock, but it was only now that he realized that the war was ongoing, continuing. And now that he played one of the most important roles in the whole thing.

He met Ginny with Potter in the Great Hall, the two chatting away happily. Ginny saw him and quickly approached him, with a look that Draco fancied to be slightly worried.

"Did you get any sleep?"

"Not much, no…" he dodged. Dumbledore knew that Ginny, like all the rest of them, would soon have to play an important role in the war but thought it was better to wait until she was fully healed. When Draco had pressed for a specific time, Dumbledore had finally relented, saying that Draco could tell Ginny in exactly one week. Until then, though…

"You know I can do it today if you want me to…" Potter offered, looking Draco in the eye. It was then that Draco thought it would probably be a good idea for Potter to just see Dumbledore now.

"No, you've got work to do…" Draco stared right into Potter's eyes, hoping he would catch the real statement he was making here.

"Alright, what are you guys talking about?" Neither answered. Potter nodded then left off, grinning. Draco wearily turned his way to Ginny.

"Shall we, then?"

Ginny nervously eyed him but nodded, then smiled, as the two made their way out to the snowy-blanketed Hogwarts Grounds.

"So…nervous about your O.W.L.s?"

Ginny nodded fervently. "Yeah…after Ron's performance on them especially."

"I wouldn't worry about it. You'll do fine."

"Oh, just fine?"

"Excellent, I mean."

"Fine then, Mr. Malfoy, if you don't think I'm good enough for you…" Ginny didn't finish and mock-stalked off. Draco gave chase.

"Au contraire," he said. "You'll probably do better than I did."

"And just how was that?"

"Well enough," Draco admitted. "But you'll still beat me."

"It's my life's dream," Ginny said breathlessly, stopping and falling down wearily in the cold snow. Draco remained standing, looking down at her, letting a rare smile
(although they were becoming increasingly less rare) cross his features for a fleeting second or two.

"You could even beat…Hermione Granger!"

"Dear God, no…" Ginny said. "All that time studying! I much prefer to have fun. She started becoming awfully crabby last year as the O.W.L.s got closer last year."

"Right. No studying, then."

"Not one bit!"

The two stayed still for a moment, one lying on the floor, the other standing up.

"Next weekend's a Hogsmeade day," Ginny suddenly brought up.

"Excellent. I've been running out of treats lately."

"Not only that, it's Valentine's Day."

"Ah…"

"What? You don't like Valentine's Day?"

Draco grinned. "Perhaps I'd like it better if I had someone to spend it with."

"Really?" Ginny teased.

"You wouldn't like to come with me, then?"

"I'd love to," Ginny proclaimed loudly.

"You wouldn't like to stand up either, then?"

"I'd love to," Ginny said in a similar fashion. Draco offered his hand. Ginny grabbed it, and he pulled her up to the floor. The two were suddenly facing each other, and the playful atmosphere had suddenly turned serious.

"Hey, you two!" Potter suddenly yelled out. "Heads up!"

Two snowballs suddenly whizzed towards them. Since both of them were Quidditch players, they easily dodged. What they didn't count on was their proximity to the other, and they ended up tripping and falling in heap on the floor.

"That was your fault!" Ginny said, trying to disentangle herself from him.

"Perhaps you just have an incredible attraction to the floor."

"Seems to me that both of you have an incredible attraction to something else," a third voice said. The two of them, still on the floor but now untangled, looked up at Potter who was surveying them.

"Definitely," Parvati concurred. Parvati was one of the few Gryffindors who had accepted Draco's new attitude. The two weren't exactly friends, but were getting there. "Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, they have an incredible attraction to -"Parvati shrieked suddenly as Ginny grabbed her leg and tripped her, knocking her straight into Harry. And soon enough, as is always the case in these situations, a fast and furious snowball fight broke out between the four of them, as the three Gryffindors and solitary Slytherin had the most fun they had ever had in a good amount of time.

Sorry, no cliff-hanger ending this time!