Author's Note: Wow. My oh my oh my. My thanks goes out to the people who read and reviewed my story. I feel o loved, and yet so unworthy! But this chapter is up for gipsy (zephyr3myway,com) whose praise so strengthened my ego that I managed to finish this chapter today. Thank you very much, gipsy, your review was very helpful. Also, to Forensic Photographer711, I do realize that werewolves only come out at a full moon: the thing that attacked Ginny was a regular wolf. She just freaked out and let her mind run away with her. What would you do if a giant werewolf-like thing jumped out at you? Aside from wonder that there are such things as werewolves, of course. Thank you for your reviews, they were all quite obliging. Thanks, and back to chapter 18! Read and ejoy!

Disclaimer: Same as last 17 chapters.

Dancing Life

Chapter 17: The Blessings of Molly and Arthur Weasley

Later that night, on the evening of Boxing Day, Blaise entered his common room; at about the same time Heather was entering hers. Blaise's reception was quite a bit colder, however. The only people left in the common room were Crabbe, Goyle, a fifth year named Everett Grubble and two sixth year girls in the corner who were giggling madly and passing looks between themselves and Crabbe and Goyle.

The only acknowledgement he received was for one or two people to lift their heads and glance at him, take in who he was, and go back to whatever they were doing.

Scoffing to himself and ignoring them as much as they were ignoring him, Blaise waded through the discarded Christmas presents from the day before and ascended the stairs that led to his room; which he shared with Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle.

As he opened the door, he glanced around the room. He already knew it would be almost or completely empty; Crabbe and Goyle were downstairs messing around with the two girls in the corner, meaning that Draco would be the only person in the room.

Sure enough, the pale, blonde Slytherin was lying on his bed, staring petulantly up at the ceiling, his fine, near-aristocratic features marred by the drawn frown on his face.

Blaise paced over to Draco's bed. Not too quietly, either, as the silver-headed boy sat up, looking startled. He saw Blaise, and his face went through a rather interesting sequence of emotions. From the morose stare he'd fixed the ceiling with, it changed to surprise, realization, anger, misery, irritation, and finally, acceptance.

"Hullo, Blaise." Draco muttered, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Good to see you…though I honestly wasn't expecting you."

Blaise scowled lightly, settling himself down on his own bed near Draco's. "Dunno why, since you should have been. You owled me and Heather…said you had to tell us something shocking, in the not-too-nice way, about Ginny. Now what?"

Draco winced, although he was feeling slightly better that he hadn't written in his letter that Ginny was dead. That wouldn't have borne too well. "Erm…well…yes. Er…you see…" He sighed, putting his head in his hands. "Christmas morning I woke up a happy man. I had a girl who cared for me, presents for the first time in ages, and a content feeling in me. It was sheer bliss." That frowning scowl crossed his face again. "And then I went downstairs. From there, things just got worse and worse. I heard St. Potter and Weasley talking. Weasley was thanking Potter for taking pity on his little sister by promising to take her to the dance after Christmas break is over."

He grimaced again. "It made me sick. I wanted to beat both their heads in. I talked to the Granger girl, though. She was on my side on this one." Draco shook his head in amazement. "She couldn't find Ginny, and I had to talk to her, to ask her why. So I just came up here. Thing is, so did she, just a few minutes later. I was still angry at her, and there she was, smiling at me like nothing had changed; like she still liked me." He clasped his hands together as they began to shake.

"I-I just lost it. You know? I can't stand thinking about her with someone else, especially Potter. I just…lost control." He sounded so guilty, so helpless, that Blaise was up in an instant, towering over Draco as he sat on the bed.

Blaise knew far too much about Draco's short temper. He was prone to aggravation and fights caused from his lack of control. Is something really pissed Draco off, there wasn't a lot anyone could do to calm him down.

But what had he done to Ginny to feel so sorry about?

Blaise stooped down to look Draco in the face, his hands on his knees. "What did you do? I'm asking you, Draco Malfoy…what did you do to Ginevra Weasley? Did you hurt her?"

The look of pure agony that flitted across Draco's face was all the answer Blaise needed. He straightened up angrily. "How? How could you hit her? You love her, Draco!" he protested.

Draco groaned, placing his head in his hands again. "Don't you think I know that? Don't you think my heart nearly broke when I saw the look on her face? She was more than scared, Blaise…she was terrified. And I was so mad that I didn't see it until I nearly hit her."

"Wait…" Blaise cut him off. "…you didn't hit her?"

Draco stood suddenly, nearly ramming into Blaise, who wisely stepped back. Draco began to pace back and forth across the room. "I might as well have hit her…either way, I hurt her. She flew off…scared of me."

He turned to Blaise, such a torn and bewildered, almost frightened look on his face that Blaise made as if to pat his back, but thought better of it. "Do you know what it's like? What it's like to see the only person you love- that you'll ever love- run away from you afraid for their life? It's one of the worst things I've had to deal with. I don't expect you know what it feels like, and I hope you never have to." He shook his head.

"I just felt horrible…so I went to look for her." He laughed. A cold, sarcastic, mirthless laugh. "From there on, both of our days got worse."

He told Blaise the whole story. From finding Ginny bleeding in the snow…to taking her to Madame Pomfrey…to leaving, only to find out (or so he thought) that Ginny was dead…to trying to hang himself…to being saved at the last minute by a ghost of a girl…to the present time, where he was sitting talking to Blaise.

"And now here I am, finishing up my horror tale for you and waiting for tomorrow, so I can see her again." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "You know, I never did find out why Weasley thought Potter was going to the dance with Ginny." He shook his head, as if to clear it.

Blaise's head was reeling with this new overload of information. Strangely enough, of all the questions buzzing around in his head like confused owls at morning post time, there was only one that managed to make itself present for asking.

"Are you daft?"

Draco glanced up at Blaise, who was looking at him as if he was insane. Well, perhaps he was, but that wasn't really important right now.

"Maybe." Draco considered, shrugging his shoulders.

"Great, that clears a few things up." Blaise muttered, sinking back down on his bed again as Draco did the same across from him.

Draco shook his head. "She's nutters, I swear. Forgiving me after what I put her through? She's got serious mental issues."

Blaise also shook his head. "I'm just glad that (even though you were crazy at the time) you managed to use your thick head enough to realize that you shouldn't have told us she was dead by owl. Smart. You should have seen Heather. She was frantic with worry, and that was just when she thought something was wrong." He shook his head too, collapsing completely on the bed.

"Our girlfriends will be the death of us." Draco muttered, crawling under his blankets and preparing for sleep.

Blaise stood, and grabbed a set of night clothes, pulling his day clothes off and tugging the pajamas on. "Yeah, but we can't live without them." He murmured sleepily, flopping on his bed and yanking the covers over his head.

"'night Draco." His muffled voice stretched from under the covers to his friend's ear.

Draco grinned. "'night Blaise." He returned, smiling even wider because he had so much more than he'd ever thought possible. So he didn't have everything he wanted. So what? He had a girl who loved him, and a new group of friends that made him feel at home. Not like the home he was used to, but like a home he'd heard of. The warm, welcoming type of home filled with love and care. The kind of home Ginny was raised in.

Sighing, Draco turned over on his side. None of that mattered anymore. The only thing that mattered was Ginny, and he had the rest of the holidays to be with her.

The next morning, Ginny woke feeling groggy and tired. Understanding, since she'd nearly been mauled to death two days earlier. It would have been absolutely wrong for her to wake up feeling like daisies in the spring.

"Urgh." Ginny groaned, rolling over on her side, trying to go back to sleep. It was no use; she was awake now, and her aching stomach was growling at her, vying for attention and sustenance.

Grumbling along with her stomach, Ginny sat up and more or less fell out of bed. Okay, so it was a very fanciful roll off the mattress. Either way, she ended up on the floor, wishing she'd never woken up.

"What a headache." She muttered, holding a hand to her forehead. Indeed, her head was pounding painfully as it tends to do when you wake up and start moving around too fast.

She looked over and rummaged around in her drawer, until she found the vial of Pepper-Upper Madame Pomfrey had given her. She felt quite a bit better, and the potion wouldn't even kick in for a few moments.

Making a growling sound, she rolled over and stood, swaying slightly. "Woo. Okay, there we go." She murmured to herself, squeezing her eyes shut and holding onto one of the four posts on her bed for support.

"Having trouble?"

Ginny's eyes shot open. Heather?

She looked up, and there, in front of her, was her tiny little dark-haired friend. "Heather?" Ginny breathed, a grin breaking out on her face that was mirrored in Heather's own. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in France? I-" she leaned down to hug her friend.

"Why did you come back? I mean, you have no idea how glad I am that you did, but…I thought you were staying until the holidays were back…did something happen?" She cocked her head.

Heather shook her head relief flooding through her.

"No, we're fine, but we were afraid you weren't for a while." Ginny sat back down on her bed and motioned for her to do the same. Sitting, Heather continued. "Draco sent us a letter saying something had happened. To you. Scared the living hell out of me. Blaise and I came straight back." She sighed, giving Ginny a look over.

"You've no idea how glad I am to see you're alright. I got back last night, but you were already asleep. Hermione told me what happened." Her gaze suddenly went harsh. "What the hell were you doing in the Forbidden Forest? You were nearly killed. What were you thinking?" She scolded. Ginny lowered her head, cheeks flushing.

"I wasn't. I was just scared and hurt and I didn't want to deal with Ron and the others asking me about what happened. There was bound to be people on the pitch, so I just kept flying farther and farther away. I just wanted to get away, that's all." She mumbled.

Heather found she could no longer keep the disappointed frown on her face. She reached over and rubbed Ginny's back comfortingly. "Just don't ever do anything like that again." She warned softly.

Ginny grinned wryly, rubbing her aching shoulder, still wrapped in bandages. "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on it." Her stomach rumbled. "Oooh. Please tell me you're hungry, Heather." Ginny pleaded, moving her hand to rub her stomach.

Heather laughed as they stood. "Breakfast sounds good to me."

It wasn't the sun shining through the window that woke Draco. Nor was it the constant and monotonous chant of 'wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up' coming from the bed next to him, supposedly from Blaise. It might have been the small, hard bits of something that were showering him; again, presumably coming from Blaise. But it was probably the image of Ginny that flashed through his subconscious mind that finally made him open his eyes and sit up.

Blaise glanced up from where he was lying on his side, still in his pajamas. He picked out a white bean from a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and casually flicked it at Draco, hitting him square on the nose. Looking down, Draco saw that his pillow and bed-sheets was dotted with several beans of other flavors.

"Morning." Blaise said, tossing a green-colored bean at Draco, this time hitting his forehead.

Draco picked up the bean where it had fallen on his bed-sheet and hurled it back at Blaise, smacking him on the head. Hard. "Ow." Blaise grumbled, rubbing his head.

Draco sat up completely, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He yawned a few times and stood, stretching lazily. As he stretched his arms over his head, his stomach growled loudly. Blaise lifted his had again, this time to arch an eyebrow.

"Have you eaten lately?" He asked, amused.

"Define lately." Draco countered.

"As in the last decade or so." Blaise rolled his eyes as Draco pretended to ponder. "Well, let's see…I definitely recall eating something…no, wait…well there was that time when I was seven…no. Okay, so perhaps I haven't eaten lately." He added as his stomach rumbled again.

Blaise rolled his eyes again, and poked his own stomach tentatively. "You know, I'm kind of hungry as well. Why don't we go grab some food from the Great Hall and bring it back here."

"But…I wanted to see Ginny."

Blaise thought about that for a moment. "Heather was worried sick last night, and I don't think they'd have enough time to talk. You know how girls are. Besides, you can see her later today. C'mon, I wanted to go flying."

Draco's grey eyes widened. "Are you insane, it's freezing cold outside! It's snowing."

Blaise shook his head and strode over to the window. "Actually, it stopped snowing this morning. And it's not too cold out. Just wear a thick jacket or something."

Draco grinned. He had been wanting to go flying for a while. "Deal, now let's go, I'm starving!"

After changing into real clothes, Heather and Ginny allowed Ginny's stomach to lead them downstairs to the Great Hall. Ron, Harry, and Hermione were all there, talking and laughing. Ginny caught Ron's eye and gave him a quick smile. He grinned back at her, waved, and turned back to talk animatedly with Hermione. Harry was just looking on, extremely amused.

Ginny smiled. She was overall, quite pleased with how things had turned out. She didn't want to cause any problems between Ron and his two best friends, but she wasn't going to let him rule her life anymore, either.

She and Heather took their seats across from Seamus, Neville, and Dean. Ginny shifted uncomfortably, but smiled at them nonetheless. Heather glared darkly at Dean, who quailed under her look.

Seamus grinned, his good-natured face widening. "So, Ginny. After we um…talked…t' yer brother, we realized tha' he hadn' hit us with those chess pieces. Which means…" He grinned evilly, standing and coming round to their side of the table, while Ginny stood, grinning guiltily and backing away from the Irish-tongued boy she'd dated for a while.

"Which means…" Seamus started again. "...that it was someone else." He smirked at her as she backed away; him stealthily following her. "Any idea 'oo that migh' have been?"

Ginny put on her best innocent face and shrugged her shoulders. "No idea." She said sweetly, her voice like honey. Heather snorted from the table. "I don't even believe you, Gin." She laughed as Ginny glared darkly at her.

Seamus laughed as well, still advancing on her.

Heather grinned wider. "I'd run for it if I were you."

"That would be my best bet." Ron, several seats over, quipped.

Ginny glared at both of them, and turned to Seamus with an I'm-too-dignified-to-run-all-over-the-place-like-a-child look. Right before she whirled around and bolted. Stunned, it took Seamus a second to follow, sprinting after her.

Ron, Harry, Hermione, Heather, and Neville all shared a glance before hopping up and chasing after them. No one wanted to miss out on the fun.

Meanwhile, Ginny was running for her life, trying not to laugh. She'd forgotten how much fun Gryffindors could be. When she'd dated Seamus for a while, it had been all fun and games. It felt great to be back to doing that again. After the events of the past few days, she needed some light fun.

She was running so fast that when Blaise and Draco rounded the corner just ahead of her, she didn't have time to stop. She ran right into Draco, nearly knocking him over. Blaise, behind them, pushed Draco forward, so he didn't fall.

Winded, he glanced down at the girl in his arms. "Ginny!" he said, surprised. "What are you running from?" he asked, as she struggled to disentangle herself from him, throwing a look over her shoulder. Footsteps were pounding far off, but they were getting closer and closer.

"Um…Seamus and I had a slight disagreement. He says I bewitched his chess pieces to hit him, and I say I bewitched his chess pieces to hit him and his friends." She quirked, grinning up at him. "And now I'm trying to get away from him before he catches me to…shall we say…extract his revenge?' she smiled again, pushing back from Draco, and glancing around. To her left, was the door to the entrance of the school.

"Um…I'd love to chat and all, but right now, I've got a mob of angry boys to avoid." Blowing him a dramatic kiss, she hurried off, slipping through the large doors.

Draco and Blaise shared a confused look. Seconds later Seamus, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Colin, and a couple other Gryffindors he didn't recognize came hurrying down the hallway.

They stopped when they saw Draco and Blaise. "'Scuse us, Malfoy." Seamus said, his gaze growing dark. Several of the others were giving him the same look. Ron and Harry were remaining blissfully objective, and Hermione bit her lip, before letting a grin slip across it.

She stepped forward. "Hullo, Draco. How are you?" she asked, startling everyone but Ron, Heather, and Harry, who knew why she was being nice to Draco.

He grinned at the amazed expressions that crossed the faces of the other Gryffindors. "Fine, fine. And you, Hermione?" It felt so weird to say her first name, as if they were friends.

The Head Girl grinned. "Great." She turned to the others, giving them a reassuring smile. "Might I introduce the person who found Ginny and brought her back?" She gestured to Draco, who bowed insolently.

The others' looked even more amazed, and Neville's jaw dropped.

Giving them one last meaningful look, Hermione turned back to Draco. "Actually, we seemed to have misplaced our little red-headed friend. Would you like to join our little search party? Or have you seen her?" she asked.

Draco grinned. She was more or less asking him to be part of their little group. Several of the Gryffindors gave Hermione a look that questioned her sanity, and left. Seamus, Neville, and Colin (all of which had been pegged by Ginny's chess pieces) stayed, as well as Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Heather of course.

Draco arched an eyebrow at Seamus, who Colin and Neville were staring at, as if waiting for him to make a decision. Finally, Seamus stuck out his hand. Draco took it, startled.

Dropping the pale Slytherin's hand, Seamus stared at him briefly. "Ginny's a good friend of mine. A really good friend. We wen' out for a while, but decided we just weren' righ' for each other. But since then, we've been great friends. I don' necessarily like you, but I don' like to think about what could have happened to 'er if you hadn' found 'er even more." He shrugged, the mischievous smile returning to his face.

"As of now, I 'ave to 'ave a little 'chat' wit' the dear lass." He grinned. "Yer welcome t' come wit' us, if you like."

Draco turned to Blaise, who grinned. "I'm going to go get some breakfast. Want me to bring you something?" Draco nodded, his grin catching as Blaise strode off. He turned back to the somewhat smaller group of Gryffindors. "I seem to recall a certain red-headed someone running past me on her way out the door…" he glanced innocently up at the ceiling, before heading out the door.

Hermione and Seamus exchanged a glance and a grin, before following Draco outside with the others. They all laughed when they got outside and took a good look at the scene before them. Draco was standing on the path, just beyond the steps. His arms were wrapped around Ginny, who was struggling and muttering oaths at him.

"Traitor." She hissed, reaching behind her to pinch Draco's side.

Seamus reached down into the snow that had fallen the night before.

"Oy, Ginny. I think a little payback's in order, don' you?"

Ginny opened her mouth to retort, but was cut short by the snowball that was suddenly in it. She wriggled out of Draco's grasp and knelt down to get her own ball of snow. "Oh, you're in for it now!" She said, throwing the handful of snow, aiming for Seamus' head. The Irish boy laughed and ducked. Harry however, who was behind Seamus, did not.

Ginny clapped a hand over her mouth, swallowing laughter. Harry wiped the snow from his face, glaring. And just as suddenly, bent and tossed a snowball at Neville, who caught it unsuspectingly in the face.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Ron bellowed, scooping up some snow and flinging it at Hermione.

The Head Girl gasped and hurled her own ball at Ron. By then, Neville had pelted Seamus (who flung snow at Heather) and Colin, who had hit Harry and Ginny, who in turn, pitched several snowballs at Hermione and Ron. Ron turned and aimed for Ginny, who bent down to grab more snow just as the snowball flew over her head.

And smack into Draco's. Everyone stopped for a second, watching and waiting to see how he'd react. Draco calmly reached down and picked up a handful of snow, sneering at it for a second, before a grin broke out on his face and he dumped in down Ginny's back.

Her shrill shriek broke the temporary halt in the game and soon, snowballs were flying all over the place; everyone was participating.

A few minutes later, the large doors opened again. everyone stopped, hiding the snowballs in their hands behind their backs. Blaise came through the door, holding something wrapped in a napkin in each hand.

Not looking up, and trying to avoid slippery snow on the steps, he descended them. As he made it all the way down and headed over to Draco, he glanced up. "Hey, I brought you some eggs, and-" whatever else he brought was cut off as nine snowballs flew at him from different angles.

Quite some time later, when everyone was lying panting in the snow, Blaise sat up, pulling something from under him. "Hey, Draco. D'you want your eggs and bacon now?" That broke everyone out in laughter again.

Eventually, they all stood, said their good-byes, and expressed how much fun they'd had. Neville, Seamus, and Colin left first, shaking hands with both Draco and Blaise, as if offering acquaintanceship, if not friendship. Then Ron, Harry, and Hermione left, all waving and smiling. That left Blaise and Draco and Heather and Ginny.

Ginny sat up and turned to look at Draco. "This was all your fault." She fell down beside him, flicking his ear playfully. "Traitor." She hissed again.

Draco grinned. Ginny looked hesitantly up at him. "So, they weren't too bad, were they?" At Draco's questioning glance, she added. "My friends. They weren't that bad, were they? For Gryffindors, anyway." Draco grinned and shifted to place a kiss on her nose, pink with cold.

"Ginny, they were nicer and to be perfectly frank, loads more fun than my friends."

"I heard that." Blaise called from the snow a few feet away.

They all laughed, harder when a clump of snow followed his accusation, landing on the middle of Draco's stomach.

Ginny grinned happily. She couldn't help it; her friends were accepting Draco. It was unimaginable. With everyone getting along, it was so perfect. For the first time she could remember, Draco actually looked happy with people outside her, Blaise, and Heather. He had been practically civil. Even more surprising: so had they. None of her friends had ever even had the inclination to be somewhat nice to Draco. Yet they had just had a grandly magnificent snowball fight together like kids having fun. Well, they were just kids having fun. She grinned even wider.

She started when Draco stood suddenly. "C'mon, we're all going to get pneumonia if we sit out here in the snow any longer. Besides, I'm starved." He protested. Ginny laughed and stood, brushing snow off her backside. Blaise and Heather were doing the same.

"So, where to now?" Blaise asked, slipping an arm around Heather's waist and pulling her closer. Ginny's stomach rumbled at the same time Draco's growled angrily. Heather and Blaise lowered their glances to the couple's stomachs and laughed. "I guess that answers that question." Heather laughed.

Draco grinned and came up behind Ginny, wrapping his arms around her waist. She covered his arms with hers, hugging his arms tight to her. He planted soft kisses in her hair until his stomach rumbled again. Ginny pulled away, laughing. "C'mon, let's go get something to eat."

Draco allowed himself to be pulled along. It was sickening how tightly he was wrapped around her finger. All she had to do was ask, and he would jump. Pathetic.

Ginny tugged at his sleeve, pulling him along.

A few minutes later, they were in the Great Hall. There was only one table set up; since there were few staying for the holidays, and most of them were Gryffindors. Comparatively, there were quite a few Slytherins staying this year (compared to recent years). A handful of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were there, but it was mostly students from Slytherin and Gryffindor staying.

Gryffindors almost always stayed for the holidays; most spent the extra time with friends from their own house or another. Slytherins, however, almost never stayed at Hogwarts for vacations; preferring to stay with their families. Since the decline of Voldemort, though, many Slytherin (DeathEater) families were torn apart and most left destitute, as was the case with Lucius Malfoy. So many DeathEaters had been captured, and their families ruined. So their children stayed at Hogwarts, where the food, shelter, and clothing was not an expense issue.

When they reached the table, they noticed how very few people there were; it was a bit late in the morning and everyone else had presumably already eaten and left.

Ginny and Draco sat down next to each other, while Blaise and Heather sat next to each other across from the other couple. The only other people at the table were Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, a friend of hers, Neville, Seamus, Dean, Colin, Lavendar, and Pavarti. Needless to say, the Gryffindors were at one end, and the Slytherins at the other with the two mixed couples smushed in the middle.

Alternately talking and eating, the two couples soon forgot about the presence of the other students. Until a moppy, grungy-looking grey owl flew in, drooping and dipping every once in a while. Ginny stopped eating, her eggs half-way to her mouth.

Heather also looked up, cocking her head to the side. "Ginny, isn't that your owl? Oh, what's it's name? Errol, that's it! Isn't that him there?" She nodded toward the owl, which was descending clumsily.

Before Ginny could answer, the large bird swooped suddenly, loosing all control. It nearly flew straight into Blaise, who had the sense of mind to catch it. "Damn crazed owl." He muttered, handing the letter to Ginny, whose face paled considerably.

"What is it?" Draco and Heather asked in unison.

"It's a Howler." Ginny answered shakily, as the edges started to smoke. Draco's eyes widened. "Well, hurry up and open it! It's worse if you don't. Besides, there's practically no one here."

Ginny nodded and gingerly opened the letter.

"GINEVRA TERESA WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU ASSOCIATE WITH THE LIKES OF A MALFOY WITHOUT TELLING US FIRST!"- her mother and father screamed in synchronization. Everyone at the table glanced up and Draco's eyebrows shot straight up. Ginny put her head in her hands.

Oh shit.