A/N: Please read the "Note to All" at the bottom of the chapter! Sorry for the wait!

Chapter 4: A Friend's Peril and a Brother's Comfort

"Where's your beau, Ginny?" Hermione asked good-naturedly as Ginny joined the group at the lake. Ron, Harry, and the twins were trying to dunk each other in the water, while Charlie looked on with amusement from the bank where he was laying next to Hermione.

"He … umm, he doesn't like swimming …" Ginny forced a smile that, although it fooled Hermione, she knew Charlie wasn't buying it. She sat down between the two and lay back on the towel that was spread out on the sandy bank. She closed her eyes as the sun started to warm her and thought back to her conversation with Draco not ten minutes ago ……

"We're all going swimming, do you want to come?"

"I don't really think your family wants me intruding on their lives. Thanks, but I think I'll just stay here and do some homework." Draco managed a weak smile as he sat down behind the old desk and started organizing his books and things to do his summer homework.

"Draco … you know that's not true. Hermione, Harry, Charlie, and Ron all fought for you to be able to stay here."

"I told you, Ginny, I don't want to intrude on your lives."

"That's not what this is about and we both know it. You're not intruding on anyone's lives; involving the man I love in my family's life is not considered intrusion." He looked up at her, a strange look in his gray-blue eyes. "What is this really about?"

"I … Please don't take this the wrong way, Ginny …"

"What is it, Draco?"

"I just … I need to be alone, okay? I need to sort out my thoughts and … stuff. I'll come out to the lake later." He cringed as he saw a look of hurt flash across Ginny's face, before she quickly put on a smile. She nodded wordlessly as she leaned over and brushed a kiss across his forehead. She silently left the room, shutting the door behind her. She knew it was just his way of dealing with things; she knew he needed time, his mother had just died for crying out loud; she knew he still loved her, of course. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt to have him push her away like he was doing. She could only hope that he would grow out of this phase soon enough.

"Oy! Let's play chicken!" Fred yelled, breaking Ginny out of her reverie. "Ron and 'Mione, Me and Ginny, George and … well, Harry's skinny enough, so George and Harry," Harry let out an indignant cry, but Fred just ignored him, "and Charlie will referee." Everyone agreed, except Harry, who agreed quite readily after George threatened him with some strange looking device that had the Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes logo printed on it. So, Fred hoisted Ginny up onto his shoulders as Ron and George did the same to their partners. "Okay, me and Ginny versus Ron and Hermione first. Winner plays George and Harry."

"GINNY!" Everyone froze when they heard the scream that had come from the house. The person sounded terrified and was probably crying as they yelled for the redhead at the top of their lungs.

Immediately, Ginny jumped off of Fred's shoulders, mumbling, "Draco," as she ran towards the house.

Ginny ran, full-speed into the house and didn't stop until she reached the living room. Sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room was Draco, shaking with silent sobs. It wasn't until she came more fully into the room that she noticed the beaten, bloody, broken body of Blaise Zabini, cradled in Draco's arms.

"Oh gods … Charlie!" Ginny screamed desperately. Because he worked with Dragons, a particularly dangerous career, Charlie knew a lot of healing spells. "Draco, what happened?" she asked, falling to her knees next to him, her eyes still locked on Blaise.

"Is he … Ginny is he …"

Casting a wary glance at Draco out of the corner of her eye, Ginny bent over and pressed her two fingers to Blaise's neck, praying for a pulse. She let out a sigh of relief at finding one, "No, he's alive … Charlie!" she yelled again, even more desperate this time. It was a few more seconds before her eldest brother came sprinting into the room, a worried look on his face.

"What … oh gods," he finished, seeing Blaise's body. "Out now. Draco, go to the kitchen; Ginny, Floo Mum. I'm taking him to St. Mungo's."

"NO! You can't do that! Voldemort watches the Floo Network in and out of St. Mungo's!"

"Damnet. Fine, Ginny, get Mum here now. Draco, go." Without another word, Charlie levitated Blaise's motionless body onto the couch and started to mutter healing spells under his breath. Ginny grabbed Draco's arm and pulled him out of the room. Once he was situated at the kitchen table, she ran back to the living room and Floo'ed her mother, who was at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, visiting with Dumbledore and Moody.

When she returned to the kitchen, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the twins were standing there, glancing around, and looking quite confused. Without saying a word, she took Draco's hand in hers and led him up the stairs to his room. Once he was seated on the bed, Ginny noticed that tears were still streaming down his face. As soon as she sat down next to him, he pulled her close and hugged her tightly, as if holding onto her was the only thing keeping him sane.

Kitchen

"What's going on?" Ron asked softly as Charlie flopped into a chair, taking the glass of juice that Hermione offered him and downing it in one drink. The innumerable healing spells he had performed in the last hour had left him physically and emotionally exhausted.

"Blaise Zabini is laying on our couch, inches from death, at the moment. I suppose Ginny's upstairs comforting her boyfriend, Draco Malfoy, who's also in our house, and is probably within inches of losing his sanity, at the moment. Mum, Dumbledore, and Madame Pomfrey are all in the living room trying to keep Blaise from dying. We can't send him to St. Mungo's because Voldemort's monitoring the Floo Network. And seeing that Voldemort, or Derek Zabini more specifically, is the one Blaise was running from, it wouldn't be a good idea for the old coot to find him." Charlie said all of this without a hint of emotion in his voice. He was staring at the clock on the wall; all of the hands pointed to Home, except for Arthur and Percy who were at work, and Bill who was in Egypt. "Oh, and there's been an attack on a muggle city. Someplace in France. Thought you ought to know." With that, Charlie stood up and slowly climbed the stairs to his bedroom, where he collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Living Room

"Ginny, we need him to tell us what happened," Molly said softly. The adults had attempted to talk to Draco, to get him to tell them when, how, and why Blaise had shown up at The Burrow, but to no avail. He simply stared at the floor with a faraway look in his eyes.

"He's not going to talk to you. I'll be back when I know something." With that, she stood up and, taking Draco's hand in hers, led him back up the stairs. The chances of him talking to her were slim and the chances of him talking at all with all of those people there to witness his vulnerability were nonexistent. Once they were both seated on the bed once more, Ginny turned to Draco, cupping his face in her hands. "Draco?"

He looked up and his eyes locked with hers, as he seemed to return to planet Earth. "Gin …"

"Are you okay? I mean, are you hurt? Do you feel okay?"

"No … no, I'm fine … but Blaise … Blaise is hurt … he's in the living room … can you please take him to St. Mungo's … he's hurt." Ginny swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back the tears as she tried to talk to Draco.

"Draco, honey, I need you to tell me what happened. How did Blaise get here?"

"Blaise … Blaise is hurt."

"No, Draco, come on. Bring yourself back to the present, okay?" Draco closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before opening them again and giving Ginny a weak sort of smile that looked more like a grimace. "What happened?"

"I … I was in the kitchen … and I heard a thump … so I went to the living room … Blaise was crawling out of the fireplace … I ran to him … asked him what happened … he was all bloodied up you know … he said something about Derek … then he passed out … and I called you." Draco shook his head and promptly buried his face in Ginny's shoulder, trying to block out the memories of his best friend, lying in his lap, moments from death.

"Shh, it's okay. It's okay, Draco, I'm here," she whispered, wrapping her arms tightly around him. She'd never seen him so vulnerable, not even when he'd arrived at The Burrow with news that Narcissa was dead. That's because he had always been able to retreat into himself, blocking out the rest of the world. But now, she had pulled him out of his shell and into the open. And she wasn't entirely sure if it had been a good idea or not.

Living Room

"Ginny? Is that you?" Ron looked up to see his youngest sibling stop on the last step of the staircase. She raised her red, puffy eyes to him as the corner of her mouth twitched, almost as if she was trying to smile. "Hey, what's wrong? You've been crying." Considering the fact that all of the adults had spent their afternoon performing healing spells on Blaise and were thoroughly exhausted, the kids had been assigned to watch Blaise throughout the night. Ron had just relieved Fred half an hour ago, it being just after midnight. He was sitting in the squashy armchair next to the couch, on which Blaise was still lying, breathing softly. Ginny walked over to him, kneeling down next to the couch. She smiled weakly and brushed a lock of onyx-colored hair off his forehead; this was the man whom Draco had spent the better part of his life with, confiding in him, talking to him, helping him. Ginny had an immense amount of respect for Blaise; he had stuck by Draco through all of the bad times, only a few of which she knew about, as Draco didn't like to tell her the gory details of his childhood.

"Draco just fell asleep a little while ago … he's really torn up by what happened. How's Blaise doing?" Ginny's eyes remained locked on the sleeping figure on the couch before her; he still had many bruises, even more that she couldn't see, she guessed, and his breathing was considerably shallow.

"They don't really know. They've been trying to heal him for a while … but he's been hit with the Cretaceous so many times, there's lots of internal damage. Why are you still up, anyways?"

"I've been talking to Draco … he said Blaise was talking about Derek, his father, before he passed out. And, I think, he got here by Floo, but I'm not sure. He is … going to live … right?" Ginny looked up at Ron, a haunted look in her eyes, as the possibility of Blaise dying just hit her.

"We don't know …" Ron gave Ginny a worried look as she turned back to Blaise; she didn't think that Draco would survive if Blaise died as well. Her eyes started to fill with tears at the thought. "Come up here, Ginny." She looked up to see Ron holding out his arms, without another word she stood up and crawling up next to him in the big chair. He hugged her close and comforted her as only a brother could.

A/N: Oh my god! Please, please, please don't murder me! I'm so so so so so sorry! I feel absolutely horrible! I've been so busy and my beta has been busy and then sick and I was sick about a bazillion times! URG, these past three months have been absolutely horrid! But I'm back up and running now! Alas, this chapter has not been beta'd. I'm terribly sorry for any glaring mistakes. I've decided that I'm just going to post this and start posting beta'd chapters as soon as my beta gets back up and running. Don't kill me for having Blaise get hurt … all I can say is please, please TRUST ME! You all trusted me through "Days", so I'm sure you can find it in your hearts not to murder me … right?

I have A LOT of reviews to answer, so here are the reviews for chapter 1:

Luv Draco1: Thanks a bunch!

Beckysue2: Yes, I'm so sorry. I had the spelling of Ginny's real name wrong and I didn't realize it until now. Thanks so much!

Annabeave: LOL, because Lucius is a jackass. I'm flattered! Well, it will be a lot more angsty than "Days" was, simply because Draco is going to be facing some … inner demons. But trust me when I say that everything will end up the way its supposed to!

AnnaKranor: Oh my goodness, I'm so unbelievably flattered! LOL, I will be sure to add some snogging in for you. (Haha, I have a very special chapter in mind, ) Thanks so much!

Krystal1989: I'm so sorry that this took sooooo long! I have up to Chapter 10 written, so the updates should be pretty regular from now on! Thanks a bunch!

HarryPotterFan670: Thank you sooo much!

Bloody Corsets: Thanks so much! Yeah, I had to have Draco cry, it would have been weird if he didn't. Sad indeed. This chapter was really sad for Draco too. He's going to be having a hard time for a while, be warned. Awesome pen name, by the way!

Sinoda: LOL, yes it will be a lot longer than "Days". The war won't even start until Chapter 15 or 20. Thank you, if I hear a song that I like, then I'll always try and put it in. If you would like to see a song in one of the chapters, let me know and I'll do my best to fit it in. Erm, well Fred and George know that Draco makes Ginny happy, so they couldn't really take their parents' side on this one. Thanks!

Mennie: I'm so flattered! Thank you so much!

XoOBlackDragonOox: Will do!

Spitxfire: Thanks!

Maeg Lalaith: LOL, well I promised a sequel so a sequel is what you're getting! I won't ever give up on this story. Even if I don't update for a really long time, I will never give up on it! Right now, as it is planned, there are two more stories (along this same thread) to follow this one. Then, if I get enough of a good response (I'm assuming I will, LOL) I'll write a something about their kids and whatnot. Thanks a bunch!

Mello80: LOL, nice. Thanks a bunch! I'll try and read your stories, but as you know, I've been extremely busy (evident by the fact that I haven't updated in FOREVER).

LiLy MaLfOy13: LOL, all I can say is trust me! I'm not the kind of person to leave people with an ending that's going to make them cry. However, I'm considering the 'ending' to be the end of the fourth story, so there's no saying how this particular part of the saga will end. smiles mischievously Thanks!

CoolMilena: Thanks a ton, lovey!

Silverone3: Thanks so much! Yes, I know, Ginny's parents seem like total jackasses. And, on some level, I'm sorry for that. Be prepared because a time will come (in the very near future) that you're really going to hate Molly and Arthur Weasley. smiles mischievously But trust me when I say that everything will be reconciled by the end of the fourth story!

Paintedsecrets: Yay! happy dances LOL. Thanks so much! I'm flattered! Yes, I know … Narcissa is dead sniffles I won't confirm or deny that suspicion (that Draco is gonna run away). smiles mischievously Yay! I love that song too … I wasn't sure if it made Draco seem like he was gonna off himself … because, I mean, that song, in itself, is rather suicidal. But everyone liked it, so it's all good! LOL, I love the nicknames! Yes, I'm so sorry that it took me SOOO long to update! I feel horrible … don't hate me too much, please! Yes, I'll go check and read. I've been neglecting everything lately. Damn teachers. I just finished building a scale model of Isengard … my house smells like glue and spray paint … urg it was horrible! cries Anywho, thanks a bunch! Downs bottle of whiskey LOL, I've been a bit stressed! Bloody pirate! knocks pirate over the head, takes bottle of rum, hands bottle of rum to Fiona Thanks again! hugs!

Susie Q: I'm so flattered! I'm glad you liked "Days". I warn you that this is going to be slightly more angsty than "Days" was, and it is going to contain the war. But I promise that there will be as much fluff in it as I can condone! I can neither confirm nor deny your suspicions about Narcissa … smiles mischievously LOL, yes, I love those plays! I have a thing for musicals! I'm currently playing in the pit for my school's production of Camelot. Thanks again! Oh, and my other story "I'm Still Here" is really fluffy as well, so you might wanna take a look!

Cerdy the Molologist: I know, poor Draco! Thanks!

Stormy Nights: I'm flattered! I just had to write a sequel; it would have been poking me in the brain for forever!

Wintergaurd-Chic: I'm flattered! Thank you! I hope you're still sticking with me, even though I've been a horrible author!

Hannah: So sorry this took so long!

CrazyNproud: Yay, indeed, for the sequel! Yes, things are definitely going to be hard for Draco and Ginny … snickers oh you have no idea! smiles mischievously Thanks a bunch!

SaintEmo: So sorry this took so long! I'm a horrible person, I know, I know!

SAKBL: Muahahahaha! I've hooked you! My evil plan has taken effect! walks away cackling evilly

Hotgal-13: Wow, I'm so flattered! Thanks a bunch!

Okay, now here are the reviews for Chapters 2 and 3:

Elivshgurl: Yes, everything is related to something else in these stories. If you pay attention really hard, you'll start to figure out how things are going to work! Thanks a bunch!

Bouncerok: Thanks!

Mello80: Thanks a bunch! Sorry this took so long!

Please continue: Thanks a bunch! I'll never give up on this fic, so please stick with me!

Paintedsecrets: HELLO! Of course I remember you! How could I forget! LOL! I'm so so so so sorry! I feel sooooo unbelievably horrible. I've been super busy and sick and … urg, just horrible. I know … I really hated writing the fact that Narcissa died … I really liked writing her … o well. LOL, yes, I've written up to Chapter 10, so updates should be somewhat regular. I know! I'm so sorry! I will review ASAP, but I'm still super busy. (I'm actually amazed I've found the hour its taken me to answer all the reviews and get this chapter posted!) No, the pirates didn't kidnap me … but my teachers did. Bloody teachers! Awe! I know! I love Draco! Thanks for sticking with me!

Cinnamon Spice: Thank you so much! Sorry for the wait!

CrazyNproud: AWE, indeed! Thanks! This chapter was rather angsty and there was a definite lack of fluffiness, but I hope you liked it anyways.

ArcticAngelzTx: Thanks! Sorry for the wait!

CoolMilena: LOL, indeed, I think we'd all like to share a few kisses with Draco, hehe. Thanks so much!

Note to all: Okay, please don't go on about having this person or that person die in the war. I already know who's going to die in the war and who isn't. I don't mind you voicing your opinions on the topic, but know that no matter what you say, it's not going to change what's going to happen. Secondly, I know this is all going to seem angsty and depressing, but just stick with me; happier times are on their way. Thirdly, if you're going to put in an anonymous review, please put something other than 'anonymous' so that I can respond. I'm flattered that you all take the time to review and I'd like to take the time to respond. Lastly, it may be a while between updates, so if you'd like an email when I update leave your email in a review and I'll be sure to email you! Thanks to everyone who is sticking with me, even though I've been horrible to you all!

I love you guys! Reviews really do make my day!
Hugs and Kisses,
Pia O'Leary