A/N: Well it has been... Er, a while!! Heh. But today is my first day of summer so the updates should be more frequent!! I'm sorry about the wait. Thank you all for your reviews.
Thank to everyone who reviewed Ch. 3...
Musii, siri's girl, SamiJo, hpdancer92 (thank you!!!), twinsofthesky (don't we all?), dear aunt elladora (I shall), starstrucked (lol Yes Ron Ron. The Ron Ron. Twists? Oh yes. There will be those), Sasatia (YOU DON'T LIKE RON!?!!?), TheSkyIsOrange666, Plaidly Lush (What an odd part of the story to grow fond of), PinayAko, quill-angel68 (Thank you. Don't worry it won't be far-fetched), bigreader (Perhaps), Wander Aimlessly (thanks!), TrippyGirl20051, Ronsrealgirl (lmao Yes. It's all about the Benjamin's), kneh13 (It would be horrible), Ducky06 (I don't know, is he? heh heh), the-girl-named-kittie (I have!), sarah (I'm updating now! It's okay, I plan on finishing), and Kitti Malfoy (thanks!), miss ray317 (Wow thanks! I do hope you're right, but not about everything because then there would be no surprises! lol But you probably have a better plot in mind then even I do. Well, if I get stuck I know who to call! Heh heh.)...
You guys rock!!!
Also thanks to Kristen Michelle who totally meant to review. Just didn't. Actually I doubt she even read chapter 3. sigh. Nice Kristi, nice. Heh heh.
Disclaimer: Chapter one, yo.
Draco stared at the fire for a long while after Ginny had stormed out of the cabin.
"You're the one," Ginny had bit out quietly, her teeth gritted with a sick snarl plastered to her face, "that has family members on the dark side. Not me."
He hadn't even said anything back. She just stood up, eerily calmly grabbed her coat, quickly slipped on her shoes and stepped outside.
She didn't even the slam the door. He would have rather liked it if she had.
But it had been almost an hour now, and she still hadn't come back. And Draco hated the feeling but he was worried. He convinced himself it was more of the fact that the Weasleys' would kill him if they found out he let her die, and he decided to go looking for her. Just as his hand was on the doorknob he heard a loud crash from the other room and froze, petrified.
Great, he thought, Weasley escapes and now an intruder is coming. She's safe in the cold, and someone is...
Doing what exactly? He was right by the front door, but he didn't move. He heard a few disgruntled pants and then a small click. The window.
Draco crept silently towards the bedroom.
His hand trembled slightly on the doorknob, visions of the death eaters that haunted his memories swarming inside, before he pulled himself together and with all his might pushed the door open.
"WEASLEY!"
Ginny was lying on the floor in a fetal position shaking all over. She glanced up, the red in her cheeks matching her fiery eyes. "Oh," she said flatly with a slight chatter, "I hope I didn't scare you."
"I'm sure." He walked closer to her. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Lying on the floor."
"I can see that clearly Weasley, thanks. Why?"
She rolled on her other side, facing away from him. "What do you care?" Her voice was drained of emotion.
"Enough to ask."
"Well I don't care enough to tell you."
"You're in my room."
"Deal with it."
"I'm trying to." She still didn't say anything. "Talk to me, Weasley."
"Tell me more lies, Malfoy. What was that bit about my brother? I enjoyed th--"
"I don't care if you believe me, Weasley," he bit out. "I just want to know why the hell you felt the need to break into my room."
There was a small pause before, "I didn't want you to know I had come back inside."
Draco bent down next to her. "Well you suck at that game. So were you planning on living in here or something? Because Weasley I would have noticed you here when I came in for bed."
"I know that," she snapped. "I just...I wanted you to...think I was dead. Or something."
"You wanted me to go looking for you?"
She swallowed and for a moment didn't say anything. "Yes."
"You wanted me to freeze, and search for hours?"
"Maybe."
"I almost did."
The whole time Draco was talking Ginny hadn't been looking at him but now when her eyes finally met his he could have sworn they softened a little. "Really?"
"My hand was on the doorknob when I heard the crash."
"Why would you go looking for me, Draco?"
She sounded so sweet and vulnerable and doubting that Draco was amazed at how much he just wanted to keep her that way. With her face all red and her eyes so wide, her hair wildly spread around her. It was really hard to not think about what her lips would taste like at that moment. "I guess...because I...couldn't stand the thought of not having someone being around to piss me off."
She smiled, only partly. "Really?"
But what the hell was he doing? He didn't give a shit about her, and she needed to know that before she gained a little crush on him. The idea of ravishing her while she looked that beautiful was just getting to his head. "No, Weasley," he snarled. "I just thought the last thing I needed was to get put in Azkaban for not even trying to save you."
Ginny's face fell, and she nodded. "Of course." She laughed dryly. "As always."
"As always what?"
She sat up, and yanked the entire comforter off the bed, and wrapped it around herself. She faced him again. "Thinking of yourself."
Draco glared at her. And he was supposed to sleep in that blanket tonight? "Well who am I supposed to think of, Weasley?" He smirked, "You?"
Ginny shook her head slowly. "No, Malfoy. Forget it."
He shook his head, standing up. "Next time, Weasley, if you want me to think your dead why don't you just do me the actual favor?"
Hot tears stung her eyes. "Right," she laughed. "Yeah, because no one would miss me Draco, right?! Apparently my whole family's on the dark side! They'd be glad, wouldn't they?"
"Don't come running to me when it turns out that the whole reason we're here is because of your brother."
"Like I'd come running to you anyway! God, I'd die of shock if you ever did something genuine!"
"If you die Weasley, that to which we can only hope," his eyes flashed at her, "it won't be my fault."
Ginny attempted a laugh but her throat was so dry it came out as a half groan, half growl. "And who's would be it Draco? My brother's?"
"GINNY, HE IS A DEATH--"
"WHY," she yelled, "WOULD YOU MAKE SOMETHING LIKE THIS UP?"
"I WOULDN'T!"
They stared at each other; Ginny sitting on the floor, her knees hugged to her chest covered in the huge blanket, and Draco practically towering over her.
"You believe me," he said lowly.
She turned her head.
"Give it up, Weasley. You knew it all along. Your family's always been this pathetic."
He walked away and just as he closed the door behind him Ginny hurled the muggle clock radio across the room. It smashed against the door with a satisfying crash, before falling to pieces.
And feet away, Ginny fell to pieces too.
Ginny dragged herself up off the floor and felt her muscles tie together in one big knot.
She felt like such a moron for falling asleep on the floor. She had half hoped that Draco would come in and demand to sleep in "his room" as he called it, just so she could have the satisfaction of telling him to go to hell. But he didn't come in, and 7 hours later, Ginny could barely move.
She caught her reflection in the dusty mirror. She looked like hell. Tear-stained, sticky strands of hair matted to her face while other pieces stood up in angles without rhyme or reason.
Stumbling, Ginny pulled open the door to the living room with one hand, trying to flatten down her hair with the other.
When she entered the room, she was surprised to see Draco sitting at the table staring out the window.
Tentatively Ginny walked toward him.
"Don't you look lovely this morning," he smirked at her, but his eyes were darker than usual.
"Not trying to impress anyone."
"You're doing a damn good job of that, by the way."
Ginny blinked. She was so worn out she barely even remembered what it was she just said. "Doing what?"
"Not impressing anyone."
"Draco, I believe you," she burst out, not even comprehending his answer. The table he was sitting at only had one chair, so Ginny walked towards the fireplace, sitting down on the hearthrug. It felt better not to have to face him.
"Ginny..."
"No, I do."
"Why?"
"I don't know why. I don't know what it means..." she said thickly. "I just know that I do."
He didn't say anything.
"What are we going to do?"
She heard the scraping of the chair, and then Draco pacing the room before she finally felt his presence behind her. "We'll have to leave."
"You think he knows that we're here? That we witnessed the torture?"
Draco bent down next to her. "Voldemort?"
Ginny sucked in a breath. "Yes."
"Yes," said Draco. "I think so."
"But we have shelter. And food... If we didn't we'd – we'd already be..."
"Dead. I know. But they'd find us eventually, the Ministry. It'd be too suspicious. The two least likely people dying together on an uncharted mysterious...place," Draco swallowed. "He has a plan," he said. "He always does." Ginny knew that Draco probably had been up all night coming to this conclusion. It made her hate him just the slightest bit less. "Why do you think this cabin's here?"
"I guess because he's trapping us."
"I guess so."
Something was happening between them. They both knew that this was nowhere near over. That the worst yet to come, and they had no idea what they were going to do about it. And the thought shook Ginny violently that her own brother could be the one behind it all. She swallowed hard, and realized how nice it was to be talking to Draco like this. The horrible and deadly things that they now knew were soon to face them made their previous quarrel almost seem stupid.
Ginny suddenly looked at him, and was surprised to see that the whole time he had been staring at her too. For a wild moment she felt this extreme connection with him and considered telling him that she was scared out of her mind.
Just the thought of it sent a shiver up her spine. She wrapped her arms around herself trying to stop the sudden unbearable coldness.
Wordlessly Draco reached over the couch and handed her the blanket.
Ginny stared at it for a second, before unfolding the heavy material and draping it around herself. Her eyes met his almost vulnerably. "Thank you," she whispered.
Draco stood up with a heavy sigh. "You know what, Ginny?"
He looked down at her with an unreadable expression, and she turned away preparing herself for whatever snide remark he was planning on making now. She couldn't believe she had just thought they'd connected. "What?" It was almost a groan.
"You're welcome."
Ginny turned her head sharply, the fire dancing in the brown pools of her eyes.
Then she smiled.
And in a moment that was extremely uncalled for, a moment where the barrier had been so strongly shattered that you could actually feel the non-presence of it...
Draco smiled too.