A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update but it's finally here.

Oh about Ginny, I wanted her to be this way. One, I didn't want her personality to be perfect, it would be Mary-Sue like then wouldn't it? Two, it adds to the story. Three, she is under a lot of stress. She seems to be the only one who is intelligent, capable, and willing to help all the others right now. So seeing that Hermione, her only other female friend is not up to her usual standards, and Harry & Ron acting like idiots when it comes to Malfoy, and Draco just being himself, she would be stressed and angry at everybody. Plus I just saw her like this. So I hope her characterization hasn't ruined your enjoyment of this story, but I promise you it gets better. And second I promise next chapter is back to PLOT! I have too many Draco-interaction chapters now.

Twenty: Three Down Two to Go

Ron didn't care about Malfoy anymore. Well he did still wish to pound him to pulp, but right now whatever happened to his sister was more important. Through the corner of his eye he saw that Ginny had fell, but as soon as the plant emitted the puff of air he knew something went wrong. He quickly motioned Hermione to stay wherever she was. She was on the shore, and apparently the shore was the safest place on the island. Harry too rushed towards Ginny although the veins on his arm were clearly visible and turning a very ebony sort of color.

When Malfoy had heard Ron cry out the name of his sister he turned around to where she was. The girl had fainted, and hopefully was not dying. The plants so far were there enemies, for they had not seen any terrifying creatures yet. Why of all things were plants evil? They always seemed to be so innocent. This was probably Sprout's idea of revenge. It was most likely her island and she wished to become the new Dark Lord. Damn her.

His brain instantly asked Draco to run towards his twice savior and once saved girl. However, his Slytherin heart told him to stay where he was. It was supposed to always be the other way around, was not the brain to tell him to stop and the heart to go? In compromise, he paused a few moments, looked at the daft mud-blood and then decided it would be better to go to Ginny and the idiots then to stay with the brown-haired-moronic-soiled-blood. Attempting to walk his trademark way, he tried a lazy stride, however the stride was awkward and quicker than any other sort of stride. Angry at his damn feet he looked up to see Ginny being carried by Harry while Ron was trying to burn the offending plant.

"You moron. Why are you burning the plant?" Malfoy asked.

Harry who was about to pass by Malfoy stated, "It hurt Ginny didn't it?"

"You better stop the flames, how else will we cure her if we don't know what harmed her. Have you seen that plant in herbology?"

Harry turned around to look at the plant and then quickly ordered Ron to stop the flames. Ron attempted the water spell but it did not work. He looked towards the shore and saw that if he ran to get water, he would first not have a pail and second the plant would have been completely burnt by then.

Malfoy took out his wand and quickly stated, "Aguamenti!" However, the spell had botched and instead transfigured some of the sand into glass. Malfoy let out a groan and then looked at Harry.

Harry had Ginny in his arms so he waited for Ron to get up and gave her to him. Although in an intense amount of pain from both the deep gash and his now blackening veins he did not say a word. After all he had been in worse situations before and he always turned out triumphant. He took his wand out and attempted the spell. The spell worked but not to it's full effect. Only a thin spray of water came out. He would have to keep trying it until all the flames subsided.

"You git the plants here are burning. Now the plant's poison is airbourne and she could take in even more poison!" Malfoy said angrily. How stupid were they? How the hell did they even win that bloody war?

Ron started to take her to the shore but then forgot that the tents had already been packed up. Harry was busy with trying to save some of the plant for examination, Hermione wouldn't be able to restore the tent nor would she be able to hold Ginny, only he could restore the tent to it's size for he was the one who built it. Thinking quickly he gave Ginny to Draco and then started to restore the tents.

What was wrong with lying on the sand? Draco thought when he was given Ginny. This was the second time he was holding her in this position, and this time he didn't know how to save her. What did heroes do at a time like this? His mind was trying to reel out anything to help her but nothing came. This time he felt uncomfortable, because before he had just done the first thing that came into his mind. Now he was becoming increasingly aware of the fact that a Malfoy was holding a Weasley in his arms. However, as his Slytherin heart pleaded him to drop the girl his ambiguous mind was clouded with the idea of holding her or leaving her.

It was at the climax of this conflict in his mind that his eyes decided to leave the vision of the tent and go towards the vision of the girl. She was slumped across both of his arm. His right arm was supporting her neck, while her head drooped a little. Now he noticed that the girl had finally decided to clean herself for her hair had more of a lustrous flaming shine. Before it was mangled and hidden in dirt. Although there were some small smudges of dirt on her face, which were obviously caused by the recent accident, it was evident that she had finally decided to clean herself.

It was peculiar that at the time when a person you disliked very much might die, it was then you noticed them the most. How this moment in time reminded him of the time he met Mandy Brocklehurst after many years! He was sent to kill that girl with the dark brown hair and freckles. The dying girl in his arms also had freckles, and sleek shiny hair. It was not the color that Mandy had, but it was something that he knew if she died would remain in his mind forever. It was now that his Slytherin Heart ceased its futile attempts of persuasion and clenched in fear. How he could just see the severe amount of anger in his father's face. How he just apparated in fear of the consequences. Draco had another chance, and this time he did not want to fail.

However, then it came to him the idea that she was the one who knew his dark past. Just an hour before she made sure he knew how much she despised him. Ginevra was the only girl who knew what happened to him. If she died then everything that he told her would die with her. No one would know anything. Her heart was now beating very slowly; he could feel the life being taken away from her. No, he could not let her die. What was coming was coming, and he would do his best to save the girl. He didn't allow Mandy to die and he was surely not going to allow this girl to die.

"Ron why did you let him hold her!" Harry said now approaching the two men with a small sample of that plant carefully put in his hand.

"I had to build the tent! 'Mione can't help! I had no choice. Why don't you take her back?"

Hermione had been hovering around Draco trying to see what was wrong with Ginny. However, when Malfoy finally became aware of what she was doing he shot her a nasty look. After that she left him to talk with Ron quietly. He wasn't really paying attention to her for the first time, but he gave her a few weak smiles.

"Potter don't you realize that you are dying! How can you bear her?" Malfoy drawled maliciously. When Potter gave a slight quizzical look Malfoy explained, "The curse I used on you was a different one. I don't know what hit you, but it looks like a brilliant curse. I'm amazed that it wasn't used during the war. Your veins they are turning black. And from the looks of it, it is becoming increasingly difficult for you to work your left arm. The poison is moving quickly, and within an hour it will reach your heart. Do you really expect to live?"

Ron stopped working on the tent and gave Harry a frightened look. The boy was really dying. Harry's arm looked as if it were paralyzed. It was when all this information sunk in, Harry's face started to turn pale.

"On your other arm that deep gash should be healed because at the same time you could die from poison you could die from blood loss," Malfoy spoke factually.

"And then you will be a known murderer!" Ron said fiercly, "Do you really think that killing Potter would do nothing? Don't you realize that by killing the Harry Potter you will be publicly executed in the most brutal way there is? Harry's death means death for you too!" Ron was contemplating whether or not to use another curse against him, but because his sister was in Malfoy's arms he decided not to do anything.

At these words Malfoy decided to keep his mouth shut. Now there would be two things that would lead to his death and final denouncement of his family's name. Damn it. Potter couldn't die. Damn it. At the same time if both Ginevra and Potter died, he would be stuck with a psychotic Weasley and a daft Granger. Damn it. This couldn't get any worse.

"Right, well then finish up with the tent," Harry spoke slowly and miserably. During the war it didn't matter if he died, his only objective was to hope that Voldemort would die before him. Now that the threat of the Dark Lord was gone, and the fact that he could finally enjoy the magical way of life, death was something that did matter to him. At the same time his friend was also about to die. They wouldn't even be able to say last words. He looked at his arm and then at Ginny, of all times for Hermione or Ginny to become sick it would be now!

When Ron was finally finished with the tent they put Ginny inside on her bed. They decided not to build their own tent until later, for they first needed to figure out a way to cure the two of them. Ron and Harry decided to sit on Hermione's bed and Draco leaned against the doorway. He wouldn't enter her room no matter what. Although Harry and Ron were ignoring most of his suggestions, they allowed him to stay for Draco wasn't as stupid as they wished he were. Anything that would come into their mind they would suggest, for time was running out and they really needed to figure something.

"Why not use the book? The healer's manual… the girl used that book when…"

"The problem is that that book doesn't recognize many foreign plants," Harry said.

"Of course! It has a symptoms index. Ginny showed it to me in case there were any emergency in the house, and you know that always happened with Fred and George around. Here let me take a sample of your blood."

Ron first went into Ginny's room to get the book out of her trunk. Then he opened the book to the last page. On the page there was an outlined square at the top left corner. Using a small piece of paper, he took a sample of blood and carefully put it in the square. The blood sunk into the paper and immediately three words were written next to the square: Potter, Harry James.

"I've never seen anything like that!" Harry said surprised.

"It's a new edition. Mum and Gin didn't like it much at first because it reminded them of the Chamber of Secrets. However, this new edition is really good for patients, for it….watch."

The paper now continued to write many different statements about Harry's health. Anything that was tested normal would appear only for a second. Then it would start testing other symptoms. After a few minutes the paper stopped testing and eventually wrote two diagnoses. The first one was the deep gash on Harry's right arm, that could be healed easily. The second one was for his right arm.

Patient is suffering from infusco curse. Patient has only thirty-three minutes for treatment.

"Well now we know what curse Malfoy through at you," Ron said with a tone of malice when mentioning Malfoy's name. Why haven't they thrown him out of their group yet?

Ron then sorted through the index looking up the curse. He turned to the page and read the contents out loud. Now they knew why the spell was not used during the war. It was a spell that could be healed within seconds, by a very simple spell. Using the spell, called the 'white spell', the black color in Harry's arm started to fade and within five seconds the poison was gone. Harry was completely healed. When they finally got up they realized that Draco was no longer in the room.

Using the same technique that Ron used on the healer manual, Draco had found a book in Hermione's room. It was some sort of survival guide, and since it was set on 'lost' Draco had taken a sample of the plant and hoped that the same sort of thing would work on this book. Amazingly, it did work and Draco found that the plant was unnamed but very poisonous. He did though find that there was only one way to cure Ginny, and that was by finding another unnamed plant. He didn't care if the plant didn't have a name; as long as there was a picture he would find this plant. Draco was determined to keep Ginny alive.