September 7th brought a dark, depressive air to Goyle Manor. The skies crackled with electricity and thunder rolled in the distance. Rain pounded the earth with unrelenting force and it was hotter than hell.

Ginny moaned. "Draco it's hot!" She whined as sweat dripped down her back, soaking the muggle t-shirt she wore. Even with 3 cooling charms, the room was still sweltering.

"I don't know what else to do Ginny!" Draco snapped irritably as he bundled in his robes. He had no idea how Ginny could still be hot but there she was, sweating away while he shivered. They had cabin fever…Ginny couldn't walk very much now, not with two weeks until delivery—or according to Kat, 3 days.

Faye looked up from her book. "Auntie Ginny, can I have some ice cream?" she asked, giving Ginny her biggest doe eyes.

"Ice cream sounds great, bring me up a big bowl and you can have some too." She said with a smile.

Draco set his book down after the young child bounded from the room. "Well Faye's taken quite a liking to you."

Ginny smiled fondly. "She's just a doll…I don't understand how anyone would call her a mistake." She frowned, hating the Parkinsons even more after she had met Faye. "I mean, to abuse her like that! It's just awful…"

"It's the culture Ginny; we have one heir and no more. There's no love, no happiness, just rules and social standards." He said with a heavy sigh. "My life growing up was nothing like yours. Your parents loved you."

"Your parents love you Draco!" She burst out. "At least your mother does."

Draco shook his head. "My parents never showed the affection they do now. In fact, I never even really met my father until I was 7 years old. My mother thought my manners were polished enough by then and Lucius could tolerate my presence."

"I knew your father was a monster…but did your mother think he would abhor a small child? She obviously loved him…even if he ignored her." Ginny couldn't believe anyone hate a little boy, especially their own son.

"Don't kid yourself Ginny; you know what Lucius did to you in your first year. What would make you think that he wanted anything to do with children? I was probably just the result of my father raping my mother or some disgusting ritual to create an heir quickly and get it out of the way so my parents could saddle me with the nanny and get on with their lives."

Ginny hated it, but her eyes filled with tears. "That's so awful!" she cried. "Oh damn these hormones!" Tears splashed down her cheeks and she wiped them quickly.

Draco instantly felt bad. "I'm sorry Ginny; I didn't mean to make you cry."

She shook her head and put her head over her face. "No it's not you. I've been like this for months; it comes with the job description I suppose." She sniffled and wiped her face.

Faye bounded in with a huge bowl of ice cream for Ginny and a rather large one for herself. "Here!" she exclaimed, holding out a spoon and the bowl.

"I feel better already." Ginny said as she took the bowl. By the first bite, she felt inherently better. "Thank you Faye."

"You're welcome Auntie Ginny!" The girl bubbled excitedly as she spooned large bites of ice cream into her mouth.

Draco smirked. "I'll give you girls some bonding time. I promised to writer father a letter and see how things are on the home front." For weeks Draco hadn't let Ginny read the papers…the body counts were in the thousands and she knew all too many of them. Colin Creevey had died in the first Hogsmeade siege; Millicent Bulstrode had been hit with the Cruciatis over 40 times during her torture and now resided with Frank and Alice Longbottom on the Irreversible Ward at St. Mungo's but the most horrific of all had been the death of Dumbledore. He had been killed during the destruction of the 6th Horcrux.

He walked down the hall and went into the drawing room. Immediately he transfigured his book back into the letter he had received earlier in the afternoon. It was crudely written…and Draco was angry just receiving the letter.

Dear Mr. Malfoy,

I am glad you are getting me my Pansy back. She is very bootiful ...beautiful and she will make a good wife. You can keep the brat because I hate children, they make messes. Uh…I…thank you. When you drop Pensy... Pansy at the cave we will have your information. I will leave it by the pile of leafs... leaves in the oak tree. It is the big parachment... pechment... piece of paper.

Sincerly,

Barty Crouch Jr.

Draco rolled his eyes and crumpled the letter; that wasn't going to happen. Letting out an exasperated sigh, he let his head loll back. Ginny was his number one priority and lately he had been spending all the time he could with her as she prepared to give birth to their children. It seemed as each day passed he loved her even more than the day before.

It was time to put his plan into action…and he acknowledged, with a heavy heart, that it could very well be the end of their love. However, deeper than his own needs, he thought of Ginny and their children… if they were safe, it wouldn't matter what happened to him.

That was love.

Thank you for waiting so patiently! Your reviews have been wonderful, I love reading them! Keep it up! For now I am all moved to America and I have my brother set up in college (Yikes, wasn't it yesterday that I was changing his diaper? Lol). Thanks again! You're all great. (FYI, the spelling mistakes in the letter are on purpose ;)

Marina