"My only girl...M..my baby girl.."
"Now dear i'm sure Ginny has come to no harm sh..she's a sensible girl..."
Mr. Weasley comforted his sobbing wife whilst trying to stifle his own tears.
"The kids have school next week and Ginny was so looking forward to her sixth year... and now she...she's gone..."
Mrs. Weasley emerged red faced from her husbands embrace so as to see if his brown eyes believed the comforting words he was feeding her.
When she found none she buried her head in his arms and burst into fresh peals of tears.
"Arthur... oh Arthur..."
He found these sobs heart wrenching, the sobs of a mother who feared she would have to bury her child.
Mr. Weasley sat her down on one of the long sofas that took up a wall of their living room and stroked her long red hair whilst making soothing shushing sounds.
His brave act meant nothing. Arthur was crying insde.
" Ginny... Ginny pay attention!"
Draco tried to make his wife listen, but Ginny found that he was sliding in and out of focus.
"I..I'm trying Draco but could you please stop moving around so much?"
Her voice was hoarse and slightly slurred and she looked feverish.
"We're going to have to make up a feasible reason to feed your parents for your disapppearance and sudden love for me. Understand?"
"k..what should it be then Drakie?"
Ginny giggled.
"can I call you that? Drakie?"
"No."
Draco rolled his eyes and decided he would have to construct the lie on his own.
He considered that it would be a sensible idea to cure the girl, just to stop her from acting so stupid but decided it would be fun to watch her make a fool of herself, he might even be able to use it to his advantage...
As shocking and relieving as it was, to see a her young daughter covered in soot and looking bedraggled stepping out of the fireplace, Mrs. Weasley could not conceal the surprise and disgust in her facial expression at finding the young snobbish Malfoy boy in her humble living room.
"G..Ginny! It's you!"
Molly ran over to her daughter and kissed her on both cheeks.
" Ginny where have you been? We've been worried sick and, you're burning up!"
The familiar anxious scold returned to her mothers voice.
"And what, may I ask is He doing here?"
"Mrs. Weasley, your daughter was captured by death eaters, I had to stop them. They were treating her terribly she was sleeping on the dungeon floor of our house. I..I just found out that my father is a.. a Death eater..."
Draco looked disheartened.
"I.. had to rescue her when I found out, they were treating her terribly and, well.. I do find I have a certain affection for the charming young lady."
He blushed convicingly.
"I hate my father for what he has done. I could never follow his choice to follow He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
Success.
Draco had won the Weasley woman over, she was practically crying for him.
"Ginny dear is this true?"
Mrs. Weasley turned her attention to her daughter again.
"mmm hmm..." Ginny nodded vauguely in the direction of an armchair.
"I think your fever is getting the better of you my dear! let's get you off to bed, a day or two of rest and nice cup of hot tea always does the trick my love."
Mrs. Weasley smiled kindly at her daughter and led her by the hand to Ginny's upstairs bedroom.
Molly only looked back over her shoulder to hiss urgently at her husband;
"make her some pepper-up potion and slip it in her tea- make it really strong love!"
As the two women left, an awkward tension appeared between Arthur and Draco.
Draco smiled cautionsly in Mr. Weasley's direction.
When Mr. Weasley returned this, their awkward silence was broken by his acceptance that the Malfoy child could not help his ancestry and had certainly not let it turn his head.
"So Draco," Mr. Wealsey smiled playfully, " Do you think the missus meant the tea or the potion?"
"Come on dear you simply must stay for tea!"
Mrs. Weasley pleaded with the charming young Malfoy, he had been so helpful and polite all evening.
Molly let out an inner sigh she wished her boys behaved a little more like young Draco.
"I'm really sorry Mrs. Weasley I simply can't... If my father knew I was here... well i hate to think..."
"Well if you really must I understand. And remember Draco if things get too much at home you can always come here, think of it as your home away from home!"
Mrs. Weasley felt the need to reassure, to mother this poor, hurt and confused child.
"Yes son remember you can rely on us."
Mr. Weasley patted Draco's shoulder tentatively.
"W...Well bye then Mr. and Mrs. Weasley thank you for having me, youv'e been so kind."
Draco smiled at them and then turned his attention to Ginny.
Ginny's fever was healed but she still felt groggy and was sitting at the dining table with her head buryed in her arms, fast asleep.
Draco leant close to Ginny and pecked her on the cheek.
"Bye bye Ginny see you at school."
Draco whispered as though in fear of waking the sleeping girl.
With one last smile at the picturesque family Draco took a pinch of floo powder and flung it into the leaping flames of the Weasley's kitchen fireplace, spoke "Malfoy manor" and stepped elegantly into the crackling fire.