Chapter Eleven, What's Left
It had been a half an hour since Draco found out about his house, and no one could get him to come out of his room. He wouldn't open the door even his mother, who'd been asking for ten minutes to be allowed in, but who'd given up to rejoin the adults who were still in the kitchen formulating a plan. Apparently Tonks and the other Aurors had tried to protect the Malfoy Manor and the belongings within it, but to no avail. They were going to go back later that night and do some recon, but wanted everyone to be on alert in case the Death Eaters hadn't left yet.
With all this commotion and nonesense with Draco going on, almost everyone had forgotten Mr. Weasley's report of the attack on the Burrow. Almost everyone.
Ginny pulled her dad aside as he was on his way upstairs to gather some things to leave,
"Dad? Is it..." Arthur Weasley sighed at his young daughter, knowing she'd lost everything she loved in that house.
"I'm sorry, Gin...but yes. Unfortunately Draco wasn't the only one to lose some special things tonight." With this Ginny let her dad go and finish his business, and was so fed up with Draco's attitude that she moved everyone out of the way and stormed into his room, shutting the door in their faces so they couldn't get in.
"Ginny! What are you doing in here?" he demanded.
"That's IT, Malfoy!" He was shocked into silence with her force, and the fact that she hadn't called him Malfoy in months. "You are not the only one who's upset in this house!" she continued, "You are also not the only one who lost everything tonight!"
"I know my Mum's upset, Ginny - "
"Not your Mum, Draco - ME! I lost everything, Draco! I lost my house and everything that was in it! Did you even listen to my dad! Nevermind. You know what? You can sit in here and sulk and brood and do whatever the bloody hell else you want to, but I'M GOING TO HELP GET IT BACK!" With her rant finished, and Draco still taking in the severity of her words, she looked around and noticed all of his things, and all of his mother's things, were packed up. This just angered her even more. "Merlin, Draco, where the bloody hell do you think you're gonna go! Didn't you hear them - the Manor is GONE! The Burrow is GONE! IT'S ALL GONE! What do you think you're doing!"
"I'm leaving." he said calmly, "and so's my Mum."
"You're a bloody moron, you know that? Where are you gonna go? And once you're back at school, where's your Mum gonna stay? How are you two going to protect yourselves from Voldemort and countless Death Eaters? You heard about what they did to Tonks tonight! Merlin, did you think about ANY of this! And what about the rest of us! What are we supposed to do? Let you go! I don't think so, Draco Malfoy. You wanted your Mum protected and this is the best we've got. This place has been hidden from them for years -"
"Which means it's only a matter of time before they find it! You saw what happened to Harry and his parents with their charm!"
"HARRY'S PARENTS HAD A BLOODY TRAITOR AS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER!" Ginny nearly screamed, "And how dare you interrupt me! Professor McGonagall would never do that! Merlin, Draco, have you thought about ANYthing in the past hour!" She was ranting and raving, and he seemed to finally realize he should probably just let her get it out. So once she was finished yelling at him, he sat on the bed and looked at her.
"Are you done?" ...boy, was that the wrong thing to say.
"NO! I'M NOT DONE!" ...and she continued for another five minutes of yelling and screaming, to the point where everyone who'd been outside the door had retreated to the living room, for fear of Ginny finding them out and having to deal with her wrath. Once Ginny finally calmed down, Draco was still sitting on his bed, things packed at the foot.
"Ginny, we can't stay here." He said this sadly, making her realize that her anger was really just sadness and pain, masqueraded with fire. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she fought them back.
"That's stupid."
"No, Gin, it's the only answer. They after me and my Mum, and because of that - because of us - they're after you."
"Oh my God, I swear, if you break up with my because of this I will never speak to you again, Draco Malfoy."
"But Gin,"
"NO." She stated firmly. "If you want to break up with me because you don't like me, because I'm awful, because I'm ugly, because I yell too much, or because you're moving to Timbuktu, that's fine. But you will NOT break up with me because a few stupid Death Eaters are after you." Draco was surprised at the amount of determination in her voice,
"Weasley, you give me one more reason and I just might have to shut your mouth for you." He had decided the only way to fight fire was with fire. "I do like you, you're not awful, you're beautiful, I'm not going to Timbuktu," he chuckled at the idea, "and you do yell quite a lot, but I think I can handle it." His speech made her soften a bit, and she tried to explain herself.
"Draco, I'm a blood-traitor in their eyes. I'm always going to be a target. I'm a Weasley, a girl, a kid and a blood-traitor. I'm joining the Order of the Phoenix for crying out loud! I'm friends with Harry Potter, and you, and even if we weren't dating, that'd be enough to come after me anyways. I already lost one boyfriend to stupidity like this, I won't lose two."
"What?"
"Harry dumped me because he was convinced that if we dated I'd be a target...not realizing that I'm his best friend's sister, or a Weasley, or a Gryffindor..."
"And I bet you gave him that same piece of your mind, didn't you." he chuckled again, and she smiled,
"Actually, no...I kind of just let him go." This surprised Draco,
"So when Harry does it, and it's fine, but when I do it, you yell at me for ten minutes straight?" he said in mock offense, this did seem to be the way Draco's life was, and it made Ginny giggle even more,
"Yeah,well, I like you better." She finally sat down next to him and gave him a hug. "You better not be breaking up with me."
"Don't worry, I'm not." She pulled away and looked at him seriously,
"You can't leave." she said evenly. "This is the safest place for the both of you. You should come help us...I mean, we don't really use the Unforgivable Curses, like you did on Greyback...but that loser needed to die anyway." Draco was surprised at the Gryffindor's condoning of his actions,
"I don't know...is it the safest place?"
"Yes." she said simply. So simply that he had to laugh, she continued with "If they can't find you, they can't hurt you. You and your Mum." talking as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What would you do if I left?"
"I would probably have to hunt you down." she joked, "C'mon, Draco, seriously. Are you going to help us and give your Mum a safe place to stay, or are you going to run around the world until we defeat him? And it's not like she'll be alone...it's not like my parents have a home to go back to anymore..."
"Oh, Gin, I'm sorry...I was just so caught up in..."
"In yourself," she said fairly, "it's not an insult," she added quickly, "it's understandable. Just, think about your options - do you really think you could outrun so many Death Eaters who are this mad at you?" He contemplated her words, and sighed.
"I guess not...especially if I plan on going back to school...which is probably another bad idea..."
"Why would going back to school be a bad idea? You have me, Hermoine, Ron and Harry, and all the professors to protect you..."
"Except for the fact that it's now free reign on the Malfoys. This means the Dark Lord has given them permission to do whatever they want to me and my belongings. Half the Slytherins have parents who are Death Eaters, or at least supporters. What am I going to do in the dormitory?"
"Same thing that we did when they didn't like our relationship. Kick their butts." Draco chuckled at her naiveity.
"Something tells me it's going to be a little worse than that..."
"Fine, we'll talk to Professor McGonagall...she can give you your own rooms or something." With that, they couple sat in silence, and a soft knock came at the door.
"Come in," Draco said, and a timid Hermoine walked in,
"Everyone ok now?"
"Yeah, 'Moine, we worked it all out." At Ginny's words, Hermoine let go of the breath she'd been holding.
"Good, cause they're getting ready to go downstairs and we're going with them."
"Where are they going?" Ginny asked,
"To Malfoy's house...to see what's left, and to the Burrow after. Just to see if they can salvage anything. Not everyone's going, but a lot are, just in case all the Death Eaters haven't left yet."
"I'm coming." Draco stated forcefully.
"Well, then, come on. You better hurry." Ginny and Draco got up off the bed, and followed Hermoine to the living room. Ginny was the only underage one left, so she side-along apparated with her mother to the Malfoy Manor, and with a chorus of CRACKs, Grimmauld Place was empty.
They all arrived at their destination, or at least what was left of it. Still glowing embers highlighted the skeleton of what had been Malfoy Manor, and Narcissa cried out. Ginny noticed Draco's whole body stiffen, so she went over and took his hand. She wanted to say something, but there wasn't anything to say. She figured this was one of those times where all she could do was be there, be there in support of her friend. Although her mind was beginning to focus on what they would find when they got to the Burrow...