Well I kept at least this promise, and I did indeed update again. Yay for me! I'm glad so many people enjoyed the previous chapter, and thank you so much for reviewing. I hope to be able to continue to update fairly quickly, but I can't guarantee anything. This past week was my birthday, so everyone was willing to leave me alone when I wished to write. But finals are coming up, and I'm missing a week of school for Outdoor School. So with me luck and I'll try to update again as soon as possible.

One More Lie

"Bloody hell." It was seven in the evening, the engagement party was due to start, and Ginny was nowhere to be seen. Draco had left her alone in the room for fifteen minutes, and she vanished. Imagining the trouble into which she could have gotten, he groaned. That girl was more trouble than she was worth. Pacing around the room, looking at things she might have touched and wishing that they provided clues as to her destination, Draco began to vent his frustration in angry words whispered into the air. He poked his head out the door, looking down the empty hall. Hoping Ginny had not ventured this way, Draco slowly made his way along. He stopped at the first occupied painting he came to, and demanded if the man had seen a red-headed girl come this way.

"Perhaps."

"I don't have time for this!" Draco explained. "Did she come this way or not?"

"I saw her. I know her. She is a Weasley. What is she doing here? I would have recognized her anywhere."

Draco almost didn't want to answer-he couldn't imagine sharing the news that he would be married to the girl with someone who didn't know his reasons, and someone who would raise hell when he heard. Thus Draco left behind the painting, and continued to walk down the hall. The doors in the hall were all locked, so he was able to continue straight down the hallway, without worrying that Ginny had wandered off into one of the rooms adjacent to the hall. Draco quickened his stride, as time was running short. Voices quietly drifted through the air, so quiet that he wasn't sure it was real people rather than paintings. He stopped; the voices did seem to be coming from father ahead, and once again, Draco started forward. Sure enough, the voices began to be stronger, and he was able to identify one of the voices as Ginny's. She was sitting on a stool facing a painting, to which she was pointing and, apparently, talking.

"What the hell are you doing?" Draco demanded of Ginny.

"That is no way to speak to your future bride!" The reprimand echoed through the halls, spoken by the woman in the painting.

"Aurelia! I don't need your meddling in my affairs. You have done enough." Draco turned. "Ginny, come with me. Now."

"Draco Malfoy!" the woman named Aurelia scolded, "You owe me more respect than that! Now, your girl and I have a game of chess to finish, and she will be staying here until it is done."

"She will come with me," Draco announced, leaning over and grasping her arm. He tugged, but Ginny didn't stand up.

"Let go," she hissed at him, jerking her arm out of his grasp. "You don't own me."

"Not yet!" he hissed back. Ginny's eyes widened.

"You will never own me," she stated furiously. "Never." And with that she stood up and walked away farther down the corridor.

"Shit," said Draco, sitting down heavily. "Now I've got a room full of people waiting to see our 'happy couple' and I've alienated her even more." He paused. "What the hell do I do now?"

Aurelia sniffed. "I would have suggested never saying something so alienating in the first place." At Draco's frown, she huffed, "Or go apologize to her now."

"I don't apologize. I did nothing except state the truth. She will belong to me in just a few months."

"No woman, or person, wants to be owned. You're even less intelligent than I though if you don't know that. Now, I have a late afternoon tea to attend. Feel free to continue to mope, or be off." And with that, Aurelia stood and walked out of the painting. Draco continued to sit in silence for only a moment before standing and heading after Ginny. His shoes tattooed a beat on the hard stone floor, and he quickened his pace. Draco's head was in constant motion, swinging from side to side, his eyes scanning for only one thing- Ginny. He almost missed her; as it was, the sight didn't register in Draco's brain until after he had passed the alcove, and he did a double take before doubling back.

"Go away. I have nothing to say to you." Ginny's voice was calm, but Draco could see the tear tracks on her cheeks. At a loss at what to do, Draco stood there dumbly, and Ginny's temper erupted. "Leave me alone!" While her anger was overwhelming, Draco could also see that she was starting to cry again, and wasn't sure if he should follow her instructions or do something to comfort her. He was prideful and stubborn enough to not want to obey Ginny's and thus chose the latter. Draco closed the distance between then with a few quick, short steps, and put his arm around her shoulders. Ginny tried pushing at his chest, but soon put her head down in defeat, and began crying in earnest. Her tears soaked through Draco's shirt, but he didn't complain. It was necessary to calm her down enough to put on a show of being in love, and if he must sacrifice his shirt along the way, Draco was willing to do so.

"Why are you doing this?" Ginny asked, pulling back from his embrace, though his hand continued to move up and down her back slowly.

"Ginny," he answered slowly, "pretend to love me." Draco paused, his other hand reaching down and turning Ginny's chin toward him. "Are you ready?" Ginny's eyes were focused intently on Draco's and slowly, ever so slowly, she moved toward him.

"Thank you," she whispered. "You're a real asshole, but thank you." She took the last step and closed the distance between them, kissing his lips softly. Draco was still for a moment, then began to kiss her back. He wasn't sure what sparked this abrupt change of mood, but he was intelligent enough to not object out loud. Ginny wrapped her arms around Draco, hugging him tightly before she pulled away. "We better go."

Ginny felt stupid. Person after person came up to her and congratulated her on her impending marriage. Ginny smiled and thanked them. Every once in a while she would turn and gaze adoringly at Draco. He would whisper something in her ear, and she would blush. It was all a lie. Ginny felt like an actress, and believed she deserved an award for performance of the year. She was fooling everyone. Even the people who knew the truth looked confused. Several of the teachers from Hogwarts had taken the night off to attend, and they all watched Draco and her, searching for the truth under all their smiles. They didn't buy the act- while they didn't know about the prophecy, they had seen Draco and Ginny interact as recently as last year, and didn't believe any of the pretense Draco and Ginny were spouting. Ginny was rather nervous, as most of the people currently here were either friends of the Malfoys, media, or neutral parties who were still important enough to be invited. While Ginny's family and friends had been invited, she knew that it was not likely for them to attend.

Draco reaching for her hand, Ginny smiling up at him, hearing him softly say, "Time for dinner, love." It was too much for Ginny. She just wanted to break, but instead she made a small comment about being hungry, and walked toward the table with a goofy smile on her face, the smile of someone in love. The lies began to build up, and Ginny wanted nothing more than to just scream. But she didn't.

"Try one of these. You'll love them."

"Ooh, what is it? It looks delicious." The casual comments were the biggest lies of all. Never could Ginny imagine talking to Draco like this in real life. Looking at him was possible- he was a beautifully built man- but talking, not fighting, not screaming, not crying, that was pure prevarication.

Pretending to be in love with Draco was almost too easy. He had held her hand all the way back, but hadn't spoken but for once, to take out his wand and whisper "pulcherrima cutis". Ginny felt the blotches and redness she knew marred her face fade away. Ginny's emotions were in turmoil, and her appearance was not something she was worried about, but Ginny knew it was something she would have been embarrassed about later when she looked in the mirror, and it was kind of Draco to think to help. "Draco" and "kind" in the same sentence? Ginny thought to herself, and then chuckled. More likely, he didn't want to be embarrassed by Ginny's looks. But even reasoning that he had acted from less altruistic reasons, Ginny did feel kind of warm inside.

Ginny's musing were cut short when all the conversation in the room died, leaving empty silence in it's wake, a silence broken only by the clips of footsteps upon the marble of the floor. Ginny turned around to face the entrance, and was shocked to see not only her mother, father, Bill, Ron, the twins, and Hermione, but also Harry Potter himself, along with a troop of Ministry officials, and several other Order personal, all cloaked by Aurors. The tension level in the room continued to rise, as the group which had just walked in looked prepared for war. As a group, they took a stance suggesting someone, anyone, test them now. The Aurors were on the outside, as if they were protecting Harry and the other. Ginny slowly stood up, her hand still locked in Draco's, thus pulling him up with her. She began to walk toward the group, tugging Draco along with her.

"Mum, Dad. It's so nice to see you," said Ginny quietly. She was wondering why the Aurors were with them, then realized that while Harry couldn't yet die, he could still probably be harmed, and the Ministry wished to take no chances. Ginny stepped around the Aurors and Draco finally dropped her hand as she reached to hug both of her parents. She hugged her way down the line; Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, and finally Harry. Draco continued to stand right behind her as she did this, almost as though he was guarding her from her family instead of the other way around. "Here, come and have something to eat," said Ginny, trying to restore feeling of normalcy to the room's atmosphere, and conversation did indeed start up again throughout the room, though it was more subdued than before. The Weasleys & Friends merely picked at the food-the situation was too tense for any of the them to enjoy anything.

"Ginny, may I speak privately with you for a moment?" Draco whispered into her ear, leading her out of the room and into a corridor.

"Sure," replied Ginny, looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was observing them.

"I know this has to be hard," he said, turning her to face him. "The pressure is on right now. The night has been going well- I think we even have people who know the truth confused." The smirk which began to cover Draco's face started to fade as he continued. "But we're not done yet. They're going to toast us. We're going to be up in front of everyone," Draco said, leaning closer to her, "so pretend that you love me." Ginny placed a hand on his cheek, feeling the smooth skin under her fingers.

"Sometimes, Draco, I just don't know what to think," Ginny whispered.

"Pardon me," a voice cut in, and both Ginny and Draco whirled to face the speaker, the Boy Who Lived. "I just need a quick word with Ginny." Harry's voice was hard, and he frowned at both of them.

"I'll be waiting inside," Draco murmured to Ginny, and slowly walked back into the room.

"Did you follow us?" questioned Ginny quietly.

"I saw the two of you slip out, which was perfect because I needed to talk to you. You graduate soon, and I don't have much time to see you in private."

"What's up, Harry?"

"Partly I just wanted to see how you were doing. How is the whole Malfoy thing going along?"

"I think Harry," Ginny paused, took a deep breath and continued. "I really think it may be alright. Draco is an egotistical bastard, but he's not as bad as he used to be, I don't think."

"Well," said Harry cautiously, "that's good. I want to see you happy Ginny."

"How are things in the Order? Has anything changed? I swear no one is talking to me about anything anymore! Did that lead about Anita ever pan out?"

"Well," Harry paused. "That was something about which I needed to talk to you. Gin, listen, I know that you're not going to want- I mean... What I'm trying to say is that we -I- we think it would be better if you weren't actually in the Order, you know. I mean, if you're with the Malfoys, I would hate if something leaked out... Do you get what I'm saying?" Ginny was aghast.

"But, Harry, you know I could never tell them anything about the Order! How can you even-"

"No, I don't think you would willingly tell them anything. I'm just thinking of Kreacher, telling the Malfoys something that no one thought could be important, and it got Sirius killed. I want them to know as little as possible. I'm sure you can understand that?" Harry's voice was completely level, which infuriated Ginny even more.

"So you won't let me in the Order? I've been waiting for four years now! And with everything going so wrong lately, I haven't wanted the school year to end. The only consolation was that I would finally- finally!- be part of the Order. And now you tell me I can't!" Ginny was livid. "I'm sacrificing my bloody life and happiness for you guys, and you still won't let me in the Order?"

"It would just be safer-"

"Don't talk to me about safer!" Ginny yelled, pushing Harry out of her way and heading back into the dining room. "Don't talk to me period."

Much Love, Miss Auburn