My apologies; I understand it's been just a few days short of a year since I updated. I just got a little discouraged after reading Half-Blood Prince, and then it was my senior year and it was intense. But I shouldn't be giving excuses. Just forgive me. This is kind-of adapted to HBP, but only kind-of. So read at your own risk. Thank you for your time.

Chapter 10: The Stepping-Stone

Ginny was pleasantly surprised. In the past week, since she and Draco had entered into a tentative truce, Ginny and Draco had managed to avoid a fight. Granted, it had been difficult, and she felt as though she had been walking on eggshells, but it was a truce nonetheless. Narcissa had been virtually absent, and Ginny had asked Draco -figuring it was one of a few "safe" conversation topics- about her whereabouts.

"Her quarters have their own bathroom and kitchen, along with a few other amenities," Draco had explained.

"Oh," Ginny had replied, ending their conversation for the moment.

Glancing around, Ginny stepped closer to her window. The house simply had no doors leading to the outside, and after spending almost a week within the confines of Humbolt Estate, Ginny was longing to step outside. While the sun wasn't out, the rain had ceased for a moment. Narcissa was in her quarters, Draco was no where to be seen, and Ginny was severely tempted to sneak a trip into the fresh air. Moving until she was right up against the window, Ginny began fumbling with the latch, sighing with relief when it opened. She pushed it open the entire way, and, pulling the curtains closed behind her, climbed through the window and out onto the lawn. It was only a little over a meter drop to the ground, and as her feet squelched into the wet ground, Ginny felt her heart flood with joy simply at being outdoors.

Standing in the hallway, Draco observed Ginny with a smirk, suppressing a chuckle as she almost slipped while climbing out the window. It was been his own private bet, wondering how long it would be before she tried to break out. The grounds were completely secure, so Ginny could wander as much as she wished. The yard was hexed, so that she could never be more than 30 meters from the house. Wander as she wanted, she would always be wandering within 30 meters of the house. Draco could afford to let her have this rebellious moment; he had his own errands to run. With a smirk, Draco shut, but did not lock (he was feeling generous) the window from which Ginny had escaped. Glancing around to ensure Narcissa was still in her quarters, Draco walked over to the fireplace, grabbed a handful of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace, crying out, "Malfor Manor."

Emerging into the basement of Malfoy Manor, Draco glanced around. The library was mostly as he had left it, save with a pile of newspapers and letters near the fireplaces, as he had commanded the house-elves to leave the papers in his absence. Draco scooped up the newspapers and mail, and began to examine the library. He had contacted his colleagues before leaving, explaining it was his honeymoon, so the mail load was light, and Draco had a sneaking suspicion that soon his colleagues would be too involved to owl him mail. But Draco had been gone about a week, and he was sure that his absence had been noted beyond his usual social circles, especially if the fighting had begun. Now that Draco and Ginny were married, Draco was positive that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would have began attacking, or at least probing for future attacks. Concerned that his absence might be telling, Draco wanted to keep the Manor as safe as possible while he was gone. With all of his father's Dark Arts paraphernalia, Draco was almost positive that the Manor would be subject to raiding by both sides as desperations increased.

Even after only a week, Draco knew it would be risky to return to the Manor, but he wanted to pick up the mail, and, being honest with himself, he wanted a news fix. While he had little personally invested in the war, the outcome would be important, as would the damage inflicted in the process. Draco was wealthy enough that he could survive no matter who won, and it was more a matter of waiting for the war to end so he could continue on with life. Looking around, the basement appeared untouched, and Draco began walking quietly toward the main part of the house.

The walk wasn't quite as refreshing as Ginny had hoped it would be. For one, no matter how careful she was to walk in a straight line, she always ended up walking in circles around the estate. Always in sight of the house, Ginny wasn't able to really enjoy nature, knowing that she was still confined. At least it gave her an opportunity to observe the house. It was two stories, leaving Ginny to assume that Narcissa's quarters took up the second floor. It was also larger than Ginny had expected, and she was pretty certain she counted more windows as she walked around the house than were in the house, leaving Ginny to infer that some of the windows were either an illusion, or there was more to the house than Draco had told her. Ginny was inclined to believe the latter. On one round about the house, as she was (re)-counting windows, Ginny noticed that none of the windows were open. Someone had closed the window she used to climb out, or it was an illusion. Or perhaps, as a safety mechanism, the windows closed by magic. Ginny shook her head just thinking of the possibilities, and walked up to the closest window and tried to peer in. She wasn't tall enough to see much, but could see enough to know it was the bathroom. She tried to open that window, just in case it was unlocked, but without luck. Methodically, Ginny began walking around the house, peering in windows and trying to open them. She had gotten about the third of the way around the house before she came upon a window to a room she had never seen before. Even though she could only see perhaps the top half of the room, Ginny knew that it was not one Draco had shown her during their "tour," and as she had entered all the rooms to which she had seen doors, Ginny determined there must be significantly more to the house than she knew of. She had never seen the room with the next three windows either, then saw into the kitchen. The next set of windows Ginny explored looked to be part of a library, but a much more substantial library than Ginny had found in the main part of the house. Jumping to get a better glimpse into the room, Ginny was shocked to catch sight of several locks of silver-gold hair. Draco -she discovered after several more jumping episodes- was sitting calmly in what looked to be a chair, reading the newspaper. Ginny knocked on the window, and when Draco failed to look up, began pounding on the window.

He finally looked up. Ginny pointed at the window, asking him to let her in. He shrugged and looked back to the paper. Ginny began pounding more loudly on the window, and he held up a finger, indicating he wanted Ginny to wait. She sighed, and toned her pound down to a knock, letting him know that he could have his moment to finish whatever article he was reading, but that she was still there and wanted to be let in. Now. Less than a minute later, Draco stood up, came to the window, and opened it. Sticking his head out, he demanded, "What do you want?"

Ginny was surprised. She thought what she wanted was fairly obvious.

"I made sure the window other window was unlocked. What more do you want?"

"You shut my window?" Ginny asked, outraged.

"Damn right I did. It was chilling the entire house."

"You bugger! How did you expect me to find it?"

"You managed to get out, I assumed you should have no problem getting back in," Draco replied calmly.

Ginny frowned at him. "Help me in."

Draco frowned back. "Help yourself in. You got out, you should be able to get back in."

This window, in addition to being rather high up, was also significantly narrower, not allowing Ginny the maneuvering room she would have had with the other window. "Just help me back in. Please."

Draco sighed, but gave in, and leaned out the window, helping Ginny back in. It was no graceful re-entry, and Ginny tumbled in an onto the floor. She stood up quickly and, brushing herself off, stared accusingly at Draco. "Where did you get the newspaper?" she asked.

Draco shrugged. Ginny reached for the paper, rapidly scanning it. "Merlin's balls!" she breathed. "They attacked Hogwarts and... and the Order." Death Eaters had attacked number 12 Grimmauld place -Ginny looked at the date on the paper- three days ago, only a day after a raid on Hogwarts. "Oh Merlin," Ginny whispered sitting down heavily. "This is my fault." She glanced up, meeting Draco's eyes. "This is my fault."

Of all the ways Draco imagined Ginny reacting to the news, guilt was not it. He was shocked when she looked at him as though she had lost her heart, and didn't understand her guilt.

"Ginny, what do you mean, you didn't do any of this. It's not your fault." He could see the tears in her eyes, though she stubbornly refused to let them run down her cheeks.

"They were supposed to have another month. If we had gotten married when planned, the Order would have had an extra month to prepare. They could have stopped this, could have prevented it."

"No, Ginny," Draco said, moving, against his better judgment , to put his arms around her. "This would have happened if we had waited. That extra month would have given You-Know-Who more time to plan too. And besides, I... I heard bits and pieces of what my father was planning. Those two places were targets anyway. It's not your fault."

"Where else are they planning to attack? We have to warn them! We have to..." Ginny trailed off as Draco shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Gin, but I don't know anywhere else. Those two were the big targets." And Draco honestly didn't know. He hadn't been positive either Hogwarts or the Black family house had been planned as targets, only had suspicions. Draco had carefully stayed out of Death Eater business since the end of sixth year, allowing his father's cohorts to whisper "coward" behind his back at his lack of involvement. But in the two years since his murder attempt on Dumbledore, Draco had reconciled himself to the idea the he didn't have the stomach for murder. But he no longer had the opportunity to listen to Death Eater plans, for which he was generally grateful, though now he wished he did know something, just so he could comfort the girl he held. Not the he was growing soft. "Don't worry," Draco whispered in Ginny's hair. "You're safe."

An hour or so later Ginny sat wrapped in a blanked in the formally-secret library, munching on a piece the toast Draco brought her. But as a testament to what he had learned this past week, the toast was accompanied by a bowl of soup.

"Draco," Ginny asked. "Why did they kill your dad?" This was one of the conversation topics from which she had shied away, worrying it might disturb the fragile peace she and Draco had achieved over the past week. Somehow, though, Ginny though the peace had been disturbed enough, and wanted answers more than peace. Logically, Lucius' murder didn't make any sense. "If your father was a Death Eater, what did they have to gain by killing him?"

Draco sighed. He had puzzled over this question himself, and while he wasn't sure, he did have his own theory. "I think they killed him to speed up the wedding. It could have been anyone, they just wanted to hit, and to hit us heard enough that we, in the heat of the moment, didn't think too far beyond the consequences."

Ginny looked at him, frowning. "How does hurting us move the wedding up? I would think we would have postponed it, giving the family time to mourn, rather than..." she trailed off, seeing Draco shake his head at her.

"It's not about mourning, it's about revenge. In the heat of the moment, when a family member has died, one generally wants revenge. No one could have their revenge until we're married." Draco snorted. "And my father had likely outlived his usefulness."

Ginny sat in silence, shaking her head slowly at the death and carnage and pain this whole war had caused. She sat in the chair and looked at the sky, looked out the window she had climbed in just an hour ago, but the girl who climbed in the window was different from the girl sitting in the chair. "What have we done," she whispered eventually.

Draco had gone back to reading the newspaper while Ginny thought, and looked up when she spoke. "Charlie," Draco asked quietly. "He was your brother, wasn't he."

"Yes," she whispered.

"I'm sorry."

After speaking of the death of Charlie Weasley, Ginny and Draco had not spoken again. He had died in the raid on the Black family house, one of fourteen casualties. Draco sat and systematically went through the week's worth of Daily Prophets, reading the gory details. Ginny had only read the cover story of one paper, and hadn't read of the Order's retaliation, leaving almost double the casualties. And the Order had attacked in a public place, leaving two muggles dead. Draco wasn't too concerned with the fate of muggles, but he did not understand the Order's seeming hypocrisy, making muggle safety such an issue in this war, then acting with blatant disregard to their former platform. Whatever, Draco thought. This is war. Both sides commit atrocities.

Ginny had been sleeping in her chair for the past hour or so, and Draco figured she should be put to bed. After consideration, he carefully picked her up and moved her into the bedroom, lying her down on the bed. Frowning, Draco debated changing her into her pajamas -without peeking!- but decided she would get uncomfortable in the morning if he did so. So he just carefully tucked her under the covers, and even picked her blankie up from where is was on the makeshift bed on the floor where Ginny had been sleeping this past week and placed it over her. After changing into his nightclothes, Draco climbed in next to her and, after a moment's pause, moved closer to her, resting one hand on her arm. She needed human comfort that night, Draco knew, after reading of the death of her brother and the assault on her friends and family. Since there was no one else here to give her that comfort, the task fell to him.

Thank you so much. Don't forget to review. Have a very nice day!

Much Love, MA