A/N:) thanks for the reviews! I like to know people are at least reading this (stats without reviews don't mean a whole lot,) I have the next few chaters written, but i've been thinking and revising, so we'll see when they all get up. I'd love to know what you guys like/dont likeabout this, or like, your favorite parts. Thank you : ) !

Chapter Three, The Lightening-Struck Tower Disclosure

"And this is for James,
I still can hear him say that everything's black or it's white.
And this is for James,
now I wonder if he still believes he was right.
And I see him talking to his reflection,
and it seems so strange to me to see him cry.
He says we're all just isolated cases
in an ocean full of lost emotion,
that drowns our souls in their confusion,
so pardon him for his intrusion
into our daily lives...

Cause I don't know,
And I can't see,
And I'm not sure just where this all will lead..." -For James, Clan Na Gael

Halloween was fast approaching, but Ginny still couldn't get Draco's words out of her head. It had been a week or two...Ginny frowned, maybe it was three...her ability to tell time had been quite diminished since she got back to school. She couldn't focus in class, she didn't want to focus in her training sessions, and she couldn't get Draco Malfoy off her mind. She grimaced at that thought. Who would've thought a Weasley would think about a Malfoy in any sort of even remotely respectful way?

Well, to be honest, she really didn't know in what sort of way she was thinking about him. She didn't really understand what had happened. It seemed to have started out as the usual 'I'm right!', 'No, I'M right!' banter, and she'd spouted the rhetoric, just as she always did, but something was different - weird, even. The things he was saying, were things she hadn't thought about before. He seemed to adament about making his stand - she'd never seen Draco Malfoy that adament about anything, except maybe how much he hated Muggle-borns.

Ginny stumbled into the Great Hall, after Ron had shoved her a bit.

"You still there, Gin? I can't owl Mum and say you're going nutters, she'd kill me." Ginny sighed impatiently, but knew he was right. She shouldn't be acting differently, people would get worried and nervous and upset and annoying.

"No, Ron, I'm fine. I'm not going nutters, I promise." She smiled, and this seemed to satisfy Ron, but Hermoine was a bit wary.

"Are you sure, Ginny? I mean, you just haven't been yourself since..." She paused, looking around at the table, "Well, for awhile." Ginny tried not to roll her eyes at this, but still smiled outwardly.

"No, really, I've just been a bit distracted, what, with being a sixth year and in Healer training and whatnot. It's just a lot to handle." They seemed to buy it, but Ginny had actually been ignoring those, too.

"Yeah, I remember that. Even without the exams and all, sixth year was pretty hard." Harry commented. The trio kept on talking, while Ginny's thoughts drifted away...again. She found herself staring into space. Unfortunately, that space led to a certain blonde she couldn't stop thinking about. What had he been talking about? He got so mad when she called him a murderer, but why? Everyone knew he was a Death Eater. Death Eaters are murderers. Therefore he was a murderer. She didn't see any flaws in her logic. Hermoine noticed where her gaze led and tried to get her attention.

"So, Ginny...how's working with Madam Pomfrey?" she inquired, trying to seem innocent, but really just trying to get Ginny's attention away from Malfoy.

"Hm? Oh, it's fine." She said as she ate her dinner.

"Fine? Just fine? You were so upset over the summer about it, is it ok now? I mean, with Quidditch season coming up and all..." Hermoine was tip-toeing on a very fine line, and she knew it. Ginny hadn't joined the Quidditch team, on her mother's orders, but was still very sore on the subject.

"I mean, I would rather be playing Quidditch, but this is what I've got and I should try and make the best of it, right?" She said nonchalantly, inwardly feeling very hurt and annoyed that they would dare bring up her not playing Quidditch.

"That's a good attitude to have," Harry smiled. Ginny smiled back, but a not-so-small voice in the back of her head said, wuite loudly, 'If it were true, that'd be nice. But it's not and I'd rather not talk about it.' So, in order to get them to stop talking, she had to just pretend all was well. They'd stop harassing her, stop trying to make her see the bright side of life, the silver lining, and she could get some peace.

That same voice told her that she needed to talk to Draco again. It was the only way to stop this insanity. If she didn't figure all this out, she'd certainly need a room in St. Mungo's.

Later on that night, she decided, was her best (and earliest) opportunity to talk to him. She snuck into Harry and Ron's room, and 'borrowed' Harry's invisibility cloak while they were at Quidditch practice, silently promising to return it as soon as possible.

She made her way out to the corridor, and began to walk around. It was nice, being out at night. Everything was so quiet and serene. She couldn't imagine how peaceful the lake would look at this hour, and decided she'd have to sneak out like this more often. She walked around, knowing Draco was out on rounds, just like Hermoine, and went back to the corridor she'd caught him in last.

On her trek there, she saw him turn a corner towards the Astronomy Tower. She followed him quickly, but silently, and he made his way up to the top of the Tower.

She was afraid to step inside, to be alone with him in there. She knew that's where Dumbledore had been killed, and wasn't exactly ready to meet the same fate. But if worst came to worst, she had the invisibility cloak and she could just hide from him.

So she followed him, and caught him sitting on the edge of a window, looking out into the night sky. He looked just as calm as she'd been when she'd first walked out into the quiet corridor, and she didn't want to disturb him, but the clatter of the door was enough to startle him.

"Who's there?" He asked. He looked almost scared as he quickly pulled out his wand and pointed it towards the door.

"Calm down, it's just me." Ginny said softly as she let the cloak drop from her shoulders. his frightened face turned into a scowl as he watched her.

"What are you doing? Spying on me? Stalking me!" He asked incredulously.

"No! Nothing like that!" She said defensively, "I just...wanted to talk to you." He seemed to stand down a bit, but still had the scowl on his face.

"And why in the world would I want to talk to you?"

"Well, I guess you don't have to, but I just wanted to...to know a few things...about that conversation we had..." Draco's face fell a bit, and he sat down on the ledge again.

"You should just forget about that."

"Why?"

"Why?" he said, eyebrows raised, "because talking to you was like yelling at a brick wall. Nothing I think or say or do is ever going to matter, especially to the likes of you." He was scoffing now, and it just made her more interested.

"You don't know me, you know." She said matter-of-factly, she didn't mean it to be an insult.

"Thank Merlin for that." He rolled his eyes, turning back towards the night sky.

"What I meant was that you didn't even ask why I'm here yet, and you're already assuming that I didn't take in anything you said which is, in fact, not at all true, and now you're writing me off as 'just another Weasley', which is ALSO not true!" She was almost yelling now, and it startled Draco.

"Shh! You want Granger to find us up here? And you are just another Weasley. What else would you be?"

"Ginny!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, Ginny Weasley. You don't know anything else."

"And you do?" she shot, knowing he knew nothing but to be a Malfoy.

"Yes, actually, I do." He said, almost defensively. Ginny was surprised that she could illicit so much emotion from him, when every other year he'd never let a single emotion slip from his facade - ever. "I've seen more in the past year than you've seen in your entire life." He spat with hatred etched into every word.

Ginny almost laughed, "oh please, I highly doubt that." He stood up and advanced on her again, but this time she took a few steps back so they were a few feet away from each other.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, you said that already. But then again, you don't KNOW me. You couldn't understand what I'm talking about if you tried." Draco scoffed again, which prompted Ginny to continue, "and if all you're going to do is scoff, you might as well shut up and listen to me, because I've got a few things to say!"

He paused for a moment, and Ginny just hoped he wouldn't walk out on her. She didn't want to live with these questions and doubts anymore.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Why you said what you did that night." He raised an eyebrow at her, "I mean, you didn't have to yell at me or talk to me at all, but I said one little thing and you went off on a tirade about the War...why?"

"I shouldn't have, that was stupid."

"It didn't sound stupid when you said it." She said honestly. He looked at her, seemingly searching for some hidden amusement, something to turn on, but he continued anyway.

"Well it was stupid. I shouldn't have gone out on my own stupid speech, especially to you."

Ginny began to get angry, "Why not to me? What's so bad about me?"

"First of all, you're a Weasley, second, you don't care, and third, it's not like you'd listen anyway."

"I DID listen! I just don't understand..." There. She said it. It was out in the open for all to see. She just didn't understand.

"Don't understand what?"

"Why you said that instead of 'Muggles should die', or 'Mudbloods are filth', or 'I'm the best ever'... You...you actually made a point. You didn't just spout off what your father told you."

"How would you know what my father told me?"

"It's so easy to see when people are speaking for themselves, versus when other people are speaking through them. You were so adament about your arguement --"

"And you weren't?"

"Not the point...if you remember what was said, which I doubt you do, you can see that I didn't actually answer a lot of your points. You knew what you were talking about and I didn't, and I don't, and I just want to know what was up with that. Why did you get so angry when I called you a murderer?" Draco glared at her,

"Because I'm not a murderer."

"But you're a Death Eater, and Death Eaters are murderers, therefore..." she left the rest to him to figure out, but he just scowled.

"You know less than you realize. I'm not in this for the killing, or the suffering, or even the glory."

"In what?"

"This." He said, waving his hands around to indicate that he meant everything.

"You mean the Death Eaters? Why else would you be one, then?" He looked at her with disbelief.

"Like you'd care." he said, turning away.

"I do care...well, at least I think I do. I'm just curious. I don't understand why you would do something you don't want to do, if it makes you as unhappy as it seems to."

He smiled a bit, "I noticed you weren't at the Gryffindor Quidditch practice the other day." She winced. 'Touche,' said the voice in her head as a small knife ran through her heart.

"We're not talking about me."

"Aren't we?"

Ginny hesitated. Why did he make her hesitate? Something in hs voice...his choice of words...always made her second-guess herself, even in her first year.

"...no..." she said quietly, as she joined him on the ledge. "Just help me understand, and then I promise I'll leave you alone." That seemed to satisfy him, so he took a deep breath, and began to talk seriously.

"I'm not a murderer. This," he motioned to his left arm, "is nothing more than self-preservation."

"Well that's quite a Slytherin thing to say." He smirked, that was true.

"But I'm no monster..." he said quietly, gazing out towards the stars. "This War is simply about power - nothing more. The Dark Lord wants it, Dumbledore had it, and Potter's supposedly got it. It's ridiculous and stupid."

"So then why are you at the center of it all?"

"Because of my father. Because of my age. Because of my lineage."

"But not because of you?" Draco shook his head slowly,

"No...not because of me."

"But you used to spout that crap off like it was nothing. You call Hermoine a 'mudblood'. You hate Harry. You like to torment and humiliate people --"

"But not kill them." He interrupted. "And I haven't done any of those things at all this year. I don't even call Granger a mudblood anymore."

Ginny stared off into the night, in the same direction as Draco, and saw the stars twinkling lightly in the velvet sky.

"I wouldn't say I'm bitter, I'm just..."

"You're bitter." She said with a small smile. He looked at her, and seemed to smile back in amusement.

"Ok, maybe I am a bit bitter. But you know I'm right."

"No I dont," she said sadly. "You were right about me being naiive. I am. I don't know anything about anything, and no one seems to even want to tell me. In fact, they DON'T want to tell me. I'm a stupid, naiive, sheltered little girl who's been thrust into a war that began decades before she was born." Draco just stared at her, a bit of surprise on his face. She was surprised, too, that she'd let that escape her head. She hadn't been telling anyone those thoughts or feelings. Draco Malfoy? He'd probably post a flyer about it all around school, she could see it now, 'Weasley Unhappy with Order, Potter' - a whole article about how distraught she was about her position in the War.

"So why aren't you playing Quidditch?" He asked softly, not daring to keep her rant going. Little did he know that that was all a part of the package, and she just glared at the Forbidden Forest, like if she thought hard enough, and felt strong enough, it would all change.

"Because my Mum said so." She growled. He laughed a bit, but she shot him a glare so deathly, even the great Draco Malfoy shut up.

"And you listened?"

"I'm in my sixth year, the War is going on and they're training me to be a Healer. She says she doesn't want me to play Quidditch because I'll be too busy, and she doesn't want me to get hurt. But Ron and Harry are allowed to play 'to keep up appearances'." she spat. This time, Draco laughed out loud.

"That's the biggest load I've ever heard." Ginny felt comforted to have someone echo her feelings. Even if it was Malfoy.

"I know. It's just because I'm a girl, and I'm the youngest out of everyone. She's never liked me playing Quidditch."

"Well, it seems Slytherin might have a chance after all this year." Ginny raised an eyebrow, "Oh, c'mon," Draco continued, "We both know you're the best Chaser in the school. Without you, we have a shot at winning even if Potter catches the Snitch."

They both smiled, and looked away. They sat in silence for a few minutes, basking in the serenity of it all. The stars shined down like there was nothing wrong, and the Forbidden Forest looked as foreboding as ever.

Finally, Draco spoke up. "He died up here, you know. They found him on the ground, but he died up here." It was soft, but he was talking to her.

"I know," she whispered, "I was in the fight downstairs when it happened." Draco shook hs head and hung it in shame.

"He offered me sanctuary...right before he died, he said he could hide my whole family. That's where it all started." Ginny nodded in silent understanding, and they left it at that. 'Dumbledore really was the greatest wizard to ever live,' she thought, 'no one else could have made a Malfoy doubt himself...'

They sat for a few more moments, not caring about the time or company. All Ginny wanted was someone to sit in silence with, and Draco didn't seem to mind her presence. He wouldn't hassle her, or hound her, or even talk to her if she didn't want him to. He was just there. And he seemed to take her seriously - why else would he have disclosed what he did?

She leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. He didn't even budge. She smiled softly - she loved every second of it. Even if it was Malfoy. He was being...good. She felt better in that silence, than she had in any moment since she'd returned to school.

Suddenly, they head footsteps on the stairs. They jumped up and Ginny threw on the invisibility cloak.

"Quick!" She whispered, "Hide under here!" Without even thinking, she opened up the cloak to hide Draco, too. They had to stand flush against each other to fit, but they both fit.

Hermoine walked into the Astronomy Tower, took one glance around, shrugged her shoulders and walked out.

Both Ginny and Draco let out the breath they'd been holding and came out from underneath the cloak.

"We'd better go." Draco said, making hs way to the door. Ginny followed him.

"Are you going to be ok, I mean, being out so late?"

"I'm the Head Boy," he said, puffing his chest out again to make sure Ginny saw his badge, so she cut him off.

"Merlin, you sound like Percy." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Who's Percy?"

"My brother, the git. He was obsessed with his Head Boy status and badge. He was really upset when Fred and George bewitched it." Draco humbled quickly, not ever wanting to be compared with a Weasley.

"Well, all I meant was I'm not going to get in trouble."

"Yeah, yeah." She smiled, amused at how quickly the air had gone out of his head. She threw the cloak on again, and happily made her way down the stairs.

"Oh, and Wealsey?" Draco said to the air in front of him.

"Yeah?" Responded a detatched voice.

"Don't you dare tell your friends about any of this, alright?" Ginny took down the hood as she laughed.

"Yeah right. Not only would they kill me for talking to you, they'd kill me for being out of bed, and for not focusing on the 'important things'. Then they'd come and kill you. That's if they even listened to me in the first place." She said bitterly. Then she blushed, "Sorry. They're just...well, you don't have to worry about me telling them anything. So long as you don't tell your friends anything about me." He smiled a bitter smile - the same one that had just been on her face.

"What friends?"

"Fair enough." She said as she put the hood back up. "G'night," she called as she floated down the hall, back towards Gryffindor Tower, and her bed.