Chapter Eight, Deal.
"Tough, you think you've got the stuff.
You're telling me, and anyone, you're hard enough.
You don't have to put up a fight. You don't have to always be right.
Let me take some of the punches for you tonight...
Listen to me now,
I need to let you know...
You don't have to go it alone..." -'Sometimes You Can't Make It', U2
Later that night, after just about everyone was asleep, Ginny, Harry and Ron were up in the Common Room together. Harry and Ron were playing one last game of Wizard's Chess while Ginny was putting the finishing touches on her Charms essay. Her Healing lesson had run a little late, and with the Quidditch game, she hadn't had time to finish it earlier.
Suddenly Tonks burst through the portrait hole,
"Harry!" She called. All three teens stood up and waited to find out what was so imperitive that she would run at them like that. As soon as Tonks had inspected the room, she began again. "They're attacking - now. We need everyone we can get because we think He might be coming." Harry's eyes bulged out of his head.
"But I'm not ready! I haven't destroyed--" An elbow in the ribs from Ron cut him off. Whatever it was Harry hadn't destroyed, she wasn't supposed to know about it. "Alright," Harry continued. "I suppose you should go get Hermoine. Ginny, wait in the Hospital Wing and we'll be back as soon as possible."
"You have got to be kidding me. I'm going with you!"
"What? No, you're not. This is why your Mum set up those lessons, so you could heal anyone who got hurt!" He said quickly.
"I am completely capable to handle myself, thank you very much! You're going to need me there, and whether you like it or not, I'm coming! Mum set up these lessons so you wouldn't HAVE to wait to get to the Hospital Wing!"
"Listen, you two, we don't have time for this. You're both needed, so you're both coming and that's that. Molly will just have to deal with it." Tonks stated as they waited for Ron to return from the library with Hermione.
After a minute or two, all five of them were on brooms, flying out towards Hogsmeade.
"So where are they?" Harry masked.
"Attacking Muggles somewhere around Little Hangleton." Tonks replied.
"Of course they are..." Harry muttered.
"Something you want to tell us, Harry?" Ginny asked. Harry gave her a surprised glance, but shook his head. She sighed and paid attention to her flying. As they approached Hogsmeade and landed, Tonks told them to Apparate, and took Ginny with her.
When they got there, they saw what Tonks had been talking about. The Dark Mark loomed over the small, Muggle town, and there were lights flying everywhere - probably curses that had yet to hit a target. On the top of the hill, a large house had gone up in flames, and a mile or so away, Ginny could see a small forest clearing, where something else - probably another house - was on fire.
As they ran over the top of the hill, near to the fire, they saw into a valley. The town of Little Hangleton was in chaos. People were running everywhere and screaming, some were laying on the streets, victims of particularly bad curses. Ginny cursed herself for not bringing any potions with her, but she hadn't thought of it at the time.
She ran to the nearest injured person - a woman at the bottom of the hill, whose face had been slashed and was bleeding. Ginny looked on in horror as the blood poured out of her gashes, and as soon as she caught her breath began her work.
Ginny ran from person to person, bandaging, healing, and doing the best she could. She levitated certain people out of harm's way - off the main street - and would put them in a place where she could find them later to take them back to Hogwarts, or straight to St. Mungo's, for further treatment.
After levitating someone into an alleyway, she looked around for members of the Order. If they were hurt, it was most important that she find out quickly. She saw Harry, Ron, Hermoine, her brothers and parents, and a few Aurors fighting Death Eaters. She surveyed the situation and saw nothing but a sea of black robes and masks.
Suddenly she felt arms grip her waist, as she was lifted off the ground. She froze with fear as she wriggled to see her captor. She came face to face with the terrifying mask that had only haunted her dreams. She screamed, but no sound came out - apparently the Death Eater had been smart enough to cast a silencing spell on her, but that only made her try harder. She thrashed about as the Death Eater carried her away from the main street, and off behind a house. She kicked and tried to scratch, but he had her in such a grasp that she couldn't even move.
Once they were behind a house, and out of sight of the battle, he put her down and undid the silencing spell.
She kicked and punched him, and tried to run away screaming, but he wouldn't let her. Tears started flowing down her face as he ripped off his mask.
"Hey, shh! You're going to get us both killed! Red, calm down..." Relief flooded through her as she saw the familiar platinum blond hair, and silver eyes. Her hands still shaking, she collapsed into him, throwing her arms around his neck, crying. She felt his unsure arms wrap around her. "Hey, what's wrong?"
As she pulled away, she wiped the tears from her face and glared at him.
"Don't you EVER scare me like that again! Do you hear me! NEVER!" She cried, trying to choke back sobs.
"ME? Scare YOU? How do you think I felt watching you run around Healing people? If I hadn't gotten to you, someone would've killed you!" He yelled back. That did it, she couldn't hold back her tears any more. The stress of the battle had been so much for her to handle - sure she'd seen battle before, but there was never so many innocent people involved before. So many Muggles, who didn't even know Voldemort's name, were being maimed and killed. She put her head against his chest and started to cry again
"You were...and you grabbed me...and I thought...I was so scared..." She sobbed. He wrapped his arms around her again, and embraced her tightly.
"Shh, I know. I was only trying to help, I'm sorry I didn't tell you it was me." She took a few deep breaths, and tried to gather her thoughts.
"Is this what you do for kicks?" She hissed, not daring to look at him.
"What?" He asked, pulling away from the hug.
"Is this what you people do for kicks? Maime and kill innocent Muggles? Attack unsuspecting wizards? Let warewolves loose to bite people so that you can alienate them from society? Is this what you do for kicks?" She spat, with more malice than she thought she had in her. He looked taken aback,
"Red, you know how I feel about this."
"Then why are you still here!" She cried.
"Where else am I supposed to go?" He said, as calmly as he could.
"ANYWHERE! Come with us! Fight with us! Be a Healer with me! Spy! Do SOMETHING! But not this!"
"Red, you know I can't do that."
"Yes you can!" She said grumpily.
"If I did any of that, I'd be dead before dawn." His serious tone made her pause. She knew he was right, and that as a Malfoy, he really didn't have a choice. He was already a Death Eater, so it wasn't like the Order would welcome him with open arms - they'd tried that once, and it cost Albus Dumbledore his life. She sighed sadly, and put her head on his chest again. She needed comfort, and she didn't care who it came from.
"I need to go...they're going to be looking for me," he whispered into her hair. She snaked her arms around his waist.
"No." She said, like a child. He held her close for a moment, trying to calm her nerves.
"Go back to Hogwarts, Red. We'll all be back soon."
"No!" She said, clinging tightly to her endangered friend. He took her wrists, and pulled away from her.
"I have to go...promise me you'll go back to Hogwarts. Take some people, or something - just leave. Now." Ginny sighed and looked him in the eye. He was serious, and wasn't going to take no for an answer. She knew he could be just as stubborn as she could be, so she conceded defeat.
"Fine." She sighed. "But you better report to the Hospital Wing the SECOND you return. Do you hear me?"
"Right, and meet up with Potter and your brother. Then we'll talk this over over a Firewhiskey, right?"
"Draco," she said warningly, "You will find a way to come to the Hospital Wing and tell me you're alright. I won't leave until you do, hear me?" She said threateningly. She didn't care how he did it, or who did or didn't see him, so long as she knew he was alright.
"Ok, I'll find a way." He sighed. "So we have a deal?"
"Deal." She said. With that, he turned and walked away, back to the fight. A tear slipped down her cheek as she realized that she just sent him back into the fight.
She ran towards an alleyway with a few particularly badly injured people, and sent a Patronus to Hermoine, asking for help with apparating.
Hermoine came running into the alley and saw Ginny with the patients.
"Mind giving me a hand?" Ginny asked, while still crouching over a bleeding man. "These people need to get back to Hogwarts right away. Madam Pomfrey and I can take care of them, but I can't Apparate - can you help me?" Hermoine obliged, and first Apparated Ginny back outside the gates, then brought her her patients. Ginny conjured a stretcher for each of the three Muggles, and levitated them up to the Hospital Wing.
Once inside, she began bustling along with Madam Pomfrey to heal each Muggle. She used a few different potions, and every once in awhile Hermoine would run in with another injured person in tow.
Eventually the Order members made their way back. Luck had apparently been on their side, and other than a few nasty bruises and scrapes, everyone seemed ok. It was as if it was just the Muggles they were after this time, which was odd, but then again, so was coming back from the dead to kill a fourteen year old boy.
Ginny was done healing her patients, and wanted to go back to her bed and fall asleep, just to wake up and realize this was all a dream, but she was determined to stay in the Hospital Wing until she saw Draco. Not just heard from him, the deal was he had to be there.
"Ginny, dear, Madam Pomfrey can take care of these people, you should go get some rest." Her mother urged.
"Mum, I can't leave just yet. I still have things to do." She lied. She decided to make some more of her own potion, so she headed off into the other little room and spread out her own things by her cauldron.
She was in the middle of making the potion she had yet to name, it had turned that ugly shade of brown again, when her book shut beside her. Not ceasing her stirring, she opened her book up again to the right page. It shut itself again. This went on a few times until she heard some snickering coming from somewhere beside her. She looked around curiously before mixing in the hellebore to finish the potion.
Behind her, the door shut. She whirled around,
"Hello?" She asked, hoping she was missing something.
"Hey, Red." A voice said, as Draco whirled off an invisibility cloak. Ginny ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, thanking every higher power she could think of that he was back ok.
They hugged for a few moments before she caught her breath to reprimand him.
"How dare you make me wait for you! How long have you been back?" She scolded. He smiled,
"Actually, I've only been back a few minutes."
"But it's almost dawn!" She cried, "The battle ended hours ago!"
"I know," he sighed, "but the Dark Lord always likes to round everyone up after an assault and discuss what happened, then - per YOUR request - I had to go home and retrieve my invisibility cloak."
"I didn't know you had one."
"Yeah, I got it for my birthday- Potter's not the only rich kid in the world, you know." He smirked. She rolled her eyes at him and examined his cloak. It was just as soft and watery as Harry's - they looked almost identical. "So what do we have here?" he asked, eyeing the potion.
"More potion for you." She stated simply. "I needed something to concentrate on." She siphoned the potion out of the cauldron and into another flask. "Here you go." She said, handing it to him.
He took it with mumbled thanks, and collapsed onto a chair next to her desk. He looked so exhausted and unhappy. Ginny went over to her personal storage cabinet, that she was still working on filling up with various potions, and pulled out a vial.
"What's this?" he asked, as he took it from her.
"A simple Sleeping Draught. You should go back to your room and rest now - it's late, and it's been a long night."
"So, just like that, we're ok?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean three hours ago, you were screaming at me for being a murderer. And now you're telling me to get some sleep. Is everything ok?" She smiled at his concern.
"Yeah, everything's ok. I was just really worked up, and scared...I'm sorry." She admitted. He got up, and was about to walk out the door when she realized he wasn't wearing his invisibility cloak. "You go out like that, and you won't live to see the sun rise. Not only are you a Death Eater, but you were alone in here with me. You wouldn't make it to the door," she smirked. Her brothers could be so overbearing sometimes. He walked over to her and took his invisibility cloak from her.
"Thank you for coming..." She said, before he could disappear.
"A deal's a deal, right?"
"Right." She said. She was so tired, and so relieved that everything was alright, she gave him another hug. He awkwardly embraced her before disappearing completely.
"G'night, Red." She heard in the breeze as the door opened.
"Goodnight..." she whispered. For some reason, bing closer to him made her feel more comfortable - made her realize that he really was ok.
With that, she crashed. She walked over to one of the hospital wing beds, and just fell asleep on top of the blankets.
As she was slipping into a deep sleep, she felt an odd sensation come over her, and she suddenly couldn't feel the warm pillow beneath her. She slowly opened her eyes, to see that nothing was beneath her. She cried and tried to steady her feet on the ground, but to no avail. When she finally felt in control of her actions, she set her feet on the ground and looked around to find the culprit.
"What were you thinking!" She yelled at Harry and Ron, frankly just startled at the situation.
"You were sleeping, we didn't want to wake you, so we thought we'd levitate you to your room, or at least to the common room." Harry defended himself.
"You levitated me! Why didn't you just carry me?" She asked, trying to regain her composure.
"Gin, calm down. We just didn't think of it. You were asleep and we didn't want to disturb you." Ron said calmly.
Ginny stalked off to Gryffindor Tower on her own two feet, and as soon as she reached her bed, fell back asleep. It was late, and she didn't want to start anything she didn't have the energy to finish.
The next morning, Sunday, things were sullen and quiet. Almost everyone knew by breakfast what had happened in Little Hangleton the night before, and those who didn't know found out via 'Special Alert' from the Daily Prophet. Ginny very much disliked those. 'Special Alerts' - she felt like it just gave people more reasons to be frightened. The Ministry, the Order - everyone was doing the best they could to keep the Wizarding World (and apprently the Muggle World, now, too) safe, but it was a difficult task. No one ever said Voldemort wasn't a smart wizard.
"I'm sorry about freaking out last night," Ginny began. She was still tired, and fighting with - or ever just being mad at - Ron and Harry would be too much today. "I was just startled, that's all."
"That's ok, Gin. We were all really," Ron yawned, "tired." Hermoine grinned,
"Some of us still are." She joked. He shot her a joking glare, to which she just sighed. "Oh, eat your breakfast before it gets cold." Ron rolled his eyes and moved back to his plate to finish his breakfast.
Ginny started thinking about the night before, and she turned her gaze to the Slytherin table, and noticed a certain someone missing.
"That stupid...I swear..." she began muttering under her breath, and she stood up.
"Ginny?" Harry asked, looking utterly confused.
"Oh, nothing. I just forgot about an essay due in a few hours...I haven't even started it yet." She lied - it was a poor lie, but she wasn't sure how much of her muttering they'd heard. They all gave her sympathetic looks, and turned back to each other. She grabbed a muffin, stuffed it into her pocket and went on her way.
She found him stumbling outside his room, still in his pajamas. Stupid Slytherins hadn't changed their password since she last came. Not that any of them knew they had a reason to.
"Draco, what's wrong?" He looked up, startled.
"Red?" He asked, looking around. He looked like he'd just been through hell and back, he was trying to stand up and move around, but his movements were so slow and groggy, it was almost like he'd just gotten up and wasn't awake yet. Then she realized he couldn't see her, so she looked around to make sure everyone was at breakfast, and took down the hood of the invisibility cloak. He smirked a tired smirk, "Hey," was all he could get out.
"Hey, yourself. What's wrong?"
"What the hell kind of potion did you give me last night?" He asked, yawning.
"A simple sleeping draught, why?"
"I can still feel it."
"What? The effects? That's impossible, they're supposed to wear off after a few hours...it wasn't supposed to be a strong potion. Is it really that strong?" She inquired, amazed at her own ability to make a concentrated draught. All she got was a nod in return.
"Geddouda here, Red...someone's gonna find you." He said as he turned to go back to his room, probably back to bed.
"Wait," she said, handing him the muffin. "Eat this, it'll help the effects wear off quicker." She smiled at him, he almost looked cute when he didn't care about putting up any sort of face or wall.
"Yeah, yeah...I'm going back to bed."
"I'll only leave if you eat this muffin!"
"Red, I'm going back to bed. Now."
"I'll let you go back to bed, if you eat this muffin. Deal?" Draco rolled his eyes.
"Deal." He said, as he reached out for the muffin.
Just then, they heard the portrait open, and footsteps approach.
"Draco! Where are you? Why weren't you at breakfast!" They heard a disembodied voice cry. It sounded vaguely concerned, but more just curious. Draco groaned as Ginny flipped up her hood just in time to see Pansy Parkinson round the corner into the corridor where they were, outside Draco's room.
Pansy froze, startled.
"What's up?" Draco asked, sounding as tired as ever.
"I thought I just saw..." She trailed off. Ginny froze - she hadn't seen her...had she?
"Saw what, Parkinson?" Pansy shook her head, as if to shake herself out of a trance.
"Red...orange...something. Hair, maybe?"
"Red hair? You're crazier than I thought, Pansy." Draco smirked as he began to turn back towards his room.
"I DID see something!" Pansy huffed. Ginny rolled her eyes, people were always more adament about what they believed in when you told them they were crazy. "Hey,where did you get that muffin?" She asked, walking over to Draco. He shrugged her off.
"Look, it was a long night, and I'm exhausted. I went to the kitchens, got a muffin, came back, and now I'm going back to bed. So if you'll excuse me..." he trailed off. Ginny smirked - so is this what lying should look like? She remembered their conversation about lying in the library, about his feelings for Pansy, and noticed the ease with which he lied to her. To everyone, for that matter.
When Draco's back was turned to Pansy, Ginny approached the pair, and whispered,
"A deal's a deal..." into the air. Draco couldn't help but smirk, and Ginny grinned when she saw him take a deep breath and put his cool face back on.
"What was that!" Pansy cried, looking around for the owner of the voice.
"What was what?" Draco said, turning around and nonchalantly eating the muffin.
"That...that...someone said something!" She said, still looking around, as if someone were about to pop out of the walls and confess to the deed.
"You better get some sleep, too. Hearing things isn't a good sign." Draco couldn't help but smirk, and Ginny watched him take another bite out of the muffin. Pansy stared at him, watching him eat, and he just stared back. Ginny rolled her eyes - they looked like children - 'whoever looks away first is lying!'
"Well...I guess...I'll just...get back to breakfast now."
"I suppose that's a good idea," Draco said, downing the last few crumbs. Pansy quickly walked out of the corridor, her face turning more red with every step.
Ginny waltzed over triuphantly to Draco and threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you!" she said, before wandering off, leaving a smirking Slytherin behind...