BOTH SIDES NOW

Disclaimer: Anything you see or recognize is not mine..


Part Two

Hermione was the only one who still tried to discourage her from taking on the search for Malfoy. She pinned it on how dangerous Malfoy was, what a heartless deatheater he had been during The War but Ginny knew those were not the real reasons for Hermione's concern.

After all, Hermione had been one of the few people who had supported Ginny's decision to become an Auror. She had no qualms about her closest female friend facing danger on a daily basis. Hermione knew all too well that Ginny was more than capable of defending herself in the face of such physical threats.

So as they sat in the living room at The Burrow after a hearty meal courtesy of her mother, watching her father doze off in his rocking chair as he did nowadays after a heavy meal and listening to the sounds of Ron helping his mother with the dishes in the kitchen, Ginny finally decided to ask Hermione why she was so disapproving of her attempt to track down Malfoy.

Hermione was not as startled by her question as Ginny had expected her to be. She had known something was on Ginny's mind as she had been uncharacteristically quiet during dinner. Even when Mrs.Weasley mentioned the fact that Charlie and a bunch of his male friends were dropping by for dinner tomorrow night and not so subtly suggested that Ginny come for dinner as well, Ginny had simply stated that she had an assignment at that time, without snapping at her mother or stomping off as she usually did when her mother came up with one scheme or another to get her single daughter married off.

Even though Hermione knew work for an Auror was rather preoccupying, she knew that was not exactly what the younger witch was obsessing about.

"You've been thinking about Malfoy all evening, haven't you?" Hermione asked quietly, although there was no danger of being overhead since Mr. Weasley was known to be able to sleep through an earthquake.

Ginny gaped at Hermione, completely taken aback by the older witch's astute observation, "What has that got to do with my question? Stop digressing."

Hermione shook her head, "It has everything to do with your question, Gin. That was what I was afraid of when you began to work on finding out Malfoy's whereabouts."

Seeing the befuddled expression on Ginny's face, "That you'd be obsessed with finding him, with him. Getting to know more about him and locating him would take over your entire existence." Hermione explained patiently.

"But what's wrong with that?" Ginny asked, indignantly, "I'm an Auror. It's my job to track down Deatheaters like him and put them in Azkaban. In order to do so, I have to find out every single itsy bitsy detail about them, right down to the color of socks they usually wear."

"Tell me something, Ginny," Hermione began, her voice tinged with exasperation, "When you profile other deatheaters, are you able to put yourself in their head the way you are able to with Malfoy?"

Ginny felt her blood go cold at Hermione's words. The only reason she had been able to figure out that Malfoy was hiding in his own home was because she had imagined herself looking at the world in his eyes and she had been able to do that so effectively because of how much she knew about him, how much she thought about him.

Her lack of response and the pale pallor her face had taken on confirmed Hermione's fears.

"The thing you have to ask yourself is this," Hermione was solemn and completely serious, "Now that you know him this intimately, now that you are able to even think like him, has his evil doings become more humanised to you? Are you able to accept him and his actions? If your answer is yes, then I'm afraid if you ever find him, you'll never be able to arrest him or kill him."

Before Ginny could rebut and tell Hermione that for once in her life she was talking complete bullocks and just because you could see from someone's perspective did not mean you were going to accept the person, Ron barged into the living room to announce that Mum was making hot cocoa with marshmallows for everyone as long as they helped to wake Dad up or else he would wind up getting a back ache from sleeping in the couch all night.


By the time Ginny got back to her apartment it was half past ten. She took down the apparition wards she usually put up around her flat, apparated inside and put up the wards. Having lived there for a couple of years now, she was not disorientated by the darkness and made her way from the hallway to the living room easily.

She muttered the incantation to put the lights on in the living room. Nothing happened. Ginny tried again but darkness swirled around her. Deciding that some of the lighting charms must have misfired, Ginny muttered 'Lumos' and then wished she had not.

There on the couch she spent most of her time on, be it reading, sleeping or eating, sat Draco Malfoy.

Ginny gasped, the sound resonating in the still air of the living room, as she backed away from him, her wand held out, pointing right at him.

She did not think her heart had ever beaten this quick before. She felt sheer terror flood through her, making her knees weak, her hands tremble, and her entire body break out in cold sweat. She clenched her wand tightly, backing away towards the hallway and tried to calm herself down, to think rationally, to mentally list all possible means of escape and any possible way of taking Malfoy down.

All this while Malfoy sat on her couch, completely nonchalant and unperturbed by the bright light from the wand shining right into his face or the obvious effect he had on her. He sat there, with the typical demeanor of a British aristocrat oozing elegance and charm, looking as if he was right where he belonged even though he had broken into her house and had been sitting in the dark all this while waiting for her to come home, obviously with no good intentions in mind.

As Ginny calmed herself down, she found herself studying Malfoy – he looked a lot more mature and masculine than she remembered. His hair was cut short and neat, his complexion was as pale as ever but the boyish, weak face she had always known had become the face of a strong, handsome man with a firm jaw, sensuous cut lips and intense gray eyes. He was dressed like a man of great affluence and wealth as well, in fine rich robes, suede gloves and basilisk skin boots. He was not holding his wand in his hands, but he obviously had it tucked away in his robes, just in case.

Unable to stand the silence any longer and seeing no sign of him either moving or speaking, Ginny decided to speak first, now that she was safely standing in the threshold of the living room, a position that enabled her to make a run to the fireplace in the hallway if need be. Ginny knew it was foolish to hex him or even take him down without any backup. He had obviously come here well prepared and would be able to dodge her curses.

"What do you want?" She asked, her voice firm and strong, not giving away the pounding of her heart and the fear that she still tasted in her mouth.

Malfoy laughed, a bemused sardonic chuckle.

"What do you think?" He shot back.

"Look, Malfoy, stop playing games." Ginny snapped, her nerves frayed and at the end of their tether, "You either get out of here and leave me the hell alone or tell me what do you want and what you're doing in my apartment!"

Malfoy arched an eyebrow at her, "Fine, I'll leave then. Just thought you'd have a lot of questions to ask me."

Ginny stared daggers at him, "I don't wish to ask you anything so get out!"

Malfoy shrugged and stood up. He seemed so much more imposing with his tall, broad, well-built frame. He did not move closer to her but stood beside the couch.

"Just so you know, the reason why I know all that is going on in the Auror Headquarters is because," His voice dropped to just above a whisper at this point, "money buys power especially in high places."

Then with a swish of his cloak, he was gone and suddenly the lights came on in the living room.

Still clenching her wand in her fist, Ginny felt her knees give way as she sank to the ground, her entire body heaving with dry sobs of relief.

She was still shaking some twenty minutes later as a team of Aurors swamped her apartment, dusting for prints, checking her apparition wards and floo system for sabotage after she had managed to make a floo-call to Auror Headquarters to report the break-in.

Tonks, who was on duty tonight, taking over Kingsley's usual shift since she was his second-in-command and also because it was full moon – she always worked on full moon nights, as Remus did not like her being at home when he had his transformations - came and sat on the stool beside Ginny in the kitchen. She put her arm around the younger girl's shoulders.

"Are you okay?"

Ginny nodded even though her hands shook when she reached for her cup of tea and her face was so pale that her freckles stood out. "I'm fine." She lied.

"Ginny, its okay if you don't feel fine. We're Aurors. We're human beings, not superheroes." Tonks consoled her.

Ginny shook her head stubbornly, "You don't understand Tonks. I just let my fear blind me. I not only let him get away but I didn't get any valuable information from him."

Tonks snorted incredulously, "Like we could believe anything he said in the first place."

Ginny managed a small smile. "What about the comment he made alluding to his connections in the Ministry of Magic?"

"You told Dave right? He'll put it in the report and Kingsley can see it. We'll have to look into to it, I suppose, even though Malfoy most likely said it to get us going on a wild goose chase. Although how he knew about your theory regarding his possible residence in Malfoy Manor is truly troubling." Tonks murmured, her brows furrowed in concern. Ginny had updated her about what had happened at the office in the afternoon.

Just then, Dave Powers, the Auror who was put in charge of combing Ginny's apartment walked in.

"We could not find a single trace of Malfoy's presence or any signs of breaking in – all the apparition wards are untouched and no sabotage could be found on the lighting systems." He reported.

"What'd you expect? He was Voldermort's 'Stealth Man'." Tonks muttered, darkly.

"Maybe he used a portkey to get in." Dave suggested.

"In order to construct a portkey, he would have had to have access to this apartment." Ginny pointed out.

"He could have broken in before." Dave offered.

"How? Without Ginny knowing?" Tonks mused aloud.

"No," Ginny shook her head, a glazed look in her eyes, as she made herself think the way Malfoy thought, "He would have slipped in one day while I was at home, during the time I lifted the wards to let the grocery boy or someone else into the house till the time I put the wards back in place."

Ginny looked at the stunned look on Dave's face as well as the speculative glance Tonks was giving her, "What?" she asked, feeling uncomfortable under such scrutiny.

"That must be it then. That means he's been watching you for sometime." Tonks concluded.

Ginny shuddered at the idea.

"We'll have to put up an anti-portkey barrier around your apartment in case he tries to use the portkey again." Tonks stated.

Dave nodded and headed out of the kitchen to work on the anti-portkey barrier.

"With no signs of forced entry or that Malfoy was even here, is there going to be an official case?" Ginny asked, worriedly.

"The fact that he has been sighted should be sufficient ground to launch an investigation. Kingsley'll have to make the final call though." Tonks explained.

Ginny nodded.

"You'd better get some rest, Gin. I'll let Kingsley know that I gave you permission to come in late tomorrow." Tonks told her.

Ginny could hear the Aurors leaving via her fireplace. Dave came to let them know that the wards were up and the anti-portkey barrier was in place before leaving as well. Ginny bade Tonks good-bye with the promise that she was going to be heading straight to bed.

Ginny walked into her bedroom, stripped off her clothes and slipped into her pajamas. Completely exhausted to the bone, she tumbled into bed, without even brushing her teeth.

As she snuggled under the blankets, she noticed something on the bedside table. Pulling her wand out from under her pillow and lighting up the lampshade on her bedside table, she drew in a sharp breath at the sight of a single stalk of beautiful pristine white rose placed in a vase and a small note beside it which read: For You...


"It's a portkey." Danielle told her the next morning after analyzing the rose that Ginny had bagged the previous night.

"To where?" Ginny raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Danielle gave her a baffled look as she levitated the rose back into the evidence plastic bag Ginny had brought it in, "Damned if I know. Only one way to find out – touch it and see where you end up."

Ginny shook her head at Danielle's forthrightness, something she was known for along with her excellent skills at analyzing any form of evidence that was brought in – be it handwriting samples, or fingerprints or even hair strands. She was able to use the most complicated charms to identify whom they belonged to and match samples with the highest rate of accuracy.

"I couldn't find any prints on it. Did you?" Ginny asked.

Danielle shook her head. "From a secret admirer?" She asked, handing the evidence bag back to Ginny.

"I wish." Ginny muttered. "One last thing – see if the handwriting on this note matches the one I gave you yesterday afternoon." Ginny handed her another evidence bag with the note she had found on her bedside table last night in it.

"I'll need some time for that. I still haven't managed to find out who wrote the note you gave me yesterday." Danielle took the plastic bag from her and read the words written on the note through the transparent plastic.

"Someone's got it hot and heavy for you." Danielle joked.

Ginny gave her a grim smile, "Like I said, I wish."

She did not want to give too much detail to Danielle regarding the Malfoy case. Even though Kingsley had officiated an investigation on Malfoy just that morning, he had given strict instructions to the Aurors assigned to the case to keep all details regarding the case tightly under wraps even from their other colleagues in the Auror Headquarters due to concerns on possible information leaks.

Also, Ginny had not submitted the rose and the note as evidence. It was just too personal and if Kingsley found out about that Malfoy was targeting her personally, he would remove her from the case, which was the last thing she wanted, now that they were so close to nabbing Malfoy. Already knowing that Malfoy had broken into her house and left a note on her office desk had made Kingsley reluctant to put her in charge of the case but Artie, Dave, Tonks and Tony who had been assigned the Malfoy case as well had insisted that Ginny should head the case since she had been the one who had been working on locating him all these years.

It was after her lunch break; shortly before the meeting she was going to have with the other Aurors regarding the Malfoy case, that Danielle dropped by her office with the results back. The handwriting on both notes was a match – no surprises there. However, Danielle had not managed to identify the writer of the notes. She had tried to find the closest match in the Auror database but had come up with nothing.

"But that's impossible," Ginny said, "We have signatures and written samples of every registered wizard in the database, including Deatheaters."

Since most of these Deatheaters were from high society and donated generously to Ministry of Magic to ensure their good standing in public, they would definitely register themselves and their children with the Ministry. Ginny knew this and found it especially puzzling that Danielle had not been able to find any samples of Malfoy's signature or handwriting in the database.

Danielle shrugged, seemingly just as confounded, "I know that but it seems like the person who wrote those notes is not registered in the system."

"Impossible." Ginny stated, resolutely.

She leaned towards Danielle who was sitting across the desk from her, lowering her voice to a whisper, "What I tell you now stays in this room, do you understand?" She asked sternly.

Danielle nodded, leaning forward expectantly.

"We suspect the person who wrote those notes is Malfoy." Ginny told her seriously. Danielle blinked in shock, running her fingers through her brown hair.

She looked as if she wanted to ask more questions but she was astute enough to know that it was most likely a classified case since Ginny had been so reluctant to divulge where she had gotten the notes from and would be even more hesitant to answer her numerous questions.

She nodded slowly with understanding, "So you want me to check if he's registered in the system?"

"Yes, that would be great." Ginny smiled, gratefully.

Danielle returned just as Ginny was about to leave her cubicle to head to Tonk's office for the meeting.

"So did you find anything?" Ginny asked, eagerly, her hands full with the files she had compiled on Malfoy.

"He's registered with the Ministry of Magic, alright," Danielle began, looking more than slightly miffed, "But he has no finger prints, no signature, no handwriting samples, no written documents filed with the Ministry. All I could find in his file was the list of War crimes and Deatheater activities he's wanted for by the Ministry of Magic. Nothing else. His entire file's been wiped clean making sure there's no way of identifying him except by sight."

That was just the first impediment to the investigation on Malfoy. Over the next few days, Ginny and her team of Aurors working on the Malfoy case uncovered more obstacles in their path, preventing them from capturing Malfoy. The phrase 'so close yet so far' had taken on a whole new meaning for them. Even Tonks and Artie had confessed that they had never come across any Deatheater so meticulous and conniving in covering his tracks.

The fact that Kingsley still had not gotten official clearance from the Minister of Magic (MOM) Office for a search warrant for the Malfoy Manor reinforced their suspicions that Malfoy had someone in the MOM office by the puppet strings, whether it was the Minster himself or not no one really knew since Kingsley was in the process of conducting a private investigation on the high officials in Ministry of Magic in an attempt to identify Malfoy's inside source. Ginny and Danielle's joint report regarding the lack of identification in Malfoy's files at the Ministry and in the Auror Database as well as Malfoy's statement had been a catalyst to Kinglsey launching that investigation without the knowledge of those higher up.

Nonetheless, with no search warrant, no possible means of identification and no tangible evidence that Malfoy was still alive even - save for Ginny having sighted him at her apartment – it was impossibly difficult for them to make any sort of progress on the Malfoy case.

Tired, fed up and convinced she had taken on a battle she could not possibly win, after another pointless meeting regarding the Malfoy investigations, Ginny found herself slumped in her chair at her office desk, looking at her Malfoy Wall of Fame, wondering if her mother had been right all along. At least if she had focused on having bit more of a social life, she would have a boyfriend or even a husband to go home to but now all she was left with was her career, which did not seem all that bright a prospect at the moment.

She sighed wearily, glanced at the clock on her desk – it was almost eleven p.m. She knew she would not be able to sleep so there was little point in heading home. She decided to organize her desk, tidy it up a bit.

She pulled open the topmost desk drawer and stopped short. She had completely forgotten about the white rose and the note she had received which was stashed in that drawer still in their respective evidence bags.

She had put it away and convinced herself that even though the rose was a portkey, there was no need to admit it as evidence and the let the rest of the team working on the Malfoy case know about it. Fear of being kicked off the case had compelled her to do so at first but as time went by, it seemed more and more inappropriate for her to wield the portkey in front of her colleagues faces, when they had spent days trying to compile evidence on Malfoy's whereabouts. If Kingsley or Tonks found out that she had a portkey that led them straight to Malfoy, it might even lead to her suspension as she had withheld crucial evidence. So she had stashed both the rose and the note away, pretending that she had never received them.

Now as she took the plastic bag containing the rose from the drawer, she wondered where the portkey would take her, if it would bring her to wherever Malfoy was. Why would he give her a portkey that brought her to him? Did he plan to kill her on sight? However, he had not even attempted to curse her the night he broke into her apartment? What if she had admitted the rose as evidence and an entire team of Aurors used it to get to him? Why was he so willing to take such a risk?

Ginny sighed. The more she studied Malfoy, she more questions she had about him. He was an enigma who completely eluded Ginny at the moment, she who prided herself on being able to put herself in other people's shoes and see the world from their eyes, she who seemed to have an uncanny ability to do it the best when it came to Malfoy.

She held the evidence bag in her hand, staring at the rose, contemplatively. She had nothing to lose really, now that she thought about it. If she took the portkey and it brought her to Malfoy, she could ask him all the questions that were plaguing her. He had seemed pretty damn obliging about answering questions the other night at her place. If the portkey led her into some sort of a trap, she was a well-trained Auror and could think well on her feet. Besides this time, she had the added advantage of being prepared for any possible situation she would face.

Her heart pounding in her chest, more from anticipation than fear, she slipped her hand into the plastic bag and touched the soft, gentle white petals of the rose. It happened instantly. She jerked irresistibly forwards, left the chair she was sitting on, the walls around her vanished as she sped forwards in a howl of wind and swirling colour, her finger stuck to the rose as though it was pulling her magnetically onwards and then-

Her feet hit the ground and the portkey fell on the floor near her feet. She quickly picked it up and slipped it into her pocket. Holding her wand out, she stared at her surroundings, taking in the wall-to-wall bookshelves, the crackling fire in the fireplace and a large ornate mahogany desk in the middle of the room.

"Welcome to the Malfoy Manor."


A/N: Please let me know what you think….REVIEW.