Blaise and Sarah easily involved the others in their conversation and the tension soon melted away, at least on the surface. They stayed at the diner until four and then Micah went and got the car, pulling it around for the others.
Draco and Blaise had apparated so they didn't have a vehicle of their own to retrieve and when Sarah impulsively asked them over so they could continue hanging out, they agreed easily enough. Ginny rode up front next to Micah and Sarah sat in the back between the other boys.
Draco watched those in the front all the way to the house. Micah kept shooting glances over at Ginny. Ginny stared out the window the entire way. At one point, Micah reached out and put his hand on her arm. She looked over at him and gave a weak smile before turning back to the window but extended her arm a little and Micah took her hand. That cemented it for him. They were together.
Sarah saw the gesture as well and indulged in a slightly disappointed sigh. Sure, Micah was holding Ginny's hand, but their fingers weren't laced. He was holding all of her fingers in his. In other words, he was holding Ginny's hand the way he held her hand when he was worried about her. Micah had apparently adopted Ginny as a second little sister. Oh well, that was why she had waited before deciding whether or not to get them together, wasn't it? She returned to her conversation with Blaise.
They were all sitting on the back porch a couple of hours later, watching the sun rise in silence. Blaise was leaning up against a post and Sarah was leaning up against him. Draco was sitting sideways on the steps leaning against the railing. Micah was on the porch swing. Ginny was sitting on the railing, back against a post, and her legs stretched out on the rail in front of her.
That made Draco reconsider his appraisal of her relationship with Micah. If they were together, why wasn't she sitting with him? Maybe they were flirting with the idea of dating?
They heard stirrings inside and it wasn't long before they heard someone calling Micah inside. He mumbled something about talking to his mother and disappeared inside.
A minute or two later, Blaise asked Sarah if she wanted to go for a walk. She smiled, yawned, and agreed. He looked back at Draco as they were walking away and winked. As they walked, he interlaced his fingers with Sarah's and she looked up at him in surprise and beamed.
Draco groaned and Ginny couldn't help but laugh. "What do you think he expects to happen?" she asked.
"I haven't the foggiest," Draco grumbled, glaring darkly after his friend. "I suppose he's hoping I'll explain why we're here."
She climbed down from her perch and joined him on the steps. "Why would he want that?"
He sighed. "I'm guessing that he thinks the fact that you were willing to spend the night with us is a good sign and believes that you'll actually listen. I'd agree with him that far, but the only reason for me to talk is in the interest of making friends. He doesn't seem to think I have enough of those."
She shrugged. "Do you?"
"Is one enough?" he asked sullenly.
"I don't know. Everyone has different needs."
He looked at her like she was insane. "Why did you put up with us tonight?"
She settled back against the post Blaise had abandoned. "I had no reason not to."
"You don't call years of torture adequate reason?" He couldn't believe this girl.
She laughed. "I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you ran from me last week. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you actually came outside when I was sure you must have noticed who he was dancing with."
"I did not run from you last week," he protested. She raised her eyebrows. He growled. "I no longer felt like being there, that is not running away."
"It is if I was the reason you no longer felt like being there," she countered.
"You looked like I had scared you." He lowered his eyes from hers.
"Micah had just told me that you had been watching me for some time. I didn't really know what to think. I was caught off guard," she explained.
He yawned. "Yeah, I guess I can understand that."
"Why were you watching me?" she asked through a yawn of her own.
He looked up at her as though he thought it was a stupid question, "You caught me off guard! We came here because no one would know us and there you were on the dance floor! Besides," he added sheepishly, looking down again, "you were mesmerizing."
She blushed. "Oh."
"You saw me in the diner later that night, didn't you?" he didn't know why it mattered, but he asked anyway.
She nodded.
"Why didn't you come in?"
She looked confused. "You had just run away from me, remember? Not to mention the years of torment. I kind of figured the last thing you would want would be me asking you what the hell you are doing here."
He laughed. "You have a point there, I suppose."
She rolled her eyes.
"So what the hell are you doing here?" she asked playfully.
"I told you, because we thought no one would know us here."
"Oh!" she answered sarcastically, "Of course!"
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Sarah is a pen pal of mine and my parents decided they wanted me somewhere safer than home this summer." Her tone was bitter.
"You didn't want to stay home did you?" he asked incredulously.
She looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Of course I did! I don't like being treated like a china doll! I can take care of myself and I want to help!"
His eyebrows shot up. He recalled the bat bogey hex she had given him and then nodded. "Yeah, I guess you can at that. Should have known you would want to get yourself killed, sorry I asked."
She glowered at him. "I don't want to get myself killed, I just want to fight for what I believe in. There is a difference, you know."
He groaned again and leaned his head back. "Yes, I suppose there is, but you have to remember, believing in something that much is a foreign concept to me."
She sighed. "I know, and I've always wondered what would happen if you ever found something to care that deeply about."
He looked up at her in surprise. "You have?"
She blushed again and looked sheepish. "Well…yeah. I guess I just wondered if you would insult my family so much if you understood what we meant to each other, if you would want to hurt me so much just to get to Ron and Harry if you had a sister or friend that someone could get to you just by torturing. I guess I wondered if you would make fun of our ideals so much if you had some of your own." She was talking to the steps at her feet.
He sat back hard. "Huh." He studied her for a while. "I always thought you just hated me, saw me as a soulless Slytherin."
She looked up at him with concern filling her eyes. "The others might have, and I might have done so at first, but after my first year, well, I guess I started looking at everyone as a whole person. I mean," she looked back down, "if I could see Tom as a real person, you were pretty easy to recognize as human."
He rubbed his chin. He recalled her first year pretty easily. He had gotten the details of what had happened from his father. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Thanks."
She shrugged.