Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine.
A.N.: The inspiration for this chapter is the song "WithoutYou" from Rent. Hell, this whole entire chapter is inspired by Rent.
"She hasn't eaten anything since she's been here, all she's been doing is crying, and she's been very sick." Hermione's voice clearly betrayed her concern for the youngest Weasley, and her brows were knit together in concern. "Is it possible that you're wrong and that Malfoy doesn't have her under some sort of spell? Maybe he has some redeeming qualities that we don't know about, that Ginny can see." Hermione's voice dropped at the last part of her statement; with all the things that had been going wrong in their search for Horcruxes, Hermione knew it wasn't wise to upset Harry or contradict him.
"Of course he has her under some sort of spell, Hermione!" Harry's voice rose, and Hermione shrunk back as if she'd been slapped. "I know Ginny, and I know she wouldn't do something as stupid as sleeping with Malfoy unless she was bewitched!"
Hermione looked as if she were about argue, but decided against it. Instead, she simply said, "Well, you can take care of her. I can't bear to see her in this state." With that, Hermione turned on her heel and strode up the steps. Harry sighed irritably; it had been four days, and whatever enchantment Malfoy had placed on Ginny had shown no sign of letting up. He got to his feet and went into the kitchen, gathering some of the breakfast leftovers and putting them on a plate for Ginny. He then trudged up the steps to the second floor and cracked open the door to the room where they had Ginny.
Ginny was lying in bed, and she appeared to be asleep. Her normally pale skin had an unnatural pallor, her forehead was covered in sweat, and she was visibly shivering. She was curled in around herself with her fingers wrapped tightly around the necklace she was wearing, and she was whimpering in her sleep. Harry set the plate of food down on the table beside her bed and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Gin, wake up." Harry said gently, shaking her.
"Draco?" Ginny opened her eyes sleepily, and something in Harry's stomach tightened. Yes, he though, Malfoy had to have used a love potion on her, or else she'd already be showing signs of her normal self. When Ginny was awake enough to see that it was not Draco who sat on her bedside, she shrunk back from Harry. "I want to go back to Hogwarts." Ginny said quietly, looking at Harry through fever-brightened eyes and never once letting go of her necklace.
"You can go back to Hogwarts just as soon as we figure out what Malfoy did to you and fix it." Harry said soothingly, taking Ginny's hand in his own. Ginny pulled her hand back as if it had been burned, and an expression of pain flickered over Harry's features.
"He didn't do anything to me, I love him." Ginny said, her voice weak and thready. "I'm going to be with him at the end of this, you know. We're going to get married and have beautiful children with red hair and grey eyes and they're going to play in the yard of the Burrow with their cousins…"
"You don't love him." Harry interrupted her. "He has you under some form a spell, something is making you think you love him, because there is no way that you can love him. You wouldn't have slept with him under your own volition." Harry's voice was vehement, as if there was no room at all for argument, that his word was the ultimate truth.
"Do you honestly think I'm that susceptible to letting my mind be taken over?" Ginny asked quietly. " Don't you think that I'll have developed some form of barriers around my mind since Tom took over? I love Draco, and it was my choice, in fact, it was my idea for us to have intimate relations, and the fact that we did is none of yours or anyone else's business."
"It doesn't matter, if he's got you under a love potion there's no way that you can fight it." Harry said.
"And I know that you've been slipping love potion antidote into my water, and you're wondering why it hasn't worked yet." Ginny said matter-of-factly. Harry looked sheepish for a moment.
"He's just used some other form of love potion that we haven't figured out the antidote for yet." He said. "You don't love him."
"Repeating that isn't going to make it come true." Ginny replied. "Why is it so hard to believe that I might actually love someone?"
"You're supposed to love me." Harry said this almost to himself. "You were supposed to wait for me, Ginny, wait for me to come back to you. You knew that I would, and I know you would have waited for me if Malfoy hadn't done something to you."
"Draco didn't do anything to me, I didn't love you before he and I became involved." Ginny replied. Harry looked pained at her words. "I didn't love you because I finally realized that I was just another one of those noble quests you could undertake. How tragic would it be if poor little Harry Potter couldn't be with the person he loves because he doesn't want her to get hurt? I finally came to my senses and saw the logic in it. I'm nothing more than a trophy to you, and no one is going to make a trophy out of Ginevra Weasley." Ginny's eyes blazed, and the sudden exertion made her start to cough. Ginny quickly grabbed a tissue out of the box on her bedside table and coughed vigorously into it. She threw the tissue quickly into the wastebasket, but Harry saw what she had apparently been trying to hide from him. He snatched the tissue out of the bin and looked at it incredulously. It was covered in bright, shining blood.
"Blood, Ginny?" Harry said incredulously.
"If you don't let me out of here, I'm going to die, I know it. You can't keep us apart, no matter how hard you try. Nothing anyone does can keep us apart; don't make me die because you hate Draco." Ginny's voice was soft, her eyes pleading. Harry shook his head, as if there was a fly buzzing that he found annoying and was trying to ignore.
"He'd done this to you, hasn't he?" Harry asked. "Ginny, you've got to tell me so that we can help you. This isn't healthy… I'm not going to let you die."
"But you're the one that's killing me." Ginny said simply. She then rolled over to face the wall, away from Harry. She curled up much the same way she had been when she was asleep, shivering. "And for Merlin's sake, turn up the heat up in here, I'm freezing to death."
Harry reached over then and put his hand to Ginny's forehead, but pulled it back immediately. Though her forehead was drenched in clammy sweat, it was as if her skin was on fire. Ginny shuddered in revulsion at Harry's touch.
"I need Draco." Ginny whimpered. It appeared as if she'd fallen back into a fitful sleep.
"Ginny?" Harry said, shaking her shoulder. He received no response, so he shook her more vigorously. "Ginny!" Ginny made no motion that she heard him, she just continued to shake and whimper. It was at that moment that Harry noticed her hand wrapped around the charm on the necklace around her neck. He got up and sprinted out of the room and down the stairs. He found Hermione in the kitchen, making sandwiches.
"How long has Ginny been running a fever?" Harry asked, his voice deathly serious.
"She's been running one since she got here, and nothing seems to help. It seems to get worse and worse every hour that she's here. She's been sweating a lot and shaking, and last night she started spitting up blood. In the nights she'll wake up screaming, calling out Malfoy's name, begging him to come save her. There's something very wrong, and you just don't seem to want to hear it! She's dying on the inside, and I'm not so sure that it isn't from a broken heart! I don't know what's happening to her, but it isn't a spell. In fact, there have been no spells performed on her in the past few years, her blood contains no traces of any potions… Harry, you've got to face it, she's with Malfoy of her own choice! Whatever's wrong with her, unless you let her out of here to get help, she's going to die!" It seemed that everything Hermione had been holding back, all the bitter feelings and anger had taken to her words. Hermione was tired that no one was listening to her when she knew she was right, and blowing up was the only way she knew that they would listen to her.
"She's going to die?" The words finally hit Harry. He had not believed them when Ginny said them, but now that Hermione was… "Did you tell her that?"
"No, but she seems to know anyway." Hermione said quietly. "Whenever I've been up in her room lately, she's been asking what I think death will be like, asking if I think there's an afterlife. I don't know how to answer her questions, Harry, but she knows she's dying."
"It would be better that she dies rather than be with him, it's probably his fault she's dying!" Harry said with conviction. "He's done something, I know it!"
"He's not done a thing, I've tested her for residual spells, potions, dark magic, everything! There is nothing at all wrong with her, besides the fact that she's dying on the inside!" Hermione was screaming at Harry now, some of the Order members who were hanging around headquarters were starting to notice.
"Hermione, keep your voice down, she's not going to die." Harry whispered frantically. Hermione just looked at Harry in a pitying way and turned, making her way up the stairs to her room to think.
The door to Ginny's room cracked open just a fraction, and for the first time since she'd been there, a tall, redheaded figure entered. He looked slightly nervous, as if he weren't sure what he should do. Ginny was lying on the bed on her side, her long curls plastered to her head and sweaty face. She looked up at the sight of the door opening, but she didn't seem surprised at who it was.
"Hullo, Ron." She said quietly, bringing her hand up to her mouth to stifle a delicate cough. "How have you been?"
Ron had been completely oblivious over Ginny's current physical condition, and he sat down in the chair beside her bed and pushed her hair back from her sweaty brow before taking her hand in his.
"What's wrong, Gin? Are you sick?" It seemed that after letting his little sister be at the mercy of his two best friends for two days, Ron's brotherly instincts were finally kicking in.
"Of course I'm sick, you twit." Ginny's voice held no venom; it seemed as if she was in a state of peace. "Before you ask, no, Draco didn't make me sick. I don't really know what's making me sick, I just know that I really need to see Draco. Something… something inside me doesn't feel right, being away from him for this long. He's not done anything to me, Ron, you know that I've built up strong enough walls that I can keep anyone out of my head. I really do love him." A single tear slid down Ginny's face before she was overtaken by a severe coughing fit, and Ron shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Sure, he knew Ginny had immense barriers that wouldn't allow anyone to take over her mind, but he hadn't really thought about that in consideration with the fact that Malfoy might be bewitching her. It finally dawned on him that perhaps Ginny might actually have feelings for Malfoy, and nothing they did was going to change that.
"Ginny, I need you to swear to me that everything you've done so far concerning Malfoy, befriending him, dating him, sleeping with him…" Ron fought back the urge to gag, "Promise me that it was all of your own freewill, and I'll believe you. I know I don't like the slimy git, but if he makes you happy…" Ron shrugged. It was beginning to dawn on Ron that he couldn't control Ginny, and that she might just be growing up.
"Everything that I've done with Draco has been from my own freewill." She said, smiling sadly. "I suppose that I should have told you, but I knew that you would react the way you did. He's not a bad person, Ron, he's just had a lot of bad things happen to him. You've just got to get to know him…" Her smile widened, and it added a slight glow to her pallid face. She was quiet for a moment, and she closed her eyes. "His mother, she's lovely. I've talked to her a few times these past few days, and she just seems too sweet to have been Lucius' wife. She said that Draco has been bottling up all the emotions that he's been feeling, and that he hasn't even been writing like he used to. She's been watching him, and he's going to come for me, Snape's going to bring him. She says she's never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at me." Ginny appeared lost in her own thoughts with her eyes closed and a dreamy smile lighting up the hollows of her face.
"Ginny, Narcissa Malfoy is dead, she's been dead since the beginning of the summer." Ron's words were soft and slightly confused.
"Don't you realize, Ron? Haven't you figured that out yet? I can't stay here, you can't keep me from him. I have a feeling I would have died already, but I have his protection, I have his love." Ginny's fingers closed around her necklace, and she smiled serenely. It appeared that she had drifted back to sleep, the fingers of one hand tightly wrapped around Ron's and those of the other hand gripping her necklace for dear life. Ron untangled his fingers from Ginny's and kissed her softly on the forehead, pulling the blanket up around her. As he turned to leave, Ginny sat up, her eyes blank and the voice coming out of her mouth stronger, lower than her own voice.
"Tell Harry that sometimes you have to let go of something you love to gain something greater. You can't always have what you want, because sometimes there are things that get in the way. Sometimes you have to settle for less than what you want to survive. When Gerard gets here, tell him I'm truly sorry and I hope that he can forgive me someday for what happened." With those words, Ginny slid back down into her cocoon of blankets as if nothing had happened. Ron turned and walked out of the room, but instead of heading down the staircase, he walked further down the hall and into Hermione's room. He was glad that she was there alone.
"Hermione, we have to do something." Ron's voice was low; Hermione was smartest person he knew, so he trusted that he could do something to convince her to make a plan to help Ginny. "We've got to get her out of here."
"I've been taking care of her the entire time she's been here, don't you think I know that?" Hermione started to snap at Ron, but stopped herself. If it was the two of them together trying to get Ginny back to Hogwarts, there might be some way they could do it. Ron could distract Harry while she got Ginny out of the house and back to Hogwarts. "I don't know how we're going to do it, but we've got to get her out of here."
"Brilliant observation, Miss Granger." The voice that spoke was not Ron's but one smoother, oilier. They looked up and saw Snape standing in the doorway, wearing an expression of immense fury. "Do you know how close to death Miss Weasley is? Do you know that what you three have done is an offense punishable by life in Azkaban? It is forbidden to separate soul mates forcibly for any reason, and you fools have done just that, not to mention she is underage and you kidnapped her. I see that you two have come to your senses and are willing to cooperate, so I will not have to do this the hard way. Tell me where Miss Weasley is so that I can remove her from these premises and take her back to Hogwarts."
"Soul mates?" Ron's incredulous voice rang out. "Ginny and Malfoy are soul mates?" Hermione spoke as if she didn't hear Ron.
"Well, see, we don't exactly know how to take the enchantment off the door that Harry put up." Hermione explained. "He made it so that all of us can go in and out of the door, but Ginny can't come out. It was such a strange combination of different spells that I'm not sure how we'd go about trying to take them off without setting off some sort of alarm."
"I have a plan, Miss Granger." Snape said softly. "It will require that I go back to Hogwarts to fetch Mister Malfoy, but I do believe that this will work."
"But I do not have an Invisibility Cloak, Severus." Minerva said resolutely. Snape and Draco stood in McGonagall's office, about to embark on their mission to retrieve Ginny, and Draco didn't look much different than he had looked for the past few days. The rings under his eyes were a clear indication that he hadn't slept at all since Ginny had been gone, and his face was thinner and pointier than normal, which betrayed that he hadn't eaten.
"Minerva, is I cast a Disillusionment charm on him, the wards will pick it up. This is going to be difficult enough without added complications." Snape's voice was even, but it was apparent that he was on edge nearly as much as Draco. It reminded him so much of himself to see his godson pine after someone so much that he could barely function without her.
"Then you are going to have to find some other way to cloak Mister Malfoy, because I cannot think of anything to tell you." Minerva said. Snape scowled darkly.
"Come, Draco." Severus said, leading Draco out of McGonagall's office. He turned and headed down the stairs and out the main doors.
"Before we Disapparate, I will explain to you what we are about to do." Severus said softly.
"Harry, can you come here for a moment?" Hermione's voice was soft, and the tone of her voice left for no argument. Harry walked into the drawing room where she was and stopped; Hermione was on the opposite side of the room, and she appeared to be examining something in the glass case next to the fireplace. When Harry was in the room and the door was closed, she turned to him.
"Harry, I'm really sorry about this, but we couldn't think of anything else to do." Hermione said sadly. She drew her wand and, before Harry had time to register her words, petrified him.
"Are you done? Can Ilet them in now?" Ron called, peeking his head around the doorframe. Hermione nodded, and she walked out of the room, locking the door behind her. She and Ron hurried down the stairs and ushered Draco and Snape in, and they hurried toward the steps.
"Now, we don't have much time, I wouldn't expect my petrifying spell to last more than five or ten minutes, because Harry's really learned to throw off those kinds of curses lately. You two stay here and watch for any of the other Order members, and keep them from coming upstairs yet. Malf… Draco and I will go ahead and work on getting Ginny out of that room." Ron and Snape nodded, and they stopped at the landing to the steps. Hermione and Draco walked up the steps, and they were halfway up before Hermione spoke.
"I'm sorry that I was a part of this." she apologized. "I didn't know, I mean, I thought Ginny had more sense about her than to let someone take over her mind…"
"Just get me to her, I don't care." Draco interrupted her. Hermione thought for a moment that his words were quite rude, but then she took one look at him and realized he must be having almost as hard of a time with this as Ginny was. They finally made it to the top of the stairs, and Hermione opened the door to Ginny's room. There, sitting in the chair by Ginny's bedside and looking murderous, was Harry.
"Hermione, how could you? How could you help him?" Harry's voice betrayed his pain, and his voice cracked slightly. He then turned to Draco. "You're not getting her, I don't care what you've convinced Ginny or Hermione, you're not going to convince me. You've not changed, you're just using her." At those words, Draco drew his wand and stepped up to where he and Harry were standing nose-to-nose. Draco looked down at Harry, his eyes icy and his voice full of malice.
"Potter, if you do not move out of my way right now, I will kill you." Draco's wand came up to rest at Harry's temple. "I might not have been strong enough to save my mother, but you are not going to make me lose another woman I love." With every word, it appeared that Harry moved slightly backwards. After a few moments of the two boys trying to stare each other down, Harry moved out of the way so that Draco could get to Ginny. He sat down on the side of her bed and pushed her hair back away from her face, smiling down at her.
"Do you know anyone by the name of Gerard?" Ron's voice finally broke the silence between him and Snape. Snape appeared startled for a moment.
"Gerard?" Snape tried to keep his voice even, and was doing a fair job of it. "Why do you ask?"
"It's just... well, something strange kind of happened a little while ago when I was sitting with Ginny." Ron explained. His voice betrayed that he really didn't want to discuss this with Snape, but he had to ask someone. "She was talking about talking to people who are dead, and then she started saying something about how sometimes you have to give up something you love for the greater good. She also said something like 'Tell Gerard that I'm sorry and that I hope he can forgive me.' It was very strange, I mean, her voice didn't even sound like itself at all." Ron's brow was creased and he appeared to be lost in his own thoughts. It was because of this that he didn't hear
"She… I can't…" Severus murmured to himself. "But why would Lil…" Snape stopped himself. Though he knew Ron probably would have no idea what he was talking about to himself, he thought it wise to keep his shock at what appeared to be Lily speaking from beyond the grave through Ginny. Perhaps the smallest Weasley was much stronger than he initially thought, to be able to communicate with the dead without actually dying herself. If she could retain that ability after this whole ordeal was over…
Snape shook his head and turned back around to keep watch for any Order members.
"Red, wake up." Draco said softly. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead, and for a moment it appeared that nothing was going to happen, and that she was not going to respond to him. Draco cradled her face in his hand gently, and Ginny's mouth opened slightly and she spoke in a voice that was not quite her own.
"You need to stop bottling up your feelings, Draco. She can help you with that, because she's just as stubborn as you can be sometimes. You two can make it, I know it." Ginny took Draco's hand and squeezed, then she went back to her state of unresponsiveness. Draco's mouth hung open for a moment; he knew the voice that had just come out of Ginny's mouth, but how…
"I knew you'd come for me." Ginny's eyes fluttered open, and she smiled up at Draco. Already the colour was starting to flood back into her face, and the familiar sparkle was starting to come back into her eyes. She took her hand from Draco's and started to sit up, but in her weakened state she fell back onto her pillow, scowling.
"Of course I would, Red. Couldn't let anything bad happen to my soul mate, now could I?" His voice was soft and playful, not really reflecting the horrible ordeal that they'd both just gone through. He gently brought his hands under Ginny's knees and around her shoulders and picked her up easily. She didn't protest; in fact, she cuddled into his chest and fell back into an easy sleep. He turned to walk toward the door, but stopped. He turned back to look at the Trio; his voice was soft as to not disturb Ginny, but they heard every word with perfect clarity.
"I'm willing to forgive you Weasley and Granger, not because I should, but because I know Ginny will. You two turned out to be helpful in the end, and you now realize that Ginevra is not an incompetent child and she can make her own decisions. You, Potter, I do not forgive. Up until the very end of this you tried to keep us apart, even when it was killing both of us. If you ever get anywhere near Ginevra again, Potter, or if you even think about getting near her, I will personally kill you in the most painful way imaginable." Draco's eyes burned in a fiercely protective way that Severus recognized as the look that Draco used when his mother was alive. Draco then turned to Snape. "Are we leaving?"
"Of course." Snape's voice only slightly betrayed his appreciation, and he followed Draco out the door.
"Miss Granger, Mister Weasley, I trust you will explain to Mister Potter what happened to Miss Weasley, why she became so sick, and why he will be in Azkaban if he tries to attempt it again?" Snape said sardonically. Hermione and Ron nodded, while Harry simply looked thunderstruck.
"Good then, I'll just escort Miss Weasley and Mister Malfoy back to Hogwarts." Snape turned and left the room, and Hermione and Ron shared a Look.
"Harry, we've got a lot to tell you." Hermione began, leading Harry over to the bed and making him sit down.
A.N.: Well, that's the end of this chapter! There is probably going to be one more chapter to wrap up all the loose ends and stuff, before I start the sequel. As always, happy reading, and review!