THE PERFECT STORY
by shiningbright
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other characters whatsoever, I do, however, own this STRICTLY fanfiction idea.
A/N: Hey everyone. I am so sorry about the late update. I had some serious writer's block and I went camping for about a week and it's been one thing after another. However, I am really glad how this chapter turned out and hope that all of you enjoy it. I've already started chapter seventeen and- although I'm NOT making any promises- I hope to post that one by Tuesday next week. Please leave a review and thanks for reading The Perfect Story.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SOME THINGS ARE BEST KEPT SECRET
Hermione Weasley fingered the photograph of Ron Weasley mournfully, tears sliding down her cheeks. She could hardly believe it. One moment, she'd been fighting alongside him, deflecting curse after curse, and the next he had seemed to explode. He'd fallen to the ground right next to her, his eyes open but unseeing. The lifeless body of her late husband haunted her as she sat there, sobbing… It was all her fault. If she had been more defensive, not so tangled up in protecting the seventh year nearby, he'd still be alive…
It was all her fault…
She'd known the risk- didn't everyone, in the Order? She'd known that both her and Ron could be killed. But she, being so naïve, thinking she could survive everything, that it wouldn't happen to her, had made it even worse… She leaned back in her chair, sobbing into her own bushy hair. She had loved everything about Ron- the way his hair in the back kind of stuck up, the way he laughed, his smile, even his annoying way of leaving dirty clothes hanging over chairs and how he'd leave food out and not bother to clean up after dinner. He was absentminded Ron, the man she was crazy about.
Was…
She couldn't beat herself up like this. She'd already lost Harry, her best friend besides Ron. Of course, she had had Ron to help her get through that. And poor Ginny. They had been engaged.
She remembered when they'd heard of the attacks. Of Draco Malfoy invading Hogwarts. Ron didn't want her to go, her being pregnant and all, even though she was only three months pregnant and barely showed. But she, being her stubborn self, had said she should go. Kingsley would need everyone he could get.
It was all her fault…
Ginny Weasley limped down the stone steps, accompanied by two exhausted Azkaban guards. The aftermath of the curse was still upon her, and the recent deaths had stripped her of energy and will. But she had to see Draco before anything could happen. She needed a sense of closure. She hadn't seen him since their moment in the hallway at Hogwarts, which had been over a week ago.
The two guards brought her to the highest security jail cell in the prison. Draco was in the corner, hair matted, looking positively terrible. The two guards stood by the door, keeping watch.
"Draco," Ginny whispered, walking up to the bars of the cell. Draco stood to meet her, walking to the bars. His bare hands swayed at his sides and Ginny saw, with a pang in her heart, that they were covered in terrible, knotted, ugly scars. "Your hands…"
"Bellatrix did that," Draco replied emotionlessly. "It was a form of punishment. Whenever I ran she would burn my hands for days and days, leaving the wound open and forbidding me from treating it."
"Oh, Draco, I didn't know…" her voice trailed off.
His eyes blazed. "I guess you wouldn't, huh?"
"Draco, please, don't take this out on me." Ginny answered.
He looked at his feet. "I'm sorry, I-"
"Don't," she consoled. "It's okay, really, I'm fine." She paused, as if gaining back her strength, and then deteriorating before his very eyes. "Ron's dead," Ginny choked finally. "My brother- he died, in the battle. I don't know what to do…"
"I'm sorry Gin... I want to be with you so bad, but I can't…" Draco sighed. "The odds are against me. Bellatrix won't talk. She's in a cell downstairs. They told me they're planning on giving her Veritasurem…"
"Draco, I have to ask…" Ginny said softly, reaching through the bars to grab his hand. "Bellatrix asked you who killed Harry… Who killed him, Drake? Who? I have to know…I need to know…"
Draco swallowed with difficulty and raised his eyes to meet hers. "I'm sorry Gin…I had no choice…" He closed his eyes. "I did. I killed Harry Potter."
The tears stung Ginny's eyes, searing with pain. The anger that had accompanied her grief of Harry's death rose again, tearing her apart. The man she cared for had killed the man she loved. Her vision red, Ginny turned back and left the room, sobbing silently somewhere inside.
The office was dark and vacant when she walked in at ten to midnight. Fingers twitching, she prepared herself. She wanted to write about Martha, the muggle girl maybe sixteen, seventeen years old who had sacrificed herself in hope that Draco Malfoy would no longer ensnare and torture the innocent. Feelings rose to the surface Ginny hadn't even realized she had.
She wrote and wrote all night and well into the morning, rewriting, editing, formatting, changing the words around and otherwise fixing what she had already written. It was a dramatic story, but in her heart she knew it was true. Draco Malfoy was a monster. A monster she wanted to crush. And what other way to do that then to use her power as a journalist, as a writer?
shiningbright
