A/N: Okay, I'm SUPER, UBER, SO, ULTRA, SORRY! I know, it's been a week since I've updated! It's killing me too! But I've just gone back to school and I've got volleyball everyday after school and I still have to find time to do homework, take showers, eat, and sleep. So it'll take longer for me to post without as much free time, but please, no matter how long it takes me to post-and I'll try to post at LEAST once a week-do not give up on me! Sometimes authors stop posting on their stories and it bugs me until I finally have to give up on them. I promise, I will not do that to all you lovely people!
dstnd2travel- Yeah, I get like that too, it's hard to find REALLY good stories. Please keep reviewing, and I'll keep writing!
vexy5260- I'm glad you love it! And I hope you love it more as I continue!
Lanelly- Thank you! I'm trying not to doubt myself, just be VERY cautious. There are annoying people out there who read fanfiction just to poke holes in people's work and I really hate it when people do that. So I want to make sure there are as few places where people can poke holes as possible. I hope you continue to read!
Boh- Thank you too! I'll change the fever part...I don't think it'll change the story much by changing a number. Thanks, and if you find anything else that doesn't sound right, please, I want to make sure this is as accurate as possible.
Phillexican- I'm glad, please keep reviewing!
MorganisM-Lve- thank you, I promise I'll write as much as I can as quickly as I can!
Flipinpenname- I agree, they're all really mean mean and dumb. But don't worry, I'll be fixing that soon...
darkroses2992- Hm, well, I don't think Draco's going to fix her wand...but there's someone else who would in a heart beat!
harrypotterchick4ever- I want Draco with Ginny too, (obviously, it would be pretty stupid of me to write this fic if I didn't!) I'm glad you're still reviewing...you've reveiwed all of my chapters since the start! Thank you!
I know I don't have to write reponses to all your reveiws right before the chapters, but I'm so happy about all your reviews that I want to scream it out to the world! I love you all!
-Sick House-
Ginny soon fell into a new routine. She'd wake up and feed her patients, giving them medicine and making sure that they're okay. Then she'd take her and Draco's breakfast upstairs and eat with him. They, surprisingly, had a lot in common. They both had annoying problems with their family, never saw their friends, and had a lot of the same interests. Of course, Draco did not spill his gusts out to Ginny right away, at first it was just small talk, but they soon began to trust each other and had formed a happy-though hestitant-friendship. Of course, Ginny couldn't entertain Draco all day, so one day he had asked if there were any books to read-and yes, Ginny was surprised too, the great Draco Malfoy enjoys reading. There was a small library filled with nothing but books on medicine and illness and not much else, and Ginny had told him that. But he had been egar for anything really to do. So Ginny brought up several books for him a day.
Harry, Hermione, and Ginny's brothers were also getting along quite well. Hermione and Ron's wedding had been small, but very enjoyable. Unfortunately, just as they had been afraid of, it was big enough to draw some attention and a few death eaters showed up. Later, they were all quite glad that they hadn't had Ginny come. Hermione thought she was on her way to finding where the locket-and R.A.B.-was, and Harry and Ron worked on trying to figure out a way they could destroy it. A few days a week, they'd apperate off somewhere where a battle was being fought and help fight. They usually won, but still, other places were being taken over discreetly, and the people had no time to put up a fight. But all in all, they were pretty happy.
Ginny and Draco
One morning, after breakfast, Ginny was checking on the breaks in Draco's leg and ribs. She looked a lot more tired than usual. Older in a way...it made Draco hurt to see her so. She deserved better. But she smiled at him.
"Your ribs are almost completely healed, thanks to that potion you found in the book. And I think you'll manage with your leg if you're not too hesitant to use crutches?"
"I can walk?" Draco asked, excited to finally get some exercise.
"Only if you take it easy. It's not too dangerous to move you to often so I think you'll be able to move out of my room too."
"Will I have to sit in bed all day?" Draco asked, making a face.
Ginny laughed, "No, how would you like to help me? There's some paper work you can fill out for me and you can help with my patients."
"Yes!" Draco jumped up onto his good leg.
"Careful!" Ginny scolded, "wait until you have got your crutches."
"And I suppose you'll be getting those for me?"
"Yes, now sit down and I'll be right back."
"Yes Ma'am." Draco said, sitting down. He wondered, for possibly the hundreth time, why Ginny was so nice to him. Sure she had seen him fighting, but really, he had been nothing but rude to her. Why would fighting the Dark Lord change that? Whatever the reason though, he was glad that she was nice to him. She was really pretty great...and not just 'for a blood traitor and a Weasley'...for a person.
"Here you go!" Ginny said, handing Draco the crutches she had gotten from the hall closet. "Do you think you can make it down the stairs?"
"Of course I can," Draco said scornfully, "I don't need you to do everything for me anymore! Now I've tools."
"Oh yes, go on, let me see you do the stairs."
"Fine."
Draco limped over to the stairway, be extra careful with the crutches. He tried to put one foot down on the first step...but that wouldn't work. So he tried one crutch...no. He kept trying to figure out a way to make it down the steps with out using his bad leg, but finally sighed in frustration. Ginny laughed.
"You don't need any help?" She asked.
"Of course not, but if you really are dying for anyother person to help, I suppose I'll be a good citizen and let you show me how."
"Of course," Ginny snickered, "you're so great, thank you so much."
Ginny had Draco lean against the wall and then took the crutches away from him. She put both crutches down on the step, then her feet, crutches, feet, crutches, feet...
"See?"
Draco took the crutches back and tried Ginny's way, while Ginny stood in front of him to catch him if he fell. They made it all the way down the steps in a few minutes.
"Great job!" Ginny appauled.
"Thank you, I knew how to do it all along!"
"But you were just being a good citizen."
"A great citizen."
"Pardon me, great."
"Thank you. Now, what do you need me to do?" Draco asked, becoming serious.
"Would you mind taking care of rooms one through four? I'll come around with you and introduce you to everyone and explain to you what's wrong with them and what potions you should give them."
"Not a problem," Draco replied, "lead the way."
Ginny lead Draco to the nearest room which was labled with a clumsy '4' written in some kind of weird ink. (Ginny had stolen a few Sharpie markers from her father before she was sent to the sick house and that's what she had written the numbers with. As, of course, she couldn't use her wand.)
"This is Ms. Opal, Ms. Opal, this is my new assitant, Draco."
In a be closest to the door, there was a woman in about her sixties. She was very pale and frail. Draco thought that if anyone touched her, she would break.
"Ah...it's about time you got an assistant to help you dear..." Ms. Opal's voice was weak and kind of far-off, and it kind of reminded Draco of Professor Trelawny, "And maybe it's about time you start looking for a husband too..." She said it quietly so that only Ginny heard. Ginny blushed beat red as Ms. Opal winked at her.
"Draco, Ms. Opal has arthritis and she suffered major blows in her lungs when she was fighting the war." Ginny informed him.
"Ah...the war...I didn't get too far into it. Got knocked out right away...next thing I knew, Ginny dear was leaning over me in this very bed asking if I was okay...she's such a darling...it's good that's she's got some help, as I said earlier...she's been so busy...and tired...she's much too young to worry about the sick and wounded..."
"Yes," Draco agreed, smiling, "she is."
Ms. Opal nodded and Ginny moved on, introducing Draco to the rest of the patients. When they reached the last room, Ginny frowned and that tired, old expression that was on her face earlier, came back.
"Actually," she said, "maybe I should still do this room. I just got another patient last night, he seems pretty bad..."
Draco shook his head, "At least let me check him out, let me try to help."
Ginny nodded and brought him to a bed. In it, there was a boy-no more than fifteen years old. He was pale and sick, he had long black hair that stuck to his face because of all the sweat. he had lots of bandages around his head, arms, chest, and probably legs too. They were all starting to be tainted red with blood. Ginny sighed.
"I just replaced those bandages! They're not stopping the blood, he's lost too much. Draco? Are you okay?"
Draco was staring at the boy, chills went down his spine, "They got him..." he whispered softy.
"What? Who?" Ginny was nervous, what was wrong with him?
Draco nodded to the boy, "That's Edward...he-he ran away...he was a death eater, but he ran away because he was afraid to fight...he didn't really support the Dark Lord...he was forced to join..." Draco's voice was low, barely more than a wisper, "They were looking for him...afraid he'd tell the other side their plan...and apparently they found him."
Ginny put a comforting arm around Draco, "Do you know how they would do this?"
Draco rolled his eyes, "Some kind of terrible spell Snape came up with. Sectu- something or other. I don't know the counter, only Snape and He does."
Ginny looked at Draco a moment, "Well, I suppose we could ask Snape?"
Draco looked at her, bewildered, "Oh, that's right, he's accepted again by your lot. Still, he'd turn me in right away! And surely he'd get suspicious of how you know of the spell?"
Severus Snape came to the order soon after the death of the 'beloved' Albus Dumble searching for forgiveness. He claimed he had told Dumbledore of how Draco was ordered to kill him and he had accepted an oath to fufill that duty for him if Draco could not. He claimed that Dumbledore wanted Snape to kill him, and he even 'found' a letter to the order from Dumbledore explaining the situation. Of course, he could have forgered it, but McGonagall and the other teachers were fully convinced that it was Dumbledore's style. The only ones that seemed not to trust Snape still were, of course, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George. Ginny was not sure.
Ginny shook her head, "That's a chance we're going to have to take."
Well how are you going to get to him anyway? You obviously can't leave this place..."
Ginny scowled, "Hermione and the boys visit me sometimes...we can ask them..."
Draco raised his eyebrows, "Well we'd just better hope that they visit before Edward bleeds to death, won't we?"
Draco looked at Edward sadly, he had been fond of the kid. Bright really, and Draco had been some what of a rolemodel for him. Edward had been the only one who had really known for a while that Draco was uncomfortable with the thought of killing someone...innocent.
Ginny sighed, "I guess so. Come on, I'll teach you how to do laundry."
Draco wrinkled his nose, "You have to do that yourself?"
Ginny laughed, "Yes, there isn't anyone I could hire around here to do it, unfortunately. And if there was, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to afford it."
Ginny brought Draco to the washroom where she filled a tub with water and soap and sarted showing Draco how to hand wash it.
"Your wand is banning you from making the cloths wash themselves too?" Draco asked.
"Yes, they were afraid that the spell for it was too close to the imperious curse." Ginny said, her voice bitter.
Draco shook his head, "I'm sorry, but your friends are insane."
Ginny didn't say anything, the thing was, she agreed with him. And that scared her.
"You know," Draco said after a minute, "You could give me my wand and I could enchant the cloths to wash themselves for you?"
Ginny frowned, "I don't have your wand...I figured you had it."
Draco stopped washing, "No...I figured you had taken it from me."
Ginny looked up at him, "You've been here how long and you're just figuring out that your wand's missing?"
"Well I don't know! I was afraid that you didn't trust me and was going to throw me out with out ever giving my wand back."
Ginny raised her eyebrows, "You honestly thought that?"
"Well...at first maybe, after that I was just afraid that you were scared of me...and I didn't want you to be scared of me."
Ginny bit her lip, "Well I know a man-he fixes wands and sells second-hand ones. Actually, he's been getting a lot of new second hand wands, he takes them off the dead after battles. He might've even found yours."
"Okay," Draco smiled, "That sounds good."
"Good."
Draco and Ginny finished washing the cloths and hung them up to dry on a line. Then Ginny showed Draco the potion cupboard and how to check to make sure a potion hasn't gone bad, what potion could be used for what, and such. She left Draco to look over the patients and went to fix lunch, which was what she was doing when she heard a loud 'pop'.
"Hey Ginny."
Ginny looked up, "Hey Hermione." Her voice was emotionless, uncaring.
"Um...I got you that potion...to fix broken bones." Hermione said, trying to be friendly.
"Thanks, that helps a lot." Ginny took the potion from Hermione, "Oh, and I need you to ask Snape about a spell, I think he might be familar with it. One of my patients said he was hit with Sectu-something."
Hermione's face froze, "Sectumsempra...I can't beleive he taught it to them!"
"Sure, that's probably it...what's the matter?"
"Harry found that spell in a potions book in our sixth year, he used it on Malfoy." Ginny frowned when she heard this, why hadn't Draco told her?
"So you'll ask Snape how to counter it, right?"
"Oh, yeah." Hermione answered.
"Ginny!" Ginny's heart stopped as she heard Draco's voice, "Hey, I need some help."
Ginny looked at Hermione, she just looked confused. "I'll be right back." Ginny told her quickly.
Ginny went into the potion cupboard and showed Draco which potion he needed to use for a fever. She quickly explained also that Hermione was in the kitchen and that he shouldn't come in there until she said it was okay. Then she went back to Hermione.
"Who's that?" Hermione asked when Ginny got back. She reconized the voice from somewhere...but she thought she hadn't heard it in awhile.
"Oh, I got an assistant, don't worry, he's not going to kill me."
"Did he got to Hogwarts? What's his name?"
"No, his name's..." Ginny was about to make something up when she saw something flash on Hermione's hand. She caught Hermione's hand and gasped, "You got married!"
Hermione pulled her hand away, blushing, "Yes, I did."
"To my brother..."
"Yes..."
"AND NO ONE THOUGHT TO FUCKING TELL ME? MY BROTHER AND MY FRIEND GET MARRIED AND NO ONE TELLS ME? NOT ONLY DO I NOT GET INVITED TO THE WEDDING, BUT I DON'T EVEN GET TO KNOW? YOU'RE SERIOUSLY TRYING TO MAKE ME GO INSANE!" Ginny was screaming and she knew that Draco and all the other patients could hear her, but she didn't care. This was low, even for them, it was low.
"Well they thought the wedding might get attention and that death eaters might come because of Harry and all...and they did, so it was really for the best..."
Ginny shook her head, "Get out now! Get out, get out, get out!" Ginny grabbed a big, sharp, cutting knife that she had been using and pointed it at Hermione.
"You wouldn't..."
Ginny pulled her arm back and threw the knife. It went right through the spot where Hermione had been and hit the wall on the other side. Ginny kicked the table and swore loudly.
"Ginny..."
A soft, heavenly voice made Ginny turn around. She rushed to Draco's arms and cried while he held her, leaning against the wall.
"They-they didn't even think to tell me!"
"Sh, I know, I know, I heard. You don't have to explain anything."
Ginny nodded and hugged Draco tightly.
A/N: Once again, I am sorry with all my heart that it took so long to update, but I promise, I'm going to start working on the next chapter right now and it will be posted today!