Author's Note: Here's chapter 13. Thanks for the reviews for chapter 12. Won't be able to update in a few days though. Enjoy!!

Disclaimer: Copyright of JK Rowling.

Chapter 13

Ginny sat on a desk in a small room she rented in an inn in Hogsmeade. It had been three hours since she left the ministry, and when she thought of fleeing, Hogsmeade was the first place that came to her mind. Maybe Ron was right about that break; she really needed time to think and Hogsmeade, being the peaceful, little village it was, was the perfect place to think. She had already written Tonks saying that she was going to take a break for a short while, at least one night. She didn't tell them where she was and she told them not to worry and try to find her.

She got up and sat on the bed, the matress squeaking under her weight as she looked out the window that offered her a view of what had been her home for 7 years: Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry. She was immediately overwhelmed with nostalgia as memories of her school years flooded back to her. The first memory being that of her first year; when a dark diary found its way among her possessions and she was used by the Dark Lord. A shudder ran through her spine as she remembered being awoken by Harry in the cold, stone dungeons that was the Chamber of Secrets and she remembered that ever since that moment, she had fallen even more in love with Harry. But through the years, the feeling had been one sided and she had moved on, dating other guys while he ran around chasing Cho Chang until Ginny's 5th year. The year the Boy-Who-Lived finally got to his senses and realized he loved her and then they became the Golden Couple. But the relationship was short lived. After Dumbledore's death, Harry had broken up with her saying that he didn't want Voldemort to see her as a target. Ginny had relented, although heavy-heartedly. She knew his intentions were for the best and she thought that perhaps after the war, they could give their love another shot. But that never happened, Ginny didn't wait; she moved on but never dated any other guys. It just didn't feel right that she dated other guys while she thought Harry was probably waiting or planning a move to relive their past but much to her relief, he didn't. Instead, he had visited her one night, not to propose or anything, but to tell her that he his feelings for Cho Chang were reignited and that Cho was feeling the same way. Ginny could still remember how his apologetic and guilty look turned into sheer elation when she told him that she didn't feel that way for him anymore and that it was perfectly alright with her. Since then, Harry had turned back to being one of her older brothers; just like old times. Just the way she loved him.

After that, seeing as Ginny didn't have anymore thoughts or decisions to contemplate, she began focusing on her job as an Auror. She fought and trained her way to the top; competing with Harry and Ron until Tonks and the Ministry promoted them to Senior Aurors and it was then that she had become obsessed with her job, even resorting to hunting down and capturing the remaining death eaters during her spare time. She stuck to her routines and everything was stable until Draco Malfoy entered the picture. She had been furious and she had treated him coldly but somehow, between their heated arguments and time spent together, she had fallen for him, even though she didn't want to admit it at first. Everything was bliss after that, until Ron entered the bloody picture and here she was now, hurt and furious and all alone in a motel room getting all emotional. This was what she hated; being emotional and here she thought that Harry breaking up with her was the worst thing that could happen to her in the world. She hated what was happening around her now.

Ginny was pulled out of her reverie when her chest began to ache. She inhaled sharply as she had seemed to have forgotten to breathe when she was so deep into her thoughts.She stood up, grabbed her cloak and walked out of the room. She really needed a walk.

"Could this day get any worse?" Draco growled as he read the letter Tonks had just handed him before she left the ministry. He read Ginny's elegant, curly handwriting for the third time and muttered every revealing spell he knew, looking for clues that would give away her location. But nothing came up.

"She'll be back, don't worry about her," Harry said as he neatly stacked parchment on one side of his desk.

"How come you're always so calm and seem so unworried whenever it comes to Ginny?" Draco snapped.

"Of course I'm worried. This is the first time she's done this but I know her. She can protect herself and wherever she went, it's probably a quiet place where she can think," Harry said calmly, taking his cloak from the closet in their office. "It's late, you should just go home. She'll show up in probably a day or two."

"Ron Weasley is a bloody prat," Draco said as he slipped on his dark cloak.

"Can't agree with you more on that one," Harry said as they walked out of their office and to the apparition points. He was really getting rather tired of Ron's attitude. He's never been like this before, out of line and unable to control his feelings. Ron must really hate the bloke.

"Ronald!" Hermione called out. She had just gotten home from her shift at St. Mungo's. No response. She walked to the kitchen where she saw Ron sitting at the dining table, a bottle of firewhisky in his hand. His face was etched with anger and his ears were as red as tomatoes. Hermione sighed. He must have had another argument with Ginny about Draco. She approached him quietly and sat down on a chair across him. She took the bottle of firewhisky out of his hand and set it on the table.

"Do you know that Ginny's nowhere to be found?" Hermione asked in a gentle tone. Harry had dropped by her office at St. Mungo's to tell her the past few day's events before she headed home. Ron looked up at her, his expression softened for a fleeting moment at her question. He must have really hurt her so much that she fled. This was the first time Ginny had done this. His heart squeezed as he suddenly felt sorry for his sister but thoughts of the day's events came back to him and he was angered once more.

"I almost lost my job, Mione," he snapped.

"You're close to losing your sister, Ron," she said.

"Are you on her side then?" Ron asked coldly.

"For Merlin's sake, I'm not on anyone's side, Ronald!" Hermione said. "But why can't you just give them a chance?"

"She'll only end up getting hurt by that bastard. Prevention is better than cure, Hermione. You as a healer should know that!"

"She's 21 years old! You can't treat her like she's 12 forever! If she gets hurt, she'll stand up on her two feet and give Draco what he deserves."

A silence hung in the room. What Hermione said was true. Ginny was more than capable of hexing anyone who angers her into oblivion. He couldn't give them a chance because there was something about Draco that didn't make him trust him.

"Fine, then," Ron said. Hermione smiled. Finally he was getting to his senses. "I won't talk to her until their relationship is officially over." Hermione's smile immediately disappeared from her face; a look of annoyance replacing her smile. She shook her head in disappointment as she stood up and walked to their bedroom. Hopeless, she thought. Ron Weasley is just hopeless.

Draco apparated into Malfoy Manor and landed in the foyer of the mansion, just in time before the storm began, immediately greeted by Lotty the House Elf, who caught Draco's cloak and outer robes as he shrugged them off.

"Mas-master Malfoy," a very nervous, wide-eyed, shaking Lotty said, looking up at Draco. Draco furrowed his eyebrows.

"What's wrong, Lotty?" he asked. His heart suddenly thumping in his chest as he sensed the house-elf's fear. Only one person can elicit that kind of fear from the houseelves. The house elf coninued to look at him nervously with those wide, teary eyes. "Lotty, I'm ordering you to tell me what's wrong!" He yelled impatiently but suddenly the house elf was tossed across the room by an invisible power. The house elf whimpered, got up and scurried away in fear. Draco looked around him. He already knew who did it; he just had to find him and confront him.

"Hard day at the Ministry, son?" drawled Lucius Malfoy's rich, cold voice. Draco shuddered as he followed the sound and his gaze rested on his father's emerging form from the darkness of the foyer. He tried to hide his fear and anxiety, but his body was betraying him. He knew the color from his face had drained and he was perspiring like hell. Flashbacks of being tortured by this man he called father for so long came back to him. He thought he was prepared for this. He knew that by moving back to the Manor, this would probably happen. It was only a matter of time. He had played out this scene in his mind a million times; how he would fight his father and capture him and surrender him to the Ministry; but now that they were face to face, Draco couldn't so much as think of anything to say. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat as he glared at the smug face of Lucius Malfoy and when he spoke, he spoke with utter confidence and coldness that he surprised himself.

"Finally had the guts to come out of hiding, Lucius?" he said, almost spitting out his father's name. Lucius stuck his nose higher in the air so that he was looking down on Draco in a sneer. Then his face broke into a cruel smile.

"What? Are you going to run back to the Ministry and that little team of aurors of yours and report me?" He said calmly but coldly.

"I'll do everything it takes to put you into Azkaban," Draco said through gritted teeth as he glared at Lucius through narrowed eyes.

"Even risk the life of your little girlfriend?" Lucius said, his lips curling into an grin.

Draco's eyes widened as worry and fear engulfed him. How did he know about her?

"You don't even know where she is right now, don't you?" Draco's breath caught and a lump began to form in his throat again, his mouth turning dry. Does Lucius know where she is? Has he got her? Has he done anything to her? Questions ran through Draco's mind as he stood there, glaring holes into his father's smirking face that he wanted to hex so much.

"Where is she?" Draco asked in a growl.

"Ah my son, I do not know," Lucius said. "But if you mention anything of me or your aunt and uncle to the Ministry, trust me when I say that I will find her and I will kill her."

"What do you want?" Draco asked, his voice a little high-pitched much to his disgust.

"It's what I don't want, Draco," Lucius drawled. "I do not want to go into Azkaban, as you very well know."

"Then why show up at all? You were already doing a very good job at hiding," Draco said.

"I'm taking you with me. You will join me in the uprise of the Death Eaters where you belong. This is your chance to lead them, lead us to victory, Draco. Our chance to avenge our Dark Lord."

"What?" Draco said exasperatedly. "Voldemort is dead. Building up an army of Death Eaters is useless. Who do you think you're defending? You're only wasting your time and effort."

Lucius' face hardened in anger. "What have these insolent blood traitors been feeding you, boy?" He shook his head. "You are aware, that if you refuse, you are putting the lives of Ginevra Weasley and those around her on the line. I have already assembled an army of Death Eaters that can bring them down in one raid or," he paused, "I can do the honors myself."

Draco remained silent. He was feeling lost and confused at the moment. He didn't want to become a Death Eater again. His life now was, if not perfect, happy and changed but now, his father was forcing him back into his past. The past he had always feared and never wanted to go back to.

"Meet me at Salazar Slytherin's Mansion at midnight with your answer," Lucius said. "And it better not be a 'No'."

Draco felt like his heart was being stabbed over and over again as he made his decision.

"There is no need," he said, the anger and fury evident in his voice. "I accept." He felt like each artery and vein in his body was being cut off as he said those two words. He knew deep down in his heart that he was not only betraying the ministry and Ginny; he was betraying himself. But this was a choice he had to make. He couldn't risk Ginny's life, and the lives of those around her who he'd begun to see as his own friends. A flash of lightning lit the dark mansion for a fleeting moment followed by a roll of thunder.

"Excellent," Lucius said, grinning. "I give you two days to straighten yourself right before I present you to the Death Eaters as their new leader. Do not attempt to thwart me, Draco." And with that, Lucius Malfoy apparated away, leaving a very broken and angry Draco to thrash and scream his lungs out in the dark and vast mansion as a storm raged in the heavens above him.