Author's Note: Here's chapter 15 for you. I never expected this story to get this far, it was supposed to end like three chapters ago but I got carried away and so inspired by your reviews that I decided to make it longer. Thank you for the reviews and thanks for the 5000+ hits, 19 alerts and 6 favorites.
Thank you so, so much!
Chapter 15
Draco stared at the place where Ginny had just been moments before she apparated. He could still remember the emotions in her eyes, the anger, the hate and the pain. It wasn't supposed to come to this. It was supposed to be all over once he had broken up with her in her apartment; she wasn't supposed to see this; what she saw wasn't even supposed to happen. If Pansy hadn't arrived and made things even worse, she wouldn't have had to see that. That's right, if Pansy hadn't come. Anger filled Draco as he inhaled the lingering scent of Ginny in the air before turning around slowly to face Pansy, who was straightening out her robes from her fall. She looked up at him once she noticed he had turned to face her and smirked.
"Well, well, Draco. What have you done this time to make that mudblood loving little girl so upset?" she asked casually, crossing her arms and smirking. Draco walked up to her in long, angry strides as he grabbed her by her arms and shook her, glaring holes into her face.
"Don't call her that," he hissed dangerously. Fear flashed in Pansy's eyes. Never had she seen him this angry and infuriated before. He must really like the girl if he was so easily infuriated by people merely calling her names. She tried to wriggle out of Draco's grasp.
"Let go of me! You're hurting me, Draco!" she yelled but Draco did nothing but tighten his grip on her even more as he glared at her through narrowed eyes. Pansy whimpered.
"Why did Lucius send you?" he asked angrily.
"I already told you, Draco! He thinks that you need the right people around you if you're going to lead us," she said. Draco saw the panic and fear in her eyes and released her roughly, walking to his desk and pouring himself a glass of whisky.
"He's got one hell of a judgement if he thinks you're one of the 'right' people," he sneered, taking a sip out of his glass. Pansy tried to hide the hurt she felt at his comments by changing the topic.
"Draco, you're going to lead us whether you like it or not. If not you, then no one else will or can. You're the only one fit for the job," she said.
"Why can't Lucius lead them himself?"he asked bitterly, refilling his now empty glass. "Surely he's even more powerful than I am."
Pansy grew silent. Draco turned to look at her, looking for the reason of her abrupt silence. "So? Are you going to tell me or not?" he asked, feeling irritated and impatient at the woman.
Pansy looked contemplative and unsure for a moment until she gathered her composure and after taking a deep breath, she said slowly as if she didn't like the words that were going to come out of her mouth, "The Dark Lord wants you to."
Draco looked at her in disbelief. Wasn't the Dark Lord dead? Or were the Death Eaters crazy enough to take orders from a mere portrait of him?
"You mean his portrait, right?" he asked mockingly. Pansy remained silent. Draco furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Right?" he asked again, this time more sternly.
"Draco, the Dark Lord is alive. Inhuman, but yes, alive," she said, her voice and face looking very serious. Draco stared at her and then laughed, almost cruelly.
"Enlighten me, Pansy," he said, smirking at her, "as to how the Dark Lord rose from the dead?" He was skeptical but deep inside, something was telling him Pansy was not in any way, joking.
"Draco, take this seriously, please. I'm not joking," she pleaded. One look into her eyes and Draco knew and believed that she was dead serious.
"But how did it happen? Potter, he killed him," Draco said.
"Yes, he did," Pansy replied. "Draco, has your father ever mentioned to you plans of another uprise?"
He began searching his mind and memories of his father torturing him flashed back in his mind.
"Draco, you need to be strong!" Lucius growled, disappointed and outraged at the weakened and bloody form of his son on the floor.
Crucio!" Lucius yelled and a spark of light flew out of his wand and hit Draco on the shoulder. Draco screamed in pain, clutching his sweaty and bloodied shoulder. Lucius snarled. "Do not show signs of weakness, son. You have great things in store for you that you do not know of."
The flicker of fire in the fireplace brought him out of his short reverie. He turned to look at Pansy to reply. "No, but he once mentioned that I had great things in store for me that I didn't know of."
"Great things like this opportunity, Draco," she said. "All of this has been planned. Even his death was planned; Harry did not kill him, he merely reduced the Dark Lord to ashes; from which he rose again when the remaining horcrux was-"
"Horcrux?" Draco asked. "I thought Harry destroyed them all?"
"That's what everyone thought. But he's smarter than that. After finding out that Harry had found all his remaining horcruxes, he created a new one that was kept with Lucius at all times. It left him weak, but he was determined to keep himself alive; whether strong or weak; he just wanted to live."
"So my father rose him from his ashes?" he asked. The idea seemed quite far out, but being a wizard, he knew that really dark magic must have been involved.
"Yes, ancient dark magic," Pansy replied.
"Is he any stronger now?" he asked. He needed to know the strengths of what he was up against.
"Yes, again they used ancient dark magic. From what I've heard, they've been killing unicorns and phoenixes."
"But he's still not in his human form right?"
"No, he isn't. But he's powerful, Draco.He's always been, you know that."
"Why was this planned?"
"You know that the Dark Lord always wanted to be immortal. That and he wants to give you a chance to redeem yourself to him."
If that was what the Dark Lord wanted, then he was really in danger. The Dark Lord was not to be crossed twice, he knew that much.
Draco drained his glass of whisky in one gulp. "Do you need to stay here for the night?" he asked.
"Your father says to accompany you to Salazar Slytherin's manor tomorrow night. So I reckon yes," she replied.
"Make yourself at home then," he said and without a warning he disappeared with a loud 'pop'.
After what had happened, Draco hadn't expected to be able to apparate into Ginny's apartment again without difficulty but he had. He didn't even know why he was looking for her but he knew he had to see her one last time before he left for the Dark Side. Looking around the dark and empty apartment, he came to the conclusion that Ginny probably hadn't changed the wards because she probably hadn't gone straight home after disapparating from the manor. He went through a list of places he thought she would go to in his mind. Potter's, he immediately thought. He quickly searched for Ginny's organizer in her room and when he found the black book, he flipped through the addresses and immediately found Harry's. Memorizing the address, he went to the fireplace, grabbed a handful of floo powder and flooed to Harry's apartment.
The familiar, spinning sensation of flooing gripped him until he felt his feet land on the ground. He didn't even bother to brush the soot off his robes as he was greeted by the sight of Ginny laying in Potter's arms, both asleep. Anger and jealousy overwhelmed him and as he started to move towards them to grab and shake Ginny away from Harry's embrace, the sound of someone clearing their throat caught his attention. He looked around to find the source of the sound and there, leaning against the doorway to the kitchen, stood Cho Chang, dressed in a silk nightrobe, looking at him with an expression as if to ask him what he was doing there. Then, she gestured for him to come into the kicthen with her.
Draco took a longing look at Ginny, the tracks of tears still evident on her cheeks, sleeping peacefully in the arms of her ex-boyfriend. He sighed frustratedly before walking into the kitchen, where he saw Cho pouring tea into a tea cup.
"Tea?" she asked politely without looking at him. Draco suddenly realized he had a slight headache from his drinks earlier and found the idea of a hot cup of tea inviting. He nodded. He wasn't sure if Cho saw him nod since she wasn't looking at him but she poured him a cup of tea anyway. She pushed the china towards him before taking a sip herself. Draco put the cup to his mouth and took a sip of tea and almost immediately regretted it, for the hot tea had scalded his toungue.
"Shit," he cursed. Cho raised her eyebrows in surprise as she set her teacup down. "No, no, the tea tastes fine. It's just hot," he explained quickly. Cho smiled and nodded. Draco lookd at her questioningly. "Aren't you going to ask why I'm here?" he asked.
"You hurt Ginny," she said. It was more of a statement than a question and it took Draco by surprise. He knew that already but being told that he did hurt her seemed to sting and tug at his heart and gut. "If you've come to win her back, I doubt there's the slightest chance you'll succeed."
Draco felt a pang in his heart. Again, he knew that already.
"Why do you let them sleep like that?" he asked bitterly, a snarl forming on his mouth.
"Why not?" she asked in a casual voice. Draco raised an eyebrow.
"Well, in case you didn't know, they used to be the Golden Couple," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Cho let out a laugh. "How can I forget that?" she said. "That was the past. I know how Harry feels for her. He thinks of her as a sister and nothng else and I trust them both. Besides, if they were going to do anything fishy, they would've gone some other place to be alone."
Well that made sense. "But why did she come here? Why couldn't she go to Hermione or something?"
"You forget, Hermione lives with Ron," she said, taking a sip out of her tea. A silence hung in the air for a moment before Cho broke the ice. "Why did you really break up with her, Draco?" she asked. Draco looked up at her.
"I don't love her anymore," he said quickly and then suddenly realized how stupid and idiotic his answer was. Cho snorted and then laughed. She waved her hand dismissively in the air.
"Oh come on. You're not fooling anyone but yourself. You wouldn't be here if you didn't."
"Ok maybe I do. But that's not why I'm here. In fact I don't know why I'm here," he said. But suddenly, an idea came to his mind. "Cho, are you trustworthy?" he asked abruptly.
Cho looked at him curiously before slowly saying, "It depends on what you're going to tell me."
"I'm going to tell you the whole truth," Draco said. He needed someone to know everything that was happening to him, someone from the light side he could turn to if a situation demanded it. Like a secret-keeper and should anything unfortunate happen to him, he would have someone who could explain to Ginny his reasons for doing everything he did.
"What? Why me?" she asked.
"You're the only one I can trust right now. Please, hear me out," he said. Cho saw the pleading and desperate look in his eyes and decided to give him a chance. She took a deep breath.
"Alright. Spill," she said and the next minute, Draco was telling her all these things about his father and the Death Eaters and how the Dark Lord was still alive. She didn't want to believe anything he was saying but the pleading and dead serious look on his face convinced her to believe everything and when he was done, Cho was left shocked and speechless.
"You're not kidding, are you?" she managed to choke out. Draco noticed her face had paled.
"No, I'm not," he replied.
Cho took several deep breaths until she had regained her composure. She looked Draco in the eye.
"You realize you're making the same mistake Harry did?" she asked. Draco looked at her, confused. "You're leaving her because you want to protect her. That's bull and you know Ginny hates that."
"I used to think what Potter did was stupid but now that I know how it feels to have someone you love being threatened, I think its the best thing to do."
"Ginny won't wait for you. She'll move on."
"I know that. It's better that way," he said. Was it really better that way? He didn't know.
"And what happens when you face each other at war?" she asked.
"I don't want to think about that, ok," he said.
"Fine but you're going to have to at one point you know," she said. "What of your job at the Ministry? Are you letting Tonks down too?"
Draco sighed. He hadn't thought about his job and now that he had, he knew would have to quit it. He hated to let Tonks down but oh well, he had no choice.
"I'll quit first thing tomorrow," he replied.
"Are you really intent on doing this?" she asked worriedly. There was something about Cho that Draco found welcoming and warm, something that made him feel like he had a real friend in her, even if this was the first time they've really spoken to each other.
"I have no choice," he said. "And don't start and tell me that there's always a choice," he warned when she opened her mouth to speak and then pursed it shut at his warning. Then, his eyes brightened and he sat straighter, as if an idea had just struck him. "I know! I'll take her with me! She won't have to be a Death Eater, just like my mother wasn't," he said.
Cho looked at him in disbelief. "What? You can't just drag her off and make her turn her back on everybody she loves! That'll break her even more! That's about the most selfish thing you've said this evening, Draco!" she yelled. Thank Merlin she had cast a silencing charm over the kitchen before he told her the truth.
Draco slumped in his chair. "You're right. I'm an idiot for even thinking that." Draco looked back at her. "Are you sure I can trust you with my secret?"
Cho rolled her eyes. "Draco, what you just told me isn't exactly something I would shout out at the top of my lungs on the roof." Draco looked at her skeptically. "I would gladly do the Unbreakable Vow with you right here and now but we don't have a witness."
She was right. They can't wake Harry up, he would just hex Draco into oblivion and he didn't want that otherwise, Ginny and the rest of the world would just be there for the Death Eaters for the taking.
"Alright," Draco said. "I need to go." he said, standing up. Cho stood up too and followed him into the living room, where Draco took one last, long look at Ginny's beautiful face and after giving Cho of what seemed a farewell smile, he walked out of the apartment where he could apparate away without being heard.
Copyright of JK Rowling.