Die to Live

Chapter Six

By Mell8

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"Hmmm, should I get chocolate or vanilla?" Ginny mused quietly. Then she almost smacked herself in the head for her stupidity. "If I don't get chocolate Draco will kill me." She giggled quietly and grabbed a box of cake mix off the shelf. Ginny smiled serenely to herself and moved on down the aisle to pick up some chocolate frosting.

When she had finished her shopping Ginny walked up to the front desk to talk to her manager. She needed to ask for her annual day off tomorrow. The next day was the day that Draco, Blaise, and Ginny had all died six years ago. They had celebrated their death every year since with a party and gifts. Ginny always made a cake, Blaise always brought home something from the pizza parlor and Draco brought home something special from his shop. Together they laughed and cried about their fate and wondered what life would have been like if they had remained in the wizarding world.

Draco would probably be dead at the Order of the Phoenix's hands because of what he did to Dumbledore. Blaise would have been killed by one of Voldemort's subordinates because he would not become a Death Eater. Ginny would have been forced to morn the loss of her friends in private because her family would have been overjoyed if they knew that Draco and Blaise were dead. After all, to the Order and her family, Draco and Blaise were just two more Death Eaters. No one knew about her deep friendship with the two Slytherin boys.

So, even if Ginny couldn't see any of her family and friends and if Draco and Blaise couldn't see their mothers, in the long run, it was better for them to remain dead.

Ginny hummed quietly as she carried her package of goodies down the back hall to her managers' office. She could barely see over the top of the bag but was able to maneuver well enough to avoid all of the other people walking past her. Ginny knew that she would be skipping down the hall if she hadn't been holding the bag. She was that excited about their party. They always managed to have fun together even with their losses hanging over their heads and Ginny treasured all of the time she could have with her two boys.

Last year they had talked about their past and all of the funny things that had happened to them six years ago. Ginny didn't know what they were going to do this time but she hoped that it would be as fun as last year. The first year they had celebrated, Ginny had spent the time crying over the loss of her family. It hadn't been much fun. She was determined to make this party memorable.

Ginny stopped walking in front of her manager's door and was shifting the bag so she could get one hand free to knock. She froze in place, a terrified expression on her face, when she heard the voices arguing behind the door.

"You must have seen her!"

"I can assure you, Auror Weasley, I have not seen any small girls with red hair," her manager answered back quietly.

"No! We followed her wand signature exactly. Her wand was used here six years ago before she disappeared. You must have seen a small girl with red hair doing magic!" Ron was standing on the other side of the door arguing with her manager. The manager who had hired her and definitely knew that she was a small girl with red hair. As far as she knew, he didn't know she could perform magic, but she hadn't known that her manager knew about the existence of magic either. This could be very bad.

"I am positive, Auror Weasley, Auror Potter, that I have not seen the girl you are looking for."

"Very well," Harry's voice answered calmly. "We will be back soon so if your memory happens to refresh itself, please come and tell us."

They were leaving! Her brother Ron and Harry Potter were going to walk right out the door and run into her!

Twin cracks of disapparation sounded inside the office and the door opened quietly. Ginny stood completely still, hoping that it wasn't one of the Aurors walking out of the door.

"Ginny, I can see your hair over that bag." Her manager smiled down at her. "Don't worry, I won't tell your Auror friends where you are." Ginny opened her mouth to ask him why but he held up a finger. "You need to go home to your boys. Take your day off like you always do around now and I'll talk to you when you come back." He gently grabbed Ginny by her shoulder and turned her towards the exit. "Enjoy your day off and please bring both of the boys when you return. We have much to discuss." Her manager gave Ginny a push on her back to get her moving and retreated back to his office. He shut the door behind him with a final sounding bang and Ginny sighed. The boys were going to kill her.

Ginny had never been house shopping before but she decided that she liked it. Unfortunately, she couldn't go into any of the huge houses to look around in. She had a very limited budget and even less time. She needed a cheap place to live for all three of them by the end of the week. The mansions were way outside of their budgets and they would take far too much time to finalize the buy. Ginny and Blaise had planned for their deaths at the end of this week. She needed to buy their house by tomorrow.

Ginny was currently being led though a two-bedroom house with a modest kitchen and a nice living room. The boys would be forced to share a room but the rest of the house was nice enough to make up for that. Plus the house was well within their approximated price range. It was only about five thousand galleons. Blaise had told her to look for something equivalent to seven thousand galleons or less. He believed that if she kept in this price range they would have enough to continue living comfortably for at least two years.

Ginny smiled at the sales lady who was showing her the house and nodded politely. "Let me go home and speak with my roommates and I will tell you tomorrow if we decide on buying."

The sales lady shook Ginny's hand. "Very well then. I will see you tomorrow."

Ginny left but she was sure that she would be back the next day to buy the house.

Five minutes later she was following a house elf to the parlor where Blaise was waiting for her. They were going to finalize their plans over tea. They both wanted to make sure that everything was perfect before they told Draco about their plans. If something wasn't up to the blond's specifications, the boy might decide not to join his two friends in hiding. Ginny walked into the parlor to find Blaise pacing worriedly in front of the fireplace.

"Ginny! You're here! You didn't finalize any deals did you?" he gasped out. He ran over to her and gently gripped her shoulders.

"No. I haven't spent any of our money." She shook her head quietly and took a step away from Blaise. "Why? What happened?"

Blaise sighed and collapsed into a chair. "Your brothers needed another thousand to keep their suppliers quiet and the floo company took way more money to convince than I thought. We are short on funds. The budget for our new home is now around three thousand galleons."

Ginny gasped. "Oh! That means that the lovely place I had picked out is way outside of our price range. I need to keep looking!"

"I'm afraid that we won't be able to find something that is up to Draco's standards with so little money," Blaise groaned. "The point of this plan is to save Draco from servitude to a evil murderer. If he doesn't want to go along with us-"

"We just won't tell him about the house we buy. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, or us." Ginny sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Come on Blaise. We need to go looking for our new place to live."

After searching for the entire day and most of the next they finally decided that they needed to lower their standards. Finding a house in their price range was proving impossible. In the end they were forced to buy a decrepit old apartment in a not so good neighborhood. They finalized the deal with a dingy sewer rat like man who greedily took their money and disappeared.

Blaise and Ginny sighed sadly and looked around their new home. "Draco is going to kill us."

Ginny was busy making their cake when Draco returned home. He had a number of packages under his arms that he quickly went to dump in their bedroom before returning to the kitchen. Ginny ignored him in favor of pouring the batter into the baking tins. She had lost some of the bounce in her step since her odd conversation earlier but was still very excited about their party.

Draco returned just as Ginny was putting the cake in the oven. He watched as she tossed the dishes into the sink to be cleaned by someone later.

Ginny sighed. There was clearly something on his mind. The blond was never this quiet unless he had something important to say. Once she was done wiping down the counters he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach.

"Ginny, we need to talk," he whispered into her ear before gently kissing the side of her neck.

"I know," she sighed and leaned back into his embrace. "I have something important to tell you as well."

The front door banged open and Blaise bounced into the kitchen. The dark boy was practically jumping out of his skin with excitement. Ginny felt Draco stiffen behind her and she knew why. Blaise was only this excited when he was hiding something.

"What's this?" Blaise asked loudly. "How come Draco gets to hug you and not me?"

Ginny smiled at Blaise and, without stepping out of Draco's arms, enveloped Blaise in her arms. He kissed her cheek gently and breathed in her scent.

"Lets talk about this after we eat," Ginny sighed. "You both need to help me decorate the cake!" She could feel the boys smile and they gently pulled away from each other.

It was nearing midnight when they finally finished eating and playing. All three of them were sitting around their small table with the remains of their fun scattered around them. None of them were smiling.

Ginny looked at her boys and shrugged. "I'll go first. I heard Harry and Ron talk to my boss today." She expected the boys to be surprised by they just looked resigned.

"I saw two of your brothers in my shop today," Draco said next. "They didn't recognize me but it's only a matter of time."

"At least two Aurors were in the restaurant today. They were asking questions about us." Blaise whispered quietly.

"What's going on?" Ginny sobbed quietly. "Why are they here now?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Draco sighed. "The war is over. The Order won and now the Weasley's want their sister back. Our quiet life in hiding is over."

"They have come for us."