Disclaimer: I own nothing, y'know how it is.

Twelve

Ginny stared into space for a few infinitely long moments, replaying the scene in her head. She remembered that day like it was yesterday, she supposed she always would, the first day that someone had shown an interest in her. Not because she was the youngest of seven, not because she was a Weasley, or Ron's little sister, or even because she knew the Boy Who Lived, but because she was who she was, Ginevra Weasley.

Ironically, the one who gave her this validation was one who – at the time – rarely saw past his own ego, he was a Malfoy and he was destined to walk the path of darkness. Ginny remembered thinking of that then, but such worries dissolved in the face of bright sunshine and day to day worries, Voldemort was a threat, but he could not broach the gates and walls of Hogwarts. His message could not impress itself upon her and her first young love.

In a way she was glad it had not, the memories were so untainted, so pure, so full of love they made her heart burst and flutter. But in another way as well, she could have saved herself tears and pain had she accepted that Draco was not for real, his ambition and pride would never let him stray from the path that his father had set for him, well… not for long anyway.

The redhead surveyed the forest anxiously. She had come from the left, she thought, but she had been in a rage and everything had blurred together on its way past except her thoughts. Ginny began to walk gingerly into the thickset woods, picking her way carefully through a vaguely remembered path.

She walked for awhile, still not seeing anything that stuck in her memory as being definitive for this being the right way. The path widened in front of her and became easily passable; she breathed a sigh of relief, this had to be the way.

Then the small, sensitive hairs on the back of neck began to tingle and stand up. Someone was approaching her…

"Ginny!" someone behind her yelled hoarsely. She spun on one foot to find a blurry, but opaque, Harry, pelting towards her. She moved quickly to one side, not quite processing what she was seeing properly. But he ran straight past her anyway, dropping to his knees a couple of metres in front of her. "Ginny! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!"

She watched without comprehension as a ghostly wand was thrown near her feet and Harry – an innocent 12 year old Harry – turned an invisible person over in his arms. Turned her over.

"Ginny, please wake up," the young Harry pleaded. Ginny felt her heart tensing, this was the boy she'd once fallen in love with.

"She won't wake," a voice whispered near her shoulder. Ginny jumped, the voice from her nightmares ricocheted around her brain. A voice that had haunted her for what seemed like an eternity, haunted her with the prospect of the Chamber of Secrets and her own insecurity and weakness.

Before her eyes, the mirage of Harry and his coming to her rescue dissolved into nothingness, just as Draco had done before.

What was this? A trip down memory lane?

Draco rocked Arthur nervously in one arm. He studied the forest warily through the open door of the little cabin; there was something foreign abroad in the woods and it made him uneasy.

He should have gone after Ginny, he knew. It wasn't that he didn't think she could look after herself, quite the opposite; she was a survivor, and a Weasley besides, but he'd rather just be there to make sure.

Arthur gurgled happily in his arms. He looked down at the tiny baby, marvelling again at how he could have made something so innocent, so beautiful, so miraculous.

"Don't worry Son," he said lowly, still unfamiliar with the term for his own flesh and blood. "She'll be back soon enough."

Arthur made a high pitched burble moving his arms and kicking his legs in unison. Draco smiled involuntarily.

The sun was getting low in the sky, it would be dark soon, Ginny would have to hurry. Maybe she was lost? Maybe he should go and find her. But then if she wasn't lost she wouldn't be best pleased if he turned up. He pondered the thought, continuing to rock Arthur lethargically in his arms.

Slowly he became aware of a deep pounding through the ground, deep and echoing. It sounded like drums. He strained his ears trying to catch the sound more fully, but soon he didn't have to – it was getting louder.

Draco could pinpoint the sound now; it was horse's hooves, thundering loudly through the remote countryside. Someone was coming for them, he suddenly thought with complete clarity. But were they friend or foe? He supposed he would find out soon enough.

He put Arthur down gently in his crib, shushing him as he went. The baby didn't stir from the slumber he had fallen into at Draco's chest. He covered the cot with a blanket; he wasn't going to take any chances if who was coming was indeed foe.

Draco fished around in the corner of the rapidly darkening hut, finding his belt knife that he had stowed away there the first night he had arrived.

Abruptly the mounting noise of the hooves died away, Draco stiffened. He stole silently out of the door watching the woods in every direction as often as he could. After a long few moments of inaction a dark figure trotted out of the woods to his right. He stood his ground; they would have to get through him first.

The horseman dismounted about 15yards from where he stood though, trying his horse deftly to a nearby bough. Draco watched his approach suspiciously, never taking his eyes off the figure.

The man – because he saw it was indeed a man now – suddenly dropped to his knees a short distance away from Draco. Draco neither moved nor questioned, simply watched.

"I am here to pay my respects," a gruff voice came from beneath the thick woollen headwear the man wore. "And to protect the baby and his mother on the long road to Hogwarts."

Big thanks to Poky, Kim, ShortySC22 and Embellished, your reviews were a great motivation :)

And if anyone who is reading this is reading my other stories then next to be updated is As Thunder Rolls, which I will in a coupla days, and the Bestill My Beating Heart. And then the rest, because I haven't updated for aaaages (sorry).