"Well, it's hard to pin point his exact location just by looking at these pictures, but I'll try my best. Lets start with the obvious, shall we?" Hermione said examining the pictures.

The next morning Ginny had gotten Felix ready as quickly as possible and rushed over to Harry and Hermione's, since she already promised she'd help with the party she had a perfect reason for just stopping by. Felix loved the chance to play with Uncle Harry so he came along eagerly, even if he and Wendy didn't get along too famously.

"Ok, the obvious, like what? Landmarks?" Ginny asked leaning over Hermione's shoulder for a better look.

"No, even easier, his disguise. If he wanted to blend into society, look like a native of wherever he was living he would try to look like the people born there. He has black hair and dark skin, he also bulked out some of his more distinguishing features like his nose and chin. This eliminates quite a lot of places. We know he's not in America, Canada, Northern Europe, Russia, The Orient or Australia, but that still leaves a lot of places he could be. He could be in South America, Africa, Southern Europe, or the East Arabic Nations." She sighed and looked up at her long time friend.

"Ok, we started with the obvious, but we don't have to end there. Keep going, there has to be more than just that in the picture." Ginny said hopefully.

"Alright, lets see here." She stared at each picture in turn for quite a long time before settling on the one she started on, with him at the hot dog stand. "For one thing, this is not a hot dog stand, in fact it is not a stand at all, but an open air market. See the piece of food? No meat in the middle, just some stuffing coming out if the ends. I'll do more research and find out what exactly it is. That will help. Also, look at the over hang," she said pointing at the picture, "the first language on there is Arabic, then English and French. That eliminates South America, Southern Europe and most of Africa. He's in the Arabic Nations" Hermione looked up at Ginny triumphantly. Ginny just continued to stare at the picture.

"I know what that food is. I can't believe how stupid I am!" Ginny said, rebuking herself. "That's ta'miyya, a type of bread called aysh is rolled and stuffed with beans, eggs, other spices and things and usually eaten at breakfast, they serve it in open air markets in only one place, Egypt." Hermione stared. "What?" Ginny said, "Don't you remember Felix's Egyptian stage three years ago? He'd only eat authentic Egyptian foods. Thank you Felix!" Hermione closed her mouth and smiled approvingly.

"Well, that makes things a bit easier. Anything else you noticed that I didn't?"

"Yea actually, look at what they are called. On the overhang the vendor calls them ta'miyya."

"And?"

"They are called ta'miyya in Cairo and falaafil in Alexandria. Felix used to get so mad at me for mixing that up." Ginny smirked at the once more shocked look from Hermione, which made her eyes go even wider.

"You look so much like him when you do that, Gin." Hermione said softly. Ginny wiped the smirk off her face immediately. They sat awkwardly for a few minutes.

"Ginny, do you just realize that you figured out where Draco is?" Ginny looked up into her friends deep brown eyes and tears started to cloud her vision. She wiped at them furiously.

"Oh, Ginny. I'm so happy-"

"Happy? How can you be happy? I know where he is! Now I have no excuse not to see him. Mione, I'm afraid of what will happen when I see him. What if he doesn't want me, maybe that's really why he's stayed away? What if I get so angry I hurt him or kill him or what if-"

"Shhh, Gin." She soothed, drawing her into a hug, "Don't play the 'what-if' game, it always sucks. Just do whatever you have to do; I won't tell anyone that you know where he is if that'll help. I promise." They sat there, the redheaded woman crying openly in the older girls arms while she whispered comforting things and a hand stroked her fiery hair.

--

Draco turned the key in the lock, jiggling and twisting it until finally he heard a small click. Balancing the two paper bags on his hip he pushed the door open with his shoulder and flicked on the light with his elbow. Placing the bags on the kitchen counter he began putting the items into their proper places: milk in the fridge, bread in the breadbox, and a few other unimportant condiments away in the cabinets. He folded the bags carefully so as not to rip them and placed them between the fridge and the counter, then picked up his book and wandered out into the drawing room and plopped unceremoniously onto the moth eaten sofa.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Nine years since he had left and so far he had lived in thirteen different locations, he had only been in Cairo now for about three weeks and was already thinking about leaving within the next month or so.

He stood and walked over to the mirror above the small fireplace and examined his appearance. His greasy black hair sickened him and his dark skin shocked him every time he caught a glimpse of himself in a window or puddle. The only thing the same was his mercury eyes. She had always loved his eyes.

He reached up and pulled off the black wig revealing silver locks and with his sleeve he wiped away some of the brown make-up. He didn't dare use any magic, not when there was a chance that they were still looking. He placed his forefinger and thumb on opposite sides of his nose and wiggled until the glue came lose and pulled the prosthetic nose away. He usually only took off his disguise when in the bathroom, where there was no window, but frankly he just didn't care anymore.

He had always been cautious for her sake, but be was tired of it all, he was sick of being so alone all the time. He couldn't make any friends, not like he enjoyed socializing with muggles, and he never dated, how could he betray her like that? He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a tattered old picture. The only one he dared have of her. She was smiling and waving at him, her fiery tresses moving slightly as a breeze stirred them. She had a rose in the other hand, one he had given her from his garden. She said she would keep it forever, every time he looked at the picture he wondered if she still had it. Probably not, she was probably married by now and had forgotten all about their summer romance.

But he never would.

He put the picture back close to his heart and turned to survey his small flat. The walls were cracked and the paint was chipped, the pipes groaned and clinked every time he turned on a water fixture and the bed was more of a cot then a mattress. The kitchen consisted of a small icebox and a tiny freezer, a stove that was made in 1900 and still used wood to heat it up and a small rusty metal sink in the far corner that constantly dripped brown water. But at least he had a roof over his head.

He had been in worse, much worse. When he lived in New York he stayed in community housing and actually had to share a bathroom and a bedroom with ten other men. He shuttered at the memory. If he ever got his hands on the men who wanted him killed he would make them pay for forcing him to live like this.

Then there was a knock at his door. He froze. Why would anyone come here? He didn't know anyone. The knock came again and this time a voice accompanied it.

"Landlord! Your rent it late again Mr. Asar!" Draco wasn't that stupid, his Landlord did not speak English and never made room calls. Draco quickly grabbed his wig and made for the window, but before he could make it out there was a loud crash as the door broke down and five burly men almost fell into the now crowded sitting room. Draco unlocked the dirty window while kicking over a wooden chair to block the men's path.

Finally he got the window open, all the while reaching into his pockets and retreating some Exploding Fluid he had brewed years ago just in case. He threw the bottle right in front of the charging men smashing it and causing a resonating boom as the roof fell in. Draco just barely made it out in time as a large beam crashed to the floor right where his leg had been.

He inched along the ledge until he reached the corner of the building where he looked down to see a wide overhang from the street vendors carts and leapt. He had picked his apartment mainly because of its quick escape route. Luckily his weight didn't tear the cloth, it only sagged enough for him to jump off and vanish into the crowd of Cairo, jamming the wig over his silver hair.

--

"When is the next flight to Australia?" Draco asked the blonde travel agent at the desk of the Cairo International Airport. He had hidden for two days on the streets and then another week in a hotel under the alias of Muhammad. All right, so he didn't have much time to think of a new name, but the name was a common one in Egypt so it hid him well. He even paid the manager extra to make it look like he had lived there for three months.

"In one month, sorry, Sir, but this is the most popular time of the year for travel. Everything is booked solid." Draco sighed.

"Money is no object." He paused waiting for a reaction, when none came he cleared his throat and continued, "Look, I'll take any flight to anywhere, whatever is your soonest."

"The only thing we've got is a one way to London for next week." She said, popping her gum.

"London." He mumbled quietly, fingering his breast pocket.

"Yea, you know, England?"

"Yes, I see. Could you please keep me informed if anyone should cancel any other flight? Here is my phone number and a little something for you." He slid a piece of paper with his number on it along with a fifty-pound note. He winked, she blushed and flipped her hair, and inside he cringed.

As he stood up he saw a woman with deep red curls just leave the building, He stared for a moment before running after her. He knew it was crazy, but every time he saw a red haired woman he always had to know if it was her. The crowd swallowed her tiny form, but still he perused. Could she have found him? Secretly he had hoped that she or someone was looking and that one-day they would take him away from this life of hiding. Finally she stopped and stooped to pick something up. When she stood, she had a child in her arm.

No, this was not his Ginny.

The boy had to be almost ten years old, too old for him to have been conceived after he had left. Plus, he was wearing a muggle baseball cap not unlike his own, something Ginny definitely didn't have. The boy reached an arm up to hold his little hat to his head as a gust of wind blew, making the woman's hair dance. He just stared, pretending like it was his Ginny.

--

"Felix, let mummy carry you, the crowd is very large and I would hate to lose you in it." Ginny looked around at the pushing and pulling people of Cairo, all trying to go somewhere or do something. Is Draco here somewhere?

She had left a week after finding out where Draco was. It had taken her that long to find Blaise and tell him what she had discovered, then as soon as he knew, she was off. She caught the earliest flight the next morning since all the floo networks in Egypt were closed for maintenance and Felix was too young for her to apparate with. They had just landed a little while ago and were now making their way to the Hotel.

She bent and picked up her little luck as a gust of wind blew by.

"Hold on to your cap now, love." Ginny told Felix, as his hand reached up to hold down his little hat.

"Why do I have to wear this stupid thing anyways?" Felix complained.

"To blend in, so we look like muggles." She said whispering the last word as her eyes darted about. The little hairs on the back of her neck went up. Some one was watching them. Casually she turned to a street side vendor, pretending she was interested in the cheap necklaces all the while looking up and down the streets. She didn't see anyone but bustling crowds, no one was interested in her except the merchant of the necklaces she was browsing at.

She shook it off as nerves, said a polite "no thank you," and started walking to their hotel again, The Hotel Horus House. The cheapest, but still clean, hotel in Cairo.

About half way there, she felt eyes on her back again and decided to walk a bit faster. It was starting to get dark out and she did not want to be caught on the streets at night, especially with Felix. As she sped up she heard multiple footfalls coming closer, she reached into her pocket to find that her wand was missing. She must have dropped it somewhere between here and the airport, she swore.

"Mummy? What's wrong?" Felix asked in reply to her foul language.

"Felix, love, if I ask you to do something that might seem a bit weird, will you promise me you'll do it without asking questions?" Felix heard the urgency in her voice and nodded his compliance. Getting a little scared, he buried his head in his mothers shoulder and squeezed his arms around her neck even tighter.

Ginny could see the Hotel down the twisting cobble stone road and started to run, the heals of her shoes making a soft clicking sound as they made contact with the street. That's when she noticed the streets were nearly empty, except for a few wayward citizens, they were the only ones out this late at night. There were thuds of boots behind her, four pairs if her trained ear was correct, and judging by the heavy thuds they were making they were particularly large men.

Ginny looked frantically for somewhere to hide, an alcove, an open shop, anything! But it was getting late into the evening and all the shops were closed and the allies were blocked by merchant carts. Then suddenly a dark figure darted out in front of her, where he had come from she couldn't say, but her motherly instincts took over.

With one arm firmly hold Felix to her body she flung the other out to connect with the man's head making a sickening crack as it bashed his nose up at a forty-five degree angle. Thanks to her years of self-defense training she knew the exact places to hit to make a grown man crumple in pain.

The other three men behind her were gaining; they weren't carrying a child that weighed almost four stones. Then an insane idea came to her.

"Felix, when I tell you to, run as fast as you can to the Hotel and don't stop, no matter what, even if you think I'm in trouble, when you get to the Hotel have the men call the authorities and then wait for me there." She instructed breathlessly.

"Ok, mum." Felix tried to be as brave as he could, like his mum, but in truth, he was frightened out of his mind. This is no time to be an ickle scaredy-kin as Uncles Fred and George put it. So he mustered up every ounce of courage he had and prepared himself to run the fastest he had ever run before.

Ginny, too, was preparing herself as a distraction. As Felix ran to the Hotel, she would fight the men tooth and nail until the authorities came. But first she had to find…Ah! There! The street split into two forks with one veering sharply to the right concealing it from the street they were currently on. Without stopping she sped onto the right fork and put Felix down.

"Run." She whispered and continued down the left fork, away from the Hotel. Just as she had hoped they followed her instead of Felix, but something was off. She didn't have time to figure out what it was and just kept running.

She didn't know how long she ran, but soon her body began feeling the strain. Her breaths became short and uneven as each one became harder. Her chest was burning, aching for air and each time she allowed her lungs to fill the burning sensation grew almost unbearable. She was growing dizzy with dehydration and almost tripped over her own feet as little black spots danced across her vision, but she pushed herself forward. For Felix, she told herself every time she thought of stopping.

Her throat was as dry as sand paper and just as scratchy when she wheezed and coughed. Finally, her legs gave away and crumpled beneath her. He arms went out to catch her falling body, but one landed wrong and snapped causing her to cry out in pain. Ginny hoped that Felix had reached the Hotel safely and maybe the authorities were on there way right now.

She dared to hope.

The sound of scraping boots drew closer and seemed to slow. That's when she realized what was wrong; only two men had followed her.

--

Felix ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, igniting his energy, making him tear through the empty streets faster then he had ever thought his body was capable of. But still the man gained.

The Hotel seemed to get farther and farther away rather than closer. Felix figured it was just a trick on his mind and didn't think too much of it and just ran.

Suddenly, the man was right on top of him. He reached out a huge hand and made wild grabs with his sausage like fingers, each one missing the little boy. Felix made a triumphant sound and kicked out with his leg. His aim was true as it connected with the man's most sensitive area; he went down with a grunt.

Grinning, Felix whisked off towards the Hotel. He was so proud of himself that he didn't notice the other person standing patiently in the middle of the road, and when he did it was too late.

--

He had seen them, the four men following the redheaded woman. They were very discreet about it and if Draco hadn't trained his eye over the last nine years to watch for those types of things he would have missed it. The woman seemed to sense someone watching her too as she tensed for a moment then eased over to a merchant and casually perused the worthless merchandise, glancing from side to side. That's when he caught a glimpse of her face.

He froze.

His heart stopped.

He hardly dared to believe it. He drank in her chocolate eyes, her round nose with the bridge of freckles across it, the pink lips that he had dreamed of so many nights. Ginny, his Ginny, was standing less than six meters away from him…and she was in trouble.

Ginny was in trouble!

Draco recognized the men as the same burly foursome that ransacked his apartment a few weeks ago. He had hardly been able to take them on, how could his Ginny be expected to deal with them, and with a child.

A child!

Ginny has a child?

Draco forced the thoughts of Ginny with another man out of his head and told himself to focus. He'd ask questions about the kid later, right now he had to help her escape and get to safety.

--

"Well look what we have here, Goyle. A little redheaded slut just waiting for us to help her." A heavily built man towered over Ginny's broken body and let out what she guessed was a laugh, though it sounded more like rocks grinding.

Goyle? As in Gregory Goyle? She felt bile rising in the back of her throat. How could she have been so stupid and not disguise herself better and even worse, bring Felix here, right into the heart of danger? No, she would not feel sorry for herself, not now, not ever. She had been hurt worse then this before and she had pulled through, it was all for her son, and she could do it again.

Pulling herself to her feet, she tucked her broken arm close to her body so it was out of the way and braced herself for a fight. She cleared her mind and calmed her senses, she took a deep breath and tried to remember everything she had been taught about hand-to-hand combat.

Shortly after Draco had left, Ginny had taken a few muggle Judo and Jujitsu classes to help her get control of her life. She thought that if she could learn to control her body and other people's then she could gain equilibrium. And it did help a great deal. Not to mention she earned a black belt by the time Felix was two years old, turned out she was a natural.

"Looks like she's gunna fight us Crabbe. Come on puppet, like a little thing, much less a woman, like you could hurt men like us? If you give up now we won't hurt you, much." They roared with laughter.

Oh aren't you in for a surprise, she thought smugly. Goyle lunged for her, mistake number one. He had his hands outstretched, which made for an easy grab. She took hold of his wrist and twisted. He cried out in pain and she made the wrist snap. Then she put him in a chokehold and with her broken hand resting on the crown of his head and the other on her bicep she applied just enough pressure to crack his neck.

Crabbe had made his way behind her and put her in a headlock. She quickly slid her right leg under his open legs and flipped him over her torso, and then she climbed on top of him, crossed her wrists and took hold of his shirt collar. Her broken arm screamed in pain, but she ignored it. She rolled her knuckles down as she drew him in close, choking him. Finally his body went limp. He was dead.

In the middle of their short fight, it had started to rain and by the time she pulled herself off of Crabbe's body, she was soaked through. She wiped wet locks from her forehead and felt a pair of eyes on her back. She whipped around, ready for another go and found herself staring up into a pair of silver eyes.