yay! I'm on vacation in the hamptons but I still get to update!!

woot

jk owns everything

Draco coughed himself awake.

Spluttering, he sat up and noticed the white sheets hanging round his bed. Sheets that reminded him of what they put over dead bodies. He pulled a face and shivered.

"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy," Madame Pomfrey started Draco, pulling back the hangings and looking down at him, almost cautiously, like he was going to explode. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap," Draco croaked. "And I can't feel my mouth."

"Good, good."

That wasn't the answer to my question, you dumb witch.

"What happened to me? The last thing I remember was in St. Mungo's…" he trailed off, not able to find the words, but looking expectantly up at Madame Pomfrey.

The witch looked curiously at him, as if measuring his question and sighed. "Mr. Malfoy, you must want to know what has happened to you…"

Draco narrowed his eyes.

"Y-you were poisoned, Mr. Malfoy. I'm so sorry to say it, but the healers at St. Mungo's must have found out who you really were and decided to take it upon themselves to…" But Madame Pomfrey couldn't finish.

Draco was shocked, but he recovered quickly. This was expected. The hatred was expected, right?

That explains why they knew my name before my surgery, he thought, embarrassed that he hadn't noticed it before. But neither did mum, so…

"Anything else?" Draco looked at her. Madame Pomfrey looked like she wanted to run in the other direction. "What?" Draco demanded, suddenly panicked.

"Mr. Malfoy, I-I'm sorry, but I can't understand what you're saying." Madame Pomfrey looked desperate to leave his bedside.

"What?" Draco was incredulous. "What the hell do you mean? I've been speaking English!"

Madame Pomfrey just shook her head sadly. "We're not sure if it's permanent," she whispered, as if saying it louder would be worse. "But your brain was severely damaged by the healers at St. Mungo's…"

Who I will kill if I ever get my hands on them. Draco thought angrily, but he quickly refocused on what Madame Pomfrey was saying.

"A-all we know is that t-the part of your brain used in speaking has been s-severely damaged, and the surrounding areas have also been a-affected, but to what extent we don't yet know." Madame Pomfrey had given up doing the Nervous Shuffle and had taken to staring directly at her hands. "We are quite confident that you can understand us, and we think that you can still form words in your mind but you are simply incapable of saying them out loud. Now there are several tests we need to conduct and of course speech therapy…"

Draco's had stopped listening, and Madame Pomfrey noticed.

Madame Pomfrey fluffed his pillows to support him sitting up in bed. "If you're wondering how you got here, that lovely Weasley girl flew you here on a broomstick. Which is no small feat, may I tell you. It took a great deal of bravery and heart to do what she did. Almost froze to death, the poor girl, trying to get you to safety. You must be very good friends…"

Draco turned his head away. "We're not," he whispered, even though he knew she couldn't understand him.

Ginny was helping her mother set the table for the wedding, but she was doing a very poor job of it.

Sitting at one of the tables, the red-head was twirling a fork in her hands and staring off into space.

It had been three weeks since her escape from St. Mungo's with Draco, and still no one had bothered to tell her how he was. She knew he was alive, but that wasn't enough for the girl.

She had kidnapped Pigwidgeon, Ron's stupid owl, to try and send a letter but he was sent back with no reply.

She had even tried sending her Patronus, but it too had apparently fallen on deaf ears.

Annoyed, Ginny had thrown herself into the wedding preparations, but had quickly grown tired of this pursuit, which she attributed to the constant presence of Phlem hanging about.

Grinning, the girl thought of how Ron, Harry and Hermione had laughed at her nick name and had quickly picked it up.

Viva la Revolution! Ginny thought, poking holes in the table cloth with her fork.

"Ginevra!" a shriek sounded from behind the girl, making her jump. "Stop that vandalism at once!"

Her mother stalked into view, carrying an armful of vegetables. "I leave you to do a simple task of setting the table and you can't even do that! What on earth are you good for around here? Day dreaming? I don't think so!"

Ginny had frozen at her mother's words.

She didn't mean it, Ginny tried to soothe herself. She didn't really mean it.

"Come on, girl, let's get these chopped," Mrs. Weasley indicated to the vegetables in her arms. "We don't have all day." And with that, she bustled into the house.

Giving her mother a rather rude hand gesture, Ginny followed.

"Little sister," Ron greeted her and he, Harry and Hermione pounded down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Won-won," Ginny said back, glad to see him blush. Chopping vegetables was boring.

Harry came to stand next to her, pretending like he was interested in what she was doing.

"Hey, Ginny," he said, gently tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "How you been?"

"Fine, thanks," Ginny said tersely. She wasn't in the mood for this, not now. After she had told him how she really felt, after Dumble-his funeral, Harry had been pining away for her.

Ginny sighed as she went outside with a now bickering Ron and Hermione. She had liked him at one point, but that's all it was: a point in time now long past. And he didn't seem to get that.

Well, it's a good thing he's going away on his stupid mission, Ginny thought, dumping carrots into a boiling pot. Although she did feel a pang, she didn't like how he or even any of them were to be in extreme danger soon.

But then again, Ginny grimaced as her mother pointed to potatoes. We're all in danger. And with a glance to the clock which confirmed her thoughts, Ginny set to work peeling potatoes.

The wedding was uneventful for Ginny until Kingsley's Patronus arrived. At first, Ginny had stupidly thought it was hers, returning from Hogwarts, before she realized that it wasn't a horse.

The panic that erupted at the Burrow after Kingsley's announcement wiped all thoughts of Draco Malfoy from her mind as she tried to help prepare for a Death Eater attack.

Someone, Fred, Ginny found out later, pushed her into the house, out of harm's way. Ginny kicked and screamed but the members of the Order wouldn't let her come out. It was pointless of course, she knew she had little to offer against fully armed Death Eaters, but still, she had wanted to fight just because it was something to do.

Her wish was granted sooner than she thought; the Burrow was quickly surrounded and the Death Eaters were rounding everyone up for questioning.

Ginny was found and brought back into the yard to stand in a line with everyone else.

Shaking, but not wanting to seem afraid, Ginny found that she was wedged between her brother Charlie and some random woman she hadn't been introduced to.

Charlie and Ginny looked at each other, nodding slightly: a movement which gave the other some comfort. The witch that Ginny did not know standing next to her was trembling.

The Death Eaters stood in a loose ring around the wedding guests, while a squat-looking one prowled up and down the line, stopping here and there to question and sometimes torture random wedding guests.

"What do they want?" Ginny whispered to Charlie through the side of her mouth after about a hour had passed

"Who do you think?" Charlie emphasized and he and Ginny fell silent as the interrogator slowed in front of them.

Charlie put his arm around his sister as the Death Eater leaned forward, eyes bright behind his mask. "And you must be…" the man paused and reached out to finger a strand of Ginny's hair. "Ginevra." He finished in a silky voice and a giggle that made Ginny want to throw up. "Just the little girl I wanted to see."

Ginny tried to lean away as the Death Eater placed a finger under her chin to examine her face. "Ah, ah, ah!" the man warned, sensing her motion and grabbing a fist full of her hair. "Not nice." Ginny could hear him leer at her from behind his mask before he whipped her to the ground.

"Harry Potter's girlfriend!" he announced. The Death Eaters laughed, coldly. One of them made kissing noises.

"Tell me," said the Death Eater who still had a firm hold on Ginny's hair. "Where did your true love go?"

Ginny heart was in her mouth, but this time she thanked Merlin profusely for being able to tell the truth, even if they did have veritaserum. "I don't know," she said, voice coming out higher than normal.

"Well that's something I wasn't expecting to hear," the evil wizard said sarcastically.

"It's the truth, I swear!" Ginny protested. "Give me veritaserum if you really want to know!"

The man leaned in close, his mask death white in the light of the fire. "Oh I forgot to bring some," he said in a singsong voice. "Fortunately I have other ways of making you sing, little phoenix."

He raised his wand. "Crucio!"

Ginny heard someone scream.

She felt as if her ribs were being pulled apart, one by one.

Each fingernail was slowly being dragged out of their nail beds.

A million toothpicks were being driven into her skin.

And then it stopped.

Panting and blind from pain, Ginny lay on the lawn. The stars in the sky above her winked as if teasing, for they could feel nothing.

A white mask peered down at her. "Time for me to leave, my little birdie," the Death Eater crooned. "But I expect that I will be seeing you quite soon." The mask left her field of vision.

There were shouts and orders and cracks of disapperating Death Eaters, but Ginny heard none of it. Moss seemed to be stuffed in her ears and for the moment, her brain liked it.

But the sensation quickly left her as she felt something in her stomach turn. Strong hands turned her on her side so she could vomit into the grass without choking on it.

When she was finished, Ginny felt herself being lifted up into the arms of her father.

"Daddy…" she said, regressing.

"I've got you, Gin-bug," her childhood name quivering on his lips, betraying his true emotions.

Ginny wanted to cry, but she found that tears wouldn't come.

Shock, I'm in shock.

Her father carried her up the stairs and into her bedroom and laid her down on her bed.

Sitting down next to her, Mr. Weasley bent down and covered Ginny's shoulders hugging her, his mouth in her hair.

"I," Mr. Weasley took a deep shuddering breath. "I am so sorry."

And that's all he said before kissing her forehead and leaving to go downstairs to meet with the Order.

Ginny heard the door shut quietly and her father's footsteps on the stairs.

Spreading out her hands, she looked at her nails. They looked blue in the last of the twilight but Ginny knew that blue nails mean a lack of oxygen.

I wonder if I'm drowning.