A/N: Wow thanks for all the reviews guys! I'm sorry for the cliff-hanger last chapter, I couldn't resist! Read on and hopefully you'll like the continuation. This chapter is rather shorter than some, but I felt like it should stop where it does or else it would end up being too long, and also the fact that I would have to post it a lot later, and from the response I got, I'm going to assume that you'd all rather it sooner. :P I hope you like this chapter! Tell me what you think please! And by the way, Happy Easter or Passover to those that celebrate!

Keep the Faith

Chapter Six

"I'm going to tell you everything."

Ginny gaped at Draco, stunned. She could feel silence ringing in her ears; she was consciously aware of the thud of her beating heart. She felt surreal; unable to believe it.

But… then again, she could never guess with him.

Draco was leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest, an uncharacteristic look of doubt on his face as he scrutinized her, trying to interpret her reaction.

Draco raised an eyebrow the slightest bit, which caused Ginny, who had been staring at his face for the past two minutes without a word, to suddenly realise how ridiculous she must look.

She snapped herself out of it, and to avoid the risk of going into the same stupor, she told herself to say something. Anything.

"Everything?" Ginny asked.

Draco could see the question in her eyes that had nothing to do with what she'd asked. He rolled his eyes. "Pay attention, will you?" he advised, slightly irritated, "I'm only going to say all this once."

Ginny suddenly felt very awake, and suspicious. Her mind was brimming with questions. "But why? I mean, why change your mind all of the sudden? I thought you were quite adamant at keeping it from me."

Draco felt his irritation with her already begin to show itself, and let out a long breath. If she was already getting on his nerves, how would he finish telling her what he needed to tell her?

"You'll find out when I tell you." He decided to tell her.

Draco watched her carefully. Her inquisitive gaze and her expression of keen interest was foreign to him. It had been a while since he'd had so much attention from anyone, and it felt…strange. Ginny's hair was a mane of red, shadowed in the light of the room, creating contrast that made her lightly freckled skin glow and her dark eyes bright, and Draco found it distracting. Her small figure was accentuated by the sweater she wore. Draco forced it out of his mind, reminding himself that she was his captive and nothing more.

"You know I'm a Death Eater." Draco said, regarding her openly. "I never had the choice, you know."

Ginny surprised him by nodding her head, and waiting for him to continue. Frustrated at not being able to read her, Draco continued.

"Potter put my father in Azkaban a year and a half ago. The Dark Lord blamed him for not getting that wretched prophesy that he had been so obsessed about." Draco's expression darkened noticeably. Ginny looked at him warily.

She certainly recalled the night in the department of mysteries; one of the worst nights of her life, in many ways. Narrowing her eyes, she remembered Lucius Malfoy. The cruel, selfish, sore excuse for a man. Ginny glowered at the table in front of her."I remember that night, you know." She said harshly, crossing her arms and leaning back. She remembered how Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco's own aunt, had murdered Sirius. Draco's eyebrows shot up at her vehemence, and he studied her for a moment.

That's right, she was there. Draco looked at Ginny in a new light. She knows more than she's letting on, he frowned.

Ginny looked away from him. Draco watched her a moment before continuing.

"The Dark Lord was angry at father that he'd managed to get caught and mess up the plan, so he gave me an impossible task, threatening to kill me and my mother if I failed." Draco explained to her frigidly. "That was his punishment for my father."

Ginny saw the worried look hidden in his grey eyes, the awkwardness in his posture, and frowned.

"To kill Professor Dumbledore." Ginny stated, surprised at the revelation. She hadn't realised his predicament. She'd thought that he was just trying to prove himself as a Death Eater.

Draco nodded. "Yes, Weasley, I was supposed to kill Dumbledore." Draco explained. "And it was such a ridiculous task that I was doomed for failure from the start. The Dark Lord expected me to fail, and I knew it but I had no choice. It was do it or die." Ginny noticed how his brow creased in a frown.

"But you didn't." Ginny said quietly, her gaze softening noticeably.

"Why do you say that?" Draco froze up, his eyes narrowing and his mouth turning into a scowl. "Why would you know that?" he accused.

Ginny's look of surprise frustrated him also. "I just do, Draco. Everyone does." Ginny tried to explain.

"But…it was only me and Dumbledore up there, until the other Death Eaters came along. So why are you so sure of yourself?" Ginny suddenly realised it. Draco hadn't been in her position since that night. He didn't know that everyone knew that Snape had killed Dumbledore. But why not? Where had he been all of this time? She suddenly felt her heart tug.

"Look, Malfoy…" Ginny leaned forward slightly on her elbows. "You weren't the only one up in that tower."

Draco's expression turned confused. He frowned but stayed quiet, observing her, analyzing her, his eyes searching out hers.

"Harry was there." she told him. "With Dumbledore… he was immobilized under his invisibility cloak."

Draco suddenly looked shocked, and furious. "Potter was there?" he asked incredulously. "That's impossible."

Ginny shook her head. "No it isn't. Harry was there, and I know you don't really believe it, but he heard and saw everything."

"…everything." He repeated. Draco thought back to his moments on that tower, and felt humiliation and anger. He remembered vaguely the two brooms, and felt himself getting angry. He remembered now that he'd been suspicious at the time, but too scared and determined to care. Those moments had been some of the worst in his life, and it was upsetting to know that Potter had witnessed it. He'd had a hollow determination to kill the old man; to put his life back into order, to save his mother and himself from torturous death, and he'd failed. He hadn't been able to do it. The old man had seen right through him, had offered him a way out. And admittedly, it had sounded much more reassuring than any plan he'd been able to think of at the time. He would have probably considered the offer of protection had the Death Eaters he'd brought into the castle not interrupted, and if Severus Snape hadn't shown up to do the job for him. For many months after that night, he'd felt nothing but utter resentment for the man.

That night on the tower had changed his life dramatically. He'd been thrust into the life of a Death Eater, bullied and bullying others just to survive. Because he was seen to have technically failed his quest, Voldemort and the Death Eaters showed him no mercy, and he was punished drastically for it. But since the task was completed anyway, due to Draco's plan, the Dark Lord hadn't made full his threat to kill them. Draco often wondered if it would have been better just to die, rather than live this meaningless existence of hollow pain and servitude, but he knew he would never have left his mother alone in the world if he could help it.

Ginny watched as Draco sank further and further into his thoughts, looking troubled.

When he came back to the present, Draco started to speak as though she hadn't said anything, but he sounded much more exhausted.

"Like I said, the Dark Lord was going to murder both my mother and I if I were to fail, but as you presumably know, Snape came along and murdered Dumbledore himself. According to Snape, he'd made an unbreakable vow with my mother," Draco scoffed. "but I find it hard to believe he would do something so stupid." Draco noticed the flash of unforgiving hatred in her eyes and the dark look that crossed her delicate features.

"Murderous traitor." She scowled. Draco was mildly bemused at the amount of hatred in her words, but he continued as though she hadn't spoken.

"I ran away with him and the other Death Eaters that night. I still wasn't sure if I was going to die or not. The Dark Lord knew what had happened immediately, and he wasn't happy with me; however, he was pleased that Dumbledore was dead, and was so thanks to my plan, so he let me live. That night I became a full-fledged Death Eater. They punished me excessively during those first months afterwards." Draco stopped, not wanting to continue, not wanting to tell her this. He'd never spoken any of this aloud before. He stared back at Ginny's wide eyes, and he knew she was taking in every word he said. Everything about her, her expression, her posture, her sincerity, was making things too easy for him to open up to her. He still felt the caution that he knew was bred by all slytherins; to not trust anyone. But he didn't think Ginny Weasley would use this against him, or at least he hoped. She was too much of a Gryffindor.

"You have to understand," he leaned forward for the first time, searching her dark eyes, trying to make her see the truth. "I was up on that tower to kill Dumbledore, and I was fully prepared to. But once I was there, I couldn't do it. And I knew that I could never do it. He had been really weak. I'd never seen him like that. There was one of the most able wizards for centuries, and he was almost falling over, having trouble with coherent speech, can you imagine that? I had him at my complete mercy, and I couldn't even do it. I wanted to, out of necessity, of course, but I didn't." Draco paused, anger crossing his features again. "I can't believe that Potter saw the whole bloody thing." He scoffed, disgusted.

"Malfoy," Ginny started. "Are you actually implying that not killing Dumbledore is a weakness? Is that what you're telling me?" She said heatedly.

Draco snorted. "Maybe your lot would think that it isn't, Weasley, but most Death Eaters certainly won't."

Ginny pursed her lips disapprovingly and crossed her arms. "Only a slytherin would think that." She muttered, causing Draco to raise an eyebrow at her assertion. She focused her attention on him again. "Tell me why in Merlin's name do you think Harry witnessing you is a bad thing? If not for him, then we probably would all think you were guilty."

Draco studied the girl across from him. He wanted to understand what went on in her brown eyes, why she was not talking more, and what she already knew. It was killing him that he couldn't read her. Draco ran a hand through his smooth blond hair, mussing it up slightly, yet not enough to look unkempt.

"You don't seem to understand the magnitude of the enmity between Potter and me, do you?" he started coldly, shutting his emotions down again. "You have no bloody idea what it's like to have one of your enemies witness something like that." Ginny gave him a sad look, and wondered what Draco had been like on that tower. She had trouble imagining it. Ginny wondered if Harry felt just as strongly as he did. She doubted it. In fact, she doubted that Draco even felt that strongly anymore. She knew they both had bigger things to occupy their minds rather than an old feud.

"Look, Malfoy. I don't know if it's a Slytherin thing, or just you, but having mercy on someone, sparing their life, is certainly not a weakness. And anyway, we wouldn't have known that Snape killed Dumbledore. No one would have really suspected that a man Dumbledore had trusted over the years without reason had murdered him. He was supposed to be on our side."

Draco gave a harsh laugh and leaned forward on his arms. "Your side? He was a double agent the whole time you know. All along he was helping the Death Eaters. He was just playing everybody." Ginny looked troubled.

"Well maybe so Malfoy, but the point is that you didn't kill Dumbledore, he did." Draco looked at her from across the table. Why did this girl seem to think the best of him? He certainly didn't deserve it, and she shouldn't be foolish enough to think it.

"I as good as killed him, Weasley. Don't you get that?" he asked her furiously, feeling the need to make her understand that he wasn't a good person, even if it was counterproductive. "I planned and executed the whole thing up until I got to the tower. I had been working for more than half a year fixing that bloody cabinet. I did absolutely everything to ensure that I get him cornered up there. I am anything but innocent in this, Weasley. Why don't you understand that?" Draco stood from his seat, frustrated.

Ginny looked up at him, and said quietly, "I do understand that, Malfoy, but to me, it isn't only what you do that determines your accountability, it's the motivation behind it. If the only reason you did it was because the other option was to murder your family, then it's understandable. If your way of thinking was true, then you would have blamed yourself if your mother was murdered, you would have said that it was your fault she was dead, had you failed to kill Dumbledore, and it would make more sense for you to protect your family than to protect a man you unequivocally disliked."

Draco stared at her like she was speaking in a foreign tongue. Did she really think that? She sounded sincere. He frowned.

"You have one skewed sense of logic, Weasley. But it's good that you bring it up. We can actually get onto the point of me telling you this."

"And what's that?" Ginny stood up also.

Draco paused, gathering his thoughts. Ginny could once again see his inner conflict.

"My father is in Azkaban, Weasley. And you're right, there's no way I would let them hurt my mother." He paused again. Ginny listened, eyes bright, her rapt attention never faltering. "Our whole family has gone through hell. Father is in prison with a life sentence, my mother hasn't been quite the same since, and I – " Draco turned and paced around. "I have had enough of every bloody thing to do with this war! You have no idea what life has been like for me since that night. I am done with serving someone that wants to kill me. And this, Ginny Weasley, is where you come in.

"My choices are very limited. I can't stand up to him, or he'd kill me, and everything close to me. The Dark Lord is ruthless." He paused, and caught her eyes with his. "The only other option was to go into hiding. As you can see, I've succeeded thus far. He can't find me here. But it isn't permanent. If I leave permanently by myself, then he would kill my mother for sure.

"My plan is this, Weasley, and listen carefully." The threat in his voice sent chills Ginny's back. "Your father is going to set my father free from Azkaban, and we are going to disappear."

"What?" Ginny's eyes went wide. She felt a pang at her heart. Her father was probably worried sick over her, but that's not what was prominent in her thoughts. "You're running away?"

Draco narrowed his silver eyes menacingly. "What else can I even do? It's the only thing that makes sense. The only thing that would work."

"But…" Ginny stood up, her chair scraping on the floor, and creased her brows in thought. She felt desperately like she needed to get him to see the wrongness of his plan. Of just running away. "Don't you think you could fight against Voldemort? You could join the Order! They would protect you, and your knowledge of Voldemort and Death Eaters would be useful against him!"

Draco turned on her, frustrated at her. "There you go again, Weasley! You seem to think that I want to do good! There's no way I could stand alone against him, but what on earth is possessing you to think that I would want to help your Order or whatever you call yourselves." He almost snarled. "None of them would accept us, and you know that as well as I do. They all think I'm a bloody murderer, and a Death Eater, like you keep telling me Weasley, so do me a favour and stop deluding yourself!"

That quieted her. He was right, she thought. No one would stand to have them around. She didn't really know his mum, but Ginny shivered at the thought of anyone of them, even herself, having to put up with Lucius, and she had trouble believing that he would cooperate. Wouldn't someone like Lucius Malfoy just go straight back to his master? She calmed down again. "Fine. But I still don't understand why you've had to tell me all of this." Ginny prompted, hoping to get an actual answer out of him.

Suddenly Draco was in front of her. He looked uncharacteristically desperate as his silver eyes gazed into hers. He ran a hand distractedly through his blond hair, disrupting the neatness of it, and Ginny read in his gaze that he was having trouble getting the words out. Whatever it was, it was difficult for him to say it.

"Look, Weasley." He started. "I…" he paused, looking very troubled and turned away from her, pacing the room angrily, and grasped the edge of the table with his hands and closed his eyes to calm himself down. He looked up at Ginny again, and she moved tentatively closer to him, neither of them able to look away. Ginny's softened gaze seemed to penetrate him, Draco imagined, and he felt oddly calm. "I need your help." He admitted reluctantly, eyes still on hers.

Ginny's eyebrows shot up. "With what?"

Suddenly Draco seemed to deflate. He looked tired; defeated, as though he'd given up on holding back. He approached her.

"I've been in contact with your father." He told her, aware of the look of shock on Ginny's face. "He's demanded that he see you before he makes any arrangements to release my father."

Ginny felt hope at the thought of seeing her dad. If her anyone would be able to get her out of this, it was him. She suddenly felt very homesick. But then her face fell, knowing something worse must be coming.

"You have two options Weasley," he said, slowly, making sure she understood. "He needs to believe that you are in mortal danger so I need you to act like you are. This is your choice. If you want the chance to talk to him, then you'd better behave. But if you aren't going to, then I am going to have to bind you up and tape your mouth shut, and it won't be very pleasant for you, trust me on that. You'd better believe that I no qualms with hurting you for this." Ginny could see that he was telling the truth, and sat back down, unable to think straight.

Ginny's mind was going haywire. This was so much information to take in at once; she didn't know how to digest it all. Draco looked at her, waiting for her response. Ginny ran a hand through her mess of red waves, and bit her nail, a bad habit of hers, and Draco's eyes followed her hand.

"Look Weasley, I'm asking you to do this for me." He said quietly. "I was hoping that maybe you'd see my dilemma here." Ginny understood. It was a life or death situation for him.

"When can I see him?" she asked.

"Tomorrow morning." Draco told her. "Will you do it?" he asked after a moment, his eyes searching hers for the answer. She was silent for a minute that seemed like an eternity. Had Draco made a mistake in thinking this would work? He suddenly realised the ridiculous situation he'd put himself in. She knew everything now. Well, everything important to her anyway. That made him incredibly vulnerable to her, and he would feel like an utter fool, like he was already starting to, if she refused.

"Yes, I'll do it." Ginny told him sadly, resolved, and Draco heard the reluctance in her voice. She said nothing further.

"Good. Be ready at nine tomorrow morning." He ordered, and after a moment he left the room leaving Ginny alone. She walked over and sank into the couch.

Ginny also had her own personal dilemma, but she had weighed out the pros with the cons, and chosen despite her best interest.

Her issue was this: aiding in the freedom of Lucius Malfoy, the man responsible for the worst days of her life, who had supported you-know-who even while he was gone, and who had cared for nothing but his own greed and fortune and spent time and energy making her family's life as miserable as possible. The fact that she might be helping that bastard was causing her immense inner struggle. On the other hand, the good side of that idea, of talking to her dad, was that maybe he could get an idea of where she was, and rescue her without having to free Lucius Malfoy.

The other dilemma was the fact that Draco would have a major problem. He was already running from his assured death, and wouldn't be able to hide like this forever. She certainly didn't want him to die. Ginny guessed that Draco was smart enough that he'd made the place unplottable, and would take most precautions to make sure she couldn't be taken tomorrow. But why did she need to act like Draco was a murderer? Ginny knew her father would prefer to help someone that was relatively harmless, rather then a full out cold-blooded murderer. Ginny sighed and put her hands over her eyes.

She could do it easily; she'd always been a good actor, but there was always the chance that her father would see right through her. Her father would oftentimes catch onto things that her mother did not.

Ginny forced herself to stand up and drag her body to her own room, her mind still going wild. She already knew there was a sleepless night ahead of her.