Title: Sanctuary (4/?)
Author: Amethyst
Author E-mail: AmethystJackson@hotmail.com
Category: Drama
Sub-Category: Romance
Keywords: Draco Ginny Voldemort Dumbledore sanctuary
Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Sometimes, sanctuary can be found where one least expects it - the only thing keeping it out of reach is pride.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Note: I apologize again for taking such a long time to update when writing such short chapters. Life has been a crazy banshee lately. Yes, it shrieks.
~
Witch Weekly
Volume 778, No. 2
Week of February 8, 2004
Welcome to yet another issue of Witch Weekly. Amethyst is too busy enjoying her recently fattened head to write her own introduction this week, but she'd like to thank the wonderful readers at Portkey for recently significantly fluffing her ego. In her own words, "They loff me! They really loff me!" ...We're still trying to figure out what that's all about. Anyway, enjoy the story!
Sanctuary IV
By Amethyst
The next time they saw each other was three days later, in the place they had held their first conversation. This time, it was Ginny sitting beneath the tree and Draco who stumbled upon her.
"Fancy seeing you here, Weasley."
She offered a wisp of a smile. "If you're to be staying with us this summer, you really should learn our names. Many people answer to 'Weasley,' you know."
"As you wish, Virginia," he said impatiently, sitting down beside her.
"Thank you, Draco," she replied with a smirk. "…You really need a nickname," she added with a frown.
"A nickname? Why?"
"Really, now, with a name like Draco, you can't expect people to use it with a straight face all the time. Especially since it means little snake..."
Draco scowled. "It does not mean little snake," he huffed. "It means dragon. And there's nothing wrong with my name."
Ginny chuckled at him, which made him all the more irritated. "Dragon, little snake - it doesn't matter, it's still funny. You need a nickname."
"And just what do you have in mind?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Drake? Drakey-poo?"
"Say that again, Weasel," Draco growled, "And you won't have a tongue left to say anything with."
"How frightening," she laughed. "I'll forever tremble in fear at your presence...Drakey-poo."
He glared at her. "You'll pay for that, wench."
"I'm sure." She turned sober. "I'm glad you went to Dumbledore."
This reminded Draco of a question he'd wanted an answer to for the past week. "Who told him about me?" he asked, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "Somebody had told him about our conversation beforehand."
He was surprised to find that she looked angrier about it than he'd been.
"It was Dean," she informed him. "He's been bloody stalking me since I broke it off with him in January. He followed me the day we talked and eavesdropped. I never told him."
"I know," Draco said, and he did believe her. Though Dumbledore had made it sound as though their conversation had been overheard, he'd still wondered if perhaps Ginny had shared the conversation with her brother or Potter or perhaps all of Gryffindor. But hearing her say the words, he couldn't help but trust her. This new lack of suspicion was something new and strange to Draco; he was used to being suspicious of his peers.
Ginny was about to speak again when another voice broke into their private world, calling for Ginny - not Dean this time, but the other Weasley.
Draco jumped up automatically and backed toward the edge of the forest. The last thing he needed in his life now was for Ron Weasley to catch him sitting around with his sister. "I'm not going to stick around to suffer the great sidekick," he said. "See you later."
"Goodbye," she whispered as he retreated into the trees.
As he walked away, he noticed the strangest thing of all about his time spent with Ginny. He'd actually enjoyed himself.
~
"Draco," a quiet voice called out to him as he walked down the dungeon hallway. It was to his left. He turned. Ginny stood in the doorway of a rarely used classroom. She beckoned him inside, and he followed.
"What's this all about?" he asked.
"I was just wondering," she said, "if you wanted me to help you tell the others."
He raised an eyebrow at her. She certainly was a presumptuous little thing. "Tell them what?"
"Well...that you're on our side now."
"No, Weasley," he replied immediately, shaking his head. "They won't know at all until the summer."
She scowled. "And why not?"
"If it gets out, it will get to my father, and then there will be no escaping. It's out of the question."
Ginny seemed determined to win. "They won't let it get out. You can trust them."
Draco laughed. "Trust them? I can't trust anyone who won't trust me right now, Weasley. As if they'd really care about protecting me. Besides, it always gets out. No one else can know."
Ginny frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Tell me, then, Draco. Do you trust me, or do I just have impeccable timing?"
He didn't know the answer to her question, but he knew that she was already prying too deeply into him. "What do you think, Weasley?"
She looked away uncomfortably. "I trust you, Draco."
"I guess that's your problem, isn't it?"
She sighed. "I guess it is." She paused. "What are you going to do with the rest of your time, then?"
"Pretend," he said. "Everyone has to remain in the dark."
"You could still help the order, you know."
"And just how do you propose I do that?"
"Information," she said. "You must know things - your father must write to you -"
"I haven't heard from my father since he disappeared," Draco snapped. "Death Eaters aren't stupid. They keep their secrets closely guarded."
"So you're saying you know absolutely nothing?"
Draco hesitated. "My mother knows things. She lets them slip to me sometimes."
"You should pass those things to the Order," Ginny said, eyeing him firmly. "If you can do something, you should."
"I still don't know if I can trust them."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Draco, for Merlin's sake, we're fighting the same enemy. Anything you gives to us goes to the same cause. How could it possibly be used against you?"
"There are ways," he said stiffly.
"It's better to act, Draco," Ginny said, glaring at him. "You have the power to do something - that's more than a lot of us can say, myself included. Don't make yourself helpless."
She left then without a goodbye.
~
After his third encounter with Ginny, Draco's time at Hogwarts passed quietly and without conflict, except for the nervous edge to his life that came with the knowledge of what he was planning to do. He went on as usual. He studied for N.E.W.T.s and passed them with good marks, attended classes, and pretended to be exactly the same person he'd always been. If he was distant or less enthusiastic than usual, his housemates and victims alike didn't notice; the transformation had been happening for months before hand, and in it's gradual nature, it was unseen.
Now, in an attempt to make some kind of contribution, his life consisted of passing information from his mother to Ginny, who would in turn put it into the right hands. As far as he knew, only Ginny and Dumbledore were aware that he'd switched sides, and that was exactly the way he liked it. In the days and weeks between his time with Ginny, he found himself spending more time alone than ever before, leaving Crabbe and Goyle to their own devices. Many times, he ended up in the back of the library, where his housemates wouldn't think to look for him. He would watch from a window the world that he'd thrust himself into.
Oftentimes, he would watch Ginny, who liked to sit by the lake with her many friends - Luna Lovegood, the Trio, sometimes Neville Longbottom. She was always bright and alive and animated, and he was drawn to her vibrancy. He'd never felt even half as alive as she looked.
Ginny was Draco's one source of subsistence in those months. The quick, whispered conversations that they shared every few days saved him from the monotony and stress of his strange new life. Those moments meant more to him than he was willing to admit, and he worried that he was beginning to care too much for her. Caring was dangerous. She seemed to care for him. He worried about what that might mean for him as well.
It seemed like both an eternity and no time at all had passed when his last month at Hogwarts finally arrived, bring with it the official end of his old life.
To Be Continued
A/N: Thanks to all the reviewers! Your response to this has amazed me, and I'm infinitely grateful to receive such support.
If you're interested in seeing new chapters of this story ahead of time, feel free to join my Yahoo! Group, SpellbookFics, located at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpellbookFics/ . I post chapters for a day or two there before I post them anywhere else. You can also read the work of some other great writers there, and writers are always welcome to join and share their work.