I'm trying to post this as fast as I write it & it gets edited cause even though I love this story there's so many more out there for me to work on! xoxoxxoxooxxoxo to all my reviewers!
CHAPTER 18 Funeral for a Friend
Ginny could barely hold herself up during the memorial service for her brother. If the realization that he was gone hadn't hit her before, it had now. She sat on a long pew in the Great Hall, sandwiched between Draco and Hermione, unable to focus on a single thing that was being said. Dumbledore, her father, Charlie, and Harry all sat at the front of the room, the expressions on their faces mirroring the feelings in her heart. The memorial wasn't just for Ron. Blaise was mentioned, and Sirius as well as Cedric Diggory. "And there are others," Dumbledore was saying. "Others who we may not yet know of and others who will leave us in our mortality before this war ends."
Ginny was unnerved by the large portrait of Ron staring at them from the front of the room. It was a portrait of Ron when he had been made prefect, not all that long ago. Ginny had seen it plenty of times before, waving at her from the mantel at the Burrow, but now her brother watched quietly as his memorial went on.
Her mum shed no tears, and Ginny was surprised, until she realized that her mother had cried plenty during the summer. It was Ginny who hadn't allowed herself time to grieve, still expecting Ron to come around corners and say hello to her or at least make some snide remark about Draco. So while her family had entered the healing process, she hadn't even gotten past the denial. While everyone else had accepted what had happened, she hadn't even properly mourned her brother.
Just three days ago, Hermione had looked at her and asked, "Am I doing the wrong thing? What would Ron think about this?"
Ginny had no answer. She had walked into the common room just in time to see Harry and Hermione guiltily jump apart.
"Are you mad at me?" Hermione asked, her voice pleading.
"No. I'm not mad. I know you loved Ron," Ginny told her finally.
"I still love him. But I finally realized that he's not coming back."
It wasn't seeing Harry and Hermione hold hands when they thought no one was looking, or the empty seat in the Great Hall, or even the fact that the terrific trio was no a duo, but it was her final words that hurt the most. Ron wasn't coming back.
"I can't stay here," Ginny whispered to Draco after the memorial, after hugging people she barely knew, after the dinner feast. "I'm just going to go back to my room."
"Are you sure?" he asked, his expression troubled.
"I just want to be . . . I can't be in here."
"Let's go to my room. You can be alone in there."
Ginny shook her head. Draco's room meant that they would inevitably fall into the bed, not speaking, but just trying to forget by having the roughest sex possible. The sex they had in his room always left her sore and bruised, but she preferred it that way. When she and Draco were fiercely pounding each other into the mattress or desk or floor, she didn't remember the war or the deaths or her exams or anything else.
If Draco understood her refusal, he didn't let on. "Come on," he muttered. "I know somewhere we can go."
In the noise and commotion of the Great Hall, they managed to slip out unnoticed. Ginny followed Draco out of the castle, off the grounds, and onto the path that led into Hogsmead.
"We'll be fine," Draco reassured her, squeezing her gloved hand inside his own. "I doubt anyone will notice we're gone, and if they do, they'll probably think you're in my room, getting shagged senseless."
She pretended to be offended and swung her free hand to hit him lightly on the arm, but a small smile reached her lips. "Where are we going then?"
"Just a place I know," he told her, his sexy smile covering his lips. "So that you won't have to worry about all this."
Ginny stopped mid-stride and stared at him. "Do you think that's what's wrong with me?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, tugging her along.
"That I haven't thought about Ron enough? Dumbledore said that grieving leads to healing. But I don't know if I've grieved."
Draco stared at her and then up at the gray sky. "How could you not grieve? He's your brother."
"I know."
"We don't have to go. We can go back. I just want you to feel better."
Ginny looked around at the bare trees and the town of Hogsmead looming just ahead. She held out her gloved hand and watched as a single snowflake drifted into her palm. "I want to go with you."
Draco took her to Archimedes Inn, which was at the very edge of town, opposite the Shrieking Shack. She glanced around nervously before following him inside.
"I need a room for one night," Draco told the wizard at the front counter.
"And I suppose you're old enough to rent a room for one night?" the wizard asked.
"Of course," Draco said smoothly, pulling a handful of Galleons from his pocket.
The wizard eyed the money, then Draco and nodded. "Room 214 then."
Ginny followed Draco into room 214. It was a large room with a king size bed in the middle, two large chairs, a desk, and in the bathroom, a large heart shaped bathtub. Ginny began to giggle. "Is this the honeymoon suite?"
Draco cracked a half smile. "Looks like it."
Ginny sat on the edge of the bed and bounced up and down. "Well, it's nice. Do you think anyone will notice that we're gone?"
"I doubt it. Especially since it's the Holidays."
They had their dinner sent to the room and spent nearly two hours in the heart shaped tub, just talking. Or rather, Ginny talked and Draco listened. It was the first time she'd managed to have a serious conversation about Ron since he'd died, and even though her fresh crop of tears had left her drained, she felt a little better. Like maybe that hole in her heart wasn't going to be an open wound anymore but a scar. Like maybe, just maybe, things could be allowed to heal and it wouldn't be an insult to Ron's memory. Draco had the hotel's boutique send them up nightclothes and when Ginny drifted off to sleep, for the first time in months, it came easily.
***
Draco wasn't sure what woke him from sleep, but the feeling that something wasn't right was absolutely suffocating him. Slowly, carefully, he edged his fingers underneath his pillow and gripped his wand. Hearing no sound from within the room, he opened his eyes and glanced around. Nothing seemed to be disturbed, except for the atmosphere in the room. Then he sensed it. Something was lurking. And it was right outside their door, ready to kill. His father.
Without thinking, he grabbed Ginny around the waist and apparated.
"What's going on?" she gasped as they tumbled to the snow covered ground.
"Come on," he hissed, already running for the gate as he tugged her to her feet.
"What is it?" she asked again as they bolted across the school grounds, running barefoot through the snow, and trying to keep her gown down.
"My father. He was there! He was-"
"There you are." The front door's of the castle swung open and Dumbledore towered in front of them. Even though he was in night robes, his presence seemed to fill the doorway and Ginny immediately felt guilty.
"I'm sorry," she began.
"There is no time for that," he cut her off. "Quickly, to my office."
They followed behind him, his long hair and robes billowing behind him. Dumbledore snapped his password at the gargoyle and it quickly sprung aside. Ginny had never felt more thoughtless as the stairs took them up to the headmaster's office. The door opened and she saw Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape waiting there.
"How could you do this?" McGonagall began. "How could you be so very thoughtless, and on tonight, of all nights?"
"That is enough," Dumbledore said. He pulled a great glass globe from his cabinet and placed it before them, tapping it with his wand. "It is just as I feared. They are at the gates."
Snape glared at Draco. "You of all people should know that your father is able to track your movements!"
Draco looked guiltily at his bare feet.
"When you left for the summer, did it never occur to you that there was a reason your father was unable to find you? Did you not stop to think that Professor Dumbledore had sent you to one of the very few safe places?"
"Severus," Dumbledore said lightly. "What's done is done."
Ginny glanced around the room at the angry faces of past headmasters and mistresses glaring at them from their portraits, feeling uncomfortably indecent in her cotton nightgown with its scooped neck and mid thigh hem. "What's going on?"
"You must be aware Mr. Malfoy, that your father is now seeking to kill you, and it would seem that he's been alerted to Ms. Weasley's role in this as well. And that places her in great danger as well." Dumbledore stared both of them in the eye. "Neither of you are to leave these grounds again without my permission if you value your life."
As he spoke his fireplace roared to life and Fudge's face appeared in the flames. Ginny wrinkled her nose and stepped away, for she still hadn't forgiven the arrogant, pig headed ex-Minister for his stupidity during her 4th year.
"Albus! They're everywhere! There are Death Eaters at your gate!" he gasped.
"I am already aware of this. We have the situation under control," Dumbledore said calmly.
"Please, I don't know what to do. Can I Floo over?" he begged.
"Very well," Dumbledore sighed, "but you cannot stay."
Fudge came tumbling into the room moments later. "What will we do?"
"I don't think there is any we to speak of," McGonagall said sharply.
Ginny glanced at Draco, who was watching the situation with a frown on his face.
Fudge scrambled out of his overcoat. "Hold this, will you?"
Without even glancing at her, he tossed his coat at Ginny who caught it. But before she could put it down, she felt an all too familiar tugging on her bellybutton and was caught up in a whirlwind of color and space and time as she left the safety of Hogwarts.
-->