Smile Like You Mean It

Smile

They were standing on a peninsula overlooking an outstandingly beautiful sea; the waves choppy, the white froth of the surf clearly visible, even from that height. The breeze was cool, a welcome release from the sweltering heat of the day. The sun was just setting, sending red and gold rays over the water, creating a stunningly romantic backdrop for the couple standing on the headland. The young woman had her face angled towards the wind, the cool air washing over her. Strands of her long fiery hair were occasionally caught up in the flow of air and floated for a moment as if they had a life of their own. A tall man was standing right behind her, as handsome as she was beautiful, with shoulder length flaxen hair tied back with a black ribbon, matching his long black robes. He stood close, his arms around the woman, his head resting against hers, both of them looking out at the stunning landscape in front of them, each taking comfort in the other’s embrace.

“It’s beautiful” Ginny whispered, leaning back against Draco and feeling his arms tighten around her in response, pulling her even closer. “It’s almost as though nature’s doing it for us.”

“Showing off” Draco murmured into her hair. He reached down and took hold of her hand, bringing it up to his mouth. He gently kissed her palm and she sighed.

“Remember our first kiss Draco?” she asked him quietly.

Ginny could almost see him smirking behind her at the memory. “I do. How could I forget? It was a nightmare!” he said. He laughed softly. “God it was funny! That stupid dare of yours.”

Ginny scowled although he couldn’t see it, being behind her. “Well I didn’t make up the dare! And there was nothing funny about it! Lavender dared me to kiss someone, and so I agreed, not knowing it was going to be you! She and Parvati thought it would be amusing to try to get me to kiss you, the person I hated most. I was horrified!” she exclaimed.

“Ah but you still did it though didn’t you?” he said.

Ginny snorted. “it wasn’t like I had much choice really though was it! We just bumped into you in the corridor and you practically jumped on me!”

Draco laughed softly. “Well I was rather surprised myself. I was just innocently walking along when you three come thundering round the corner and crash into me, nearly knocking me flat! One look at me and you turned as red as your hair, and the other two started giggling madly. It was really quite disturbing you know. Then when I asked what you were so red for, and why they were giggling so much. They practically cried they were laughing so much.”

Ginny giggled. “I know. It was awful! But the look on your face though…you looked like you were about to have a fit or something. You were so mad. I remember, you said ‘No-one laughs at a Malfoy! What’s your problem?’” Ginny mimicked Draco’s superior tone perfectly.

She felt him shrug. “Yeah well. By that time I was pretty annoyed. Then Lavender finally told me about the dare, when she could breathe again. You looked like you wanted to disappear.” he smirked.

“I wanted to die! I couldn’t believe it! Parvati was in hysterics, I thought she was going to pass out, she was laughing so much. You got really mad.”

“Yeah well. You stood there, refusing to even look at me. I just snapped. I wanted to do something to stop them laughing at me, anything.”

“So you pinned me against the wall and practically raped me!”

Draco snorted. “I didn’t see you complaining!”

Ginny turned to face him, saw the light from the setting sun reflected in his silver eyes, sending shadows dancing across his face. “That just changed everything. I fell in love with you that minute.” she said softly. “I’m still falling in love with you. More and more each day.”

He brushed a strand of hair from her face and tilted her chin upwards, stroking her cheek softly with his hand. “I’m so completely in love with you that it scares me Ginny.” he whispered, bringing his lips down on hers and kissed her softly, conveying his love for her so utterly that she felt herself floating away. She wrapped her arms around him, wanting to never let him go. But too soon they pulled apart.

“I want it to stay like this forever Draco. I never want you to leave.” Ginny said earnestly, turning in his arms to look out again at the achingly beautiful scene. Now the sun had almost sank beyond the horizon, the sea was now a molten pool of shimmering gold, a haze of red gold light painted the sky above the disappearing sun. Ginny suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to run away, to escape from the chaos around them. She felt like running off into that beautiful sunset and never looking back.

Draco stepped in front of her and grasped her shoulders. “Don’t cry Ginny. Please.” She hadn’t even realised she was until Draco brushed the tears from her cheeks. She offered him a shaky smile.

His intense silver eyes locked with hers and he kissed her deeply. “Come on Ginny, smile like you mean it.” he whispered.

“Only when you do.” she replied, looking into those enchanting silver eyes and seeing them sparkle with his own tears. She hugged him hard, and felt him do the same.

They stood like that for a long time, lost in their own thoughts, safe in each other’s arms. Ginny closed her eyes, trying to block out the world around them. The cruelty. The unfairness of it all. He was leaving her. Joining the Death Eater ranks as a spy for Dumbledore. Tears cascaded freely down her cheeks, soaking Draco’s shirt.

The top of her head was damp, she realised that he was also crying. “Oh Draco” she said despairingly, and held him fiercely, never wanting to let go. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting the images of the past two years wash freely over her. Two years of bliss. That’s all they had. Just two years. Ginny couldn’t stand the unfairness of it. She had found the good in Draco Malfoy, shattered the ice that surrounded his heart and found the real him. She had fallen totally, inescapably in love, and found that she was loved in return. All that was being cruelly ripped away from her. Everything she held dear.

“I don’t know when I can see you again.” Draco finally said, his voice soft in her ear.

“Don’t” she whispered. “Don’t talk about it. Not right now.”

They walked hand in hand away from the beach, through the woodland that covered the cliffs. They talked about everything and nothing. Both avoiding the subject that needed to be talked about, but was too painful. They finally found themselves in a tiny clearing, wild grass growing under the perfect indigo night sky.

Draco sat down in the middle of the clearing and pulled her down with him. They lay there together for what seemed like an eternity, just looking up at the stars, remembering. Ginny looked over at Draco and felt overwhelming love for him. He had seen her at her very worst and still loved her. He had always stuck by her, through everything, both bad and good. She loved him with all her heart and knew that he absolutely loved her. Not just because he said he did, but because he showed her in his actions, every single day.

She leaned over and kissed him, looking into his silver eyes, moved by the intensity of the love she found in them, and amazed by the power of the love she felt for him. She didn’t think it was possible for one person to care about another this much. She felt like her heart would surely burst.

There, on that last night under the stars, they made a wordless promise to love each other forever, to stay true and strong, as long as they lived. And they meant every word of it. And Ginny smiled. But her heart was breaking.

Wanted

Ginny walked into the kitchen of number twelve, Grimmauld Place and sat down at the table next to Hermione, who gave her a warm smile and leaned close to whisper in her ear “Snape’s just arrived, he’s apparently got some information about the targeted attacks that have been going on.”

Ginny nodded and looked round at all the grave faces in the room. Her best friend Hermione Granger, all her brothers other than Percy (who it was generally agreed could not be trusted to keep important Order plans quiet from Fudge), her parents, Remus, Tonks, Kingsley, Moody, Luna Lovegood, who was engaged to Ron, and Harry Potter, currently deep in conversation with Dumbledore. All of them looked strained; the Death Eaters, who had been relatively quiet for the last two years or so, had lately been attacking muggle schools and hospitals, which created a lot of friction between the muggle and wizarding world, and of course produced mass hysteria. The Ministry and Order had both been enormously occupied covering up the attacks as best they could to stop the muggles discovering the wizarding world, which involved a lot of modified memories of the surviving witnesses and frantic negotiations with muggle government officials. The muggle newspapers had been saying that the attacks were the work of terrorist groups that had not been identified, although they failed to explain, or even mention, the rumours of bright flashes of ghostly green light and people appearing out of thin air.

Now Snape was apparently coming to tell them the latest developments on the situation from the Death Eater side of things. Joy. Ginny hated seeing Snape more than ever recently, because he reminded her of a certain other former Slytherin who she had not seen for months. It had been a year since that magical night by the sea, and Ginny had only spoken in person to Draco twice since then, and once by letter. She hated the situation they were in. It was extremely unfair and cruel. They had been together throughout Ginny’s fifth and sixth year and then Draco, Harry, Ron, Hermione and all the others had graduated. Harry, Ron and Hermione to become full Order members, and had starting up their own company as Dark Wizard Hunters, preferring now to work for Fudge, and Draco had taken his ‘rightful place’ at his father’s side. But unbeknown to Lucius Malfoy, his son had already been a well respected Order member for a year before he left school, providing the Order with vital information as to Voldemort’s movements and plans. But when he graduated, Draco had to become a Death Eater, and go deep undercover in his dangerous new role as a double agent. He couldn’t risk anyone being suspicious of him, and he succeeded perfectly - he had the complete trust of Voldemort and his father. No Death Eater even suspected that Draco Malfoy - the cold, ruthless Draco Malfoy - was repeating their every move to Dumbledore. That the unfeeling, uncaring Draco Malfoy loved Ginny Weasley more than life itself.

Now Ginny had just graduated from Hogwarts two weeks ago, and had not seen or heard from Draco for three months, when he sent he a hastily scribbled 18^th birthday card, which she treasured. In the past six months the Death Eaters had become more active, and all over Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and the Prophet there were posters of the Ministry’s Most Wanted Death Eaters, and among them was Draco Malfoy who was slowly making a name for himself as one of Voldemort’s most devoted followers. So his life was constantly at risk from Aurors. But, mainly due to Ginny’s constant worrying, Harry Potter - ‘The Boy Who Lived’ and star Dark Wizard Hunter - had warned Aurors off killing Malfoy, his story was that he wished to deal with the man himself, as they had previous history. No one challenged this, because everyone knew of the two wizards’ hatred for each other at school, no one realising that they were now good friends. So, much to Ginny’s relief, Malfoy was to be brought in alive if possible for Harry to deal with.

“You okay?” Hermione asked her quietly. Ginny smiled thinly at her friend, noticing the concerned look on her face. Ginny nodded and briefly squeezed Hermione’s hand, reassuring her there’s nothing to worry about. Hermione still looked sceptical though.

“Its nothing. Just…you know, stuff.” Ginny finished lamely. Good one Ginny, she’s really gonna stop worrying now she thought wryly.

As predicted, Hermione started to look all sympathetic. “Draco?” she asked quietly. Ginny nodded but said nothing, hoping Hermione would get the hint and drop it. Luckily, she was saved by Snape of all people. Looking his usual gorgeous self I see she thought with a smirk. Greasy haired, sallow skinned, hook nosed, ugly moron. She realised that Hermione was looking at her with her eyebrows raised and Ron, who was leaning against the wall next to Hermione caught her eye and winked. Ginny realised too late that she’d actually spoken out loud, but to her relief, quite quietly.

Silence fell in the already quiet room as Snape stalked in front of them and began telling them swiftly of the Death Eaters plans for the next few weeks. He knew of two muggle primary schools that were next to be targeted. After they finished discussing plans for the protection of the schools Snape asked for any questions and when Harry called out that he had one, Snape glared at him and grudgingly told him to continue.

“These attacks have only started five or six months ago, and already five schools and two hospitals have been attacked, which is more that one a month. Close to five hundred muggles have died, and thirty two wizards. Whoever’s doing this needs to be brought in. Who thought this up?” He asked, trying to keep his voice civil.

“I think we’re all well aware that it needs to stop Potter” Snape said acidly. “It was Dolohov who came up with the idea. You wont get near him, he’s turned completely paranoid in the last few months and now won’t leave the Dark Lord’s side.” he sneered, lip curling in disgust.

“But who’s leading the attacks?” Harry persisted.

Snape quickly glanced at Ginny and her heart stopped beating. She swore she saw something close to pity in that look.

“Bellatrix” he said shortly “And Draco Malfoy”.

The room was silent. Ginny could feel everybody’s eyes on her, she could sense the sympathetic looks. Hermione asked hesitantly “But he’s still on our side, right?”

Snape looked coolly at her. “Yes Granger, of course he is. He obviously did not want to oversee the operation, but clearly he couldn’t say that. He had no choice in the matter. Bellatrix does most of the … practical work, Malfoy’s job is more to organise the attacks and make sure it all goes smoothly. Unfortunately, he was seen by a Ministry Auror in the attack last week, so tomorrow it’s to be printed in the Prophet; Fudge has ordered that he’s to be brought in: ‘Dead or Alive’.”

Front Page News

Draco Malfoy stalked along the passageway, a sneer marring his face for the benefit of anyone who happened to be looking at him. He passed through the grimy hall without looking at the assortment of … things… that were in there. His eyes were fixed on the door at the opposite end of the passage, where inside a filthy room his father waited. Face devoid of expression, he sauntered in without knocking and kicked the door closed behind him. “Those things stink father” he said shortly, expressing his distaste for the assortment of creatures that his father called his personal guards.

Lucius only raised an eyebrow, not looking up from the parchment he was studying. “I know” he drawled in a bored voice “but they are necessary.” Draco snorted. “Necessary?!” he sneered “Who do you think you’re going to be attacked by? You’re getting as bad as Dolohov…” he trailed off as he caught sight of what his father was looking at. It was the front page of today’s Daily Prophet. Seeing his son’s glance, Lucius handed him the paper and studied Draco’s face.

Draco took the paper from his father and stared at it. On the front page looking up at him was three pictures: Bellatrix, himself, and a burning muggle school. Although he kept his face expressionless, inside he was fighting a storm of emotions. Oh Ginny he thought. He knew that she would be reading this story right now, wondering how he could do this, wondering why he was doing this. He realised that his father was watching his face closely, looking for signs that this affected him, signs of weakness. But Draco’s face betrayed nothing. He threw the paper down on the desk and raised an eyebrow. “Quite a write-up.” he commented dryly.

His father nodded. “They know too much.” he said, his voice cold “There’s an insider”.

Draco raised both eyebrows this time. “Obviously” he said. “Any ideas?”

His father just frowned slightly and shock his head. “But I intend to find out.” He said dangerously. “If you have any suspicions, tell me. Oh, and before you go…what’s your opinion on Snape?” He asked. Draco just shrugged and replied with the usual neutral views that meant that he didn’t know what his father wanted him to say. Lucius looked pointedly towards the door and went back to studying some important looking papers.

Draco scowled and strode out, slamming the door behind him. He knew that his father did not suspect him, after all why would he? But he did expect Draco to find out who it was who was giving this information to the other side. And of course Draco knew. He wasn’t doing it of course, he only told Dumbledore the really important long term plans and aspirations of Voldemort, he didn’t deal with petty attacks on muggles - that was Snape’s area. Draco wondered just how far his father trusted Snape. He suddenly realised that maybe Snape wasn’t so immune to suspicion as he liked to think. And once the suspicion is there, it is never fully stilled. How long until they confront him? Draco mused. Snape should be warned. But he didn’t want to be seem talking to him though. And there was the problem that Snape knew that Draco was working for Dumbledore - Voldemort and Lucius would find that out if they decided to ‘question’ Snape. No one could withhold information when ‘questioned’ by Lucius Malfoy. His methods were quite imaginative.

Draco had been lost in thought, not really paying attention to his surroundings until he suddenly bumped into someone. He blinked and looked around. It was Snape he had collided with as he passed Draco in the corridor with Dolohov. “Watch your step Snape” Draco sneered, locking eyes with his former potions master. Snape just stared back then swept away, black robes billowing, back in deep conversation with Dolohov. Draco hoped he had picked up on the real meaning of his comment, he couldn’t afford to make mistakes.

~*~*~

Ginny sat at her desk, elbows propped up on the morning copy of the Daily Prophet. Head in hands, she closed her eyes, she couldn’t bear to see the picture of Draco, her lovely Draco, next to that burning school any more. The article had been worse than she thought. She had been up all night, worrying about what the paper would say about Draco. But the writer - Rita Skeeter of course - had made Draco out to be some kind of monster. And now Fudge had ordered Draco’s immediate capture, at any cost! He was top of the list of Most Wanted, along with his father and Voldemort himself. They were blaming every single death on Draco, saying it was all his fault. Silent tears fell through Ginny’s fingers onto the paper, smudging the ink. She wondered how Draco must feel right now, seeing such accusations by his name. He would know that she must have seen the story, and had no idea how she would react.

There was a knock on her bedroom door and Ron walked in, as usual not waiting for her to open the door. Ginny scowled at him, but he just looked back, oblivious to the death glare his sister was sending him. “Ginny are you ok?” Ron asked, a copy of the Prophet in his hand. Ginny offered him a shaky smile, which turned out to be more of a grimace. “Yes Ron, I’m fine. I’ve got things to do” she said, gesturing to the piles of books on Healing in front of her. “So if you wouldn’t mind…?” she continued, pointing to the door. Ron made a face at her and slouched off without protest, he was never good at this kind of thing.

Ginny sighed and reached for her wand. She waved it as the newspaper in front of her and saw it vanish. Satisfied, she pulled one of her new books in front of her and started reading. She was studying to become a Healer, she decided that she definitely did not want to fight like her brother, Harry and Hermione, there was too much fighting already. She wanted to make a difference a different way, preferring to fix the damage done by fighting, not create it.

She had just began taking notes on a chapter in her book when an owl flew in through her open window. Ginny looked curiously at it as it landed on her desk. She didn’t recognise it, and she only ever got letters from her closest friends, and this owl didn’t belong to any of them. She untied the rolled up parchment form its outstretched leg and it flew off immediately - whoever sent the letter clearly did not want a response. Ginny broke the seal on the parchment with a spell and unrolled it. A guarded expression was on her face when she saw the saw the handwriting, not knowing what to expect.

Ginny,

By now I’m sure you have read today’s Prophet and couldn’t miss the front page story. I want to explain to you that the story written by Skeeter is not the full truth. Yes, I am organising the attacks on the muggles, and yes, I was at each one. I know how much you don’t want to believe it, but most of that article it true Ginny. I am doing those things. I wont pretend it’s not true just to spare your feelings, its not right.

I won’t make excuses. I won’t tell you it wasn’t me. I can’t do that. But you know that I do not want to have any part in these attacks, and I wish I could tell you that I’m not involved, that they’ve got it all wrong. But I can’t. I’ve killed people Ginny. A lot of innocent people. I’m not proud of it, but I have done it, and I will do it again. And I can’t escape that - and neither can you while I have your heart. So I’m giving it back to you. I’m releasing you Ginny, go out and find someone better, someone who will not break your heart into a million pieces every time you unfold the newspaper in the morning.

What I’m trying to say is that what we had is gone. Its over. You can’t change that, please don’t try to fight it. You don’t need my love. And I don’t need yours. What good will it do me other than add another burden of guilt on my shoulders?

Don’t try to contact me again, there is nothing more for either of us to say. This is the way its got to be, and the way I want it to be. Now you’re free to love an honest, decent man without hundreds of crimes to his name, someone who doesn’t have a lovely kiss from a dementor awaiting him in the near future.

So this is goodbye. Now you can see my face in the paper and hate me along with everyone else. Because I don’t want your love, or your support or your smiles. And I don’t love you any more. Goodbye Ginny

D.M.

Wedding Plans

For the rest of the day Ginny stayed in her room, curled up on the bed with her two best friends beside her, trying to comfort her. Both Hermione and Luna had now read the letter, and after both declaring that Draco Malfoy was the biggest git alive, decided now was the perfect time for ice-cream and reminiscing about the good times at school. They were trying very hard to distract Ginny from thinking about Draco, but were mostly unsuccessful. It didn’t help that almost every good memory of the past three years of Ginny’s life had Draco Malfoy at the centre. Ginny couldn’t stop thinking about all the good times they had had together at Hogwarts, especially the first six months of their relationship, when they hadn’t told anyone they were dating. After that first kiss in the corridor in front of an amazed Lavender and Parvati, they didn’t speak to each other for weeks. In fact, Draco later told her that he had found out her timetable and had avoided anywhere that she was likely to be for weeks. Whenever they did meet by chance they would avoid each other’s eye and hurry off.

Finally, on one such occasion when Ginny was on her way to the kitchen for a midnight snack and bumped into Draco along the way, he pinned her to the wall and ranted at her for half an hour about how he hadn’t been thinking about her at all for the last three weeks and how dare she stand there looking that good and distract him from his rant? How dare she! It wasn’t fair that she did that to him when he was trying so hard to forget her or be mad at her or at the very least insult her! Ginny had just stood there, staring at him, not really knowing what to say. A Malfoy, thinking about a Weasley like that? Unbelievable! In the end she just grabbed him and kissed him roughly, not caring that he was a high-and-mighty Malfoy, while she was just a poor, common Weasley. Draco, after the shock wore off, kissed her back just as passionately, also seeming to forget her lowly status. They were interrupted but Mrs Norris meowing loudly at their feet. After Draco gave the cat a hearty kick and sent it running of for Filch, he grabbed Ginny’s hand and they made a run for it. He opened the first door he found and pushed Ginny inside and quickly followed, locking it behind him. They were in a dusty old closet, as Ginny pointed out acidly, making a face at the dust and cobwebs. Draco just shrugged. “Deal with it” he had said, then sat down on the floor with his back against the door, eyes on Ginny. After trying to persuade him to move out the way for what seemed like hours, Ginny gave up and sat down next to him, scowling. They had spent hours in there, talking first about general things, but soon came on to more personal topics like their families. They got to know each other extremely well in those two hours in the closet, both physically and mentally. Draco finally let Ginny out after half an hour of passionate kisses, and she crept back to bad, dusty and exhausted. She wondered for weeks afterwards why Draco had never even asked her to sleep with him while in the closet, but when she asked him a few weeks later, he just looked at her. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a whore Weasley.” he had said and walked away, leaving Ginny with a new opinion of the fabled womaniser of Hogwarts.

In the next few months they formed a steady relationship, trying very hard to keep it secret. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out as planned, and Ron found out and went mad. But they had struggled on through the storm that they created when people found out about their relationship, and Ginny had unlocked a whole new side of Draco Malfoy that no one had ever seen before. They had lasted for years to everyone’s amazement, and had grown more in love every day. And now Draco was willing to let that go? To forget it all? He was going to throw it all away as though it had never happened. Ginny brought herself back to the present with tears flowing down her cheeks, her two best friends looking at her with lost eyes, not knowing what to do to make her feel better. Ginny offered them a shaky smile and decided to try harder to forget.

Luna decided it was time for a new tactic, this time something that Malfoy wasn’t part of. “Guess what?” she said excitedly, eyes loosing their dreamy quality and sparkled. Ginny and Hermione looked at her expectantly. Luna let the suspense build up a bit, until Ginny hit her with a pillow, then said “We’ve decided on a date!” It worked perfectly. Ginny gave an excited shriek and she and Hermione badgered Luna for all the details. Finally Luna relented. “Oh ok! We’ve decided that we want to get married quite soon, and Ronald thought that it would be nice for a Christmas wedding. So it will be Christmas Eve I think.” she said.

Ginny hugged her friend hard and smiled at her as Hermione said congratulations. “You two will be so happy together! I’m so happy for you! Have you told mum yet?” she asked.

Luna smiled vaguely. “Not yet, I thought you two should be the first to know, as you will be standing with me on the day. I think Ronald said something about not telling your mother until nearer the time.”

Hermione snorted. “He’s just trying to chicken out.” she said. Ginny agreed, her mother believed in doing things the proper way, and she had expected Ron and Luna to be engaged for at least two years before thinking of actually getting married. She wouldn’t be surprised if Ron was planning on leaving it until a week before the wedding before telling Molly, when it was too late to change their plans. Ginny decided she needed to have words with her brother before long.

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the wedding, looking through magazines for dress ideas. There was so much to arrange - Luna’s dress, bridesmaids’ dresses for Ginny and Hermione, Ron’s suit, Harry’s suit (he would of course be best man), locations for both the wedding and reception, guest invitations, florists to contact, photographers to arrange, and because it was set to be a high profile wedding with the likes of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore attending, there was also the issue of security.

But they couldn’t start to arrange anything before Molly Weasley was told about the early wedding. Luna and Ron told Mrs Weasley about the wedding by the end of July, and she took it surprisingly well, with only a few objections. But Ron took her aside and quietly told his mother the reasoning behind getting married so soon. With the war between the free wizarding world and Voldemort escalating, Ron knew that he may not have two years to wait to get married. In his line of work he was facing Dark Wizards almost daily, and not always coming out of a fight unhurt. He wanted to marry Luna before anything happened to him, he wanted to die a married man. Molly cried at this, knowing it to be the truth. She had asked Ron, Harry and Hermione countless times to give up their jobs as Dark Wizards Hunters and pursue a safer career, but all three were set on stopping Voldemort and his followers. Molly Weasley now accepted that, and accepted Ron’s choice to get married at Christmas.

The next few moths flew by in a whirl of wedding related activity for Ginny. She was kept extremely busy either her task of organising the wedding reception, or her studies for becoming a Healer. Her exam was set to take place on the 15^th January next year, which seemed much too soon, she still had so much to do before then! So summer and autumn came and went, and she gradually thought less and less about Draco Malfoy, although she still dreamt about him, but even those dreams were coming less often, and were easier to bear.

By November, Ginny felt she was almost completely over Draco Malfoy, who was now just a blurry presence at the outskirts of her life. She heard his name without feeling such overwhelming loss, and she awoke from dreams of him without tears running down her cheeks. But her heart still missed a beat when she saw his face in the prophet, usually on the front page. She always read the reports carefully, absorbing every horrific detail of the things he had supposedly done. But it didn’t make her cry any more, and she finally convinced herself to stop believing that he would one day walk through her door and carry her away into the sunset.

At the start of December Ginny, Hermione and Mrs Weasley accompanied Luna trying on her dress for the wedding. Luna was going to have a traditional wedding dress - wizard style. She had seen it in Scarlet’s Dress Robes, a trendy shop in Hogsmeade. The dress was floor length and beautiful. It had an ivory embroidered silk bodice, fully silk lined and boned, with intricate beading in emerald green along the top. The bottom of the dress was a wrap over A' line skirt with an embroidered insert from the left hip, the beading on it also in emerald green.

Luna stepped out of the fitting room to the collective sigh of admiration from Ginny, Hermione, Mrs Weasley and Scarlet herself. “Oh Miss Lovegood you look absolutely gorgeous!” she gushed, fluttering about making minor adjustments to the dress with her wand. Luna’s doubtful eyes met Ginny’s and Ginny smiled. “Luna you really do look beautiful! Ron won’t take his eyes off you for the whole day! In fact, I don’t think any man will!” she said. Luna beamed back at her.

The Wedding

The days counting down to the wedding seemed either much too slow, like at the start of December when the 25^th seemed to be ages away, or go super fast, like the week before the wedding. The last week went by in a rush, somehow there were a million and one things that had to be sorted all of a sudden. The photographer owled to say he had double-booked and couldn’t be at the wedding, but could be there the next day if they could possibly hold off the wedding until then? Luna crumpled up the parchment after reading the letter aloud to Ginny and Hermione and tossed it in the fire. All three of them were curled up in armchairs by the fireplace in the Burrow’s living room, mugs of hot chocolate balanced precariously on the sides of their chairs rapidly cooling, or, in Hermione’s case, hovering efficiently at elbow height, revolving slowly over a tiny blue flame that kept it at a perfect drinking temperature.

“Hmmm have we asked Perfect Poise photographers yet?” Luna asked, chewing on the end of her quill, staring at the long list of names in front of her.

Hermione leaned over and frowned at the list. “Yes, I owled them yesterday, remember? They’re all booked up until February. What about Mirage? Or Grindal and Sparks’?” she suggested as Luna crossed off another name from the list. Ginny shook her head and reached for her drink and took a sip, then grabbed her wand and warmed up her drink, glaring at Hermione as she plucked her own from the revolving fire and sipped the perfect tasting drink.

“I got owls from both those companies today” Ginny told Luna “Both are fully booked, sorry.” Luna nodded and crossed another two off the list. She sighed and soon the list followed the previous parchment into the fire. She sat and watched it burn for a few seconds with glazed eyes then blinked and glanced back at Ginny and Hermione and looked vaguely annoyed. “I really need to get this sorted you know” she said and got up, knocking her hot chocolate off the chair in the process.

Hermione flicked her wand over the broken mess and it promptly disappeared, not leaving even a stain. Luna smiled in thanks and wandered off to find a new mug. Ginny sat in thought for a long time, staring vacantly at the fire. “Oooh I’ve got it!” she suddenly said, clapping her hands together. Both Hermione and Luna jumped at her sudden outburst, causing Luna’s second cup to smash on the floor. “Colin Creevy!” Ginny said, smiling. “You’ve invited him to the wedding, and you know that he’s just trying to start up a new photography business. Well, why not hire him for the pictures? It will be cheap pictures for you, and a great start to Colin’s career. Your wedding has been mentioned in the prophet and in the Quibbler - of course - so if Colin sells them the pictures he’ll be happy! He’d be so pleased that you asked him Luna, you really should.” Ginny said imploringly. Luna nodded and said she’d owl him straight away.

They got an owl back the next morning saying Colin would be delighted to be the official photographer for their wedding. With that sorted, they could get on with planning the reception and seating plans. Luckily, everyone got on very well and so there were not too many complications deciding where everyone was going to sit, much to Luna’s relief.

Finally Christmas arrived, and with it mountains of snow. They had decided to have both the actual wedding and the reception at Hogwarts, which was the largest place they could think of, and also the least expensive and safest. So they all travelled on the Knight Bus to Hogwarts on Christmas Eve, and arrived, much to Ron and Harry’s delight, in time for dinner. They had a warm welcome at Hogwarts, and soon everyone was feeling at home among the few students who had stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas. “Just like old times Harry!” Ron said heartily as he shovelled heaps of food into his mouth with Hermione watching disgustedly. She leaned over to him “Ron, if you continue to eat like that, you wont fit into your suit tomorrow.” she said sweetly. Ron instantly turned a nasty shade of green and pushed his plate away. Fred was sitting next to Ron and grinned and caught Hermione’s eye. “That was such a cheap shot” he said “mentioning ’ickle Ronniekins’ wedding to him while he’s so nervous. Next you’ll be saying that Luna will run off with the best man.” he said, grinning evilly. Ron went from green to white and excused himself quickly, probably to check he could still fit into his suit, and Luna hadn’t run off with Harry. Ginny grinned at Hermione and they left together to go to the guest rooms where they were staying. They were sharing a room in the East Wing of the castle, the coldest part in Ginny’s opinion. “Why do the guest rooms have to be in this part of the bloody castle?” she grumbled as an icy breeze swept past them, making her shiver. Hermione grimaced in agreement and huddled into her cloak. She turned as she heard her name being shouted and Harry jogged up to them and flashed Ginny a quick smile and turned his attention back to Hermione. “Hey, you seen the new books they’ve got in the Library?” he asked, in an oh-so-subtle ‘come to my room’ request. Ginny rolled her eyes at Hermione, who grinned back and mouthed “men” before grabbing Harry’s hand and walking off, leaving Ginny alone on the draughty corridor, feeling quite neglected from coupledom. She sighed and headed back towards her room. On the way she passed a very, very nice looking guy, all dark and handsome, who smiled sexily at her. Ginny smiled back in a slightly confused way.

“Hey Ginny” Mr Dark&Handsome said. Ginny frowned. “Do I know…. Oh my god! Dean Thomas!! You’ve changed so much!” Ginny gushed, looking him up and down again. She hadn’t seen him for a year, but hadn’t really looked at him for the last three, not since she started dating Draco. She realised he had said something while she had been staring. “I’m sorry…what?” she asked. so very cool Ginny, look at you go! she thought sarcastically.

Dean smiled. “I said, I’m sorry to hear about Malfoy turning out to be a complete bastard, you two seemed to be great together…you…you’re not still with him are you? Not now he’s turned to You-know-who?” he asked cautiously, studying her face.

Ginny hesitated a second before shaking her head and answering. “No, I’m not with him any more. We split up at the end of my 6^th year - when you all graduated. He went to join Voldemort with his father, so we split up.”

Dean frowned. “That must have been hard, after all his talk of changing, he turns back to his old ways.” Ginny shrugged and kept her face blank. She obviously couldn’t tell Dean the truth, but she hated lying like this. She decided to change the subject. They spent the next half hour talking about life after Hogwarts and how things are going. They got on to the subject of work and Ginny told him all about her studies for Healing and how nervous she was about the upcoming exam. She asked him what he did now. Dean grinned. “I’m an Unspeakable actually.” he said and laughed at her surprised expression. “I know, it’s odd isn’t it? Totally ruins your social life, I hardly go out at all up until now, when I got the invite for Ron’s wedding. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” he said. “And here’s the man himself!” He was looking over Ginny’s shoulder at Ron approaching them with a dazed expression on his face. He reached them and slumped against the wall. “Oh hi Dean, glad you could come.” he said vaguely, looking slightly ill. He gave them a smile that ended up more like a grimace. “Well, I s’pose I should go to sleep now…big day tomorrow…” he said, a terrified look in his eyes. He wandered off to find his room and Ginny giggled. “Bless him! He’s so silly. Anyway, I guess I should be going as well, so goodnight Dean.” she said and smiled at him. Dean smiled back. “Night Ginny” he said and kissed her cheek and walked off. Ginny watched him go with a mixture of emotions.

She walked to her room and went in, seeing Hermione wasn’t back yet, so she ran a bath and had a long soak, mulling over her confusing feelings. Dean was so handsome, and seemed like such a great guy. He was interesting, and had an exciting job. He was obviously keen on her. So what was wrong with her? Shouldn’t she want to see him again? Get to know him better? well I do! she thought he’s so nice, I really do want to see him again. But what about Draco? Have I given up on him? Of course you have! He’s a mean, cruel, evil bastard who doesn’t deserve your love! Whereas Dean…

Ginny sighed and got out of the bath and pulled on her nightdress. She climbed into bed and replayed the conversation she had had with Dean. He really was nice. Yes, she would definitely want to get to know him better…

But when she fell asleep her dreams were filled with cold silver eyes, silently telling her she was betraying him.

Ginny awoke so the sound of Hermione’s shower-singing in the bathroom and winced as her friend hit a high note, very out of tune. Hermione’s singing is definitely not a welcome sound any time of the day, especially not at half past eight in the morning. Ginny reluctantly dragged herself out of bed and stumbled over to the mirror and cringed when she saw her reflection. Her hair was a total mess after a night tossing and turning, and there were dark circles under her eyes. “Great” she muttered, reaching for her wand. After a series of complex spells she finally got her hair to look sleek and shiny, and nodded in satisfaction before turning her attention to the horrible circles under her green eyes. Hermione came out of the bathroom, towel round her head and smiled at Ginny. “Good morning!” she said, uncoiling the towel from her head and rubbing her hair with it, sending water droplets all over Ginny. “Oops sorry Gin! By the way, when are you going to get changed?” she asked.

Ginny shrugged. “Dunno… whenever you are I suppose. We’re meant to be going to Luna’s room at ten for breakfast and to get her ready. It’s nine now, so I think we should probably start getting ready now, we’ve only got an hour.”

Hermione stared at Ginny in horror when she heard this and grabbed her wand and started to turbo-dry her hair with hot air, the towel laying discarded at her feet. “I knew I should have got up earlier! I thought we would have more time!” she muttered hysterically. Ginny just rolled her eyes and got changed into her bridesmaid dress, careful not to crease it. She then fixed her hair and make-up, attacking those dark circles vigorously while Hermione rushed around, frantically dumping half a bottle of Sleek-easy’s on her head. Finally they were ready and made their way to Luna’s room down the corridor to help her get ready.

Two hours later they were waiting in an anti-chamber outside the Great Hall, all three looking nervous. Luna’s dad was with them, telling Luna how beautiful she looked. Music from the Great Hall suddenly started up and Luna jumped and went pale. Her dad took her arm firmly and steered her towards the door, ushering Ginny and Hermione in front of them. The door opened and Ginny took a deep breath and stepped in, side by side with Hermione, and walked up the main aisle, Luna and her dad a few paces behind.

Draco had managed to get a day away from his family today, much to his relief. His mother was spending Christmas day with her sister-in-law, and his father was busy terrorising mudbloods. So he found himself leaning against the wall of the Great Hall at Hogwarts under an invisibility cloak he had ‘borrowed’, waiting for Ginny to come in. he knew she was going to be a bridesmaid, and he couldn’t resist the chance to see her again. He knew how cut up she would have been about that letter he sent her in the summer, he hadn’t heard from her since. Not that he expected to really. He really wanted what was best for her, and that meant being as far away from him as possible. The worst thing he could do would be to show himself to her today, or contact her again. Yet he couldn’t resist coming to this wedding, just to see her, one last time. That was what he told himself, he would stop thinking about her after this, he would move on. His thoughts were interrupted as music started to play and the doors of the Great Hall opened wide, and in walked the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Ginny was wearing a simple dark green dress, cut stylishly. It brought out the green in her eyes, which sparkled with happiness. Her fiery hair was piled up on top of her head in curls, with a few tresses of hair loose, framing her face. She took his breathe away and he suddenly felt a surge of longing and loneliness so strong it became almost a physical pain.

It took all of his self-restraint to stay where he was through the whole ceremony with Ginny standing so close and looking so stunning. He watched her every move, studying all the ways she had changed since he last saw her. That had been well over a year ago now, the summer before last. He saw her catch the eye of a good-looking man sitting near the front and saw them exchange smiles. Draco’s blood ran cold. Had she found someone else? He studied the man carefully, and finally realised it was Dean Thomas. He recalled that Ginny had dated Thomas for awhile before she started dating him. Draco’s face darkened. He wanted so curse Thomas right now, make him sorry he had even looked at Ginny like that. But Dumbledore’s eyes flicked towards him and Draco reluctantly took his hand out of his pocket and let go of his wand. He scowled at Dumbledore - the man could see through invisibility cloaks obviously. He knew too damned much.

Draco lingered awhile after the ceremony finished, but soon left, feeling that he couldn’t trust himself to be in the same room as Thomas any more without something unfortunate happening to him. He saw Ginny walking straight over to the pathetic excuse for a man as soon as she had congratulated her brother and Lovegood. He noticed Thomas whispering in her ear and smiling at her, and Ginny giggling back, eyes all lit up and happy-looking. He couldn’t stand it, he didn’t want to watch this any more. So he stormed out, a few people looking around curiously as the door of the Great Hall seemingly opened and then slammed shut by itself. She deserves to be happy he thought, then angrily told himself to shut up because she should have been happy with him, not Dean bloody Thomas. He stalked out of the castle and across the grounds to Hogsmeade, where he would be able to apparate away. He was conscious of Dumbledore’s eyes on his back the whole time and when he reached the gates he turned to see Dumbledore standing on the steps by the door, watching him. The old wizard raised a hand and turned back inside. Draco suddenly felt he had passed some sort of test. He shook his head and disapparated.

A Party to Remember

It was a week after the wedding and Ginny was missing her best friend very much. Luna and Ron weren’t due back from their honeymoon for another week and she couldn’t wait to see them again. Her last week had been lonely, everyone was still in a romantic Christmas mood and spend lots of time in couples, everyone other than Ginny. So she was delighted when she woke up on the last day of December and found an owl perched outside her window, shivering in the cold. It must be from Luna and Ron! she thought excitedly and opened the window wide and ushered the owl in, eager to hear news of her friend. But when she glanced at the handwriting of the address she didn’t recognise the style. Frowning, she unfolded the letter and began to read.

Miss Weasley

It is with great pleasure I invite you to a party tonight at my house in London to welcome the new year. I have enclosed instructions on how to get here and await your reply by return owl.

I hope you can make it on such short notice. (bring Harry and Hermione!)

D.Thomas

Ginny felt her heart flutter and grinned at the letter in her hand. She gave the owl some water and called to it to stay where it was while she quickly left the room. She found Hermione and Harry in the kitchen eating a huge breakfast served up by Molly. Hermione looked up in horror as Ginny entered. “How am I going to stay in shape when your mum insisted on feeding my enough to keep a whole village from starving for a year?! How do you stay so slim after nearly 19 years of this?” she wailed. Ginny grinned and grabbed a piece of toast from the teetering stack on the table. “You should be used to it by now! I found a spell in a cookbook years ago that reduces the fat in food by half. If you use it two or three times on the food before you eat it there’s no problem!”

Molly tutted loudly and shot Ginny a long-suffering and disapproving look. “You need to keep up your energy! I’ve banned you from using that spell countless times in the past Ginny. It doesn’t do you any good. And there’s nothing wrong with a well-rounded figure.” she sniffed and began heaping bacon onto a grinning Harry’s plate. “Thanks Molly” he said and ate it all while eying Hermione’s full plate with interest. “Hermione are you going to-? Ah thanks!” he said as Hermione pushed it towards him with a grimace and glanced up at Ginny as she began to speak. “We’ve been invited to a party tonight Hermione. Me, you and Harry. At Dean Thomas’ house. You can come, right?” she asked, not wanting to turn up on her own. Hermione gave her a look that Ginny chose not to understand, “What?” she asked. Hermione just shook her head and grinned at her friend’s innocent look. “We’ve been invited to loads of parties this year, but this one sounds by far the most interesting.” she said with a sly glance at Ginny, who turned red. “It gets us out of going to the Ministry’s do anyway, we went last year and all Fudge did all night was make nasty comments about us being Dark Wizard Hunters. He seems to think its all a bit of a joke.” Hermione said frowning darkly.

“Well it’s all sorted then!” Ginny replied. “I’ll go reply to the invitation.” she said and hurried back upstairs and quickly scrawled a reply and sent the owl back out in the cold. She grinned as she watched it fly away through the falling snow. The party should be good, it would do her good to get to know people better, one person in particular. She grimaced at the guilt rising in her and ruthlessly stamped it down. Malfoy’s made it clear he doesn’t want me, I deserve to be happy with someone else! she told herself angrily and firmly turned her thoughts to something else.

Hermione was sitting on her bed reading when Ginny burst into her room, dresses trailing from her arms. “Hermione help me!” she wailed, throwing herself down on the bed. “I don’t have anything nice to wear! What am I going to do?” Ginny watched as Hermione picked up a dark blue dress and held it up to herself in front of the mirror. “Gin, do you think I could borrow this?” she asked, then seeing the look of hopelessness on Ginny’s face she put the dress aside and picked up a slinky black one. “Why don’t you wear this one? It would really suit your figure, clinging in all the right places.” she said brightly. Ginny pointed to the top of the dress. “One of the straps snapped.” she said dully. Hermione examined the dress with a frown then told Ginny to stay where she was and disaperated. Ginny heard her voice downstairs and a few minutes later the door opened and Hermione came in followed by Molly, wand in hand. “Put it on Ginny dear and I’ll se what I can do” she told the girl slumped on the bed. Ginny complied and was soon standing still while her mum frowned at her critically. “I thought both the straps could go, and then tighten up the top, so she can wear it strapless.” Hermione told Molly. Ginny started to protest but was soon told to be quiet and stand still. “Mum I don’t see why you cant just fix the strap!” Ginny complained as Molly raised her wand. “Because it would look better strapless Ginny dear, it would really show off your nice shoulders” her mother replied and began to work.

A few hours later they were all set to go. Ginny and Hermione had just finished their make-up and Harry was waiting impatiently for them in the living room. “Hurry up! We’re going to be late!” Harry yelled. “We’re coming” came the muffled reply from upstairs and soon Hermione and Ginny came clattering in in their heels. Ginny looked pale and nervous, constantly smoothing her dress at the hips although it didn’t need it. Harry opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong when Hermione nudged him and gave him a look. Harry just shrugged. “Right, you girls ready to go then?” he asked, glancing at his watch. They nodded and simultaneously apparated away.

Draco suppressed a yawn and blinked hard, trying to banish the onset of boredom. He studied the crowd gathered in the room. It was all the usual suspects; Avery, Crabbe and Goyle and their sons who were Draco’s age, Dolohov, Jugson, the brothers Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange, Macnair, Nott and his son, Snape, and all the rest. Draco was leaning against at back wall, not wanting to have to listen to any of their usual ranting. It would be the same as it always is - lengthy descriptions of their hatred of mudbloods and muggles. Draco was surprised they didn’t bore themselves, because they certainly bored him. He put his hand over his mouth to hide another yawn when the door banged open and his father and Bellatrix swept in. The talk instantly ceased and all attention was fixed on the two death eaters at the front of the room. Lucius’ eyes swept over them all and came to a rest on his son, who he summoned to the front with a jerk of his head. Draco pushed himself of the wall and strode up to his father, careful no to show any reluctance, his face blank and bored looking. He raised an enquiring eyebrow at Lucius and was handed a folded parchment. He was just unfolding it when his father grabbed his wrist painfully and hissed “Don’t open it now fool. Take Bella, Theo Nott, Rookwood, young Crabbe and Goyle and Macnair and go to Crescent Grove in London. When you’re there read this and tell the others whatever you thing they need to know. Go now.”

Draco tried to move away but his father still had a grip on his arm. “Draco don’t fail me.” Draco pried his fathers hand of his wrist and looked at him coldly. “I will not fail you father. You should know that by now.” he said and turned away, calling out the names of those who were to go with him before stalking out the room, well-made black cloak billowing behind him in the trademark Malfoy-in-a-mood-so-don’t-get-in-my-way style.

Ginny looked around at the gorgeous large stone houses around her with envy. Harry appeared at her elbow and let out a low whistle. “Dean must be loaded, you seen the size of these!” he said, staring around. “You’re not so bad off yourself Mr. Potter” Hermione replied, poking him in the ribs. “You’re just too tight with money to spend it on houses like this.” she said grinning. Harry just made a face at her and read Ginny’s invitation again. “Right, it’s number 4, so we’ll go look at the house numbers and see where it is” Harry said peering around in the semidarkness. “Or” Ginny replied “We could just follow everyone else” she pointed to Neville and a pretty blonde girl on his arm as they made their way to one of the houses. Harry made a face at her and set off in Neville’s direction, calling out to him at he went.

Ginny stepped into the house, trying not to stare too much at the huge entrance hall. A painting caught her eye and she wandered over to look at it. It was a picture of Hogwarts, done in oils. It was really amazing, from a viewpoint across the lake from the school. She looked for a signature and found it in the bottom right corner. She bent closer to see it and made out a

‘D.T’

Someone cleared their throat behind her and she jumped and spun round, coming face to face with Dean himself. To her horror she felt herself going red. “I was just, er, that picture, um, its very good” she babbled. ShutupshutupshutupGinny! she thought and closed her mouth quickly before she made even more of a fool of herself. Dean smiled “Thanks, I’m glad you like it. I did it just before I graduated.” he said. Ginny was still trying to control her urge to babble so just smiled and nodded and moved away quickly when someone called out to her. She saw Parvati waving to her and she hurried over and embraced her friend. “Parvati! I haven’t seen you for months! Where have you been?” She asked, taking in her friend’s tanned skin and wide smile. “Oooh Ginny I have so much to tell you! I’ve been working for Witches Weekly for the past year, and now I’m doing the gossip pages with Lavender. She’s not here tonight, she went to the Ministry do to see who’s there and who’s with who and all that.” Parvati said, taking Ginny’s elbow and steering her towards the food, still nattering on rapidly. “She was at Ron and Luna’s wedding, I couldn’t make it, I was covering the launch of the new sleekeasy hair serum in Barbados. How are the new couple anyway? I hear they’re on the honeymoon? Is it true that Luna’s dad gave her the Quibbler’s shares for a wedding present? Is she the new owner of the paper? And is it true she’s pregnant? And that Ron has fallen out with Harry and is going to work for the Ministry?” She asked Ginny excitedly.

Ginny found that she spent a good part of the evening correcting Parvati’s rumours and speculation and was extremely relieved when dean appeared at her shoulder and broke in politely “Sorry to interrupt ladies, but Miss Weasley’s presence is required elsewhere” he said with a smile and led Ginny away. “What did you mean by that?” she asked curiously. Dean smiled at her and looked straight into her eyes in a very disarming fashion. “A lot of people have been asking me who the beautiful redhead hiding in the corner is.” he said softly. “A lot of young men want to be introduced to you and are eager to get to know you” Ginny pulled her eyes away from his and looked at the floor. It’s now or never Ginny she thought. “There’s only one man here that I want to get to know better” she said quietly. Dean put an arm around her waist and pulled her onto the dance floor where couples were dancing to slow romantic songs. “Come on Gin, dance with me”

“Put your bloody mask on you fool” Draco hissed into the night. He glared at the wizards in front of him before turning his back and opening the parchment his father had given him earlier.

The house is 4 Crescent Grove. A Ministry unspeakable called Dean Thomas lives there. He has recently received a delivery from Australia. It is of vital importance that you find and bring us this object. It is a black chest with gold engraving on the outside. It was stolen from us in Australia a few weeks a go by the unspeakables at the Ministry. We need it back, it contains a very important object. Kill anyone who gets in your way. If Potter turns up try to capture him, not kill him, he is for the Dark Lord alone. If people fight, kill them. If they surrender, take them hostage if they will be useful. If not, kill them. We need Thomas alive, take him and find out how much he knows. Take all hostages and the box to the Riddle House. And Draco, don’t open it.

Draco handed Bellatrix the instructions and she read them before crumpling the parchment. “Right, go in, find a black box, kill anyone who gets in your way, leave the rest to us” she told the death eaters and set off towards the house, Draco close behind.

Ginny felt free for the first time in over three years. She could forget about Draco Malfoy and the complications that went with loving him. She lost herself in the music and in Dean’s arms. She pressed against him closer and felt him respond. She realised that this man held so close to her could be her lifeline. He could save her from her downward spiral of depression that she had been drowning in since she received that letter from Draco months ago. This is a man I could love, if I chose to she thought. He was so handsome, so nice, so…so not Draco Malfoy. Ginny smiled. Yes, she could definitely find herself loving him.

The song ended and they pulled apart slightly and she tilted her face up, her lips meeting his. She heard people on the other side of the room shouting and generally making a lot of noise. She just pulled Dean closer, ignoring it, getting lost in his kiss. The voices grew louder, raised over the music. She remembered thinking Is it midnight already? then suddenly she recognised the panic in the voices the heard and snapped open her eyes just as Dean cried out and fell forward, knocking them both to the ground.

Draco opened the front door silently and gestured for the others to go in. He pointed to the stairs and they went up, wands out. Bella, Nott and Draco stayed downstairs and slowly advanced towards the open door where the sounds of music and laughter were coming from. They flattened themselves against the wall as a young man wandered into the entrance hall. He looked around and saw them, but before he could open his mouth to shout, a jet of green light shot past Draco’s ear and hit the man. He fell to the ground in full view of the party room. Draco bit off an oath and shot a venomous look at Bellatrix before gesturing to the two death eaters to go in. Draco entered the room, wand raised and scanned the crowd for his target. Time seemed to slow down. His eyes found Thomas and then moved to the woman he was embracing. Draco’s eyes widened as Ginny’s hand brushed Thomas’ cheek and she smiled up at him then curled her arm round his neck and kissed him. Draco’s eyes darkened and he felt hate surge through him. He brought up his wand and trained it on Thomas. He shouted out the killing curse and watched as the green light burst from his wand and explode around the kissing couple. He saw them both fall to the ground and heard Ginny’s cry of surprise. Shrieks and screams broke out around him and he watched as the other two stunned and cursed the party guests. He saw Potter and Granger running towards them, wands in hand. All this happened slowly, the other death eaters running into the room, Potter shouting stunning spells, death eaters fighting back. But his attention was fixed on one thing. He wasn’t aware of crossing the room but he found himself kneeling down next to Thomas and Ginny. He rolled the unspeakable off of her and grabbed her by the shoulders. Her eyes flickered open. She was alive. Her eyes bore into his with anger and hate of such intensity that he released her and moved back. Her eyes strayed to Thomas, his glazed dead eyes staring back. Draco found himself flat on his back, face throbbing from Ginny’s fist. “You killed him! You bastard!” she screamed at him, sobbing. “I hate you! don’t you ever come near me again! You hear! I hate you, you bastard!” she launched herself at him, fists flying, still sobbing. He tried to fight her off without hurting her but was well aware of the other death eaters in the room, watching his fight with interest. He didn’t know what to do, Ginny was still screaming at him, and what she was saying could blow his cover. He had to act fast. He backhanded her across the face and rose to his feet, grabbing his wand, kicking hers away. Potter and Granger were gone, the rest of the guests unconscious on the floor. “Where’s Potter? Have you got the box?” he asked, keeping one eye on Ginny rising shakily to her knees, one hand pressed to her cheek where he had hit her. “He’s gone boss. Granger got hit and he picked her up and apparated away. We‘ve found the box.”

Draco nodded. “Ok. Look through the guests. Anyone who would be useful we’re taking with us.” he said and straightened his robes. “What about her?” Bellatrix said, jerking her head towards Ginny. “Isn’t that the Weasley girl? She could be useful, her father is one of Dumbledore’s cronies, and she’s quite a favourite with Potter and his lot. Looks like she was with the unspeakable too. She might know something.” Draco shook his head. “She’s not important, we’re leaving her.”

Bella ripped off her mask and frowned at him, her eyes burning “You weren’t meant to kill Thomas, Malfoy. You’ll be punished for this.” she spat. Draco shrugged, his eyes cold. He wanted Dean Thomas dead so he killed him. He didn’t care what they did to him for it, his blood was boiling with hatred and jealously. “So? We’ve got what we came for. Lets go.”

Just a short chapter this time… showing the end of the night…thanks for all your reviews guys, you’re all great!

Repercussions

Draco strode into his father’s study without knocking, trailed by Crabbe and Goyle. He stopped short as he realised his father was not alone. He dropped to his knees and bowed his head. “Forgive me Lord, I didn’t realise you were here” he mumbled, still staring straight down, unsure whether to expect a curse or a greeting. “You may get up Draco” Voldemort said in his high, cold voice that could send shivers down anyone’s spine. Not Draco’s though, not now. He killed Thomas, he was in a lot of trouble with everybody, a simple voice didn’t faze him. He rose to his feet and gestured sharply for Crabbe and Goyle to do the same. “You have the box?” his father asked. Draco snapped his fingers and Crabbe stepped forward and handed him the black chest. Draco placed in on the table in front of his father. Voldemort stepped forward and studied the box intently, running his hands over its surface. He hissed in anger and straightened up, turning to face Draco. “This is a replica. It is not the real chest.” he said, fury etched into his voice. Draco bowed low. “Forgive me Lord, I did not know.” he said, letting no fear enter his words. Voldemort turned back to the box and waved a dismissing hand at Draco. “You weren’t to know. But Bella should have. Goyle I want you to find her and bring her here, to me. Go.” Draco fought hard not to sigh with relief as Goyle disapparated. His interest in the box heightened. If the Dark Lord was too distracted to punish him for bringing a fake then the real thing must be something incredible. Voldemort was not known for his mercy.

“And Thomas? Did he talk?” Lucius asked his son impatiently. Draco shrugged. “He fought, so I killed him.” Lucius frowned at him and opened his mouth but Voldemort spoke first “You killed Thomas against orders? When you were told he must be brought back alive Draco?” under Voldemort’s gaze it was all Draco could do to nod. “Well well, it looks like you are your father’s son after all. We were beginning to wonder. Before now you have only killed those that you have been ordered too, and always found an excuse to avoid torturing anyone. I was beginning to think you were weak Draco, maybe even to the point that you had a conscience.” he said the word with distaste. “I can see now I was mistaken, you are indeed as ruthless as your father. Crabbe, leave us, and make sure no one else enters. Draco I want to tell you about my plans for this box. When we find the real one.” Voldemort continued, laying a hand on the black chest on the table.

Ginny knelt on the floor by Dean, staring blankly at the wall, hand still pressed to her cheek. She barely moved an inch when loud cracks echoed around the room and Aurors and Order members appeared and hurried towards her. She didn’t react when the medi-wizards listed Dean’s body and moved away. Harry sprinted over and knelt by her, still wearing his best robes, taking her gently by her shoulders. “Ginny. Ginny! Look at me! Ginny!” Ginny dragged her gaze from the wall and turned slowly to stare at Harry. She blinked slowly and seemed to come out of her shocked state. “He hit me” she said vaguely, disbelief in her eyes. “He hit me”

When medi-wizards had checked over her and seen that nothing was seriously wrong, Harry took Ginny into the kitchen and sat her down at the table. “Tell me what happened Ginny” he asked, handing her a cup of tea. She wrapped her fingers round the steaming mug and drew in its warmth. “Where were you Harry? Why did you leave me?” she asked, tears in her eyes.

Harry dropped his gaze from hers. “I’m sorry Ginny, Hermione was hurt, badly, I had to get her way, they would have killed her.” he sighed “Draco was with you, I heard his voice. I thought you’d be ok with him.” she said, looking up at Ginny again, eyes asking silent questions. Ginny drank a mouthful of tea and shrugged. “Well you were wrong.” she said quietly. “He’s changed Harry, he’s changed so much.”

Harry reached over and took her hand. “It’s hard Ginny, I know, with him being a double agent. He can’t act the same anymore, you know that. And I thought you had spit up now? Aren’t you with…er…weren’t you with?” he trailed off as Ginny’s eyes filled with tears. “He killed him Harry! He killed Dean” she cried, the tears spilling down her cheeks. “Oh gin! It was Draco who..? I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. You know he has to do these things, I hate it as much as you, out you know how is it, he’s got to act like a death eater, he’s got to follow orders. Its for the best in the end, you know that.” Harry said, but he was stunned by the news that it was Draco who killed Dean. Ginny shook her head. “No Harry! You don’t understand! He wasn’t meant o kill Dean! He had orders not to! I heard them talking. Lestrange was mad, said that he was meant to bring Dean in alive. He murdered him Harry! He did it of his own free will, because of me!” Ginny broke down and sobbed, head in hands. Harry’s face was grave. Draco Malfoy had killed Dean Thomas against orders from Voldemort? This was serious. He had murdered someone in cold blood. Ginny controlled hr crying enough to say “He…he said he killed Dean because he wanted to Harry. He said that! They said he’d be punished. He said he didn’t care!”

Harry got up slowly and walked to the window, resting his forehead against the glass. Draco Malfoy turned to Voldemort? “I never thought I’d see the day” he mumbled. Ever since the start of Harry’s sixth year Draco Malfoy had been a different person. He had found love and tried damn hard to show them all he was on their side. And he really was, he had provided invaluable information to the Order and hated Voldemort and his followers with a passion. And loved Ginny Weasley more than Harry thought was possible. Harry had always thought that Malfoy would never turn, him and Ron would join the death eaters before Draco Malfoy did! Now he had killed a man because he wanted too, even when instructed by Voldemort not to. In the past Harry knew that Malfoy had only killed when he absolutely had to, and this incident had shown him just how dangerous Malfoy now was. Dumbledore was going to have to be notified. Draco Malfoy had turned coats. He was working for the other side now. They would hunt him down and bring him to justice. Harry looked back at Ginny - a heartbreaking sight of a young woman’s hopes and dreams shattered by the man she loved. His eyes hardened. I’ll find you, you bastard. I’ll find you.