Disclaimer:
The only thing that I even remotely own is Haven and my plot. Besides, if you tried to sue me, you wouldn't get much besides a candy wrapper from my pocket. *grin*
Heroes Shed No Tears
Part VII
Draco Apparated into the middle of a clearing, just outside of the refugee camp. There were already hundreds of death
eaters there, waiting for Voldemort to arrive. He quickly sought out Zabini, who was standing nearer to the center of
the circle holding some parchment in the hands, looking very important.
"Hello," Draco said quietly.
Zabini turned to look at him, "I didn't think you'd come."
"Why not?" Draco asked, wrinkling his eyebrows.
"The errand I sent you on, but that's okay." Zabini looked away from him and back to the parchment, his brows furrowed in concentration.
"Is the Dark Lord coming?" Draco asked a bit impatiently.
"He said he'd be here shortly, and was going to be held up by something…rebellious muggles I think it was," Zabini said without even looking up from his parchment.
"What is that?" Draco craned his neck a bit to see.
Zabini held it out, "It's our plan for attacking Hogwarts-"
"Master," there was simultaneous bowing through the black clad crowd as Voldemort Apparated right into the center of the circle the death eaters had formed. His threatening eyes scanned the crowd. Draco bowed quickly.
"Death eaters," he hissed, the meeting had begun.
---
Harry was dragging his feet; they had been walking for hours without stopping. They all figured the quicker they got to Narcissa's, the quicker they would be reunited with Ginny and Draco. Harry looked over at Neville, who was grimacing as he looked off into the distance. He noticed a small brown spot on his face. Harry shook his head, that hadn't been there before, maybe he was just imagining it.
"Oi," George called. "I think we should stop and sleep."
"Yeah," said Fred. "My feet are killing me."
"I need to find somewhere to use the bathroom," Neville admitted, a blush creeping up his neck.
"Alright," Harry said reluctantly. "We'll stop for a few hours, but then we have to start walking again. We can't lose Draco and Ginny."
"Don't see why you care about that git anyways," said Ron as Fred set him down on the ground.
"I don't care about him, he's just vital to our side during this war."
"Excuse me," Neville squeaked and took off running.
"Man," said George, shaking his head, "That guy really had to whiz."
---
The darkness seemed the close around them, overbearing and oppressive, it smothered them. The forest was an inky black, the only thing visible were the luminous eyes that peered out at them from the depths of the trees. Not a breeze rustled through the trees, not a single leaf sounded in the nightly air.
Haven was pressed up against Ginny as much as possible, his hands fisted on her robes, his face buried in her neck. Silent tears streamed down from his eyes, their warm saltiness tickling her collar bone. She had her arms around him, rocking him gently, whispering so softly into his ear that the words were almost nothing but a breath of air. "It'll be okay," her voice lulled. She could feel her own heart beating nervously in her chest, her fear almost unbearable.
An owl called out into the night, its harsh cry echoed through the woods, startling both Haven and Ginny. She fell back against a tree, taking Haven with her. She lay there silently, clutching him to her. "My gods," she whispered, "I wish I had a wand."
Haven lifted his head to look at her, his eyes glistening. "I wish Daddy were here." Ginny gave him a faint smile and hugged him, kissing his forehead. They stayed like that for hours, Ginny singing softly into his ear, trying to ease him into sleep.
There was a slight 'pop' close to where they were sitting. Ginny looked up, her eyes wide and fearful, but then the expression fell from her face and was replaced with a smile. "Malfoy," she breathed. "Oh, God."
The corner of his mouth quirked, "Not quite." His expression sobered as he looked down at Haven. "How is he?" he asked softly.
"He's…okay. He was scared for a while," Ginny said, looking down at Haven tenderly, smoothing a strand of hair from his face. She felt Draco drop down on the ground beside her. She shifted Haven, trying not to jar him out of sleep, into Draco's arms. Immediately his arms snaked up around his father's neck and he sighed contentedly.
Draco looked at her, "You were scared too?"
She blinked. "Well, a little. This forest isn't exactly what I would call an Elysium."
He snorted. "Sleep, Weasel," he commanded lightly. "We'll be doing a lot of walking tomorrow." He didn't need to tell her twice, her eyes were closed within seconds, her mind already in her peaceful dreamland.
-
The sun was shining through the leaves, casting beams of light across her eyelids. She opened them slowly, taking in her surroundings and the very comfy pillow that she had. She turned her head slightly and saw that she did not have a pillow, but Draco's shoulder. She didn't move.
She looked at him, resting with Haven, both of them making light snores. She couldn't help but smile. Draco was cradling Haven to him, his head leaned back and resting against the tree. Haven had his face buried in his father's robes. Ginny sighed and closed her eyes again.
She felt Draco stiffen but didn't open her eyes; she didn't know what she would say to him if she did. He exhaled noisily and grunted. She opened her eyes the tiniest bit, seeing through her lashes. He was staring at her, his brows furrowed. Quickly, she closed her eyes the rest of the way.
Haven stirred, "Daddy?"
"Yes," Draco said, his voice gruff from sleep. "I'm here." Ginny opened her eyes slowly and saw that Haven was stretching like a kitten in Draco's lap.
Ginny slowly lifted her head off of Draco's shoulder, causing him to turn and look at her sharply. Before he could say anything, Haven moaned, "I'm hungry, Daddy."
Draco turned took look at Ginny, "You have the food, right?"
"Of course, I have the food," Ginny bridled and reached for her pack. She turned to Haven and smiled, "Don't worry, I'll make you something good to eat." Haven grinned.
Ginny made the small fire and put some water in a small pot, a very small pot and set it over the fire. She poured some of the lentils in the water and sat back, waiting for them to cook. "That's the good?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow doubtfully.
Ginny glared at him, "It's better than nothing. Unless you can make something better I think you should shut up." Draco rolled his eyes and looked back at Haven who was occupying himself by taking twigs and trying to build a house with them in the mud. He very carefully applied a bit of mud in-between each twig that he placed on each other and used his fingers to smooth out the walls filling the cracks with more mud. He had three walls built and was working steadily on the fourth one with Ginny took the pot off of the fire.
She pulled out some dented metal bowls and drained the water out of the lentils using a spoon. She put some in each bowl and handed them to Draco and Haven. She took her own and looked at it, wrinkling her nose slightly. It didn't look all that great, but it was all they had.
Draco looked at his bowl and set it down. He got up, "I'll be back." He walked off leaving Haven and Ginny. Ginny looked at Haven with her eyebrows raised and he smiled at her and picked up his spoon, dipping it in the bowl and taking a bite. He didn't make a face.
-
"Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are," Haven sang softly. "Up above the world so bright, like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are." He was riding on his father's back, his head resting against Draco's shoulder. His eyes were half closed sleepily, and he kept yawning.
Ginny put a hand on Haven's back and rubbed it soothingly, as to put him to sleep. They had walked for a long time, and Haven hadn't been carried for most of the way. He needed to go to sleep and get some rest before he would have to walk some more. Ginny looked up at Draco. "Why won't you let me carry him at all? You must be tired from carrying him." He didn't say anything. "I can carry him, I'm not as…scrawny as I look." She frowned.
Ginny removed her hand from Haven's back, seeing that he was asleep. "I'm not tired," said Draco. "I can carry him just fine."
Ginny snorted and rolled her eyes. "You said yourself that he gets heavy after a while. Come on, it's not fair."
"No one said anything about me being fair. Now shut up, you're going to trip on something if you don't pay attention to where you're going, and then we'll have to stop and wait for you," he said. Ginny rolled her eyes again.
The only noises where those of the nocturnal animals, which wasn't much, and the sound of their footfalls on the forest floor. Ginny couldn't stand it. "How far do you think we are from your mother's house?" she asked.
"If we keep walking, we should be there by tomorrow afternoon," he said. He looked over at her. "Getting tired? I should have kno-''
"I'm not tired!" Ginny snapped.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "And you're just normally this cranky…."
"I'm not cranky either," she sniffed. "I was just wondering how far we were. Not tired and definitely not cranky."
"Whatever you say."
"That's right and you-oohhh!" she huffed and glared at him, receding back into the silence.
They walked for a few more minutes, and then Draco spoke. "Do we have any water left?"
Ginny reached for the canteen off of her bag and shook it. "Not much. Is there a stream nearby?"
"We'll have to cross one in a few hours. We can get more water then," he said, looking at the canteen. She handed it to him and he took a long sip.
"Save some of it!" Ginny scolded, snatching it out of his hands. "You never know when we might need it for an emergency or something." She screwed the cap back on and put in back in her sack, giving Draco a reprimanding look. He was unfazed.
"Gods, Weasel, I swear you're like a mother hen."
Ginny bristled. "I am not! How dare you-"
"I think that we should stop for the night, catch a few winks so you aren't so grumpy," he gave her a pointed look. "We'll just arrive a bit later than I planned." He surveyed the area that they were in a found a nice tree with soft moss growing around it. He set Haven down gently.
"I'm not grumpy," Ginny glared.
"Tell me then, what are you?"
"I'm….tired."
"Seems to me, that with you, the two go hand in hand." Draco said, stretching out on the ground next to Haven.
Ginny flopped on the ground and screwed her eyes shut, and folded her arms across her chest angrily.
---
It was almost dawn when Harry's group was coming over the meadow that led to Narcissa's house that was nestled comfortably in the mountains. They could see the house with little puffs of smoke rising up out of the chimney into the fresh morning air. Harry looked behind him to make sure that no one was lagging behind. Just Neville, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary, and they had all been walking so long that he didn't feel like telling them to speed it up.
The twins grinned at him. "Lovely, isn't it?" George asked, motioning towards the house, which seemed to grow bigger the closer they got.
"Yeah," said Fred. "We've been here before between missions. That Mrs. Malfoy is a real kind lady, she is." He closed his eyes, "And she makes the best hot chocolate I've had since Mum's." He squeezed his mother's hand and smiled at her warmly.
Molly smiled back at him, her eyes tearing up a bit. "You missed my hot chocolate?"
"Mother," both Fred and George said. "We missed everything about you." Molly sighed, looking up at them happily.
Harry checked on Percy and Ron, whom the twins seemed of have momentarily forgotten. They had fallen asleep, having nothing else to do.
Within minutes they were standing in front of the huge door that had a brass knocker. Harry lifted up his hand hesitantly, but before he could reach it, the door swung open. Narcissa smiled. "There you are!" The smile fell and she looked around. "Where's Draco? And little Haven?" she asked worriedly.
"We were separated by some Pogrebins, they escaped through the forest. I imagine that they've had to take the long way," said Harry.
"Oh," Narcissa said, sighing softly. "Well, do come in. Let me see what I can find you dears to eat. You must have had an exhausting journey." She ushered them all in, taking special care to give Molly a hug and an extra smile.
Narcissa led them into a warm sitting room and made them all sit down and take off their shoes.
"Mrs. Malfoy," Harry said. "Do you think that maybe I can take some brooms and fly out to see if I can find Ginny, Draco, and Haven?"
"Oh, sure, sure. You'll have to take two extra so they can fly back. What a wonderful idea, now everyone can be back quicker." She smiled at him and led him off to show him where their broom closet was.
---
They had been walking for a few hours, passed by the stream, where Ginny filled the canteen back up. The light was streaming through the leaves, and the trees had started thinning.
"Are we there yet?" asked Haven.
"No," came Draco's reply.
"How about now?"
"No."
"Now?"
"No." Ginny gave them a sideways glance, they had been at this for quite a while. And for some reason she felt like this wasn't the first time that they had done something like this.
"Are we there yet?"
"No." Haven sighed and slumped, his grip tightening on Draco's hand.
"Fine," Haven said. "You win this time…."
Draco grinned at Haven. "Of course I won, I'm the champion of 'are we there yet?'"
"That's only coz you only have to say 'no'." Haven complained, smiling.
"When you're a parent, then you can be the one to say 'no'," Draco said, pulling Haven up. Haven laughed as Draco pulled him over his shoulder. "But for now, you're just a sack of potatoes."
"No, no! I'm not potatoes!" Haven cried, giggling as his hands swung around him wildly.
Ginny grinned at them. "Okay children."
Draco put Haven back on the ground, making sure to pretend like he was going to drop him at least once, just for a little squeal.
"Hey!" Haven yelled, pointing up in at a tree. "Is that an apple?"
Ginny came to stand beside him and looked at where he was pointing, and sure enough, there were some apples high up in the tree. "Yes," she said. "Shall I climb up and get us some?"
Haven nodded. "Please?"
Draco walked up behind them and frowned. "This is going to cut into our time."
"Please, Daddy?" Haven looked at Draco with big eyes.
Draco sighed. "Be quick about it, Weasel."
But he didn't have to say that because Ginny was already up high in the tree, with two apples tucked in her robes, reaching for one more. She stretched her fingers and tried to stand tip-toe on the branch. She heard a creaking sound, but just frowned and kept slowly reaching up towards the apple. That's about when the branch broke off beneath her.
She lunged forward and grabbed the apple, but was falling to the ground quickly.
Before she could hit the ground, Draco had caught her and was holding her in her arms. She had her eyes shut tightly and the apple clutched in her hand. She very slowly opened her eyes and blinked. "What…Why…"
"I caught you. You're a clumsy Weasel, and I don't have time to mend bones," said Draco.
"Ginny?" She whipped her head around and saw Harry sitting on a broom just a ways off. They hadn't seen him coming. "What are you doing?"
VF: Yeah, okay, everyone is asking about Haven's mom. And...you've already met her. :-D Sillies.