Heroes Shed No Tears

Heroes Shed No Tears
Part I – Prologue

By: VirtualFaerie

“Why are you crying? Stop crying,” a pale, blond boy, with dark grey eyes, said to the red-headed little girl who was sitting on the swing, with tears streaming down her face.

“My brother’s won’t play with me,” she said shakily, looking up at the boy hesitantly.

“Oh,” he said softly, then notice the tears were still flowing down her face, “Please stop crying.”

“I can’t,” she said.

“What are you doing here son? We have better things to do,” the man looked down at the girl, “And better people to associate with. Come now.”

The boy bowed his head, “Yes father,” he said following the man quietly. They stopped not far away.

“What are you wearing boy? Didn’t I tell you not to take that again? It doesn’t belong to you and it does you a disgrace!” The man reached down towards the boy’s neck and yanked off a silver chain. The boy cried out. The man scowled at him and said, “Remember son, crying gets you no where.” The boy nodded slowly and the man threw the silver chain, which the girl had just noticed had a silver dragon pendant hanging on it.

“You are becoming a disgrace to me boy! You better shape up before it’s time for you to go to school.” He said coldly.

“Yes father,” he said subdued.

The silver chain bounced on the ground near her and she watched it silently. As soon as she was sure that the man and the boy had left she got off her swing, drying her tears, and picked up the necklace clasping it on her neck.

A red-headed boy walked up to her, “What’s that you have there Ginny?”

She looked at him worriedly and said quickly, “It’s nothing.”

The boy rolled his eyes, “Hey! Fred! George! Wait for me!” he shouted, running off to follow more red-headed boys around the park.

She watched him go and fingered the dragon pendant, wondering if she’d ever see the blond headed boy again.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except, Haven and the plot.

A/N: I promise that there’s a plot, you just have to watch. It all starts with little Haven.

She walked along the dusty road, peering at the canvas tents as she went by. There were old men and women sitting outside of them looking at her sadly. She continued down and saw small children playing in the dirt, covered from head to foot in white dust and grimy mud. Mothers were cooking over fires and fathers weren’t even present at the camp. They couldn’t be there no matter how much they wanted to.

She reached the water pump and retied her hair back in its kerchief, then filled her bucket with water to take back to her tent. Going back the same way that she came she walked inside of the tent that she shared with her mother and two wounded brothers. Her mother was sitting at a makeshift wooden table, silent and not doing anything. Her brothers were lying on their beds staring up at the canvas ceiling. She set the bucket down and got out a bowl and filled it with some of the water. She went to each of her brother’s beds and cleaned them with the water.

There wasn’t much that she could do anymore. She used to be a prominent healer, but now people didn’t want to be healed, they wanted to die so they wouldn’t have to keep living the life that had fallen to them. It took all the strength that she had left to keep her brothers alive, it had been a long time since her father died, and she could do nothing for her mother. Her mother had fallen into a pit of despair and never came out of her dream-like state.

“Ginny…” one of her brothers croaked.

She turned to look at him, “Yes?”

“Where’s Hermione?” Ginny looked sadly at her brother Ron. There was nothing that he could do for Hermione anymore. They had loved each other but there hadn’t been time for a marriage after they got out of Hogwarts. Ron had joined the war effort with Harry to defeat Voldemort. But things hadn’t actually turned out the way they thought they would. The death eaters and Voldemort won. Now most of the wizarding population, minus the death eaters, were living in refugee camps, or ruined cities.

It took all of the strength of the remaining aurors and ministry officials to cast the invisibility charms over all of the camps to keep them from muggle eyes. There was nothing to be done now, it was either live in misery or become a dark supporter. The Weasley family would never go to the dark side; therefore they remained at the godforsaken camp.

“Ron, you know Hermione is researching at Hogwarts,” Ginny said quietly. In reality Ginny didn’t even know if Hogwarts was still standing. The death eaters were catching owls in mid-air and there was no way for them to communicate anymore.

“What about Harry?”

“I don’t know Ron, there’s no way of knowing where anyone is.” Her throat felt like it had a lump in it. She was restraining tears because she knew where none of her family was, besides her mother, Ron and Percy, who were with her. “Please don’t ask me any more,” she said hoarsely as she reached up to hold onto the silver dragon pendant that was hanging around her neck. It was the only piece of jewelry she had.

Ron fell silent and Ginny walked out of the tent and sat outside. There was dust blowing in the wind giving everything a rusty colored tinge. Ginny didn’t know where Harry was, or her other brothers. Sometimes she thought that it was better that way, to wonder and not know the truth. The truth could be far more terrible than she ever imagined.

Some say that Harry disappeared after the final show down with Voldemort, that he never died; he escaped and was waiting to get stronger before he would try to take him on again. Others say he died and all hope was lost. Most people thought there was nothing to live for now that the New Ministry was building its power with Voldemort at its head.

Ginny sighed and looked up just in time to see a small blond headed boy limping her way. She hadn’t seen him before in the camp. The boy had tears trickling down his cheeks, and he was clutching a small brown teddy bear to his side; the bear was missing an eye and an arm. Just from looking at him Ginny could feel the tears welling up in her eyes for him. She knew that she should take him in, seeing no parents. But there was little food in the camp to begin with. One more boy was going to keep them all starved. She shook her head; it was no use thinking like that. It was selfish.

She got up and walked over to the small boy and stopped in front of him. He looked up at her with big liquid grey eyes and shook as if he was scared. She knelt before him. “What’s your name?” she asked gently.

The little boy’s lower lip trembled and he held his teddy closer, “H-Haven.” Ginny smiled how perfect his name was. Haven, maybe he would bring them luck. His robes caught her eye. They weren’t the cheap kind that every other refugee was clad in. They were merely very filthy expensive robes. Not only were they quality robes, but they were black. The refugees wore butternut colored robes because there wasn’t enough money for dye anymore.

“Where is your mommy? Your daddy?” Ginny asked, her curiosity growing.

“I don’t have a mommy,” Haven said softly. “My daddy said that I would be safe here.” He looked up at her, his eyes pleading.

“How old are you?” Ginny said, inclining her head.

“Seven,” he said, taking a step closer to her. The wind blew his slightly longer than normal hair around his face, and his large grey eyes were warm yet calculating. Ginny could tell that he was trying to decide if she was safe or not.

Ginny held her arms out to Haven, and he looked at her hesitantly before stepping into them. She hugged the small boy to her, trying to reassure him and herself that everything was going to be alright. Haven wrapped his arms around her neck and held on tightly. Ginny smoothed his hair with her fingers and whispered into his hair, “I’ll take good care of you.”

Haven stepped back and looked at her happily, smiling a half-smiled. “Thank you.”

Ginny shook her head, “It’s nothing. Now let’s get you inside and cleaned up. We need to see what we can do about that limp.”

Looking at his leg he announced, “I fell. My daddy was trying to save me from a mean wizard and I hurted my leg.” The little leg had ripped robes hanging around it, and was covered with dried mud. Ginny smiled and thought of how cute the little boy was. She walked him inside of the tent to clean him off.

A man standing out of sight, in black robes, content with what he saw, disappeared.



Inside the tent, Ginny was wiping Haven down with a washcloth. He had little cuts all over his body and it made her eyes well up with tears to see them. The poor boy had probably been through more than he should have. All of the kids still alive had been thought more than they should have. They had lost their happy childhood. It had been ripped away from them and they would never know what might have been, or what true happiness was. But maybe it was better for them to not know, to think that this was as good as it got. They didn’t need to know there was better and that they were missing the best years of their life in refugee camps that held no promise.

Haven stood still, and looked at Ginny’s brothers, who were lying on their beds watching the small boy. Ron had sort of scowl on his face and Percy was smiling slightly. For once Molly wasn’t sitting doing nothing. She was also watching the boy with rapt attention. There was something about the boy that demanded attention. But Molly also had a soft look in her eye as if she was remembering something. The corners of her mouth were upturned slightly, and her face was glazed over happily.

“Mum?” Ginny asked. “Are you alright?”

Molly smiled at Ginny, “Just fine dear. I’m feeling better.” Ginny’s eyebrows shot up. Her mother had been in a depression for the past month ever since she had found out that Arthur died and had heard no word from her other sons. “Just fine, now can you tell me about this little boy here?”

“Uh-His name is Haven. I found him. He said his father said that he would be safe here,” Ginny said, rubbing Haven down with a towel before slipping a clean robe over his head.

“He’s such a cute boy, and what an inspiring name,” Molly said looking at the boy with a mother-like love in her eyes. Ginny knew that having Haven around was going to improve her mother’s condition, but Ginny felt like for some reason that she had a special bond with Haven. She didn’t know what it was but she felt like Haven was hers; like her own son. She was old enough to have one. Maybe not one that was seven years old but still, she felt like she should be his mother. He needed one now that he didn’t have his father anymore. Or at least she thought he didn’t have his father anymore.

“Haven?” Ginny started. “Is your dad coming back for you?”

v Haven heaved his small shoulders and sighed, “I don’t know. He said that he would come back.” He held onto his teddy bear then peered back up at her curiously. “What’s your name?”

Ginny grinned, “I’m Ginny.”

“Hi, Ginny,” Haven said shyly.

“Do you want me to take you to meet the other kids?” Ginny asked looking through a basket to see if there were any old shoes in it that would fit Haven. His were tattered and worn. She found some old shoes of Ron’s and handed them to him, “Put those on.”

Haven sat down on the floor and pulled the shoes on slowly, tying the laces carefully. His soft hair fell into his eyes and he blew them out of the way. He finished and looked back up at Ginny, “They’re coming here you know.”

Ginny’s brows furrowed, “Who?”

“The New Ministry, my daddy told me,” Haven said, getting up off of the ground. “He said that a man named Zabini was going to be the official guy around here to do stuff.”

Ginny frowned, “What kind of stuff?”

Haven shrugged, “My dad said something about making sure people didn’t get too much food. He also said some stuff about Resistance, but I don’t know what that is.” He kicked a clod of dirt and looked back up at Ginny expectantly. But Ginny was looking at Ron with wide eyes.

“Ron,” she said, a lump growing in her throat, a lump of fear.

“I heard,” he said from his bed. “They won’t do anything to us though. I don’t think. They just want support.”

Ginny sighed and sank down into one of the rickety wooden chairs. She pushed some of her hair out of her face and looked down at the ground. She was one of the youngest healthy people in the camp, it was hard on the people living there, and it was going to be even harder with the New Ministry officials policing them. How was anyone supposed to eat now? There was hardly enough food as it was, but now that they were going to be there, there would be even less food.

Okay, she told herself, no more moping; you need to tell everyone before they get here. She got up off of her chair and reached for Haven’s hand. “Come on, I’ll take you around camp to meet everyone. I’m sure they’ll be delighted to meet you.”

Ginny took Haven with her while she told everyone that the New Ministry was coming and that they needed to be ready. They weren’t going to try to fight the New Ministry but they needed to wary of them when they came. The war was supposedly over and they weren’t supposed to be hurting anymore people. The people that were dying and sick now were that way because of lack of food and all of the dust in the air. No one knew where all the dust was coming from but the elders said that it was coming from all of the death.

On their way back to the tent Ginny stopped to pick some large magenta colored flowers that looked sort of like daisies. Haven watched her then started picking some with her; soon they had at least four handfuls. Ginny smiled at him, “Thanks.”

Haven shrugged shyly, “What are these for?”

“Medicine,” said Ginny. “These are called Echinacea, they can be used for cuts…like the ones that you have, and infections, also some other things, but that’s what I use them for. I’ve got to make a medicine for my brothers and clean up those cuts that you have, and this’ll do the trick.”

“Wow,” Haven said amazedly, looking down at the flowers. “I didn’t know that pretty flowers could be used to help people.”

She smiled at him, “They can.”

When they got back to the tent, Molly was standing over a fire that had a large pot sitting over it. She was stirring occasionally and giving it suspicious glances. “Mum, what are you making?” Ginny asked, laying the flowers down on the table.

“Lentil soup, it’s all we have.” She said stirring some more.

“Lentils?” Percy called from his bed. Ginny scowled in his direction, “All we ever have is lentils. It’s a wonder that we haven’t died yet from lack of nutrition.”

“No one could die around here with you taking care of them, Ginny,” Ron said. “You’ve got the golden touch.”

She smiled at Ron. She had worked her hardest to keep everyone alive, it was her mission to help people and she never tired of feeding someone from the side of their bed, or cooling someone’s forehead during a fevered sleep. She always had her flowers and herbs to make medicines since all of her other’s were confiscated after they were captured by the death eaters. They had spared her because there was a shortage of medics on both sides and they knew that Ginny wouldn’t turn anyone away from her sick bed, regardless of which side they were on. She didn’t like wasted human life. It made her sick to her stomach thinking about dying, that’s why she worked so hard to keep people alive.

She ground the Echinacea and mixed it with water. She had Haven take off his robes again and she rubbed the mixture on all of his cuts, wincing each time she had to touch one. Seeing the cuts on his small body hurt her. She couldn’t understand how people would out children through all the horrors of the bloody war.



Pops sounded on the outskirts of the camp, and men in bright green robes assemble together marching into the camp bright and early in the morning. “New Ministry!” a shrill voice declared, cutting into the peaceful morning and depriving the people of their serenity. “New Ministry!” All the people came out of the tents and watched the green robes march down the small dusty roads that went in-between the tents. The children clutched their mother’s legs and the old people huddled together with fearful eyes. As they passed the people could see the dark mark on the back of each green robe, staring at them horrifyingly.

Ginny stepped out of her tent with Haven, who was holding her hand and shook like a leaf as the New Ministry passed. Then a tall man passed them, with dark black hair and black glittering eyes. He wore a silver robe, emblazoned with a gigantic dark mark on the back. Ginny guessed that he was Zabini. “Listen up town!” He shouted, “We’re setting up camp here and we’re going to regulate this place. No more free reign. You are under the New Ministry now.” His voice boomed out. Within seconds there was a large stone structure standing in the middle of the camp near the water pump. “You must all abide by our rules now.” He turned and he robes flew out around him as he walked into the cold, haunting building.

Going back into the tent, Ginny saw Ron sitting up in his bed. “I’ve got to go get Harry,” he said forcefully.

Ginny shook her head, “Ron, you don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

He gave her a cutting look, “I know he is; I can feel it.”

“You still can’t get out of bed, you aren’t strong enough,” she pushed him back down and covered him up. “You need rest if you’re ever going to get better.”

Ron rolled his eyes, “Have I ever told you that sometimes you’re worse than Madam Pomfrey?”

Ginny chose to ignore that statement and shoved a spoon full of medicine in his mouth and smiled at he made a face. “Want some water?” she asked sweetly.

“Hell yeah,” he said, his face puckered up like he had just eaten a lemon.

“Watch your mouth,” Percy said from his bed.

“Oh shut it!” Ron said irritably.



The next week the whole camp was literally lined up in front of the small stone castle that the New Ministry had built. They were all waiting to get their week’s supply of lentils and weekly vegetables. Ginny was standing in line with Haven, representing her tent. Haven was holding her hand a fidgeting about nervously.

Ginny had started worrying about him, the past three nights that he had been with them he had woken up in the middle of the night shouting, “Daddy! Daddy! Please don’t let them take me! Daddy!” He would be sobbing and shaking and Ginny would have to hold him and whisper in his ear until he fell asleep again in her arms. Every time that he would scream out like that her heart would leap.

When they finally reached the table where the officials were giving out the food a woman sitting at the table with white hair said, “Name.”

“Weasley,” Ginny said shortly.

The woman glanced up at her; her nose wrinkled disgustedly, “Down at the end.”

They walked down to the end of the table and a short man with graying hair handed them a small sack of lentils and four carrots. He gave them a greasy smile allowing all of his rotting teeth to show, “Happy eating,” he said cruelly. Haven clutched Ginny’s arm closer as the moved out of they crowd.

Back at the tent, Ginny set the food down on the table, “They’re giving us less food.”

“What a surprise,” Ron said sarcastically. Molly sat at the table and looked at the food disappointedly.

“Did we just get lentils? Please tell me it isn’t just lentils, I’ll die.” Percy whined.

Ginny smiled a false bright smile, “Oh!” she clapped her hands together, “they were so generous to give us FOUR carrots too.”

“Augh!” Ron groaned, “I hate carrots.”

“Too bad, that’s all we have,” Ginny said rolling her eyes at him.

Ron looked down at his hands, “Harry’s alive,” he said quietly. “I can feel it.” Everyone had their eyes on him, because everyone wanted Harry to be alive. With Harry alive there was hope. Hope was what the people needed.

No one said anything; there wasn’t anything to say



Later while Ginny was trying to scrounge up a suitable dinner with Molly, the wind started blowing furiously and the tents flaps blew open. Ginny went to tie them shut when a man walked in the door, his robes flying around him wilding. Haven’s eyes widened, “DADDY!” He shouted, and ran towards the man. Ginny’s hand flew up to her neck to grasp the silver chain that was there.



A/N: Cues drumroll. Well guys, that’s part one, and I know that it was a little slow, but bare with me, I promise that part two will be better and filled with mystery. I bet you guys are wondering who Haven’s father is. I bet some of you have even guess and some have guessed correctly. Who is the man that Haven just called Daddy. Is it really even his daddy? What role does his father play in the next part? What role does that man play in the next part? Stay tuned to find out.



Please review.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything Haven, and somethings that could matter less.

Later while Ginny was trying to scrounge up a suitable dinner with Molly, the wind started blowing furiously and the tents flaps blew open. Ginny went to tie them shut when a man walked in the door, his robes flying around him wilding. Haven’s eyes widened, “DADDY!” He shouted, and ran towards the man. Ginny’s hand flew up to her neck to grasp the silver chain that was there.

The man standing at the door looked at Haven curiously and echoed, “Daddy?” He shook his head, and peered over at Ginny with bright green eyes, “Who’s daddy?”

Ginny’s breath caught in her throat and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. His raven black hair shone in the dim light, his green eyes were dancing as he looked down at Haven, and his face was etched with lines that weren’t supposed to be there. He looked as if he had aged ten years in only four.

She ran to him, and held her arms out; he fell into them and wrapped his arms around her. “Oh my,” she breathed. “We thought you were dead.”

“I’m here.” He said quietly.

“Harry?” she heard Ron call out from his bed. “Is that you? I knew you were alive! I knew it!”

Harry smiled, but Haven’s face drooped, “He’s not my daddy.” Haven looked back at Ginny and ran to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his head in her side. “He’s not my daddy.”

Harry’s eyebrows bunched together as he peered down at Haven. The corner of his lip quirked up, but he didn’t say anything.

Ginny’s voice came back to her and she hugged on Haven as she said, “I found him last week wandering around the camp. He’s expecting his father to come back for him.” She looked down at Haven, and back to Harry. “Where were you?” she whispered.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, he looked down at Haven, “I’m sure you’re father will be coming for you soon.” He looked over at Ginny, and said softly, “I’ll tell you a bit later, let me talk to Ron first?”

“Sure, sure,” Ginny said slowly, watching him walk over to Ron’s bed.

“Hey Ron, how’s it going?” He asked gently, sitting down at Ron’s side. Molly walked over to stand next to Harry, she was crying. Harry looked up at her, “Mrs. Weasley,” he said smiling. He hugged her and Molly started sobbing loudly.

Feeling tears running down her face, Ginny decided to allow Harry and Ron some time alone, and walked outside with Haven. The wind had died down and it was dark outside, the stars were shining brightly in the black sky. The moon was a luminous ball that cast shadows all over the camp. Haven held onto Ginny’s hand, and looked to the stars with her.

“My daddy is going to come back for me,” Haven said firmly. “He said that he just needed to take care of some things first.” He looked up at Ginny with wide eyes.

Ginny wished that she could reassure and him and know that she’d be telling him the truth if she said that he was going to come back. But she didn’t know. In fact she didn’t even know who Haven’s father was. “Who is your father?” Ginny asked inquisitively.

Haven cast his eyes down and mumbled, “I’m not supposed to tell. It’s a secret.”

“Why?”

“He told me not to. He said that if I told the bad men would find him,” Haven said, looking up at her with a single tear trekking down his face. Ginny wiped it away and hugged Haven.

“It’s okay; you don’t have to tell me,” Ginny reassured him. “I’m sure that your daddy loves you very much and that if he told you he was coming back for you then he will.” Ginny sighed; she hoped that Haven’s father would come for him soon. It was heartbreaking to watch him search through the crowds, looking for his father’s face, yet….

“But,” Haven murmured, “My daddy is good. He helps people. A girl had called him the Dragon of Hope. People love my daddy.” Ginny’s eyes widened, she had heard tales about the Dragon of Hope. He rode his broom in the night and brought food and money to all of the poorest refugees. The reason he was called the Dragon of Hope was that emblazoned on the back of his robes was a large black dragon with a silver outline. A small smile appeared on Ginny’s face; the Dragon of Hope was said to have stolen all the money and food that he gave from the New Ministry. Now Ginny understood why he wouldn’t want his son with him, it would be too dangerous for him, but why leave him at the camp, it wasn’t safe either.- “I love my daddy.”

“I know you do honey. I’m going to take good care of you until he comes back,” Ginny said sitting on the ground and leaning against the tent. Haven sat down with her and Ginny rocked him.

“I know,” he said, “I like you, Ginny.”

“I like you too, sweetheart,” Ginny said. They stayed out there for a while, Ginny just rocking Haven and staring up at the stars, then she felt Haven fall asleep and kissed his forehead. She thought that he was lucky to have the Dragon of Hope for his father.

Harry stepped out of the tent and looked down at Ginny who was still holding Haven. He sat down next to her, “I already told your mother and your brothers this, but I thought you’d like to know too.” He looked at her smiling. “You’re brother’s aren’t dead. They’re all at Hogwarts, so is Hermione.”

“Ho-Hogwarts?” Ginny’s voice cracked. “It’s still standing? They’re alive? Alive?” Hot tears burned her eyes and fell to her cheeks. She was so happy.

He nodded and watched her, “I was there too, but I figured that I needed to come tell you that everyone was okay.”

“Why did you take so long?”

“I couldn’t come before, it wasn’t safe. Truth be told, it still isn’t, I only came because I was the only one who could get here unnoticed the quickest. I have to go back soon.”

“Can you take us with you?” Ginny asked hopefully.

“No, the New Ministry would notice and it wouldn’t be safe, you guys could be taken and killed for being with me if they caught me,” Harry said sadly. “I really wish that I could. But I couldn’t risk your lives.” Ginny looked down at Haven and didn’t say anything. “What’s his name? He looks familiar.” Harry asked, following Ginny’s eyes.

“Haven,” she said softly, smoothing his baby soft hair lovingly.

Harry’s brow furrowed and he shook his head, “Oh well. I’m going to go back inside and sit with your mother,” he smiled and walked back into the tent.

Ginny stayed outside with the sleeping Haven in her lap. He looked like an angel, his blond hair falling over onto his face, his pale face tinged with pink on the cheeks, his mouth parted slightly for him to breathe. Angelic, Ginny thought was the best word to describe Haven. He had been nothing but sweet and compromising since he had arrived at the camp and stayed with the Weasleys. Ginny couldn’t believe how accustomed she had grown to having him with them, she didn’t want to think of the day his father would come to take him.

She sat outside for another hour until Harry came back out. He looked down at Ginny and Haven and whispered, “I’m going out for a walk, and I’ll be back later.” Ginny nodded.

He walked off, the darkness enveloping him, taking him from sight. Ginny could hear the cicadas chirping noisily all around her, and closed her eyes, breathing in the earthy air that was tainted with the smell of blood.

Her eyes fluttered open as she heard a commotion down the next row of tents. There was a woman shouting, “He was here! He was here!” She heard a sob, “The Dragon of Hope was here, my family has food.”

Ginny thought that the woman should shut her mouth if she wanted to keep the food. But of course it was too late now. The New Ministry officials probably had heard her and would take the food. Foolish woman, Ginny thought shaking her head sadly. Then she realized, if the Dragon of Hope was here, so was Haven’s father.

Her heart beat furiously in her chest. Would he come to take Haven tonight? - So soon? The commotion grew louder and Ginny could hear a rough man’s voice shouting, “Woman! Give us your food! That was stolen from the New Ministry.” Ginny had known it would come. It was inevitable. The woman had been stupid and it was her fault. Next time the Dragon of Hope should go to someone worthy of his attentions.

Ginny tightened her hold on Haven and cradled him in her arms and walked back into the tent. Her mother was in bed with Percy, Ginny guessed that meant Molly had given up her bed for Harry. Ginny had been sleeping with Haven since he had come, it was comforting to have his warm little body cuddle up against hers during the night.

Setting Haven down in their bed, she pulled his shoes off and tucked the blankets up around his neck to keep him warm. She smoothed his long bangs out of his face and kissed his forehead.

There was a snort from Ron’s bed. “You take care of him like he’s your son,” Ron said, giving Ginny an indiscernible look.

Ginny looked back at him, her brown eyes warm, “I wish he was my son.”

“He’s too old to be your son, you’re too young.” Ron said in an older brother fashion.

Ginny gave him a mischievous grin, “Not if I had had him when I was seventeen.”

“I would kill anyone that got you pregnant at seventeen,” Ron said gruffly.

She smiled at him lovingly, “I guess that’s one of the reasons that I love you.”

“Whatever,” he said, turning over so she wouldn’t see the delighted smile on his face. He didn’t want her to know that he liked playing the big brother role and felt bad that he couldn’t do as well considering he was bedridden. “Good night Gin, I’m going to sleep.”

“Good night,” she said softly. She blew out a candle that was sitting on the table and walked back outside to savor the night, it was her favorite time; it cloaked the reality of the camp like a blanket. And if she looked up at the stars she could sometimes imagine she was back home, or at Hogwarts. Somewhere safe, somewhere she wanted to be.

The moon cast daunting shadows in the trees and on the tents, Ginny shivered as a cold breeze went through her thin robes. She hugged her arms around her and sat on the dusty ground. No one really knew why it had gotten so dusty after the war, but it had. She had heard and old woman saying that it was because of all the dead bodies, but Ginny preferred not to think so morbidly.

A dark shadow caught her eye in the trees, instantly her heart sped up and she got nervous. It wasn’t the shadow of a limb, or that of an animal, it moved like a man. It didn’t prowl or scurry as an animal would; it walked stealthily. She watched the person with rapt attention, waiting. Her mind was screaming at her to go back into the semi-safety of the tent, but her body wouldn’t let her move. While she felt scared, at the same time she wasn’t.

The shadow came closer until it was standing in front of her, a tall figure in black. He spoke in a low voice, “I’d like to see my son.” Ginny scrambled off the ground and into a standing position. His robes were a dark black and his hood was drawn, there was no way to see his face.

“What’s your son’s name?”

“Haven.”

Ginny peered up at him cautiously; she couldn’t see his face. “How can I be sure that you’re really his father?”

The man let out an exasperated sigh, “How many other people know he’s here?” When he saw that she wasn’t going to budge from her place in front of the tent flaps, he said, “Look, I’m not here to harm him, I’m his father for Merlin’s sake. If I’d known you where going to be this much of a nuisance I would have let him off somewhere else.”

Ginny sighed resignedly; “He’s sleeping,” she said quietly and lead him over to Haven’s bed.

“I just want to see him,” the man said, stopping at the side of the bed. “You’ve been taking care of him?” he asked.

Ginny nodded, “Yes. He’s a very sweet boy.”

The man murmured in agreement, “He is and more,” he whispered as he leant over to kiss the little boy’s forehead.

Ginny blinked rapidly, tears were forcing their way up in her eyes, begging to be let out “He’s missed you,” she choked out.

The man snapped his head in her direction, and Ginny could feel his eyes on her as if he was regarding her curiously. “You’ll miss him,” he said, it wasn’t a question.

She nodded again, “I will. He’s been so…loving.” The man looked back down to Haven and Ginny followed his gaze. Footsteps not so far away broke them out of a reverie.

The man looked at her, “Thank you for taking care of him. I’ve got to go.” He walked out of the tent, his robes billowing out around his legs. Ginny sighed as she watched him go and finally climbed into bed beside Haven.

A little later she heard Harry come in and get in bed, taking his boots off noisily. She watched the canvas ceiling, wondering why the man hadn’t taken his son with him. Maybe it still wasn’t safe for Haven to be with him. That’s probably why he hadn’t woken him, so that he wouldn’t ask for his father to take him away.



When she woke in the morning she found herself staring into the wide eyes of Haven. He had been watching her as she slept. He cuddled up against her, against her body heat, it was cold and the blankets didn’t provide much heat on their own. Ginny put her arm around him as he balled up his fists on his chest. They lay there for a while, not talking or moving just waking up slowly.

“Good morning,” Ginny said her voice a little gruff from sleep.

“Morning,” Haven said quietly.

“I’m hungry!” Ron called loudly from his bed. “Sheesh, Ginny, how late did you stay up last night?”

Ginny turned to glare at Ron through sleepy eyes, “Quit being a prat Ron, you better start appreciating me, or I might never cook you breakfast again.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Haven,” Ginny said, “today is our row’s day at the showers.”

“Our row?” Haven asked, looking confused.

“Yes, dear, today our row of tents gets to use the shower building.”

“Oh,” he said quietly, “So we get to take a bath today.”

“Yes,” Ginny nodded. Haven watched her clean up the few dishes they had used for their lentil soup breakfast. The soup had been very bland for lack of bouillon and onions, or that least that was what Percy said. Ginny had told him to stuff it and eat before she gave his share away.

“Where are the showers?” Haven asked curiously. Ginny stacked some freshly washed bowls in a beaten wooden crate.

“It’s to the left, all the way down the row, and then you have to take another left and keep walking for awhile. It’s a pretty long walk,” she said rummaging through and old trunk.

“Why is the walk pretty?” Haven asked; eyebrows furrowed. “Are there flowers along the way?”

Ginny looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. “I guess a walk through here isn’t pretty. What I meant was that it’s a very long walk. I’m looking for two towels and some clothes for you.”

Haven looked down at his dirty robes and frowned. “Will they be black?”

“Probably not,” Ginny laughed. “Hardly anyone has black robes anymore.”

“My daddy does,” he said proudly.

“You’re dad is special, honey” Ginny said pulling out a small butternut colored robe.

Haven wrinkled his nose, “I have to wear that?”

“Only if you want to be clean,” Ginny said mildly.

“Gin,” Ron called from his bed. “Is Harry up yet?” Ginny glanced at Harry’s bed, where his head was barely visible underneath the blankets. She walked over to him and listened, she could hear him snoring slightly.

“No,” she answered, “He was out late last night.” Ron sighed loudly from his bed, “Come on,” Ginny said to Haven, “Let’s go get our showers.”

Haven grasped her hand and she tucked the towels and clean robes under her arm. “It’s good for you to be wearing one of these robes,” she said looking pointedly at the ones in her arms. “You won’t stand out.”

“Is it bad to stand out?” he questioned.

“Here it is, if you stand out the New Ministry is suspicious of you,” Ginny told him.

“What will they do to you?”

“Take you to the dungeons, hold you for questioning, and probably put you in a cell with dementors for guards,” Ginny said quietly as they passed the New Ministry building.

She felt Haven shiver, “I don’t like dementors.”

“Neither do I, sweetheart,” she said softly, squeezing his hand reassuringly.

“My dad is probably going to come soon,” he commented casually. Ginny didn’t say anything. He sighed and looked up at the sky, “He’ll take me to our house way far away in the mountains where Grammy Ciss will take care of me while he’s gone.”

Ginny felt her heart wrench. “Is Grammy Ciss your grandmother?” she asked thickly, feeling the tears in her throat.

Haven nodded and smiled, “Grammy Ciss is funny.”

“Why do you say that?”

“She calls herself an old bat,” Haven said, giggling boyishly. Ginny found herself smiling.



“Haven…” Ginny said warningly.

“I’m not sleepy!” Haven pouted.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ginny said growing grumpy. “It’s late and you need to go to sleep.”

“Will you sing me a song?” he asked pleadingly while climbing into bed. Ginny heard Ron snickering from his bed.

She glared at Ron, “Yes, I will.”

“What are you going to sing, Gin?” Ron asked smiling, and elbowing Harry who was sitting next to him, “Puff the Magic Dragon?”

She rolled her eyes, “No, shut up.” She turned back to Haven and pulled the blankets up to his neck. She started to sing softly.

“I just want to feel safe in my skin
I just want to be happy again
I just want to feel deep in my own world
But I’m so lonely I don’t even want to be with myself anymore
On a different day, if I was safe in my own skin
And I’m so lonely I don’t even want to be myself anymore
I just want to feel safe in my own skin
I just want to be happy again.”*

She finished and all was silent. Haven was asleep, Ron was sitting in his bed, his mouth gaping, Harry was staring at her dubiously. “Gins,” Ron choked out, “I didn’t know that you could sing like that.” Harry nodded in agreement.

She shrugged, blushing, “You just never listened.” She left the tent and went to stand outside. She looked up at the glowing moon and star sprinkled sky. She wrapped her arms around herself. She knew why she was out there, and it wasn’t just for a breath of fresh air. She was waiting for Haven’s father; she wanted him to come again. For some odd reason she felt strangely compelled to the man, yet she knew so little about him.

There was a rustling sound near her; she whipped her head around. Limping out of the shadows was a dark figure. He groaned and made his way towards Ginny, “My son…” he said hoarsely. Ginny knew immediately that it was Haven’s father.

Then there were voices in the distance. “Come on men! He has to be here somewhere!”

The man looked at her, “Can you hide me?” he asked gruffly.

“Yes, yes,” she said helping him into the tent and securing the flap behind her. She guided him over to the bed Molly had given up for Harry. The aforementioned Harry was perched on Ron’s bed. Ginny shot him a look, “Harry, could you share a bed with Ron?”

Harry looked at the man Ginny had just brought in, “Sure,” he said uneasily. “Who’s that?”

“Haven’s father,” she said helping the man into the bed. She pulled off his boots and set them on the floor. Ginny could see his teeth clenching as she did so. “You’re injured?” she asked.

“Yes,” he gritted out. “Bloody bastards hit me with a Stalinus hex in the leg.”

Ginny glanced over at Haven and then back to his father, “Watch your mouth.”

“Hello!” there was a shout at the entrance. Ginny hastily covered him up and motioned for Harry to play possum. Everyone else had already been asleep, “Hello!” it wasn’t a friendly sort of hello, it was demanding.

Ginny pulled back the flap and was met with three New Ministry officials. “Miss,” one said, “we’re looking for someone. Have your seen or heard anything out of the ordinary?”

She shook her head, “No, nothing, I’ve just been helping my brothers to bed.” The men gazed around the tent and left. Ginny shut the flap and sat on the edge of the bed that she had been sharing with Haven.

Harry got out of bed and started pacing. “I think I’ll be leaving tomorrow night, I need to get back to Hogwarts,” he said raking a hand through his already disheveled hair.

“Why?” Ginny asked earnestly.

“It’s getting too dangerous,” Haven’s father said. Ginny looked to Harry, who in turn nodded.

Ginny got up and started heating some water. She brought out her wand and searched in her trunk for some of her herbs. She looked back at the man, “You said a Stalinus hex right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’ll take a few days, not only will it have broken your leg, but it decreases your stamina,” Ginny said digging out a bottle of Skele-Grow.

“I know what it does,” the man growled.

Ginny rolled her eyes, “Gods,” she sighed. “Not another Percy.” She looked at Haven’s father, “You aren’t a complainer are you?” She asked as she started to go prepare a potion that would help increase his stamina. The Stalinus hex had grown very popular amongst the New Ministry because it was a way to wound their victims, and make it so that they were worn out before they could get anywhere safe.

After she was done making the potion with some herbs she had and a little water, she approached him. His mouth seemed to be set in a frown as he slept, she could see that much. The top half of his face was masked by a black satin cloth that he had tied around his head, holes cut for the eyes. His hood was covering up his hair. Ginny wanted to see him. She watched his chest rise and fall in a pattern of sleep and glanced around the room seeing that everyone but her was asleep.

A tentative hand reached towards the dark hood, revealing a head of light brown hair. It was baby fine and soft as her fingers brushed against it. Her hand traveled down and grasped the edge of the mask when his hand came up and caught her wrist. She saw his eyes snap open from underneath the mask.

“Don’t touch my mask.”





A/N: I'll post again soon!!!

Love
VF

* Song goes to Dido.

Disclaimer: I only own Haven.

Ginny jerked her hand back, looking at him fearfully. “I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. She tried to reason, “I was just trying to check if you had a head wound.” Her eyes darted around the tent, hoping that no one had woken up.

He pulled his hood back up to cover his brown hair. “I don’t need your lame excuses,” he spat. That tone of voice was so familiar, where has she heard it before.

In her head, wheels turned and clicked into place. Her eyes widened in recognition as she looked down at him, deeply surprised. Of all people, she hadn’t expected him. “Draco?” she whispered, her hands instinctively going up to the chain on her neck, feeling of the comfort of the dragon.

“Shit,” he cursed. “You better not tell anyone.” He shoved back his hood forcefully and pulled off the mask. He grabbed his wand and pointed it towards his head; his brown tresses immediately turning to their natural pale blond. Ginny watched as his deep grey eyes traveled up to her neck and rested on the pendant and his eyebrows shot up. “Where did you get that?” he demanded.

Ginny glanced over at Haven, thinking he might have woken. He hadn’t; this?” she asked, pointing to the silver dragon resting on her skin, glittering in the firelight.

“Yes,” he looked at her impatiently, his cool grey eyes probing her own warm brown ones. “Where did you get it?”

“I got it when I was little,” she said not meeting his eyes. “At the park, and you were crying,” he asked. It was impossible for her to tell what he was thinking his eyes were shrouded. How did he know?

“Yes,” she answered slowly. “How did you know?” He looked at her for a moment; Ginny took advantage of the pause and studied his face. It hadn’t changed too much from Hogwarts, besides the added lines on his face that didn’t belong there. There were dark purple circles under his eyes that glared out at you and his mouth was set in a straight, serious line. Despite it all, he still looked just as handsome as he had in school.

“That was mine,” he said, eyes trained to the necklace.

“You were the boy who was trying to get me to stop crying,” she said . Realizing his father, Lucius, had been yelling at him about the necklace. She had never forgotten that day. “Do you want it back?”

Draco studied the necklace, “no, it’s yours.” He shifted in the bed and winced. “How about that Skele-Gro?” he groaned.

“Wow,” Ginny said, trying not to smile. “I’ve never had such and eager patient before. Not for Skele-Gro at least.”

“When you’re leg is hurting as bad as mine, Skele-Gro sounds heavenly,” he said thickly. Ginny nodded and began measuring out a spoonful of the medicine for him.

“This is my last bottle,” she remarked, looking at it sadly. Even though the New Ministry always wanted healers around, it was hard for her to get her hands on any type of manufactured medicine. Most of the time she just had to make her own medicine with the herbs that were around camp.

“I’ll bring you some more next time I come around,” he said dismissively. “But only if you get that over here, fast.” Ginny suppressed a laugh as she tipped the spoon into his mouth. He made a face. “Eugh, that stuff is worse that I remembered.”

Haven stirred in his bed and turned over, his eyes wide and curious as he looked from Ginny to his father. “Daddy?” he whispered, his eyes lighting up.

Draco smiled softly at Haven. “Yes, I’m here. Be quiet, we don’t want to wake everyone up.” Haven nodded grinning brightly. He leapt out of his bed to crawl into Draco’s, snuggling against him. Ginny felt her heart leap as she saw this, and then there was that twinge. Surely Draco would take Haven with him this time.

Ginny went and put the Skele-Gro up and dimmed the fire a little, getting ready to climb in her own bed. She climbed in; noticing Draco had his hood and mask back on. Just as she was about to pull up her blankets, she heard Haven from the other bed. “I want Ginny,” he said sleepily.

“Three of us won’t fit in this bed,” Draco said to him. Ginny stared at Haven, not knowing what to say.

“I can’t sleep without her, she scares the evil wizard away,” Haven pleaded. “Please, Daddy?” Draco looked over at Ginny; she shrugged and crept over to their bed. She climbed in next to Haven and made sure that he had the covers tucked up to his neck. She told herself it was okay since Haven was in the middle. She just hoped that she would wake up before Ron.



~*~



“Ginny,” Ron bellowed. Beside him, Harry woke up immediately and clamped his hand firmly over Ron’s mouth.

“Shut up,” he hissed, squinting, his eyes still not adjusted to the sunlight. He reached over to the table beside the bed and grabbed his glasses, shoving them onto his face impatiently.

“But she’s in bed with…that man!” Ron said heatedly as soon as Harry had removed his hand.

Harry glanced over at them. “Yes,” he said rationally, “but Haven’s in-between them.”

“I don’t care,” Ron said angrily, trying to get out of bed. Harry grabbed a handful of the back of his shirt and jerked him back to the bed, a small “Oof” coming from his mouth as he landed back on the mattress.

“Shuddup, Ron,” Ginny mumbled groggily into her pillow from the other bed. Haven was nestled between her and Draco; an arm slung around her waist and another around his father’s, his teddy lay above his head on the pillow. Ginny carefully took his arm off of her and placed it onto the mattress, sliding out of bed trying not to disturb them. She covered Haven back up. “I only slept there because Haven wanted me too,” she explained to Ron, rubbing her eyes.

Ron still didn’t look very happy. “But we don’t even know who that man is,” he argued.

Ginny was silent as she got a worn pot from one of the battered wooden crates. Ron stared at her, an odd look on his face. She measured a cup of lentils and some water, pouring them into the pot. She would have to ration the food even more now that they had one more person to feed.

“You know who he is,” Ron said slowly. “Don’t you?” Ron looked at Harry, who shrugged, then back to Ginny. She didn’t answer. “Who is it Ginny?”

“Does it matter?” she asked finally, looking at him guardedly.

“Well, yeah,” Ron scoffed. “He is staying in our tent,” he said wrinkling his eyebrows at her. “Tell me, Ginny,” he commanded.

“It’s not my secret to tell,” Ginny said stirring the lentil soup. “If he really wants you to know, he’ll tell you himself.” She gave him a look over her shoulder, noticing that Harry was rolling his eyes at Ron. She wanted to smile but knew that would just fuel Ron even further, so she didn’t.

Ron glared at her, “If he’s going to stay in this tent—“

Ginny cut him off swiftly, not wanting to hear him anymore. “Ron, I’m the able-body who is in control of who stays in this tent and who doesn’t. If you were better I might let you have some decision, but as of now I am in charge of this household. Don’t get on my nerves.” It was an empty threat and they both knew it. Ginny would never throw Ron out.

“So…” Harry said clapping his hands together and raising his eyebrows at them. “Is that soup ready?”

Ginny gave him a sideways glance. “No, it’ll be ready in a few minutes. You watch it, I’ll be back.” She sighed and pulled on her worn boots, they were tattered, their heels falling off, the front part flapping, and they were coated in the rusty colored dust that covered just about everything else in the camp. She needed a little time on her own to think, she pushed the flaps of the tent open and stepped out into the sunlight, letting it flood around her, enjoying the warm feel of it on her skin.

One thing she had noticed since the New Ministry had come was that there were death eater guards all over the camp. They wore their black robes with the dark mark on the back, glaring maliciously at anyone and everyone who passed. The dirty little kids that used to get their only fun from playing outside had retreated to their tents, the death eaters have scared them off.

She passed by the New Ministry building, which resembled a small castle. It was tall and menacing casting shadows at the camp that hadn’t been there before. The stone was a gloomy grey and all the dark windows seemed to glare down at her. Even though it was new, she could smell the musty dankness of the place as she walked by.

A death eater watched her from his perch on a low tree limb. The tree was already scraggly and pitiful enough with its skeletal branches fluttering noisily in the wind without the death eater sitting in it. Poor tree, Ginny thought.

The death eater hopped down and started towards her. Ginny frowned, what did he want from her? Then she noticed another one step out of the trees and followed the other one. She felt her heart beating and her hands flew up her necklace to try to pacify her fear.

The two death eaters stopped in front of her, “W-What do you want?” she managed to stutter.

“Miss,” one said, taking her by the arm. “I’m afraid that we’re going to have to—“ another death eater ran out of the trees, panting loudly.

“Gods you guys, why didn’t you wait for me? Oh!” he said, looking at Ginny.

The death eater that had been talking jerked his head at the death eater that had just walked up. “Anyways, we’re going to have to take you back to your tent.”

“All of us are going to take you,” the silent death eater said. Ginny looked at them curiously. They didn’t act like death eaters. She figured they must be young recruits or something. They grabbed her arms and started pulling her after them.

“Uh, guys,” she said carefully. “My tent is the other way.”



~*~



They pushed open the flaps of the tent and immediately Ginny saw that Ron was standing next to Draco, trying to look as menacing as possible despite his very pale skin. Ron wasn’t supposed to be out of bed. Ginny pulled her arms out of the men’s grasp and ran to Ron, ushering him back to his bed. “What were you doing? Do you realize that you could be worse off than you were before now? Gods, you’re so stupid, Ron.”

Ron glared at her feebly as she jerked his blankets up and rolled her eyes at him. She continued, “What do you think you would have accomplished anyways? I can tell you, you couldn’t have done anything in your state. I don’t see how you’re ever going to get better this way.” She sighed and looked over at Draco, her hands on her hips. “And what are you doing out of bed? As I recall you are sick too? I advise you to get back in bed right now before I have to make you.”

“You can’t make me do anything,” he grumbled, walking towards the bed anyways.

Haven was sitting on his father’s bed, watching this all with a small smile on his face. He thought it was funny. He noticed the men standing at the door. “Who are they?” he asked Ginny.

Ginny whirled around to face the men. She had forgotten they were there. “Oh,” she said. “Do you guys need something?” Then she felt like she was going to start panicking. Draco was in the tent with them and as far as she knew he was a wanted man. The Dragon of Hope wasn’t safe in this tent if three death eaters were in it as well.

One of the death eaters stuck out a pale freckled hand with a small bird shaped scar on his right hand knuckle. Ginny’s eyes widened and her face broke out in a grin. “Oh my gods,” she cried launching herself at the man. “Oh my gods,” there were tears streaming down her face.

“What are you doing, Ginny?” Harry asked startled.

The death eater’s arms flew around her and one of the others came around to her and hugged her as well. By now the whole tent was staring at the fixatedly, wondering why Ginny was hugging two death eaters. “We missed you, Ginny,” one said thickly.

Molly’s head shot up from her pillow, she gazed at the two men her eyes glazed over. “No,” she said smiling. “It can’t be? My babies?”

The two men threw back their hoods, revealing the grinning faces of Fred and George Weasley. “We sure had you tricked didn’t we, Ginny?” Ginny chose to just nod, instead of informing them that they had acted to nice to ever possibly be death eaters. “Mum,” they said, rushing over to her bed and letting her gather them in big hugs.

“Fred? George?” Ron called, there were tears in his eyes. After their mother finally let them go, they went over to Ron and hugged him as well.

After everyone was hugged and accounted for, they stopped in front of Draco, big grins on their faces. “Well if it isn’t the little bugger himself,” Fred said.

“And what’s he doing in a tent full of Weasleys?” George added.

“I could ask myself the same question,” Draco said gruffly, but there was a small smile visible on his face. Ginny noticed that he had a dimple on one cheek that showed when he smiled.

“Oh well,” said George. “You put up with us all the time, what’s three more Weasleys anyways?”

“Way too many.”

“Excuse me,” Ron said loudly. “You know who he is too?” Then he looked to Harry, “If they know, you must too.” Harry smiled and nodded. “This isn’t fair, why can’t I know?”

“Because,” said the other death eater, stepping away from the entrance of the tent and pushing back his hood. It was Neville, only his voice was deeper, and he had lost all of his baby fat. He was tall, and lean with dark eyes and equally dark hair. “You would freak out the most.”

“I bet I would not!” Ron said indignantly.

“Yes, you would,” Draco said, pulling back his hood as well.

Ron let out a cry of surprise. “You!” he shouted accusingly.

“Yes, me,” Draco said rolling his eyes. Then, just as quickly, he narrowed them, “You breathe a word of this and I will rip out your intestines and strangle you with them.”

Haven looked at his father wide-eyed. “Daddy?” he said unsurely.

Draco looked over to Haven, “Daddy didn’t mean it,” he said. “I just want to make sure he knows how bad it is to tell on me.” Haven put his arms around Draco and looked at Ron pleadingly.

“Please don’t tell on my daddy,” he said softly.

Ron gaped at them all in disbelief. “I can’t believe this, it’s a conspiracy.”

“No it isn’t,” Harry explained. “You’ve been stuck in the godforsaken refugee camp for too long. Malfoy has been on our side since the war began, working double time as a spy. There are people out there that you never would have known to switch sides, I bet you didn’t know that Dean went over to Voldemort’s side did you?”

“No,” Ron said in dubiously.

Harry nodded, “Malfoy’s been our best spy and the most help to anyone alive.”

“Then how come he’s still such a prat?” Ron asked, recalling his earlier fight with Draco.

Harry smiled and looked over at the sneering Draco, “Because, Ron, some things never change. He still hates us. But he hates Voldemort and what he’s doing even more.”

“Are you friends with him?” Ron asked accusingly.

Draco snorted, “No way in hell would I be friends with that.” He looked over at Harry disdainfully, “It’s more like I barely tolerate him. Being in his very presence make my skin crawl.”

Ginny shot Draco a withering glance, “You should watch your mouth, Malfoy.”

He blinked at her, “I’ll do what I want, Weasley.”

Neville cut in, “Alright guys, stop it. We aren’t getting anywhere with this kind of arguing.” He cast pointed looks in Draco and Ginny’s direction. He held out his hands, “The reason we came here was we heard that this was going to be the Dark Lord’s—“

“Still too scared to say his name, Longbottom?” Draco sneered.

Neville scowled at Draco, “Fine, we heard this camp was going to be Voldemort’s new base. We didn’t know for sure until we sent Harry.” He glanced around at everyone. “We have to get to him before he gets any stronger; he’s still weak from his last battle with Harry. We have to get him while he’s down.”

Ginny and Ron looked to Harry, who nodded, “It’s true. Hermione is back at Hogwarts with Dumbledore and the other’s trying to devise a plan for the best way to fight him. The resistance is on its last legs, this may be the last chance we get. We have to get you guys out of here and back to Hogwarts so we can prepare.”

“But I thought you said that it was too risky for us all to leave,” Ginny said, wrinkling her eyebrows.

“It still is, but I said that before when I wasn’t sure that this was Voldemort’s new headquarters. Now we have to get you out of here because it won’t be safe,” Harry said.

“When are we going to leave?” asked Ron.

“We’ll have to leave in three days at the latest. But we’ve got to wait for Malfoy to get better so that he can make an appearance at the New Ministry building so it doesn’t look too suspicious that he hasn’t been seen in awhile.” Neville said, looking at Draco scornfully.

“But there will be death eaters on patrol and they must have set wards up by now,” Ginny reasoned. “There won’t be a way that we can get out undetected.”

Fred and George smiled. “This is where we come into play,” said Fred.

“On our way in we made a small hole in the ward placed around the camp. Or at least we weakened it so bad it wouldn’t be able to stop us, or alert them.” George said proudly.

“Don’t you think they would have detected the fault by now and fixed it?” Ginny asked curiously. “They must at least check if this is going to be Voldemort’s headquarters.”

George frowned, “Must you always burst our bubble?”

Ginny shrugged, “I’m just being careful. You never know what could go wrong.”

“The wards aren’t strong over the stream, the water breaks them down,” Draco said. “They would be easy to puncture and get through.” He looked at Haven, “That how I got him in,” then he nodded his head at Harry, “him too.”

“How are we going to get to Hogwarts after we leave the camp?” Ron asked, sitting up straighter in his bed, not wanting to be left out of the conversation. “Not all of us are going to be able to apparate.” He smiled remembering something Hermione had said, “Not that we’d be able to apparate into Hogwarts anyways.”

Harry gave Ron a look, “You actually listened to Hermione?” Ron’s ears pinkened.

“We’re going to get to Hogwarts by broom,” Draco cut in, glaring at them for getting off the topic. “We’ll have to walk to my mother’s house, which is about 60 kilometers from here. I have plenty of brooms there.”

“60 kilometers? That’ll take us forever!” Ron complained.

Draco glowered at him, “Well what do you propose we do? Flap our wings and hope that the wind isn’t blowing in the wrong direction?”

“Hey now,” Ginny cut it. “If you can’t say anything nice….”

“Don’t say anything at all,” all the guys in the tent chorused together.

“That’s the spirit,” she grinned.



~*~



The moon shone down fiercely, its craters highly visible, it seemed to hang lower in the sky than normal. Ginny felt that if she climbed to the top of one of the trees that she could reach up and touch it. She was standing outside staring up at the sky listening to the trees shake and whisper in the darkness. They had all talked for hours about what was going on, and how they were going to get to Hogwarts.

“You know, the aliens aren’t going to take you if you look so eager,” Harry said softly coming up behind her.

She glanced back at him confused, “Aliens?”

“Sorry,” Harry shook his head. “I forgot, it’s a muggle thing.”

“Oh,” she said quietly. She sighed loudly and shivered in the cool wind. Harry stepped up closer behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She settled back against him comfortably. “Everything is going so quickly, it seems like just yesterday Haven got here,” she murmured.

She turned her head up to look at him, realizing how close their lips were. “Harry, I—“ she never finished. Harry leant down and sealed her lips with his own.



A/N: Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I don't own anything...but Haven.

“Harry,” Ginny exclaimed while jerking backwards. She gazed up at his green eyes in surprise. “What was that for?” She put her head in her hands, “I can’t believe you just did that.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. Ginny studied him for a moment, his eyes were sincere and that would have to do. “I don’t know what came over me. You just looked so…lovely with the moonlight shining on your face, and you seemed so happy.”

Ginny sighed, “I…It’s okay. Just, please try to refrain from kissing me so…suddenly. You surprised me.”

Harry looked sheepish, “Does that mean I can do it again?—If I ask?”

Coughs came from the opening of the tent. Draco stood there, an eyebrow raised, watching them, amusement flashing in his eyes. “Well now,” he said smoothly. “This wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to see.” Ginny blushed and saw Harry stiffen next to her. “But I didn’t come out here to insult you, if that’s what you were thinking,” he smirked. He looked straight at Ginny, “Do you think you could give me some more of whatever it was you gave me last night to ease the pain?” Ginny noticed that he winced when his weight shifted over to his hurt leg.

“Oh, right, I’m sorry,” she rushed into the tent and rustled in her trunk for the medicine.



~*~



Draco stood in front of the New Ministry building, his black, death eater robes billowing out around him in the wind. It had been two days since the Weasley twins had arrived with Longbottom and he had to pay a visit to Zabini before he left. He left Haven with Ginny, he hadn’t really wanted to, but he didn’t see what it would hurt considering that he had been with Ginny the whole time that he couldn’t take care of him.

He raked his fingers through his hair as he stepped into the building, cool air rushing towards him. He suppressed a shiver and walked to the front desk. The woman at the front desk looked up at him with cold black eyes. “I have an appointment…” he left his sentence hanging in the air as he looked at her.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said calm as you please.

She stared up at him unblinkingly, “Well, Malfoy, you’re a little worse for wear.” She said studying the lines on his face noticeably.

“I could say the same about you,” he sneered, noticing that there were gray streaks in her hair.

“Left hall, second door to the left,” she spat. He whirled around and stalked off down the hall.

He walked into the room without knocking to find Zabini lounging back in his chair, feet propped up on his desk and hands behind his head. “You have Lestrange here,” Draco said.

Zabini looked at Draco, “Yes. She’s quite an efficient secretary.” Zabini took his feet off of the desk. “Mathilde is getting on your nerves already? You haven’t even been here five minutes.” His eyes danced as he smiled.

“She always does, and you know it. I don’t even know why you bother to ask,” Draco said dropping down into one of the chairs in front of Zabini’s desk.

“Well you got rid of her a long time ago. I thought maybe bygones were bygones.”

“Hardly, and I didn’t get rid of her; she was too irresponsible; I left.” Draco said rolling his eyes.

“Sure, sure,” Zabini said waving him off. “But, to business.” Zabini pulled some parchment out of his desk. “You know that this is going to be headquarters?” Draco nodded. “We need you to go the company that’s in east London.” He sighed, “We’ve got a few dingbats that are even catching our owls out of midair.”

Draco smirked, “Why don’t you just brand our owls, that way they know to release them?”

Zabini snorted, “Right oh, you’re a smart one, Malfoy. I don’t know why one of us hasn’t thought of that before.” Probably because you’re all idiots, Draco thought. Zabini rubbed the bridge of his nose, “I’ll get Parkinson to show you the map. So you’ll know exactly where they are.”

Zabini called Pansy into the office and told her to take Draco into the maps room. He followed her up three flights of stairs until they finally stopped at a room at the very end of the hall on the fourth floor. She batted her eyes at him as she opened the door with her key. “I’m one of the official keepers of the maps,” she said proudly.

“Quite impressive,” Draco said flatly. She led him into the room and on the back wall there was a gigantic map of England. All the death eater camps where marked with red dots, and the new Head Quarters was marked with a big black “X”.

“This,” she said sticking out a bright pink taloned finger. “Is where the company in East London is stationed.” She moved the finger across the map and pointed to the big “X” that very clearly stated, in blue ink, that it was “HQ”. “This is where we are. Now,” she explained slowly, “We need you to get the company from here in East London,” the talon moved across the map and rested on the big “X”, “to here”.

Draco blinked at her stupidity, but found himself saying, “Of course,” in the most neutral tone possible under these sorts of circumstances.

She beamed at him, “Very good.” Draco had an itch in his hand to slap her. Then she sighed and looked at him sadly, “I have to go to a meeting, but I’ll have Millicent show you the way down.” He was about to growl that he could find the way out by himself, but Pansy had already left. A very large Millicent now stood in the doorway smiling dumbly at him.

“Hello, Draco,” she boomed mindlessly.

“Hi,” he said miserably.

Once they were out in the sunlight again, Millicent winked at him. “See you around,” she said and strode back into the building.

“Good Gods, I’m glad that’s over,” Draco said sighing loudly after he was a good ways down the path. He slipped into the trees and pulled his hood up before he stepped back out again. It would ruin everything if he let anyone see him, a Malfoy, walking into a Weasley’s tent.

He pulled back the flaps and stepped in and was almost plowed over by his son. Draco caught Haven in his arms and hugged him closely. “Daddy!” Haven said excitedly. “Guess what! Guess what!” he said bobbing up and down in his father’s arms.

Draco smiled at him, “What?”

“Ginny made me a cape!” he wriggled out of Draco’s arms and ran towards his bed. Draco frowned at Ginny, whom had her back turned to him, working on something near the fireplace. Haven swept a butternut colored cape off of the bed and tied it around his neck. “See?”

“That’s very nice, son,” Draco said his lips curving up into a warm smile. “Did you say thank you?” Haven nodded, “Yes, sir.”

“That’s a good boy,” said Draco, pleased.

“Good Merlin,” Ron breathed from his bed, “I swear, Hell has frozen over.” Draco scowled at him.

“Shut up, Weasley,” he snapped glaring menacingly at Ron.

“Now, now,” Ginny said absently. “No fighting…. And no cursing, Ron.” Ron rolled his eyes and flopped back in his bed sighing loudly.

There was a small explosion from Fred and George’s corner of the tent. They looked up a grinned unabashedly, “Whoops little backfire there.”

Neville was sitting on his cot watching Ginny. “When do you think that we’re going to leave?”

Draco looked at him sharply, “Didn’t we discuss this already?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “We’re leaving tomorrow, before dawn if possible.”

Harry glanced at Draco and frowned, “Did we say how we were going to go about carrying Ron and Percy?”

Percy looked up quickly as he heard the twins start to chuckle. “Weightless floating charms should work,” Draco said shortly.

“They,” Percy said pointing at the twins, “Aren’t going to be casting any charms on me.”

“Don’t be so picky,” Draco smirked at Percy. “You’ll get whoever can bloody well take you.”

“Mouth,” Ginny reminded, patting Haven’s head idly. He had crawled up into her lap and was resting his head on her with his eyes closed, trying to take a nap.

“Of course we’ll take you,” Fred said, his eyes shining mischievously. “We’re as Malfoy says, ‘bloody well able to’.”

“Yeah, come on,” George goaded. “You aren’t afraid now are you?”

Percy sniffed at them. “Of course not, I just think you’re to irresponsible to handle another person.”

“Ouch,” George put his hand on his heart, “That hurt Percy.”

“Yeah,” said Fred, “Real deep.”

“Would you all shut up?” Draco snapped. “You’re giving me a bloody headache.”

“You know,” Ginny said looking up, “I’ve got a bar of soap over here that would do a nice job of cleaning out that mouth of yours.”

“What?” Draco’s eyebrows slammed together. “Bloody isn’t a bad word.”

“Maybe so,” she said mildly. “But it isn’t a word you need to be saying around Haven.”

Draco looked at Haven, no trace of malice on his face. “But he’s asleep.”

“It doesn’t matter.”



~*~



Ginny put all the labeled bags of herbs in her bag. She had spent the whole other day on organizing them all, while the men were arguing. There were a few other knick knacks that they had salvaged from the Burrow that she pack in her bag as well, but pretty much everything else in the tent could stay, it wasn’t like they’d need it once they got to Hogwarts.

She filled two sacks with even portions of lentils and squash (vegetable of the week). Everyone else was still sleeping while she did this. She had figured that it would be good to be ready to go when everyone else got up so that they wouldn’t have to do a lot of waiting around.

After she was finished, she sat down on one of the chairs at the small table and massaged her temples with her fingers. “You’re quick,” said someone behind her. She turned around to see who it was. Draco.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I thought I should make myself useful.”

“As useful as a Weasley can be,” he said snidely, yet under his breath.

She gave him a look, “You know, that attitude of yours isn’t going to help us get anything accomplished as a team.”

“Who said we were a team?” Draco scoffed.

Ginny groaned, “I don’t know why I even bother to try and have a conversation with you.” She shook her head, “It’s pointless; everything you say is mean and nasty.” She looked over at Haven who was still lying asleep in their bed. His white blond hair framed his face like a halo and his mouth was puckered up in a twisted smile.

Ginny grinned, “I wonder what he’s dreaming.”

Draco looked over at Haven softly, “I hope it’s something nice.”

Ginny shook her head again but didn’t say anything. She saw Harry move around in his bed restlessly. He finally flopped himself over on his back and stared at the ceiling of the tent with his eyes blinking rapidly, adjusting to the light. He looked over and saw that Ginny and Draco were sitting at the table.

“You two up already?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” they both said at the same time. Draco glared at her and Ginny rolled her eyes. Harry couldn’t help but grin.

Harry looked at the others, “Do you think that we should get them up?”

Ginny shrugged, “I don’t see what harm it could do. The sooner we leave the better.”

Thirty minutes later, they all snuck out of the tent. Percy and Ron were floating in front of Harry and Neville while Fred and Ginny carried the food sacks. Haven was silent as he held onto Draco’s hand, his eyes darting at all of the shadows, pressing himself closer. Molly was holding George’s hand as he followed Draco who was leading the whole group to the small stream where they could break the ward, and escape.

Disclaimer: I still only own Haven.

The camp was silent and the blanket of darkness that had fallen over the camp muffled all of their sounds. Draco had led the group to the stream expertly; they had gone around the New Ministry building undetected. Draco had his wand drawn the entire time, but with no lumos spell. His eyes were wary watching every shadow for a lurking death eater.

They found the stream and the twins went forward to work on the wards. They murmured spells under their breaths, trying to be as quiet as possible. Haven was holding onto Ginny’s hand while his father helped the twins with the ward. It was taking them longer than expected, and Draco kept looking around like he expected some death eaters to pounce on them.

“Yes,” the twins whispered in unison. They turned and grinned at everyone. “Come on,” they beckoned everyone and held open the ward with their wands.

Ginny, Haven and Draco slipped through first, followed by everyone else; Fred and George last, sealing the ward behind them.

They walked in silence for another half hour, the moon beaming down at them luminously, shining in all of her brilliance, giving them light to find their way. The woods nearby were filled with sounds of nocturnal creatures creeping. Haven was holding both Draco and Ginny’s hands now, squeezing tightly as he looked at the woods fearfully. While Draco just held his hand firmly, Ginny’s rubbed his palm reassuringly with the pad of her thumb.

“Gods,” Fred said finally, breaking the silence. “I think we’re far enough away to talk.”

George nodded, “The quiet was getting to me. I think that’s the longest we’ve been quiet since that invasion in Hogsmeade…” he trailed off, suddenly looking very solemn. He reached for his mother’s hand and pulled her near to him, Fred came up on her other side. Arthur had been killed during that invasion.

Percy and Ron were sleeping; Neville looked at them a bit jealously. He hadn’t had much sleep the past few days.

“Daddy,” Haven said softly.

Draco looked down at him, his sharp gaze mild, “Yes?”

“Will you carry me? My feet are tired,” Haven looked up at him pleadingly. His feet had been heavy from his boots, thunking on the ground with every step that he took.

“Sure,” Draco released his hand and bent down, hoisting Haven over his shoulder, causing him to giggle. “You can be my sack of potatoes.” Haven’s tinkling laughter rang out through the night.

“Ah! Daddy, I didn’t mean that kind of carrying. Piggy back,” Haven explained, still laughing.

“Oh, right,” Draco said and shifted Haven to piggy back.

Haven smiled, “Thanks.” He rested his head on Draco’s back and closed his eyes. Ginny looked at them, her eyes glazed over slightly, she tripped on a rock and catapulted forward. In a flash, Draco had Haven on his feet again and had caught Ginny in his arms just before she flew face first into the ground. He was breathing heavily, his hot breath on her skin made her shiver. She looked up at him slowly, her heart racing.

“I…Sorry,” she said when she noticed that everyone was watching her. “Thanks,” she said to Draco, standing up and smoothing her robes. They started walking again and Ginny glanced back at the rock that she had tripped over; it was grey and looked like it had little pieces of grass sprouting out of it. She shook her head when she thought she saw two.

Before long, Neville had stumbled over a rock that looked a lot like the one that Ginny tripped over. Only Neville caught himself before he fell. He frowned and looked around, Ginny did the same. There were these kinds of rocks everywhere, or at least there were five of them near the group. As she approached one, she stuck her foot out and kicked it.

The “rock” squealed and shot up, revealing a small gray, hairy creature. It scowled at her and rubbed its side. Her eyes widened in shock, they had learned about these in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The others popped up. “Pogrebin!” she screamed.

Everyone looked around, Pogrebin weren’t supposed to be here, they were native to Russia. But during the war they must have come to England, sensing the distressed humans. They were creatures that loved to follow people around making them confused to a point of hysteria causing them to collapse, and then it tries to consume them.

Neville and Harry stunned two of them, but the other three had gotten up. One was chasing Molly and the twins, who were currently in control of Ron and Percy. “Quick!” Harry called out as one of the Pogrebin advanced towards him, “Follow me!” Molly, the twins, and Neville ran with him, he was casting spells at the Pogrebin, trying to run backwards as well.

Draco, Ginny and Haven were backing up towards the woods as the two remaining Pogrebin pressed towards them, their shiny, sharp, white teeth bared with menacing grins. “Reverso,” Draco yelled. They rocketed back, but got back up and kept coming towards them. “Shit,” Draco cursed. “Here,” he lifted Haven off of him and handed him to Ginny. Haven was now on her, piggy back, “Hold him….”

The Pogrebin had saliva dripping out of their mouths. Haven was crying and Ginny could feel his hot tears seeping through her robes and shirt. His hands were fisted on her robes.

“Ginny….Daddy,” he cried softly. Pain shot through Ginny’s heart. She rubbed his legs tenderly.

“Exileramus!” Draco shouted. The Pogrebin shrieked and disappeared, gray smoke residing where they had been standing just moments ago. Haven was latched onto Ginny, crying quietly. Draco looked back at them, his eyebrows lowered. “Come, Haven,” he helped Haven off of Ginny’s back and held him against his chest. “It’s alright,” he soothed, rubbing Haven’s back and rocking slightly. Ginny watched them inaudibly, feeling much the third wheel.

“Damn,” he said softly. “We’re separated. I hope they find it to my mother’s house.” He shook his head, “Oh well.”

“Will we have to go back that other way?” Ginny asked fearfully. She knew that she had just developed a very large fear of Pogrebin and didn’t know if she could last through any more confrontations with them.

Draco looked at her curiously, “Scared?” There was only a slight hint of malice in his voice.

She looked at him steadily and sniffed, “Yes, actually, I am.”

The corner of his mouth quirked, “Okay then, we can go through the forest.” He shifted Haven to his back. “Just stay close; there are…well, just stay close, okay?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Ginny said walking next to him, so close that their shoulders almost touched. Ginny looked at Haven. His eyes were closed and he was snoring faintly.

“This way,” Draco said, “takes longer than the other way, but if we go in a sort of semi-circle, we’ll make it to the house okay.”

Ginny nodded. They continued walking through the forest, Ginny developed and knack of jumping whenever she heard a noise and jarring Draco’s elbow, he scowled at her, but she never noticed.

-

The sunlight was filtering through the trees before anyone spoke again, besides Draco’s irritated “Stop it” every time Ginny jumped. Ginny looked at Draco, seeing Haven sagging slightly on his back. “Do you want me to carry him for a while?” she asked as they trudged through the forest.

Draco looked at her and wrinkled his nose. “You’re too scrawny,” he said. “You’d drop him before too long.”

Ginny stiffened, “I am not scrawny.”

He didn’t even look her way, “Yes, you are.”

“I am not!” she said a bit louder. “Just because you’re taller than me…”

“Look, Weasel,” he said tiredly. “You’re scrawny, too skinny; you probably have no muscle on you. You wouldn’t be able to hold him very long; he gets quite heavy after a while.” He looked over at her; she was glaring at him, her jaw set. Haven hadn’t stirred; the excitement of the night before had gotten to him, and worn him out.

“It’s not my fault the stupid death eaters don’t know how to give people enough food,” she said angrily, kicking at a stray stick on the forest floor. “They hardly give us enough food to feed one person for a week, and they expect it to be enough for a whole tent of people?” Her eyes widened, “Oh my gods, I’m so glad I packed two bags of food.” She sighed with relief, “We have one and they have one.” She put her hand to her heart.

Draco looked at her his eyes watching her, annoyed and vaguely amused. “Relax, Weasel. I’m sure that even if they didn’t have food they’d be okay. They could eat some boysenberries or something.” Ginny wrinkled her nose at him.

~*~

It was getting dark again, and they had only stopped once to eat lunch and let Haven use the bathroom. Draco had gone with him, so Ginny figured he had probably gone too. Draco was still carrying Haven, refusing flat out to let her even try to carry him. She pointed out that she had held him while Draco was fighting off the Pogrebin, but he said the only reason he let her hold him then was because he needed both of his hands free, and he didn’t want Haven to be so close to the Pogrebin.

There were rustling leaves above their heads and glowing eyes peering at them out of the darkness. Ginny felt her feet dragging; she was so tired. Her face was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes. She would have given anything for her rickety old bed back at the camp. But all there was here was the dewy leaves that rested on the floor of the forest.

“Ah!” Ginny cried out. There was a snap.

“Ginny?” Haven was suddenly alert and awake, looking around worriedly.

“Weasel?” Draco called out.

“Oh no,” she moaned. “No…no, no, no.”

“What happened?” Draco set Haven down and crouched near Ginny. A fallen branch from a tree, with a sharp limb had ripped through her robes and cut her shin rather deeply. But that wasn’t what she was moaning about.

“Not my wand,” she whispered. She picked up the two pieces and looked at them pitifully. “Oh Merlin,” she breathed. She looked at Draco with wide eyes. “Do you suppose you could heal my cut?” she asked softly.

Draco whispered a spell and the torn skin on Ginny’s leg mended. “Wow,” said Haven. “That’s cool.”

Ginny sighed, “Now I feel helpless.”

“Was that even really your wand?” Draco asked carefully.

She looked at him. “No, it was Percy’s old wand.” Draco brightened a little. Ginny scowled at him, “What?”

“There’s an Ollivander’s still open in Hogsmeade. The death eaters figured they should have a place to buy wands,” he shrugged. “We can get you a new wand there.”

Ginny smiled, “A new…” her smile faltered. “I couldn’t pay for a new wand.”

“We should start moving,” said Draco picking Haven back up.

They continued walking. “Did you hear that?” Ginny instinctively stepped closer to Draco.

It sounded again.

She jumped and grabbed his arm. He let her hold on. “Lumos,” he said. He lifted his wand up higher and peered into the darkness. He looked back at Ginny and scowled. “It was just an owl,” he said.

“Oh,” Ginny let go of his arm quickly and stepped away.

“Agh,” Draco clutched at his arm, grimacing and grunting a little with pain. He slid the fabric of his sleeve up to reveal his glowing dark mark. It jeered out at them evilly. He looked at Haven and Ginny apologetically. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice thick. “You’ll have to stay here. I promise that I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Ginny nodded slowly, “Alright.” Draco eased Haven off of his back and nudged him towards Ginny.

“Go on,” he coaxed. “I promise I’ll be back. Just stay right here.” He hugged Haven and kissed his forehead, then Disapparated. Suddenly, the forest seemed heavier, weighing down on them. The sounds were chilling, making Ginny shiver.

“I’m scared,” Haven said quietly.

“Me too,” Ginny whispered, hugging Haven closer.



VF: Hello all, thanks for reading so far. I hope you like it. Just a few notes. I sort of made up that exileramus spell. You know like "exile" like they're banished to somewhere bad. *shrugs* Anyways... Thanks for reviews! They are greatly appreciated.

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.

A/N: I hope you like this chapter, it was writing whilst I was drinking large amounts of Tang, so please excuse me.

Disclaimer: Still only own Haven.

Heroes Shed No Tears
Part VIII--

“Oh,” she said. Her eyes widened and Draco dropped her quickly. She landed on her bum. “Ow!” She glared at him. “What did you do that for?”

Draco looked at Harry, ignoring Ginny. “Potter,” he acknowledged.

“Malfoy.” Harry did the same. “What were you…?”

“She fell from that tree,” Draco explained. “She was trying to get some apples.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Apples?"

"Yeah," Haven interjected. "We've been eating those bean things and I wanted an apple. They’re yummier."

"Oh," said Harry. He looked at Ginny.

"Really, the branch broke, look," she said. She pointed to the splintered branch that was lying near the base of the tree.

"Okay," Harry said, pulling some brooms from behind his back. "We're riding back to Mrs. Malfoy's house. Everyone else is already there."

"Well done, Potter." Draco said coolly, grabbing one of the brooms and hoisting Haven on in front of him. He took the other one and tossed it to Ginny. "Let's get a move on, I want to be there before sun down."

Ginny rolled her eyes and shot up in the air to hover next to Harry. Harry left the canopy of the trees and Ginny followed. Draco was already pretty far ahead of them. Ginny sighed and breathed in the air, happy to be out of the musky air that was in the forest.

-

Narcissa opened the doors of her house and watched the skies as Draco, Haven, Ginny and Harry started their descent. They landed smoothly, Draco taking Haven’s hand immediately and Harry taking Ginny’s broom from her.

“I hope you had a nice fly,” Narcissa said, taking the brooms from all of them.

“We did,” Ginny said with a smile. She was glad to be back on the ground though.

Narcissa led them into a living room and seated on the couches Ginny saw her brothers and Neville. She smiled, “Hullo! We’ve made it!”

Fred and George leapt off of the couch they had been occupying and smothered her in hug, grumbling something about, “Bloody Pogrebin.”

“Hey, hey,” she said. “I’m alright, get off me you big lugs.” She slugged them in the shoulders playfully, and turned to the immobile Ron and Percy. She gave them hugs.

Harry walked in as Ron said, “Gods, Gin, I swear I’m going to kill that bloody prat Malfoy.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Ronniekins.”

Ron glared and looked to Harry. “I don’t know why you guys trust him. I swear you’ve gone daft. He’s a bloody wanker, how do you know that he isn’t just spying for You-Know-Who?” Ginny raised a chiding eyebrow.

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Look Ron, he may be a wanker, but he’s the only one we’ve got with half a brain.” Ron started to protest, but Harry held up and hand and cut him off. “But, if he screws up, I promise you can be the one to pull his eyes out.”

Ron looked marginally happier. “Lovely, pull the sodding git’s eyes out.” He rubbed his hand together.

“You’re demented,” Ginny said, thwacking him on the back of the head.

Ron shook his head, “Nah, I’ve just not been able to do anything for way too long.”

“Me too,” Percy chimed in. “It’s becoming more unbearable everyday. Especially just sitting around and having to listen to that brat whine.” Percy was looking pointedly at Ron.

“I don’t whine,” Ron said, crossing his arms on his chest.

George slapped him on the back, “Hush now, old chap. We’re going to be at Hogwarts soon and I’m sure Snape will be able to brew you a potion that will have to back to normal in no time.”

“Yeah,” said Fred. “He’s a demon when it comes to making those potions. He just waves his wand and BOOM!—there they are.”

Percy snorted, “You don’t use a wand to make potions, idiot. They require brewing in a cauldron and measurement of ingredients and…” by now everyone in the room had tuned Percy out.

Narcissa poked her head around the corner of the door jam and looked for Ginny. “Virginia? Would you like to bathe? I’m sure you must feel awful after having to trek through that filthy forest.”

Ginny’s eyes widened. “A bath? That sounds lovely.” She got up off of the couch and followed Narcissa out of the room.

As she was led down the hall, she noticed that the house seemed much bigger on the inside than it did on the outside; she assumed it was charmed that way. In reality, the house was more of a mansion. The halls were long and lead to many staircases. There were doors all along the hallways, spaced evenly. Narcissa finally stopped in front of a door and pushed it open. Inside there was a bedroom, she ushered Ginny inside and turned another knob and the door opened to reveal a luxurious bathroom. There was a huge tub with many jets and faucets.

A gasp escaped Ginny’s throat. “My gods.” She looked around more, seeing the fluffy towels hanging neatly on their racks. “I haven’t had a proper wash in....” She looked at her hands. “Since the war.”

Narcissa smiled warmly. “Then it’s high time, isn’t it? And this is just the bath for it. Very nice, don’t you think?”

“Oh, it’s amazing.” Ginny ran her fingers across the fabric of a towel, reveling in the softness.

Narcissa produced a small pile of folded clothes. “This is what you can change into once you’ve washed. We can’t have you wearing those any longer,” she said, gesturing towards Ginny’s dirtied butter-nut robes. “You can just send them down the laundry shoot and I’ll get the house elves to throw them out.”

“No!” Ginny bit her lip. “I mean, I’d like to keep them...as a reminder.”

Narcissa nodded. “Very well, then. Enjoy your bath.” She left the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Ginny turned and faucet and let the warm water run over her fingers.

-

“Where’s Longbottom?” Draco asked. He, Harry and the twins were sitting in the library getting ready to go over their plans.

Harry frowned. “He was here just a second ago. Maybe he had to use the restroom again?” Fred and George chuckled. “I think he may have a slight bladder problem.” Fred and George snickered. Harry tried to give them a stern look, but failed and ended up laughing himself. “Seriously,” he said between laughs. “He has been having to go to the bathroom much more than is humanly necessary.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “We’ll talk to Snape about it when we get to Hogwarts, but until then—’’ He stopped to glare at the three other men. “If we can compose ourselves….” Harry and the twins straightened up. “Sorry…”

“Don’t apologize, Potter.” Draco lip curled up in disgust. “Just shut up.” Fred and George shared a look.

Harry ignored him. “How are we getting to Hogwarts?”

“We could Floo,” Draco said.

“I thought that Hogwarts closed its Floo grates,” said Harry.

Draco raised an eyebrow. “There are a few grates in Hogwarts that remain open.”

Harry’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about, Malfoy? When you step into a Floo grate and call for Hogwarts it’s totally impossible to tell which fireplace you’re going to come out of. How can there be a few that are still functional?”

Draco lifted his eyes to the ceiling and rubbed his temples. “The grate isn’t exactly in Hogwarts.”

“You said it was.”

“Shut up and let me finish,” Draco snapped. Harry rolled his eyes at Draco. “As I was saying, the gate isn’t in Hogwarts. But it leads to Hogwarts.”

“Tell us where it is,” George said. “Quit drawing it out.”

“It’s in the Shrieking Shack.” Draco said.

Harry’s eyebrows rose. “That would work.”

“Of course, it was my idea wasn’t it?” Draco said smirking.

“Only one problem,” interrupted Fred. “The Shrieking Shack is haunted.”

Both Harry and Draco snorted, then stopped and gave each other with looks of repulsion. “It’s not haunted,” said Harry. “You remember that Lupin is a werewolf?” They nodded. “He used to go there for his transformations while he was at Hogwarts. The noises he made were what the townsfolk thought were the ghosts that haunt the shack.”

“Why didn’t Dumbledore just tell them what it was instead of letting them think that?” asked George.

“He helped spread the rumor; it was to keep Lupin safe and keep it so that he could still attend Hogwarts. If the parents of the children at the school had known, they would have definitely made Dumbledore expel him.”

“Right,” said Fred. “I see. Well, good plan, Malfoy.”

“Yes, good plan,” repeated George.

The door creaked open and they all turned to look at it. Ginny stood in the doorway, clean and freshly robed. “Hullo,” she said stepping in and closing the door behind her. “Narcissa told me that you need to see me?” She looked at them expectantly.

“I see that once the grime is cleaned off you, you actually resemble some sort of life form,” said Draco, his eyes roving over her body.

Ginny glared at him and crossed her arms. “Stuff it, Malfoy.”

Harry gave Draco a look. “We’re going to go to Hogwarts, but we think that maybe you should stay here, with Haven and Narcissa. It would be safer for you.”

Ginny blinked and looked to Fred and George. “Did you two agree with this?” she asked.

“We only want what’s best for you, Gins. We’ve already lost Dad in this war and we don’t want to risk losing anyone else that we don’t have to,” said George.

“You’re serious? You’re going to try and keep me here?” She glared at them. “I’m not staying here and letting you all go out and fight the death eaters without me! I’ve been stuck in that godforsaken camp too long. I want to do something! And I’d like to see you try and keep me here.” She had her finger pointed. “There’s no way that I’m staying here where it’s safe while you guys go out and have all the fun.”

“Fun?” Harry asked. “You think it’s fun fighting a war??”

“It certainly sounds more fun than sitting at home wondering if everyone you love is okay. I know that.” Ginny argued.

“What about your mother?” Harry asked.

Ginny let out a low breath of air. “Don’t bring my mother into this! She’ll be fine. She doesn’t need me here worrying over everyone, and then, in turn, getting her upset. I can’t believe you said that, Harry.”

Harry sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry, Ginny. But we just can’t let you go.”

Ginny let out a frustrated shriek. She looked at Draco and saw that he was watching this all with an amused look on his face. “Did you agree to this?” she asked him.

“Of course not,” said Draco. He received glares from all the other men in the room. “I never said that we should leave you behind. If they’re expecting to beat the death eaters this time, they’re going to need a lot of man power.” Ginny raised an eyebrow. “Woman power as well,” he added. “My mother certainly doesn’t need you here. I’m sure you’ll be much more useful on field as a medic and fighting.”

Ginny allowed herself to give Draco a small smile, which he ignored. “See? Malfoy agrees that I should go. Why can’t you see what is best for everyone?”

“We’ll talk about it later,” said Fred.

“Yeah, Gins, why don’t you go, and we’ll talk about it.” Harry shot Draco a furious look.

Ginny sniffed and put her hands on her hips. “Why can’t you talk about it with me here?”

“Weasley,” said Draco. “Just go. We’ll come get you when we’re done.”

She gave them all one more piercing look and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

“Well, that went well,” said George.

“Ginny isn’t going to give in, is she?” Harry asked.

“Of course not,” said George. “She’s a Weasley. Weasleys don’t give up.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “I don’t see why you’re trying to keep her here. She’d be much more useful at Hogwarts.”

“The only reason you don’t see why she should stay is because you don’t love her,” said Harry.

Draco wrinkled his nose. “You can’t let love get in the way of a war. Wars aren’t fought that way.”

“Then tell us, Malfoy, how are they fought?” said Fred.

“They are fought by using every means necessary,” said Draco. “If you’re not going to let Ginny participate in the war, you might be losing a victory. Think about it. She’s a medic, how many of those do we have left?” Harry’s face fell a bit. “That’s what I thought. You’re going to need her to heal people. And I’ll have to say from first hand experience that she’s a pretty good healer. She’s also a good fighter, how else do you think she stayed alive in the war before?”

“She wasn’t in combat before,” argued Harry.

“Just give it up, Potter. I’m right about this.” Draco said. “You heard her argument, there’s no way that you’re going to be able to keep her here anyways.”

“Fine, Malfoy. Have it your way. You can go tell her,” said Harry, sinking in his chair.

-

Ginny had taken to wandering the hallways, pacing the corridors, muttering under her breath about Harry, Fred and George. She was not going to let them make her stay here and not be able to participate the war. Why should she let them go off and fight if they wouldn’t let her? It just didn’t make sense. Was it because she is a woman?

She kicked the wall. “OW!” She hopped around, holding her injured foot. “Smart, Ginny,” she said.

“Extremely smart, Weasley,” Draco said, walking to her from behind.

"No comments were necessary, Malfoy," Ginny said, shooting him a glare, rubbing the toe of her shoe. She let her foot drop back down to the floor and leaned against a wall. "Why are you here? To tell me that they've determined that I have to stay here? I wouldn't be surprised." She rolled her eyes. "They always try to keep me home, or where it's safe from everything. Ever since that whole Tom Riddle incident, they seem to think that I'm fragile."

Draco looked down at the floor, then back to Ginny. "I convinced them to let you come."

Ginny looked at him, startled. "You did?" She blinked. "What did you do that for?"

He shrugged. "Why not? Your side is going to need all the help it can get."

Ginny pursed her lips. "Well, thanks."

"Only repaying you, Malfoys don't like debts."

"What are you repaying me for? I haven't saved your life. If anything, you saved mine, when those Pogrebin attacked," Ginny said, frowning at him.

Draco rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms. "I didn't think Weasleys were that stupid."

"I'm not stupid."

"Whatever. Anyways, you took care of my son, without any questioning, which is a surprising occurrence; we are in the middle of war after-shocks and there's lack of food at all of the refugee camps. And then, you took care of me without knowing who I was. I think those are some things that might put me into some sort of substantial debt to you."

"Oh, Malfoy," Ginny waved her hand. "I don't think that really counts as debt. I did those things because I wanted to. And you don't have to act like it's such a bad thing to be in debt to me. We're on the same side here."

"What can I say?" Draco smirked. "Old habits die hard."

Ginny frowned and stepped forward. She looked at Draco's chest and squinted, lifting her hand. Draco blinked and lowered his eyebrows. "Weasley--"

"You have a string on your robes." Her hand darted to his chest and plucked a white string from the front of his robes. She dropped it to the floor and smiled. "Not too dignified for a Malfoy, eh?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

She put her hand up, like she was going to pluck something else off of him. His hand flew up and caught her wrist. "Are you teasing, Weasley?"

The corner of Ginny's lip twitched. "Of course not, Malfoy."

"I think you are," Draco said. His lips curled up into a smirk. "The littlest Weasel wants to tease?"

Ginny pressed her lips together and looked up at him, her eyes dancing. Her eyes darted to his lips, and back to his eyes; she winced. Bad move, looking at those lips. "Not tease per say," she heard her lips betray her.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then what does the Weasel want?"

She bit her lip, causing his eyes to fly down towards them. He looked back at her eyes, and saw them sparkling. He smirked and lowered his lips. He turned his head and brushed a feather light kiss on her jawbone.

"I think," he said, grinning slightly, "that your brothers and Potter would still like to talk to you."

"O-Oh," Ginny croaked. "Well, I supposed they might." She cleared her throat. "Let's get going then."

"Daddy?" came a timid voice.

Draco's eyes widened and he whipped his head around. Haven was standing not too far off with a big grin on his face, a dimple showing on one cheek. "Did you just--"

"Come on, Haven. Let's get Grammy Ciss to fix you some of those snicker doodles that you love so much. Wouldn't you like some of those?" Draco said, grabbing onto Haven's hand and pulling him down the hall after him.

Ginny smiled and put at hand to her face. Her fingers trailed along the place where Draco had kissed her jawbone. She sighed and turned towards the library.

-

The guys were sitting in the library, now Percy and Ron--fully rested from their strenuous journey--among them. They were talking loudly, Ginny sitting in an armchair, set apart from the rest of them, her chin rested on her palm and her eyes trained to the ceiling.

"Testosterone, testosterone," she muttered to herself. "Everyone has to be in charge." She rolled her eyes. "No, Potter," she mimicked, "your plans are hogwash. Didn't you see what happened last time you tried to plan a raid? Totally down the drain. Shut your bloody mouth and listen to me." She rolled her eyes again. "Well, Malfoy," she mimicked again, "we aren't planning a bloody raid now are we? We're just trying to find a simple way to tell Dumbledore we're coming--" Ginny stopped and frowned.

"Are all men this stupid?" she asked. The buzzing of male voices stopped as they all turned to look at her. Her eyebrows flew up and her hand smacked over her mouth. She took it down slowly. "Did I just say that out loud?"

"Yes, Ginny, you did," said Ron, glaring wickedly. "Care to tell us what would make you say such a thing?"

"Well," she said, sighing. She looked to Fred, George, and Neville--who seemed to have finally found his way back from the bathroom. "If I'm correct, you three didn't just come to our refugee camp without any sort of authority--did you?" she asked, with an accusatory glare.

Fred and George grinned.

"Of course not," said Neville. "Dumbledore sent us. He sent us to come and get you all from the camp."

"Exactly," said Ginny. "Don't you see? He already knows that we're coming. I'm sure they're all prepared for us and will make sure to double check before sending off rounds of Unforgivables." She let out a satisfactory smirk as the men exchanged looks. "Dumbledore has more sense than that," she added. "You know...to just have Aurors sending off Unforgivables at unknown--"

"Yes, Gin," Ron snapped. "We get your bloody point. Shut up."

"Merlin, Ron, why do you have to be so touchy? I'm just giving you all a push in the right direction," she said with a sugar sweet smile. Ron rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath.

Draco was smirking from his perch near a window, obviously pleased to see Ron so upset.

"Alright then," Harry said, breaking the strained silence. "Now all we have to do is get there." He looked at his watch. "Since Malfoy here has the ingenious plan of how we're getting to Hogwarts all figured out, I'd recommend we go and get a good night's sleep--no telling what we're going to be doing tomorrow."

"Such faith," Draco said.

"Who'd blame him?" Ron asked, casting a bitter glance towards Draco.

"Oh hush, Ron," Ginny chastised. "You really need to get that beetle out of your bum. It's made your face go all squinted up." Ginny frowned. "Sort of like Pansy's. You remember Pansy don't you, Ronniekins?" She reached out and pinched his cheeks.

Ron smacked her hands, but grinned. "Shuddup before I come get you, Gins."

Ginny raised and eyebrow. "You're going to come get me?--In your crippled state, dear brother? I think not." She smiled. "Twins. Come take this one and Percy to their room."

"'This one' now is it?" Ron grumbled.

Ginny patted the top of his head. "Sleep tight."

"Don't let the bed bugs bite," Fred and George chorused.



Review.

Disclaimer: I only own Haven.

Heroes Shed No Tears
Part IX

Ginny stood out in the small balcony, her eyes were closed and her hands were clasped around the silver dragon pendant that was hanging off of her silver chain. Her fingers tightened and loosened convulsively.

The stars in the black sky seemed to hang lower, like she could reach out and touch their sparkle. The night was cool, a gentle wind was blowing. It seemed a good sign for their departure to Hogwarts the next day.

Ginny opened her eyes and stared up at the sky and sighed.

“Gin?”

She turned and saw Harry standing in the doorway, looking hesitant. His unruly dark hair was falling in his face, into his bright green eyes that seemed out of place in the dark night. She raised an eyebrow, and he stepped onto the balcony, making his way to her.

“I’m sorry,” he broached. “I’m sorry that I tried to keep you here. I should have known that you wouldn’t have wanted to.” He looked at her, his eyes soft and unguarded. “We all just want you to be safe and we’re just keeping you in our best interests. Your brothers especially want to make sure that nothing happens to you, they’ve already suffered so much.”

“I’m tired of suffering,” Ginny said, turning towards him. “I’m ready for this to be over, and I’ll do anything to get rid of it.”

Harry put an arm around her. “I know. We’re going to try our best. I’m sure even Malfoy will.”

“Malfoy,” Ginny repeated quietly under her breath. “How did he get involved with our side anyways? He seemed to be the last person I would ever suspect to cross over to our side.”

“I think it was his son, Haven. He wanted Haven to be safe, and he would have done anything to ensure that he was, so he doubled as an agent for our side. Dumbledore started keeping Haven at Hogwarts during the worst parts of the war. As I understand, he had a special room in the dungeons, away from all of the fighting,” Harry said. “It’s understandable that even a person like Malfoy wouldn’t want his child growing up in the middle of the war. So many of the children in the camps have already lost their childhoods to the war.”

“He changed for Haven,” Ginny murmured. “He really loves Haven,” she mused. “I wonder who his mother is.”

“No one knows, he won’t tell.” Harry said. “It’s late, don’t you think that you should at least try to sleep? We’ve got a full day ahead of us.”

“I suppose,” said Ginny, her hands dropped from the dragon pendant. Harry’s hand on the small of her back guided her inside. “Good night,” she said, and his hand dropped.
“Morning!” Haven crawled onto Ginny’s bed and shook her shoulders gently, trying to get her to wake up. “Wake up, sleepy head. Daddy says that you need to get ready now.”

Ginny cracked open one eye and peered at Haven sleepily. “Huh?”—she was still asleep.

“Remember that you guys are going to Hogwarts today?” Haven asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Oh, yeah,” Ginny mumbled, closing her eye only to open both of them again. She sat up slowly, and rubbed her eyes. They were still bleary and clouded from sleep. “I guess it would be a good idea to wake up then.”

Haven grinned. “Daddy said you need to be ready in an hour.”

“Who sent you to wake me up?”

“Daddy.”

“Where’s everyone else?” She asked.

“They’re in Grammy Ciss’s library. They got up a while ago,” Haven said.

“Why didn’t anyone get me up then?” Ginny asked, a bit angry.

“Potter said that you needed more sleep, that he didn’t want you to be tired.” Haven said in a sort of disdainful voice, sounding as though his father was speaking right through him.

“Just like Harry,” Ginny said, shaking her head.

She got up and shooed Haven from the room so that she could dress. She did so quickly, then rummaged around for her wand in the pockets of her old refugee robes. She found the two broken pieces and looked at them sadly. Despite the fact that she knew she was going to get a new one, she still felt sorry that she had broken this one; it had been a very serviceable wand that had never given her any trouble.

She put the two halves of her ruined wand into her pocket and pulled on her heavy boots, lacing them tightly. She stood and brushed herself off, turning in front of the mirror and pushing at her cheeks.

The person that she saw in the mirror was so different from the one that she had been before the war. The image of her bore little resemblance to the girl—woman—she had been before the war. She was no longer the girl that apprenticed Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts, excited that it was her last year, meaning she would graduate and go to one of the finest Medic schools in Magical Europe on a scholarship paid by Hogwarts. Instead, she saw what she had become, a grim young woman with war wounds evident in her eyes, having seen the all the misery the war had wrought, no longer so naïve and innocent to think everything was going to be okay.

She heaved a sigh and felt a single tear trail down her cheek. She had promised herself there would be no more crying over the war. She had already lost so much in it, there was no need to lose herself as well. She brushed away the tear with hasty finger and left the room, her boots clicking harshly on the floor.

Pushing the door of the library open, she saw the men sitting in various seats all around the library, with the exception of Draco who was sitting on the window seat, separated slightly from everyone else, with Haven sitting in his lap.

“Thanks for waking me,” she said.

“Sorry, Gins,” Harry said, not sounding sorry at all. “We just wanted to make sure that you were really well rested.”

“Speak for yourself,” said Draco. “If we could have woken her two hours ago with everyone else, we could have already been gone. It isn’t good to linger for too long.”

Harry rolled his eyes and chose the ignore Draco’s statement for the most part. “We’re going by this fireplace, Malfoy?”

“Yes, Mother is looking for some Floo Powder. We haven’t needed Floo Powder in a long time, but I know we have some,” said Draco, his hands rubbing Haven’s back soothingly.

Ron was sitting in an arm chair, his jaw set and his mouth in a pout; it was still evident to all that he was fully against any sort of alliance with Draco and that he would feel better as soon as they were away from this place, away from them.

Ron turned, and spoke to Draco, his voice hosting harsh tones. “You’ve been away from your Death Eaters for a long time, Malfoy, won’t they be suspicious?—Little Lucius Junior not living up to his father?”

Draco narrowed his eyes at Ron. “That’s none of your concern, Weasley.” His voice conveyed a different tone when he used ‘Weasley’ for Ron than it did when he used it for Ginny. With Ron is was a loathing sort of tone, used to remind him that he was lower than any Malfoy, and with Ginny, it was detached and indifferent, merely a name that he would call her, refusing to lower his standards and call her by her first name. “You shouldn’t toy with things you don’t know anything about,” he said in a low and dangerous tone. Even Haven was looking at Ron doubtfully.

Ron was ready to snap back at Draco, ready to hurl more insults and comments about Draco’s father, but Ginny looked at him sharply. “Ron,” she said firmly. “You aren’t helping anyone with your foolish comments. Keep them to yourself.”

“She’s right, Ron,” Harry spoke up. “Malfoy hasn’t done anything to prove himself untrustworthy to our side since he’s been helping us.”

“Since when has he been helping us?” Ron asked.

Harry frowned and looked to Draco, who kept his face blank and didn’t say anything. “He’s been with us since the beginning of the war.”

Ron blinked and said very quietly, “Then why did we lose?”

“You can’t win everything,” said Draco. “This is your last chance, this is the Resistance’s last chance. If you can’t win this time, then you never will.” He looked at Harry, “You’ve beaten down Voldemort, but you’ve never destroyed him, you have to do that or everything good will go down and you’ll never be able to dig yourselves out of the hole the Resistance is already in.”

Ginny noticed that Haven was looking up at his father with wide, wet eyes. “Haven,” she spoke softly. “Would you like to go get something to eat? Those—snicker doodles that your father was talking about yesterday?” She held out her hand.

Haven looked to Draco for approval. Draco nodded and helped Haven off of his lap, giving him a gentle push in Ginny’s direction. Haven took her hand and she led him out of the tenseness of the library.

“Why does your brother hate my daddy so much?” Haven asked, his voice quavering faintly.

“My brother holds grudges like no one else, he’s set on the idea that your dad is evil—and he isn’t—and won’t let go.” Ginny said, squeezing Haven’s hand. “But don’t worry about him, my brother isn’t listened to very much anyways, he just tends to ramble about things.”

Haven let out a small giggle and Ginny smiled at him.
They all stood in front of the fire place, Ron and Percy being held up by Fred and George. Haven was holding his father’s hand, listening silently while Draco explained that he couldn’t come, that he would have to stay with Grammy Ciss and that he would be back soon to see him and sent him off.

Draco held the pot of Floo Powder and everyone grabbed a handful of it, Ginny last, taking it slowly, her hands shaking. She held hers, fisted in one hand, and stared in the fire. Harry was going first. She could still feel herself shaking, her hands more than anything else. The thought of going back to Hogwarts, seeing her other brothers, Hermione and everyone she had thought dead was overwhelming, as was the fact that they were now doing something to fight back against the New Ministry, against Voldemort.

Draco took a firm hold of Ginny’s free, shaking hand, stilling it slightly. She glanced up at him and saw that he was looking straight into the fire. His hand was warm and dry—comforting.

Harry threw his powder into the fire and the flames took on a greenish tint. He stepped in and yelled, “Shrieking Shack.” Then sped away, leaving the flames to take on their original orange-red color. Fred and George went one after the other, taking Ron and Percy with them. Then Neville stepped up and went, pinched his eyes shut tight and tucking his elbows in firmly.

Draco and Ginny were the only ones left. Draco squeezed her hand gently. “You go first,” he said.

She looked up at him and turned to give him a quick hug, he blinked and patted her back awkwardly. She threw her powder into the fire and stepped in, feeling the flames convulse hotly around her. “Shrieking Shack,” she shouted. The flames gripped at her and propelled her through the network of fireplaces.
Ginny stumbled out of the fire place and Harry caught her by the arms, pulling her up straight. She looked around the small, dusty room. The only window in the room was boarded up from the outside, the pointy ends of the nails rusty and sticking out dangerously.

Seconds later, Draco came through the fire place with ease. He brushed himself off and looked up at everyone. “Ready?” he asked.

They all nodded and Harry led the way out of the Shrieking Shack to the tunnel that led to the Whomping Willow. He stepped out first and pushed the knob on the tree, stopping the branches and ushered everyone out quickly.

Ginny’s breath caught in her throat as she looked on Hogwarts again. It was the same as she remembered it, everything down to the Quidditch pitch that looked as if it were still used on weekends for games. She looked and saw that Hagrid’s hut had a puff of smoke coming out of its chimney and her lips spread out into a small smile.

A hand touched her arm, she looked up and saw Draco looking at her with a raised eyebrow. “You’ll have enough time for that later,” he said. She nodded and followed him back to the others.

They walked up to the front doors, which were guarded by Aurors. They saw the twins and Harry and opened to doors for them listlessly. Ginny’s boots clicked sharply on the marble floor of the entrance hall, making a cranky Mrs. Norris hiss at her from a dark corner.

“Ginny! Ron! Percy!” Footsteps thundered down the hall as Bill and Charlie ran at them. Within seconds everyone, minus Draco, and Neville who was standing around awkwardly, was engulfed in hugs and kisses.

“Charlie…Bill,” Ginny said with happy tears. She hugged them tightly. “I missed you so much.”

“We missed you too, Gin.” Charlie said, wrapping her up in another hug.

“Ron!” Hermione’s voice was heard screaming. She ran at them and wrapped her arms around Ron, kissing him soundly on the lips. Ginny saw Draco grimace and turn away, she had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Hermione turned to Ginny. “Oh, I’ve missed you all.” She gave Ginny a hug as well.

“I hate to break up the family reunion,” Draco said in voice that made it clear he wasn’t. “But don’t you think that we should inform Dumbledore of the arrivals?”

“He’s right,” Harry agreed. “Let’s go up to see Dumbledore, then we can all catch up.”

They followed Harry up to Dumbledore’s office, and Hermione supplied the password “cauldron cakes.” Ginny felt her lips tugged up in a smile, despite the war Dumbledore had still kept his password contained in the realm of sweets.

As they all crowded into his office, Dumbledore’s wizened face broke into a smile. “I see you all have made it!” he stated happily. “Merlin,” he said, getting out of his chair and hugging the Weasleys that had been at the refugee camp. “It is so wonderful to see you all.” He frowned at Ron and Percy, “What happened with you two?”

“They were bitten by a Shrilist during that attack on Hogsmeade,” said Ginny, “and were infected with ricnophotosis because I didn’t have the proper ingredients to treat the bite.” She looked the Ron and Percy quickly, “Do you think that Professor Snape could brew an anti-ricnophotosis potion?”

Dumbledore raised a hand as if to wave her off. “Of course he can, it is no matter.” He turned to Neville. “Would you mind taking them down?”

“No, sir,” Neville said. He turned and took control of Ron and Percy and steered them out of the door and towards the hospital wing. Ron could be heard muttering under his breath about being left out as the door shut soundly behind them, Neville’s ruefully smiling face lingering in the doorjamb for a moment.

Dumbledore studied them standing before them. “Sit,” he commanded softly, the lightness that had been in his eyes upon their arrival diminishing quickly. “As you all know,” he said as they took seats around his office, “the New Ministry is quite frankly in full power now.” He gave them each a long look, “You might have guessed, despite you not being here,” he looked at Ginny pointedly, “that I had to shut down Hogwarts as a school. It is still open to anyone of the Resistance in need of refuge, but there is no way that it can remain an active learning environment—it has turned into too much of a base for the Resistance.”

His eyes were tired, he rubbed them slowly, thoughtfully, and continued. “If we are to take any action in trying to prevent the New Ministry’s control from spreading any further it has to be done soon—as soon as possible. There is not much time, the number of dark supporters is growing everyday. More and more people are seeing that the Resistance is not as strong as it used to be. Our numbers are dwindling and many of the Aurors sent on missions do not come back. Thankfully we have Mr. Malfoy here. He is helping us more than he sees.” He nodded in Draco’s direction.

Ginny was hoping to see him display some sort of human quality, such as blushing, but he didn’t—his face remained a cool mask and he merely nodded back to their former Headmaster. Harry was sitting in a red armchair, close to Dumbledore’s desk, staring pensively at Fawkes, who was perched on the back of Dumbledore’s chair.

“How long do we have?” he asked quietly. He raised his eyes and glanced at Ginny. His eyes were so hard a small chill ran down her back. She had never seen him look so determined.

Dumbledore let out a low sigh. “Maybe two months. After that…”

Draco spoke up, “After two months you’re all going to die more or less.” Everyone’s eyes turned to him. Everyone but Dumbledore glared. He raised his eyebrows, “It’s true. Everyday Hogwarts’s defenses are deteriorating, and so are the numbers of the Resistance. There simply aren’t enough people willing to die for a just cause.”

Ginny blinked, lowering her eyebrows a bit. Her voice came out softly, trying not to put Draco on the defensive with her question, “Would you?”

His cool gray eyes flicked over to her face. “I support what’s right,” he said simply. Ginny probed his eyes searching for something else. There was nothing. She settled back in her chair and glanced over at Fred and George, who were practically hovering above their chairs. It was obvious they weren’t too comfortable talking about this.

“Anyway,” said Harry. “I think that now, since we have Ginny, Ron, and Percy, we should start planning.”

“You haven’t been planning before now?” Ginny asked, a bit anxiously.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ve done vague planning, but we really needed you,” he admitted, “as well as Ron and Percy. You were one of our top healers and Ron was so good at strategy. I guess all those years of chess really paid off, eh?”

Ginny nodded mutely. They were going to have to plan quickly—but since they were going to have to plan quickly it would have to be very precise, and checked over many times. Being too hasty could cause them to fall again; to fall into the hole Draco had said they would never be able to get out of.

“I am sure that you would all like to get settled. We have more time to talk about this later. It is a bit much to hear all at one time,” Dumbledore said gently. “We will talk tomorrow, in the morning.”

Ginny stood and pushed open the door before anyone else. She rushed down the stairs, and through the halls. Her eyes were stinging, she had tried to keep them back but it was so hard. The pressure of everything was finally coming down on her. Her shoulders felt heavy and burdened with the weight of everything the wizarding world had become. She knew that by herself there was nothing that she could do to fix it, but that didn’t help her to stop feeling so awful about it.

She rounded a corner and sped down a familiar dead-ended corridor. She had come here many times when she had still been going to Hogwarts. It was her favorite place in the whole castle. At the end of the hall there was a big window, with a large green cushioned window seat. The window showed the front view of the castle—the lake, Hagrid’s hut, traces of the Forbidden Forest, and if you looked closely enough you could see the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

She settled upon the cushion and swiped at her cheeks with her fingers, pushing the tears away. She closed her eyes and settled back against the stone feeling the coldness seeping through her robes.

She sniffed the air quietly, it had changed. A more masculine smell had invaded her nose. She opened her eyes and saw Draco standing over her. She blinked. “What are you doing here?” she asked bleakly.

“Nice to see you too,” he said dryly. He didn’t say anything else, but looked out the window, his gaze settling over the lake.

Ginny wasn’t going to admit it to herself, but she did feel better now that Draco was there. Just someone else being with her made the weight lighten.

Draco shoved her feet off of the cushion. Ginny glared at him, but he ignored her. He folded his long frame into the confines of the opposite end of the seat gracefully, totally unruffled by the otherwise awkward maneuvering.

“Are you worried any about Haven?” Ginny asked, following his gaze to the lake. There was nothing special about it now, the giant squid hadn’t poked its head out of the waters or anything. But it was tranquil. The water was a deep blue that sat still, no rippling—it looked like glass.

Draco lifted his eyes to hers. “Not especially. That house is well warded,” he said. “My mother is there, I trust her.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that—’’

“I know what you meant, Weasley,” Draco cut in. “It’s fine.” Ginny fell silent and studied his face. It was hard to imagine that the man sitting across from he was the same boy she had known in Hogwarts; the same boy that teased and tormented her family for as long as anyone could remember. “I know I’m good-looking,” Draco’s smug voice sliced into her thoughts, “but you don’t have to stare.”

Ginny snorted derisively. “I was thinking. And it wasn’t about your looks.” She let out a small sigh. “You’re so different.”

He brushed off the comment. “Everyone is different.”

Ginny shook her head. “Not like you. You…you’re not so Malfoyish.”

Draco arched an eyebrow. “Malfoyish?”

Ginny rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. You aren’t all ‘Die Mudbloods, die!’”

Draco’s mouth curved into an ‘o’, but his eyes remained expressionless. “Oh look, Weasley used a grown-up word. My, my, aren’t you growing up fast.”

Ginny rubbed her temples. “I take that back. You did not change. You’re still very much an annoying prat.”

Draco smirked. “Why thank you.”

Ginny shook her head again, “Anytime, Malfoy, anytime.”

“You’ve changed as well,” Draco commented.

“How so?”

“You aren’t the same little mouse that used to hide behind Potter and Gits,” Draco said. His lips spread into an evil grin, and he sang softly: “His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, his hair is as dark as a blackboard—’’

Ginny smacked her hand over his mouth firmly, giving him a glare that usually made her brothers back off in seconds. He was unfazed. “That,” she said deliberately, “is enough.” She shook her head at his childishness. “I wasn’t myself that year anyways.”

Draco’s eyes flashed oddly. He grasped her wrist and pulled her hand away from his face, but he didn’t let go. “Who were you?” he asked.

“Part Tom,” she said quietly, frowning and looking at Draco’s hand holding hers. “I was never totally in control,” she murmured. She lifted her eyes to his, they were wide and uncertain. She blinked rapidly. She hated thinking about anything that had happened during her first year. It was the worst year of her life, counting all of the ones she spent in war. “T-Tom,” she said hoarsely, “he was becoming me.”

The corner of Draco’s lip twitched. “So he was writing love poems to Potter?”

Ginny couldn’t help but smile. Draco’s eyes flicked down to her lips. Unconsciously, Ginny’s tongue darted out and licked them. Draco’s eyes darkened and he leaned forward—his lips brushing hers ever so gently, like an angel’s wing fluttering over her lips.

VF: Alright, sorry about that last A/N, it got cut off for some reason. But basically what I said was, that Haven’s mother will be revealed when it’s time—but not yet. There have been some good and right guesses but I’m not telling you for sure—so you’ll all have to just hang in there and wait to find out. I’ll just say that his mother is not Ginny. ::smirks::

The only reason I think that I got this chapter done so soon was because I’ve been home with bronchitis (again) and I’ve mainly just been: sleeping, reading fanfiction, and writing fanfiction. Oh, and we’ve also had school cancelled for three days due to sleet and such that made the roads all dangerous. ::whee:: I’m so happy we don’t have school.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. The only thing that I remotely own is Haven. Oh! And I borrowed the Serpent League from Night Spirit, but with permission! I asked first. (I changed it up a bit though, and used it as a more elite group of Death Eaters.)



---------------------------------



Heroes Shed No Tears
Chapter 10

Last time…

Ginny couldn’t help but smile. Draco’s eyes flicked down to her lips. Unconsciously, Ginny’s tongue darted out and licked them. Draco’s eyes darkened and he leaned forward—his lips brushing hers ever so gently, like an angel’s wing fluttering over her lips.

His lips on hers sent a tingling sensation down her spine that caused her to arch upwards so that her lips were pressing harder against his, deepening the kiss—she could feel it all the way down to her toes. Before she knew it, her hands were caught up in his hair and his arms were wrapped around her waist, pulling her onto his lap. His tongue slipped out of his mouth carefully and pushed against her lips. Without so much as a second thought, she opened for him and his tongue slipped into her mouth to tease hers slowly. A low moan erupted from the back of her throat.

Slowly, Draco pulled away and opened his eyes. Ginny still had hers closed, her lips parted slight—her eyes fluttered open slowly as she looked up at Draco, her eyes soft. He blinked and looked back at her with an unreadable expression that caused her to frown.

“What?” she asked nervously. Aware that her hands were still tangled in his hair, she brought them down quickly and put them in her lap; he didn’t take his hands from her waist.

He scowled and shook his head. “Nothing.” He looked out of the window for a second, then back at her. “Do you think that we should go and find out where we’re staying?”

Ginny bit the inside of her cheek and looked down. “Sounds like a good idea,” she said, climbing off of his lap. He got up and followed her down the hallway back to Dumbledore’s office. She said the password and stepped onto the stairs, Draco right behind her.

When she opened the door, the twins both exchanged amused glances before anyone had even said anything. “Well, well,” said Fred, standing up from his seat. “Who looks like they just climbed out of a broom closet?”

George chuckled. “Yes? Who, dear brother?” He also got up from his seat and they both advanced on both Draco and Ginny, who were still standing near the doorway. Ginny’s eyes widened.

“What are you talking about?” Draco snapped.

“You know what we’re talking about,” George said with a devious wink.

“You know exactly what we’re talking about.” Fred grinned madly. “Someone’s been snogging our sister.” Ginny felt her cheeks heat up in a bright red blush. Was it that obvious?

“Alright boys, that’s enough,” Dumbledore cut in—though it was quite obvious he was amused by this as well; his eyes were sparkling and his lips had taken to an upward tilt. “I will take you to your rooms now,” he said, getting up from his chair. Ginny looked around the room quickly, searching for Harry. He wasn’t there. “Ah,” Dumbledore said, noticing. “Mr. Potter has gone down to check on Mr. Weasley.”

“Oh,” said Ginny, and she followed Dumbledore out of the office.

“You’ll be staying in the old Ravenclaw dormitories—most likely in the seventh year girls dormitory seeing as that is the only one that has not been filled yet. The rest of your family has taken residence in the sixth year dormitories.” Dumbledore turned to Draco with a frown. “I’m afraid you’ll have to share with Miss Weasley for now, Mr. Malfoy. We’ve been having a shortage on beds—we’re quite full.”

Draco nodded curtly. “Fine.”

“Toffee cakes,” Dumbledore said to the portrait that guarded the entrance to Ravenclaw—it was a fairy.

“’Evening, Professor Dumbledore,” the fairy greeted.

Dumbledore inclined his head. “Miss Meriwether.” The fairy let out a tinkling giggle.

He led them through the common room, which had about four or five people sitting and just talking, or reading in it—they didn’t even look up when Ginny and Draco came in behind Dumbledore. Despite the fact that there were people talking in the common room, it seemed to be a quiet and hushed talk. The common room seemed barren of true life forms; it seemed the ones that were in it were merely there because they had no other place to go—they were like ghosts that would never pass on to their next life, they had lingered in a world they didn’t belong in for too long.

Ginny looked at the faces of the people in the common room. They looked like young Aurors, but you never could tell—everyone looked older than they were supposed to. There was one small girl sitting in a dark corner, a large book open in her lap. Her eyes were focused on the pages - the words - her mouth forming them as she read. The girl looked to be no older than ten. Ginny felt her heart go out to the girl, who seemed distressed at what she was reading.

“Weasley,” Draco hissed at her, raising an eyebrow. Dumbledore had paused that the staircase, waiting for her to come out of her reverie.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, jumping up and following them up the stairs.

“This is where you’ll be staying while you’re here,” Dumbledore said as soon as they reached the dormitory. “If you need any new robes…or anything, you can go down to Professor Flitwick’s old room to request. We’ll try to provide you with anything you need.” Ginny knew this comment was for her, after all, Draco seemed to be one of the few people at Hogwarts able to provide for himself outside of the castle. Ginny even suspected that he was the one that provided them with many of their supplies.

Draco cleared his throat. “Professor,” he said. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, urging him to continue. “It seems that Weasley here had an accident when we were traveling here—her wand snapped.” He paused and looked at Ginny, who had a small smile on her face. “A venture to Hogsmeade to retrieve a new one is imperative,” he finished.

Dumbledore nodded. “So it is. Please just be back before night fall. The Serpent League has settled a small amount of troops near Hogsmeade,” Dumbledore said, the concern for them evident in his voice. The Serpent League was the most elite group of Death Eaters; the only reason to station them so near Hogwarts was the keep the Resistance on their toes.

“Alright,” Draco said. Dumbledore gave them one last smile and left the dormitory, closing the door behind him.

Ginny looked at Draco with wide eyes. “We’re going to Hogsmeade when there are Serpent League troops there?”

Draco looked at her mildly amused. “When do you suggest we go? It’s not as if the amount of troops is going to decrease any. If anything, their numbers will increase.”

Ginny nodded slowly, sitting on a bed heavily. She sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. “I have to have a wand,” she said mostly to herself. She looked at the blue bedspread thoughtfully. “I guess we should leave as soon as possible, right?”

“That would be correct,” Draco said his voice having taken on an impatient edge. “In fact…if we could leave now…”

“Right,” Ginny said quickly, getting off of the bed. “Let’s get this over with.”

Draco studied her for a moment. “I can’t take you looking like that.”

Ginny frowned and looked at her robes; they were ordinary black robes that Narcissa had given her to wear, what could possibly be wrong with them? She fingered the hem apprehensively. “What’s wrong with how I look?” she demanded.

“For one, you don’t look like you belong in Hogsmeade at this time. Have you stepped foot in any of the old wizarding cities since the war?” he asked carefully.

“No,” she snapped. “Why would I? It’s not like I had the money to buy anything then. Prices rose unbelievably when the war began,” she said, half-glaring at him.

Draco rolled his eyes. “Exactly. Only people with money are seen anywhere near shops these days. And you definitely don’t look like you have any money.”

“I’m wearing your mother’s robes,” Ginny argued.

“They certainly aren’t her finest,” said Draco. “I’m sure there’s something decent in here that you can wear…” He had gotten up and was rooting through a large trunk situated near a bed that was in the darkest corner of the room. She could see that there was another dark and ornate looking trunk at the foot of that bed and could only assume that this wasn’t the first time that Draco had taken up residence in this dormitory. “Here,” Draco said, throwing robes at her.

She caught them and turned them over in her hands. The fabric of these dark black robes was much thicker and finer than that of the ones she was currently wearing. She held them out and saw that the cut was also much more fashionable and expensive—not to mention that it was clearly a woman’s robe. She arched an eyebrow at Draco. “Do you often indulge yourself in a collection of women’s robes?” she asked, her lips curling up in a smile.

Draco smirked. “Not too often.” He moved to leave the room, and stopped at the door. “Do hurry up,” he said, then left, closing the door loudly behind him.

Ginny rolled her eyes and began tugging the robes she was wearing off. Slipping the new ones on and admiring the feel of the lush fabric against her skin. She looked in a mirror rooted on the wall, and pulled her hair up, twisting it. She turned and looked at it from the side.

“Very nice, dearie,” the mirror complemented.

Ginny sighed and let it down. She didn’t have anything to keep it up with.

Before causing herself any more grievances, she turned away from the mirror and left the dormitory. She went down the stairs quickly, but paused once she reached the bottom. Draco was sitting on the floor next to the girl that she had take notice to when they first entered the Ravenclaw tower. The book she had been reading was still resting open on he lap, but she was looking up at Draco, nodding and talking to him. The sight of Draco sitting on the floor with the little girl made her eyebrows slam together in confusion. She would have understood if it had been Haven, but this most certainly wasn’t.

Draco reached out and ruffled the girl’s hair affectionately before standing up and brushing off his robes. Ginny heard the girl’s faint, “Bye, Draco,” as he walked towards Ginny, noticing her appearance in the common room.

“Let’s go then,” he said, seeing that she had changed into the robes. “We don’t have time to waste.”

“I know that,” she snapped irritably. Draco was treating her as if she were a child, and it was grating on her nerves. “I’m not stupid,” she added.

Draco raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as they made their way towards the Entrance Hall.

The fresh air outside of Hogwarts made Ginny inhale deeply, thoroughly enjoying the smell—it was much different than that of the dust-permeated air at the refugee camp. Just the smell of it reminded her of when she was at Hogwarts. It made her want to laugh, or do a cartwheel on the lush grass just because she could.

Draco and Ginny were silent as they walked down to Hogsmeade, but Ginny was happy for it; she had so many thoughts buzzing through her head that she needed time to think about, and if the way things were going kept up, then she would have much time to think.

The Forbidden Forest seemed to leer at them as they walked by, more frightening than it had been when she had attended Hogwarts. She could smell the stench of wild magic wafting from the trees and who knew what else was in there. Ginny suppressed a shudder when she thought she thought she saw a pair of bright yellow eyes staring out of the foliage; she blinked and they were gone.

They were well into the outskirts of Hogsmeade when Draco said: “Stay close.” She didn’t have to be told twice. Everything had grown darker since the last time she had been there. Once they entered the streets of Hogsmeade, she saw that there was no Zonko’s or Honeyduke’s. Shops like that had been replaced by ones selling dark objects or potion ingredients.

Draco quickly pulled his hood up, and shot Ginny a look telling her she should do the same. She reached for the hood of her cloak and pulled it up over her head, tucking her hair back into it. They continued walking down the street, Ginny was almost afraid that someone would stop and recognize her; but they merely went on with their business, not even taking second glances at the black clad Ginny and Draco. They stopped in front of Ollivander’s – the shop’s sign was peeling much like the one in Diagon Alley – only this one proclaimed itself the Hogsmeade branch.

Not waiting for Ginny, who had paused to study the sign, Draco went forward quickly and pushed open the door, causing a small bell to tinkle throughout the shop. Suddenly afraid of being left alone with whatever dark persons there were in Hogsmeade, Ginny scrambled up the small steps that led to the entrance and went inside behind Draco. He was already at the counter; a man was appearing from the backroom slowly, making his way towards the counter.

“Mr. Malfoy,” the man greeted in a silky voice, one that made the hairs on the back of Ginny’s neck stand up.

“Ollivander,” was Draco’s reply. “We’ve come for a wand.”

“We?” Ollivander raised an eyebrow, and Ginny peered at him timidly from behind Draco. Draco let out a frustrated growl and forced her in front of him. “Oh, Miss Weasley, you have not been here for your first wand yet have you?” he asked, almost gently.

“No,” Ginny said.

Ollivander nodded. “What kind of magic do you excel in?” he asked.

“Healing,” she said, casting a wary glance at him.

“Ah,” Ollivander said, picking up a wand box. He slipped the wand out and handed it to Ginny. She looked at it slightly confused. “Give it a wave,” he prompted.

“Oh, right,” Ginny said, feeling a blush rise in her cheeks. She felt stupid, but she waved the wand anyways. Nothing happened.

He picked up another box, took the wand out and handed it to Ginny. “Try this one.” She waved it again—nothing happened. Ollivander frowned, “Well, third time’s a charm.” He got out one last wand and handed it to her. She waved it and green and blue sparks flew out of the end in a sparkling shower. Ginny grinned. “Twelve inch rosewood with a phoenix feather core. Spectacular wand for healing,” Ollivander said, a pleased smile on his face.

“So this is it?” Ginny asked. Ollivander nodded.

Draco stepped up and Ollivander led him to the counter. They talked briefly and Draco dropped a few galleons in his hand. He walked away from the counter, and just then the bell tinkled in the doorway. Draco’s eyes snapped open wide, he looked at Ollivander who nodded towards a closet; Ginny missed it, being far to absorbed in her new wand. Draco grabbed her arm, flung the closet door open and pushed her in. Ginny stifled a gasp as her back hit shelves, and the door was shut within seconds. Her back was arched at an unusual angle that forced some of the shelves upwards, the boxes of wands resting on them, slanting awkwardly, threatening to fall if she made one move. She glared at the door.

There were slats in the door all facing in a downward angle, but she could see little rows of light in-between them and could make out Draco’s figure near the closet, and that of two others near the entrance of the shop. She held her breath fearfully.

“Malfoy,” she heard someone say, outside of the closet, in a rough, masculine voice.

“Flint,” came Draco’s voice. His accent was more clear and precise now than it normally was, and it had taken on a more assuming and arrogant tone.

“Hello, Draco,” purred a feminine voice. It instantly put her on guard—it was not the voice of someone you could trust. “What might you be doing in a wand shop?” she asked suspiciously.

“Mathilde,” Draco’s voice slashed coldly throughout the shop. “I could ask you the same question,” he replied. His voice was more harsh than she had ever heard it before, it chilled her, even scared her. It reminded her of the ruthless family he had grown up in, reminding her of who she used to think he was.

Ginny’s neck was beginning to ache, as was her back from being in such an awkward position. She wanted to move, but that would risk making the boxes fall and causing a ruckus that would surely call attention to herself.

“We have business to discuss with Mr. Ollivander,” Mathilde said irritably. Ginny could almost see the woman sneering at Draco, but she was sure that he was doing the same to her.

“Well then,” said Draco. “I guess I’ll just be on my way.” Ginny stopped, her eyes widening, did he just say what she thought he said? He was going to leave her in that godforsaken closet in an awkward position that was killing her neck and back? How dare he!

Sure enough his footsteps were heard making their way towards the door; the bell tinkled to signal his departure. Ginny could have sworn she heard Mr. Ollivander let out a quiet chuckle.

“Mr. Ollivander,” said Flint. “We have business…”

“Right,” Ollivander said. “Right this way.” Then he said a bit louder, as if he wanted Ginny to hear, “Right in the back of the shop, so it’ll be private…” Ginny let out a sigh of relief, at least now she could get out of the closet. She would just have to find a way of doing so without disrupting all of the boxes.

Their footsteps disappeared into the back of the shop. Ginny moved her arm carefully, pushing one of the shelves down carefully, watching the boxes closely—she had it secured in its rightful place. Good, now she only had three more left and she would be home free. She worked through two more of them before there was a loud outburst, causing Ginny to stop in her tracks. Damn, she had almost been finished.

“Really, Mr. Ollivander! We have been patient enough!” Mathilde exclaimed. “At this point, we really don’t care if the wand fits the wizard! All we need is our bloody goddamned wands!” she shouted. Ginny raised her eyebrows, scolding a quiet, temper, temper, in her head. “There had better be five hundred wands packed and ready by tomorrow morning, Ollivander, or you’ll have Zabini to answer to, and I promise you he won’t be nearly as nice about this as me.” Mathilde stomped out of the back of the shop and slammed the front door behind her, making the bell slam against the door and fly back and forth, ringing more than necessary.

Flint’s heavier footsteps came out of the back of the shop. “Really am sorry about her, Ollivander. I do believe that Malfoy set her off.”

“Perfectly understandable,” Ollivander murmured. “Good day, the wands will certainly be ready tomorrow morning.” The door shut again; Flint had left. Ginny let out an audible sigh.

She fixed the last shelf and opened the closet door slowly. Ollivander was leaning against the front counter, watching her with amused eyes. “Nice guy you’ve got there,” he said, grinning at her.

She rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Thank you,” she added before making her way out of the shop.

Once outside, she searched for Draco, making sure that her hood was pulled up fully and covering her distinctive hair. She saw him leaning on a vendor cart near the front of a potions shop and glared at him. He was smirking in her direction. The bastard.

She rolled her neck and arched her back. She could feel her back throbbing from the pain of being in that odd position for so long, and her neck had all but gone numb. She went down the stairs, taking her time, and crossed the street just a languidly.

When she reached him, he was still looking down at her with that slow, lazy, smirk. Oh how she wanted to just smack it off of his face. She whipped her wand out of her robes and pushed the tip to his neck, but found his also pressed to her temple. She didn’t care. “If. You. Ever. Do. That. Again.” she said in long drawn out breaths. “I will maim you.”

That made Draco snort. “Maim me? Oh, you wound me, Weasley. The threat. The horror,” he clutched chest above his heart with his free hand. “The pain.”

“Shut up,” Ginny snapped. “I can’t believe you left me in that closet! You just up and left me! Didn’t even think about Ginny, eh? While you just walked out of the shop, I was stuck in that stupid closet with my back pressed up against some shelves! Had I moved they would have collapsed and wands would have fallen and caused such a commotion I would surely have been killed by your stupid Death Eater friends,” she ranted.

Draco’s eyes narrowed. “They aren’t my friends.” He glanced around cautiously. “Mind keeping it down? Anyone could have heard you.”

Ginny’s eyes flashed. “Oh the nerve…” she hissed. Draco rolled his eyes and took off in the direction of Hogwarts. Ginny squared her shoulders and followed after him.

They were halfway back to Hogwarts, when Ginny burst out: “I can’t believe you just left me there in that closet!!”

“Get over it, Weasley. There was nothing else I could do,” said Draco. “Did you want me to stand around and wait for them to leave? That wouldn’t have happened. They would have waited for me to leave first.”

“Why wouldn’t they have just done their business and left?” Ginny asked, curious. “They were Death Eaters, aren’t you, too?”

Draco nodded slowly. “Yes…but, Mathilde has this thing…”

“What? Wand up her ass?” Ginny asked sourly. Mathilde had done all but left a good impression on her. She had acted like a whiny prat in Ollivander’s and Ginny didn’t see how she could possibly be any sort of good person.

Draco grinned. Ginny’s eyes widened—Draco had grinned. “Yeah,” he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “That. And she hates me.”

“Why does she hate you?” asked Ginny.

Draco shrugged. “Because…. I have better judgment than her, and I took something away from her because it was too dangerous to be left with her.” Draco cleared his throat. “She’s just…irresponsible.”

Ginny stopped, and blinked. Did that mean what she thought it meant?



---------------------------------
A/N: Okay, that’s the end of the chapter. Actually, I didn’t mean for it to be quite so long, and that extra part, you know what it is, wasn’t supposed to be in there. I think that now you all (::wink wink::), know who Haven’s mother is. If not, I suggest that you go and reread the chapter.

Thanks to:
Elenya for betaing!!! Thank you!! (and reviewing—such a faithful beta) ::glomps::
And Natalie for helping me with that part in Ollivander’s. ::huggles::

heroes shed no tears -- 08

by virtualfaerie

---------------------

Ginny sat in an overstuffed armchair near the fire, her legs tucked up under her and a book lying open in her lap. There were a lot of books in the Ravenclaw common room—not to her surprise, what with the Ravenclaws being the most studious (minus Hermione) out of the four houses. But, even though she did have a book—Healing Spells: A Mediwizard’s Advanced Guide—she wasn’t reading it. Her eyes were trained to the small, dark haired girl she had seen earlier. The one that Draco had talked to, the one whose hair he ruffled just as affectionately as he would have done for Haven.

Draco confused her. He was so sharp and cold most of the time, but when he was around Haven, he was so gentle and caring it sort of scared her. She shook her head, willing herself to stop thinking about such stupid things. Why should she care about Draco’s mood swings? She needed to be brushing up on her healing spells.

She took one last look at the dark haired girl, then looked back down at her book. She read for about five minutes before she felt a small tap on her shoulder. She looked up and saw the timid face of the little girl peering up at her from under her disarrayed hair.

“Excuse me,” she said quietly. “Can you tell me how to say this word?” She pointed to a word in the book that Ginny had seen her reading earlier.

“Comatose,” said Ginny. She looked back up at the girl.

“What does that mean?” asked the girl.

“Unconscious,” said Ginny. “That’s when a person becomes unconscious because of an illness or injury, it’s like they’re asleep and they don’t wake up. It can last days, months, and even years, in some cases they don’t ever wake up.

“So it’s like dying?”

“It might seem that way because they don’t wake up or show any signs that they know you’re there, but they’re still very much alive.”

“Oh.”

She closed her book and set it on a small table near her chair. “What’s your name?” she asked carefully.

The girl blinked. “Sara.”

“I’m Ginny,” she said with a faint smile.

The corner of the girl’s mouth quirked up. “Hello.”

“What are you reading?” Ginny asked, motioning towards the book. She uncurled her legs and scooted over in the big chair, trying to make room for Sara to sit next to her.

Sara eyed the space warily, but climbed up into the chair next to Ginny anyways. She showed Ginny the book. “Magical Ailments: Curses Gone too Far,” Ginny read off the cover. She furrowed her eyebrows. “Why are you reading that?”

“My mother,” said Sara, softly. “She was under a Crutiatus Curse for a long time.” She swallowed. “She’s been in a coma ever since. Or at least that’s what my dad tells me.”

“I’m so sorry. Who’s your father?”

“Bane Pritchard,” said Sara.

Ginny’s eyebrows furrowed. Pritchard? That sounded familiar—a name she had heard at school, perhaps? She tried to remember…but her mind came up with a blank. “Oh?” Ginny asked softly. “What’s your mother’s name?”

Sara looked at her hands. “Penelope.”

Penelope? Ginny thought. “Penelope Clearwater?” Ginny asked.

Sara shrugged, “I think so.” Penelope had dated Percy for the longest time…then just left him for no apparent reason. Had it been because of Bane Pritchard?

“How old are you?”

“I’m nine,” Sara said proudly.

“That’s a good age,” Ginny said, nodding approvingly. Sara looked up at her a smiled; she had pale blue eyes and pink cheeks. “How—How do you know Draco?” Ginny asked a bit hesitantly.

This question brought a grin to her face. “He’s Haven’s daddy. Haven’s my friend. When he was staying here, Draco would sometimes come and play with us, or take us for swims in the lake,” Sara said.

“He played with you?” Ginny asked, trying to keep most of the disbelief from her voice. Despite Draco’s tenderness with Haven, it was hard imagining him playing with children. She never would have guessed that Draco Malfoy had a tender spot for children.

Sara smiled. “Yes, he played with us lots.”

“Well imagine that….”

---------------------

Draco left Hogwarts the same day that he’d arrived, only telling Dumbledore. He needed to get back to the Death Eaters before they noticed his disappearance, what Ron had said rang through his ears, reminding him of the dangers that would arise should he be found out.

He walked to Hogsmeade, to check up on the Serpent League, of which he was a part of, no matter how much Mathilde might blantly ignore the fact. He arrived at a small building that was situated at the end of the main road in Hogsmeade. The building had a looming dark presence that seemed to haunt its vicinity. Draco shuddered inwardly as he stepped into the building.

The acrid smell of blood invaded his senses as soon as he stepped inside, and he heard screams from a room not to far off --- torture. He shook his head and made his way to the front desk. He needed to check in with Zabini, and in order to do that he needed a fireplace. Maybe he could get Flint to let him use the one in his office—that way he could find out what he and Mathilde were really doing in Ollivander’s earlier that day.

“Hello,” he said.

The secretary looked up at him. “Your business?” she asked curtly.

“I need to speak to Marcus Flint, and require the use of a fireplace,” Draco said shortly.

She nodded and pressed a button on a speaker-like device that was on her desk. “Mr. Flint,” she spoke to it. “There is a…” she paused the looked up at Draco.

“Draco Malfoy…” he prompted, raising an eyebrow. Hadn’t this woman been taught proper secretarial procedures?

“There is a Mr. Draco Malfoy here to see you.”

Draco heard Flint’s rough voice crackle through the speaker. “Send him up,” he said tersely.

The secretary nodded to Draco. “He’s on the second floor, to the right…second door.” She had barely finished before Draco had taken off towards the stairs. He reached Flint’s office and raised a hand to knock, but it was pulled open before he could.

Mathilde was standing in the doorway, her black eyes blazing, but her face otherwise composed. She was impeccably groomed, as usual. Her long, black hair was fixed behind her shoulders, not a single hair out of place, and her luxurious crimson robes were completely unruffled. She stuck her nose up as she took him in. “Malfoy,” she said coldly, eyeing him with disdain.

“Lestrange,” he returned, his voice holding the same cold bite. “If you would…ah…remove yourself from the doorway?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “I have something to discuss with Flint.”

She pursed her lips angrily, and brushed past him brusquely, hitting his shoulder with hers viciously. Draco’s lip curled up in disgust as he watched her storm down the hallway, her long robes billowing out around her legs. He snorted and entered Flint’s office.

Flint was sitting at his desk, his head in his hands, fingers massaging his temples lethargically. He didn’t raise his head as Draco entered the room. “Sit,” he said, motioning with his head towards the two chairs that sat facing his desk. He finished his massage and looked up at Draco. “She’s getting more and more arduous everyday. I swear that woman….”

“Has a wand up her ass?” Draco supplied helpfully, remembering what Ginny had said earlier.

Flint cocked his head to the side as he gave Draco a thoughtful look. “Not what I was going to say…but it’ll work.” He smiled slowly. “So…what’re you here for?”

“I wanted to know what you and Mathilde were doing at Ollivander’s yesterday,” said Draco, bluntly, he wasted no time getting to the subject at hand. “And I need to use your fireplace,” he added, jerking his head to the fireplace behind Flint’s desk.

Flint eyed Draco suspiciously for a moment. “We were getting wands,” he said.

“That much was obvious,” Draco said, restraining the urge to roll his eyes. Sometimes he wondered how Flint had even been initiated into the ranks of the Death Eaters, most of the time he was intolerably stupid. Then again, old Voldemort had always wanted as many supporters as he could get.

“I wasn’t finished,” Flint bit off. He let out a loud sigh and continued. “The Dark Lord wanted wands for…he hasn’t told us exactly, but from what we’ve heard, from the grapevine and such,” he said, waving his hand around airily. Draco resisted yet another urge to roll his eyes, wishing desperately that Flint would just out and say things clearly. “He wants them for some dark creatures he’s managed to win over. We’re assuming that he’s going to hand them a wand and let them go at it with the remaining Resistance since he knows they’re going to try again for a comeback.”

Draco tried not the wrinkle his nose in disgust. Voldemort was employing the help of dark creatures? And he was giving them wands no less? There was a rule that magical creatures were not supposed to be in possession of a wand—but then again, the Ministry that had served with those rules was long gone. The creatures didn’t even know any spells, was Voldemort just going to let them…. Maybe he was just going to use them as a distraction to wear down the Resistance before he sent his own men in?

“Let me get this straight,” Draco said with a small frown. “The Dark Lord is handing out free wands to any dark creature willing to sacrifice his life? He’s just going to use them as pawns to wear down the Resistance should they try to attack again?” He paused for a moment. “What kind of creatures has he won over?”

Flint scratched his head. “From what I’ve heard…vampires, trolls, grindlylows, boggarts, pogrebin, and veela. I think he’s working on the giants and werewolves at the moment.”

Draco raised his eyebrows in surprise. Werewolves? He would have to talk to Lupin as soon as he got back to the castle. They needed to prevent anymore creatures crossing over to the dark side. He may even have to speak to Charlie Weasley about dragons. The Resistance would have a huge advantage if they had the dragons on their side.

“What about dragons?” asked Draco.

“We haven’t heard much about them. But so far they’ve stayed neutral…I don’t know if they’d change opinions,” said Flint. “You said you needed to use my fireplace?” he asked, hastily changing the subject.

Draco nodded, he needed to speak to Zabini as soon as possible.

“Alright then,” Flint said, getting up out of his seat. “I’ll let you use it in private. I’ll be back in ten minutes…if you need anything else.”

“Okay,” said Draco, waiting until Flint had closed the door behind him before he approached the fireplace. He took one of the pots from Flint’s desk and threw some powder in the fire. “Blaise Zabini!” he called into it, sitting on the chair in front of the fireplace.

Within seconds, there was a ‘pop’ and Zabini’s face appeared in the fire. “Why hullo there, Malfoy,” he said. “Long time no see, been busy?”

“Yeah, busy. I’ve been in Hogsmeade looking up on things,” said Draco.

“Ah,” said Zabini. “That’s alright. Not much has been going on around here anyways. You probably are doing better there, what with the Serpent League being there and all. Probably more action, eh?” he asked with a small grin.

“Hardly,” said Draco. “I’m sure it’s just as boring anywhere.”

Zabini shrugged. “No matter. Just calling to check in?”

“Yes,” said Draco. “Are you sure there isn’t anything new happening?”

“Oh,” said Zabini, realization dawning in his eyes. “We’ve got an infiltrate in the Resistance.”

“Have you?” Draco asked, masking his surprise.

“Oh yes, genius isn’t it?” He looked back over his shoulder and frowned. “Sorry, got to cut it short, Malfoy. I’ve got a meeting to attend.” Zabini raised his hand and gave Draco a mock-salute before disappearing from the fire.

Draco cursed under his breath and stalked out of the room.

---------------------

Ginny entered the old Charms room that night. It was after dinner and Dumbledore had called a meeting. In place of all the desks, there was a large round table in the room, chairs scattered all around it. Most of them occupied by: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione, Neville, Fred and George, Bill, Charlie, Snape, Seamus Finnegan, and a man that Ginny didn’t recognize.

“Hello,” she said, taking a seat next to Harry, who gave her a small smile.

Dumbledore looked at a clock that was hanging above the doorway. “We’re just waiting for Mr. Malfoy.” Dumbledore cleared his throat, “It seems that he got held up in Hogsmeade, but…he has something very important to tell us.” He glanced at Ginny, who he noticed was glancing askance at the man she didn’t recognize. “I suppose a few introductions are necessary. Ginny Weasley,” he said, holding out a hand towards Ginny, “meet Bane Pritchard,” he held out another hand towards the unfamiliar man. “Bane, Ginny,” he finished.

So that was Sara’s father, Ginny thought interestedly. He was built sturdily, with dark eyes and even darker hair. His eyes bore into hers smolderingly as she looked at him across the table. “Hello,” he said in a low husky voice, it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“Hi,” she said timidly—and was saved from any further conversation with him by Draco, stalking through the door, his robes billowing out around his legs, making sharp cracking noises with his crisp steps. His face was like stone, but his eyes glittering dangerously. He took the only chair left, next to Ginny, pulling it out and sitting down quickly.

“Mr. Malfoy,” Dumbledore greeted him. “We’re pleased you could make it. You mentioned you had some news?

“It’s not good, Voldemort has resorted to petty tactics, again.”

Dumbledore inclined his head, urging him to continue.

“Voldemort has enlisted the help of several dark creatures, and is planning giving them all wands to attack the Resistance with. He knows that we’re planning a final attack, and he’s preparing for it. He’s already got vampires, trolls, grindlylows, boggarts, pogrebin, and veela on his side—ready to fight against us. He’s working on recruiting the giants,” he paused and looked to Lupin, “and werewolves.” Lupin raised his eyebrows. “We have to prevent him from recruiting any other creatures, and maybe even try recruiting some of our own.” He turned to Charlie. “Do you think it’s possible to get the dragons to support us?”

Charlie lowered his eyebrows and looked at the table pensively for a moment. “It’s possible,” he said. “But there’s no telling, dragons tend to be fickle.”

Draco shook his head tiredly. “But that’s not the worst of it.”

“What…what is?” Ginny asked, almost afraid of what he might say.

“They’ve got an infiltrate in the castle,” he said impassively.

Neville let out an audible gasp. “No….” he said disbelievingly. “There’s no way…” he frowned. “That’s impossible,” he said with a little squeak.

Fred and George’s heads hit the table at the exact same time. “Oh gods,” Fred mumbled, his voice muffled against the table.

“This cannot be happening,” said George.

Hermione glanced around the table frightfully. “It isn’t anyone in here is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Draco said truthfully. “Zabini had to go before I could ask. So my guess is as good as yours.”

“What are we going to do about this?” asked Sirius, looking to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore shook his head tiredly. “Be careful. Watch what you say around anyone—be suspicious. There’s nothing else I can say really…we don’t know who it is.”

Draco rubbed his eyes. “I’ll go back in tomorrow and see what else I can find out.”

“What a lovely day…” Ginny said morosely.

---------------------

“I haven’t seen you around before,” Bane said pleasantly as they were walking back to the Ravenclaw tower. He, Draco, and Ginny had left together. “Did you just get here?”

Ginny looked up at him. “Yes, actually I just got here today.”

“Oh,” he said softly.

“I met your daughter,” said Ginny, fumbling for something talk about. “She’s really sweet.”

Bane smiled. “She is, isn’t she?” Ginny nodded, and they reached the tower. Draco said the password quietly and the entered the common room.

Sara sighted Bane and ran at him. “Daddy!” she squealed, jumping up in his arms.

He picked her up. “Hullo, sweetheart.”

Ginny stood for a moment—transfixed in the act of tenderness between Bane and his daughter—but Draco grabbed her arm and pulled her up the staircase with him.

“What are you doing?” she hissed at him, as soon as they reached their dorm. She jerked her arm away from him, and rubbed it tenderly where his vice-like grip had been.

Draco glared at her. “He’s married—in case you didn’t know. He doesn’t need you leering at him.”

“I wasn’t leering at him!” Ginny objected, glaring right back.

“Then what were you doing?”

“I was…” Ginny paused. “I was admiring his affection towards Sara.”

“Wishing that you were getting some too, eh?” Draco spat. “I hadn’t taken you as a tramp, fancying another woman’s man. But then again…you are a Weasley.”

“Take that back, Malfoy,” said Ginny, narrowing her eyes.

“Make me,” he said, eyes jeering her.

“You’re a bastard.”

“So I’ve been told, countless times,” Draco replied in a bored tone.

“And they were all right!” Ginny fumed. She stomped over to her bed and climbed in, yanking the drawings shut.

-----------------------

A/N: Okay, there was your chapter! I think I finished this one a bit more quickly than others…. but it’s also about 50 words shorter than the others. I usually like to make sure these chapters are at least 3,000 words. That way they’re long enough to sate you guys for a while.

Thanks to:

Natalie and Elenya for betaing. Love you.

Thanks everyone for reviewing. I love you more than my betas *wink wink*.

heroes shed no tears – 12

by virtualfaerie

-------------------------------------------------

Lying down in her bed, covers pulled up to her neck, Ginny gazed at the canopy of her bed. The dormitory was silent; Draco had stalked out hours earlier, after Ginny had retreated to her curtained bed. She had jumped at every sound, wondering if it could be Draco coming back from wherever he was. But he hadn’t come.

She tossed and turned, feeling slightly guilty of what she said to Draco. He’d helped the Resistance a lot, much more than a lot. They might not have stood a chance against Voldemort in one last battle had he not told them Voldemort’s plans of using dark creatures. The Resistance owed much to him.

Getting tired of waiting, Ginny slipped out of bed, shoving her feet into a pair of slippers, and grabbing the robe she had been wearing earlier and pulling it over her head.

She tip-toed down the stairs and stopped short at the entrance of the common room, backing up slowly. Bane and Draco were sitting in front of the fire; Draco had a glass of amber liquid in his hand, swirling it around occasionally, and Bane was staring into the fire, his eyes hard.

“How’s Penelope?” Draco asked, giving his glass another swirl.

Bane closed his eyes tightly for a moment, letting out a low sigh. He opened them slowly, looking at Draco painfully. “You want the truth, Malfoy?”

“No less.”

“She’s not getting any better. Pomfrey can’t bring herself to come out and say it to me, but I know. If anything, she’s getting worse – and there’s nothing we can do for her.” He rubbed his temples. “I don’t know what to tell Sara. If I told her…she’d just be heartbroken. She spends all of her free time looking up cures in books, or asking Madame Pomfrey questions.”

“There’s no use hiding it from her,” said Draco. “She’s going to find out sooner or later.”

“I know that. But, I want to wait. Maybe, maybe she’ll get better,” Bane said bleakly.

“It’s better to tell them the truth so they know what to expect,” said Draco, taking a sip of his drink. “I told Haven.”

Bane’s eyebrows knitted together. “How’d he take that?”

Draco shrugged. “He definitely doesn’t like the idea. But I told him the truth. It’s better than him not knowing, and asking when he’s older – then finding out from someone besides me, maybe from Mathilde. Then she would turn him against me.” He drained the last of his drink and set the glass down on a table.

“I still can’t believe she tried to do that…” Bane said disbelievingly. “She’s a nut case.”

“I know.”

“Why’d you ever…?”

Draco tensed. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Does he look like her at all? He seems to take an awful lot after you,” said Bane.

The corners of Draco’s mouth tugged up gently. “He takes after me. He’s lucky he didn’t get Mathilde’s nose….”

Bane chuckled. “She’s got a big one, eh?”

“Huge.”

Ginny finally tiptoed back up to bed after guilt began to settle in for eavesdropping. She lay down, and pulled her blankets up to her chin, closing her eyes tightly.

Moments later, the door creaked open slowly, Draco’s soft footsteps sounding on the floor. His boots thumped on the floor and his mattress squeaked as he sat on it. He expelled a loud sigh and his hangings were drawn shut.

“Draco,” Ginny called out slowly.

“Hm?” came his muffled reply. “What Weasley?”

“I,” she paused. “I’m sorry.”

“Shut up, Weasley. Go to sleep,” he said gruffly.

Ginny smiled and turned over in her bed.

*

Ginny had slipped out of the dormitory early that morning, before Draco was awake, and walked down to the Hospital Wing. She was still wearing her pajamas, with her robes flung over them, and her feet jammed into some slippers. All in all, she was pretty comfortable.

She stepped through the door way of the Hospital Wing slowly, peering in cautiously. Madame Pomfrey looked up at her from her desk and smiled. “Miss Weasley,” she greeted. “You’ve come to see your brothers?”

Ginny nodded. “Yes.”

Madame Pomfrey hefted herself out of her chair and shuffled across the wing to two beds lying near a big window. She pulled at the curtains back around the beds and peeked in quickly. She looked back up at Ginny. “Percy is still asleep, but Ron is awake,” she said.

“Thanks,” said Ginny, making her way towards Ron’s bed. She pulled back the curtains and sat down on the edge of his bed. “How are you doing?” she asked softly.

Ron smiled at her. “I’m feeling really good actually. Like I could jump out of bed and do a million cartwheels.”

“Eh,” said Ginny, with a doubtful look on her face. “I don’t think that’s the best idea….”

Ron reached up and ruffled her hair. Ginny scowled at him. “I was only joking,” he said.

“You messed up my hair,” she grumbled, lifting her hands up and trying to put her hair back to the way it was.

Ron rolled his eyes. “It looks the same as it did before.”

“Whatever….”

There was a rustling sound across the hall in the Infirmary. Ginny frowned and strained her ears to listen closer. There was a string of, “No…no…no.” Then a whimper.

She looked to Ron. “Just a minute,” she said, stepping out. “Madame Pomfrey?” she called out hesitantly. No answered. “Madame Pomfrey?” she tried a bit louder, no luck.

“Is there something you needed?” rumbled a low, masculine voice. Ginny whipped around, her eyes wide. Bane stood behind, looking down at her thoughtfully. She hadn’t even noticed him come in. “Madame Pomfrey stepped out for a moment….”

“Oh,” she said. “Did you hear….?”

“That’s Trelawney,” he said, jerking his head towards a bed in the corner of the Infirmary. “She was hit with a Crutiatus while trying to divinate…not a good combination.”

Ginny blinked and walked over the Trelawney’s bed curiously, pulling back the curtains and looking in. Trelawney’s whimpers grew louder and she thrashed about her bed, her long black hair flying around her in tangle mess. Her teeth were bared and she was hissing as she tossed and turned, getting her legs tangled up in her sheets.

“Don’t trust him!” she croaked, stopping her thrashing and sitting up straight to look at Ginny.

“What?” said Ginny, confused.

There was a hand on her shoulder, it was Neville. He glanced at Trelawney concernedly. “She’s been rambling like this a lot lately.”

“Don’t trust him!” she said again in her hoarse voice. “He’ll betray you! He’ll betray you all!” Her eyes were glazed over, darting wilding, not looking at anything, and looking at everything all at once. She looked like a wild animal, savage and untamed. The way her teeth were bared and her eyes moving was feral, it chilled Ginny’s blood to see her.

Ginny’s eyebrows had shot up, her eyes looking from Neville to Trelawney nervously, biting at a finger nail, she had no clue as to what to do. Neville looked shocked, his mouth was open and his eyes were wide.

Trelawney turned her head towards Neville. “You!” she snapped, her eyebrows slammed together, her face contorted into a fury. “You are a tea-cup breaker! You always broke my tea-cups you insolent fool! You shall always be a tea-cup breaker!” she was muttering. “Always…. You broke…you broke… They should throw you out of Hogwarts, you tea-cup breaker! Throw you out! Throw you out!”

“Oh dear,” murmured Madame Pomfrey, hustling to Trelawney’s bed. “She’s been saying things like this lately, dears. Means nothing, she’s not quite in her mind anymore….” She ushered them away. “Go along now, there’s nothing to see.”

Neville was staring at his feet as they left the infirmary, his eyes still wide. He fingered the collar of his robes incessantly. The strings that held the buttons to his robes were long and thin from being turned over so many times by his habit. He looked up at Ginny. “What do you think she meant about me being a tea-cup breaker?” he asked.

“Madame Pomfrey said she wasn’t in her mind,” she said irresolutely. “It was probably just mindless drivel.”

“But I did break a lot of tea-cups when I was in her class,” Neville said anxiously. He shook his head. “This all give me a bad feeling…the whole lot of it.” He sighed. “Oh well, I’ll see you around,” he said, before taking a turn down another corridor and slipping out of sight.

Ginny gripped at the dragon pendant that was lying in the hollow of her neck, rubbing her thumb over the warm metal, reveling in its familiar comfort.

*

“Hullo,” Ginny greeted, sliding into a seat next to Hermione, in the Great Hall.

“Hey,” said Hermione, glancing up from her book. “How’s Ron doing?” she asked. “I haven’t been to see him since yesterday.”

“Good,” said Ginny. She piled some pancakes on her plate, slathering them with butter and dumping syrup on top.

Hermione wrinkled her nose. “How can you eat that?”

Ginny took a bite and grinned, a few waif strands of hair stuck in the syrup coating her lips. “I haven’t had butter or anything sweet for so long….”

Hermione’s eyebrows shot up. “They weren’t feeding you properly at the camps?” she asked with a tone very similar to the one she used when talking about S.P.E.W.

“If you call butter and syrup properly,” said Ginny. “Then, no.” She took another bite.

Harry came and took a seat across the table from her. “Looks like someone’s hungry,” he commented, serving himself some eggs.

“Someone also hasn’t eaten since yesterday morning,” said Ginny.

“And I think it’s odd that you’re talking in third person,” said Draco, taking the seat next to her. She jumped when his elbow grazed her arm. He raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Ginny felt the urge to shove her elbow into the butter dish, but resisted. “Nothing,” she mumbled, taking another bite of her pancakes.

“Have you seen Neville this morning?” Hermione asked Ginny.

“Yes, he was in the hospital wing a little earlier.”

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. “What was he doing there?”

Ginny shrugged and took a bite of her breakfast. “I don’t know.”

Harry turned to Draco. “Do you have any news on when the Death Eater HQ is going to be most vulnerable?”

Draco looked up from his sausages. “I don’t know an exact time. But probably during Voldemort’s next big gathering. Most of the Death Eaters will have to abandon their posts so that they can hear what he has to say.”

Harry raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

Ginny scoffed and put her fork down. “How’s that supposed to work if no one’s there, Voldemort in particular? How have we defeated anything? I thought the plan was to get rid of him, not sneak into his headquarters when on one’s even there.”

Draco scowled at her.

“And I thought that the Slytherins’ were supposed to be the cunning ones….” She smirked at Draco.

“She’s right,” said Hermione. “There’s no point in going while no one is there.”

Harry cast a nervous glance at Draco whose fist was clenching around his knife. “So what’s Plan B, Malfoy?” he asked.

“Next weekend there is going to be an annual Death Eater ball, something to celebrate the day the Death Eaters were founded,” said Draco. “We could go there.” He looked at Ginny. “Everyone would be there. Voldemort in particular.”

“Go on,” Ginny prodded. “Amaze me with the rest of the plan.”

Draco continued. “This year it’s supposed to be a masquerade ball, or at least that’s the theme. We could sneak in with costumes – “

“Wait, wait,” interpreted Ginny. “Won’t they have a guest list or something, to check and see if only the people that are supposed to be getting in are getting in? Wouldn’t they have prepared for something like this? I do admit that Death Eaters are idiots, but they must have thought of something like that happening – it is quite obvious.”

“Alright,” Draco said slowly, his eyes narrowing at Ginny. “No sneaking in with costumes.”

Ginny nodded appreciatively.

“I guess we can just sneak in somewhere else, maybe the dungeons, there won’t be anyone down there except a few prisoners of war, or at least the ones that haven’t been killed – they’ll be locked up so that the Death Eaters that are supposed to be on patrol can go to the ball.” He pointedly looked at Ginny. “Is that ok with you?”

“Yes,” she said. “Very good. Do go on.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “From there we should probably split up – not that many people would need to come during this step, but we’ll need lots of people nearby for back up. And they won’t be able to Apparate in, they’ll most likely have set up wards against that. But, the few people that will be going in first will need to split up into groups. Each group will have to find where Voldemort is. He won’t be at the ball, but he’ll be in the headquarters building. If anything, he’ll make a short appearance at the ball and then leave. But that’s good because it’ll give us time to catch him alone, or without many escorts.”

“What do we do when we find him?” Ginny questioned.

“We’ll have to come up with some sort of communicators so that we can tell the others that we’ve found him – then who we have in the building will come and we’ll have to fight him.” Draco looked around the table. “Consulting Dumbledore on the matter of how to fight him is probably the wisest thing to do. And for now, we should keep our plan just between us. You never know who the infiltrate might be.”

Hermione sighed. “Sounds like a good plan. So mouths shut till we talk to Dumbledore?”

Draco nodded. “Yes.”

Hermione got up from the table. “I’m off to the library to study more defensive spells.”

Harry stood up as well. “I’ll go too.”

Ginny picked at what was left of her breakfast and watched Draco eat the rest of his. He hadn’t really been able to eat while he was talking. He finished and sat back, taking a look at her.

“You sure are mouthy this morning, aren’t you?” he said.

“Mouthy?” Ginny raised an eyebrow. “I was just pointing out the flaws in your plans. The flaws that could get people killed.”

Draco rolled his eyes again. “Only the Death Eaters.”

Ginny shook her head. “You obviously didn’t put much thought into them.”

“I’ve got a lot of things on my mind,” said Draco, getting up from the table. He walked off through the big doors that led out into the hallways, leaving Ginny sitting down at the table by herself.

*

Draco fastened his cloak around his shoulders and started down the stairs that led to the Ravenclaw common room. He was about to step out of the common room when someone spoke to him.

“Malfoy? Where are you going?” It was Mrs. Weasley.

Draco stopped and walked over to her. “I’m going to visit Haven and my mother.”

“You are?” she said. “Would you mind horribly if I came? It’s so…dismal here, and your mother is such a kind woman. Would she mind me staying with here?”

Draco eyed her carefully. “I don’t think she’d mind too much. I’m sure she gets lonely sometimes, even if she has Haven around.”

Molly clapped her hands together. “That’s just wonderful. You’re leaving now?”

“Yes.”

“Just a moment, let me get my things,” she said, rushing up the stairs.

Draco took a seat, wondering what Mrs. Weasley needed to get, she didn’t really have anything to call her own when they’d arrived a day before. But soon she came clomping down the stairs with an old shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

“Okay,” she said. “I just need to tell my kiddies that I’m leaving, would you mind? It won’t take to long.”

“Go ahead,” he said reluctantly, taking his seat again. Why was he bringing this woman again?

They stepped into Narcissa’s living room out of the fireplace. Molly had taken awhile to find all of her children and make sure that they knew where she was going, and that she loved them. She told them that there was just too much stress for her at the castle and that she needed to get away.

“Daddy!” Haven bounded into the room with his arms flung out. He ran smack into Draco. Draco put his hands under Haven’s arms and lifted him up into a hug.

“Hey there,” said Draco, smiling.

“I was wondering when you were going to come see me,” said Haven. He looked behind Draco at the fireplace. “Is Ginny coming too?”

Draco wrinkled his eyebrows. “Ginny? No, she isn’t coming.”

“Oh,” said Haven, his face falling.

“Draco, Molly,” Narcissa came into the room with a big smile on her face. “How nice to see you.” Molly smiled and gave Narcissa a warm hug. “Have you come to stay?” Narcissa asked.

“Mrs. Weasley needed to get away from the castle,” said Draco. “And I wanted to talk to Haven before I actually had to go into any fighting.”

Narcissa’s bright smile faltered for a moment. “Oh,” she said. “There’s going to be fighting soon?”

Draco nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

Narcissa came over and wrapped Draco in a hug, Haven in his arms and all, and kissed him soundly on the cheek. “Well, after you are done talking to Haven, make sure I get another hug.”

The corner of Draco’s mouth turned up. “Of course, mother.”

“Come Molly, I’ll show you where you’ll be staying,” Narcissa said, taking Molly’s arm and leading her out of the room.

Draco took Haven over to a couch and sat down with him.

“You’re going to have to fight again?” Haven asked quietly.

“Yes,” said Draco. “But I think this will be the last time, then we can live together without me leaving all the time.”

“What if….you don’t come back?” Haven said softly, looking up at Draco.

Draco tightened his hold on Haven. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll be coming back. You can’t get rid of me.”

Haven smiled a little. “What about Ginny? Is she going to have to fight too?”

Draco sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “She’ll want to. Why?”

“I wanted to see her before she had to go to.” Haven paused, and looked back up at Draco, his eyes twinkling. “I think I love Ginny. I also think that I want to marry her.”

Draco grinned and bit back a laugh. “You want to marry her?”

Haven nodded sagely. “I really do. She’s nice and pretty and she takes care of me. Or,” he said sincerely, “you could marry her.” Haven shrugged. “Either way would be good.”

Draco shook his head. “I don’t think that would work.”

“Why not?” Haven asked.

“Because,” Draco said slowly. “We don’t love each other.”

“Why?”

“We just don’t.”

Haven hung his head. “Will I be able to see her before you guys have to leave?”

Draco rubbed his temples. “If you really want to see her, I’ll make sure I bring her before we go. Alright?”

Haven grinned. “Yeah, that’s good. I’ll ask her to marry me when you bring her.”

“You do that.”

*

Ginny was sitting in the Ravenclaw common room on a couch with Sara when Draco came back. She was reading her a picture book that they had found in the library.

He had come in the portrait hole, ready to just keep walking up to the dormitory.

“How’s Haven?” she asked.

Draco stopped and turned to face her. “Haven is doing well, he wants to see you before we have to go fight.”

Ginny smiled. “He does?”

“Yes,” said Draco. “He also wants to propose marriage to you.”

Ginny laughed. “Did he really say that?”

Draco nodded. “He did. There’s still time to go today if you want to see him. It won’t take us that long to get there.” Then he noticed Sara sitting with Ginny on the couch. “Hi, Sara,” he said. “Would you like to come too? I’m sure Haven would be glad to see you.”

Sara beamed at him. “That would be cool,” she said.

“You have to ask your father first though, so that he knows where you’re going,” said Draco. He glanced around the common room. “Where is your father anyways?”

Sara shrugged. “I don’t know. I saw him this morning and then he left. No one knows where he is.”

Draco raised his eyebrows and turned to race out of the common room, not saying another word.

Sara and Ginny exchanged looks.

“I wonder what that was about…” said Ginny.

*

Blaise Zabini was sitting in a highly cushioned, leather chair in his office, sipping a glass of brandy. He had his feet propped up on his desk, crossed at the ankles. He’d had a long day and was waiting for his informant to arrived.

Not many minutes later there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” he called out.

The door creaked open and a hooded figure entered the room, shutting the door behind him and taking a seat in one of the chairs that faced Zabini’s desk.

“Zabini,” he said gruffly.

Blaise nodded his head. “Anything new to report?”

“They have their own infiltrate.”

Zabini’s eyebrows shot up. “They do?”

“Yes –“

The door slammed open, Draco standing there, his eyes glittering darkly.

A/N: That’s it folks. Please review – I worked my butt off.

[A/N: What can I say? I know it’s taken almost a month for me to update with this chapter and I’m really sorry for the long wait. There were lots of things I had to work through with this chapter, I had to re-write a scene, and then I had exams for the end of the year at school.

You all know I know own anything. Characters, settings, and almost everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.]

Heroes Shed No Tears

By VirtualFaerie

Last time on Heroes Shed No Tears:

The door slammed open, Draco standing there, his eyes glittering darkly.

The infiltrate whipped his head around to turn and see who had just entered, his hood falling from his head, unmasking his face. He blanched and his mouth opened slightly, unable to form words.

“To what do we owe this pleasure, Malfoy?” said Zabini, looking over at Draco expectantly. It wasn’t everyday that he came bursting into his office in this manner. And he certainly hadn’t ever seen Draco so…disheveled before.

Draco ran a hasty hand through his hair, as if sensing Zabini’s thoughts, and stepped through the doorway, shutting the door slowly behind him. He looked at the infiltrate with a seemingly mild interest as he approached Zabini’s desk. “I was hoping,” said Draco, “That I could borrow Pritchard for a moment. We have something important to discuss. He had said previously that we would be meeting at this time…. I was disappointed that he didn’t show up.” Draco eyed Pritchard calmly. “If I could just speak to him for a moment outside?”

Zabini lowered his eyebrows and twirled his empty cup around on his desk with nimble fingers. Fingers that were able to grab his wand out of his pocket and cast the Unforgivables in mere seconds. “Is this really that important?” He was preparing to tell me something very crucial to our position against the Resistance.”

“It’s important, Zabini,” Draco said firmly. “Lives could depend on it,” he added with a grim smile.

Zabini’s eyes carefully searched Draco’s face for any signs of deception, yet found none. He nodded shortly and waved his hand at Pritchard. “Go on,” he said. “But I better have him back in here.”

Pritchard looked to Draco, his face set like stone. He got up from his chair and followed Draco out of the darkly furnished office. Draco took care to shut the large oaken door behind them.

“Clever,” said Draco, glancing surreptitiously down the halls to see if anyone was coming. “You thought you had everyone fooled.”

“I did,” Pritchard said steadily. “I had everyone fooled: Penelope, Dumbledore, Potter, the Weasley’s and even your precious Ginny.”

At that comment, Draco flung his fist out, decking Pritchard in the jaw.

Pritchard stepped back, momentarily shocked. His brow furrowed and he cocked his fists, ready to slam them into Draco’s face. “Bastard,” Pritchard rasped, glaring hatefully at Draco.

Draco raised his eyebrows. “Me? No, I think you’re the bastard here.”

Pritchard growled and swung at Draco. Draco leaned back and stepped to the side, escaping Pritchard’s fist. He then kicked his foot up and caught Pritchard behind the knees, causing him to fall forward.

He fell onto his wrists, the sickly crunch of bones breaking echoed throughout the halls. Draco whipped his head back and looked to the closed door of Zabini’s office. He pulled his wand out quickly and muttered a silencing spell on Pritchard.

“That’s enough. I’m tired of hearing lame excuses from a sadistic bastard.”

“Mobilus,” murmured Draco. He started to walk down the hall, making his way out of the building, Pritchard’s feet hovering barely a centimeter off the ground, following him silently.

The secretary at the front desk looked up at Draco and smiled. “Good day, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Pritchard.”

Draco inclined his head and exited the building, bringing Pritchard out behind him. He had to get back to Hogwarts before Zabini realized something was up, and fast.

After he was sure that he had cleared the premises of the Head Quarters, and was well out of sight of any Death Eaters on patrol, he reached into his robes and pulled out a lighter. It was small, slim and silver, an even smaller dragon etched into its surface. He flipped the top open to reveal a small marble sitting on top of a rounded platform. It was his emergency Portkey to Hogwarts. Dumbledore had slipped it to him as he was leaving the castle an hour earlier.

He grabbed Pritchard’s arm roughly, and popped the marble into his free hand. The familiar sensation of a hook pulling just behind his navel came and his surroundings blurred, only to come back into focus in Dumbledore’s office.

Dumbledore had been sitting behind his desk, a book open on his lap, and his spectacles resting on the bridge of his nose. He calmly looked up at Draco holding onto Pritchard’s arm, as if he had been expecting them.

He smiled dryly. “I see, Mr. Malfoy, that you’ve caught our infiltrate?” His eyes flickered over to Pritchard, his deep-blue orbs shining dangerously.

Draco nodded. “I caught him right before he could reveal me. Though I’m sure they’ll know once they’ve realized I had no intention of coming back with him.”

Getting up out of his chair and walking across the room, Dumbledore pulled the latch free on his phoenix, Fawkes’, cage and let him out. The phoenix took a pre-prepared scroll from Dumbledore’s hand and flew out the window majestically.

“The others will be coming,” said Dumbledore. “I’m sure they’ll want to see who the infiltrate is.”

Draco shoved Pritchard down in one of the many chairs and release the Mobilus spell from him and instead put him under a full body bind.

“It also turns out,” Draco said, “That he personally harmed Penelope.”

Dumbledore’s eyebrows rose. “Sick-making,” he said with a slow, sad shake of his head.

Ginny was the first to enter, her eyes scanned the room, only to rest on Pritchard. “Bane?” she half-whispered. She brought a hand up to her face and looked at Draco, “You’re sure it’s him?”

“Well,” Draco said woodenly. “He was in Zabini’s office when I reached the Death Eater head quarters, so yes, I think so.”

Ginny blinked and looked over at Pritchard with obvious distaste in her eyes. “That’s awful,” she said to Bane. “I thought you were better than that.” She shook her head. “To think that such a sweet girl like Sara has you for a father.”

A quick flash of approval flickered in Draco’s hardened grey eyes.

The door opened again and Hermione and Neville stepped in. Neville’s eyes widened as he looked at Pritchard. “It’s him?” he said breathlessly.

“Yes, Mr. Longbottom,” said Dumbledore.

Hermione shook her head disbelievingly. “This is amazing. To think that we all thought you were noble, and a kind father… you were so gentle with Sara….” she trailed off and shook her head.

Draco sighed quietly and looked over at Dumbledore. “I’m leaving,” he said. “I think I’ve helped plenty today.”

Dumbledore inclined his head. “Rest, Mr. Malfoy.”

Draco nodded shortly and left the office. Ginny looked after him, then to Dumbledore. “I’m going to see Sara,” she said. “I won’t tell her anything, but I want to check on her and make sure she’s ok.”

“Go ahead, the others will be arriving shortly.”

--

Ginny hiked up the stairs leading to the dormitory that she shared with Draco. Sara had been napping on the couch with a big book across her lap. Ginny grabbed a throw blanket from a nearby chair and draped it over Sara. Sara shifted comfortably underneath the blanket; Ginny smiled and gently brushed a few stray strands of Sara’s hair back from her face. “Rest well.”

Pushing open the door to their room, Ginny saw Draco pulling a robe over his head. He straightened it, looking in the mirror. He tensed when he saw Ginny’s reflection standing behind him. “Weasley,” he acknowledged.

Ginny took in the appearance of the robes he had just put on. They were slightly darker than his other black robes – the shade more rich. There was also a small silver dragon embroidered on the hood. He had a piece of limp black cloth hanging in his hand. It was his mask.

“You’re going out?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” he said shortly, turning to face her.

“Where?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business, Weasley.” He walked over to his bed, sat down, and started to tug his shoes on, lacing them tightly.

“You’re going out to do your Dragon of Hope thing, aren’t you?” she asked playfully, a small grin tugging at the corner of her lips.

Draco looked up at her sourly. “It’s not a thing.”

Ginny grinned broadly. “That’s so sweet.”

“I’m not sweet.”

Ginny’s expression sobered suddenly. “You’d better be careful, they’re probably already on to you, after the whole thing with Bane.”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your concern,” he said, standing back up.

She frowned at him. “If one of my friends is in danger, it’s most definitely my concern.”

Draco’s eyebrow quirked, “friend?”

“Yes…” Ginny said slowly. “You are my friend, aren’t you? We’re on the same side, and we’re working together…so I just figured.”

He waved his hand at her. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Do you think that I could go with you?” she asked giving her best puppy-dog eyes expression.

“Go with me?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, I do believe that’s what I said.” She waited for him to say something, but he just looked at her with a blank expression. “Go with you means: can I come, would it be alright for me to join you, can I tag along?” She waved at hand in front of his face. “Know what that means?”

Draco’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not an idiot, Weasley.”

Ginny shrugged. “Could have fooled me.”

“And this is supposed to make me want to bring you?” he asked, arching a blond eyebrow.

Ginny’s cheeks tinged pink slightly. “Maybe that wasn’t my best plan….” She looked back up at him hopefully. “Please bring me,” she said. “Please?”

Lifting a hand up to his face, Draco rubbed his tired eyes and looked back at Ginny thoughtfully. “If you get in the way,” he said. Her face brightened immediately. “Don’t think that I won’t hesitate to leave you behind.”

Ginny nodded. “Of course, but I promise I won’t get in the way.”

“Alright, alright,” Draco said shortly. “Go get ready – and I’m not waiting anymore than five minutes.”

--

They were riding brooms in the cool evening air. The sun was low, casting pinks, blues, and oranges into the fluffy clouds on the horizon. If one didn’t think about the reason that Draco and Ginny were out, it could have been described as perfect.

“Now why did we have to ride brooms again?” Ginny asked, shifting on hers slightly to alleviate the growing numbness in her bottom.

Draco restrained an urge to roll his eyes. “Because there are wards up all over the place that detect Apparations. If we even tried to apparate in there it would be like holding pots over our heads and banging metal spoons on them, saying, ‘I’m here to steal your food! I’m here to steal your food!’”

Ginny laughed quietly. “It’s hard to imagine you holding a pot over your head.”

“That was the point,” said Draco. “To make you see how stupid it would be to Apparate.”

“Point taken,” she said as they started their descent into the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

They landed stealthily, clamping their hands around the twigs at the bottom of their brooms to keep them from rustling in the faint wind.

“Now,” Draco whispered. “You just follow me, hood up, we’re going to get the food from here – they’ve got the most to spare.” Ginny nodded and followed him down into the main street of Hogsmeade.

Making it to the end of the street successfully, no hags trying to molest them, they came upon the Serpent’s League HQ. Draco beckoned Ginny to follow him around the back of the building. Suddenly a strong, foul smelling odor invaded their noses. Ginny grimaced and pinched her nose shut, deciding to breathe through her mouth, which wasn’t all that much of an improvement considering how bad the stench was.

“Grimdir?” Draco called out softly, stepping around the corner. Ginny followed him and saw a sleeping troll leaning against a shed. Apparently, he was supposed to guard the food rations. “Good,” Draco said. “This’ll make it easier.”

He slipped over to the front of the shed and pulled out his wand, whispering, “Alohamora.” The lock clicked open and Draco pulled the door back, disappearing inside. Ginny stayed next to the door, deciding that she would probably be more help as a look-out.

Draco came out a few seconds later with a burlap sack slung over his shoulder. Ginny looked at it closely. “Isn’t that a bit small for all of the food?”

“Shrinking spell,” Draco said tersely. “Come on,” he said, half dragging her out of the vicinity of the shed.

His hand still tightened around her arm, he led her out back into Hogsmeade’s main street. Ginny felt safer as soon as the warm lights from the shops shined on them – it had grown dark since they left Hogwarts. But even the warm lights couldn’t keep out the fear that flashed through her heart when she saw Mathilde Lestrange, recognizing her instantly from the day in Ollivander’s, pass by, hesitating only for a moment when Draco and Ginny passed her.

Ginny let out a slow breath of relief, feeling Draco’s hand clench tighter on her shoulder after she’d passed. She would have expected him to sigh as well if he’d been any other person.

They reached the outskirts in good time and mounted their brooms, flying off into the night sky toward the same camp that Ginny had called home for the years that she lived there.

---

They touched down near a woods not to far from the camp. Draco took their brooms and leaned them against a tree, putting a locator spell on them in case they couldn’t find them later.

“How exactly does this go?” Ginny asked.

“How does what go?” said Draco, finishing his spell.

Ginny’s hands floundered in the air for a moment. “This whole…Dragon of Hope thing. Do you just go up to people and hand them food?”

Draco snorted. “Of course not, you have to be a bit more sneaky than that. You were there last time I did anything. Some people are idiots.”

Ginny nodded and followed him towards the refugee camp a cold feeling forming in the pit of her stomach the closer she got. Soon the butternut robes and cloth tents made their appearance, the flaps fluttering in the wind. People were sitting outside of their tents washing their dinner dishes, or what little dishes they had. Ginny couldn’t help but think that maybe she should be there. Why should she be staying at Hogwarts while they’re all still suffering at the hands of the New Ministry?

Draco pulled his hood up closer around his face and tied his mask on tighter. “Make sure your hood is up,” he said quietly. Ginny reached up to adjust her hood right as they stepped into the camp. Draco led her into the shadows, the cold in the pit of her stomach growing with every step.

He lifted a hand and pointed to a small boy limping back to a tent not far off. He was carrying a bucket of water back to the tent, water sloshing out with every step he took, drenching both himself and the ground below. Ginny winced knowing how precious the water is to the families in the camp. The boy’s mother would be furious that so much of it had been wasted.

The boy made it to the tent, five other small children filed out of the tent to help him carry the water in, some stuck their hands into the water and slurped it up eagerly.

Ginny felt her heart ache for the children. They were all skin and bones, and their filthy robes hung on them. “We’re going there first,” Draco whispered. “I’ve helped them out a few times before.”

Ginny nodded and followed him to the tent, keeping in the shadows. They went around to the back of the tent, where there was a slit cut in the back for them to throw their trash out of. Draco reached into his sack and pulled out two miniature bags of lentils and four tiny parcels of carrots. He waved his wand over them, muttering a quiet charm and they resumed their full size. He slipped them through the slit and touched Ginny’s shoulder, urging her away.

They made it to the end of the rows of tents before they heard the loud and blissful laughter streaming out of the tent they’d just visited. Ginny beamed as she heard the children’s tinkling laughter. She looked over to Draco to see if he was smiling to, but his face was set, only determined to reach another tent.

They visited a few other tents before a light shone over them, voices whispering behind them: “There he is!”

Draco’s eyes widened for a moment, and he grabbed Ginny and pulled her after him, and ran from the camp. Ginny’s feet were propelled to go faster than they normally would because of the voices yelling after them.

They followed them out of the camp and to the woods where Draco used the locating charm to find the brooms.

Draco straddled his quickly, and Ginny put a leg up to straddle hers, but didn’t go far enough and slammed her foot down so hard that the broom snapped loudly.

“Oh no,” Ginny wailed, picking up the two pieces of her broom. Draco flung his arm around her waist and yanked her onto his broom and took off, the Death Eaters’ voices too close for comfort.

They flew up, circled around the woodland and took off towards Narcissa’s house, Ginny sat in front of Draco, his arms where around her gripping the broom handle in front of her tightly. Ginny sighed in relief as she looked back and didn’t see any Death Eater’s following them.

She rubbed her face. “That was close,” she said. Her red hair was flying around her face wildly in the wind, whipping her cheeks harshly.

“Gods, Weasley,” said Draco. “Can’t you do something about your hair? It’s going to blind me.”

Ginny rolled her eyes and put her hands in the pockets of her robes and came up with an elastic; she pulled her hair together in one hand and wound the elastic around it, holding it in place. “Better?” she asked.

“Much,” said Draco. His hands tightened around the broom handle in front of her and he let out a low sigh.

“Thanks for letting me come with you,” said Ginny, feeling her eyes droop slightly. Fatigue was starting to set in, and she hadn’t slept a whole night since they arrived at Hogwarts.

“No problem,” Draco said quietly.

Ginny’s body grew progressively limp until her back was slack up against Draco’s chest, her hands loose on the broom stick in front of her.

“Weasley,” Draco growled softly. Ginny lay against him quietly, not replying. “Ginny,” he tried a little bit louder. She mumbled quietly and turned slightly and buried her nose in his shoulder. He sighed and shifted on the broom so that she could fall into a more comfortable position.

She smelled of cinnamon and vanilla, Draco found himself leaning in closer and closer, breathing in the warmth of her scent. He jerked his head back and shook his head, “Get a grip, Malfoy,” he muttered under his breath.

---

“Draco! Ginny!” exclaimed Narcissa, as she saw them coming in through the entrance hall. “What are you doing back so soon?”

“Want us to leave, mother?” Draco asked with a teasing smile.

“No,” she said quickly. “But it’s just so late.”

“We were out,” Draco said vaguely. “Ginny’s broom snapped, so we’re going to floo back to Hogwarts.”

Narcissa nodded. “I see. Well, Haven’s not asleep yet, would you like to see him?”

“Yes,” said Draco, putting a hand on Ginny’s arm and pulling her after him to Haven’s room. She used her free hand to wipe the sleep from her eyes. Falling asleep on Draco although awkward, had not been an entirely uncomfortable thing to do. When he tried to wake her, he was shaking her arm, saying, “Wake up, Weasley….” She’d stir a bit, but she wouldn’t wake. So he’d shake her again, “Ginny, we’re here.”

When she’d finally come to, she’s been disoriented and Draco had to remind her of what happened. She’d felt like the biggest idiot.

Draco turned the knob on the door to Haven’s room and pushed it open. Haven was lying in bed, covers pulled up to his chin, sleeping. Ginny followed Draco into the room and perched herself on the edge of Haven’s bed, Draco stood behind her.

She touched his cheek gently. Haven’s eyes fluttered open and he looked at Ginny groggily.

“Ginny?” he said, balling his hands, raising them up to rub his eyes.

“I’m here,” she said. “Your dad said that you wanted to see me before we had to go fight.”

Haven smiled. “I did,” he looked up and saw Draco standing behind her. “Hi, Daddy.”

The corner of Draco’s mouth turned up and he reached over Ginny to ruffle Haven’s hair.

Haven sat up in his bed and scooted closer to Ginny, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face into her neck, breathing in deeply. “Ginny,” he said, voice muffled. “I love you.”

Ginny smiled. “I love you too, Haven.” She brought her hands up around him and stroked his hair soothingly.

“Do you want to marry me?” Haven asked, lifting his head up for a moment to look at her.

“Marry you?” Ginny said, amused. “Don’t you think you’re a bit young for me?”

“No.”

“Well I think I may be a bit too old for you then.”

“Well…what about my dad?” He looked over at Draco, mischief dancing in his grey eyes.

Draco stiffened. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not? She’s not too old to marry you,” said Haven.

Ginny raised and eyebrow, smirking at Draco over Haven’s head. “Yes, Draco, why not?”

Draco glared at Ginny, rolling his shoulders unconsciously. “Because,” he said.

Ginny giggled. “I’ll tell you what, Haven,” she said. “If you still want to marry me in about ten years, we’ll talk, okay?”

Haven nodded.

Draco looked down at his wrist and checked his watch. “We should be going,” he said abruptly. Ginny rolled her eyes and squeezed Haven into a hug.

“I’m going to miss you,” she said, kissing his forehead.

“I’ll miss you too,” said Haven, hugging her back. Ginny gave him one last kiss on the forehead and stood up. Draco went over and hugged Haven before leaving the room with Ginny.

-

“Shrieking Shack!”

Ginny fell through the Shrieking Shack fireplace, Draco caught her before she tripped and hit the ground. He placed her back up right on her feet. “Thanks,” she said, looking up at him.

Draco brought his hand up to her face and cupped her cheek. Ginny frowned and covered his hand with her own.

“Draco?”

“Shh,” he said softly. Very slowly, he tilted his head down and pressed his lips to hers. She let out a soft sigh and leaned into the kiss. His arms wound possessively around her and she embraced him.

Draco’s hand reached up and gently tugged at the elastic in her hair, it gave way and her hair slipped out and fanned onto her shoulders. His fingers began to comb and tug at the silken strands. Her face flushed with a wash of heat. She gasped and Draco slid his tongue through her parted lips to taste the sweetness of her mouth.

There was a creak outside and they both jumped apart. Ginny looked over at the window, and brought her fingers up to her lips.

“We should go,” said Draco, handing her the elastic for her hair. She took the elastic and fixed her hair. When she looked up he was still standing there, watching her. He trailed a finger down her cheek. “I can’t promise you anything.”

“I know.”

[A/N: Well, ta-da! There’s the chapter, I hope it was well worth the wait. I’ll probably be done with the next chapter much sooner considering school is out an all, and I’ve got more free time. Oh, and you can thank my friend Casey for the fluff at the end, the kissy scene (which I’m horrible at, many thanks to Natalie for helping me out there) because Casey was the one who was bugging me about it at school. Lol. She said there needed to be more kisses. So, thank her. I wasn’t planning on any for this chapter until she said anything about it.

Till next time…

Virtualfaerie]

Oh yeah! Thanks for all of your reviews! They always mean so much to me. Every time I see a new one I squeal with delight (ok, not really, but almost). Please review some more, maybe it’ll help me get the next chapter out sooner!

A/N: Hehe, sorry, took a long time to update again, didn’t I? Well, I’m continuing this story despite OotP and how that conflicts with some of my plot. I’m just going to keep writing this as a Pre-OotP fic. I’m not going to incorporate any new canon. Anything I do with that will be in a new fic, this one and ATCC are going on as before.

Thanks to Nicole for beta-ing.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything but some evil characters and Haven.

Heroes Shed No Tears – 14

By VirtualFaerie

Shadows danced across the wall from the moon outside the window. Bane Pritchard was sitting in the darkest corner, knees pulled up to his chest, eyes tilted towards the window, dark and broody. In a fit of rage earlier, he had ripped off one of his finger nails clawing at the wooden door, beating on it and demanding that they let him out. Now he was silent and still, waiting for them to return.

A key turned in the lock and the door swung open, the hinges creaking. In stepped four people: Dumbledore, Draco, Harry, and Snape. Dumbledore shut the door behind them and knocked on it twice, and the key turned in the lock again.

Bane watched them under hooded eyes. Harry picked up a cheap wooden chair that had been turned over and sat in it, looking at Bane with disgust clearly written all over his face.

Dumbledore stood in front of Pritchard, then looked back at Snape. “Give me the Veritaserum, Severus.” Snape stepped forward and handed Dumbledore a small vial of clear liquid. “Are you going to take this willingly, Bane?” Dumbledore asked.

Pritchard brought his hand up and gave Dumbledore the finger. “Hell no.”

Dumbledore shrugged. “If you insist.” He took out his wand and cast a binding spell on Pritchard, walked over to him and opened his mouth, pouring half of the vial down his throat. Pritchard coughed and sputtered for a moment, and the others looked down at him without sympathy.

“Bastard,” he rasped.

“Are you ready to answer our questions?”

“Never.”

Draco stepped forward. “How long have you been an agent for Voldemort?”

Pritchard made a pained face.

“Just answer the question,” Draco said forcefully.

“Three years,” Pritchard spat, glaring up hatefully at Draco.

“Good boy.” Draco smirked. “What have you told them about our plans?”

Pritchard jerked on the floor. “Not much,” he said in a garbled voice.

“Now, now,” Dumbledore said. “Make this much easier on yourself, Bane, and just answer the questions. The faster you do, the less pain you’re in and the sooner we’ll be out of here.” Dumbledore looked over at Draco. “Repeat your question.”

“What exactly have you told the New Ministry about our plans?” said Draco.

He resisted for a minute, then started speaking. “Before you arrived, I was getting ready to report that you’d betrayed them.” Pritchard let out a bitter laugh. “They’ve probably already figured that out on their own since you spirited me away. You’ll never be able to go back. There wasn’t much else to report to them, I hadn’t had a chance to check in since you got back.”

Draco nodded shortly. “Why did you double over as an agent for them?”

“To protect my daughter,” he bit out sharply.

“Ah,” said Draco slowly. “You double over to Voldemort to ensure you’re daughter’s safety. Real smart, Pritchard. What did you think that Voldemort could do for you that would be any better than anything that Dumbledore could do?”

“The Resistance lost the war, Malfoy. I don’t like being on the loosing side and I wanted to make sure that I was on the winning side for Sara.”

Harry let out a laugh. “Oh yeah, Voldemort is one the best people to depend upon for protecting children. Just look at all the kids living in refugee camps. You think if something happened here that your daughter would be any better off? Everything Voldemort could have promised you was lies.”

The corner of Pritchard’s mouth turned up. “He told me you’d say that.” Harry blinked and jerked his head back.

“Potter is right,” Draco said, looking back at Harry doubtfully, like he couldn’t believe he was saying that. “If you think that you’re daughter’s life is safe with Voldemort…you couldn’t be more wrong.” Pritchard just shook his head. “Who hit Penelope with the Cruciatus?”

“I did,” Pritchard said with smug grin. “That little whore didn’t even see it coming.”

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. “Why? How could you do something like that to your own wife?”

“She knew too much, she suspected too much already. I couldn’t let her find anything out. I couldn’t risk the possibility that she might not be as stupid as she looked, and that she might be able to figure me out. I was gone so many nights that it wasn’t too hard for her to start suspecting me of something. At first she thought that’d I’d taken up a lover, that I was cheating on her. Then she realized that it wasn’t that. She noticed me clutching my forearm when my Master would call. She was putting two and two together. My nightly wanderings and my arm. I had to stop her from telling anyone. I waited until the right time, then I staged it. Said a Death Eater had done it to her…and I didn’t lie.” He smirked. “She was getting on my nerves anyways. As soon as she was gone, I had more freedom; I could come and go as I pleased. Everyone thought it was from grief. It was perfect.”

“She’s not gone,” Draco said lowly.

“Almost,” Pritchard said with a laugh.

Harry looked at him disbelievingly. “You didn’t even love her?”

“Women are leeches,” said Pritchard. “They attached themselves to you and suck away your life, your money and your strength. They’re nothing but trouble, nothing to waste love on.”

“You love your daughter,” Draco pointed out.

“That’s different.”

“How? She’s a female. Doesn’t she attach herself to you? She’s your responsibility. You have to care for her. Isn’t she what got you into this mess in the first place?” Draco questioned. “If it hadn’t been for her, would you be here now? You would have gone over to Voldemort?”

Dumbledore put his hand on Draco’s shoulder. “That’s enough for tonight,” he said. He knocked on the door and the key slid in the lock again, and the door opened.

Draco shook his head disgustedly at Pritchard and walked out of the room.

--

Ginny took the steps up to the Ravenclaw two at a time, her mind still reeling from Draco’s kiss. She said the password to the portrait guarding the Ravenclaw common room with a cheerful lilt to her voice. The faerie in the painting grinned at her. “Good mood?” she asked.

She smiled back at the faerie. “Wonderful mood.” The portrait swung open and Ginny stepped inside.

Her ears instantly picked up on the sniffling coming from a chair near the fireplace. She frowned and saw Sara sitting there, curled up against the arm of the chair. She rushed over to her. “Sara?” Ginny said, kneeling down in front of her.

Sara looked up at her, her eyes were moist with tears, and there were wet tracks running down her face. “Oh, Sara,” Ginny whispered, pulling Sara off of the chair and settling her in her lap. She put her arms around the small girl and rocked slightly, rubbing her hands on Sara’s back.

Sara sobbed, her whole body shaking. She coughed and pressed her face into Ginny’s neck, taking deep breaths, trying to calm herself. “I didn’t know,” she said in a shaky voice. “Why? Why did he do that?” She sucked in a wobbly breath. “It was my fault. All my fault.”

Ginny continued rocking Sara. “It wasn’t your fault, honey. It was all your father’s doing. You did nothing wrong.”

Lifting her head up, Sara looked at Ginny. “Can I sleep with you tonight?” she asked carefully.

“Of course!” Ginny hefted Sara up in her arms, staggering slightly as she stood up. She smiled at Sara and started up towards her dormitory with Sara in her arms. Ginny kicked open the door and walked in slowly, setting Sara down on her bed. She sat down on the bed next to Sara and started to untie the girl’s shoes for her, then pulled them off, setting them of the floor. She helped Sara out of her heavy robes, finding a lavender linen dress underneath. Ginny pulled off her own shoes and robe and climbed into the bed next to Sara.

She pulled the little girl into her arms and stroked her hair gently, kissing the top of her head.

A few minutes later, the door creaked open, and Draco’s footsteps sounded on the floor. Sara lifted her head up. “Draco?” she said softly.

Draco paused and frowned. “Sara? What are you doing in here?” He walked over to Ginny’s bed.

“Ginny is letting me sleep with her,” said Sara.

“Oh, she is?” He looked to Ginny, who nodded. Draco sat on the edge of the bed, next to Sara and held out his hand to her; Sara gave it to him and he held onto it, rubbing her knuckles with the pad of his thumb. “How are you doing?” he inquired.

Sara’s eyebrows lowered and her lower lip quivered. “My daddy hates me,” she whimpered.

“No, no he doesn’t,” Draco said softly. “He doesn’t hate you. He just made some bad decisions.” He leaned down and kissed Sara’s cheek. “Go to sleep…sweetie. Remember, Ginny and I will be here for you. Always.”

Sara smiled weakly and shut her eyes, leaning up against Ginny.

Ginny looked up at Draco fondly. He raised an eyebrow and walked over to her side of the bed. “Good night,” he said, leaning down to kiss her lips quickly. He straightened and went to his bed, taking off his heavy boots and robe.

“Night, Draco.”

--

Draco was gone when Ginny woke up, and he had left his bed unmade. Sara stirred slightly next to her, then opened her eyes sleepily. “Morning,” she said groggily.

“Good morning,” said Ginny, rolling over and getting out of the bed. “There’s lots to do today.” She walked over to the bathroom and paused at the door. “Are you going to want to see your father today?”

Sara stared up at the ceiling of the canopy above the bed. “Yes,” she said weakly. “I want to see him.”

Ginny nodded. “Alright, go shower and I’ll meet you down in the common room.”

“Okay.”

Closing the door behind her, Ginny started towards the shower and turned on the water, letting the steam rise up. She sighed and stepped in a few seconds later, enjoying the way the hot water pounded against her tired muscles. She felt like she had hardly gotten any sleep since she’d arrived and it was finally beginning to take its toll on her.

A few minutes later she stepped out of the shower and dried off, pulling on a pair of clean robes. She walked down to the common room to find Sara and Draco sitting by the fireplace playing an awkward game of chess. It looked as if they had just started, and Draco was explaining to Sara the rules of the game.

“Morning,” said Ginny, walking up and taking a seat off to Sara’s side.

Draco took his fingers off of the pawn he had been moving around for demonstrations sake and looked up at Ginny. “Good morning.”

“Sara, would you like to go visit your father before it gets too late?” asked Ginny gently, reaching out and putting a hand on Sara’s arm.

Draco raised his eyebrows. “You’re ready to talk to him?” he asked, question directed at Sara.

Sara nodded slowly. “I think so.” She looked at him hesitantly. “Will…will you come?”

“If you want me to.”

“I do.”

“Alright then,” said Draco, standing up. “Let’s go. I’ll finish teaching you how to play chess later, okay?”

“Okay,” Sara got up, Ginny took her hand, and they both followed Draco out of the quiet common room. They passed by Snape’s old potions classroom, and were taken deeper into the castle, the stone starting to radiate cold around them. Sara shivered and gripped Ginny’s hand tighter.

Draco stopped in front of a wooden door, where an auror was sitting outside on a chair taken from a classroom. They conversed lowly for a moment and the auror unlocked the door with a series of spells and Draco turned to Sara. “We’ll have to go in there with you.”

Sara frowned. “Why?”

“We can’t allow anyone to go in there alone,” said Draco slowly.

“You think he might hurt me?” Sara asked quietly, tears welling up in her eyes.

“It’s not that we think he might hurt you,” Draco said gently. “But we can’t take any chances.”

Sara blinked, tears sliding down her cheeks. “I’m scared.”

“Honey,” Ginny said, kneeling down beside Sara and wiping the tears off of her cheeks. “Don’t be scared. Just remember that he’s your father and he still loves you.”

“Then why did he do this?” Sara whispered.

Ginny brushed back a strand of Sara’s hair. “People don’t think of the consequences when they’re doing things for the ones they love.”

--

Sara stepped into the darkened room, Ginny and Draco following closely behind her, wands in hand. Bane was sitting in the corner, and lifted his head to look at them as their footsteps sounded on the stone floor. Sara let out a small gasp as she saw the pure look of hatred shot in Draco’s direction from her own father.

“Daddy?” she said tentatively, taking a step towards him.

“Hello, darling,” Pritchard rasped, smiling slowly. “Come to see dear old dad?”

Sara blinked. “Yes….”

“Here, let’s have a hug,” said Pritchard, standing up and holding his arms out to Sara. “Come on,” he prodded. “I’m still your dad.” Then he added quietly, “And I still love you.”

Sara stepped forward into her father’s arms and hugged him around his middle. “Why daddy?” she asked weakly, pulling back slightly out of his embrace to look at him. “Why did you do this?”

Pritchard’s fingers tightened faintly around Sara’s small shoulders and he let out a low breath. “I wanted to make sure you were safe, darling. I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

Sara’s eyebrows creased together and she looked up at him, tears shining in her eyes. “He’s wrong, daddy. Why did you go to him? He wants to hurt us.”

“No,” Pritchard said firmly. “He wants to protect us. But we have to do as he says to earn it. Once you earn it, you’re safe. He wouldn’t have hurt you, or me, ever.”

“You’re wrong,” Sara whispered. “He’s evil and he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. And you’re wrong for believing him!” She stepped out of his arms and looked up at him sadly. “I’m sorry, daddy. I love you, but…you’re wrong.” She wrung her hands and a tear trickled down her face. “He’ll never help us. Don’t you see what he did? Look, daddy, just look.”

Pritchard looked as if he had been slapped across the face as Sara bowed her head and walked back to Ginny and Draco, Ginny resting a hand reassuringly on his daughter’s shoulder. He looked up at Draco, who was looking at him disgustedly.

“You haven’t won yet,” growled Pritchard. “You can’t take my daughter away from me!” he shouted, standing up and clenching his fists. His eyes hardened as he stared at Draco loathingly. “You can’t take her! She’s mine! She’s my daughter!” he screamed, ready to run at Draco.

“Ginny,” Draco said quietly. Ginny nodded quickly, taking a terrified Sara’s hand and leading her out of the cell quickly, pulling the door shut behind them.

“She’s mine,” Pritchard repeated darkly. “You can’t take her.”

“I didn’t take her,” said Draco plainly. “You’re the one that pushed her away.”

Draco stepped out of the cell and the auror recited the incantations had that been on the door previously, locking Pritchard in. There was an angry scream from inside, and Pritchard pounded his fists against the door furiously.

“YOU CAN’T TAKE HER! YOU CAN’T TAKE HER!!!!”

--

“She alright?” asked Draco from his perch near the fireplace as Ginny came down the stairs from their dormitory. It was late; past 12 and they were the only ones up. It had taken Ginny forever to calm Sara down enough to get her to sleep. All day they had tried to comfort her, and tell her that she said the right things, that if anything, she had helped her father.

Ginny sighed and sat down next to him on the fading blue couch. “I guess you could say she’s doing better, but she did just tell her father today that he was wrong. It’s a lot for her.”

“I know, and she said the right thing. I’m proud of her,” said Draco, reaching out to put an arm around Ginny, pulling her flush up against his side. Ginny rested her head on his shoulder and looked up at him.

“I just wish I could make all of her pain go away,” she said softly. “She’s too young to have to deal with this. She shouldn’t have to.” Ginny shifted against him and put a hand on his chest. “She’s blaming herself, Draco. She thinks it’s her fault.”

“There’s nothing we can do but reassure her that it wasn’t her fault. There’s nothing she could have done to prevent it, the only one at fault his Pritchard for being stupid enough to believe all the lies that…that Voldemort told him. Sara didn’t make him do anything, and she’s got to understand that,” Draco said practically, rubbing his thumb on Ginny’s side steadily.

“She’s only ten,” said Ginny, a small tremor of sadness running through her voice. “She shouldn’t have to suffer.”

“None of the children in this war should have to suffer,” Draco said gently. “That’s why we’re fighting for them.” He kissed Ginny’s forehead tenderly. “No need to dwell on this, let’s go to bed, we’ve got lots of planning to do for this weekend.”

Ginny closed her eyes and sighed again. “It’s all happening so quickly. The years at the camp seem so far away now. So much is happening.”

Draco pushed his fingers through her hair slowly. “It’s going to be over soon.”

She looked up at him. “I hope so,” she said quietly, lifting her head up to press her lips against his briefly.

A/N: I’m really, really sorry that this took so long to get out. I had the first 2,000 words or so of it written weeks ago, but I just didn’t know where to go with the rest of it. Fortunately, I went on a reading binge, and whenever I go on reading binges, I get really motivated to write – so here we have a new chapter, finally, eh? Another contributing factor to the reason it took me so long to get this chapter out, was the fact that school has started back up – and this year I seem to be a little bit busier than last year. My Pre-AP classes are a little bit harder, making it so that I have more homework, and I’m playing tennis (FUN!) so I have after school practice and am pretty worn out when I get home. But I got a three-day weekend! YAY! That’s why I had time to go on a reading binge that got me motivated, and also allowed me to have time to write the rest of this chapter.

There are only about two more chapters of this story left. That makes me kind of sad. I think I’ll have been working on this story for almost a year by Christmas. Is that about right? Hopefully I’ll be finished by then. Won’t it be awful if it would have taken me a whole year to write this?

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I worked really hard on it, and I hope the space between updates won’t be so long next time. French II is just as boring as French I was last year, so I’ll probably have plenty of time to write in that class. Look for another chapter in a couple of weeks.

Loves and huggles to all of you that have stuck through this fic with me and reviewed so nicely! I love it when I get reviews telling me to update. :D Especially when they’re out of no where. LOL! It makes me feel so bad that I usually at least go and open up my word document and stare at the chapter dumbly. Hehe.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! SORRY I’M SUCH A LAZY LITTLE GIRL WHO TAKES TOO LONG TO UPDATE!!!

Heroes Shed No Tears –15

By VirtualFaerie

-

Ginny got up the next morning quietly, careful not to stir Sara, who had been sleeping in her bed again, and walked over to Draco’s bed, putting her hand on his shoulder gently. “Draco,” she said softly, shaking him slightly. He scrunched his eyes up, then opened them slowly, peering up sleepily at Ginny.

“What is it?” he asked groggily, sitting up on his elbows, looking up at Ginny curiously.

She sat down on the edge of his bed. “It’s Friday. Aren’t we…leaving today?”

Draco raised his eyebrows and rubbed his eyes. “Yes, we are.”

“Do you think that maybe, we should take Sara to your mother’s? She might not be safe here…” said Ginny quietly.

“Ah,” said Draco, frowning. “I suppose that would be a good idea. Haven would love having here there. That would be good for her, spending some time with someone closer to her age, don’t you think?”

Ginny smiled. “Yes, she needs some time away from all this grown-up war. She needs someone she can be a child with.” She fingered the bed spread, looking at Draco thoughtfully. “Your mother won’t mind?”

Draco shook his head. “She’ll love having Sara there.”

“Good,” said Ginny. “The last thing I want to worry about while we’re…away, is her. Just thinking of her or Haven being in danger gives me the….”

Draco reached over and put his hand on her arm, rubbing the pad of his thumb against her skin soothingly. “I know. There’s not much that we can do, other than make sure that they aren’t in the direct line of fire. There isn’t anywhere truly safe for them anymore.” Ginny sighed and Draco tugged her arm, pulling her down next to him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair. Ginny closed her eyes and breathed him in, savoring his touch.

“Now I want to go back to sleep,” Draco murmured, weaving his fingers through her hair, his eyes drifting closed.

Ginny scooted up closer to him, letting him wrap his arms around her. He placed his lips lightly n her forehead, and she tilted her head upwards without thinking, allowing him easy access to her lips. His lips moved against hers sleepily, but thoroughly, sending a shiver of delight down her spine.

“Wait,” said Ginny, against his lips. She pushed away from him reluctantly, remembering that they were sharing a room with Sara. “We need to stop… It wouldn’t be good for Sara to find us like this.”

Draco stiffened, his fingers going still in her hair. “Actually,” he said. “It wouldn’t do for anyone to find us like this.”

“It’s not like they aren’t going to find out sometime,” Ginny said carefully.

“Of course, and we’ll tell them when we’re ready,” said Draco slowly. “I’m just not sure this is the best time. Should we really upset everyone with it right now?”

Leaning back, Ginny looked at him inquisitively. “You think it will upset everyone?”

“You think it won’t?”

“Well…you’re on our side. I don’t see any reason for them to not accept it.”

Draco sighed. “Don’t be naïve, Ginny. Just because I’m not working for Voldemort doesn’t mean they like me. If anything, they’re just putting up with me so that they can get rid of him quicker.”

Ginny sat up and looked at him fiercely. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true,” Draco said simply.

“No, it’s not. I think they respect you. Not everyone can make the right decision, do the right thing, despite what they’ve been raised to believe. Draco, you made a good decision, you changed your life, and your son’s for the better…. People are going to respect you for that,” said Ginny a bit indignantly.

“Not everyone sees things like you,” Draco said tiredly. “I’m still a Malfoy. No matter what I’ve done, they’ll still be wary of me. I’m still scum, but for now I’m useful scum.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You know, I only ever joined the Resistance because of Haven.”

“Well then, I’d say he’s done you a lot of good. And you’re everything to him, everything he needs.”

Draco shook his head impatiently. "I'm a lot of things to him, but there are some things I just can't be."

She frowned slightly, reaching out to touch his shoulder in an attempt to wipe away the sad look she was almost sure he didn't know he had. "Don't say that, you've given him every--"

"Everything I can, but it's not enough." He sighed briefly. "Surely you noticed how attached he got to you in such a short time? He's never had a mother, and he wants one desperately."

“He has Narcissa…” said Ginny.

Draco shook his head again. “It’s not the same, and you know it.”

Ginny slumped her shoulders and leaned up against the headboard. “Do you mind if I ask what happened with Haven’s birth mother?” she asked carefully.

Draco smiled wryly and reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. “I figured you’d ask that sooner or later.”

“Can you blame me?”

“No, no I can’t.”

Ginny touched Draco’s cheek. “Tell me.”

Draco put his hand over hers and sighed, closing his eyes tightly. “Well, it all started quite a long time ago – back while I was still in Hogwarts. Mathilde was in a year younger than me.” He opened his eyes and smiled at Ginny, “Like you.” Ginny pursed her lips and pressed her fingers on his cheek, urging him to continue. “Our fathers had arranged for a formal introduction during one of the interminable balls my mother held, and we were encouraged to being a courtship. And I went along with it, because there wasn’t really any reason not to.

“Mathilde was quite beautiful in this vicious sort of way. She also had a way of convincing people to believe whatever she told them, even me, because I was so young, and so captivated by her outward beauty. It blinded me from seeing what she really was.

“I thought I loved her. We had spent so much time together that summer, right before seventh year. Both of our fathers were so busy helping Voldemort plan his attacks, they were always together, and we just…hung around together as well.

“When school started back up, we met on the weekends when she’d floo to the manor, or I’d portkey over to her family’s house. We were together as much as possible.” Pain flashed in Draco’s gray eyes; he closed them again, not able to look at Ginny.

"She had me completely fooled. We'd been growing apart after I left school, and she saw the chance at grabbing my family's money slipping away. She stopped taking the birth control potion, and then when she got pregnant, she went straight to my parents. I was determined to do the right thing, but as soon as we were married, she stopped pretending to be sweet and let all of her vicious deceitfulness show."

Ginny took her hand off of his cheek, and held his hand in hers softly, placing a small kiss on his cheek.

“We got married. Then, one week after Haven was born; she told me that she was going out. I stayed home, and was reading in my study. I thought I heard the baby crying, so I went upstairs into his room, and he wasn’t there. His crib was empty, and I just felt this pooling sense of dread in my stomach. All I could think was that Mathilde took him somewhere. But all of his things were still in his room, his blankets, his bag of baby things…she hadn’t taken anything.

“My first thoughts were that the Resistance had stolen him away from me to get at Voldemort. But the more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed. The Resistance wasn’t as petty as Voldemort’s Death Eaters.” He squeezed Ginny’s hand.

“I went to go see if Mathilde had gone to her parent’s house, and taken Haven with her. I Apparated into their living room, to find Mathilde handing our baby to Voldemort. Handing our healthy baby to Voldemort. I couldn’t believe it, I was shocked; I froze and felt like I couldn’t breathe. Why would she have done that? Then Voldemort begun reciting a spell that I knew all too well from various Death Eater meetings. It was a sacrificial spell, one that gave him more power. Typically, it was done with Muggle virgins, but the innocent blood of a baby, a pureblooded baby that would have been offered to him, was especially powerful,” continued Draco.

Ginny’s eyes were widened, looking on at Draco with disbelief written clearly all over her face. “Why?” she breathed. “Why would anyone want to sacrifice their baby?” She clutched at Draco’s hands, eyes shining.

Draco shook his head slowly, sadly. “She wanted to prove her allegiance to Voldemort. Wanted to prove that she was his most loyal Death Eater. There was…is something wrong with her,” said Draco, a small tremor of grief running through his voice. “She’s pure blackness all the way through. She couldn’t think of doing anything nice if her life depended on it.

“But, anyways, I did the first thing that came to my mind. I pulled out my wand and did a quick stunning spell on her, then ran and grabbed Haven, Apparating away quickly. I didn’t know where to go. First, I went home – but then I realized that they would look for me there, they would look for Haven there. And I would have done anything, I would still do anything to keep Haven safe, so I took him to the safest place I knew. Hogwarts. I went to Dumbledore and told him my situation, fighting off repulsion of actually trusting a man that my father had taught me to hate. It wasn’t easy, but I would do anything for Haven.”

Ginny smiled weakly, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Draco brushed his thumb across her cheek as a tear escaped, rolling down her cheek. “How…how did you keep their trust?” asked Ginny thickly, trying to keep her emotions under control.

“Lucius,” said Draco with a sardonic smile. “He wouldn’t dare let Voldemort or anyone else doubt me, I was his heir, I needed to be there to step up into his place when he was gone. He was also afraid that he would be blamed with me. He said that it was the result of a potion gone wrong. While I had normally been quite well at potions, he said that I had been working on one that we could give to the Resistance members that we captured that would enable us to send them back home with the desire to kill other Resistance members. Lucius made it sound as if I had accidentally taken some of the potion and that was what caused me to act so rashly and kill my own son. That delighted Voldemort. He would have liked the power he would have gained from Haven’s life – but me taking my own son’s life was so much more pleasing to him. He’s a sick bastard,” spat Draco, glaring at the memory.

“I left Mathilde shortly after that, telling her that since we didn’t have a son, there was no reason for us to be together. She fought me the whole way, trying her best not to make a scene amongst the Death Eaters – but it was impossible, so she gave in eventually. She told everyone that we’d separated because we didn’t want our marriage to interfere with our competition for a higher rank,” said Draco bitterly.

Ginny touched his face lightly. “Oh Draco, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have made you tell me all of that,” her voice wavered.

Draco closed his eyes and pressed his cheek into her hand. “No,” he said. “You needed to know sometime.”

Ginny kissed his forehead and wound her arms around his shoulders tightly, not knowing what to say. “I’m so sorry,” she said, tears spilling out of her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“Now, now,” said Draco hoarsely, rubbing her back and kissing her temple. “It’s over now.”

“Yes, I know,” Ginny choked. “But I’m so sorry that you had to go through all of that.”

“What hasn’t killed me has only made me stronger.”

Ginny leaned back and took his hands in hers and looked at him seriously. “Draco, I love you.” His eyebrows shot up and he opened his mouth to say something, but she pressed her forefinger to his lips. “Shhh,” she said smiling, tears still glistening in her eyes. “I don’t care if you love me back or not,” she said quietly, turning her eyes down to her lap. “But, I want you to know, that I will always be here for you and Haven, and I will never do anything like that to you.”

She took her finger off of his lips and wrung her hands together. He looked at her doubtfully, “Are you sure? – Because…”

“Draco,” she said firmly. “I do love you.”

“We’ve hardly been together for—“

Ginny glared at him. “I don’t care.” Then she laughed nervously, “That wasn’t exactly the response I was expecting.”

Draco cocked his head to the side. “I really do care about you, Ginny….”

“But you don’t know if you love me?” finished Ginny, voice tinged with melancholy. Draco nodded. “It’s okay. I don’t expect you to give your love as freely as I give mine. But you do have mine…” Ginny started to get off of his bed.

Draco pulled her back to him and placed a soft kiss on her lips before letting her go. She smiled softly at him and went to rouse Sara.

-

They stepped out of the fireplace together, Ginny holding Sara’s hand. Sara stood with them, eyes dark and circled, her mouth drawn tight. She was still blaming herself for her father’s actions.

“SARA!” screeched Haven, sliding into the living room upon their arrival. He slammed into Sara, nearly knocking her over with his flamboyant hug.

Sara giggled lightly, hugging Haven back. “Hi,” she said quietly.

Narcissa stepped into the room behind Haven, eyeing Sara. “More children for me to keep?” she asked smiling.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Draco asked, stepping forward to wrap his mother into a hug, pressing a quick kiss on her cheek.

“Of course not,” said Narcissa. “I’m more than happy to keep them.” She looked to Sara and Haven, who were jabbering loudly, not paying any attention to the adults. “Here, let’s go into the kitchen and talk about your situation while you’re here, I want to know what’s going on. I’m sure they won’t miss us,” she said, motioning to the children.

“Alright,” said Draco, taking Ginny’s hand, a gesture noticed by Haven and Sara both, and led her into the kitchen after Narcissa.

Once they were out of ear shot, Sara spoke up. “Do you think they like each other?” she asked curiously.

“Of course!” said Haven, grinning.

“Do you think they’ll get married?” she whispered.

“Has he kissed her yet?” asked Haven conspiratorially.

“Not yet, I don’t think,” said Sara.

“Well, just as soon as dad kisses her, they’ll have to get married,” Haven said knowledgably.

Sara brought her hands up to her face excitedly. “Do you think they’ll let me be the flower girl?”

“O’course,” said Haven. “It’ll be great!”

“Yeah!”

They fell over each other laughing.

-

Draco and Ginny scooted into the meeting right after it had begun and took seats near Harry and Hermione. Dumbledore looked to them and smiled, a faint twinkle in his eyes. “Alright,” said the headmaster. “As all of you know,” he continued, looking around the table at the varying faces looking to him. “Tonight is the night that we shall try to make our comeback is this relentless war against Voldemort and his supporters. For this to go successfully, we shall need everyone’s cooperation and effort.” He gazed at them solemnly. “If we fail tonight, there might never be hope for another chance. You all understand the severity of this attack?”

There were murmurs and the nodding of heads all around the table. Everyone was looking up to Dumbledore with determined looks on their faces. Dumbledore smiled wanly at them before continuing, “Only a few of us shall be entering Voldemort’s Head Quarters with the purpose of fight Voldemort himself. The rest of us are there to provide backup and take on all of the Death Eaters that will be attending the ball – which we have discussed already. I have already appointed leaders of at least five groups and we have discussed in depth on where you shall be situated and what your goal is. Now, I need to speak with our Aurors that are to be seeking out Voldemort. If you all have any other questions as to what your assignment is, please ask.”

Dumbledore inclined his head and the majority of the people in the Great Hall got up and left, heads bowed in together, talking quietly. The only people that remained seated, were: Draco, Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Ron (who had been released from the infirmary that morning), Neville, Fred and George.

“You all are going to be the root of this attack. Everything you do is going to determine the outcome of this attack.” Dumbledore frowned. “I hate to be making you feel so burdened, but this is of the utmost importance. You have been chosen because of your remarkable qualities that will allow you to all function together as a team against Voldemort and his closest Death Eaters. I have complete confidence in you.”

“Wait,” said Harry, looking confused. “You aren’t going with us?”

Dumbledore shook his head. “I will not be with you. I will be with the other Aurors.”

“But, why—’’

Holding up a hand to silence him, Dumbledore said, “This is not something to be discussed.”

Harry scowled and slumped in his chair, raking his fingers through his untidy hair roughly. Hermione put her hand on his arm and gave him an encouraging look. He managed a weak smile for her and turned back to Dumbledore.

“Now I’ll be going to see if the others have any questions.” Dumbledore got up out of his seat and left them together in the Great Hall.

Once the door was closed, Harry said, “I can’t believe he’s not going in with us. He’s the one wizard that Voldemort is scared of! He’s the –’’

“Shut it, Potter,” interrupted Draco. “Dumbledore can’t always be around to save the day for you. And do you honestly think that Voldemort is all that scared of Dumbledore anymore? He probably thinks that if Dumbledore could have truly beaten him, he would have done so already. With an ego the size Voldemort’s is now, it would be hard for him to believe that anyone would be able to take him down.”

“Still,” Harry started, but was silenced by Hermione’s hand reappearing on his arm.

“He’s right, Harry,” she said diplomatically. “Dumbledore’s gotten old as well, something that Voldemort probably would have taken into consideration. He’s not going to think that Dumbledore is strong enough to be able to stand against him.”

“But that’s wrong,” argued Harry. “Dumbledore is still as strong of a wizard as he was before!”

“No,” Ginny said softly. “He’s not Harry. Haven’t you noticed? The war is taking its toll on Dumbledore just as much as it is on anyone else, if not more. The man has to be well over a hundred years old.”

“Then what makes you think that I can do it if he can’t? I haven’t gotten any stronger since the last time I fought him, and if I have, I highly doubt that I would be able to defeat him,” said Harry.

Ginny rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to do it alone, Harry; no one is expecting you to. You have a team. We’re going to work together to defeat Voldemort.”

“Yeah,” said Neville, speaking up. “We’re all going to be in there with you Harry.” He looked to the others expectantly and they all echoed his and Ginny’s promises.

“We’ve been with you all the way,” said Hermione. “We’re going to help you defeat him. Isn’t that right, Ron?”

Ron nodded. “O’course.” He smiled. “It’ll be just like old times.”

“Not quite like old times,” said Fred, grinning.

“Yeah,” said George. “Now we have Malfoy here to help us along.”

Draco has a strained look on his face. “Right…” He leaned down and whispered into Ginny’s ear, “All this Gryffindor mushiness is making me queasy.”

Ginny smiled lightly and smacked at his arm playfully. “Well, get used to it. You’re going to have to be around it for a little while longer.”

Draco groaned aloud. “I know… and it’s killing me.” Ginny gave him a look and he winked at her, turning his attention to Hermione, who was asking him a question.

“Where would be the best place to enter the Head Quarters?”

“Well,” said Draco, glad for the change of subject. “It all really depends on where we want to go….”

-

Once they arrived at the Head Quarters, Draco directed the small group to a concealed side entrance that faced the woods. The door was guarded by two Death Eaters who were leaning against the wall heavily, with tankards of beer in their hands. Their wands were tucked away in their robes, out of sight.

“Now, why are we out ‘ere while all the others get to attend the ball?” one of them said loudly, bringing his tankard up to his mouth, sloshing a bit of a beer down his robes.

Draco rolled his eyes as he noted four more empty tankards lying not far away from the Death Eaters.

“I dunno,” said the other Death Eater. “It’s not fair though.”

“It isn’t!”

“We should be in that ball!”

“Yeah, we do just was much work as them!”

“Thas right!”

Fred and George crept out of the woods as the two drunken Death Eaters continued to bemoan their absence from the ball in a string of unintelligible slurs. Fred and George each snatched up one of the abandoned tankards from the ground and snuck up behind the Death Eaters, hitting them on the head with the tankards soundly. The drunks fell forward to the ground with a dull thump.

“And that,” said George with a smirk on his face, “Is how we take care of Death Eaters.”

Draco laughed lightly, shaking his head as he stepped out of the woods. “Unfortunately, not all of them can be handled so easily.” He pulled out his wand and said a spell to keep them knocked out for a few more hours, and then beckoned the rest of the group to follow him into the building.

He pushed on the wooden door and it swung open easily, surprising Draco. Were the Death Eaters so confident that they would leave the doors like this unlocked so carelessly? But once they stepped inside, he saw that there was a shelf with a few more tankards of beer sitting on them. The Death Eaters that were supposed to be guarding that door had stashed beer nearby and kept the door open for easy retrieval.

Hermione saw this too and shook her head. “I don’t know how they managed to beat us during the war with idiots like this.”

“Evil idiots,” corrected Ginny, shutting the door behind them.

“What was that saying I’ve heard before…” mused Fred. “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups?”

Draco turned to look at them with a raised eyebrow. “Do you mind keeping it down? Or have you forgotten that we’re trying to kill a Dark Lord here?”

Harry shot him an irritable look. “Well, are we just going to stand here all night?” They were rather cramped in the stuffy, narrow hallway.

“Of course not,” snapped Draco. “Just as soon as you all shut your mouths, we can move on.”

They went quiet and Draco gave a satisfied look before turning around and making his way down the hall. Another wooden door stopped them at the end of the hall. Draco reached out and tried his luck at turning the knob. The door didn’t open. He pulled out his wand and muttered a quiet, “Alohamora,” then tried to open it again. It was still locked.

He frowned at the door and tried another series of spells, none of which the rest of the group had ever heard before. But, after his fifth or sixth spell, the lock clicked and he was able to open the door.

They stepped through into a stone hallway, which was lit dimly with torches. Neville sneezed and Draco gave him a sharp look. “I can’t help it,” Neville murmured sullenly. “The smoke bothers me.”

“I certainly don’t want to hear about it,” said Draco. “Now keep your mouth shut.” Hermione shot an exasperated look at Draco’s back and whispered a spell for Neville’s allergies and gave him a small smile; Neville looked at her gratefully.

A few minutes later, they came to a fork in the hallway. Draco studied them for a minute, before Ron’s voice broke the silence. “I though you knew this place, Malfoy,” he said impatiently. “Can’t you tell us which way we need to go?”

“I have only been here twice, Weasley. And neither time did I enter from a side entrance,” Draco spat venomously. “Now if you’d like to lead the way, by all means, go ahead. I’m sure you know much more about Death Eaters than I ever could. Why, I’m sure you could break down the hexes guarding entrances a little further into the building, couldn’t you?”

Ron glared at him, but didn’t say anything else.

“I don’t think staring at them is going to help you out any,” said Harry, looking at Draco plaintively.

Draco’s jaw tensed. “I don’t know where exactly these halls lead to. I think we should split up.” He waited for their response.

“Split up?” Neville said tentatively.

“That is what I said,” Draco sneered.

“We may be able to find the Dark Lord faster that way,” said Hermione thoughtfully. “Would there be any way for us to communicate with each other, if something were to happen?”

They all looked to each other for an answer. How would they communicate? They couldn’t send up red or blue sparks in the building. That would do nothing but attracted unwanted attention – and it wasn’t like the others would be able to see it.

Fred pulled a small jar out of the pocket of his robes. It had tiny black beetles in it. “We were going to use these to listen in on the rooms in here. But I suppose we won’t really need them after tonight.”

Ron stared at them. “They’re beetles.”

“Not just any ordinary beetles,” George said with a grin. “These are beetles manufactured by the WWW.”

“Who would have guessed?” said Harry with a small smile. “What do they do?”

“They transmit sound to a recorder,” explained George, holding up a small black button. “Which would be this. But we only have one of them.”

“Then only one group could hear if the other was in trouble,” Ginny said, furrowing her eyebrows.

“At least it’s something,” said Harry.

“We can’t afford to take any chances, Harry,” Hermione said worriedly. “Anything could go wrong and all of our efforts would go down the drain.”

Harry made a frustrated face. “All I’m saying is that these are better than nothing.”

Reaching out, Hermione put a hand on Harry’s arm, and looked at him softly. “I know, I just want to make sure that…we do all we can to make sure that nothing goes wrong.”

“As much as you’d like for this to be without any room for mistake,” said Ginny. “That would be near impossible. There’s always going to be something that could go wrong, no matter what we do. The only thing we can do is make a reasonable choice, and hope that it turns out for the best. The rest is really not within our power to change. I agree with Draco that we should split up. Our chances of finding the Dark Lord would be greater, and moving in smaller groups would be easier.”

“Okay,” said Harry, studying their group. “Ron, Hermione, and Neville, come with me. Fred, George, and Ginny, go with Draco.”

“Who’s getting which transmitter?” asked Neville.

“We’ll take only a bug,” said Harry. “Draco’s group can take the recorder and a bug. Sound okay?”

They murmured quiet approval, and Fred took out one of the black beetles and deposited it into Harry’s hand.

“Good luck,” said Hermione. She turned and followed Harry into the hallway that went left.

“That leaves us with right,” said George. “Ready?”

Ginny nodded and they followed Draco into the hallway.

A/N: A big thanks goes to Mynuet, who was nice enough to go over this chapter with me and help me change some things for the better. :D And thanks to Nicole, who went over it for grammar/spelling. *loffs*

[A/N: I know! I know! It’s been absolutely forever since I’ve updated and I’m oh-so-sorry. I don’t really have any excuses other than I was too lazy to write anything, and that I didn’t know what to write. I actually had more than this written up a long time ago, but it was utter crap so I deleted it and started again. So this is what you get now. I’m sure I could have written more, but I figured I better get at least one chapter out before I go on vacation so that you know I’m not dead, and yes, I will be writing more chapters.

So, here’s your long overdue chapter seventeen. Enjoy.

THANK YOU COSTY FOR BETA-ING!!! <33333 You're the best!!11!1one!11!!!one!1

Disclaimer: If you think I own anything related to Harry Potter, I recommend you visit a psychiatrist.]

Wrapping the pink feather boa around her neck loosely, Sara seated herself at the small table in front of the fireplace, motioning for Haven to pick up his teacup. “Make sure you hold it like this,” she told him, picking up her own, pinky extended sophisticatedly.

Haven wrinkled his nose and picked up the teacup as told. “Why do I have to do this again?” he asked, wiggling his pinky.

“Because,” Sara said, looking at him exaggeratedly. “We’re having a tea party, and at tea parties, you’re supposed to drink your tea like this.”

“I don’t want to have a tea party,” whined Haven. “It’s girly.”

“Is not,” argued Sara. Haven set his cup down. “Fine then,” she said, “I didn’t want to have a tea party with you anyways. Boys just ruin the fun.”

“Fine,” said Haven, getting up and stomping over to the sofa. He sat on it and crossed his arms, staring at the wall disinterestedly. Sara looked at him out of the corner of her eyes, fluffing her boa, then took a sip of her tea, pinky up.

Narcissa walked into the room and took immediate notice of their stony expressions. “Are you two having fun?” she asked gently, eyes darting between the two.

“No,” they answered simultaneously, shooting glares at each other.

Narcissa disappeared and came back a few moments later, carrying a silver tray. “I know what will make this tea party a little better.”

“It’s already great.” Sara stuck her nose up in the air, but couldn’t help peeking at what was on the tray.

Narcissa nodded. “It’s wonderful, but wouldn’t you like some cookies?” She set the tray down on the table. Haven eyed the chocolate chip cookies from his perch on the sofa, his little hands starting to twitch anxiously.

“I want a cookie,” he said.

“Well, then,” said Narcissa, very matter-of-factly. “You’ll just have to join Sara’s tea party, won’t you?”

Haven made a face. “I guess so.” He let himself slide off of the sofa slowly, making sure both Narcissa and Sara knew he wasn’t too happy about attending the tea party, even if he got cookies, and then stomped his way to the little table, dropping himself carelessly back into his chair.

Amused, Narcissa smiled.

Sara, on the other hand, seemed to want to make sure that Haven felt sorry for abandoning her tea party and that he knew that any cookie he got now was going to come with a price. “You know,” she said slowly, slyly. “I have another feathery thing.” She pointed to her boa.

Haven stared at her.

She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him. “It’s blue,” she offered, beginning to dig through the pile of stuffed animals behind her. She pulled it out and held it out over the table for Haven, shaking it in front of him. What she hadn’t told him was that this one had nice little silver threads woven in it, coated with very sparkly glitter. One of the feathers detached itself from the rest and floated up into the air, and landed in Haven’s hair.

“This isn’t fair,” he muttered sullenly, reaching out to grab the boa – and a cookie.

***

Fred and George seemed to be communicating something less than appropriate between themselves, earning glares from Ginny every few minutes. Draco watched them with something between amusement and exasperation, wondering why he had the bad luck to be stuck with three Weasleys.

Which he hadn’t realized he said out loud until he noticed the slightly hurt look on Ginny’s face. “I hope you don’t think we’re really that bad,” she said softly.

Apparently Fred and George had heard the exchange in between their own covert conversation, and walked closer to Ginny and Draco, bringing their exchange to an end.

Draco looked down at Ginny. “I didn’t mean it,” he said. Ginny nodded slowly but didn’t look as if she believed him. Suppressing the urge to sigh, Draco said nothing else, continuing to lead the group down the stone hallways in awkward silence. Not that much could be done about that, talking wasn’t really something they should have been doing anyways.

Putting a hand in her robe pocket, Ginny let her fingers slip around the cool wood of her new wand, reminding herself that now wasn’t the time to get into some verbal spar with Draco. She also took care to remind herself of what kind of person Draco was, and despite the fact that she loved him, he hadn’t what you’d call a warm personality.

The light in the corridors slowly became brighter, and the corridor itself smelled less of mold and mildew. Tall torches lined the wall, the flames flickering wildly as they walked by, licking at the stones of the wall from the faint breeze they left trailing behind them.

Draco stopped them at a corner. They stood there for a moment, Fred and George exchanging looks. Ginny just watched Draco silently, her eyes roving over his face uneasily. His face didn’t say betray anything. He continued to stand there. The twins shot her a look and gestured impatiently around the corner. She gave them a withering glance as Draco leaned around the corner before stepping out of sight.They followed him.

Unexpectedly, Ginny’s boot caught on an uneven stone and sent her flying to the floor. She bit her lip to keep from crying out, tasting the coppery tang of blood on her tongue, and a throb of pain in her jaw. Fred and George grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up.

“Blimey, Gin, are you okay?” Fred whispered concernedly, brushing off her robes needlessly. He waved off George, who was hovering over them, his face turning gray as he caught sight of the tiny droplet of blood on Ginny’s lip.

“Quiet,” Draco said firmly, pushing past the twins to Ginny. She leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths. He took her face gently in his hands, mindful of her jaw, which was now sending pulses of pain through her skull. Draco swept his thumb across her lower lip tenderly causing her to wince slightly.

“Careful,” she breathed.

His fingers skimmed along her jaw lightly, sending a shiver down her spine. Bringing his wand up to her face, he murmured a quiet spell and the pain started to subside, still echoing through her head, but barely.

She smiled appreciatively at him. “That’s better.”

George gave Draco a sharp tap on the shoulder. “Let’s keep moving,” he said, following Fred, who’d already started down the length of the hall. Draco turned back to Ginny and studied her face for a moment, then lowered his lips to hers, quickly, then moved them to her jaw, making the same spot that had throbbed with pain a moment before, tingle with pleasure. She didn’t know what made him even begin to think this might have been a good time for anything of the like, but she wasn’t going to argue. Besides, they were only short kisses.

He took her hand in his, and rubbed his thumb along her knuckles as they caught up with Fred and George, who were pausing at the end of the hall, obviously listening to something very interesting.

***

Neville watched Harry, Hermione, and Ron huddled together a few feet away from him with growing impatience. They were doing it again. They were always doing it. It was the three of them and no one else. They had gathered into their little triumvirate and they weren’t planning on letting anyone else in any time soon. Their heads were all bowed down together in a circle and they were speaking in hushed tones.

Tapping his foot, Neville hoped the sound would remind them that they were missing part of their team. Hoping maybe, just maybe, to remind them Hogwarts was over, and despite the unity of the three of them, they alone were not going to be able to bring down Voldemort.

But of course, as always, he kept these thoughts to himself and settled for observing their camaraderie from afar.

“Would you shut up!” he heard Hermione hiss, and soon thereafter the sound of her hand on Ron’s face.

“Bloody hell,” Ron muttered, rubbing a hand on his cheek. “You’re the one who asked.”

Hermione’s eyes were alight and her cheeks flushed red. “This is not the time to be a prat, Ron.” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Neville, standing away from them. If possible, she flushed a deeper shade of crimson. Harry followed her gaze and guilt flashed in his darkened green eyes. Neville wondered if it was okay that the looks on their faces made him feel happier. “Oh, I’m sorry!” Hermione gushed, reaching over to grab Neville’s arm and pull him in the group. Her hand was cold and clammy on his arm, and he noted the beads of sweat on her brow.

Before he could ask what it was they’d been discussing, Harry spoke up. “We’ve been down this hall before,” he told Neville. Neville nodded. He knew this. Harry frowned, but continued, “We made the mistake of turning right both times.” Neville nodded again. Harry raised his eyebrows. “Hermione says we shouldn’t go left and that we should try another turn we might have missed further down.”

Neville looked at Hermione, who looked as if she was shaking. For the first time, Neville noticed the purple and yellow tones that dominated her skin. She was looking at him worriedly, having taken her hand off his arm. She was now clenching them in front of her tightly. Her eyes begged him to agree with her.

“What could it hurt to try her way one more time? We probably did miss a turn somewhere,” said Neville. Hermione beamed at him.

Harry heaved a frustrated sigh and raked a hand through his already disheveled hair. “We’d lose time, Neville, and we haven’t got much of it as it is. Besides, it’s not as if I’d place too much trust in Hermione’s instincts, if you’ll remember, Divination was never her strongest subject.”

Hermione’s lips thinned as she turned to look at Harry, fighting to keep her eyes cold and infuriated, but it wasn’t easy considering tears were welling and beginning to spill onto her cheeks. “Don’t be cruel, Harry,” she said hoarsely. She looked away from him to Ron, whose ears were bright red and who was staring down at the floor.

“Harry,” Neville said slowly, putting his hand on Hermione’s shoulder. Hermione sniffed and stiffened, shaking her head and wiping her tears away violently. She tightened her jaw and looked back to Harry, determination set on her face.

Before Neville could say anything else, she marched up to Harry, until she was standing with her nose practically to his. “Now you listen to me, Harry Potter,” she said firmly. “You have to remember that you aren’t the only one fighting You-Know…” she took a deep breath. “Voldemort. Your friends are here. You don’t have to fight him alone.” The tears were starting to well up in her eyes again, and she couldn’t hold them back. But her voice remained steady as she stared up at Harry. “We’re all here, Harry. Even Malfoy is here,” she said with a weak laugh. “He’s got his own group and I’m sure they can hold off what they need to until we get there, which isn’t going to be much longer. I really think we should try again. I’m absolutely positive I saw a place we could have turned.”

Harry didn’t say anything.

“Don’t you trust me, Harry?”

Harry closed his eyes. “Yes, Hermione. I trust you.” He opened them and looked at Ron and Neville. “Okay, let’s go back. Hermione, you lead the way.”

Hermione smiled at him. “Thank you.” Harry smiled back, and Hermione motioned for the men to follow her and started down the corridor confidently.

***

Ginny stopped short, causing the men behind her to stumble. “Do you hear that?” She furrowed her eyebrows into a frown, leaning one way, as if it would help her to pick up sound.

“Hear what?” asked George, looking to Fred, who looked just as confused as him.

“SHHHH!” Ginny hissed, slicing her hands at him. She stilled when she was certain they were quiet and listened again. The dim sound of muffled voices crept down the corridor in their direction.

“We’re close now,” said Draco. “We can make it before they catch up with us.”

“Wait a minute,” said Ginny, glancing at Draco quickly. She listened yet again, the corner of her mouth turning up. “That’s Ron.”

“What?” said Fred. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I think I’d recognize my own brother’s voice if I heard it.”

George nodded his agreement. “I’d know Ron’s voice anywhere.”

“Well obviously you don’t. Now would you two idiots shut up?” she said, beginning to stride down the corridor. Draco reached out to grab her arm, but only caught part of her sleeve, which she yanked out of his hand. Ginny shot him a glare and continued down the hallway. Before she reached the end, Hermione rounded the corner, and upon sighting Ginny, her eyes lit up.

“Ginny!”

“Bloody hell,” muttered Draco. “We don’t have time for this. And no one should be talking!”

Neville, Harry, and Ron followed closely behind Hermione, and Draco cut off anything they were going to say by slashing his hand in the air. “You all need to be quiet,” he whispered. “No more talking at all. This next corridor over is close to Voldemort’s lair, and there’s bound to be guards on duty.”

***

“How much longer d’you think we’ve got left on this damned shift?” a Death Eaters asked his companion.

“I dunno,” the other said, glancing at his gaudy watch. “I hope it’s not too much longer though. If it is, then there won’t be much of a party left by the time we’re able to get down there.”

“Don’t I know it,” sighed the first Death Eater. “I was hoping to talk to Pansy, too. I bet that git Marley’s already gotten to her.”

“Eh, what’d you want with a woman like her?”

He chuckled. “I’ve been told she’s a quick lay, and I’ve been needing one. What with this bloody war still going on.”

They guffawed together, not noticing the spells shot their way from the end of the corridor. Caught in mid-laugh, they both pitched forward to the floor. There was a sickly crunch of bone against stone as their faces hit the ground. Draco rounded the corner with the others following closely behind him, and they came to stop in front of the massive, dark oak doors that led into Voldemort’s innermost lair.

“Does anyone feel like this might have been a bit too easy?” Ginny asked hesitantly, feeling snakes of fear slithering into her stomach.

“Just a bit,” said Draco, lips thinning.

Harry nodded. “The worst is yet to come though. We’ve yet to do any fighting.”

Draco tapped his wand on the doorknobs and murmured spells, while the others waited with bated breath. He stopped and turned the knob and the door creaked open slowly. Hermione winced at the sound, and clenched her wand in her hand tightly, feeling Ron’s hand touch to her back lightly. She looked at him and smiled weakly. He gulped.

Draco took a step forward into the room and found it utterly empty. Harry came in behind him and stared around the room, searching the dark corners and shadows that seemed to dance at them by the movement cast from the fire crackling ominously in the hearth. There were two high-backed leather chairs sitting in front of the fireplace, both empty. There were meeting tables scattered with books and parchment, quills, and ink bottles. There were shelves upon shelves of books lined up against the walls, each with titles as horrifying as the next.

Hermione wandered into the room behind them, taking a step towards a bookshelf. Harry caught her arm as she reached towards a book. She jerked it back and eyed the shelves, itching to read the numerous dusty tomes. The twins came in and directed their wands towards the shadows muttering spells and illuminating them, showing them to be bare. Leaving Neville and Ron to bring up the rear, stepping into the room cautiously, shivering as the cold air hit them. The fire did little to warm the room.

Ginny was standing near a meeting table, leaning over and peering at the scattered parchments. “I can’t believe this,” she said softly.

“What is it?” Hermione asked, coming to stand next to her. Hermione gasped as she saw what was on the parchments, her eyes darted wildly to each. “I can see he’s getting inspiration from another evil dictator.”

“What?” Harry said. “What are you talking about?”

“These are plans,” Hermione said breathlessly. “Plans for…death camps for Muggle borns and half-bloods.”

Draco lifted his eyebrows. “You are forgetting that he grew up in the forties.”

“I know he did, but…” said Hermione, eyes wide. “He even has plans for…detoxifying magical lands that Muggles live on. He wants to kill off millions of Muggles to build a wizarding empire.”

“This comes as a surprise to you?” Draco asked coldly. “Are you really so naive, Granger?”

“Of course not,” she said slowly, looking away from the table.

Chilly air flooded the room, and the light from the fireplace winked out. The oak doors slammed shut behind them, and in the darkness two, red, snake-like eyes glowed in the darkness. “Well, well, well,” the hoarse voice rasped. “What do we have here? Harry Potter and his Dream Team? And Malfoy? What a surprise.”



[A/N: Just one last note. I know I have yet to update my other stories, but, I’m planning on it. In fact, I've already started on them. Rest assured there will be another chapter up on each of them (probably more!) by the end of the summer. ;) ]