Saving Each Other

Chapter 6: Revelations

It took them half an hour to reach the underground cave. This was due to the fact that there were search parties scouring every inch of the castle for them. Fortunately, luck was with them and the cave was deserted.

“They probable think we wouldn’t try this way since the lake’s frozen over,” said Ginny. “Ok, conjure the gillyweed.”

Draco concentrated and a few seconds later two balls of what looked to be gray, slimy worms were in his hands.

“Are you sure this is right?” Ginny voice asked from somewhere to Draco’s left. He was sure that if he could see her expression, it would be one of disgustion.

“Yep,” Draco replied, handing her one of the gillyweed balls. “Eat up sweetheart.”

They both put them in their mouths and started chewing. Ginny could have sworn she heard a gagging noise from Draco, but knew he would never admit it. She was trying to focus on anything except the disgusting material in her mouth. She swallowed and waited for something to happen while Draco blasted a hole in the ice covering the lake. Then, suddenly she felt as though a pillow was pressed over her face. She knew what it meant and jumped into the hole Draco had blasted in the lake, Draco right behind her.

The silence pressed in on her as she swam deeper into the lake, knowing the water would be a little warmer down there. Draco swam up next to her and took her hand in his. It was then that she noticed that her hands and feet were webbed. They swam without encountering anything, swimming as fast as they could across the murky landscape. Ginny knew that they must be out near the middle of the lake now. Draco tugged on her hand for her to stop. He took out his wand and it spun on his palm for a moment. Then he pointed off to her right. She nodded and they took off again.

A fifty-five minutes and one encounter with the giant squid later, Ginny and Draco reached the side of the lake farthest from the castle. They waited five more minutes until the gillyweed had worn off, then Draco blasted a hole in the lake as quietly as he could and they both climbed out. They stood and recharmed themselves invisible before applying a few drying charms to themselves. Then they ran back to the cave. They didn’t run into anyone because the Death Eaters all thought that they were still in the castle.

They reached the cave and crawled in through the narrow mouth into the spacious cavern where the sleeping bag and cauldron were sitting on the dirt floor.

Draco sat down on the floor, breathing heavily from their long run through the grounds and asked, “What happened?”

Ginny took a minute and caught her breath, then related the entire story of her solitary trek to the Gryffindor common room and back. When she reached the end of her story Draco burst out, “You could have been killed! From now on when we go in the castle, we’re sticking together unless it’s absolutely necessary that we separate!”

Ginny was silent for a minute, then said, “Come on, let’s take off this Disillusionment Charm. It’s rather annoying being able to hear you but not see you.”

When they had taken off the charm Draco realized that Ginny was very pale and shaking slightly.

“Are you ok?” he asked. “Are you cold?”

“Not really,” she said, sniffling slightly.

“Well then what’s that matter?” Draco asked gently.

“All the students and teachers just lying there Stunned! Voldemort can have any one of them killed any time he wants to on a whim! They couldn’t do anything about it! He’ll probably kill Harry first and then Ron!” Ginny burst out. When she was done, she sat quietly, still shaking slightly and holding back tears.

Draco simply didn’t know what to do. He settled for moving closer to her and putting his arm around her shoulder in a hug. “It’ll be ok.”

“How do you know?” Ginny said, looking up at him with tears streaming down her face.

“He needs them for leverage against Dumbledore. Who knows? Maybe he wants to use them as an army. Either way, he probable won’t just kill them if he hasn’t done so already,” said Draco soothingly.

Is MALFOY trying to comfort me? Ginny thought incredulously. He is. That’s so sweet! Wait, this is still MALFOY.

“Ok,” Ginny said finally, wiping her tears away. “Let’s decide on a plan.”

“Ok,” said Draco, removing his arm reluctantly from her shoulders and scooting away. “Now, getting into the dungeons could be harder this time since they know we can get in the castle. But, with Dumbledore with us I’m sure we can handle getting the teachers and students out just fine. It’s getting their wands that is going to be tougher.”

“Yeah, because we don’t even know where their wands are,” said Ginny.

“Wrong,” Draco replied. “Voldemort have them with him in McGonagall’s office where he can keep an eye on them. We’ll have to come up with a distraction to get him out of the office.” Draco paused and gave Ginny a sly, sexy smile and said, “Think Voldemort will consider Dumbledore a big enough thing to leave the office.”

Ginny gave him a shy smile in return and said, “Yeah. Obviously we’ll have to wait until we have everyone’s wands before we free them or else they’ll be sitting ducks. We should probable free the teachers first so they can help us with the others.”

“Right,” said Draco. He looked at his watch, then said, “Dumbledore will probably get here pretty early tomorrow morning, or maybe even late tonight, who knows? We need to intercept him before he goes up to the castle so he has a least a little warning. We’ll need to take turns watching the gate starting at about, I don’t know, 6:00 tonight. It’s about 1:30 now so we have four and a half hours to get a little rest.”

“Ok,” said Ginny and grabbed the sleeping bag and pulled part of it over her. Draco pulled the other half over himself and closed his eyes.

“Draco?” Ginny said into the silence.

“What?” he asked.

“Why did you save me?” Ginny asked quietly.

Draco was surprised by the question and turned to look at her. Her back was to him. “What do you mean why did I save you?”

Ginny turned to look him in the eye and said, “Why did you save me instead of turning me over to the Death Eaters and joining your father?”

Draco suddenly looked uncomfortable to Ginny and she wondered why. For a while he just sat there, as trying to figure out what to tell her: the truth, or a lie.

It would be easier to lie, but that’s all I ever seem to do, thought Draco. I lie to my father, to Ginny, hell I’ve even been lying to myself. I think it’s about time I tell the truth.

“I didn’t turn you in because,” Draco paused and sighed. “Because I like you, ok”

Ginny’s eyes went wide with surprise and she just stared at him.

“Well, more like love really,” Draco continued. It was easy to keep going now that he had started. “I could no more turn you over to the Death Eaters than I would be best friends with Harry Potter.”

Ginny was still laying next to him, surprise still evident but mixed with concentration. “I should have figured that out sooner. Back in the cavern you called me sweetheart. You’d never done that before.” She smiled at him.

Draco smiled back at her. He studied her face and expression, once again seeing the unidentifiable emotion. Suddenly he knew what it was. Trust. No one had ever given him a look of trust before in his life.

“We better get some sleep,” Ginny said. She rolled over leaving Draco to his thoughts. He had never even thought about the ramifications of his actions.

His father was going to kill him. It was as simple as that. His father was a Death Eater and Draco would rather die than become one. He loved a Weasley and his father hated every last one of them, from the tips of their toes to the tips of their flaming red hair.

It was worth it though, Draco thought, looking at Ginny. He noticed that she was shaking.

“Ginny?” Draco asked. “You ok?”

“Just a little cold,” she replied, turning to look at him.

“C’mere,” Draco said, holding up his arm. She looked at him in surprise, but scooted over and he put his arm around her and she put an arm across his chest.

Ginny lay there hardly able to comprehend what had happened. He said that he loves me. Oh my god! It’s MALFOY though. It’s impossible. It can never happen. I could never love him.

Then why do I feel like this?

Ginny quickly gave up her musings and feel asleep like Draco already had, knowing she would need all the rest she could get for the watches and battles to come.