Getting Personal

CHAPTER 9

When Ginny woke in the morning, she could see light creeping through her curtains, and she could hear her roommates talking. She yawned trying to recall why she woke with a smile on her face.

"Isn't this the shirt you gave Ginny to sleep in?" Zoë's voice came through the curtains.

Oh no! No, no, no, no! Ginny sat straight up. Draco was still sleeping next to her.

"Is she gone?" Helena asked. "I didn't see her leave."

"No I'm here," Ginny yelled.

"I'll check."

Stupid silencing spell! Ginny pulled the sheets over her chest and stuck her head out of the curtains. "I'm here."

Zoë stopped, only a foot away, nightshirt in hand. "Oh. How are you feeling?"

"Good. Better, I mean. I was just hot last night, so I'll take those. I actually don't feel that well. Maybe I should stay-" She stopped suddenly.

"What?" Zoë asked, looking at her curiously.

"Nothing," Ginny lied, using her free hand to swat at Draco who was kissing her bare back. "I'm fine. Well, I mean, I feel kind of sick, but not like last night. I'm just going to lay here. Will you let Professor Binns know?"

Ginny's roommates stared at her.

"Sure," Zoë said finally, exchanging a quick look with Bianca. "Do you want us to get Madam Pomfrey?"

"No!" Ginny shook her head. "I think really, I'm just tired. It took me a long time to get to sleep last night."

They nodded and looked slightly relieved. "Right."

Ginny waited until they had left the room before turning around to face Draco. "What are you doing?"
"Kissing you," he muttered. Even with bed head, he looked delicious. "Nice hickeys."

"Oh great," she moaned. "Do you know the covering spell?"

He shook his head. "So what's your plan? To sneak me out of here during the first period?"

"I don't have a plan," she told him. "You got in here, you can get out."

"I didn't know Gryffindor's were evil," he pouted. "You said you'd help me."

"Not with this," she rolled her eyes.

"You weren't specific."

"I am now."

"Come here." He pulled her down and kissed her on the lips, her eyes, her nose, her ears.

Ginny shifted until their bodies were firmly pressed together, her legs wrapped securely around his, and she was acutely aware that her blue cotton panties and his red boxers were the only things separating them. His fingers were creeping from her back down her sides and towards her waist.

"Ginny Weasley!"

Ginny shot up and stuck her head back through the curtain. "No! Hermione, no!"

Hermione yanked back the curtains.

"Good morning, Granger," Draco said lazily.

"Ginny I cannot believe you would do this! You, you," Hermione sputtered with rage.

"Shhh," Ginny begged. "Please be quiet!"

It took nearly five minutes of Ginny trying frantically to calm Hermione down and Draco laughing silently before Hermione sat down on the bed and yanked the curtains shut around her. "What are you doing here?"

"That's not really your business, now is it?" Draco asked evenly.

"Draco! Stop!" Ginny hissed. "We need your help, Hermione."

Hermione stared blankly at Ginny and so did Draco.

"Can you do the covering spell again?"

"What?"

"Hermione! I know it's not proper and that you're a prefect, but-"

"So is he!"

"Huh?"

"He is a prefect also!"

"Oh. Right. Well, he's not telling, so I think it would only be fair if you didn't."

"You are unbelievable." Hermione shook her head.

"Come off it Granger," Draco drawled. "Are you going to help her or not?"

"No. No I am not."

"Hermione, there is more to this than you know," Ginny trailed off. Hermione wasn't going to believe her unless she told her the whole story. She glanced at Draco, still sprawled lazily on her pillows. "We have to tell her. I can't go around looking like this."

He shrugged. "Fine."

Ginny glanced down at the sheet she was still clutching against her chest. "Let me get dressed and I'll tell you." She reached for the foot of her bed and pulled on Draco's t-shirt. "Okay. I told Draco that we would help him if he needed it, and-"

"Some help!" Hermione snorted.

"Calm down," Draco interrupted.

"We didn't do . . . that," Ginny added.

Hermione raised a skeptic eyebrow but remained silent.

"His father sent him an owl last night saying it was time for him to join the Death Eaters," she continued, knotting her red hair behind her. "But he's not going to."

Hermione's cross expression melted to confusion.

"I'm not," Draco snapped, sitting up. "I'm not going to spend my life serving someone else!"

Ginny filled Hermione in on everything else she knew and when she was done, the older girl sat silently, chewing on her lip.

"I have no reason to believe you," she told Draco finally. "But I'm going to take my chances. Dumbledore keeps telling us we need to unite, and I'm not going to be the one to blame if it doesn't happen."

Draco opened his mouth to reply, but Hermione continued. "I think the best thing to tell your father is that you're flattered, but with the pressures of the upcoming N.E.W.T.s it may be best if you are able to concentrate on your studies. Of course, that means that the two of you can't become a couple."

She was right, Ginny realized, the disappointment hitting her. If Draco told his dad thanks, but no thanks, he couldn't find out that he was even remotely interested in Ginny Weasley.

Draco nodded, his lips narrow and his jaw tight.

"We can talk about this later," Hermione said standing up. "Ron and Harry are waiting for me."

"Wait!" Ginny called. "My neck."

Hermione pulled out her wand and flicked it towards Ginny. "I'm not doing this again."

Ginny dropped back down beside Draco and waited for him to say something.

After a long silence, he spoke. "This doesn't mean I'm not going to see you anymore."

CHAPTER 10

Ginny's O.W.L.s came and went and she managed to survive. She and Draco hadn't stopped seeing each other, but with the looming summer vacation, Ginny found herself more worried than excited. She saw Draco every single day. Sometimes they met in the empty dungeons, sometimes up in one of the unused classes on the 7^th floor, and he crept to her room at least once a week. But during the summer, she couldn't think of a single way to see him. But as worried as she was about not seeing Draco, he was a thousand times more concerned about seeing his father.

Three days before school let out, Ginny and Draco were hiding directly outside of the Hogwarts gates. Lying in the warm sun, Ginny picked handfuls of grass and piled them into neat hills on Draco's back.

"What are you doing?" he groaned.

"Nothing," she lied.

"Are you getting me dirty?"

"No." She flicked her wrist and knocked a tiny pile of dust towards him.

"Oh yeah?" Draco grabbed a handful of earth and threw it at Ginny.

"Ew!" she exclaimed as it hit her robes.

"Terrific," Draco exclaimed crossly. "Look what you did."

"What I did?" Ginny asked, eyeing the dirt on his hands. "You picked it up."

"No, I-"

Ginny heard the voice at the same time. Harry's voice, drifting over the wall.

"He's in Hogsmead."

"But how do you know?" her brother demanded.

"I know he's there. He's waiting for me. I can finish this now!" Harry's voice was urgent.

"But what are we going to do, Harry?" Hermione spoke up. "We can't just walk out!"

"We'll take the passage," Harry said finally. "The one I used in our third year."

"Where is that?" Ron asked.

"The hunchback witch statue on the third floor."

"Do you remember the password?"

"Yeah. Dissendium."

Ginny and Draco exchanged glances as the voices faded. "Do you think they are going now?" he asked.

"Probably," Ginny admitted, feeling guilty. Harry, Hermione, and Ron and been dedicatedly researching You Know Who, and she hadn't helped at all.

"I'm going with them."

Ginny nodded, not surprised. "So am I."
Draco bit his lower lip. "I've got to get my cloak so that no one will know my face. The Death Eaters would kill me in two seconds flat if they see me."

They scurried back inside the grounds and waited until Harry had disappeared inside the castle before following.

"I'll meet you there," Draco whispered as they parted. "Don't go without me."

Ginny nodded. "Okay."

She made a beeline for the statue and danced impatiently, waiting for Draco.

"Ms. Weasley."

She whirled around and saw Professor McGonagall walking towards her.

"Yes sir?"

"I was wondering if could have a word."

Ginny looked around helplessly, but Draco was no where in sight. "I, um . . ."

"It will just take a moment."

"Sure." She bit her lip as she followed her professor down the hall, opposite the direction Draco would be coming in. As they began climbing the stairs to her office, Neville's voice cut through the quiet.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Longbottom," McGonagall greeted him.

Ginny waited until he was nearly out of sight and then said, "Oh. I forgot. May I go speak to Neville for just a moment, professor? I'll be quick."

"Very well," she agreed.

Ginny raced down the stairs. "Neville!"

"Yeah?" he turned to face her.

"Listen, listen, it's very important," she whispered. "Harry thinks You Know Who is in Hogsmead and he's gone to face him."

"What?"

"Shh, shh! I'm supposed to meet Draco at-"

"Malfoy?"

"Yes, please listen. I'm supposed to meet him at that statue on the 3^rd floor of the humpbacked witch. It's a passage way to Hogsmead, but McGonagall's got me. Will you tell him to wait for me and I'll hurry?"

Neville stared at her, confused.

"Neville, I know you don't like Draco, but just tell him I sent you and it will be okay," she begged.

"Okay," he relented finally.

Ginny went back to her head of house and followed her to her office.

"The results of the O.W.L.s are not in yet," Professor McGonagall told her, "but I have heard that you excelled in many of your subjects."

Ginny was paying no attention. She knew her Professor meant well, but the longer she talked, Ginny realized without a doubt the Draco had gone on without her.

"Are you alright, Ms. Weasley?"

Ginny glanced at her watch. She had been in here for nearly 25 minutes. "No! I have to go!" She jumped up and ran down the stairs, back towards the passage way. "Dissendium!" she shouted at the statue, banging her wand against it. The witch's back opened and as Ginny scrambled upward, McGonagall's voice rang out.

"What are you doing?"

"I have to go," Ginny insisted frantically. "They need me!"

"Who needs you?" She took hold of Ginny's legs and began to pull her back.

"No! Harry's there! He's in Hogsmead. You Know Who is there! Harry went to face him!"

"Professor, what is going on?" This time it was Snape.

"She says Harry went to Hogwarts to face You Know Who. Who else went?"

"All of them!" Ginny hysterically tried to slide into the statue. "Harry and Hermione and Ron and Draco and probably Neville. I need to go!"

"Take her to Dumbledore's office," Snape said sharply. "I'll round up the Order."

"No!" Ginny screamed, panic rising up in her chest. Something was wrong. Something had gone wrong. "I have to go."

She didn't have to wait to go to Dumbledore's office. He stepped out of the room across the hall. "Ms. Weasley."

"He's there, Professor," she shouted. "He's in Hogsmead and Harry went."

"And you said Mr. Malfoy went?" he inquired.

"Yes!" she told him, beginning to cry. "He went to help. Something happened. I can feel it. Something bad."

"This tunnel leads to Honeydukes, I believe?"

She nodded, crying uncontrollably.

"Take her to the hospital wing." And he was gone.

Ginny cried and screamed and fought, even when Madam Pomfrey was pouring a calming drought down her throat.