He'd known something was wrong when he didn't see her at dinner, but he'd put off worrying about it, since he had no logical reason to think so. Then she hadn't come to his room, and that might've just been happenstance, too, so he told himself not to be a bloody idiot and to just belt up; he'd see her at breakfast, after all. Except she didn't appear at breakfast, either, and her brother looked like absolute shit, barely touching his food as Potter and Granger practically crawled into his lap to try to make him feel better.

It didn't take long to find out that one of the older Weasley brothers had been hurt, maybe killed. Sources disagreed as to which one, but he knew that Ginny loved every single one of the prats, and so even if the gossip was exaggerated, she'd be hurting. Sparing the time for a snarl and a dirty look at the damn triumvirate that should have been making Ginny feel better, instead of forgetting about her as they continued in their self-absorption, Draco made his way back to his room. He wrote a quick note to Snape, informing him of a sudden illness, then cast a charm to produce the image of a sleeping body identical to his in the bed. Gathering up his broom and the invisibility cloak he'd gotten when his mother had agreed that Potter shouldn't have more than her little boy, he left his room and walked quickly to the closest outside exit.

It wasn't hard to get to Gryffindor Tower, since there had been times he'd flown her 'home', and so he knew the way. The main difficulty was that the window was locked, and the day was windy enough to give him problems with taking a hand off the broom long enough to use his wand. Finally he resorted to just tapping on the window, letting just a little bit of his blond hair peek out of the cloak's hood.

"Draco?" she said, throwing open the window and leaning out slightly, as if proximity would allow her to see through the invisibility cloak. He took advantage of her momentary confusion to fly a few inches higher, brushing his lips over hers and tasting the salt her tears had left behind. She sighed and said his name again before stepping back, allowing him room to climb in through the open window.

Now that he was here, though, he didn't know what to say. "Ginny, I..."

"It's Bill," she said, trying to hold herself together despite the tears that had started pouring down her face once more. "He'd been on a mission, trying to work out some sort of curse, and now he's... He's missing."

Draco's mind raced as he tried to think of something, anything that could help. Curse-breaking was a dangerous business at the best of times, let alone when new curses were being developed daily by Dark Wizards intent on destroying any opposition and uncaring of whether innocents were harmed in the process. Only the very best lived to old age, and it wasn't unheard of for curse-breakers to simply disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. "Maybe... Maybe I can--"

"Oh, Draco," she said, resting her forehead against his chest. "There's nothing to be done, and you know it. We just have to... To wait and see." Ginny pulled back, trying to make her face form a reassuring smile. "You shouldn't be missing classes for this, anyway. Didn't you have an important exam in arithmancy?"

"Bugger arithmancy," Draco said, scowling. "You're what's important, and yes I damn well should be missing classes."

She bit her lip and tried to move away, but he brought his arms around her and pulled her close. Looking backwards to check his footing, he moved to sit on the closest bed, lifting her sideways onto his lap as he pushed her head into the crook of his neck and buried his lips in her hair. In a whisper, he said, "Can't you see? If you hurt, I hurt. It's only self-interest that I need to be with you, even if I can't make it better."

A watery giggle came from her then, her breath tickling his neck before she tilted her head back to look at him. "Slytherin prat."

"Always," he said, dropping a kiss onto the tip of her nose. "Now be a love and tell me what I can do for you, so that I can feel a bit less wretched."

Her lips twisted and she started crying again, her arms tight around Draco's waist as her tears soaked the material of his shirt. "Just hold me, please," she managed to say, and his arms tightened around her as he whispered, "You never need to ask."