Chapter Thirteen:

She followed him without a word as they made their way down the hall and up the stairs. The silence continued when they entered the room, the blond shutting the door behind them and nodding to the chair at the small desk several feet away as he took a seat on the end of the neatly made bed. Even after they both got comfortable, silence reigned, and she found herself glancing around the small room, taking in the posters on the walls, showing everything from some people riding the kind of bikes that were parked out front, to a guy in a strange white outfit poised mid-kick, to what she thought might be some kind of Muggle sport that required a black and white checkered ball.

It all looked so very Muggle that she had a hard time understanding what either of them were doing there. Still, there was a very good reason she had come, and with that in mind, the youngest Weasley finally gathered her vaunted Gryffindor courage and spoke.

"Dumbledore sent me."

The blond nodded. "I'm guessing it wasn't to let me know it's all over and I can come out of hiding."

He didn't wait for her to respond, or for himself to examine whether he was more disappointed, frustrated, or relieved by the fact that he would be staying with the Tonks a while longer.

"So why exactly did he send you?"

The question, which she would have expected to be laden with disdain and annoyance, was stated rather blandly, and she took a moment to run her eyes over the young man in front of her. She was somewhat surprised by the soft tangles of his hair that hung in his face, and the lack of a sneer on his lips. The dark denim pants he was wearing were somewhat shocking in their casualness and outright Muggle quality. She was a little confused as to why the word 'corn' was misspelled and placed with such prominence on his shirt, though. In lieu of asking about that, she refocused her thoughts on the reason she was there and took a deep breath.

"We've been tracking down the Horcruxes," she paused, and he nodded to show he knew what she was talking about. She nodded in turn, glad that she wouldn't have to explain that part of it, though she spared a second to wonder when the former Headmaster had found the time or place to tell him about it.

"Well the one we're looking for now is apparently protected by a kind of warding spell that blocks entrance to all with, or in the company of, a Dark Mark, and-"

He sucked in a barely audible breath and resisted the urge to place his hand back over the blemish on his left arm, instead nodding again with as much calm as he could summon and finished for her. "And I was the only one with the bloody thing that there was a possibility of you all being able to trust."

He waited for the young Gryffindor to make some noble insistence that he was trusted or some other such tripe, but she merely nodded.

"Well, obviously your lot knows where I am and could easily make that information common knowledge, so I don't exactly see why you felt it necessary to come all the way here to let me know I would be helping in this little suicide mission. Honestly, couldn't you have just sent a letter in the post or something instead of invading my life?" he asked, any protective tone which might have shown through his last words covered pretty well with annoyance.

Red hair skittered across her thin shoulders with a shake of her head and brown eyes rolled as she took in his expression with a little more insight than made him comfortable. "First of all, I didn't know where you were until Moody told me it was you we were here to meet, which by the way, was after we'd gotten here. Secondly, I didn't come to tell you you'd be going, I came to ask if you'd get me through the ward so I could get at the damn thing. Third, it’s not a suicide mission, it has every chance not only of success, but of survival."

She swallowed the urge to detail her previous successes, not wanting to tell someone she had yet to trust, exactly how many Horcruxes they had stolen and destroyed since the beginning of her sixth year. For his part, he didn't indicate any disappointment in her lack of running at the mouth that could have satisfied his curiosity, instead rolling slate grey eyes as she continued.

"And lastly," she said, her tone losing some of her anger even as she hid the questions that had formed at his reluctance to have her there which seemed to surpass the concern he had for his safety. "an owl or Floo call would not only draw attention to what should be a strictly Muggle residence, but would be too easily intercepted."

He shook his head in exasperation. "Well of course it would. I was talking about Muggle post."

Ginny shrugged. "Maybe Dumbledore figured you'd be more receptive and less likely to brush off me than a letter."

He raised a single pale brow and let out a snort that somehow managed to come across almost dignified. "Perhaps, a person is harder to fit in the rubbish bin; but I still find it interesting that it was you they chose to send, though really, it was smart of them not to try Potter."

He caught the flicker of reaction in her eyes at the mention of the boy-wonder, and felt a smirk twist his lips. "So Potter's not quite in the loop on this one, is he? But you are?"

Draco waited for a moment, watching her closely for any response, but she remained steadfastly mute and surprisingly guarded, so he simply moved on, going back to the original topic. "Now that I think about it, even Muggle post would be more risky, what with you needing somewhere to receive a reply, and therefore a post office you could access without arousing suspicions. Much better for just you to be involved instead of a whole slew of postal employees."

She kept staring at him silently for several moments after he had finished speaking, though the blankness of her expression had taken on a shade of consideration. If she wasn't so busy reshaping a part of her view of the pure-blood snob to include a surprising knowledge of Muggle communication methods, she would have noticed the suppressed tick on his face as she eyed him up and down.

Instead, she was once again taking in the casual but good quality muggle attire and picturing the interaction she had seen downstairs with what she could only guess were his friends, though she had hardly seen him with anyone at school that could fit into more than the lackie or acquaintance category. It made her readjusted image somewhat disjointed and more than a little difficult to wrap her head around, especially when considered next to what so many had always assumed to be the ironclad destiny of the Slytherin prince.

At that thought, her mind automatically conjured a set of black robes and a silver mask, but before she could process the ill fitting match between the vicious Death Eater in her mind's eye and the uncomfortable teen across from her, she felt everything take on a grey tinge as the world dipped and twisted around her. Reality spun and whirled until she was the one in the stomach churning ensemble, and her own sibilant voice was hissing in her ear as the wand in her hand etched runes in the still air of the cave.

Draco, so recently the focus of a silent inspection found himself switching roles with the young witch as the blood began to leave her face and her eyes clouded over in a way that told him she was no longer looking at him. The blond watched for a second as she sat completely still, then started to tilt in her seat as the pale cast to her skin turned even whiter and he wondered if she was going to pass out. Standing, he cautiously covered the few feet between them.

"Weasley, you okay? Weasley? Ginny?" She made no response, but her eyes became a little less cloudy, even as the expression in them grew distant, but before he could consider doing anything, her eyes cleared and she tried to stand a little too quickly. The results of her efforts prompted him to reach out, steadying her with one hand as his eyes fixed on her still chalky face.

The memory snapped out of existence as Ginny felt the hand grab her elbow, making her suddenly aware of the fact that she was swaying on her unsteady legs.

"Thanks," she said in a quiet, but still trembling voice as he helped her sit back down in the chair she hadn’t realized she'd even left.

It was always a little disconcerting to come back to herself after recovering a memory, but for some reason, she felt especially out of it at the moment. Maybe it was because she had used so much of her magical energy Apparating from place to place behind Moody to disguise their trail as they made their way to see Malfoy. Whatever the reason, she needed a minute to let the dizziness subside before she left, which she most certainly had to do. She had to tell the others that there was more than just a ward requiring a Dark Mark, there was also one preventing any use of magic within the confines of the cave. It was a more than slightly daunting discovery as every mission she had yet been sent on had owed its success to her use of the spells and charms she had learned from Riddle, which were completely useless in this case. How were they going to get to the snake without using magic? None of them were anywhere near proficient in much of anything that could be called non-magical, or Muggle-"

Her gaze, much sharper than he had expected it to be given her state moments before, rose unexpectedly to pin him where he stood, bent over with his hand still on her elbow. "You live without magic here, you know how to do things without magic."

It was all stated so matter-of-factly, yet with an edge of calculated consideration the Slytherin never would have considered the Gryffindor capable of. While he was busy contemplating that, however, she was watching him, and the expression that filtered across his face at her words.

She wasn't quite sure if he looked more offended, or embarrassed, or perhaps, was that a flash of stubborn pride at his ability to adapt to Muggle life? Whichever it was, it lent another new shade to her shifting image of Draco Malfoy, though as interesting as that was, it wasn't nearly as important as the idea forming in her head as she stared at him.

"You have the Mark, we know that," she went on a little abruptly, causing his eyes to refocus on her face as he grew tense under her gaze. "We need the Mark, we know that too. But we also need to be able to operate without magic once we get past the wards, and you have the ability to do that too, or at least you know more about it than the rest of us, which leaves you as pretty much the only person who can not only get me into the cave, but through it..."

Shaking his head, Draco stepped back from the witch, running a hand through his hair. "Wait, wait. Since when can you not use magic? You didn't mention that before. And who said you were going wherever? I thought you were here to 'ask' me to help Moody?"

She gave no response to his questions other than a silent stare, but he noticed that the guarded expression was back in her eyes. Eventually she looked away, then back again with a less stoic caste to her features.

"All of the Horcruxes must be taken and destroyed before we have even a hope of defeating him, and we can't do that without getting around the wards. You have the Mark to get past the first, and may well have the knowledge to get us around the second. You are our best chance of getting this Horcrux, Draco; we both know that. What I want to know is if you are willing to do it."

He returned her intense gaze, neither faltering as the seconds ticked by, neither moving or speaking until he broke eye contact and turned to face the small window. "Death Eaters are arrogant, hateful, and no one who would even consider getting a Dark Mark would stoop low enough to use Muggle methods for anything. Doing something without magic would not even occur to them."

"You're not a Death Eater."

He spun on his heel, unreadable grey eyes meeting hers once more.

"You may have their Mark, but you're not one of them."

This time he didn't break eye contact. "I'm not exactly one of you either."

"No, but you'll help us, won’t you? You'll help me."

Silence hung stiff and heavy with expectation for several long moments. Then it was broken as his voice filled it.

"Yes, I'll help you, damn it."

End Chapter Thirteen
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