Chapter Fourteen:

The map swam back into focus as the memory faded into the background, and she lifted shaking hands to her head.

"You all right, Weasley?"

The half-hearted grunt of agreement that she managed was less than convincing.

"Weasley?"

A deep breath and a large dose of determination allowed her to actually speak, but her shaky, "Head hurts," didn't exactly reassure the blond as he stood wearily in front of the couch, watching her for a moment to make sure she wasn't going to fall over before he left the room.

When he returned, she was pressing her fingers into her temples with so much force it looked like she was trying to literally dig out the pain. He shook his head as he sat down next to her, waiting until she looked up to hand her the pills he'd gotten from the kitchen. She looked at them silently for several seconds and he could almost see her remembering the conversation they had had several days before when she'd seen him taking the asprin an had wondered what he was doing. A speck of irritation colored his eyes and he moved his hand closer to her, silently urging her to just take them already. Eventually she did exactly that, flashing him a wilted smile in either apology for her reticence, or thanks for the pills.

He watched her silently as she swallowed the asprin and set back down the glass of pop she had gotten herself almost an hour earlier, allowed her to lean back against the back of the couch with a sigh, then met her eyes. "What's going on, Weasley?"

Ginny let her eyes fall shut and gently rubbed at her aching head. She'd known this conversation was coming the moment Dumbledore had told her she would be staying at the Tonks' while she and Malfoy worked out a way to get to Nagini without using magic. Even if she didn't regain any more memories, she would have to explain why she would be the one going with him to the cave. And while she had hopped to remember something else that would help them, she had hopped that it would be after they had been working together a bit longer and she had been able to work up the courage to tell him. That was obviously not to be, though, and it was now time to spill it all.

She took a deep breath as she opened her eyes, but as she raised her head and looked at him, she was suddenly reminded of all the hours they had spent pouring over books and maps at the Muggle library and in this very room over the last week as they sought every scrap of information about caves. He hadn't really known why they were doing so, hadn't known they were in fact trying to trigger a memory that might tell them about the cave that was hiding their quarry, but he'd been surprisingly coperative about it anyway, accepting the excuse that they had somehow obtained a description of the hide-out and that they were looking for a matching cave system. Maybe he'd assumed the information had come from Snape, but he'd asked few questions. At least until now.

She let out the breath she'd been holding, telling herself that he should know, that she needed to tell him, and ignoring the lilting question in her head that asked how he'd react when he found out. The last week had been going so well she had started to think that she might actually enjoy her time with Malfoy and the Tonks' and the thought that her tainted mind might put an end to that was a less than pleasant one.

"Ginny?"

It wasn't so much the almost annoyed tone to his voice that snapped her from her thoughts, it wasn't even the use of her first name; it was the slightest hint of concern on his face as he stared at her that made her swallow her nerves and locate her voice.

"I don't know how much you know about my first year and the opening of the Chamber of Secrets."  She glanced over at him as if in question, and though he didn't say anything, the stiffening of his shoulders told her his father had mentioned something. "Anyway, when I used Riddle's diary, it let him inside me, and well, he never exactly left; at least some part of him didn't. I can remember some things, things he knew, things he did. We think little bits of his memories buried themselves in my subconscious when the diary was destroyed. I don't know how much is there, and it's hard to access the memories, but I've been able to trigger some, have been able to remember things about the Horcruxes that have let us find and take them."

Grey eyes narrowed, remained fixed on her tightly shuttered eyes as she looked anywhere but at him. "That's why they let you in on it all."

Ginny glanced down at her lap. "Actually, I kind of stumbled on it. I heard Ron and Hermione and Harry talking about going after the Horcruxes and I knew they were going to the wrong place, that they'd get hurt, so I went to Moody to have him stop them. I, well, I snuck into his rooms and found Dumbledore with him."

"You snuck into Alastor Moody's rooms?"

The incredulous tone left an almost proud warmth in her stomach, but the only thing that showed on her face was the embarrassment, and a hint of shame as she responded.

"When he made me sneak around the castle, well, I got good at it, even when he wasn't controlling me."

He nodded, but she could see the edge of discomfort in his eyes when she glanced up at his words. "You used those spells to get the other Horcruxes, didn't you?"

She nodded and he smirked the slightest bit. "Rather fitting, if you think about it."

"Moody liked the irony almost as much as the strategic advantage." She tried to smile as she said it, but her efforts fell short and she only grimaced and looked away from him.

Silence fell between them for several seconds, and she still refused to look in his direction, leaving her unaware of the emotions flickering across his face as he continued to stare at the witch he had just started getting to know. He'd had little to no contact with her at Hogwarts, aside from the occasional insult, and the past months with the Tonks' had left him in a very different position to look at the slight redhead when she'd come to see him. The first few days it had almost been hard to stay completely civil with her, especially when she dodged his questions, but now he could admit, if only to himself, that she wasn't that bad to work with. And now, perhaps, he knew why. She had some Slytherin in her.

"So," he stated calmly, breaking the silence and bringing the conversation back to the beginning. "That was what just happened? You remembered something?"

The youngest Weasley nodded, but didn't say anything and he fought a sigh of frustration. "That's what happened before, too, isn't it? When you first came and suddenly knew there was a ward against using magic?"

Another nod and a few moments passed before he spoke again, this time a little quieter. "Is it always painful? I mean, you looked like you were going to pass out just now. And before, you got all dizzy and real pale."

Her answer was just as quiet, and a little more hesitant. "It's disconcerting, remembering things I never knew, and I usually have a headache after. Sometimes it's worse than other times."

"Maybe some memories are buried deeper than others, and take more effort to access; and finding something that shouldn't be there in the first place probably isn't all that easy for your mind to process."

For the first time since she'd found herself standing outside the cave in her mind instead of looking at pictures of similar places in the Tonks' living room, she met his gaze, her own filled with a surprised, and grateful understanding. "I never thought about it that way. It makes so much sense."

She trailed off, but he could hear the relief in her voice and he knew how much not understanding what was happening in her head bothered her. The fact that he had taken away a little of that doubt, that fear, made him strangely satisfied and he had to think about something else before he could examine it too closely.

"What did you remember?"

Brown eyes darted away and refocused uneasily on her own hands. "The cave. The one Nagini's in."

End Chapter Fourteen