Blinded

Pushing Daisies: Blinded by Your Love

By Clairvoyant Snake

My heart still beating -my soul still preaching

Tear not my eyes out.

For I have yet to see the world

Living without fear

It's all I need.

Or have I wasted my soul

My life,

On a lost cause that will continue to torment me?

****

Chapter 3

Fine Time to Be Extinct

"Where do you wish me to begin?" Draco asked, cautiously. He was unsure of himself; feeling quite inadequate and very unhelpful so far.

"Try from the beginning," the Headmaster had softly demanded. The old man's face was more wrinkled, and much more worse for the wear than Ginny had ever seen before.

His problems just get worse ever year, don't they? she thought vaguely of her Headmaster.

Draco nervously wrung his hands together, which for he received a nasty shock of pain from his still healing right hand.

"I vaguely recall now...Dear God. It was Ron Weasley that did this to me." He spoke quietly and with an assurance that made Ginny's skin crawl.

"I was down in the dungeons area just getting out of my common room, for I had heard screams from the Potion's classroom down the corridor. As soon as I stepped out, I felt a pair of hands clamp over my throat and push me up against a wall." Draco's voice took on a new scratchiness, that betrayed his emotions from that encounter.

"Ron told me he hated me, wanted my whole family dead and gone. I rose to his threats and told him to 'sod off' and put me down, that fighting wasn't going to solve anything at the moment, that I had heard screams from the Potion's room. He gave me a look," Draco raised his face to make it seem as if he were looking for Ginny's approval to continue. He still wasn't used to the fact that his eyes would no longer communicate his needs, questions, desires to the world. Draco continued in his experience sharing.

"His look was one of knowledge. He bloody knew what, why, and where those screams were coming from. At first, I thought he was only trying to dissuade me from trying to help those suffering; that he was trying to get the glory, the fame that he always sought, and was envious of. The same fame and glory that Harry and I always receive on a regular basis from the Order.

I guess that theory was proven incorrect later. I then realized he had something in his pocket, something that looked all too familiar as in the shape of a dagger. I remember being so scared. Scared that I would be the person he took his rage out on..." Draco paused and gulped hard. The reassuring feeling of Ginny's hand on his own, tightening its grip on his own was at least a welcome distraction from the raging emotions he was suffering from at the moment.

He sighed and decided to continue, "When he took the d- dagger out," Draco stammered helplessly, "he pointed it at my throat and said, 'If you for one second think I'm going to give you the quick, painless death you will never earn, you've got another thing coming.'" Draco stopped again. His brow furrowed, as if he were trying to shut his eyes, eyes that were no longer there, he licked his lips and cleared his throat.

"I saw the knife make its way for my face before I could react. My wand was trapped between himself and I, and impossible to reach. The knife did to me, what you now see before you," he said with a calm voice, one that Ginny feared was him self-pitying himself. She didn't want him to reach that level, especially when she felt she needed him to be strong.

For himself, and for her.

Dumbledore, evidently realized the account was over and rose out of his seat; only to pace for five minutes behind his desk with hands clamped behind his back tightly. He now came to a decision, and one he seemed not to come upon lightly, for his trepidation at finally saying what was on his mind, was clearly difficult.

"I fear the worst for both of you, as you well know the reasons for." He stopped pacing and settled down onto his chair in front of the couple.

He continued with a slightly more serious tone, if one could over achieve the serious tone he had before, it was done now, and made Ginny wonder just how more complex her Headmaster proved with every minute of getting to know him better.

"I have thought up a location far from Hogwarts that will keep you both safe and well. Only myself and one house elf will ever know that you both still exist. As we speak, I have sent a house elf to memory charm anyone, especially Poppy to forget you ever were here. If one word lets out that you are still living," here he pointedly stared at them with his deep blue eyes that lacked his characteristic twinkle. "You will be in a fate worse than death."

Dumbledore took their silence as omission and quickly set about his office, searching for maps and among other things a compass.

"Here, a Portkey to where you will be staying, and a compass that will let me contact you, and vice versa if a situation ever occurs. Only use it when necessary or a dire presence requires it."

They nodded consent, and understanding.

Ginny saw his the Headmaster's finger tremble nervously, before he chose to speak again.

"I can assure you by one spell, and only one, that your protection will indeed be strong and, God willing, unbreakable. I for one do not wish your discovery, and so it will be. The Fidelus charm will be needed."

Ginny's eyes widened, and if Draco had his own, they too would have done so.

"But sir! Then no one, not even our parents will ever know we are still among the living!" Ginny protested.

"You must understand the situation, my dear Virginia. Your parents, if grieving without a second thought, and without a doubt in their mind that their daughter *and* son are both gone...They will not hold back on needed tears. Tears that will prove to Voldemort and his followers that your death was indeed real and done. They will never bother you again if only you will remain hidden for a time.

As for you, Draco. You well know your father is one of them, and he in fact was spotted killing, and torturing your fellow classmates and professors. Would *you* want him to know you still exist? In his mind, he probably would find solace in that his task was accomplished, or so I hear."

Draco quickly raised his head and glared at the Headmaster with hardly concealed anger, shock, and confusion.

"Task? What task? And as much as I can recall, he for one trusted me with all the Death Eater operations -" Dumbledore interrupted, "Except his latest one. Indeed your father trusted you. And if this so called trust was genuine, then there would be no need for you to hide out. Nor would there have been an attack on..."

Dumbledore wisely shut his mouth before he blamed the whole terrorist attack on one of his most prized students, his most prized spies, and a person he was coming to realize had a mind of his own, much more then everyone else saw. Ginny it seemed had seen past Draco's façade and had witnessed an entirely different one.

Draco's blond head bobbed in acknowledgement of the obvious, and he rose out of his seat, but was held down by Ginny's persistent grip. "Let me go," he growled.

"No, Draco. Listen, Professor Dumbledore may have a point. Your father never did tell you anything about this latest attack. Why wouldn't he want you dead now? He probably realized you were a spy and told Voldemort himself."

"No, Ginny, he wouldn't. It was probably your darling brother Ron who did that deed for him." The bitterness was clearly evident in his low voice as he sat now, not facing anyone in particular.

Ginny gasped and scowled at her boyfriend.

"He'd nev-" she stopped herself from denying the very truth that haunted her for the past few hours and came to the realization that he must have, in fact told Voldemort everything. And if not willingly, she recalled from earlier that day a idea that he had undergone Imperious. That would be so easy for everyone to get a hold of information if they made the person, no victim, relay everything willingly.

"You know I'm right."

"He was under Imperious," she quickly came to the defense of her fallen brother.

"As are you to so quickly believe the best of everyone without giving the thought that he was indeed ambitious and envious enough to pass on information, at least the simplest, without an Imperious being present?"

"And you must be so quick to say those things about my family. Which you know very well, are completely against Voldemort and everything he stands for, Ron included."

"I have to agree with you on that, but."

She became shocked that Draco could actually admit being wrong but was completely ready to retract her statement when Draco said his next installment.

"You know how he loathed being second, and he was second to me in your heart. Wouldn't you agree?"

Ginny gasped and pursed her lips, she was ready to slap the face that sat so composed in front of her. If it weren't for her golden rule: 'Thou shall not smack down those already kneeling' she would have gone against her rational mind and struck the man who was injured already.

"Who are you to tell me what goes on in my mind?!" she cried incredulously.

"I am the one person you've told that you love, may I remind you of the fact that I still love you as well?"

His words always did have an underplaying meaning. A hidden message, and always Ginny failed to understand it on her first try. That made Draco explain every carefully worded sentence that declared his love for her; quite annoying that. And a habit Ginny tried and failed to break. She was always slow to uptake when it came to Draco's eloquent words that came so naturally to him, that he often forgot the level of some he spoke to. She grudgingly took his compliment to her heart and leaned over to take his hand in hers again.

So quick to flare up and anger, yet so quick to extinguish the flame that burned in times like these.

The sound of Dumbledore clearing his throat brought both their attention to the fact that they still had not approved the Fidelus Charm.

"I agree to the use of Fidelus, and I choose you for my secret keeper," Ginny said with a confidence she hoped she could maintain.

Draco turned his blank gaze to where he supposed Ginny sat and smiled sweetly in her direction before he too spoke his words of agreement to the now, much happier Headmaster.

Then Dumbledore took matters into his own hands.

"When I speak these words, no one, not even the dead will be able to sense you, speak to you, nor see you.

I suggest that any matters left to complete should be done now, before I perform this spell." He underscored the word, 'matters' when he pointed in the direction of his door.

Ginny's eyebrows raised and she was about to question the Headmasters words when he himself chose to answer her confused look.

"You brother sits in a dungeon, quite far from ever realizing you will be with him. But I feel your need for closure."

His words struck home, hard, and as she realized he spoke naught lies but the clear truth, she felt herself whimper pathetically. Sympathetic glances thrown aside, the only thing that got through to her was the feeling of Draco's hand on hers, silently requesting her to follow himself and Dumbledore out the office and down to see her brother for her last time ever.

***

Ron was laid across the desk, in all his absolute paleness. The dagger was now gone from his back, and the blood had been cleaned up, thankfully. Ginny felt nauseous seeing her older brother, and by far her favorite of the whole Weasley Clan -dead- by her own hands and her conscious struggled to overcome the fact that she had done this for love.

She willed her tears to stay behind the walls she had built around her tear ducts, and hoped she didn't appear as broken as she felt. Sitting down next to Ron's side, she raised her hand to touch him and then stopped. Looking for reassurance, she looked up into Dumbledore's gentle eyes. He nodded and turned around to lead Draco and himself out of the office.

She was now alone with her brother, and could do as she pleased with him. Or do as she pleased with herself. Such as crying.

She tried to throw away the weight of the immense guilt she felt as she raised her hand tentatively again for her brother. Gulping down, and closing her eyes, Ginny gently explored Ron's hair one last time. It was always this way, at the Burrow when she had gotten a nightmare -she'd climb into bed with him and play with his hair until she fell asleep again. It calmed her, made her feel human, and for some reason she felt happy whenever he allowed her to do that.

His red fiery locks were a tangled matt of dirt, grime, mud, blood, and sweat dried off and was now crusty.

Nonetheless, her fingers never wavered as she sought for the familiar, comfortable feeling of safeness and tranquility whenever she felt his hair. Now, however...

It never came.

She tried not to cry at the thought that she now would never have the same relief she once had available to her in times of need. She failed miserably at withholding her torrent of belatedly fallen tears. Since Ginny hadn't cried earlier with her full emotions on display and flying out of her heart, she was atoning for her mistake now.

Her hands flew from his hair onto her face and she desperately tugged her hair's ends, and wiping her unruly tears away with furor. It became a pattern; wipe tears away, tug at hair, cry some more...

With one last look at her brother, Ginny lifted herself out of the seat and laid a hand on his chest -where his heart had once beaten strongly.

"I forgive you, Ron".

She spoke with tremors in her voice, and Ginny fought the onslaught of fresh tears.

Running out the door with palms to her now tear streaked face, Ginny ran straight into Draco's arms. He opened them warmly to her, welcoming her, and she broke down completely in her lover's arms. He allowed her salty water flow from her tears, to his chest, and then when it had soaked up his shirt, it seeped onto his chest.

Draco slowly rubbed comforting circles across Ginny's shaking back, and he tried reassuring her that she was not alone in her fears, her dismay, her guilt for what had happened to all of them.

"Why, Draco why? Of all people for me to kill, it had to be the one I cared for so much!" She broke down again, as the tears were hard to retain at this point.

His sad face was not viewed by Ginny, but by the Headmaster who viewed all this as little as possible. He wished the best for the two and knew they needed a fresh start to a living arrangement that would allow them the freedom to change their lives for the better, and yet they would be restricted to four walls all the same. At least the living space he was sending them to, wasn't a prison, or thank god Azkaban.

Dumbledore's other fear, besides their discovery by Death Eaters wasn't just that. It was the fact that Ginny had murdered in cold blood. She had done what could warrant her arrest if it became common knowledge. He wished not to address this point, for they were suffering as was, and he didn't want to be the cause for more torture on their young minds and hearts.

With a swish and flick of his wand, an incantation that was as ancient as the very walls of Hogwarts, Dumbledore performed the Fidelus on the two unsuspecting youngsters.

"The spell has been performed."

He said this as he turned and led the one crying woman and one supporting, yet blinded man up the dungeon and back to his office to discuss the living arrangements more fluently.

***

Finally, when Ginny's hiccupping and sobs were laid to rest with her now open heart and mind, Dumbledore explained what they had to do, had to avoid and such minor details that they fought the blankets of slumber that threatened their bored selves.

Fighting back a yawn, Ginny answered Dumbledore's question for Draco who it seemed could sleep with his eyes...well, no eyes, open. And Dumbledore was non the wiser for this behavior, although Ginny picked up on it, when she heard the tell-tale sounds of deep breathing coming from the man sitting next to her.

"Yes we understand," she nodded and then increased her grip on Draco's hand to wake him up before he embarrassed himself.

"And Draco, do you understand that help will be given to accommodate your ailment? Ginny here has agreed to help you all she can with your new -disability."

Draco nodded in consent, albeit slowly and he tried, and failed to smother a yawn.

But he had heard Dumbledore's last words to them both.

"Here take hold of this, and when I count to ten you will both arrive at the hidden destination. I will have the house elf send up all your most important possessions, but other than that, I cannot promise any more items. Your family would wonder why all things were disappearing, given you're both supposed to be dead -"

Dumbledore fought with his last word and came to the conclusion, that in order for the couple's family to fully believe their death, he too would have to make himself believe it. And if saying they died, helped him, he was one to agree. Saying a word and not shying from it was the best course of action and best advice he had ever given himself and many after him. Including Harry with his companion feared word: Voldemort.

"I beg your forgiveness for such a drastic measure to be undertaken, but your safety is my main concern," he told them truthfully.

Ginny smiled and Draco allowed himself a slight grin in knowing that at least someone besides just Ginny cared about him.

"We promise to take care of ourselves and not forget anything you've taught us," Ginny stated with an ardor that startled her. Since when did she compliantly agree with anything someone had to say without questioning its origin? Especially after her whole 'Tom Riddle' ordeal with the diary back in her first year.

"WAIT!" she suddenly recalled something so important it had almost left her mind.

"Well?" Dumbledore questioned, and Draco's curious look asked her, 'What is it Love?'

"Will we be able to use magic? As in our wands and such?" she dared ask, her love for magic was something she didn't take lightly when grabbed from her.

Dumbledore smiled and that alone answered her question, but he answered all the same, if not to answer Draco's un-seeing self.

"Yes, dear children, you will be able to. The Fidelus Charm is so powerful that not even the Ministry will be able to detect any under-aged magic's being performed off Hogwarts' property".

The two smiled at the thought of not completely losing a part of themselves for a long period of time, that they knew would not be taken well.

"So, are you two ready?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine...Ten."

The Portkey sent them spiraling through the very fabrics of space as they landed on solid ground the next second with a tangle of limbs. Lucky that they landed on a pile of beach sand.

****

TBC in Chapter 4