Forever Yours

A/N- so this chapter was up quick- no? I'm trying to give you chapter after chapter to make you feel better about the next one. This one is short and I'm sorry for that. I just found a nice spot to finish out, which was when my brain was about die anyways. Anyways, I have NO idea when the next chap will be up. I am incredibly busy all of a sudden because of something...that I will explain in due course. But please, be patient while I try to do all the stuff that is very important and then I'll come back to this. But for now- enjoy!

Chapter 19

Ginny arrived in the hall of Malfoy Manor, clutching Malfoy...er, Draco. She immediately let go of him and stepped back as he fiddled around for his wand and set alight the candles and lights in the house.

"Draco," came a voice from their left.

Ginny turned, looked, and saw Blaise Zabini coming towards them.

"Blaise," said Draco, walking towards him.

She stood there, watching them shake hands and hug.

"Ah, Miss Weasley," he said, noticing her. He came up to her and kissed her gloved hand, his lips twitching as he took in her appearance.

"Don't you dare laugh," she reprimanded early on.

He grinned. "I wasn't going to laugh. But I might remind you that Scotland is not much colder than here."

Draco had walked off towards the kitchen and had gestured them to follow him.

"I know that," Ginny said, setting her bag down on the tiled floor. "But still. I'd rather be safe than sorry."

Blaise stroked his chin. "A fine policy for several things, but not for many others. Some things you only discover by taking chances, things that are not very safe. That's how you learn."

She walked beside him to the kitchen. "That's true. But that's what I'm saying. I'd rather not take that chance, if I'd get hurt in the process."

"Blaise, let her be," said Draco as they reached the kitchen. "Ginny, what do you want to eat?"

"Nothing, thank you," she said. "I'm not hungry."

"Just eat something. The broom ride is pretty long and we're not stopping at a McDougal's to buy something."

Ginny just laughed. "McDonald's, Draco. That's what the term is."

He shrugged his shoulder. "Do you want a butterbeer, Blaise?"

"Are you having one?" he asked him.

"Sure," Draco answered, looking through his cupboard. "That's the last one, I'll tell the kitchen elf to buy some more. You go ahead and have it."

"Thanks, mate," was Blaise's response as he gulped his butterbeer down.

"Very mature drink," Ginny remarked, grinning. "Same as your drink of choice back when you were fifteen."

Draco and Blaise exchanged looks, and then they burst out laughing. "Well actually, our drink of choice then would have been a Firewhiskey and it still is now. Would you prefer that?"

She shook her head. "No thank you. Then why aren't you drinking that?"

Draco exchanged a look with Blaise and said, grinning, "Because since we were young we were taught to never drink in front of a lady."

"Why thank you, gentlemen. That's very... gentlemen-like of you," she said, grinning.

He shook his head and handed her a glass of sparkling water. "Drink up, my lady. I'll go get my things."

He went to get his things and left Ginny and Blaise. She took a sip of her water as she sat.

"So, how long are you guys going for?" Blaise asked her, drinking his butterbeer.

"A few days at most," she answered. "After that, I seriously need some rest. I am s-o tired." She yawned in the middle.

He smiled. "I can tell. I'll tell Draco to let you have a day off."

"I can tell him myself," she said. "I'm not afraid of him."

"Anymore," he added, grinning to himself.

The water Ginny had been drinking went down the wrong pipe. She coughed and sputtered, trying to get the water out while Blaise just laughed.

Finally, she cleared her throat. But before she could yell at him, Draco appeared.

"Ready?" he asked her, with his bag in his hand and wearing a black jacket.

Glaring at Blaise, she got up. "Ready."

"All right, Blaise. Later," Draco said, hugging him. "Don't get too upset about the Alicia thing."

Blaise smiled sadly. "I'll try not to. Have a nice trip."

Ginny shook Blaise's hand, and then followed Draco to the patio outside. The sky was dark and cloudy, with tiny bits of snow falling. The wind blew fiercely in their ears so that they had to yell to hear one another.

He led her to the edge of the patio, where two broomsticks stood against the wall, waiting.

"I don't think it's a good idea to take two broomsticks," he shouted over the wind.

"Why not?" she shouted right back, her red hair blowing on her face, whipping her.

"Because it's much too windy. It would be difficult in regular weather to stick together, because of the direction of Scotland. But especially in this weather, you'll get lost," he said.

"Then what?" she asked.

"We'll go together," he said, grabbing one of the brooms and putting his wand up his sleeve. "Come on."

She walked up to him and waited until he sat on the broom. She then sat down behind him and lightly put her arms around him.

"Ready?" he shouted to her over the wind.

"Ready!" she shouted back.

The broom beneath their feet began to vibrate as Draco kicked off from the ground. And then they were up!

Ginny did not expect the speed of the broom to be so fast that she nearly choked on the air as they sped through the air, into the clouds. She was afraid of falling off, so she clutched tighter on to Draco.

Once they were high above, she shouted at him, "What broom is this?"

"There's no need to shout," he said in a quieter voice. "My ear is right beside your mouth."

She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. But what broom is this? It's so fast."

"Thunderbird," he answered back. "Do you want to choke me, by the way?"

"Oh, no," she said, lightening her arms around his waist- slightly. "I'm just afraid of falling."

She could just see the smirk on his lips. "The Gryffindor Chaser and Captain is saying this. I wouldn't have thought."

"That's different," she protested as snow flakes fell on her nose and cheeks. She shivered and moved closer to him.

"How so?"

"Playing Quidditch and flying off at a million kilometres an hour are two different things," she stated. "With Quidditch, you don't fly this high and you don't go as fast and..."

He was laughing at her. "Who would have thought that the fierce Ginny Weasley is afraid?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm afraid. You say it as if you're not afraid of anything."

His voice was so quiet she thought she must have imagined him saying, "I am afraid... of a lot of things."

Ginny decided to change the topic. "So, where about in Scotland are we going?"

After a few seconds he said, "In Edinburgh."

"And what's the plan when we get there?" she pressed.

"We'll stakeout at the castle, which won't have too many difficult spells on it to remove. And when he visits in a few days, we'll be there to meet him," he answered.

"I see," said Ginny, wondering how they were going to do that.

The rest of the ride to Edinburgh was a silent one as both of them contemplated and pondered.

After two hours of flying, they sped up as they began to descent. Draco leaned forward as gravity pulled them and Ginny slammed into Draco's hard back as well.

After ten minutes, Draco pointed out the large medieval type castle as they neared it. "That's it."

"Wow," she breathed. "It's huge."

"I know," he said, taking out his wand had removing the security spells off the castle. "Ready?" he asked her.

Taking in a deep breath, she said, "Ready."

***

A few days, several cuts and bruises, many spells and a couple of sleepless nights later, they had caught Avery, the slippery Death Eater.

They had ambushed him on the second night and had proceeded to work together to capture him until the other Aurors arrived.

To get back to England, they still had to fly back, as that was the way they had come.

So on another windy and cold night, Ginny settled in behind Draco as they waved at the other Aurors.

The broom vibrated as they lifted off into the air.

"Wow," gasped Ginny as soon as they were up in the air. "That was such a capture." She knew it was safe to speak now, something Draco had taught her recently. Sometimes even the walls had ears, so it was safe to talk only about their mission when they were sure no one was listening.

"It was," he said. He was in a good mood, Ginny knew. Capturing one of his father's old friends had made him very proud and happy. "You were really something in the end when you shot that spell at him. I didn't see that coming, either."

She smiled, glad to hear him appreciate her work. "It wasn't as nearly as cool as that potion you made on the spot the first night we got there. That was truly something."

He just laughed. "Snape would be happy to hear that my N.E.W.T Potions paid off."

"That's true. There had to be some point to that insufferable class."

"Your class was insufferable? Mine had Longbottom and Potter," he said.

She was silent as she remembered her school days with Harry. That was when everything had been so wonderful. It was such a teenager trait, though. When in love, everything seemed fine, even though the wizarding world was a war. She had been naïve then.

He seemed to think he had said something wrong. "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Ginny felt stupid for thinking about Harry and the past. That had been in the past and there was no point brooding about it. "No, no. It's fine. I'm just being stupid."

"You still miss him, don't you?"

"Yes," she said softly. "Even though it's so stupid because it doesn't mean anything. It was all in the past and more than five years ago. I should be over it."

He was silent for a minute and then he said, "It's not stupid. Never think that what you feel is stupid. You can't help it, and it's stupid to deny it. It's a part of you, so you may as well accept it. Denying it isn't going to get you anywhere. You'll just dig a deeper hole around yourself. A hole that it's near impossible to get out of."

Ginny contemplated his words. "Don't you think I should get over it, though? I mean, I want to get over it. I really do. But I keep going in this endless cycle of remembering him and hoping, wishing that I could change things."

"It'll happen naturally. You don't have to answer this, but have you dated anyone else since him?" he said the last part softly.

"No," she said. "I haven't. For five years I haven't looked at another guy."

"Maybe you should, then," he said. "I'm not saying you should get married to the next guy you see, but..."

She let out a shaky laugh and he continued, "But you should try seeing other people to have something new in your life. Otherwise, the endless cycle will keep on going and it'll never end, believe me."

His voice was so sad that she had to ask, "How do you know?"

He laughed a sarcastic laugh. "I know. Believe me, I know what it's like. Wishing I could change things. Hoping I would have been more mature when I had been younger and hadn't done all those... stupid things that I had done."

"You can't blame yourself for your childhood, Draco," she said, wiping her few tears away. "It's like blaming yourself for things you can't control. Don't become obsessed with the past. Think about the future. Don't worry about the person you were yesterday, worry about the person you'll be tomorrow."

"But the person I was yesterday impacts who I'll be tomorrow," he pointed out.

"That's true," she said, feeling an odd sense of Déjà vu. "All I'm saying is... don't obsess about the past. What's done is done."

"I don't obsess..." he said. He was silent for another few minutes and then he said in a quiet voice, "Ginny, I have to apologise to you about something. I hope you'll forgive me."

Ginny hated sentences that started with I have to apologise. It gave her an odd feeling that she wasn't about to like what she was going to hear.

"Go ahead."

"I am not accountable for my father's actions, nor my ancestors, so I cannot apologise for their actions against you and your family. But I am accountable for the way I treated you in school. The way I mocked you and your family was something that my younger self found amusing, yet I do not today."

"Oh, that," she breathed a sigh of relief. She had been expecting a bigger confession. "I've already forgiven you for that."

"There's more. Something much bigger," he continued. He waited to see if she objected and then continued. "That fateful night five years ago when I let the Death Eaters in was all my doing. It's something that still haunts me now and something that I have not forgiven myself for. Dumbledore died that night because of me. And I'm sorry."

Ginny was silent for a few minutes. The fact that he apologised for something that had happened so long ago told her that he really wasn't the person she had first thought him to be. The fact that he wanted to be forgiven... was astounding.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up," he said. "I shouldn't have, but-"

"I forgive you," she said softly in his ear. "I truly forgive you. I can't ever forget that night, because it led to many things. But I'm not so cruel that I can't forgive you."

The rest of the ride was spent in silence again. Draco dropped Ginny off at her flat and then went home, his head heavy with things.

Ginny's head pounded away as she crashed in her bed. It was only five o'clock, but she needed to sleep. Badly.

Feeling the comfort of her bed made Ginny sleepy and the last thing she saw was her wall as she dozed off.

The next morning, after fifteen hours of sleep, Ginny felt refreshed and awake. She took a shower and felt more alive than ever. She couldn't wait to go to the office and see what Dawlish and Shacklebolt would do when they found out they had finally caught Avery.

She felt like such a geek as she bounced around while getting dressed, but she couldn't help it. She loved her job.

In the kitchen was a letter from Prince that must have arrived while she had been asleep. Underneath was a letter from her mother, but she decided to start with Prince's.

Eagerly, she ripped it open and found it to say:

November 25, 2002

Chariot,

I haven't heard from you in a few days. Not to say that I have not been busy myself. My job has kept my quite busy, but I'm enjoying it.

How are your parents doing? Your mother? Your brothers as well, how are they? I'm doing quite well these days. Very tired, but happy nonetheless.

Just the other day, I was looking through a box of old things and I found that bear you sent me so long ago. Do you remember it? The one you told me you knit yourself (with help from your mum) and it had different coloured yarn on it? Looking at it brought so many memories back of the time when I had been struggling with life and you helped me.

I know I had told you that the bear didn't resemble a bear at all, but a duck. Now I scold myself for being so mean. It's quite a lovely bearuck (bear and duck). I'm just teasing you now, you know that. But I don't know what I was thinking when I laughed at it to you. Because seeing it now, I think how nice it really is, because it's made by you.

I know I'm very busy and we haven't had a lot of time to talk recently, but I want you to know that there isn't a day that I don't think about you... or wish I could speak to you personally.

The days where we would write letter after letter to one another seems so far away. Those times were good, though, and I look forward to such a time again.

Thinking of you (always)

Prince

The hair on the back of her neck stood up on end as she finished reading the letter. Reading Prince's letters always made her feel warm, comfortable... and loved. Loved from afar, but definitely loved.

He was right. They hadn't talked in ages. But what with work and such, it had just happened naturally. She vowed that she would write to him more.

She tucked the letter into her bag and then opened her mother's letter. In her letter, her mother was just worried about her and wanted to see her that night because Ron, Hermione and everyone were coming over and wouldn't it be nice if the family got together before Christmas?

Chuckling to herself, Ginny hastily penned a yes and sent the letter off with the owl.

Then she Apparated to work.

She quickly walked through the Atrium, rummaging through her bag, making sure she had brought the Prince's letter with her.

As soon as she saw his thick inky letters, she bumped into someone, which sent her bag flying through the air.

"Sorry," said a voice.

She looked up and smiled when she saw Draco. "It's okay. I was just looking for something in my bag and wasn't watching where I was going."

She bent down on the ground with him to pick up her quills and other things. Where was Prince's letter? Was it still in her bag?

"Here," he said, handing her a scroll, with a smile on his face.

"Thanks," she said, a little breathlessly, glad that the letter was tied up. She wasn't ashamed that she was still writing to her pen pal from Hogwarts... okay, she was. But she knew if the letter had been open, it would have led to unnecessary questioning that was bound to make her blush... for not apparent reason.

"You're welcome," he said, taking in her appearance. "You look well rested, considering how much you complain about not getting your rest."

She smiled, pushing back a strand of hair. She did look well rested. The circles under her eyes weren't as prominent today as they often were. Her robes looked freshly pressed and her hair was neatly in a bun. He had noticed that her hair was always in a bun, very similar to Professor McGonagall.

He usually didn't pay special attention to what people wore... especially his co-worker, but he found her wearing a thin gold antique chain around her neck, which he had never seen before.

"Shall we go then?" he said.

"Sure," she answered, putting her bag over her shoulder. They walked in the direction of the Auror Department.

She was fiddling with the buttons on her robes and when he looked again, the thin chain was gone. Strange.

"So what do you think Dawlish is going to say about Avery?" Draco asked her.

"I just want a promotion," said Ginny. Her eyes had a faraway look in them. "I just want to become a proper Auror so my family can be proud of me."

He shook his head. "We did good, but Dawlish is a bit stiff with promotions. I remember Zabini had to stay a trainee for two years before he became regular Auror. If either of us got a promotion, it would have to be a miracle."

Ginny sighed. "Oh well. But at least we caught one of the most notorious Death Eaters."

He smiled. "We did. And we did a damn good job of it, too. Don't worry, he'll be happy. What do you think his reaction will be?"

"Oh, I know exactly how his reaction will be," she said, grinning and with a mischievous glint in her eye. "Miss Weasley, Mister Draco, well done. Well done, indeed. You have pleased me so much that I have decided to shorten your deadline for the next assignment further, to two hours. I am very impressed," she said in a mock Dawlish voice that was very deep.

Draco laughed. "That was horrible, you know."

"I'd like to you do better," she challenged.

He just laughed again. "I'd rather not, seeing as we're in the vicinity of the office."

They stepped through the wooden doors and were astounded to see employees talking and laughing.

"I guess someone else caught a Death Eater," Ginny remarked to Draco as they walked in.

"Well done!" came a booming voice from the back of the room. "Our newest team has completed another amazing feat!"

Draco started to laugh again as they saw Dawlish come forward and the similarity of his tone to that of Ginny's mock one.

She smiled after poking Draco in the arm. He shut up immediately.

"Thank you, sir," Ginny said, beaming.

"Thank you!" he said. "I am so pleased today, I cannot describe it. The whole Department, no, the whole Ministry is astounded at how two, just two, Aurors (one of them being a trainee) could catch a Death Eater so slippery that the whole Department couldn't catch, in just four days!"

The whole office clapped, politely though, Ginny noticed. Some of their co-workers who were on the same level as them, appeared to be surly, since it was not they who caught Avery.

She grinned to herself, appearing pleased with Dawlish's speech. The office politics were as true today as the night Draco had explained it to her on their stakeout in Edinburgh.

"We're glad you're so pleased, sir," said Draco, raising his eyebrows slightly only so that Ginny could notice. He had noticed that some employees were jealous as well. "We're just doing what you told us to."

Dawlish nodded. "Still, the whole Ministry as well as the Wizarding World wants to know the names of the two Aurors who caught him." He took out that day's edition of The Daily Prophet and showed it to them.

Ginny blinked when she saw the front page. There, front and centre, was a picture of Avery outside of Azkaban when he had been admitted. EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD ESCAPED CONVICT: AVERY IS CAUGHT BY SAME ASTOUNDING AURORS was the headline.

"Wow," she said. "That's amazing."

Dawlish smiled. "It is. I am so pleased with your progress, Miss Weasley that..." He stopped and looked around at everyone with fake smiles who were leaning in and trying to listen. "Actually, why don't we go and talk in my office and then we can continue the party again? Let me see what I can't do about a promotion."

Muttering to himself, he led the way to his spacious office off the side.

Ginny's eyes grew wide as they followed him and she glanced at Draco, with a smile playing about her lips.

Draco grinned back and squeezed her hand. Maybe it was a day for miracles after all.

A/n- Like I said, I don't know when the next one will be up. Hopefully soon, but that could mean two weeks minimum. I know! I can hear the cries from here, but it's absolutely necessary. So I'm sorry in advance...but please don't be angry. :)