Breaking All the Rules

Chapter Thirteen

Breaking All the Rules

Saying the Right Thing

~*~~*~~*~

The next morning, for the first time in a long while, Ginny awoke with a smile. She was not disoriented by her surroundings, she knew exactly where she was and she welcomed it. She turned over to find Draco lying asleep next to her. She lightly touched his face and he stirred opening his eyes.

"Morning," he said with a smile.

She matched it. "Morning."

He yawned and stretched moving his arms around her to squeeze her tight. She accepted it with ease, they felt so warm, so safe. At home. "Are you ready?" he said grimly.

She frowned perplexed by the sudden change in subject. Not that they had been talking. "For what?"

"To meet your parents... again," he added as an afterthought. "It's been a while since you've seen them hasn't it?"

"Almost eight years." She watched him carefully. "Do you ever miss yours?" It was his turn to frown. "Your family," she spelled out for him.

He rolled onto his back. "Missing my family would imply that I liked them to begin with." When there was no response he turned to her. "No, Ginny, I don't." He sat up and made for the bathroom behind the door to the right. She heard water running. When he came back out, some time later, he was soaking wet with a towel around his waist.

"Not even your mother?" she added.

"My mother?" he asked wanting to know what she was talking about. Their conversation before had obviously been forgotten. There was a knock at the door. "Come in," he called. The door opened slowly.

"Malfoy, have you seen - oh." Harry turned around with a slight blush and covered the side of his head. "Um, Ginny, Zabini says that he's ready to leave and to send you downstairs dressed and ready to go. Erm, you too Malfoy."

Ginny suddenly couldn't stop her laughter. "Harry, you can turn around." He did so, extremely slowly, with one eye still closed. Ginny was sitting up in the bed with the covers tucked under each arm while Draco stood without shame in his towel to the side searching through the wardrobe.

Oh, Ron is not going to like this.

Draco seemed to be thinking along the same lines when he looked at Harry. Everything from last night came flooding back into his memory, including his afterthoughts when he woke up. "Potter could you excuse us for a second." Harry quickly left and shut the door. Draco turned to Ginny and went to sit down on the bed next to her. "Ginny, I think we need to clear something up."

The tone behind those words couldn't help but make her wonder. "What is it?" she said coming closer to him. She went to rest her hands on his.

As they touched he slowly inched away from them and tried hard to ignore her frown at his movement. "I think we should refrain from contact in public." He thought over his point. "At all if that's possible."

"What?"

"If we are going to your home, it is liable that most everyone of your family will be there. Given our history, no matter how many times I have saved your life," he added when she opened her mouth. He guessed that's what she was about to say because she shut it straight afterward. "I don't think I want to go through that kind of drama. Not that I cannot take them all out, but, seeing as more or less all wizards with authority are after any unknown they can find, I cannot use magic and Merlin knows how many against one is hardly fair."

"So just not in public?" She shrugged. "I can handle that."

He sighed heavily. "No, Ginny, not at all."

She shook her head. "I don't understand."

"I mean." He sighed. "It's far too dangerous for anything like this to be happening right now. I don't want to see you hurt and if anything did happen I would most likely go after them with all I had and kill them with an unforgivable, revive them and then do it again. You don't want that do you?"

"No but you're being stupid."

"I'm being stupid," he repeated. "How is keeping you safe being stupid? You need protecting, Ginny. I cannot afford weaknesses in this profession. It could ruin everything."

"So I'm ruining everything for you? Is that it?"

"Yes - no! No that's not what I mean."

She sat forward and glared at him. "What do you mean then?"

"I mean that this is too dangerous for either of us to consider. It's got too many obstacles that we cannot get around and you're only going to get hurt. I'm not going to put you through that." He stared at her. "I can't - I can't protect you like... this," he said gesturing to the sheets and the currently disarrayed bed. "I can't, it's too risky."

"So I'm the only one getting hurt. So, nothing we did meant anything to you?"

He was silent. It meant everything but he couldn't tell her that. There was too much at stake.

"Anything at all?" she said hopefully.

He remained silent fighting the urges to reach out to her. It was too much for him to handle right now so he simply got up and left, leaving Ginny alone in the room to do what he hoped she would do.

Hate him; it would make everything so much easier.

As he shut the door, something hit it with a tremendous crash. He winced at it and just stared at the door before turning and going downstairs.

***

"So immunity is all you want?"

He looked at Ginny. She was avoiding his gaze but he knew full well that she was listening carefully for the answer. "What else is there?" She let out a silent, shaky breath and closed her eyes catching a tear before it fell. She looked incredulous and walked out into the garden leaving them talking. Ron glared at Malfoy.

"Money?" Harry said disdainfully. He ignored Ginny's tantrum. Somehow, in the space of seeing them together smiling, they had gotten to hate each other. Not that he didn't mind it; it had done Ron a lot of good not seeing it. He knew Malfoy had something to do with it, it was the only explanation. He had seen how he looked at her when she wasn't looking. There was a sorrow mixed with great regret but the second she turned to him it was glazed over with an icy glare.

Draco started at his comment and gave an empty laugh. "I'm offering a trade, Potter, you get him, you get her and we get crossed off the map." He looked at Ron. "Weasley, do we have an accord?" He held out his hand.

Ron narrowed his eyes. "You want nothing else?" he asked.

Draco, unconsciously, looked outside to see Ginny sitting on the grass with Julia. He turned back as though nothing had happened though both Harry and Blaise had glanced to see what he was watching. "There are many things I want in this world Weasley," he said turning back to him. "But what I want, you will never be able to give me." He stood up and instantly Ron did the same. "Your money means nothing to me," he said looking at Harry. "If anything you should do it because you owe me."

Harry frowned. "I don't owe you a-."

"You owe me more than you know, Potter. Let's just leave it at that."

Harry looked dubious. "What could I possibly owe you?"

Draco shrugged. "Your help, like I gave you mine."

"What?"

Blaise put a hand on Draco's shoulder pulling him to look at him. "Draco, it's against policy."

"He's asking the questions, not me." He glanced at Harry and then sat down again. Blaise followed suit. "Think back, Potter, to the days when Voldemort ruled."

Harry frowned. "What would you have to do with that? You weren't even around."

He smiled knowingly. "You would think so, wouldn't you? I mean, seeing as nobody saw me," he stressed and sat back.

He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"We go through great lengths, Potter. After my third year of training I had my first mark. That's where I got my number. The same way all markers get their numbers."

"The letters for the grade," Blaise inserted. "The first numbers for their initials based on the telephones used at the office for Muggle clients."

"The second numbers for the first mark you kill," Draco finished for him.

"Mine is A29-85: Grade A, the first year. 29 for Blaise Zabini. 85 for my marks initials, T.K, Theodore Knott."

"Mine is A36-58: Grade A. 36 for Draco Malfoy. 58 for my marks initials. LV. Take a wild guess, Potter."

"L.V?" He thought for a minute before settling on the inevitable conclusion. "Lord Voldemort?" There was suddenly a great understanding seen on Harry's features. "It was you who helped me?" he pointed.

Draco looked taken back, that was not the response he had expected. "You know about it?" He sat forward.

"I knew I couldn't kill him by myself, I was worn down. It near killed me with the amount of magic I had to use. I was about to give up when something hit me from behind." He looked at Ron who obviously had no idea given his face.

"Malfoy helped you? Why?" he said, his eyes narrowing

"It was a Rejuvenation spell." He shrugged. "I thought you needed it. Transference of magic via wands, your personnel wouldn't have been able to trace me because most of you were there in the first place. I learned it in training, 'Spells and incantations for detainment and damage.' There are ways and ways to kill your mark. I figured that seeing you were meant to get the credit for it I might as well use your position to help myself. It was so much easier to cover up that way."

"I knew it, I knew it wasn't me who did it. I could feel something else there." He glanced at Ron again. "I never told anyone. I was supposed to be their savior but I couldn't even do that without help."

Draco scoffed indignantly. "Oh stop being a whiner. You did kill him, Potter. I don't remember sending any spells in his direction, it was all you if memory serves. You were just worn out to carry on so I reversed that so you would have a fighting chance. That's what a rejuvenation spell does, it wakes you up, gives you energy. The whole 'defeating the dark lord' thing was you not anyone else, especially me."

"So he owes you more than he thinks?" Ron said.

"Well, now you owe me more than you know."

"I guess so," Harry said quietly and sat down.