“Speaking
of Delia, how is the Parkinson slut?”

“Absolutely
disgusting. She insists on dragging me
along with her on her shopping sprees and you know how long thtaketake! Then just the other day she hauled off and
plastered her slobbering lips on me and started humping me in broad daylight. It took a great deal of willpower not to hurl
all over her.”

Simeon
burst into genuine laughter, ending with a smirk. “I do envy you her, Draco, it makes me wish I were a wealthy
pureblood society boy, so I could have her.”

“You’re
nauseating, besides, joking doesn’t become you.” Draco curled his lip.
“I’m actually surprised that Lucius would push for marriage to her. She has no class whatsoever.” He sighed.
“Merlin, I wish Pansy were here.
She could tell me exactly what to do with Ginny.”

“Where was
the last place you heard from her?”

“Canada. No wait, that was before.”

“I thought
it was Australia?”

“That was
before Canada.” Draco frowned. “Oh, wait, it was Australia, Canada, Hong
Kong, and I think she was in Italy the last time she wrote.”

“Well at
least she’s getting closer to England.”
Simeon said.

“Not close
enough. Italy was a good three weeks
ago and I haven’t heard from her since.”

“When do
you think she’ll have enough wandering and come back?”

Draco
sighed in exasperation laced with concern.
“I don’t know that she’ll ever be ready to come back. I’ve been wondering. Bloody hell, it’s been four years and she’s
still not showing any signs. Damn
everyone to hell, how long will this haunt us?”

“Forever.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

November 21

11:37
am

Ron opened the folded piece of parchment, his eyes
flicking quickly over the words.
Hermione turned to see his face turning an awful color red as a vein
started ticking in his jaw.

“Ron, what’s wrong?”
Michelle turned quickly and she took in the situation, with a sinking
heart. Ginny’s owl, Ron about to
explode. Dear Merlin, the fuse was lit
and the keg about to blow.

Sure enough only seconds later, Ron jumped to his feet and
bellowed.

“Michelle! Did you
know about this??”

His outburst didn’t go over too well with Bill, who jumped
to his feet, glaring at his little brother.

“What’s wrong with you?”
He strode over and put a protective arm around Michelle, who looked
about ready to faint.

“Did you know about this too?” This time directed at Bill.

“Stop yelling!
You’ll upset Michelle!” Bill and
Ron went head to head, voices loud and angry.
Hermione bent to where the paper had fluttered out of Ron’s hand and
scanned it. Michelle could practically
see her brain whirring as she digested the information.

“How am I supposed to be calm when Draco Bloody Malfoy has
been mauling our sister?”yes"> Damn her screwed up hormones!

There was a little consolation in the fact that he
couldn’t get too angry with her because she was pregnant. His jaw was ticking and his brillialue lue
eyes were doing their squinting thing that always happened when he was
angry.

Wait a second? Why
was he upset? She didn’t do anything
wrong.

“I am a witch of my word!”

Bill blinked, taken aback by his wife’s vehemence. Then he got angry again. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“I made a promise to Ginny that I wouldn’t tell any of
you,” Michelle waved her arms
wildly. “and can you really
blame her?”

“I don’t care if you did make a promise, I’m your husband,
and you kept it from me!”

“I promised Ginny!”

“When it concerns my little sister, I don’t bloody care if
you crossed your heart or swore on the moon!”
Bill retorted, stalking towards her.

“You know, maybe we should just let Michelle handle it,
after all…” Hermione interjected, but
Bill and Ron cut her off, bellowing at the same time,

“Stay out of it!”

“Well!” Hermione
humphed and turned to Ron, only to see him talking earnestly to the heads of
Fred and George floating in the fireplace.
“Oh! Ronald Weasley, don’t you dare!”

“William Weasley, if you let your brothers march up to
Hogwarts or the Malfoy Manor and lay siege, nev never speak to you again, and
you’ll be sleeping on the couch until Ginny decides to forgive you, which may
be never!” Michelle demanded, her body
stiff as a poker and arms straight at her sides.

Husband and wife faced off, glares bouncing off the walls
until Weasleys started flooding out of the fireplace and all hell broke loose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Flashback*

November
20

9:23
pm

Shadows.
Pain. Blood. Darkness.
Her world had shrunk to a whirl as she waited for the next blow to
fall.

Darkness was beginning to cloud the
edges of her vision.

It wouldn’t be long now.

She started
to welcome the fading of her consciousness and gave herself up to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

November 21

12:18 pm

Draco
strode into the foyer of the Manor, stripping off his expensive black leather
gloves and dusting the snow off his cape.
The mansion seemed even darker and eerily silent than usual. /p>

He froze as
his sixth sense started screaming at him.
Something was very, very wrong.
Closing his eyes, he reached out, searching tendrils.

Heartbeat. Very faint.

Flashes of light.
Blood. Violence.

Screams. Pain.

A wicked black cane rose out of the darkness like a demon.

Blood
smeared on the silver head.

Dripping completely out of time where seconds seem like
houspanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Gathering into a slowly
burgeoning ball, gravity molding it into a tear, gradually separating to begin
its inevitable descent into space.

Draco was jerked back to reality by
the shriek of Tippy, Narcissa’s personal house elf. She had thrown herself at his legs, banging her head against his
shins in between wails.

“Master
Draco! Missus Malfoy’s very hurt! The Master hit her with cane! I try to help but locked her in room. No elf can get in! Tippy bad! Couldn’t help
Missus!” She resumed hitting her head,
this time on the floor. “Bad Tippy, bad
Tippy!”

Draco raced
for the stairs, not wasting the time to calm Tippy. His heart had dropped to his shoes and then shot back up to his
throat where it lodged, stuck.

Oh
God…Oh God…I wasn’t here. What if he’s
killed her?

It wasn’t the first time Lucius had
beaten his mother, but this time he could sense it was worse. The Manor reeked of evil and violence
and…there was a scent of Death. Someone
or something had died. He prayed to God
that it wasn’t Narcissa.

He reached
the door to her suite and pulled his wand to remove the wards. They were complicated, utilizing Dark Magic,
costing him precious minutes. Rage
released as yet untapped sources of power, as magic literally flooded his body;
he knocked down wards right and left, using more than enough for each one.

< His last
remaining scrap of hope withered as Draco realized the Death smell was coming
from behind her door. Once again, his
vision went red as a haze filled frenzy blanketed him.

Lucius
would pay for this.

With his life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well there it is.
I’ll try to get Chapter 12 out soon but I have an interview on Thursday
so we’ll see.

-Yes, I am aware that JKR has said that Ginny’s real name
is Ginevra. But since I started this
fic with her as Virginia, I’m not going to go back to change it. In whatever future fic’s I do, I’ll use her
real name.

Draco and Ginny should get more time in the next chapter
or so, but things are starting to get eventful, so we’ll see how much I can jam
into one chapter.

If there are any questions or confusion, please e-mail me
and let me know. It’s all in my head
and sometimes I forget if I haven’t mentioned things.

Thanks to everyone for their reviews!

Pegasus7