To End a Feud

AN: And here's where it starts to get interesting.

Chapter Two: Help Me

     Draco paced the bathroom, his glare alternating between the girl and the ghost. Ginny leaned against the stall door, as far as possible from the entrance sink to the Chamber of Secrets, while Myrtle hovered in the door of her own toilet.

     "He gets this way." the ghost of the Ravenclaw girl said. "Moody. Self-absorbed."

      "Unreachable?" Ginny suggested.

     "Mmm, not really. It just takes a special touch."

     "What do you suggest?" Ginny grinned.

     "Stop it! I'm still here and I can hear every word. Now, explain what you meant by wanting to help me." Draco stopped his pacing and stood his ground in front of the sink.

     Ginny pushed away from the stall. "You have a job to do, but you'd rather not do it. So, I'm gonna help you find a way to get out of it."

     "If I did have a task to do, don't you think I would have already considered every way possible . . ?"

     "Not every way. No one could think up every possible escape."

     "And you think you could . . . think up a way out of this? A way that won't get me or my family killed?" Draco asked and Ginny gasped.

     "They've been threatened. Draco told me." Myrtle whispered.

     “So, you have to fulfill this task, or he'll kill your mother?” Ginny asked, not able to speak of the other parent without admitting her prejudice.

     “First Mother. Father is still in Azkaban, but I know the Dark Lord wouldn't stop at that” Draco drew a deep breath. “And then . . . me.”

     Ginny closed her eyes, keeping back the tears of empathy. She knew how he felt, knew the lengths she would go. “What do you have to do? What is that cabinet?”

     “Does it matter, now?” He moved closer, so close and so fast that she gasped in shock. “I can't fail my family. I'll find another way. If you want to help me, leave me alone.” and that quickly he left, barely showing her the back of his pale head and dark suit.

     Her last thoughts were how tall and lithe he had gotten over the last few years.

     Ginny had not spoken to the other Gryffindors about her interview with the blond and she sat quietly as she heard Harry ranting to Ron about the topic. She wanted desperately to get him aside and confide in him, but her sense of honor told her that she would be betraying a confidence if she did.

     Two weeks passed before she found a note in her bag and she rushed back to Myrtle's bathroom. The second floor was eerily quiet since classes were not yet over for the day. She slid through the door to find herself alone. "Well, aren't you punctual? Oh, wait! You're early." Myrtle snarked as she hovered over the tank. "In that much of a hurry to meet up with my Slytherin?"

     "Yours? You do know you're dead, don't you, Myrtle?" Ginny asked.

     "So? If he fails, he will be, too."

     "That's sick!" Ginny snapped as the door opened and the blond young man entered.

     "You came?" He asked and Ginny froze. Never had she seen him look worse. His hair hung lank and there were dark circles under his eyes. His normally pale skin was sallow and marked by the pink of tired eyes, welling with unshed tears. She lifted her arms and he fled into them, burying his face in her auburn tresses. "Ive failed. I can't do it and we're doomed. My mother. My father. Me. We'll all die, because I'm a failure."

     His sob-choked words let loose the flood of tears that wet her hair and shoulder. His spasms jerked her arms as she held him and tried to soothe his panic attack. "It'll be okay. We'll think of something. I told you, I'll help."

     "Can't do . . anything. . . no, hope. . .doomed." he cried, clinging to her like a life line.

     "There's always hope." She said and on that que the door burst open and Harry rushed in, wand at the ready and eyes alert. He froze upon seeing the tableau, but Ginny smiled. "And our solution may have just come through the door."

     Draco pulled his face from her shoulder and looked around, "Potter?"

     "What's going on? What are you doing to her?" Harry snapped, ready to cast a spell but afraid to hit Ginny.

     "Petrificus totalus." she said and Harry froze and went down before he realized her wand was even out.

Reviews greatly desired!  Does anyone like this?  At all?  I hear only crickets out there.