Only through the pain

Disclaimer: If I owned this I wouldn\'t be listening to Blue Foundation...wait....yes I would, because they rock.



Warning: Sillyness, Angstyness, and naughtyness, all in one neat little package! Yours for asoultely NOTHING if you read now!



A/N: Well, I must say, I\'m glad you all haven\'t gotten bored with my quote "twisted" sense of humor! Thank you by the way, for that. I was just in a particularly silly mood yesterday and simply HAD to include invisble killer zombie bunnies. Plus, the distraction of Voldemort thinking the bunnies killed Narcissa is what allows them to get away. People are pretty inconsolable after a zombie bunny attack. Today\'s chapter, \'Distant Dreams (Voices)\' by Blue foundation.





Chapter 26-Distant Dreams (Voices)





Watching Draco\'s mother gradually get happier and happier as we flew away from that demented mad-man\'s house, it was almost easy to belive that Draco had been telling me the truth about everything. That he really was just doing it for his mother. They seemed close,talking and laughing. Of course, we were ALL laughing still over what we had seen in the house of the most feared wizard alive. Suddenly though, I was thinking that he didn\'t need to be killed, he needed to be locked up in a nice, padded room with a constant thorazine drip and two big burly men in clean white coats to hold him down for his medication every day. He was insane, and while it was funny, it was also kind of sad. Had he always been THAT crazy? And what the hell were Zombie Bunnies? Still, my paranoid, skeptical mind was telling me that escaping that house was too easy. Shouldn\'t there have been more guards? Wards? Boobytraps? SOMETHING? Dumbledore was always going on about how difficult it would be to defeat Voldemort, but if three teenagers could sneak into his house like that and then back out, without even a sideways glance, then couldn\'t an order member get in and slip something in his morning coffee? He hadn\'t even heard Ginny\'s laughter in the stairwell for christ\'s sake! Why were we all scared of a disco-dancing madman? It didn\'t make sense! I\'d have to have a talk with Draco\'s mother.



The Black estate we were going to was in Scotland close to the ocean. Like most Black manors, this one had been filled to the brim with dust and dark cursed objects, but Dobby had volunteered himself and a few other house elves to clean it up for Lady Malfoy, so when we got there it was sparkling clean and curse free. Hermione was there too, setting up the last charm.



"Oh thank goodness!" She said, running up to us as we landed and hugging Ginny and I. "I\'m so pleased you\'re back alright!"



"Yeah," I frowned, "It was easy....how are the wards coming?"



"Well, I\'ve almost finished, but I needed to wait for you to bring Mrs. Malfoy to do the last one." Hermione said, glancing at Draco\'s mother.



"That\'s Lady Malfoy, young lady." Said Narcissa Malfoy haughtily, brushing off her robes, "What is it you need me to do exactly?"



"I\'m sorry." Hermione mumbled. "Uhm, well, I need you to stand over there, in the middle of that circle, you too Harry and Draco. You three will be the only ones allowed access to the manor unless one of you decides to add someone else. It\'s similar to the secret keeper spell in that only one of you three can tell someone where the manor is and allow them access, but it\'s not nearly as complicated to cast."



"And you think this will be ample protection against that insane fool?" She asked skeptically.



"not just this by itself, no ma\'am. But I\'ve also cast a few unplottable and protection charms and all of the other spells protecting the Order houses as well as a no-entry charm." Hermione said, slightly affronted. Of COURSE she wasn\'t stupid enough to think that a secret-keeper spell would protect her.



"And what, pray-tell is a \'no-entry\' charm? I can\'t say I\'ve ever heard of that." Lady Malfoy frowned.



"Oh, that\'s something Hermione cooked up herself last year. It\'s a real hoot to watch." Ginny giggled, "See, if, somehow someone gets past Hermione\'s other charms, which is highly unlikely, and can see the manor, when they try to open any of the doors or windows or get in in any other way they get blown 20 feet back AND get turned into a giant slug until they\'re a few miles. When they turn back into a human, they\'re orange and slimy and they\'ve got boils on their ass." she explained. "The second time they try they turn purple and then the third they\'re neon green and the boils spread."



"And if they try a fourth time?"



"Then they don\'t turn back into a human until the caster of the charm decides to change them." Ginny grinned, "but generally, the boils are too painful to walk after the first time."



"WELL....that should work then. Cast away young lady, in the center of the circle you said?"



"Yes ma\'am. Harry, Draco, you too." Hermione said, motioning to the circle she\'d drawn on the front lawn. "Now, everyone, hold hands."



"Hermione, is that really necessary?" I asked, trying not to look at Draco who was holding his hand out for me. I didn\'t want him to touch me at all. I wasn\'t ready for that.



"Yes, it links you three. Now, do it!" Hermione snapped. I sighed and bit my lip as I took Draco\'s still profered hand. The usual calm I felt when touching him was tainted with my own anger, but I couldn\'t deny that it was there. Why did just holding his hand make me feel better,safer, even though he\'d lied to me? Hermione finished her chant and the spell was completed, so I let go of Draco\'s hand and ran over to Ginny to ask her the same question while Draco showed his mother the house.



"Because you still love him, twit." she said simply. "He screwed up, but he DID apologize, about fifty times, and you\'ve seen for yourself that his mother wanted out, just like he said she would. So,he didn\'t tell you sooner, but he didn\'t want to scare you off. He LOVES you dummy. He wanted you to be safe and secure because he KNOWS that\'s what you needed most. Be truthful, if he\'d told you sooner, you STILL would have flipped out, rescued his mother, and then be standing here, holding his hand and thinking these thoughts. He didn\'t tell you, but he didn\'t tell you because he didn\'t want to lose you. He LOVES you. You LOVE him, so go shag in the master bedroom." I frowned, but she was right...except about the shagging.



"But Gin...how can I trust him?" I sighed, flopping down on the grass. "He lied to me."



She rolled her eyes and plopped down next to me, "Harry, walruses rule the earth."



"What? Gin have you been smoking?"



"No. I was lying to you."



"Uhm, but I know walruses don\'t rule the earth." I frowned. What was she getting at?



"But do you still trust me?"



"Of course. You\'ve never really lied to me."



"Great. Now. Draco loves you. Do you think THAT\'s a lie?"



"No....I...I think I can believe that now."



"Perfect." Ginny said, "now, since Draco was telling the truth about loving you, we can assume he was telling you the truth about everything else. Therefore, he\'s never lied to you either. Technically, not telling you about the whole death eater thing wasn\'t a lie since he just never told you."



"A lie by omission is still a lie." I quoted.



"Alright, but that\'s just one lie that was told, or in this case not told, for your own good. Did you see how you reacted when he told you? You tried to kill yourself Harry. Draco has been the only thing keeping you from cutting lately, I know. So, if he\'d told you sooner, you\'d still be cutting and maybe you\'d have gone too far when people WEREN\'T looking for you frantically."



"Ginny, I really don\'t think it\'s the same." I sighed.



"Fine, let\'s recap. I\'ve never lied to you before, then just now I tell you that walruses are our supreme masters, a vicious lie that if believed could cause severe paranoia and such, but you still trust me. Draco has never lied to you before and he keeps one secret from you so that you will continue to be safe and happy, but you DON\'T trust him. Right?"



"right....."



"So, even though the only lie he\'s ever told you has been to keep you HAPPY and not been a lie to hurt you, and I lied to hurt you, you trust me and not him?" She said, eyes closed.



"yes?"



"Then you, my friend, are a moron." she said, opening her eyes and glaring at me. "Don\'t get me wrong, Draco screwed up and shall feel the imprint of my soles on his head before the day is done, but that doesn\'t mean you should throw everything away. People screw up Harry because we are all only human, don\'t hold his humanity against him." She stood then and looked towards the manor where Hermione was cleaning things up, "We should go soon, the old bat will be missing us."



"Yeah...." I sighed, thinking about what Ginny had said. "Go ahead with \'Mione. I need to talk to Draco and Lady Malfoy...."



"Alright, but hurry up ok? I don\'t want you getting in anymore trouble with Dumblefuck." Ginny shrugged,then jogged over to Hermione who had been smart enough to bring a port-key. They dissapeared and I stood, looking at the manor and thinking. Maybe Ginny was right.



A/N: Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting chapter!