the sofa, her head on her arms. Narcissa reached for her wand again to dim the fire, but it was too late, Ginny was already sitting up, blinking sleepily. When she caught sight of Narcissa, she blushed.
'Sorry,' she said, sitting up and smoothing back her hair. 'I didn't mean to collapse in your living room — I was just so knackered.'
'It's fine,' said Narcissa, with a smile. 'You all must be exhausted.'
Ginny dipped her head so that her hair fell forward across her face.
'I was wondering,' she said, and paused. 'Is, er, Draco back yet?'
'No, not yet,' said Narcissa, turning her attention back to the album, which was full of wizarding photographs. She glanced up at Ginny.
'I was just looking at some old photos…would you like to see?'
Ginny tossed her hair back from her face and smiled. 'Are there pictures of Draco when he was a baby?'
'Multitudes,' said Narcissa.
'Oh, yeah,' said Ginny fervently, and hopped over to sit next to Narcissa on the couch.
Narcissa flipped through the earlier photos, which showed her graduation from Hogwarts — 'Is that Sirius?' asked Ginny, peering at the figures in the background.
'Yes, indeed,' said Narcissa. 'When he was sixteen.'
'Not bad,' said Ginny, in the tone of an expert on the subject.
There were no photos of Lucius or of their wedding, but, as Narcissa had promised, there were plenty of pictures of Draco. He had been, as Ginny rather suspected he might, a very cute baby. She had seen pictures of Harry when he was a baby. He had been exceedingly fat and angry-looking. Which was also adorable in its way, but Draco had been really a picture-perfect baby boy, with huge gray-blue eyes and silvery hair that stood up in wild cowlicks all around his head.
'Awww,' said Ginny, melting into a puddle.
'Should I even ask,' said a voice from the doorway, 'what you two are doing?'
It was Draco, the adult version, looking at them with raised eyebrows. He was soaking wet, and there was mud on his boots and on the back of his jacket, as if he'd lain down in the mud. Wet, his silver hair was nearly white, a colorless sort of no-color. His eyes narrowed as he glanced from his mother, to Ginny, and back again.
'Hello, dear,' said Narcissa, looking slightly guilty. 'We were just looking at your baby pictures.'
'Baby pictures,' said Draco, flatly, and shook his head. 'Well. If this isn't the cherry of cruelty on top of the sundae of despair that has been my day so far, I don't know what it is. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find some dry clothes.'
'Oh, dear,' said Narcissa under her breath, as he turned around and walked away. Then she glanced sideways at Ginny. 'Oh, go ahead,' she said, gently. 'Go after him.' She smiled. 'Better you than me.'
Ginny didn't need to be told twice. She got quickly to her feet and raced out of the room, catching up with Draco near the stairs.
'Malfoy,' she called. 'Wait a minute.'
He paused on the bottom stair, turned around, and looked at her.
'What?' he said, rather unpleasantly. 'You want me to lie down, so you can kick me in the ribs again?'
Ginny shook her head. 'You're a little behind the times,' she said, gently, and stepped onto the stair with him. It was surprising that he was so very wet, Ginny thought — it wasn't raining that hard outside.
He must have been standing out there for a good long time. She opened her mouth to say something about not having enough sense to come in out of the rain, then shut it again hastily at the look on Draco's face. 'Hang on a minute,' she said, untying the cardigan she was wearing around her waist. She reached up, and in a rough, sisterly fashion, began drying his face and hair with it. He looked at her askance briefly, but suffered her ministrations with fairly good grace. 'Where have you been, anyway?' she asked.
'Around,' he said.
'You don't look very happy,' she said.
'I'm not,' he said. 'I'm wet, I'm cold, I've got mud down the back of my shirt, and I'm fairly positive that someone very nasty wants me dead.'
Ginny's eyes widened. 'What are you going to do?' she said.
'Die, probably,' he said, looking thoughtful. 'After that, I hadn't thought about it. Probably try a spot of moldering away in the earth.
That seems to be the done thing.'
'That's not funny!'
'I rather thought it was.'
'Wl1, it wasn't. Contrary to what you might think, I don't want you dead.'
He raised an eyebrow at her.
'Hermione told us,' she said. 'About the love potion.'
'Why?'
She was startled by his vehemence. 'Harry overheard us talking,' she said. 'I suppose she didn't really have a choice.'
'Harry,' he said, pressing the palm of his hand against his forehead as if he had a headache. 'And everyone else? Sirius?' he added, sounding a little wistful.
