A Debate

~~~~~

The days were starting to get a little colder as fall was slowly slipping to winter. On this particular late October evening, most of the students were inside. Ginny had wanted to be alone to think, so she was out by the lake.

“Hey, beautiful,” Draco said as he approached her. In his outstretched hand was a single red rose. He gave her a warm smile.

She looked at him suspiciously. “What do you want?” she asked him.

“I am insulted!” he said, faking a look of shock. “Can’t a man do something nice for the woman he loves?”

“Nope. What do you want?”

He sighed. “You know me too well, Ginny.”

“Yes, well, we have been dating for a year. And besides, I like it much better when you’re being your normal, sarcastic, insulting self.”

“Ah, so you like the bad boy thing, huh?”

“You could say that,” she said with a giggle. They stood there for a moment, just enjoying being in each other’s company.

“So, there was actually a reason that I came to talk to you, besides the fact that you’re much better to hang around with than those bloody gits Crabbe and Goyle.”

“And this reason was. . .?”

“I talked to Dumbledore about our problem.”

“What did he say?”

“He thought our best chance would be the Fidelius Charm.”

“Oh, I’ve read about that in Charms before. It’s the one where one person protects a secret within themselves, right?”

“Yep. So, what do you think?” he asked.

“I think that’s a really good idea. We can live wherever we want, and You-Know-Who won’t be able to find us.”

“Unless our Secret-Keeper blabs. Who are we going to trust with something like that?”

“I was thinking Ron.”

“WHAT?” Draco yelled, “I refuse to let him be responsible with whether I live or die. I’ll be gone in a day.”

“No, because he wouldn’t want anything to happen to me,” Ginny argued insistently.

Draco shook his head. “But I’m sure there’s a way around that. He could just kinda say ‘hey, Dark Lord, I’ll tell you where that bastard Malfoy is if you promise not to kill Harry or Ginny’ or something like that. You would be in no way included in the giving of the information that would kill me.”

“Ron knows better than that. I believe I have made it clear that if he does anything to you, he will strongly regret it,” she said, her eyes glinting in remembrance of her last encounter with her brother.

“But he still hates me,” Draco pouted.

“Draco, he understands how horrible this is. He knows that this same charm was involved in You-Know-Who killing Harry’s parents; and that it was because their Secret-Keeper betrayed them. He could never turn around and betray someone else like that, even you.”

Draco snorted. “Well that’s bloody likely. He’ll decide that he wants to be all noble instead of getting payback at the arse who taunted him all through school and knocked up his baby sister. Sure, that’s exactly what will happen.”

Ginny glared at him. “First, do not call yourself an arse. Second, stop referring to the pregnancy as ‘getting knocked up’ because it makes me sound like a slut, and if you say it again I’ll be the one to call you an arse. And I think Ron is the best person to do it. He would do anything to protect me, even die. He’s the one person that I’m closest to in my family. Please?” She looked up at him with pleading eyes.

“Maybe,” he sighed. “I still think it wouldn’t be the best way to go. Maybe we should get Dumbledore to do it.”

“No, he has too much going on right now. I don’t think we should ask him to do something like this.”

“I would insert a very nice comeback at this point in which one of my wonderful family members would be the best person to be our Secret-Keeper, but since I have none, I suppose we’ll have to go with the Weasel.”

Ginny glared at him yet again.

“Um, I mean we’ll have to go with Ron.”

“That’s better,” she said and gave him a small peck on the lips.

“Is that all?” Draco whined before pulling her in for a deeper kiss.

~~~~~

On to Asking the Secret-Keeper
Back to The Safe House