The door snapped shut behind her and despite her best efforts, the noise reverberated around the deserted corridor. Ginny looked around in panic. What if someone heard. She leaned against the wall and held her breath, listening for footsteps.

She let out a long breath she didn't know she had been holding when it remained quiet.

She walked through the halls. Cold leached through her socks and her feet soon became numb. She briefly worried about them making noise because of their lost mobility, but the thought was driven out of her mind when she heard voices around the corner. Her eyes widened and looked around, looking for a place to hide. She scrambled back and swung a portrait to the side and hid herself in the low ceilinged passageway that lay behind it. No thought in her mind reminding her to be quiet, she swung the portrait shut.

"I thought I heard something," A voice that made Ginny chill to the bone said. She hated that voice almost as much as the person it belonged to; Alecto Carrow.

"I didn't hear anything."

Her heart almost stopped in her chest. She hadn't expected him to be there. He hadn't come back to school this year, she hadn't seen him since... Not since Dumbledore had been killed. She could feel her blood starting to boil. How did he dare to come back after what he had done. She already had one hand against the portrait and froze, taking several steps back and gritting her teeth, but the thought remained in her head. She could jump out and kill the little ferret before he had time to blink. It would serve him right. It was less than he deserved.

Here he was, walking through the castle while Seamus was still down in the dungeons.

Luna was gone, Neville, who had been caught by the Carrows just two night again, was lying in the Room of Requirement on the verge of death and here he was, the one who had caused it all.

She closed her eyes, angry tears running over her cheeks. She wanted to do it. She wanted to do it so bad, but she couldn't. She couldn't get caught now. She needed to get supplies.

"I am sure I heard something." Carrow was just on the other side of the portrait. Ginny gritted her teeth and felt petted her clothes, frantically searching for her wand.

"I wouldn't go in there." The voice of Draco Malfoy came to her rescue. "It caved in last year and I saw Peeves put the rocks back so they would fall on anyone who opened it."

"I am a witch, aren't I?" Carrow's tone cut the air with a silent anger.

"Yes, of course you are," Malfoy said. "I'm sorry, that was poorly said. It's just that Peeves always enchants his handiworks against magic."

Ginny heard Carrow sniff and after a moment that lasted a lifetime, Ginny heard footsteps again. Her thoughts were a whirl, wondering why had he said what he said. Had he simply mistaken the portrait for another or had he known.

"We drove Peeves out on our first day," Carrow said. "That little good for nothing is as bad as the mudbloods."

There was a brief silence. Ginny could hear her own heart beating.

"About the potions I mentioned," Malfoy said. His voice trailed off.

"Yes, yes. I will have them ready in two weeks time."

"I'm afraid that can't do, Carrow. The Dark Lord specifically asked for them in a weeks time. I don't want to tell him you can't make that happen any more than you want to."

"Now listen to me, you little bellend," Carrow's voice was angry. "I don't care who sent you, don't go around and threaten me. We all know what your family is now. Don't you think you can do anything to me."

"I understand." His voice didn't quiver. "I will tell him you will have it in two weeks."

There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and some rustling. Ginny had to restrain herself away from the portrait door again.

"You will tell him I will have it ready in one week." Carrow spat and the sound of her high heels clacking along the hallway continued. Ginny sat against the wall, waiting for the hallway to clear, but she never heard the heavy footsteps of Malfoy. She sat there long after Carrow was gone, idly twiddling her thumbs and counting bricks while she could have been doing something useful. Neville needed her.

She kicked the wall and gritted her teeth. She couldn't afford to say there.

Gripping her wand tightly, she pushed the portrait open and scrambled out, holding her wand out in front of her. She looked up and saw him sitting against the wall right in front of the secret passageway. She pointed her wand at him. Anger ignite inside her heart again. His cheek was red, his hair fell into his sunken eyes. He was thinner than she remembered.

"Get up," she snarled. He looked up and smirked.

"Giving orders to me, Weasley?"

Ginny didn't respond and gripped her wand with her other hand to stop it from shaking.

"I mean it, Malfoy. Stand up or die."

His smirk didn't disappear. "Go ahead, give it your best shot. The Carrows will be here within a minute."

A stinging hex hit his wand arm and he grimaced, his face contorting with pain and anger.

"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked, her voice harsh in anger.

"I was waiting to see who was skulking about."

Ginny spat at him. "How dare you be here. You caused everything and now you save me, like I am some damsel in distress."

"Keep your voice down," he hissed at her. His confident demeanor evaporated like snow on a sunny day. His eyes started to dart around nervously and his wand hand twitched.

"They can hear you."

"Why are you helping me, Malfoy. I don't want your help. I want nothing to do with you." She was hissing, but it was so hard to keep her voice down. She wanted to throw away her wand and strangle him, punch him until he couldn't stand any more.

But what if the Carrows came?

He shrugged. "Perhaps I saved you so I can trail you back to where ever you lot of whoremoangers are held up and turn you in." Ginny's eyes darkened.

"I'm one step away from hexing you, Malfoy."

He shrugged and dragged his hand through his already tousled hair. He looked so ragged. Ginny made the mistake of looking in his eyes. She looked and saw the broken man behind them. Her wand lowered itself without her consent and she sighed angrily. He wasn't going to follow her.

"I have to go." She didn't have time to waste on him.

He nodded. "I'm going to stay here for a bit, if you don't mind. Mcgonagall is patrolling the main floor."

She turned away from him, her hands clenched so tight she feared she might break her wand.

"I hate him," she muttered to herself as she walked away from him. She hadn't expected him to hear, but he did.

"You aren't the only one," he said, his voice life weary as an old man's.