Chapter 17: Seeing Her
It was like magic. Watching the way that she worked the room, smoothly moving from person to person, pausing to speak to everyone, smiling enchantingly and efficiently wrapping every single political official around her finger before moving on was like watching magic happen before his very eyes. It was flawless, her technique, her ability to make them laugh, to make it seem as though she was simply a guest at the party while pressing them for their cooperation, and earning it with so much enthusiasm.
It was the first time Draco had seen her in action, working her ‘diplomatic skills’ on someone else, and it was enchanting to watch. She was so animated; the stiff, cold Ice Queen that he was accustomed to seeing was not present in this room. Virginia Weasley was relaxed, confident, friendly and witty. She was earning admiring glances from some of the most important wizards in the country as they all recognized an accomplished, elegant and charming young girl, and were all eager to speak with her.
He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was enchanting him the very same way that she was the senior Minister of International Magical Cooperation. The poor old man had stars in his eyes as she spoke to him, laughing and playfully flirting with him, delighting him. His wife stood beside him, a knowing smile on her lips, as she sensed no threat in the young girl laughing with her husband.
She was a flash of red in a sea of the pale-haired guests, with only a few dark heads in the crowd. Draco’s cousin Sarah had been able to convince her that her usual business suit wouldn’t be right for this occasion, and had forced a silk dress the color of deep sapphire on her. The tone of the dress accented her pale skin without making her look as gaunt as the black outfits she normally wore did, and the elegant cut of the dress clung to her soft curves, showing the barest hint of her pale skin. Her bright hair was loosely clipped away from her face and tumbled down her back – such a rare thing, as it was normally secured in those terrible knots she was so fond of. Altogether, she was a captivating picture of elegance and charm, and Draco felt his throat tighten as he watched her from the corner he was standing in, willing himself to look away but unable to.
“Cousin, she definitely is not the type of girl I ever expected you to bring home,” Darien said as he sidled up to where Draco was standing. Draco peered at him with a raised eyebrow out of the corner of his eye; disgruntled that he was disturbing his thoughts. The memory charm had worked, as far as Draco knew, but he could sense Darien’s predatory inclination towards Ginny, and it worried him.
“And what type of woman would you have me with, Darien?”
“The trophy wife, of course. Beautiful, obedient and senseless, but with enough wits about her to know her place and not interfere. This Weasley of yours is trouble, Draco, I can feel it. Look at her, she’s won over half the room, and it’s only been an hour. That Parkinson girl that you were seeing, she is more suited to your lifestyle, what happened to her?” Darien asked, as he watched Ginny, deep in conversation with Vincent Malfoy, with a sneer on his face.
“She was dull.”
“But at least she was gorgeous. I suppose I could make certain concessions for this little notion of yours, involved with a Weasley, if only she was beautiful. Weasley is just so plain. She’s far too small, pale – and that terrible red hair, she’s not even pretty. I don’t know what you see in her,” Darien said.
“That’s because you haven’t seen her at all,” Draco said softly. Frowning, Darien looked from Ginny to his cousin and back again. In the dimly lit ballroom, the candlelight had caught the shimmer in her dress and the sparkle in her eye as she laughed at something Vincent was saying, and Darien became silent – suddenly, inexplicable unable to speak.
* * * * *
As she moved throughout the room, Ginny could feel him watching her from his cold eyes, tucked away in the corner. Smoothing the slippery silk of her dress nervously, she smiled at the man explaining the differences in their wizard justice system. She tried as hard as she could to concentrate, but that steely gaze on her was distracting.
She wanted to run and hide from it. His eyes were stalking her like those of a predator eyeing his prey, and she had to repress the constant urge to shudder. As the elderly judge continued his explanation, Ginny took a sip from her glass of wine to disguise what she was really doing – scanning the room to see if she could find Draco. He was nowhere to be found. She almost cursed under her breath as she spotted the tall, dark figure glowering at her through those cold eyes, but remembered quickly where she was.
“So you see, Ms. Weasley, the differences between our two cultures make our justice systems very different. You are very concerned with making laws and restricting the use of magic based on how you classify it. We, however, don’t need to do that here.”
“But aren’t you concerned that a Dark Lord will rise and threaten your entire country?” she asked, focusing her attention back on the judge.
“That would never happen here, dear. I know that all of you British Ministry folk are caught up in your rules, because of that problem you had with that Dark Lord of yours. But the way that we practice magic is completely different.”
“But what would you do if someone were to start using magic to harm, torture and kill your citizens? You have no types of law to do anything about that,” Ginny protested.
“That would never happen here.”
“It can’t be that simple!” Ginny exclaimed, shocked. The elderly man smiled indulgently at her.
“I’m afraid that it is, Miss Weasley. Our two countries have had very different histories, perhaps that is where the difference lies,” he said.
“Now, Judge Strum, there is a grievous crime being committed here that I feel I must bring to your attention,” a cool voice said from behind her. Jumping involuntarily, Ginny took a deep breath to steady herself before she turned around to greet Darien, her true feelings towards the man carefully masked. Draco had told her to steer clear of him as much as possible – it didn’t seem as if he remembered the event from the previous night, but his open contempt for Ginny had been a cause for concern. He was hard to read, and Ginny felt instinctively afraid of him.
“Sir, is it not a crime in Bulgaria for a beautiful young woman to be standing around, discussing politics on such a festive night when she should be dancing?” Darien drawled elegantly, with a sly smile that made Ginny’s blood run cold.
“It most certainly is, Mr. Malfoy. I trust a fine, upstanding citizen such as yourself will be able to remedy this situation?” he said, with a wink in Ginny’s direction. Forcing a fake smile, Ginny had no other choice than to set her wine glass down on the table and allow Darien to lead her out to the dance floor, which had become spotted with a few handfuls of couples dancing to the music provided by the small orchestra of enchanted instruments.
Ginny summoned all of her discipline to force herself to quell the panic flooding through her veins, and to keep from trembling as Darien took one of her hands, placing the other on her waist before beginning to lead her around the dance floor. She scanned the room once again, and almost sighed with relief when she spotted a familiar pair of eyes, glittering almost silver in the dim light, watching her. As long as he was there, she knew she would be safe with Darien.
“As you pointed out this morning, Darien, I am a consulate for my Ministry of Magic and political discussion is something I rather enjoy,” Ginny said coldly, resentful that her discussion with Judge Strum had been interrupted, now that her panic had started to withdraw.
“I apologize, Virginia, but it seemed such a shame to waste beauty such as yours in such tedious conversation,” he said, his cold gray eyes burning into hers. She looked away uncomfortably.
“I don’t think that is why you asked me to dance,” she said quietly. All eyes had been drifting towards the young couple – as many were curious about the young lady that the most sought-after bachelor in Bulgaria seemed to be focused on. Ginny did not want to draw any more attention on them than they already had.
“So why did I ask, Ms. Weasley?” he hissed, his grip around her waist becoming tighter, forcing her body to press against his.
“Because I threaten everything that you believe in.”
“There is no possible way that a Malfoy would ever be threatened by the likes of you,” he said curtly.
“The idea that a woman is engaging in politics, and successfully I might add, challenges what you believe about the role of women in your society. You think that I should simply be an arm trophy, to stand around and smile indulgently as she is shown off, and disappear once the talk about serious matters begin.”
“Clever little witch, aren’t you?” he hissed, his eyes narrowing, as his hand squeezed hers even tighter. Ginny gasped slightly as his grip became painful. She tried to push him away from her without causing alarm from the audience that was so intently watching her, but was unable to do so – Darien was too strong.
She tried to spot Draco in the crowd, hoping that he’d come and save her. As she stood on the tips of her toes to see over Darien’s shoulder, her hand slid down from his shoulder to the middle of his arm.
As soon as her hand made contact with his upper arm, she gasped suddenly and jumped back as though burned. Surprised by her strange action, Darien released his grip around her. She was clutching her hand, and staring at him with a look of horror on her face. Her abrupt action had drawn the entire room’s attention as everyone stopped to see what had happened. The world was spinning before Ginny’s eyes, and it took all of her will to keep the panic rising through her throat to completely overtake her.
As the entire room watched in surprise, she turned and fled from the room.
* * * * *
Ginny ran as fast as she could in the slinky dress and the fragile heels she was wearing allowed. Hallways blurred past her vision as she desperately tried to put as much distance between herself and Darien before the panic-attack completely overtook her. Trying to make her way back to her bedroom, she stopped as she realized she didn’t know where she was.
She leaned against the wall, looking down at her shaking hands. She could still feel the heat from his arm, as if the magical mark underneath his sleeve had been burned into her flesh. It was the Dark Mark, her mind was whispering over and over again, as she struggled to steady herself and draw even breaths to quell the panic threatening to consume her.
Thundering footsteps echoed down the hallway, coming towards her. Gathering her strength, she looked up just in time to see Darien storming towards her before his hands had grabbed her shoulders and hauled her up against the wall. He leaned in, his eyes dark with fury. Ginny struggled against his grip, fighting against him as hard as she could. Just his touch was enough to cause her violent reaction to his Mark to be begin again, and it was draining all of her strength.
“Does your family know what you are?” she gasped, struggling to breath. He just stared back at her, restraining her attempts to free herself from his crushing hold on her. “Do they KNOW what you are, what you have on your arm?”
He darted forward, seizing her lips with his with a bruising force that shocked her. Before she could even think, her legs were kicking against him, her arms flailing, trying to do whatever she could to break his hold on her. His arms locked around her body, holding her firmly in place. As her fear and desperation finally broke loose, Ginny felt a surge of power seize her body; a force she was unwilling to restrain, and she placed her hands on his chest. A brilliant flash of red light illuminated the dark hallway, and Darien was thrown back from the power shockwave into the wall, and fell to the ground.
He practically jumped up and grabbed her roughly around the waist as she tried to run away. He forced her to turn, to face him. She stared up at him with defiance; the only indication that she was terrified was the trembling of her lower lip.
“Don’t touch me, Death Eater!” she demanded darkly, struggling away from him.
“You stupid girl! There’s no way you could possibly know about that. How do you know?” he yelled, and cried out in pain as her sharp elbow jabbed his abdomen. His arm swung back, poised as though ready to strike her. Ginny closed her eyes, steeling herself for the blow – but it never came. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, and felt a wave of relief overwhelm her as she saw Draco, his arm restraining Darien’s, with a dangerous look in his eye.
“Don’t ever raise your hand to a woman in my presence,” he spat, his voice murderous. “Especially one that is here under my protection.”
Darien released his grip on Ginny, and stumbled backwards a few steps, and Draco had stepped in between her and Darien.
“Now, cousin, you will return to your parent’s party and pretend that nothing has happened and you will remain there until the end of the evening. If I ever catch you touching Virginia again, it will be the very last thing you ever do. Am I being quite clear?” Draco continued, his voice soft and calm but laden with a thick menacing tone.
“Perfectly,” Darien sneered, before he turned and stormed away. As soon as he was far enough away, Ginny let out a tremendous sigh, finally feeling able to breath normally again. Draco turned to her, his eyes glowing in the dark hallway. Sensing how fragile she was, how weakened her ordeal with Darien had made her, he placed a hand on her waist, supporting her.
“Well, now, Virginia, that was quite a display of power back there,” he drawled silkily, locking eyes with her. “Why don’t you tell me what that was all about?”
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