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Chapter 28: Family Trends
Anxiety had been slowly building insider her as she flipped through the pages of the old book, and had now formed a hard lump in the pit of her stomach. Nervous energy was overwhelming her concentration, and she was afraid she would begin to hyperventilate if she couldn’t focus and calm down a bit. Sitting back on the bed in her room, she looked down on the open book with a look of absolute horror on her face.
An authoritative knock on the door startled Ginny, making her jump in fear. She quickly hid the book she was reading and the notes that she had made on what she’d found out under the covers of the bed, and forced herself to take a deep, calming breath, before striding over to the door and opening it, unsure of who she could possibly find behind it. Just in case, her resolutely forced her face to take on the stone-cold, unreadable expression that had been such a success for her in all of her political endeavors.
She opened it a crack, and then sighed in relief as she opened the door all the way. Draco swept into the room, a wry look of mild accusation on his face.
“You’ve been holed up here all afternoon, all nicely tucked away from the harassment you left me alone to deal with!” he accused gruffly while pacing around the room, with a slight smile on his lips.
“I’m sure it was an absolute nightmare, and that you didn’t, for one second, enjoy returning the harassment by hassling my brother as much as possible!” Ginny returned, unable to keep from returning his smile, as he strode forward and pulled her to him, sighing as he felt her body relax against his. His lips found a sensitive spot on her neck just below her ear, and she gasped. His warm breath against her neck as he chuckled sent a shiver of delight down her spine, and in that instant, her anxiety and worry seemed to dissolve. She wrapped her arms tightly around him, and rested her head against his chest where she could hear his heartbeat.
“In that case, you’re forgiven for abandoning me, as long as you assure me that it will never happen again,” he whispered. Pulling away, Ginny shot him a look of mock outrage that he misinterpreted as genuine anger.
“I’m glad you’ve forgiven me, but I’m not so convinced I’ll be able to forgive you! I heard what you said to my brother, you great big git! That this is nothing more than politics!” she cried. She watched his face; he was usually reserved and his emotions well guarded, but now he was undergoing a series of expressions, ending with look of panic with an earnest glint in his eyes.
“I said that so he wouldn’t follow through on his threat to remove my head from my body,” he declared anxiously, grasping her shoulders and leaning over to meet her eyes. His anxiousness calmed the smallest hint of lingering doubt about him, and she tried to hide her smile, enjoying this moment with a vulnerable Draco. “It was also partly true – we were pretending to be a couple for my family.”
“Were pretending?” Ginny asked skeptically.
“Look, Virginia, despite whatever this is,” he said, gesturing frantically to the space between the two of then, “and how weird it is – we’re supposed to be mortal enemies, remember? – I think that the one thing we can agree on is that it is not all an act. At least not on my part.”
“Nor mine,” Ginny whispered with a grin. He released a sigh he hadn’t even been aware he’d been holding in, and returned her smile, before he gently tipped her chin up to him so he could capture his lips with hers.
The moment she felt his lips on hers, she felt the great well of electricity within her rise up, and energize every nerve in her body. Fueled by the massive swell of energy, she threw herself, with wild abandon, into the kiss, allowing it to become more demanding and fervent. Her passionate response to his at-first gentle kiss ignited a fire within Draco, and he pulled her closer to him, pressing her body up against his.
Lost in the moment and unable to keep their hands off each other, the pair began to walk backwards, unaware of any set destination until Draco’s legs met the corner of the bed, and they tumbled backwards onto the bed. Ginny broke away to draw a gasping breath, and leaned back against the pillows on the bed, smiling lazily at Draco.
“Lucky my brother can’t see this,” she giggled helplessly, feeling lightheaded and intoxicated. Draco answered with a smirk, before leaning over her to kiss her again. Ginny bit back a small groan as the sensations overwhelmed her, and she reached up and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down against her. He planted his arm on the bed, to brace himself.
A muffled rustle of crinkling paper interrupted the moment.
“What on Earth is that?” Draco gasped, one eyebrow raised. Ginny shot up, pushing Draco off of her, sliding his hand away from spot where his hand had rested, where the book from Vincent’s library and her notes were hidden.
“Just some papers I’ve been looking over,” she answered quickly. Shooting her a suspicious look out of the corner of his eye, he reached out and pulled back the blanket to see what was hidden.
“And a book?” he questioned, picking up the aged volume and examining the cover. Ginny reached out, trying to pull it away from him before he could absorb its subject. “Where did you get this?”
“I…uh, I picked it up in your uncle’s library, actually. He told me to help myself to anything that interested me,” she snapped defensively, trying not to flinch under his suddenly hard gaze.
“And since when has a good little Gryffindor like you been interested in the known history of Salazar Slytherin?” he asked, his tone even but still carrying a hint of ice. Unable to look him in the eye when he was wearing such a look, Ginny looked down.
“I thought we’d already established that I’m no ‘good little Gryffindor’, but if you must know, since my first year, actually,” she mumbled quietly, hugging her knees to her chest.
“What happened in your first year to create such an interest in the founder of Slytherin?” Draco asked, perplexed. He reached out to touch Ginny’s shoulder, but she shied away, still refusing to look at him.
“It’s a long story, Draco. One that I’m not too keen to get into at the moment,” Ginny snapped. A long moment of intense silence followed, until Draco sighed, long and hard.
“Fine,” he said. The word hung ominously in the air as he stood up, and slowly walked toward the door, the happiness that existed in the room mere minutes before completely forgotten and replaced with the cold hard silence.
“Draco, wait,” Ginny said, as his hand reached towards the door. He turned to face her and she met his eyes, surprised to see a slight hint of hope shinning though their pale gray color. She hesitated, unsure of how to broach the subject that she knew she had to tell him about. Well, damn him, she thought, furious with herself. Less than a fortnight around him, and he already had her acting unsure and feeling vulnerable – sensations that she’d fought so hard to banish from her life.
“Yes?” he prodded, questioningly. Ginny took a deep breath and closed her eyes, collecting herself before she took the plunge that she knew might change everything.
“What do you know of the years that your uncle Vincent spent in Guatemala?” she forced out, her words jumbled together and spoken very quickly. “Do you know what he did there, the people he spent his years with?”
“Just that he lived with their wizarding community and attempted to learn as much as he could of their history. Why do you ask?” Draco asked, frown prominent on his face as he took a step closer to Ginny.
“Just a strange feeling. And…I was reading in this book that soon after his disappearance from Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin is believed to have gone to Guatemala to form a wizarding colony where he could teach the type of students he chose, unlike at Hogwarts,” she explained, holding out the book as if to demonstrate what she was saying.
“What does that have to do with my uncle?” Draco asked carefully.
“One of the artifacts in his library from Guatemala…was created by Salazar Slytherin, and I think that this is all somehow connected to what’s attacking the unicorns,” Ginny finally said, reluctant. She watched his face, and cringed inwardly when she saw his confusion turn into a mask of stone.
“And how do you know that this artifact is indeed something from Slytherin?” he asked coldly.
“I told you, it’s just a strange feeling,” she replied, looking away.
“So, you want me to trust your strange feeling against my own uncle? I know that this is a hard concept for you to understand, but I was still so convinced that you’d gotten it through that thick Weasley skull of yours: No true Malfoy would even betray our duty to the unicorns, not for anything. And if someone did, the other members of the family would stop him at all costs. Vincent proved that to me when we fought against my father. And now you ask me to believe that he may be involved in the attacks against them based on a strange feeling you have? Why should I believe you?” he spat out with barely contained anger.
“Why shouldn’t you? I have never given you any reason not to trust me!”
“Yet you won’t trust me enough to tell me something as simple as how you became so interested in the history of Slytherin in your first year!”
“Do you remember what happened that year? The attacks on Muggles…caused by the Heir of Slytherin?” Ginny shouted.
“Of course, who could forget that?” Draco responded with exasperation.
“That was me.” Draco looked thunderstruck for a moment, as he digested what she was saying. Unwilling to give him any time to regroup and angry that he had pushed her that far, she continued. “That is how I know that the ancient wand in your uncle’s library is not just an artifact from the ancient Guatemalan wizards, but an old wand of Salazar Slytherin himself. I could feel it when I touched the symbol hidden at the bottom of the wand.”
“That is impossible! You expect me to believe that a Weasley was the Heir of Slytherin?” he questioned, astounded.
“You have your bloody father to thank for that!” Ginny shot back. “Look, I don’t want to debate whether or not it was possible that that was me, because I was there and you weren’t and it is also completely beside the point. This whole thing is about your uncle, Draco. I think that he has a greater role than you think in the attacks on the sanctuary.”
“Of course. Whenever there is something bad happening, the Weasley instinct is to blame a Malfoy. You blame my father for something in your first year? And now my uncle? Do you not realize how narrow-minded your reasoning is?” he asked coldly.
“Well, Malfoy, your father was a Death Eater – who almost killed me once – and so is your cousin! It seems to be a family trend!”
“You know absolutely nothing about my family, Weasel, and I’ll thank you to remember that the next time you feel like making any sort of wild accusations!” Draco yelled, his temper suddenly erupting. She met his eyes, blazing in his anger for a long moment, before he spun around and yanked open the door. He turned one last time before leaving, shooting her a deadly glare, before slamming the door shut behind him.
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