Ginny, only half-listening to her mother-in-law, glanced out the parlor window and couldn’t help sighing in wonder. To see Lucius Malfoy, proud and proper head of the Malfoy house, pushing his grandchildren on the swing set… it was just an amazing thing. Moira, always the attention-seeker, squealed and called to go higher. Lucius obliged, leaving Xavi to pump higher by himself and causing Laurie, playing the protective role of big brother, to move in closer, eyes never leaving his sister.
“Ginny?”
Ginny started and shook herself, quite aware that her companion now knew she hadn’t been listening. She turned with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, Narcissa, I just can’t get over…”
Narcissa nodded in understanding. “It’s pretty miraculous, isn’t it? He was never this way with Draco. Oh, he certainly cared, a blind man could’ve seen that, but he was never so hands-on. I’m still getting used to it myself.”
“I don’t understand that. I look at my children and I don’t know how I could ever hold myself back from them.”
Narcissa bit her lip, obviously trying to think of a delicate way to phrase what she was about to say. “You have to understand that this was a different time, Ginny. The Dark Lord was supposedly vanquished, but both his supporters and his detractors were at large and spoiling for a fight. Being so high within the Dark Lord’s inner circle, Lucius and I were targeted quite often. Anything that we cared about, anything that we had a weakness for, could’ve been used as leverage against us. It was in Draco’s best interest to keep our distance; it kept him safe.”
Ginny nodded and turned to look back out the window. She would’ve never guessed in a million years that the man who had slipped the diary of Tom Riddle into a young girl’s cauldron in cold blood would be the same man who she now watched laughing as he played with his grandchildren. It really was incredible. Suddenly, Ginny found she had a very good idea of what the next memory in the book would be. Excusing herself quickly, she ran full-out to Draco’s study.
Her shaking hands hardly allowed her to open the hiding place again, but she eventually managed to get her hands on the book. She flipped the pages, passing his note and the pea plant, and trembled a little at what she found. Sure enough, a fine strand of long blond hair was pressed on the page; Lucius’s hair.
The battle raged. Bodies were everywhere, seriously injured or dead, and both sides were losing members quickly. Ginny, exhausted, stumbled toward the heart of the fight, not looking back at the Death Eater she’d just killed; she didn’t want to know who it had been. Eyes closing for just a moment, she tripped and landed hard on the ground beside the lifeless body of Rodolphus Lestrange. His eyes were still open, face frozen forever as he tried to fend off whatever had hit him. Ginny turned away quickly and cried out at the body on her other side. Percy, prodigal son who had returned to his family only a few months before, was dead.
Ginny tried to be cold and unfeeling about it. She had to help the rest of the Order, and she couldn’t do that if she was dwelling on the death of her brother. She tried to forget and found that she just couldn’t. Unbidden, tears began to stream down her face, clouding her vision and cutting tracks through the dirt and blood on her cheeks. She couldn’t pretend not to care.
“Ah, Lucius, look what we have here.”
Ginny didn’t look up, but she couldn’t repress the shiver that ran down her body. She recognized Voldemort’s voice and knew that it wouldn’t do her any good to let them see her pain. She kept her face down.
“We seem to have found a female Weasel. What shall we do with her, my Lord?”
Long pale fingers cupped Ginny’s chin and forced her face upward. She found herself staring straight into the face of the most evil creature on the Earth, and another shiver wracked her body. “She seems to be grieving something. I think she needs to be taken care of, don’t you, Lucius?”
Ginny looked at the stately Malfoy and saw something flicker in his dark eyes as she met his gaze. It was almost… compassion? He seemed to be thinking very hard very fast, and he gave her the smallest of nods before speaking. “Might I request we make a gift of her to my son?”
Voldemort looked at his supporter, somewhat surprised. “He would have an interest in something so ragged?”
Lucius gave her the once-over and nodded. “I’m told she’s rather attractive when she’s cleaned up, and I believe he would enjoy her.”
“And he would find her… satisfactory?”
Ginny shivered again as Lucius stepped toward her, but she understood what he was doing and didn’t resist as he pushed his lips against hers. As much as she wanted to be anywhere else doing anything but kissing Lucius Malfoy, she recognized that he was saving her life, and so went into self-preservation mode. She kissed him back. A lot.
When Lucius pulled back, his eyes, still intelligent despite the slight dark passion smoldering in them, met hers and understanding once more flowed between them. He straightened, pulling the front of his robes back into a respectable position. “Oh, yes. I’m quite sure he’d find her satisfactory.”
Voldemort nodded. “Very well. Find your son and do it quickly.”
The Dark Lord swept away and Lucius pulled the redhead to her feet. Draco wasn’t a hard person to find, and they made the exchange of Ginny rather quickly. “Get her out of here and come up with a good excuse.” Draco just nodded, and his father hurried away to rejoin the fighting.
Ginny wanted desperately to ask what was going on, but she knew better than to question him right now. She found she was being pulled into Draco’s arms for a side-along apparition, and a moment later they were away from the chaos of the battle. The silence pressed on both of their ears, and Ginny was surprised when Draco didn’t immediately push her away. Rather, he held her for a long moment, face pressed into her hair, breathing deeply.
When Ginny cleared her throat lightly, Draco stepped back very reluctantly, his eyes showing the loss. “We need to come up with an excuse of some kind…?”
Draco nodded, veil falling over his eyes again. “Yes. We need to figure out how you escaped from me after I brought you here.”
“Wait… you’re letting me go?”
“No, you’re escaping. But in essence, yes.”
“Why?”
Draco raised his eyebrows. “If you’d rather not go, your alternative is to stay here and be a sex slave. I assume that’s what the Dark Lord gave you to me for?”
Ginny nodded. “To be completely honest, I’m not dead-set against that, but I think I’d rather escape.”
Draco just stared at her. Had Ginny Weasley actually just said that she wouldn’t mind being his sex slave? There must be something seriously wrong with her right now. Draco looked a little closer and his thoughts sobered. Her eyes were very expressionless, almost frightening with their hollow, almost dead look. He recognized that she was in too much shock by all she’d seen to even care right now.
“Alright then, we need to come up with a way for you to overpower me. I don’t suppose the Dark Lord left you with your wand?”
Ginny immediately began patting her pockets and came up with the long, slim stick. “It must’ve slipped his mind.”
Draco’s brow furrowed. “That’s not like him at all. Something must’ve distracted him… what exactly happened out there?”
Ginny closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again they were suspiciously wet. Draco had no opportunity to comment, however, as she began to talk the next moment. In tones that had no feeling whatsoever, she explained her experience, from finding Percy lying dead to being brought to him. The tears had left her eyes by the time she was done, that dead, hollow look replacing them.
Draco shuddered involuntarily. He had long since learned how to shut particularly painful things out, but she obviously hadn’t. And he had to admit that the lack of emotion in her eyes was seriously freaking him out. “So… how are you going to overpower me?”
“Bat-bogey?”
“No. I know the counter curse to that like the back of my hand; it wouldn’t realistically have given you time to get away.”
“How about… just a stunning spell? The simplicity of it caught you off guard.”
Draco nodded, eyes far away. “Yeah… I didn’t realize you still had your wand, and so wasn’t quite as vigilant as I should’ve been. I’ll have to beg for forgiveness for that, but it shouldn’t be too bad. Yeah, that should work.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. Go ahead; you should get out of here before anyone else shows up.”
Ginny nodded and began to step away, but stopped. Raising her eyes slowly, she considered him for a long time. When she finally moved, it was to get closer to him. A single step brought her close enough to touch him, and she wrapped her arms around him. Surprised, Draco didn’t move away.
They stood like that for just a moment before Ginny pulled back, but it was long enough to bring some feeling back into her. When he looked at her face, she smiled the tiniest bit and stepped back. Even Draco’s eyes were softer as he spoke. “I don’t think you should apparate in your condition. Use the floo powder.”
Ginny nodded and raised her wand as she stepped back into the fireplace, grasping a handful of green powder with her free hand. “Do you want to lie down before I do it?”
“It’ll look more realistic if I don’t.”
“Alright then… stupefy!”
Draco fell as Ginny dropped the green powder and spun out of sight.
Ginny ran a finger down the hair, smiling slightly at the memory. It had been a good hour before she opened the hand holding her wand and found a long strand of blond hair tucked inside; it was still there from when she had kissed Lucius. As a result of that hug, though, she had smelled like Draco. Only like Draco…
Author notes: Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to give me your opinion on the formatting issue from the note at the beginning of the chapter :)
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