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Seven: Escape, Part Two

"Oh, Merlin, I never thought I'd say this, but it feels so good to wear a bra again!"

"Stop hogging the wand! I need to get dressed too."

Ginny threw the wand at Malfoy and then went back to groping her chest, but out of the corner of her eye, she could see him staring at her, his mouth hanging open in dumbfounded surprise. She met his gaze and said, "I thought you were getting dressed?" When he turned away, his cheeks appeared a little pinker than they'd been before, which made her feel elated in a familiar way. Well, kind of familiar and kind of not, as it had been a very long time since the last time she’d had this feeling.

She sat down at the foot of her bed and watched him Transfigure his hospital gown and dressing gown into real clothes, until he stood before her in trousers and a black button-up shirt that made his pale skin glow. He seemed to have absorbed the moonlight over their many nights in the hospital, but rather than sickly, as he had her first night in St. Mungo's, he looked pristine and dashing.

"See something you like?" he asked without turning around, but if he hoped to embarrass her, he would be disappointed.

Ginny shrugged even though he couldn't see it. "Maybe. Still deciding."

He spun around huffing. "What do you mean still deciding?"

Ginny laughed. "Oh, like you're so smooth. How many women have you wooed in the last few years?"

The extended silence that followed that question made Ginny's stomach sink. She'd only meant it as a joke, but she suddenly regretted it and wished she could take it back.

Malfoy's face was impassive, which Ginny had come to recognize as a sign of his Occlumency hiding some intense emotion. "Women haven't really been a priority for me since the war."

Contrite, curious, mentally kicking herself, she asked, "What about now?"

As he buckled his belt, he shrugged, a tiny smirk on his face. "Maybe. Still deciding."

Despite herself, Ginny grinned. "So, what are we going to do with this guy?"

Their attention turned to the Healer-in-Training they'd left standing and Confunded at the foot of the bed.

“Before we deal with him....” Malfoy said, his words trailing off as he tapped himself on the head with the wand. The Disillusionment Charm fell into place, just as it had over two months ago.

Ginny stood up to receive the charm, and only after both of them were invisible did Malfoy approach the Healer-in-Training.

“You’ve lost your wand somewhere on the ground floor when you were coming in for work this morning,” Malfoy told him. The wand hanging in midair was pointed at the trainee’s face. “It might be a good idea to go look for it now.”

The Healer-in-Training blinked, looking confused but aware. “Where did I put my wand?” he asked himself as he patted the pockets of his robes. Scratching his head, he walked towards the door, with Ginny and Malfoy following behind him. Malfoy unlocked the door with a non-verbal spell, and in his confusion, the trainee didn’t notice that it should have been locked.

He followed Malfoy’s suggestion to go downstairs, creating a shield for the two runaway patients to hide behind. They didn’t have to worry about people noticing doors opening on their own because the trainee opened them for them. Nor did they have to repeat their closet experience, either, because the trainee forged a path for them down the narrow stairs.

As soon as Ginny stepped outside the hospital, back on a nondescript Muggle street, the wand came down over her head again and the Disillusionment Charm deactivated. A moment later, Malfoy’s body made a reappearance, and the ecstatic grin on his face made Ginny’s heart jump and then beat ferociously.

“Just act natural,” he said, collecting himself to the point that the smile fell and his lips formed a thin line. “We’ve got to get away from this area before we’re scot-free.”

He surprised her by taking her hand and placing it on his arm in a gentlemanly gesture, and that long-lost familiar feeling returned. Ginny felt almost giddy, not just because they’d made it out of their prison, but because this man was at her side, claiming her with his casual touch. It didn’t mean anything to him, but it meant everything to her. Harry hadn’t been nearly this affectionate in months. Maybe years. To him, she’d been a receptacle for his new family. He’d been pleasant to her because he'd thought he’d loved her, but what he’d really loved was the idea of her, just as she’d come to realize she’d only loved the idea of him.

She hadn’t realized that she’d missed simple, loving gestures like touches and kisses until she and Malfoy had clasped hands for their first Occlumency lesson—and those touches had been sterile and meaningless. Nothing even close to loving.

But what Malfoy did when he took Ginny’s arm was say that he was willing to pretend to be involved with her for the sake of escaping, and, as sad as it was, that practical gesture was more heartfelt than anything she’d received from Harry since soon after the war. The elation caused by Malfoy’s actions was pitiful and excessive, and she knew she had a tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve. To keep Malfoy from noticing, she practiced some of the exercises he had taught her in order to cultivate her Occlumency. It didn't take as long as expected; she managed to clear her thoughts and control her expression in a handful of moments.

They turned a corner, leaving behind the street on which St. Mungo's was located, and were confronted with the sight of shopfronts, restaurants, and cafes. Both of them paused and their bodies tensed for no reason that Ginny could discern. She looked up at Malfoy and saw the same hesitancy on his face that she was feeling.

Malfoy asked, "Does this remind you of...."

"Diagon Alley? Yeah, it does."

"But that shouldn't surprise us, should it?"

"No, I don't think so," Ginny answered.

She opened her mouth to give voice to a memory long forgotten, but... she couldn't remember the memory, so she closed her mouth again, confused. How did she know a memory was there, then?

She shook her head and tugged on Malfoy's arm. "Come on. We probably shouldn't stay here."

As they walked down the street, the scents of coffee roasting and food being prepared assaulted their noses, and Ginny's stomach began to growl in response.

"If we find a discreet location, we can Apparate home for lunch," Malfoy said with a smirk.

Ginny's cheeks grew warm, and she looked away in search of an empty alley for them to use. Not even a moment later, Malfoy pushed her in a new direction, down a space between two buildings almost too narrow for them. In such a tiny space, Malfoy’s figure seemed taller and broader than she would have described only moments before. He was a slight man, but blocking the exit of the alley as he did, and with the walls just brushing his shoulders, he looked bigger.

“We only have one wand,” he said. “We can Apparate together to my home, and then you can take it.”

Ginny nodded, her mouth dry just being this close to him. He offered his arm to her and held up the wand. Keeping her eyes clenched shut, Ginny waited for the deafening crack that indicated Apparition. Nothing happened.

Malfoy’s eyes were also closed, but his lips were turned down in a frown, and his brow was creased in annoyance. “It’s not working.”

“Again?” Ginny asked. “Maybe you’re a Squib.”

His scowl deepened. “Don’t be disgusting, Weasley. You try.”

Ginny took the wand from him, and he placed a hand on her arm. His touch was doubly scorching on her bare skin, making gooseflesh rise. She glanced at his face, but he seemed unaffected by the casual touch, though she knew that his expression did not always indicate his emotions. Still, she felt silly for reacting—even though it was involuntary!—to his proximity. But Malfoy had said some things to her in the last month alone that she’d desperately needed to hear, and maybe part of her gratefulness emerged as a silly attraction. Yes, that had to explain it. They were so close to their homes, and Ginny knew exactly how she would handle the mess she’d left behind, but she didn’t know how she would handle her new-found crush.

She felt like a schoolgirl, and that was the opposite of what she wanted to be. She wasn’t a shy person. She said what she thought and she had a temper, and the way she was behaving around Malfoy now, all nervous and almost... admiring, made her want to do a Wronski Feint right into the ground. It wasn’t her and it wasn’t who she wanted to be.

She’d broken up with Harry because he’d stifled her in almost every way, even though he’d been kind throughout their whole relationship. But she wouldn’t change herself for a man—for anyone—ever again.

Gripping the wand tight, she thought of the Burrow with its lopsided construction, garden gnomes throwing rocks at the chickens pecking out in the yard, and her mum standing in the kitchen doorway, calling her children in for lunch. She had the destination firmly in mind, and she was more determined to get there than she’d ever been in her life. She took a deliberate step forward, but instead of that crunching, squished feeling of being forced through a tube, her foot landed on solid ground.

“You must be a Squib too, huh?” Malfoy said snidely.

Ginny punched him in the shoulder and was mollified by the soft ow! he emitted.

“Maybe there’s an Anti-Disapparition Jinx in place,” she suggested.

Instead of snapping at her—like he had three months ago when she’d been optimistic for a simple solution to their hospitalization problem—he said mildly, “This far away from the hospital? It doesn’t seem likely.”

Ginny’s heart seized. “What are we going to do?” she whispered. “We don’t have any money. And I’ve only been to St. Mungo’s once before. I don’t know how to get anywhere I recognize from here.”

Malfoy put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer to him, which was so comforting. More comforting than she would have thought. Just having him close, knowing that they were in this together—and that he was acknowledging their togetherness—calmed her before madness struck.

“We could try walking?” The upward, questioning lilt of his suggestion tuned Ginny in to his own worry. She wondered how horrifying it must be for him to be stuck in a Muggle area, unable to use magic lest someone see them, unable to travel because they were lost and Knut-less.

“In which direction? And how far?”

Ginny looked over Malfoy’s shoulder to the exit of the alley. Muggles flooded down the street loaded down with sweets and shopping bags, electronic devices held up to their ears. No one noticed them, nor would they. In the shadow of the alley, Malfoy’s black ensemble blended right in, and his bulk obscured Ginny from view. But they couldn’t very well stay in this alley forever.

She sighed, resigned to their fate. “They’ll come after us.”

“Yes,” Malfoy agreed. “We’re too dangerous to wander amongst Muggles.”

“We could try to enjoy as much of the day as we can before they find us,” she said. Her stomach took this opportunity to growl ravenously, and both she and Malfoy chuckled.

“How do we pay for lunch?” Malfoy asked.

Ginny took a step closer to him, her fingers pressing on his shoulders to turn him around. “We don’t.”

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Author notes: While writing this story, I did some research to see if wands were necessary for Apparition and couldn't find an answer. So I apologize if new info has come to light since summer 2013, that wizards can Apparate without a wand (which is personally my theory, even though I suggest the opposite in this story).

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