Disclaimer: I enjoyed the ride- we really had an awesome time, now it's time to put the toys away.
Summary: I guess Voldie really does rock.
Author's notes: I love Coulda-been-evil!Ginny.
Funny Way of Showing ItShe should have been shivering. She should have been cowering and begging for her life. She should have been crying out in despair, praying for someone to save her. She should have been.
But she wasn't.
She was standing there, refusing to kneel in front of her new lord. She was standing there, her shoulders thrown back in defiance. She was standing there, not caring that her already short hair had become even shorter by fire singing the tips black.
He could tell she was angering the powerful mage trying to subdue her. The rail thin wizard, still weak from his final battle, stood from his throne and shouted down at her. "I will ask you only one more time, wench- What Lord do you bow to?"
She spit down at his feet. "I am a free witch- I worship no one."
The throng of surrounding Deatheaters took a large step back as the emaciated man raised his wand. "I gave you a chance Ginny Weasley- now you will join the rest of your family!"
Draco Malfoy's eyes went wide beneath his hood. Before Voldemort could utter the killing curse he stepped between his lord and the young girl. "Please, My Lord, let me have this one."
Voldemort's crimson eyes narrowed. "You have been faithful," he hissed, "Take her away from me- be sure she does not escape." Draco nodded and grabbed the last Weasley harshly by the arm. He quickly exited with her fighting behind him.
"Get off of me you scum!" she screamed. "You're a monster! You're garbage! You killed my family! You killed the ones I love!" They had made it to the Deatheater's personal quarters. "You're evil! You're beyond evil! You're," he removed his black hood, "Draco?"
Ginny went limp. She fell unceremoniously onto the hard wooden floor. She followed him with her eyes as he made his way around the room. With a flick of his wand he locked the door. Another wave, combined with a few words, and the windows turned from glass to stone. A fire roared in the fireplace behind her and torches along the walls lit the room. She kept her eyes on him.
"What do you want with me?" Her voice was weak and scratchy. "Why didn't you let that demon out there kill me? Do you think it'll bring you fame if you kill the last of us? It won't bring your father back. He's dead, Draco. Dead. My own brother killed him."
The blonde sighed and began removing his heavy robe. He hung it gently from a post of his bed. He disappeared from Ginny's sight only to return a moment later with a large navy colored towel hanging from a thin arm. "Ginny," he sighed again, "I'm going to take a shower. You may try to escape if you wish, but it won't happen. When I return you may then take a shower if you wish. After that, we'll see." Nodding to her, he left through another heavy oak door.
She didn't try to escape. She didn't pray for a savior. She didn't even move from where she had fallen when her captor had removed his mask. She simply sat, with her head down, listening to the water fall through the wall. She listened to the water begin. She listened to it run. She listened as it stopped and he stepped from the shower. Even without seeing him, she knew what he was doing. All men shower the same. She thought to herself. She could picture him drying the drops of water from his face. A face far less rugged than Charlie's, she reminded herself. She wondered if he dried his arms next, Like the twins told me they do, she thought. Or did he attack his hair with the towel? She wiped away a falling tear at the thought of his blonde hair compared to Percy's vibrant red.
The door opened and she looked up, dabbing away another tear. The blue towel was wrapped around his hips, reminding her just how thin he was.
"You need to eat more." The words escaped before she could stop them. After caring for so many men in her life she was turning out just like her mother. He smiled.
"I'm sure I do." He shrugged. "Too bad I can't cook to save my life."
Ginny wondered if she would have to.
Draco disappeared again and returned carrying a white towel. He dropped it on the floor in front of Ginny. Cautiously she reached out and took it into her arms. "Go shower, Ginny." He turned away from her. "I'm not trying to cause you any more pain."
"You sure have a funny way of showing it." By the time he had turned around to respond to her comment the bathroom door had closed with her behind it.
Ginny had always compared every shower with those at the Burrow. At the Burrow the heating charms were faulty. At the Burrow the ghoul in the attic would bang on the pipes and make the water come in spurts. At the Burrow there was always somebody else trying to get in the bathroom at the same time. At the Burrow showers were anything but relaxing. She loved them.
At Hogwarts, her dorm mates always rushed her. There was always a knocking on the door and every once in a while a break-in. During the winter it was nearly impossible to get a steady stream of warm water. They made her smile.
Draco's shower was steaming hot. There were charms to massage the kinks out of her back and potions to cure her cuts and bruises. He had given her as long as she wanted and was not planning on disturbing her. The shampoo smelled of berries, which struck her oddly. Draco's hair had always smelled of mint.
She would have given anything for a bad-mannered ghoul beating on the pipes.
Ginny stepped out of the shower and gingerly dried her body off. All the potions in the world, she knew, wouldn't cure her of all her bruises instantly. Wincing, she pulled her underclothes back on and her tattered dress came over her head. She folded the white towel back up and placed it atop the toilet. She opted to leave her sandals off- there wasn't much left to them anyway.
When she opened the door to the bathroom she found Draco sitting at a desk she didn't remember seeing before. He nodded to a pile of fabric sitting on the bed. "I assumed you would like some clean clothes. Pansy sent them over, she told me they should fit you."
Ginny eyed the clothes. "I'm fine."
He rolled his eyes. "Sit down, Ginny." She spotted a plush chair against a wall and lightly set herself in it. Draco opened his mouth to say something, but caught her cold glare. He turned away from her and focused on a paper at his desk.
Ginny tore her eyes from the back of Draco's head. Facing the securely locked door she sighed. "You never met me." She could feel him drop his eyes. "You promised to meet me and you never showed."
Draco stood and walked over to her. He looked for her eyes, but she refused to meet his. "Ginny, I couldn't." He cupped his hand around her cheek and her chocolate eyes followed his arm until they landed on the black figure carved into his skin. "Ginny, I couldn't bring you into this."
She glared up into his cool eyes. "And yet," she spat, "here I am. Here I am, and now I'm a prisoner!" She shot up from the seat and stormed across the room. "I would have willingly gone with you, Draco. I would have done anything you wanted." Ginny ran her fingers through her spiky red hair. "But you didn't show," she whispered. "You didn't show, so I tried forgetting about you. I buried myself in the side that should have won."
"Ginny," he laid his hand on her shoulder and felt her stiffen. "I wanted you to be safe. I thought the Order would win. I didn't want you to be hurt."
She turned on him, fire in her eyes. "You didn't want me to be hurt? And so you left me to fight on the loosing side? You didn't want me to be hurt, so you left me to watch every member of my family die? Damnit, Draco! Percy died in my arms, Draco. He was the last one left and," she held her bruised arms out to him, "and he died in these." The tears were flowing down her cheeks freely.
"My parents didn't expect me to come back, you know," her voice was quiet. "They knew what was happening, and they knew I would leave with you."
"They must have loved me for not stealing you away." He fingered the clothes sitting on the bed.
"They hated you. You broke my heart, Draco."
"If it's any consolation, Ginny," he handed her the clothes, "I broke my own heart that night." Without a word she went into the bathroom to change.
When she came back out, the room was empty. According to the clock hanging on the wall it was well past midnight. The windows, previously a dark stone, had been returned to glass, though they were as black as the sky outside. Ginny gently padded around the room in the nightgown Pansy had provided and proceeded to put out each lit torch. Sighing, she crawled into Draco's bed, wondering where he had been called to.
When Draco saw her, it was at almost five in the morning. He had returned from Lord Voldemort's private chambers and was worn to the bone. He smiled. A sight for sore eyes, he thought to himself.
Ginny was fast asleep beneath his covers. She was laying on her side, her hair a complete mess around her head and the thin nightgown barely hanging off her shoulder. In the dim morning light he was sure he could see the top of a pink nipple. For a moment he simply stood there, watching the girl he thought he knew. Shaking his head, he began stripping off his robes. Sighing, he slipped in bed beside the redhead. His head hit the pillow and he was fast asleep.
She was warm, for the first time in a long time. She was warm, which was odd, but even odder was that she wasn't alone. And the oddest thing yet, she felt very glad of that. The shoulder supporting her head was bony, she could tell, and yet she fit so perfectly in it that she couldn't feel a bone.
A pale arm was wrapped around her shoulders and when she burrowed deeper into her makeshift pillow it only held her tighter. Ginny felt a kiss land on the top of her head. Smiling and not being able to do a thing about it, she lifted her head to take a peek at whoever was making her stay so warm.
The blonde man kissed her again, this time on her forehead. Then again on the tip of her nose. Once lightly on her thin lips. After his three kisses were finished, he leaned back and took a good look at her.
Ginny's hair was messier than before, if that was possible. Her eyes were still groggy and made her look like she needed another three days of sleep to be able to function properly. Her nightgown hung loose on her shoulders- it had been a while since Pansy had seen her and she had obviously lost quite a bit of weight.
Ginny, in turn, was observing him just as he was watching her. His blonde hair, always so impeccably put together, was free around his face. She noticed the fading of a bruise along one of his cheekbones that she didn't see the night before. Perhaps, she thought, they'll let me have my wand back so I can heal that. She ran her fingers over the said bruise lightly. Draco winced.
"Whoever you have healing you is horrible."
"I know." She laid her head back down on his shoulder and he ran his fingers through her hair.
"I still hate you." She wrapped her arm around his waist.
"I still love you." He pulled the covers over her almost-bare shoulders.
"You didn't even know it was me up there."
She felt him shrug beneath her. "You cut your hair." Silence fell over the two, each thinking to themselves.
"What's going to happen?" She ran a fingertip along his chest, sending shivers through his body.
"We'll move on." His hand rubbed her back and she turned to face him.
"Why did you choose the Dark Side?" Her question caught him off guard. "And don't try to say it was expected of you- Snape didn't expect it."
"I…" he thought for a moment, "I guess I was trying to cause the least amount of pain."
Ginny laid her head back down on Draco's bare chest. She buried herself deeper under the covers, feeling Draco's arm hold tighter on to her. "You sure have a funny way of showing it," was the last thing she murmured before falling back to sleep.