Photograph

Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): D/G
Summary: A year after the war, Draco sits down and stares at the old photographs of his ex-girlfriend. And he can't help but wonder where she is now, until he fines her locked up in a cage visible to the eye.
Disclaimer: All belongs to Jo, 'cept for the plot and any unfamiliar characters, places, and creatures. No profit is being made off of this story.
Author's Notes: This fic was inspired by the song "Broken", sung by Seether and Amy Lee.
Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP

He settles his lips between her jaw and her collarbone. A soft moan escapes from her mouth.
He understands what this means. He understands the butterflies in the stomach. He knows the anguish and ecstasy of the feeling …of love.
Wrapping her slender arms around his neck, patting his smooth back with her fingertips, she settles herself into his shoulder. She cannot escape this sinful action. This painful regret. This aching feeling burning inside like hellfire. She understands what it's like to feel numb. She knows what its like to wake up in the morning and realize that you have a stranger resting on your chest, listening to your heartbeat.
She knows what it's like to lose something. She knows how it feels to see that lonely photograph, 24/7 and no other image of her, but that. She understands what it's like to find her again, caged in a cell, her eyes bloodshot and lips cracked, bleeding. So weak, that she can hardly lift her head.

Sunlight broke through the sheer curtains, casting a red reflection onto the room. He slept silently on, caressing the pillow to his head. His calm breathing, relaxed and refreshed. Suddenly, his eyes awoke with a start; his heart thumped and a sick feeling came to his stomach. His throat felt tight and he struggled to breath.

Draco Malfoy sprung out of the four poster bed and rushed around the room, trying to find something of some sort. And the one thing he was searching for had been lying on top of his school trunk that he had not bothered to empty. In fact, the last time he had opened it was almost a whole year ago.

Draco shakily reached for it and stared back at the moving photograph. A thin girl, no more than the age of sixteen with fiery auburn hair and sinful brown eyes was being held in the arms of himself. She was smiling back, almost devilishly, but yet, sweet and innocently. He, of course was just smirking back like his own, usual self.

He was obsessed with the photo, like how Colin Creevey was obsessed with his fandom for Harry Potter, but far much worse than that. Every evening, before he lay down to rest in his bed, he'd put the photograph safely on top of his trunk, like it was a guardian protecting ground or something. Then, every morning when he'd wake and first light would hit his room, he'd have to find it and stare at it for hours, or it felt like he wouldn't be able to breath at all.

He still could not believe that he had fallen in love with a Weasley. Not necessarily fallen in love, because he did not know what that meant. He had to be taught. And the only one who was willing enough to try and show him heaven was her.

Ginevra Weasley.

Draco didn't want to try at first. He had just been using Weasley as a one night stand kind of girl. But she had made him weak. She had taken over his self-control. She had used him.

"I don't know what it's like to be loved. I never have been." She spoke these words so softly and haunting to him. Draco bit his lip. The temptation to give into this little, innocent thing was so tough, no matter how much of a Slytherin he was. He didn't know why, but it hurt. Maybe it was the beauty of her facial expressions towards him with her long, wavy hair falling over her shoulders. Maybe it was the beauty of her body that made him want something inside. Maybe his bad side had gone on vacation and his good side was finally kicking in, first coughing from the dust around him though.

He didn't understand what was quaking inside of him. He didn't understand how she could have never been loved. I mean, she was the one who had all the guys on her, Draco thought.

"Why me?" he asked, confused. "Why the bad boy of Slytherin? Why me over Potter or Thomas? What do you see inside of me that makes you believe that I can learn something that I was raised not to know or be familiar of?"

They were sitting on the floor of his bedroom at Hogwarts. He was head boy, of course at that time, but Ginny had somehow snuck into it. How she ever received the password, he did not know that either. The room was dimly lit; a few lanterns attached to the walls were still aglow, casting a shadow upon the wall of Ginny, Draco, and his bed. Ginny leaned against it and just stared angelically at Draco.

"…Because," she said, finally breaking the awkward silence, "I am different, Draco Malfoy. I don't follow, I turn the other way. I've had my run with Harry and Dean. I want to change my ways. I want to stand out of the ordinary…"

"Isn't that Lovegood's job?" Draco interrupted. Ginny gave him a look, but she knew that Draco knew what she meant.

"Draco, do you want to learn or not?" she asked, impatiently. Draco suddenly realized something. Even though she was a Weasley, he could completely have control over her. Like a seduction. But Ginny too smart for that, she would expect that that was Draco's idea.

His only response was, "Only if you promise that I'll still be me. Draco Malfoy."

She smiled and said, "I promise."

An owl swooped down onto the kitchen counter top where Draco was eating a bowl of porridge. It was Maroe, his eagle owl. He stuck out his leg for his master to take a tiny roll of parchment from him. Draco did this and gave Maroe a nibble from his biscuit. Then he set off across the room to a perch on the hearth next to the kitchen fireplace.

Draco stared at the roll of parchment for quite a bit. He was hesitant about opening it, but eventually untied the thread holding it together and unrolled the small piece of paper. A slight breeze slipped through the open window, making Maroe's feather tuft up a little and chill Draco's skin. The note read:

Draco, I set you free by teaching you to love. Now set me free by finding me on the seaman's shores.

He let the note flutter to the ground. His breaths became heavy. He needed to get that photograph on top of his trunk in his bedroom upstairs. He knew who it was that had written. He just couldn't believe it. And he didn't even know where to turn once he reached the end of the winding driveway. Where was she? Draco had to find out.