Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Harry Potter. That's J.K. Rowling. I only borrowed her characters. Anything you recognize is hers.
Warning: This is rated M. There will be language, and probably violence and sexual things.
This prologue is about someone almost being raped. It does not actually happen, but I thought I'd just let people know that.
Author's Note:This is set in the middle of Ginny's fifth year, and the middle of Draco's sixth year. It will mostly follow the plot of the Deathly Hallows with a few modifications. Thank you to randomfandomlover130 for being my beta!
She ran down the halls. Her breath was heavy, her red hair flowing free behind her. She wore a nightgown. It wasn't even at all appealing, but it was enough to make him look at her. As she ran, she cried. She didn't want this to happen. If she could, she would go back in time so that she never decided to go to the kitchens. She would have stayed in bed and listened to her stomach growl until the morning. If she knew that this was going to happen, Ginny would have gone to dinner in the first place. But she didn't, and now she was regretting it with every fiber of her being.
Ginny could hear him behind her. His breaths came out in pants. He played Quidditch, but he wasn't nearly as resilient as she was. He was wearing much more than Ginny was—he was still clad in his school robes.
Ginny ran like she never had before. She whipped past the kitchens—her original destination—and turned corner after corner.
The tears came faster. Neither of them had their wands. She left hers in her room, and his was perched on the table in the common room. If she just brought her wand, she thought helplessly, this wouldn't be happening. She would have hexed him; he would've stopped. He wouldn't be following her now. When it came down to it, Ginny was powerless without magic.
He was gaining on her. She could tell. She had almost fallen as they ran down a set of stairs, going deeper and deeper into the dungeons. His hurried footsteps were getting closer and closer. Ginny could barely see past her tears; it took all of her senses for her to not run into anything.
"Ginny!" It was the first time he spoke since she ran. He sounded angry. "Slow down, dammit!"
He wasn't drunk. No, Ginny knew he was sober. This was all him. He was the one that was going to hurt her, not Firewhisky. He was definitely acting strange, though she didn't know why. He has never shown any interest in her. At the same time, Ginny knew that she had never shown any interest in him. He'salways been kind, in a brotherly way, towards her. Therefore, she had no idea where this all of this came from.
That day, she skipped dinner to finish her Potions essay. She was up for hours, trying to complete her homework. At about one in the morning, she gave herself over to her hunger and decided to go to the kitchens. As she passed through the common room, he was sitting alone on the couch, reading. He'd asked if she'd wanted to sit with him, so she politely said yes because he looked lonely. There was no one else in the room.
After a pregnant pause, he started talking. He asked her to Hogsmeade, she said no. He asked her why not, she said that she wasn't interested. He asked for a reason, Ginny reluctantly explained that she only thought of him as a friend or an older brother. By then, he started to look mad. His eyebrows knit together, his lip twitching.
Ginny started to feel anxious. She wanted to leave. This wasn't at all the boy she knew. She was beginning to notice that his eyes were too hard, his voice was too aggressive. She was shifting in her seat, looking down at her hands when he kissed her. It wasn't a kind kiss. No, it was forced and angry. She pushed him away, but he leaned back in. He was growling at her, telling her that if she didn't let him do this, she'd be sorry. Ginny could remember her heart pounding. She was terrified. For a minute, she let him kiss her, thinking that maybe he'd go away. But he didn't. His hand started to trail down from her cheek to her chest. That was when finally Ginny pulled away. She quickly got up and ran, only to have him follow her out of the dormitories.
That was how Ginny found herself racing through the dungeons, just trying to get away. Her tears were blinding her.
"Ginny, I swear." She didn't know that he was so close; it scared her. She tripped. It only slowed her by a second, but that second was enough. He grabbed her shoulders, roughly shoving her against the wall. "You'll be sorry."
He slapped her. Ginny reached a quavering hand up to her cheek. It stung. "Dean!" She cried, "Dean, please!" She hated this. She hated feeling weak.
Dean Thomas shook his head, his eyes glinted hungrily. "Ginny, you know you want to."
"No. Stop!" Before Ginny could protest any further, he was attacking her lips in that mad, half-insane way he had before. Ginny's tears slid down her face. Her hands pounded his back. She couldn't make him stop.
"Stop!" A sharp voice hissed through the darkness. "Get off of her!" Suddenly, Dean was gone, leaving Ginny to sink down the wall. She realized how weak her knees were. It seemed as though she was in a tunnel. She couldn't feel anything. Her eyes were shut tightly. She heard the sound of someone running, but it seemed as though it came from miles away. She was vaguely aware that she was hugging her knees up to her chest. Maybe, she thought, maybe she was going into shock.
"Weasley?" Ginny gasped, forcing her hands to her eyes. She didn't want to open them, to know what just happened. She didn't want it to be real.
"Weasley, for Merlin's sake, open your eyes." Ginny knew that voice, but she didn't think it was any better than Dean's.
"No." Her voice broke halfway through the word.
She felt hands dragging her fists away from her face. She slowly opened her eyes. Meeting her gaze was none other than Draco Malfoy.
Ginny shut her eyes again. She cursed under her breath, rubbing her arms. She had no idea how the Slytherins lived down here; it had to be colder than any indoor place she'd ever been before.
"Weasley, keeping your eyes closed won't make me go away." Malfoy's voice sounded amused, but Ginny didn't laugh.
"I know," she said. She tried to keep her voice from trembling.
"Just open your damn eyes, Weasley."
Ginny slowly opened her eyes. Her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. Maybe, she thought dully, that was another sign of shock. She still felt like she was in a tunnel, and, as far as she could tell, her trembling was worse. She recalled having this happen last time, but she hasn't thought of it as shock.
Ginny hated thinking about it at all. It was four and a half years ago, but that didn't make the scars any less painful. Her first year at Hogwarts had been hell. Nobody knew the full extent of what Tom did to her, not even her parents. They didn't know that he hit her. They didn't know that he touched her. And she doubted that they even considered that he raped her.
She shivered. "Malfoy?" She seemed to be reaching the end of the tunnel. Her senses started to go back to normal, her breathing slowed. Ginny raised her eyes slightly to meet his. She was wrong—he wasn't laughing. He looked mad. Ginny didn't know why he was mad—it wasn't like he cared what happened to her. But as soon as she saw that expression, it was wiped away. Draco Malfoy's face became blank.
"Weasley?" Malfoy sat down next to her.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Prefect patrol."
"Oh." Ginny hated how small her voice sounded. She didn't want to sound that weak. She wanted to be strong. She cleared her throat and held her head higher. "Thank you."
Malfoy's eyes suddenly hardened again, his jaw clenched shut. "Are you mad?" he demanded, his voice rising higher than normal. "You don't just wander through the dungeons alone, Weasley! I'm not the most dangerous thing down here. You were practically asking for it!"
Ginny's mouth dropped open. "What, do you think I wanted to be—" she paused. She hated that word. "To be raped?" she hissed. A memory flashed before her eyes. She saw Tom Riddle, his dark eyes burning into hers as he put a cool hand to her cheek.
"Some people here really are pretty damn terrible, you know," Malfoy sneered, bringing Ginny back to herself. "Just like people say. They won't hesitate to hurt a girl like you."
"A girl like me?" Ginny was getting angrier. "What the bloody hell do you mean by that?" She pushed the weakness away, working to forget what just happened with Dean. This was one of her talents—forgetting. She could forget when Harry rejected her, or when Ron yelled at her. The only thing she has never been able to force out of her mind was Tom.
"An alone, unprotected Gryffindor." He spat the last word out as if it was filthy.
Ginny felt her cheeks getting warm. He had to know that she didn't have her wand on her. She changed the subject, leaning her head back to the wall. She ignored his obvious hate towards her house. She heard it all the time. "Did you see who it was?"
"No, but I bet that coward slithered back to the common room as soon as I hit him in the back of his head." Ginny's eyebrows shot up. He thought it was a Slytherin. And he hit him. "Why, Weasley? Did you see him?"
"Yeah, and it wasn't like you think it is."
"Well, then, who the bloody hell was it?"
Ginny felt her whole face turning red. "Someone." She didn't want him to know. If she told someone, it would just make it more real.
"Just tell me, Weasley. Was it Potter?"
Ginny shook her head furiously. "No, why the hell would it be him?"
Malfoy shrugged. Ginny turned to look at his face. He remained passive. She noted that there were dark circles under his eyes. "We can turn him in, Weasley." She didn't recognize the softer tone that crept into his voice.
She shook her head angrily. "I just want to forget about it, and you should too, Malfoy!"
"What, and just let a rapist roam around Hogwarts?"
"I want to forget about it!" Ginny pushed herself up until she was standing. She hugged herself, shivering.
"Weasley—"
"Shut up, dammit!" Ginny started backing away from him. The shock seemed to be sneaking back up on her. Her words sounded garbled to her, but maybe she just imagined it. Malfoy stayed on the floor. He was examining his nails as if they meant the world to him. He didn't even look up. "If I hear that you've said a word, I swear!" Ginny kept moving backwards, tears dripping from her eyes once again, but Malfoy kept his eyes on his cuticles.
"Whatever."
Author's Note: Here's the prologue! Hope you enjoyed. Welcome to my story, and I hope that you stick around!