Summary: GinnyX Draco fic. Ginny has just graduated Hogwarts but all is not going well for her. Voldemort might be gone but nothing can seem to save her from herself. She feels she has no one to turn to and ends up cutting herself to relieve the pain. She's careful as she can be but she could not hide forever. Worried friends and family all check her into Saint Mungos for extended therapy. Their words fall on deaf ears, however. Just when she thinks she might as well die she runs into a familiar face in the ward. Draco Malfoy. What is he in for? Will he be another problem in her already troubled life? Or will something else happen? Read to find out!

Authors Notes: Hello there. I just wanted to let you know that this fic will be a DracoXGinny fic eventually. I promise to update it regularly as I can. College might interfere a little but I'm sure I'll manage. I openly encourage questions and comments of all sorts. This story is not yet finished and your comments might help sway the story some. Without further ado, enjoy the prologue. It takes place just before Draco graduates.

:Warnings: Explicate violence, cursing, self-injury, angst, and love scenes.

Stigmatized

Prologue: A Chance Meeting

Hogwarts was passing by in a blur. Her rapid footsteps echoed down the empty hallways. No one ever came out this late at night; not that she really cared at the moment. She had let go and her demons had taken over. There was no length she couldn't run, no one she couldn't barrel through; the pain was welcome. She barreled down a long dis-used corridor to her secret place. No one would ever find her there.

Ginny came to a screeching halt at the end of the corridor. She fell to her knees because of the force of her sudden stop. She was breathing hard and trembling as she searched her robes frantically for something. She didn't notice the crumpled letter she'd been holding fall to the ground. All she cared about was her blade. Blessed bone handled scissors that she'd picked up while on a shopping trip with her mother of all places. Her fingers closed around them at last and she ripped them out of their pocket, tearing her robes in the process. Then she set to work.

She started on her legs, her blade flashed in the dim light with the frenzy of her work. She would show them. She would show them all the bloody wankers! They never listened, the never cared, and now this was her only solace. God why don't they stop? Why don't they ever fucking stop! She couldn't take it! Her breath came in short, gasping sobs as she etched her pain into the pale flesh of her legs. One deep stroke after another, she was almost hacking flesh from the bone. When her legs were streaming a slow red she tossed of her robes and hacked at her arms right through her blouse. Arms, shoulders, nothing was safe from the sweet mercy of her blade. She was so numb; she was desperate to feel.

She almost went for her stomach but she steadied herself. Not there... She might got too far. She leaned back on her legs and took a shaky breath, feeling, for the first time the deep, wet ache of all her wounds. She closed her eyes and let it sink in. It was bliss. Nothing ever centered her so much. She drew another breath, much calmer than the first and looked down at herself, at each bleeding wound. She watched the blood stream from them and slowly seeping into her robes and the floor. She pressed her hands to the red streams and spread it around, moping it slowly and staining her skin red. She was just starting to register a dizzy feeling when a voice rang out in the darkness.

"Careful Weasel, you don't want to off yourself now do you?"

Ginny looked up with are sharp gasp. No. Someone could not have found her! It wasn't until Malfoy stepped into the light offered by the moon through a nearby window that she first recognized him. "Malfoy!" she spat though it lacked it's usual venom. She was too spent from cutting as was starting to loose a little too much blood. She watched him approach, glaring at him the best she could from her vulnerable position on the floor. "What do you want Malfoy!"

Draco leaned down slowly until he was eye to eye with her. She edged back a little, taken off balance by the intense took in his gray eyes. It was like he was studying her...like some filthy lab rat or something. Her anger renewed she was about to try to hex him when he shoved her backwards onto the ground. "Clean yourself up Weasel," he sneered. "I don't want to have your pathetic little friends come running to me for revenge if you bleed to death here." With that he stalked off down the hallway, back towards his dorm probably.

Ginny scrambled to here knees, ready to curse Malfoy but his blurry form was already fading. Turning her attention back to the moment at hand she found her wand in a small puddle of blood and began clean up. She healed every incision neatly so that, once the blood washed away it wouldn't even look as though she'd been cut. Except for the cuts on her shoulder. Those she only sealed. The marks, the scars would still be there in the morning. She gave herself a few more moments before she slowly stood. She gathered her robe and the blood stained letter in her hands as she stared down at the puddle of blood she'd left behind. She wished she could just leave it...but there was too much chance that someone would find it. Raising her wand one final time she charmed the floor clean.

She lingered a minute more, staring out the bay window the hallway ended in. It offered a spectacular view of the Hogwarts grounds. She was so desperate to cut she must not have seen Malfoy standing by it. She hoped the ferrety bastard wouldn't tell...but even if he did she had no marks anywhere but her shoulders. Those that were there she hid with a brilliant glamour. She could deny everything. A cruel smile twisted her face as she thought, 'I always do..'