Chapter One – Mirror, Mirror...
She reached blindly for the switch and flicked the light on. While stumbling into the large bathroom, her gaze was fixed on the faucet. It took all her self control to keep from looking in the mirror.
With trembling hands, Ginny turned on the water and waited for it to get as cold as she needed it to be. After a few minutes of intently staring at the running liquid she tentatively reached out her hand and soaked her fingertips in it. Seeming content with the results of her exploration, she proceeded to let the water pressure ease the stillness of her wrists. It slowly drowned the tension her body had been experiencing. She finished by washing her face.
Amber eyes rose slowly to meet the image reflected by the mirror. The feeling of impending doom followed the movement. She wasn't going to like what she saw. And yet, her troubled mind pushed the truth into her consciousness, she wasn't going to hate it either. Maybe that was even more torturous.
"You can't rinse away sin, Ginevra. It doesn't cover your skin. It is your skin."
His voice was calm and taunting. His reflection wore an unnerving smirk.
Tom's pale hand rose to her exposed neck. She gasped waiting for the contact she dreaded. But his fingertips never brushed her skin. They hovered over the alabaster surface. She felt their shadows tracing the arch of her throat.
Her eyelids fluttered shut for a few seconds and she felt him there. Ginny could see them in the neon lighted bathroom, her flesh burning and her body shivering - his gaze powerful and possessive. She opened her eyes and stared into the reflection of his dark blue ones. "Dark blue, almost black", her own voice echoed in her mind. All her senses were going mad. He was so intensely there that it intoxicated her. His reflection, the way the shadows of his fingers felt on her skin, his specific scent.
The boy curled his fingers. His knuckles were closing in on her cheek, waiting to caress the soft surface. Her eyes suddenly shut again, as it seemed that this time he was going to follow through on his gesture. His hypnotic eyes were concentrating on her, almost burning her with their obsessive attention. And again she was left waiting for a touch that never came.
She abruptly turned around to find nothing but the still air.
"Come on, Weasley!", Draco sighed in exasperation as he pushed the intercom button with spite.
He took the pack of cigarettes out of the back pocket of his jeans and contemplated pulling one out and letting the frustration drain out of him as the grey smoke filled his lungs. His long fingers drew the edges of the rectangle with rough strokes. Suddenly, deciding he wasn't going to over-analyze it, he pulled one out and swiftly ignited the tip with his silver lighter.
Where the hell was Ginny? They had agreed to meet up in front of her place at 8. And that had been 25 minutes ago. Ginny wasn't exactly big on punctuality but she knew Draco didn't tolerate being kept waiting and had managed to limit her definition of fashionably late.
It was a mystery to the blond wizard how she managed to always be there at precisely the time indicated when work was involved and yet if there was a social situation, meeting co-workers or just hanging out together, she could be exasperatingly tardy. He sometimes threatened never to pick her up again or to avoid her company in non-professional situations all together but they both knew those were pathetic attempts at regaining his dignity after a twenty minute wait. Being an Auror meant that you didn't have the time to make friends outside the work place and ever since they had been partnered they had had few attempts at establishing friendships that they knew would be impossible to sustain. Their social life consisted mostly of drinks with her brother and his best mate, the incredible Harry Potter.
Ron and Harry had been partnered as soon as they had set foot in the Department. Which was the same year Draco had finished his training and started working as an Auror. It had taken many hostile exchanges and snarky remarks but they had become civil after half of year. Twelve months after their initial reunion the three had become friends in an unusual, sometimes insulting sort of way. None of them were really surprised by this though. Draco had changed in the war. He had grown up. He became silent, observant. He decided that his previous plans for his own life were not what he considered acceptable anymore. Living off his fortune and managing the business was not what he wanted. He handed of the presidency of Malfoy Holdings to someone who loved running it, and who wouldn't skimp too much off the top. He became an Auror and started hunting down people who, like his deceased father, were a menace to wizardkind.
His first year in the Auror's department had been a very inconsistent one. There were few people who could deal with him. He had a very unapologetic manner about him and a cruelty and attitude that drove many potential partners away. He was still a bastard and an asshole, as Ron liked to remind him. All that had changed when Ginevra Weasley had started to work there. It had taken a 5'5" witch to control the uncontrollable. Ginny's had more than enough experience when it came to dealing with impossible males. She had six brothers after all. They had been partners for three years now and even though they had their fights, they were a powerful team.
He threw away what was left of his cigarette and started pushing the intercom button again. Just as the nth profanity of the night was about to exit his lips the door to the building opened and a very peculiar looking Ginny headed towards him.
"Hey. I'm sorry I'm late. I know you hate it. I was just catching up on some sleep and lost track of time."
He observed her carefully. Her voice and posture were normal but her face was pale and her hands were trembling slightly. And there was something else. Something he couldn't exactly put his finger on. If he were a Muggle he would dismiss it as his mind playing tricks on him. But that never happened. He was an Auror. His staying alive depended on his mind functioning correctly. And right now something was off.
She noticed his gaze on her shaking hands and pulled the black jumper over them.
"Too much bloody caffeine", she explained with a small smile.
"Right. Well we better get going. Your brother and Potter said they'd be waiting at the Leaky Cauldron."
She nodded slightly and they started making their way across Muggle London.
"And then the bloody moron started singing the fucking Anthem at the top of his lungs."
A roar of laughter met Ron's words.
Ginny made out the shape of the two men through the thick fog of cigarette smoke. She prepared herself for an evening of faking good humor and whole-hearted laughter.
She wouldn't think. She shouldn't. Insanity fed on thoughts. It had only been a dream - no! A nightmare. It was just another phantom of her time in the Chamber, just another aberration of her over-worked mind. His dark eyes and burning gaze hadn't been real. There was no way they could have been. He was as dead as her idealized perceptions of the world. She couldn't dwell on those unreal sensations. Even as she willed herself to resist, she realized the futility of her stubbornness. The thoughts never left. There was no avoiding them. Everything else was pretense and., as soon as her audience was gone, she would be left alone with her own mind – terrifying company.
"Gin!", Ron bellowed when he noticed her.
"Hey Ron, Harry!", she answered plastering a zirconium smile on her face.
She let herself drown in meaningless conversation, letting the wave of the mundane (rinse) wash over her. She ordered a glass of fire whiskey and ignored her brother's quirked eyebrow and the feel of Draco's stare on her. No time to think, just time to act. She wouldn't be able to remember the words that she had responded too, the jokes she had laughed at later. It was as if her body was on automatic pilot, a conservation instinct that she had long trained taking over and distracting them with regular behavior. It took all her energy to act like she was there when she wasn't. By the end of the evening she was ready to collapse. Her time with her friends was only a chaotic abundance of arbitrary images and sounds, like the world had spanned uncontrollably for those hours, never allowing her to grasp it and gain some stability.
As the idle wind brushed over her skin, it seemed that she could finally let herself sink back into reality. She was aware of Draco's presence and yet it seemed that it was soothing rather than torturous. Although the chilly night was sending shivers through her body, she appreciated the waking effect it had on her. The sound of their steps over the pavement was so familiar it made her feel almost safe. Almost.
She saw him lighting a cigarette as she glanced discretely through the corner of her eye. She chose not to comment on that. It would ruin the moment. And besides, it added to the feeling of familiarity that had taken over her. Focusing on his tall form and stealing peaks at his lips as they drew the electric blue smoke kept her brain busy throughout the rest of walk back home.
"Walk me to my door", she nearly whispered.
His eyes narrowed and a smirk crept its way up to his lips. He didn't say anything. He threw away the cigarette bud and held the door open for her.
Ginny didn't waste much time. As she flicked her wand to open the door and deactivate the wards, she caught the collar of his blue shirt and pulled him inside the apartment. Burning skin and tangled limbs struggled for control. As her sweater flew across the room to land on the counter, Draco drew his lips from hers.
"We said last time that it was the last time.", he reminded her playfully as his hand looked for the bra hook.
"Come on, Malfoy –", she said following his lead, "don't turn moral on me now..."
Enthralled by activities that demanded all his attention Draco Malfoy didn't notice that all the mirrors were covered by velvet curtains.