Disclaimer: : This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Warnings: HBP spoilers and attempted rape.

Authors notes: Thank you to all of you who have reviewed! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. If you're not already, please be aware that this story has dark themes and yes, it's a bit depressing. It will get better I think, but don't quote me, I haven't finished it yet! Cheers, JennyFeather

Chapter one – The Ghost of a Girl

Its early fall now, and as I walk the streets of London I can feel the rain drizzling down on me and the pavement that supports me. The sky is gray and the wind is a bitter and constant friend. It is unseasonably cold and I should have a cloak, or at least a warmer coat. But what I have I'm wearing. It's thin and pink, and it clashes horribly with my hair.

The muggles I pass do not see me, or at any rate they do not notice me. That is how I feel these days. I wonder, as I move through crowded streets and into rooms full of people, if they would notice me if I were alive. I'm not dead, my body walks and talks, and occasionally it eats, but I know that I am worse than a ghost. I work and sleep, and intermittently I have to ask Percy for money. The first time was humbling, he had not forgotten the last time he saw me. It was at mum's service, and he had not forgotten the the time before that at Christmas. Then we saw each other more regularly, though we did not speak. We sat through service after service, looking at each other and wondering which one of us would go first. Who would be at whose funeral next time?

I have never been close to Percy, though even if I had I wouldn't tell him that I'm being haunted. I wouldn't tell him an invisible man watches me undress, that he's probably watching me now. I wouldn't tell him and he probably wouldn't ask, that I masturbate while I know that he's in the room.

I wouldn't tell him or anybody that asked that as I hang my horrid pink coat on a peg by the door, I crave something familiar, something warm. If it were something that I could hold or that alternatively could hold be back. Something that could make me feel anything other than suffering loss, make me weep or smile or be who I was before, before any of this.

Anything that could make me care again. If it could make me smile as I carry heavy trays of food. Anything that could make me fight back as a muggle in a business suit grabs my bum. Anything at all…

I set the last tray down on the stack and pull the restraint from my hair. My shift has been a blur of scrubbing and waiting and being sexually harassed. As I pushed the side door open, the one that leads to the alleyway behind the Bull and Priest tavern, I take a cigarette out of my coat pocket and light it. It fills me with a false release, and I sigh in the knowledge of it. It feels good to let my hair fall down my back and to fill my lungs with smoke. A tune that my mum used to sing fills my head and feel the corner of my mouth twitch before I let broaden into a half smile.

Crack!

The cigarette falls from my lips and I look to my left, my eyes raking the alleyway for the source of the sound. For there certainly was a sound, the sound of someone apperating. My hand fumbles for a moment in my pocket before extracting a wand.

"Lumos" I whisper, and the darkened alleyway is illuminated in wand light.

I wait, my chest heaves and I know in the back of my mind that I'll have to give up smoking. My eyes still rake the alleyway after five minutes have gone by, and I have to admit to myself that whoever apperated or disapperated into the alleyway is gone.

"Nox"

I bend to retrieve my cigarette still lit on the pavement by my shoes.

"All alone mishy"

I jump and stand strait, a man with a gravely voice and an overgrown beard is standing close to me. But he is not a wizard certainly. His clothing is old and smells ungodly, and I wish the way he was leering at me was unfamiliar.

"Leave me alone-"But he grabs my arm that had been reaching for my wand and pins it over my head on the side of the building. I try to scream, to fight, or to do anything that will get this loathsome creature off of me. It is useless, he is to strong and I know I cannot overpower him.

His hands are everywhere, and in my desperation I cry. Tears stream down my cheeks as he rips my coat to one side the buttons popping off and zinging around the alleyway. One of his hands is inside my skirt, inside of me and I gag.

He really is going to rape me. I begin to hyperventilate when he is being pulled off of me. I slide to the ground, to afraid to move.

"I believe the lady asked you to leave her alone" says a cold male voice "Crucio"

I have seen the affects this curse before. But this is the first time that I have had a sense of morbid satisfaction watching someone's body contort and writhe in pain.

It's a long moment before I realize that he is screaming. I look up and down the alleyway and hear the sound of footfalls and voices.

Muggles.

"Stop" I say. I look to my rescuer and feel the air leave my lungs. I recognize his face, but more importantly I recognize his smell. My head swims in comprehension, it is too impossible to believe.

Lucius Malfoy lifts his wand from his victim, my attacker, and looks narrowly at me. He looks down the alleyway and I know that he has heard it to.

He pockets his wand and offers me his arm, which I take numbly. I stand and look dazedly at him. My head is swimming because I can smell him and I know. He knows that I know too, because he has just given me a piercing look. I'm no great shanks at legimency but I know what he's doing.

Images flash before the insides of my eyelids and I know that he is probing me for information. But information for what? Certainly not the war.

One by one as though in fast forward they flash, and I feel them too. Harry saying goodbye to me at Dumbledore's funeral. Asking Percy for money. Crying in the girls' toilette at work. I go through the motions. I'm only dimly aware of the muggles getting closer when he grabs my arm to keep me from falling.

"Go!" he hisses, and I dissapperate with a pop.

I didn't know she was in the alleyway until I apperated there. It's the spot I often choose to stalk her from when she gets off work late at night. Also, and I'll only admit it to myself, there are dangers that I can't' stand for her to face.

She was smoking a cigarette when I surprised her. It fell gracefully from her lips and her hands stumbled in the freezing lane for her wand which she stored in a coat pocket.

"Lumos" and the alley was illuminated in an eerie light.

Her eyes were alive and bright with apprehension. Looking up one way and down the other, her wand at the ready, she chewed her bottom lip and her hair streamed down her back like a streak of sunset. My beautiful Ginevra.

I wasn't going to make my presence known when she stooped to retrieve her cigarette from the street. And when that vagrant attacked her I was going to wait and see if he only stole her purse. But soon I knew that he was after much more than her wallet.

My temper, I was famous for it in my youth, flared. Before I knew it I had disarmed the enchantment that kept me invisible and I was upon them. My wand was drawn and red clouded my vision, for he had dared to touch her in that sweet spot of hers.

I know it was reckless of me, and what can I tell you other than I am a man in love. That and I have a terrible jealous streak.

I didn't even know that I had used my bare hands to pull him away from her until he was on the ground screaming.

"I believe the lady asked you to leave her alone. Crucio"

Ginevra was on the ground sobbing, and I relished the fact that I was the one who saved her, not some bouncer from that seedy pub she works at. I was unaware that anything else existed except the fact that this petulant tramp was being tortured for assaulting the woman I have watched so carefully for these past months.

"Stop." Her voice pulled me from my trance, and as looked at her disheveled form I knew that she knew. Comprehension lit her tear streaked face as she realized who I was. It was bad form, I know, to use legimency against her in her damaged state. Though I do love her, I am still the man I always was.

I had already heard the sound of muggles approaching us and I knew that time was of the essence. It was almost troubling to look into her mind though, and in my softness for her I could only stand there searching her mind as the muggles came nearer and nearer to us.

"Go!" I hissed, almost as it was too late. And with a soft pop she dissapperated leaving me alone in the alleyway.