Ginny didn't really wake up the next morning, actually, she was revived. Late. Cursing Malfoy, who had woken her up without enough time to shower, Ginny hopped on the spot, trying to put on her tights before her time ran out and Malfoy and his friends woke up the boulders. "Three, two, one," she heard Malfoy counting down from outside the bathroom door. She burst out into the dormitory and got to the stairs just before the door snapped shut and Crabbe and Goyle were suspended by their ankles (in substitute of alarm clocks).
"Hey Gin." Said Colin, sitting down next to her in the library.
"GINNY! It feels like it's been ages!" cried Amy, taking the seat that Malfoy had just disappeared from opposite her. "We like, never see you anymore! It's just unfair!" Ginny laughed.
"So, good day so far Colin?" she asked.
"Only had two periods and today's shit." He announced proudly with a smile. "You Gin?" he cast a look at Malfoy. Amy ignored this however; she was good at doing that.
"Oh come on Colin, today hasn't been that bad! Think of Potions! Hey Gin, guess what we made in Potions!" Ginny shrugged but knowing Amy, she knew she would have to guess. "Err, truth serum? Polyjuice potion? Shrinking solution? Oh, I give up! What did you make?" Amy giggled and pulled a small crystal bottle from her bag. "Err, Colin? Are you sure it's safe for Amy to be carrying that around?" asked Ginny, staring at the bottle and edging her chair back slightly.
"Fair point." Said Colin with a grimace, taking the potion away from Amy. "Here, you look after it Ginny. Obviously Amy's not trusted with it and I'm sure she nick it off me." He said in explanation, seeing Ginny's expression.
"By the way Amy, why do you have a bottle of amourtentia, the world's most powerful love potion, in your school bag?" Amy giggled and both of her friends sincerely hoped for a reasonable explanation.
"Well," Amy managed to say through her giggles, "you know how when you take a sample of something and Snape doesn't like you so he ruins it? I thought I'd take another sample just in case he knocked the first one off the desk or something, but he didn't so I didn't need it and I just put it in my bag." Her giggles overcame her again so Amy stopped talking. Ginny removed the stopper from the bottle cautiously and took a sniff. Steam began to spiral from the bottle and Ginny's nose was filled with three almost overpowering scents. First she smelled apple pie, the kind her mum made and she absolutely loved, it was her favourite dish of all time, then she could smell something that reminded her of quidditch, sort of like quaffle leather, broomstick polish and (although was slightly disgusted by this) the smell of quidditch robes after a game. The final scent puzzled her. It was a strong smell, kind of like sandal wood. Ginny had no idea why she was attracted to sandal wood, exactly what in her life linked her to sandalwood? Sure she liked it but it if was on liking the smell alone, surely she would've smelled her own perfume or something?
"Why are you guys staring at me?" asked Ginny. After sixteen years of living with Fred and George, you can hardly blame her for being suspicious.
"Nothing, we were just wondering what you smelled." Said Amy with an encouraging smile, the kind that told you there was something you were going to tell her. Ginny knew she would eventually but didn't want to cave this soon.
"You first Amy, what do you smell?" Amy sighed and Ginny offered the bottle to her friend to sniff.
"Mmm… I smell scented candles, you know, those really nice ones that are meant to be relaxing, and Honeyduke's chocolate and Justin's cologne!" giggled Amy.
"Really, Amy? Justin last?" asked Ginny, surprised that scented candles had come before the boyfriend the whole of Gryffindor, and probably most of the other houses as well, had heard so much about.
"Well obviously Ginny! The one you're most attracted to is always last!" she passed the bottle on to Colin who looked a little shocked then promptly passed it back to Ginny. "Oh no you don't Colin, if we're telling you ours then you're telling us yours!" Amy told him sternly. Colin looked a little dubious but sniffed the bottle anyway.
Sooo?" asked Amy
"Errm… I smell, and butterbeer, the stronger type though, and, you know that sort of smoky smell you get from those blue flames you put under cauldrons? Yeah that, and pine trees, you know, that really great smell they've got." So now it was just Ginny left, her two friends stared at her expectantly.
"Fine, fine. I smell apple pie, a quiddtichy type smell and a kind of spicy sandalwood smell."
"Sandalwood? What's so special about sandalwood?" asked Colin, confused. Amy just giggled.
"Anything you feel you should be telling me Gin? New boyfriend maybe?"
"What? No, why?" asked Ginny, perplexed.
"Well… I'd say sandalwood features in a lot of colognes, sure there's no one you fancy right now?" Amy giggled again as Ginny blushed slightly, both her and Colin finally understanding what Amy was getting at.
"No Amy, there is no one like that. And even if I wanted there to be, do you really think I could get a boyfriend anywhere near to me while I'm chained to a ferret?"
"Fair point." Amy conceded thoughtfully, though for some reason not looking entirely convinced. "Well, if you figure out why, make sure I'm the first to know. You'd be amazed how many people discover their own secret crush from smelling amourtentia you know!" Ginny blushed a little deeper as Amy winked at her. Before either of them could make further comment, it seemed Malfoy had become bored as Ginny fell off her chair and was aware of a slight dragging feeling. Apparently it was very definitely time to go back to Slytherin tower now as he rarely did that, only when he wanted to go now this instant did he knock her off her chair like that. Bidding a hasty goodbye to her friends Ginny got up and found the source of the magical dragging, accompanying him back to the common room (his common room, merlin, was she forgetting she was Gryffindor?).
"Eurrgh! I hate Potions!" Ginny threw her bag to the floor angrily and then threw herself onto her bed. In her defence, she had just spent three hours doing her Potions essay.
"Errm, Weasley, should I be alarmed by that?" asked Draco, looking slightly warily at a small crystal bottle that had just rolled out of her very much discarded school bag. Ginny laughed loudly but this only made him more worried.
"Relax Malfoy, I'm not going to slip love potion into your food. I've only got that cause the sixth years made it in Potions and we didn't think it particularly wise to let Amy keep it. Draco cast his mind back, trying to think which girl was Amy. He shuddered slightly as he remembered, no that girl was definitely not one to be left to her own devices with a bottle of love potion.
"Right." He said, "So if you're not planning on slipping it to anyone, what are you going to do with it?"
"Good question. I'm afraid I have no idea." She picked it up and removed the stopper, watching the heavily scented steam rise in its "characteristic spirals". Draco backed away from the steam, not wanting to catch its scent.
"What's wrong Malfoy? Not want to get a whiff of your three secret attractions?" she teased.
"Get in the bathroom Weasley, unless of course you want Nott to come in here and ogle you?" Quick as a flash, Ginny was in the bathroom with the door shut and locked, not that she really thought Malfoy would try and open it. Draco sat on his bed, removing his shirt, he really was quite tired. He eyed the amourtentia cautiously, Weasley had been right; he did not want to know what he would smell. Attraction is weakness and, "You are a Malfoy, you must have no weakness!" His father's constant refrain, you must have no weakness. The truth was, he was a little scared of that bottle, not of what attracted him, but that that bottle knew his three greatest weaknesses. He did not want to know what they were. Ah well, what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger.
As Malfoy pulled the covers over himself when he got into bed, Ginny was sure she caught a whiff of sandalwood. She sat up and turned, searching for the source of the smell. She almost laughed when she realised where it was coming from. Amy must be crap at making amourtentia, there was no way she fancied Malfoy.
"Malfoy?"
"Hmm?" he murmured.
"I can't sleep. Play chess?" he nodded and got up from his bed, preparing the chess board.
"So we'll miss the first nightmare tonight?" he grinned at her. As usual, Malfoy won their game of chess. She was getting better though, he couldn't do it so quickly as he could previously now, but she didn't get long to practice, he always made sure he was back in bed in time to fall asleep and have his nightmare, he always insisted on it.
"Zabini? Why does Malfoy always have his nightmare?" she asked across the room when Malfoy was in the bathroom, "I mean, there are like a million things he could do to stop it, but he insists on it. He even insists that it be the same time, why the hell does he do that?" Zabini sat up and considered her for a moment.
"It's the same time because he's just a bit obsessive like that, even his subconscience makes sure he has the same dream at the same time every night."
"But he doesn't have to, why does he-?"
"I think, he makes sure he has that nightmare every night so that he can make sure it is still his nightmare." Draco had taken less time in the bathroom than they had expected and he walked in now. He nodded to Zabini and got into bed.
"Weasley," he whispered so his friend couldn't hear him, "As a general rule, don't tell a Slytherin anything you wouldn't mind the whole school knowing. But don't tell Blaise anything you wouldn't mind being blackmailed with."
"What did you mean about Zabini last night?" Ginny asked Draco at breakfast the next morning.
"I thought it was pretty self-explanatory, don't trust Slytherins and Blaise is a blackmailer." He said, or rather drawled, to Ginny's irritation he still spoke with a drawl most of the time.
"Zabini, a blackmailer? You're joking right?" she laughed a little, Zabini had always seemed quite nice in a weird way, for a Slytherin.
"Oh yeah. Come on Weasley, think about it; Blaise has got nearly as much of a Bad Boy image as me," he laughed a little but they both knew it was true, "How did he get it? He's family's not well connected, he's far too pretty to get into fights, how else do you get that respect in Slytherin? In Gryffindor he could've been brave and heroic and shit but that doesn't work here. Blaise took the easy way up. I've got to say, it's more dangerous than my way but it is more fun." He smirked.
"And what was your way Malfoy?" asked Ginny, sure she knew the answer already but she wanted to hear it from him.
"I don't take crap. You mess with me you pay for it, either I will jinx you or I will make someone whose already ugly beat you into a bloody pile of shit."
"Oh." This was not the answer she was expecting, she thought it would just be his family being rich Deatheaters.
"Not what you thought I'd say huh Weasel?" Ginny resented the Weasel part but nodded anyway, she wouldn't get anywhere by bringing that up. "I admit, it did start off with my family, but I really don't like crap and I'm good at manipulation. Even better when I've got a friend like Blaise." He smirked again, this one a little more like a smile though.
"What, so people just trust Blaise? After all this time, people still trust him, even though they're Slytherins too and know the rules?" Ginny was surprised by this, surely since most Slytherins were sneaky bastards they wouldn't confide in anyone, least of all a known blackmailer.
"No, most people don't, though I've got to say he can be very persuasive, always the sympathetic one who'll listen when you're upset. Not that many people let it show, but he's good at spotting it then. No, Blaise knows because he listens, looks, always on the job. Wouldn't be surprised if he actually has a little notebook to write down all the day's conversations just to make sure he's got everything. Be careful Weasley, no one with half a brain is as they seem." Ginny pondered this for a moment.
"So if Zabini is a blackmailer and you can't tell him anything, how come you do?" she asked, she desperately wanted to catch him out on one of his own Slytherin rules.
"Just because he's a blackmailer, it doesn't mean he's the only one." He said simply, in a tone that explicitly told her that there was nothing else he would tell her.
Ginny would never admit it, but Malfoy scared her slightly sometimes. The way with just a look, just a raised eyebrow or tone of voice he could command total obedience and convey so many things by saying or doing virtually nothing. By playing the innocent idiot from Gryffindor (something Malfoy had suggested so that she could make at least a small amount of her own way in not getting killed or something) she had managed to find out quite a bit about Malfoy.
The story about how he became the Prince of Slytherin for example. She was told that there always had to be a Slytherin Prince, the one who would have the most power, could dictate an awful lot of the lives of his fellow housemates, who got the biggest group of cronies and best seats, specifically the one by the fire in the common room. Not only was this the seat closest to the fire, it was the biggest and most comfortable chair in the whole common room and the only one which, by means of many conveniently placed mirrors, could see every dark corner of the shadowy room. No one in that room could ever be secret from the Prince. On his very first day in Slytherin Malfoy had walked up to the fifth year sat in that chair and raised an eyebrow. Just raised an eyebrow, and like that the old Slytherin Prince who had been four years older than him had just got up and Draco was the new Prince.
Yes, some things she heard about him scared her a little and reinforced her brother's and therefore her belief that Malfoy was just some arrogant, spoiled, horrible bastard with far too much money, but other things intrigued her, she even (dare she say it) liked some things about him. She was surprised how little violence he had ever used, even when someone had accidentally sat in his throne. He had just raised his eyebrow and left it at that. He was surprisingly considerate about some things; he even stopped his friends from teasing her sometimes.
Annoyingly often, Ginny found herself revaluating her opinions of Draco. She had spent six years thinking, no, knowing that Draco Malfoy was a world class prick who was going to follow in his twisted, murdering father's footsteps and become a Deatheater. Now, she didn't know. He seemed to love contradicting people. She didn't like Pansy, didn't just buy his grades, didn't spend his time lording it over the Slytherins, and she wasn't even entirely sure he wanted to be a Deatheater.
After Harry, Ron and Hermione had left for their "mission" or whatever it was they were doing, Ginny had taken on Hermione's subscription of the daily prophet. She rarely read it at breakfast, Malfoy didn't like to stay there too long (Pansy was there) so she would read it quickly on the way back to the dorms to get their bags.
"Oh god. Malfoy, have you any idea how many people got killed last night?" Ginny asked him in a horrified voice, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"No." Came his blunt response. "And I don't want to either."
Instantly Ginny's temper flared.
"Of course, you don't want to hear about all the horrible thing's Voldemort's done do you, you…"A flicker of something passed across Malfoy's face when she said the name. "What is it Malfoy? Scared to hear his name? Surely you of all people should be okay with it."
"Just because I grew up with a family that supports him, it doesn't mean we are any less afraid than anyone else." He said quietly in a voice that told her to say no more. Ginny ignored this and gave a small snort of derision and he turned on her like a whip, "You think your lot are scared of him? The worst he can do is kill you, bam, you're dead, gone, nothing else. Or unless you believe in which case you go to heaven because you're good. With us, that's the best he can do, just kill us and get it over with, either oblivion or hell cause we're bad people. The worst he can do to us is servitude. A lifetime of servitude, make us spend the rest of our lives: yes master. Arm burns, come to heel, yes master, burn, yes master, burn, yes master, yes master, no thoughts, hopes, dreams, wishes, just yes master, yes master, YES MASTER!" a pause while he breathed, "And then we go to hell. If you believe in that."
"So you don't believe in God then Malfoy?" he gave her a small, sad smile.
"Trust me Weasley, it's just easier not to. If I did then I'd have some serious anger issues."
"Even more serious than now you mean?" she laughed,
"Much." He told her, completely serious. "You see, with no god, my life sucks and that's the end. With a god, I'm being punished. Someone is deliberately torturing me and I don't know why." He got progressively angrier, his voice getting louder and louder with every sentence, "Did I do something wrong? If so, what, will I ever find out what I did? How do I even know I did something wrong? How do I know that god didn't just get bored, how do I know that he didn't just line everyone up one day and play ip dip do to find out who'd get a crap life? Why did they choose me? Why are some people's lives so fucking perfect while mine's so fucking shit? WHY DID THEY FUCK-?" he stopped for a moment and took a deep, calming breath, removing the emotion from his voice and face. "And that's why I don't believe." He walked off quickly, leaving Ginny staring after him.
Until she began to be dragged after him.
Ginny's thoughts were in a minor turmoil all the way back to the dormitories. As stupid and pathetic as it sounded, the Malfoys being evil had made up quite a large part of the foundations of Ginny's mind. To Ginny there had never been a time when the Malfoy's hadn't been bad, dark wizards. That was one of the earliest things she had known. The revelation that this may not be so didn't upset her exactly but she was feeling a little shaken.
The impact on her opinion of Malfoy was fairly massive. So did this mean he wasn't evil, wasn't a Deatheater, wasn't going to follow in his father's footsteps? Damn this was a change.
Things were starting to look rather worrying for Draco and Ginny as Christmas loomed ever nearer. Ginny knew there was no way her parents would allow her to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas so she'd have to go, and so would Malfoy.
Draco was not too happy with this idea. But as the bond showed no sign of breaking anytime soon; or just anytime in general, there was the genuine possibility that Draco Malfoy was going to have to spend the holidays with his Least Favourite Family in the World. Neither Draco nor the youngest representative of his Least Favourite Family in the World was looking forward to this prospect.
"Deck the halls with boughs of holly!" Sang Ginny cheerily as they made their way to Transifguration, "Fa la la la la, la la la…"
"Shut it." Said Draco angrily, he hated all this Christmas crap.
"Oh but Malfoy!" Cried Ginny as she skipped alongside him, "You've got to get into the Christmas Spirit!"
"Yeah Weasley, I know. And I think I'm doing it rather well in the style of London in 1834" He told her.
"What are you on about?"
He sighed theatrically, as though exasperated by her ignorance,
"Never read a Christmas Carol Weasley?"
Of course, just like Draco Malfoy to pick up Scrooge's style of Christmas spirit. Ginny sighed but didn't give in.
"Yeah, but then at the end…"
"Fine then Weasley, at the very end of the Christmas holidays, I will put a piece of holly in my room in celebration. Happy?" Ginny sighed again, knowing full well that this was the furthest she was ever going to get.
"Fine Malfoy, fine. Just so long as it's there and I see actual evidence of its existence I rest my case for this year."
In Transfiguration, McGonagall picked up the Christmas Spirit almost as well as Malfoy, announcing that as far as their NEWTs were concerned, there was no such thing as a holiday and as such there would be no slacking off work,
"Although if you want, you can try to transfigure your owls into festive looking opera glasses." No one wanted to though, as this required adding quite a lot more long words and hand gestures to the end of an already difficult spell. Even Hermione would've blanched when she saw exactly how complex adding a Christmassy feel to an object made spell work.
Another nightmare. Another fucking nightmare, just as bad as all the others. This one worse actually. Draco was sure that on the other side of the door, Blaise and Weasley were probably having a conversation, probably about him, probably Weasley asking Blaise what he dreamed about. Draco thanked whatever god that might be out there that he didn't believe in that the only person who could tell her that was not going to. He trusted Blaise, and he trusted blackmail. Even without it though, he doubted whether his friend would've told her. You could trust Blaise, sometimes. Circumstance depending. No, you could. You knew that if he had dirt on you there would be a price for that, and once it was paid it stayed paid, Blaise was honest. If you could trust a blackmailer then Blaise was very much trustworthy, he never lied about what he was going to do with your information.
Draco took a deep breath and looked out of the artificial window, showing an accurate representation of what the lake looked like from that spot many metres above. He took a step towards it, if he couldn't quite reach the window then the bond was still on, then the world was real and that was just a dream. He took another step. Then another. It wasn't a large bathroom, one more step and he would be at the window. Why couldn't he feel the tug of the bond? At the risk of pulling Weasley out of bed then having to face a fuming Weasel after returning to the dorm, he took another step. And then began to panic.
"Weasley get up!" He hissed at her in an agitated whisper.
"What? Why?"
"Just do it!" Grumpily, Ginny pulled the covers off herself and got out of her lovely warm bed.
"You happy now? What do you want?"
He ignored her. "Go over there, go on." Ginny gave him a look that suggested he was utterly insane and walked in the direction of his pointing finger.
"What now?" She asked wearily, shivering slightly from the temperature contrast and looking around furtively to check that none of the hangings were open so that she couldn't be seen. "What? Malfoy what the fuck?" Draco had just sat down on his bed and put his head in his hands. "Seriously Malfoy, what the fuck are you doing?"
"Either this is very good, or very bad." He said quietly, his voice muffled slightly through his hands.
"What?"
He looked up at her. "Care to measure the distance between us?" Ginny's tired brain quickly(ish) worked over that statement, wondering what he was on about. A few seconds frantic thought brought Ginny to the answer, but more confusion.
"Malfoy, why are you upset about this?"
"Because the world may or may not be real and there is the possibility that I am trapped in and endless nightmare." Came Draco's dull response. Ginny was unsure of whether or not she ought to laugh, but a glance at his face told her that would be unwise.
"Errm, why?" She asked cautiously.
"Because that bond was one of the only aspects of my existence that my father doesn't know about. If he has chosen to do something horrible to me, trapping me in my own nightmare for example, then that would be the one detail he would've missed out. So either the bond has broken of its own accord and this is a cause for great celebration, or the Dark Lord has trapped he in a nightmare within my own head."
"Huh. Any way of working out which one?"
"Get Blaise."
"Alright… Oi Zabini." Ginny raised her voice to her normal volume, not bothering to do anything else, she was sure he was awake and listening intently anyway.
"Yeah?" Ginny was correct.
"Go talk to Malfoy."
He didn't bother to ask why, he had, as all of them knew, been listening in on every word. "What?" He asked in a whisper.
"What's the worst piece of dirt I have on you?"