Chapter 3:

He looked in at her through the window of her cell. She sat there motionless, staring at the stone floor. Draco wondered how anyone could be so lifeless; she seemed not to be conscious of where she was or what she was doing. It was like she just… was.

"Right," he announced upon his entrance, "I brought you something."

"I'm not hungry," she announced without bothering to raise her head to him.

"It's not food."

She sighed and looked up. At first her face was motionless, and then her expression changed to one of suspicion, "Why did you bring me this?"

"Why do I bring you anything?" he asked annoyed. "I was told to."

"You can take it back."

"I will not. Look at you, you're filthy. You've been in those rags for more than a week; you should jump at the opportunity to get out of them!"

"Why? What shall I get cleaned up for?"

"How about… hygiene?"

"A lot of good it will do me surrounded by rats like you."

"Weasley, I have no time to argue. Now come on, we'll get you cleaned up and you can put on the pretty dress, right?"

"I said I don't want it. Now be a good little servant, like you are, and run along and take it back."

"Look you bastard," Draco had lost his cool and forced Ginny into the wall where he had her pinned by the arms up, "I serve no one. Especially not you."

She gasped in surprise and her breathing increased with fear, but she quickly gained her composure enough to bite back with her words, "Oh yes I forgot. How great you are, running around doing errands for You-Know-Who. He even has you buying dresses now."

"You don't know what you're talking about." He held her still, tightly by the arms.

"I know what I'm talking about. I know exactly what I'm talking about."

"I'm no more a servant to him than your parents are to the Order. I do my duty just like them. No one's forcing me."

"I'm sure he asked you kindly to do this! I wouldn't bet my life on it! And don't you dare talk about my parents or the Order! They're doing what they can to do good on this earth!"

"That's rich! Do good how? By killing other wizards? They do exactly the same as us."

"No," she seethed, her arms turning red from the pressure, "By getting rid of scum like you."

Draco flung her aside propelling her to the other end of the room where she collapsed on her knees. He glared at her, the anger building within him, "It wasn't a question Weasley. Now, we're going to get you cleaned up, and then you will wear the dress."

XX

"In the bath," he commanded.

"No."

"In. the. Bath. Now."

"No."

"Why on earth would anyone refuse to bathe?"

"Anything you ask me to do, Malfoy, can never lead to anything good. I would rather die diseased than do anything you say to me."

"Don't push me Weasley. In the bath I say."

"What will you do? My welfare is more important to you than it is to me. Frankly I have nothing to live for in this place. Death seems like a pretty good option to me."

"You think you hate me enough to sacrifice your life for it? Well I have news for you: I hate you ten times more than you could ever hate me. Do you think I care if you die? The Dark Lord will be angry, yes, but he will get over it. I would be satisfied spending my life in Azkaban knowing you've gotten what you deserve. You want to punish yourself because of me? Then go right ahead. I will simply sit back and enjoy. There's nothing I would like to watch better."

She looked at him, her eyes filled with hate and dissatisfaction. Slowly, and regrettably, she began to undress.

Then she stopped.

"What is the matter?" Draco asked, aggravated.

"I want my privacy."

"Oh yes ma'am, would you like me to bring in some bath beads as well? Perhaps I can scatter a few rose petals for your viewing pleasure. What the fuck do you think this is Weasley? A hotel? You are a prisoner here."

"I have rights!"

"Who told you that? You have no rights. I've been going easy on you because I don't have the time or the energy to punish you 24/7. Don't let that fool you. I didn't bring you here for spa treatment. Now get in the bath."

She stood in defiance, unwilling to move.

He sighed. "Weasley, look. I have to keep an eye on you at all times, to make sure you don't escape. I don't enjoy being in your company all day, I do this because I have to. I won't leave you alone and just accept that. I will sit right here, and wait for you to get in." Draco folded his arms and sat by a nearby chair waiting.

He waited for half an hour. Still she stood there looking at him with arrogance. He could take no more. He got up, picked up her frail and slender body and dumped her, clothes and all, into the warm bath. She yelped in shock as landed clumsily with water splashing all around her.

"One way or another you are taking a bath today. Now, do you really want me to do it for you?" He held the bath sponge in his hand threateningly. With fright in her eyes Ginny meekly took the sponge from his hand. "Good," he encouraged, "I will be sitting right over there," he pointed to the chair he had previously occupied. "And make sure you get every spot. You're filthy."

He looked at her as she sat in the bath and shook his head. She was so skinny from having not eaten all week, her arms were thin enough for his hands to grasp completely, and her shoulder blades looked as if they could cut through glass. But despite the scrawniness he could note the shapeliness of her body. She had a figure eight. Her breasts, though not large, were enough, and her waist in addition to being tiny was long and slender. Her legs were not model attributes, in fact they were rather on the stumpy side, but he liked the curve of her hips when she stood to pass the sponge down her abdomen, and he liked that they were a little bit on the short side. But Draco liked women on a whole. And as she moved the sponge up and down her body, up her legs, to her thigh, lightly stroking her abdomen, around her breast to her neck, he was filled with his primitive male instinct to grab her and take her right there and then. His eyes roamed her body and he wondered how she would be in bed. He had wondered the same thing about the fat lady entering Hugo Orfice's Store that morning (she had a huge set of breasts), but like then, he had to control himself as business was more important than pleasure.

Draco had a problem, he would admit, but at least he had his priorities straight. Business first, sex later.

XX

Orfice's one-sided conversation about his mother had reminded Draco just how long it had been since he had last seen her. With death eater raids in the night and secret missions during the day Draco hardly had time to even think of Narcissa much less visit her. But late that night when Ginny had finally gone to bed in her cell, he put on his cloak and decided to pay the woman a visit.

Since his father's sentence to Azkaban Narcissa had dispelled all the house help except for Julia, her personal companion, due to her paranoia that it was the help who betrayed Lucius. So when Draco knocked on the door, it took a full ten minutes for her to run all the way from her room in the manor to the door. As soon as she saw it was him she flung the door open and embraced him tightly, as if she couldn't believe it.

"Oh my son! I haven't seen you in so long! Come Draco. Come in. I prayed you hadn't forgotten your dear mother."

"I haven't mother. I wouldn't forget you."

"Have you left that awful place and come to stay with me? Say you have…"

Draco remembered why he hadn't been visiting this place often. Every time he visited his mother made it a point to ask him if he had left being a death eater yet, even though she knew full well Draco was dedicated to the Dark Side and that no one left You-Know-Who after becoming a Death Eater.

"No mother, I haven't."

"Please Draco; I'm getting old, stay with me."

"Mother I will be home soon, as soon as this war is over."

"No, this war will take you like it took everyone else from me! Nothing good will come from it."

"Nothing good will come from me sitting idly at home either. I'm doing this for us mother: for you, me and father."

"We don't need you to do it."

"If I don't do it, who will? It will be worth it in the end you'll see. I will restore honour to our family, and father can walk out of Azkaban with his head held high. We will all be in glory."

She looked at him with hopelessness in her eyes. She knew there was no talking to him. His mind was made up and there was nothing she could say to change it. "Draco," she said stroking his hair, "I wish one day you could see that there are more important things to glory. Sometimes, it's okay to stand down from a fight for the one you love."

He chuckled, "Mother, I love you and I love father. Let me do what's best."

XX