Chapter Four: The Felix of Your Truth Will Always Break It

It had been stunningly easy to give the rest of the Hogwarts students the slip in Hogsmeade. Ginny had shrunk her broom and taken it with her, prepared to tell people she was carting it to Dervish and Banges for maintenance, and she went to Honeydukes while Hermione went to the Three Broomsticks. With a bag of Peppermint Toads, she darkened Zonko's doorway and sweetly asked if she could use the Floo to take something to her brothers. Getting through the Ministry checkpoint was much easier without having to wait for George to be divested of his many magical tricks, and even Azkaban didn't seem quite as dark and cheerless as before. She felt like she'd been dosed with Felix Felicis, and not even Malfoy could put her in a sour mood. She fiddled with the ribbon on the Toads and wiggled in her seat while she waited in the interrogation room, the Weird Sisters stuck in her head.

"Ginny?" Malfoy asked when he was thrust inside the room. "Did I just see you dancing in your chair?"

"You did," she answered cheekily, and lobbed the Toads at him. "As requested, Malfoy."

He missed the package and stooped over to snatch it off the floor. "You're a darling," he said, sitting down and trying to remove the ribbon. "I can't undo it in these bloody shackles," he complained, then jumped in shock as the ribbon snapped. He dove in double-handed and came up with a Toad in each hand. Both went straight into his mouth.

"You probably shouldn't eat them all at once," Ginny said, her lips quirking with mirth as he sucked on the candies to activate them. When she took a moment to consider it, though, she realized that maybe eating the whole package in one sitting might be a good idea. He was looking sickly. Oh, the cuts and bruises were healed, and the swelling was gone from his crooked nose, but he looked even thinner than before. There were dark circles under his eyes and he was unkempt: ratty robes, patchy beard growth, hair growing dull and greasy, smudges of dirt in unexpected places.

"I 'ike moo mattle 'em," he managed to get out. His cheek distended grotesquely – a Toad kicking outwards – and he swallowed with a sigh of contentment. "Have at it, me boys," he said, tucking his hair behind his ears one side at a time, thanks to the manacles, "and may the best Toad win."

Ginny giggled in spite of herself.

"Have you ever battled Peppermint Toads in your stomach?" he sniffed, unable to keep from smiling. "I assure you, you haven't lived until you've tried."

"No, it's not that, it's just when you pushed your hair back. You're looking more and more like Snape," she teased.

Draco's smile faltered. Ginny nearly smacked herself for her impetuousness. It finally hit her that she'd been having a civil conversation with Draco Malfoy – how had that happened, exactly? – and had mucked it up within two minutes.

"So," he said quickly, "you must have a new DADA professor?"

"We do. Her name's Professor Lamentina and she says she dropped out of Auror training, but I'll bet she was kicked out, but that's beside the point I guess…." And it was that easy. Ginny talked, and Draco listened. She told him about her classes, the teachers, which students were gone and which had returned. He drank everything in and asked earnest questions, and commiserated with her over schoolwork. It felt wonderful to have someone to bounce thoughts off of. Colin and Luna were great friends, but Colin was too high-energy to think about something for more than half a minute at best, and when one bounced ideas at Luna, well…they just never returned.

"Ginny," Malfoy said softly when she finally broke for air. "Thank you for coming."

"I didn't exactly have a choice," she said, but her reply was milked of venom.

"I don't know how you managed to give Potter the slip, but I'm really glad you did."

He was so honest, an imprint of an innocent being that she knew didn't exist but the illusion was so complete! "Harry broke up with me," she admitted, willing her voice to make the words matter-of-fact. Don't ask, don't ask, don't ask….

"…He what?"

"You look so surprised."

"Well, I just…figured…."

"…That we were going to have mounds of red-haired, green-eyed babies?" she filled in wryly.

"No, not that." She swore she saw him shudder. "I was sure you'd be the one to cut him loose. I might actually have Galleons tied up in it," he mused, screwing his face in concentration, "I was so drunk I can't remember if we made a pot or just talked about it."

"We were that interesting to you?" she hooted.

He looked at her strangely then, with no trace of amusement. "Of course." He reached for two more Peppermint Toads.

"Draco?" she asked hesitantly. His head snapped up, sober gray eyes a ridiculous juxtaposition against his heaving cheeks. "Is there any way to tell if someone's under the Imperius curse?"

He cocked a scornful eyebrow and finally swallowed. "If there was, do you really think anyone would use it anymore?"

"I thought maybe there was some, I don't know, secret way or a really advanced spell."

His eyebrow hadn't budged a millimetre. "And I would know because I'm an evil Dark wizard? And so very competent that I ended up here?" The conversation was rapidly going south. "Why would you want to know, anyways?" he sneered. "Trying to be some sort of prodigy? Hoping to win Potter back with your knowledge? Did he end up with Granger or something?" he guessed, wrinkling his crooked nose at the thought.

"Stop it," she said warningly, feeling her colour rise.

"Or what, exactly? Just remember one thing, Weaslette, you're here at my bidding. You can't tell me what to do." Ginny had been drawing in a breath to let loose a tirade, but now she nearly choked on it as she burst into laughter. "What the hell's so funny?" he demanded.

"Did you really just say that? What are you, five years old? 'You can't tell me what to do' – you're in prison, Malfoy. You look pathetic."

Actually, he looked murderous. "If I had my wand, I'd hex you unconscious, Weasley."

"But I've got your wand," she taunted. "And believe me, if I had it here, I'd return the favour."

They glowered at each other, Ginny with her arms crossed and Draco with his fists drawn up to his shoulders. "Ha!" Ginny barked suddenly.

"What?" he asked suspiciously.

"You blinked first."

"Who's the five-year-old now?" Ginny didn't say anything. "Stop sulking, Girl Weasel, we don't have time for it."

"I want to go home."

"Aww, are your feewings hurt?"

"I was having such a good day until I got here," she said resentfully.

"Azkaban wrecked your day? Welcome to my life."

"It's not Azkaban, it's you," she spat.

"You seemed happy enough when you were droning on about your petty schoolgirl problems."

For some reason, out of everything else he said, this was the most stinging. "You seemed happy enough to listen!" she cried.

"Of course I was happy!" he shouted, flailing his manacled arms uselessly and missing the Toads by mere inches. "It took my mind off the horrors of this place! Can you stop for one second and imagine what it's like here? It's drafty and mouldy and I cough all the time and I'm filthy and sleep on the floor and eat gruel! The crazies are still here and they scream all night so I'm not even free in my dreams! Every single comfort, every last thing that could possibly give me pleasure, is lost to me. Death," he breathed harshly, his eyes boring into Ginny's skull, "would be welcome." Malfoy's clammy hand felt like an Inferius' to Ginny and when she attempted to wriggle out of his grasp, he released her abruptly and scowled at the wall. Due to the extraordinary silence afforded by the charms on the room, she could hear that his breathing was barely controlled.

Ginny stood. "I don't want to leave like this," she whispered, leaning over the table and willing him to look at her again.

"Then don't." He was practically motionless.

"I have to. I'm probably late as it is."

"Well you'd better come back, or else."

"Why would you even want me to come back?"

Finally, he looked at her. "Ginny Weasley, you're my only friend. Today was the best day I've had in a long time."

Friends? She couldn't bring herself to disabuse him of the notion. A small, hard pit was forming in her stomach, either pity or trepidation. "It was good talking to you, Malfoy."

He brightened. "Really?"

"For a while, anyways," she shrugged. "Take care."

"You too. If the Dark Lord ever shows up at Hogwarts, get as far away from Potter as you can."

She knocked on the door and nodded at the guard. "Draco," she murmured as the door swung open, "Harry's been missing for a few months now."