Sorry I haven't updated in a few days! I've been stuck in this hell hole called Duluth, GA and it seems that they have never heard of a proper Internet connection. Its ridiculous. I was able to connect with my phone and check my email, but for some reason it wouldn't connect with my computer. I just about killed someone out of frustration. But, on the bright side, I spent forever finding a song that would fit the chapter and this one is PERFECT. It sometimes suprises me how perfectly the songs can fit, as I never pick them before I write the chapters. So anyway, heres the chapter.
Disclaimer: JKR owns all, but the plot. Lyrics belong to John Mayer.
-Katy.
Young and full of running, tell me where has that taken
me?
Just a great figure eight or a tiny infinity?
Love is really nothing but a dream that keeps waking me,
For all of my trying we still end up dying, how can it
be?
Don't say a word just come over and lie here with me,
'Cause I'm just about to set fire to everything I see,
I want you so bad, I'll go back on the things I believed,
There I just said it, I'm scared you'll forget about me.
So young and full of running, all the way to the edge of
desire,
Steady my breathing, silently pleading, I have to have
you now,
Wired and I'm tired, think I'll sleep in my clothes on
the floor,
Maybe this mattress will spin on it's axis and find me on
yours.
-John Mayer, Edge of Desire
***
Draco awoke to the feeling of the sun on his face. He smiled, keeping his eyes closed. He hadn't had any nightmares last night, and apparently, neither had Ginny. He would have known if she had.
Draco kept his eyes closed and thought back to his dream. It had been the happiest one he'd had in months, possibly years. But it had been simple. It had been of a color, just a color. Red. It hadn't been the blood red that had haunted his dreams for so many years. No, it hadn't been the color that reminded him of Death Eaters and the Dark Lord and Lucius. It had been a red that reminded him of happier times, of a new life. It had been a fiery red. The color of Ginny's hair.
Draco had been having dreams of Ginny's hair color for the past two weeks. He would have his nightmares of running down long alleys, which lead to nowhere, with Voldemort behind him and Lucius next to him, chasing him. And there was always the screaming, always the screaming, Ginny's horrible screams in the background. And then Draco was awake, jumping off his bed and shaking Ginny awake. He then rocked her to sleep and soon fell asleep after her, dreaming of her hair.
It occurred to Draco that this was his subconscious telling him he loved her. He pushed those thoughts aside. No, he couldn't be in love with her. He didn't love her. He wasn't capable of love. He was ice, glacial. He didn't have the ability to love, to experience those warm, fuzzy feeling that had been described to him so many times in the muggle books. Draco had long accepted that people like him− cold, icy, masked− weren't supposed to fall in love. But, deep down, Draco knew he was lying to himself. This was one of the first times in his life that Draco truly despised being so intuitive. It prevented him from lying to himself.
Great, just what she needs, Draco thought. To have an ex-Death Eater affiliate in love with her.
*
Draco finally opened his eyes. He turned his head towards Ginny's bed. And then he saw it. The red, the beautiful red that frequented his dreams. Ginny shifted in her sleep and Draco looked at her face. She looked so peaceful. Her mouth was slightly parted, her pink lips soft. Her eyelashes, which were naturally long, were nearly brushing against her cheeks and she had a few freckles painted on the bridge of her nose from the recent days in the sun. And her red hair was spilling over her face.
Draco quietly slipped out of bed, turning towards the door. Suddenly, before he knew what he was doing, Draco was standing next to Ginny's bed. Draco reached down and brushed the hair out of her face before slinking out of the room. He would let her sleep in; it was early, around 6 in the morning, although the sun was up. Draco wandered down the stairs and eventually found himself standing outside. It was a bit chilly, but Draco kept walking, getting some fresh air. Draco climbed onto the roof and lay down.
Draco wondered to himself if it would be a good idea to let Ginny on the team. Would it really help or could it possibly traumatize her further? What would he do if she got hurt again? But Draco couldn't think of any other way to provide some closure for the poor girl. He had already killed her Death Eaters, and Draco knew that was the only thing that helped her sleep at all, no matter how many nightmares she had. Draco knew that if he had failed to kill those bastards, she wouldn't have ever felt safe again until she saw them dead with her own eyes. Draco had thought about her situation more in the last month than he had ever thought about anything. More than he had thought about his loathing of his father and the Death Eater society he was raised in. More than he had thought about all the pain he had experienced at Lucius' hand. Draco had come to the same conclusion over and over again: that the only way to provide closure to this girl was to let her on the team. Hopefully facing her worst fears and watching them die− which they would die, Draco would make sure of it− would help her heal a little bit more. Draco had analyzed her personality and come to the startling conclusion that she was a lot like him. Ginny was a bit less cynical and jaded, not so much as intuitive, and a hell of a lot more warm than Draco, but they both had a fighting spirit. Ginny's soul was fiery, while Draco's was glacial. And they both had a taste for revenge.
*
Draco continued to lie on the roof as the sun rose higher into the sky. If only his father could see him now: A member of the Order, using the skills Lucius had given him to help undermine the framework of the Death Eaters, in love with Ginny Weasley. Draco flinched a bit internally at the last, unexpected thought. He wasn't sure how he felt about being in love with Ginny. He knew he couldn't tell Ginny how he felt; she would most likely run; people like him always would when confronted with love. Until she loved him back, Draco could only try to make sure she was healing and happy. Draco sighed and threw an arm over his eyes. He knew he could hide his emotions, it was what the Malfoy family mask was for, but he wasn't sure how long he could ignore them before he went insane. Again.
*
Ginny awoke to silence. She immediately noticed that she couldn't hear Draco's breathing next to her. His breathing had become a comfort in the past month. It had become something she needed as much as air.
Ginny's eyes snapped open; as she had thought, Draco wasn't in the room. This was a new experience to Ginny. Almost every morning for the past month she had awoken to see the light reflecting off of his pale blond hair, his arm thrown haphazardly over his face, half his lean, muscular body dangling off the bed.
Suddenly, Ginny wondered if Draco had left the Order, left this life, left her. Ginny felt panic wash over her unexpectedly. Would he really leave her? With all these people? He was the only one who had seen that she was drowning, in both guilt and pain, the only one who had noticed, the only one who had helped her resurface to reality. Ginny couldn't survive knowing he wasn't going to be there, to help her. To save her.
Ginny scrambled out of bed and flew down the stairs, keeping her eyes open for the sight of sun sparkling off pale blond hair. As Ginny ran down the stairs, memories of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's faces flew before her eyes. Ginny immediately ran to the kitchen; it was where Draco spent most of his time, as most boys do. Ginny ran into the room, her red hair flying into her face, she was beginning to panic now. He couldn't leave her.
Ginny glanced around the kitchen, only registering that he wasn't there, before flying back into the hall and out the front door. There was only one other place he could be: the roof. Ginny ran around to the side of the house and caught a flash of silver out of her periphery. Ginny knew that there was only one thing around the Order Headquarters that was silver. Draco.
Ginny stopped dead in her tracks and her heart started to slow. She hadn't even been aware that her heart had been pounding against her ribcage.
Ginny breathed a sigh of relief; she had found him, he hadn't left her. Ginny herself wasn't sure why she had reacted the way she had. She knew she shouldn't care, shouldn't have panicked at the thought of his absence, but she had. She hadn't been able to accept life without him, without the man who had saved her, more than once.
Ginny walked over to the side of the house and climbed up the lattice, noticing for the first time that in her panic she hadn't even bothered to slip on a pair of shoes.
*
Draco wondered idly to himself, now that he could no longer deny that he was, in fact, in love with Ginny Weasley, what he would do for the rest of his life. He obviously couldn't leave her. Draco had never experienced love, and now that he was, he wasn't going to leave it. But could he simply sit still at the Order Headquarters for the rest of his life? No, he couldn't. They'd have to put him on many missions. Draco had always been restless, never content to sit around and wait for things to happen. He went looking for trouble, as he had demonstrated at Hogwarts many times, especially where Potter was involved.
Potter. Draco had thought about the Golden Boy many times in the last month. Draco held Potter partly responsible for Ginny's rape. If it hadn't been for Harry's lack of manners, Ginny wouldn't have wandered off into Diagon Alley. But, Draco knew, that Harry wasn't directly responsible. It hadn't been Harry who raped Ginny. No, Harry had made a stupid mistake, but he hadn't caused what had happened. But, still, Draco couldn't help feel a welling of irrational fury when he thought of what the boy had done. Draco had always been taught to respect women and never leave them alone, "Always escort a lady to her door, Draco." Draco could hear his father's words in his head. Why hadn't Harry done this? Why had he left his girlfriend, heartbroken and crying, to die in the woods? What could possibly make a man do this?
Try as he might, Draco could think of no motive that would cause Harry to do this, apart from, of course, exceptionally horrible manners. Draco stretched his arms and rested them behind his head, lying back onto the roof. He continued to wonder at Harry's actions on that fateful day as he stared up into the sky.
And why hadn't Harry, Ron, and Hermione returned after the incident? Surely they had gotten word by now. So why hadn't the Golden Trio returned home? Draco knew Ron must have wanted to return to the Headquarters, Death Eaters had assaulted his sister; this kind of event usually made people scurry home to check on the family member.
Ginny had already been abandoned too many times. While staring up into the sky, Draco made the resolution to never leave Ginny, at least not until she asked him to.
Draco continued to stare up into the sky; the sky was a pale, cloudless blue this morning. The sun shone into his face, blinding him at times, but Draco didn't care. Suddenly, Draco saw a flash of bright, fiery red out of the corner of his eye. His favorite color, favorite shade of red. Ginny's hair. Draco turned his head to the side to see Ginny climbing up the lattice.
Her hair was blowing across her face, her white night gown flowing in the wind. Draco noted that she wasn't wearing any shoes.
"Did you forget your shoes?"
Draco noticed that Ginny's cheeks flushed at this. "I, um, forgot them, when I came looking for you."
Draco cocked his eyebrow at this, "You were so busy looking for me that you forgot to slip on a pair of shoes?"
Ginny, who had been looking at the ground, suddenly flicked her eyes up to meet his, "I thought you had left me."
This was exactly what Draco had feared, that he would abandon her and she would be hurt. Draco stood up and walked the two feet separating him from the redhead. Draco wrapped his arms around her and she rested her head on his chest.
"Ginny, listen to me, I'm never going to abandon you. Ever."
Draco felt her nod against his chest.
*
Draco and Ginny lay down on the roof, his arm around her shoulders, and stared up at the sky for another hour. In that time, neither spoke, each content to merely sit and stare at the sky. They had both become extremely comfortable around one another, no words needed to be exchanged, no idle chatter to fill the silence. Draco found himself twirling Ginny's hair between his fingers; it was soft, almost like silk, but thick and strong at the same time, and smelled like honeysuckle, with a hint of sunshine.
Eventually, Draco looked up at the sky and saw the position of the sun, telling him it was almost time for his team to meet. Draco sighed and stood up, offering Ginny his hand.
"We have to go change. It's almost time for the team to meet. And I think you should participate in practice today, show 'em what you've got."
Ginny smiled and nodded. Draco couldn't help noticing that it was one of the brightest smiles he had seen from her in a month, and his heart leapt at the thought that perhaps he was doing the right thing.
*
When they got to their room, Draco let Ginny have the bathroom while he changed out in the room. Draco threw on a pair of old jeans, humming a tune to himself. Draco quickly grabbed some black, non-baggy clothing, shrunk them with his wand, and stuffed them into his jeans pockets. Finally, Draco put on a long sleeved, dull green shirt. Then, Draco left the room without Ginny. He had to set up the practice and she would have an advantage if she saw.
*
Draco stared down at his unaware team. This time, instead of sitting on the roof, Draco had perched himself in a tree in the nearby forest. Draco watched as Ginny walked out of the house to join the gathered members.
Ginny was dressed in a red t-shirt and some faded jeans, with her hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked beautiful, as usual. Draco mentally shook himself. He couldn't have her distracting him. Not now.
Soon, every one of his team members had gathered and Draco knew he had to commence the final day of training before their first mission. Draco inhaled deeply and then starting firing curses.
*
Ginny had been talking to Tonks and Bill about the Chudley Cannons when she saw a flash of purple in her periphery. Ginny pushed Bill and Tonks to the side, landing on top of them. Before Tonks and Bill had even hit the ground, Ginny was up and firing back into the forest. She wasn't sure exactly where Draco was, but she would be able to pinpoint his location if he fired at her again. Ginny shot her infamous bat-boogey hex deep into the forests' depths when she saw a flash of orange just to the left of where she had been aiming.
Damn, close, but not close enough, Ginny thought.
Ginny quickly searched for her comrades. Fred and George were standing to her immediate left, Charlie a bit further down, while Tonks, Lupin and Bill were to her right.
They needed a plan. Draco was the best wizard she had ever seen. He wouldn't be defeated by wayward spells; especially while he was still sitting in the trees. As long as Draco had a higher vantage point, they couldn't sneak up on him. No, they needed to draw him out from the trees.
Ginny motioned to her comrades to quickly duck behind the side of the house for a conference.
Ginny waited until each of her teammates had made it to safety before she retreated, never turning her back on the woods.
*
"Okay, we need a plan; we have to get him out of the forest, it's the only way to level the playing field." Ginny said to her fellow wizards and witch.
"As great an idea that is, Gin, ", Fred started
" how exactly do you expect us to do that?", George finished his twins sentence.
"Excellent question. Any suggestions Professor?" Ginny directed her question to Lupin.
"Well, we could try setting the trees on fire. Even Draco isn't fireproof."
"Couldn't he just put it out?" Ginny asked, she wanted to make sure their plan was well thought out.
"Not if we all cast it at once. That should create a raging inferno so powerful that he'll have no choice to retreat." Lupin said thoughtfully.
"Can you guarantee this?"
"The fire will be so hot, any water Draco conjures to put it out should immediately evaporate." Lupin said, sounding self-assured.
"Perfect", Ginny said, a grin spreading over her features.
*
Everything had been going well, for Draco at least, until Draco observed the team creating a simultaneous spell. Teamwork, just what he wanted, thought Draco.
Then he smelled the smoke and felt the heat on his skin. Oh shit.
Draco tried to conjure water using the Aguamenti charm, knowing it would be useless. They had simultaneously each set part of his tree on fire, thus creating a fire so intense that the water would immediately evaporate.
Draco idly wondered which of the members had thought of the idea; it was brilliant. Then, sighing, Draco jumped the twenty feet to the ground, landing quietly. He had really liked that hiding spot, shame he had to leave it, Draco thought to himself.
Draco hit the ground running, he had to take out Ginny before any of the others; she was the most capable and the biggest threat.
Draco ran through the smoke towards where he had last seen the redhead. And then, she was before him. Draco wasn't entirely sure whether she was there because he had sought her out or because she had found him. But, he ignored this uncertainty and took in his surroundings.
As he had thought, they had tried to surround him. Draco could see five of his seven team mates and feel the other two's presence behind him. Ginny stood her ground, in front of him. Fred and George stood on her right. Her other two brothers, Bill and Charlie, were to her left. This meant, Draco thought, that the two behind him were Tonks and Lupin. Shit, Tonks was an Auror and Lupin an ex-professor of Hogwarts. They had really thought their plan out nicely.
Draco quickly looked up into the sky; it was already past noon. Then, Draco felt something shift in the air behind him; instinctively, Draco rolled to the side, just in time to see a jet of blue light flash. And, the fight commences, Draco thought dryly.
Draco was on his feet, dodging and shooting spells simultaneously. Draco shot a Jelly Legs Jinx at Fred Weasley, effectively taking him out of commission. Draco remembered explaining the simulations to the team, that if a team member is hit even once, they are considered "dead". Before Fred had hit the ground, Draco had spun on his heel, sending a hex at Bill Weasley and cursing Tonks. In his periphery, Draco saw a spark of orange and ducked, throwing his arms over his head, as the jet flew past overhead. Draco quickly stood up and turned towards his next opponent, Charlie Weasley. Charlie was a good wizard, Draco knew, but even Charlie wouldn't be able to stop Draco and they all knew that. They all knew that only Ginny was his equal. Draco was aware that they were trying to distract him, until the time that Ginny could get to Draco.
Draco threw a flipendo spell at Charlie. Draco watched with a critical eye was Charlie dodged the spell. Draco sent flaming arrows after the wizard, using a curse his father had taught him. Charlie stopped the arrows with impedimenta, conjuring a snake with serpentsortia, and sending it to attack Draco. Draco fired a confringo spell at the snake, destroying it. Then Draco detected movement in his periphery. Draco dropped to the ground without hesitation as a jet of color flew over his head. Then, Draco was on his feet once more and battling two opponents at once.
Draco was facing Charlie and Lupin and, he had to admit, they were pushing him to his limits. Draco idly wondered where Ginny had gone to, he couldn't spot the redhead because of the smoke clouding his vision. Draco knew this had to be part of a trap, but he couldn't think of anything to do, except finish off Lupin and Charlie as fast as possible. Draco could feel the heat of the fire on his back; the inferno was raging a mere ten yards away.
Draco quickly sent flipendo after Lupin before following it up with stupefy. Draco watched with satisfaction as he watched his old Professor become stunned., sweat was glistening on Draco's forehead. Draco turned towards Charlie, keeping all his senses open in order to detect any sign of Ginny.
Draco cast Expelliarmus towards Charlie, and as he watched the wizards wand fly out of his hand and land a few feet away, Draco felt the cold prod of a wand tip in the back of his neck, just above his vertebrae. Draco's entire body froze, as he felt Ginny Weasley's breath on the side of his face and heard her whispering in his ear, "Surrender now, Draco. I've got you where I want you."
Draco raised his hands above his head and dropped his wand in surrender. He already knew that she was capable of defeating him. He wouldn't be able to fight her when he was in such a vulnerable position.
Then, all of his team members were crowding around them in a circle and Ginny was helping him to his feet. Draco looked at all the triumphant smiles painted on their faces and couldn't help smiling himself.
The team had passed.
"Okay, you passed your final test. Tomorrow night, we become notorious thieves in muggle London." Draco said, his chest swelling with pride.
His announcement was met with cheers.
"Now, before you leave, I need to take your measurements, in order to create a team outfit, of sorts. It will be what you wear on missions." Draco grabbed his black clothing out of his pockets and enlarged them, saying "This is what it will look like, its semi-tight, noiseless, and black, of course."
Draco then conjured a measuring tape and recorded all the information he would need to create the clothing. It was one of the most important parts of the mission, he couldn't mess them up.
"Okay, we will meet back here at around 10 P.M. tomorrow. I will hand everyone the clothing before that. So come here, dressed, with quiet shoes, and be prepared to steal things."
Draco almost laughed at the mischievous looks the Weasley twins were exchanging. With that, he turned and walked towards the house with Ginny alongside him. The sun had already started to set; their final test had lasted longer than it had seemed.
*
That night was the first night the team had attended dinner along with the rest of the Order. It had been a weird experience; the team had been nearly isolated for the past month and now were surrounded by sixty or so fellow Order members, all trying to eat and talk and laugh at the same time. Draco sat there, feeling almost like an outsider. Draco glanced at his fellow team members and saw that they felt the same way. Draco wondered randomly whether he was doing the right thing for the individual members by isolating them. He hadn't meant to; hadn't realized that they were becoming loners while surrounded by others. He supposed that because they got up earlier than the other Order members and only finished working until after dinner, that his team was too tired to socialize. Draco knew that keeping them together constantly from sunup to sundown had been good for the quality of their teamwork, but he wasn't sure if it had been a good idea for the individuals.
Draco decided he would talk to his team about it after the muggle mission. Resigned, Draco finished shoveling food into his mouth and waited for Ginny to finish eating before he went upstairs to their room. Draco could feel curious glances on the back of his neck; he knew that the Order thought it was peculiar how he and Ginny were constantly together, but ignored it.
*
As Ginny left the bathroom, fully dressed in her pajamas after a nice, hot shower, Draco grabbed a towel and ran into the bathroom, eagerly. Ginny held back a snort; it had been a very long day. The battle had taken a lot of energy out of both of them, and they had both gotten fairly dirty.
Ginny peeled back the covers to her bed and laid down her head on the pillow. She smiled to herself while trying to hold back a yawn; Draco had told her that, after her performance today, she could come to muggle London tomorrow night. Ginny's exhausted body sagged into the mattress as she thought back to the day's events. It had been her idea to surround him like that; the entire fight had been a distraction, and though Ginny had known Draco had known her plan, she had also known that he wouldn't be able to do anything about it with the smoke obscuring Ginny from his vision. When Lupin had fired the first shot, as planned, Ginny had run to the left as Draco had ducked. Ginny had watched as Draco battled each member separately, until the remaining two had ganged up on him, as she had planned. Then, Ginny had slunk around the edges of the forest and snuck behind him, forcing him to surrender.
Ginny smiled, before drifting off to sleep; her final thoughts not of the battle, but of earlier in the morning, after she and Draco had returned inside from the roof. As Ginny had finished dressing, she had walked outside the door, in time to see Draco's muscular arms pulling a blue shirt over his lean body. Ginny, embarrassed, had quietly snuck back into the bathroom, but the sight of Draco's back muscles, backed by years of Quidditch and Merlin knew what other kind of activities, had become ingrained in her minds eye, along with the feeling of lust she had felt. The sight of Draco's exposed back and the feeling of desire in the pit of her stomach were the last sensations and sights Ginny felt that night.
***
*
So the ending was a surprise, huh? I thoroughly enjoyed it. Let me know if you did as well, or if it was totally sappy and unrealistic. In the next few chapters, there should be LOTS of action, promise.
Thanks to those of you who reviewed: DemonsInsideMe, Em Red Topaz, and maggie1618. And also to those of you who reviewed other chapters this week, or added me to you favorite/alerts list! I got a lot of notifications this week and was extremely pleased .
So chapter 10 should be up soon, its turning out to be quite interesting, I'll give you a hint: We learn a bit more about Draco and Lucius' relationship.
-Katy
