-1Chapter 9
Draco's breath caught in his throat. In the stream, surrounded by the plush velvetiness of darkness was Ginny Weasley, naked. All five feet two inches of her body was exposed to the moonlight and to the cool, crisp air around her. Draco's heart began hammering wildly in his chest as images of himself and Ginny…in the stream began flashing in his mind.
Blink, you pervert, blink!
Her slim arm brought a splash of water to her perfectly shaped body she threw her head back and her brilliant mane of red-gold hair glinted in the moonlight. She jumped up all of a sudden and then disappeared in the water with one fluid motion. He stepped forward, out of the shadows for a better look and Ginny suddenly shot out of the water like a cannon. Her wet hair hung on shoulders and water trickled down from her delicate oval face, down her perfectly shaped neck and flowed onto her bare chest. She giggled and repeated the same act again as if performing a dance, like the trance of a mermaid, she laughed with the voice of splashing water, like the chords of an organ, playing the music of heaven, lulling him, drawing him near her like the songs of the Sirens.
Maybe it was the drowsiness from waking up in the middle of the night or maybe it was the strange seductive atmosphere of the moonlight, but it seemed that with every movement Ginny was making, she was tempting him, daring him to come closer, to come out into the open. With her every movement, every glance, and every breath she took, she took his breath away as well. However, despite the fact that his mind seemed to shut down as he stared at her the same way a dieting person would stare at a piece of particularly delicious looking chocolate cake: why was she taking a bath in the middle of the night? She could always take a bath in the afternoon when its warm and sunny. It doesn't make sense to bathe in the middle of the night and have your hair soaking wet for the next couple of hours until the sun rises.
Of course you idiot, she knew that you would be staring at her now like a peeping tom of she told you she was taking a bath during the day.
Well, I'm staring at her like a peeping tom right now anyways…
I am not a peeping tom! I am a Malfoy, not some plebeian pervert! I was merely…investigating the source of noise and protecting her from wild animals that's all…
Why the hell am I protecting a Weasley then?
He was so lost in his argument with himself that his foot stepped forward involuntarily and a branch snapped. It was as if all the sounds of nature from before have been turned off and the only sounds that could be heard were the echoes of the snapped branch. Draco saw Ginny turn around to investigate the noise. He quickly ran back to where their makeshift tent was. His heart still pounded with hormones racing through his blood. He didn't know how he managed to find the tent in the darkness but he thanked Merlin with all his heart that he didn't get lost and Ginny didn't catch him staring at her naked body.
He turned to his side when he heard Ginny come in and sleep beside him, he could still feel the wetness of her hair against the back of his neck, which instead of shocking him, it calmed him. It told him that what he saw was not a dream and yes, Ginny was beautiful, breathtaking and no, he reassured himself. No, she definitely did not see him. If she did, he would probably have his male parts removed in the most painful way possible at the moment instead of enjoying the sensation of her hair against his skin.
What Draco did not know was that Ginny saw a flash of blonde hair in the moonlight for a split second when Draco ran away…
There was a strange rhythmic drumbeat in the background. Draco was lounging on a plushy red sofa. There were long, flowing, blanket sized pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling to the ground. Layer upon layer of smooth, luxurious green satin. A sweet floral scent wafted over, he saw a flash of red hair through the gaps between the fabric. He stood up and walked over to that spot to investigate who was there.
A giggle, a laugh bubbled over to his left, he reached out his arm to push aside the layers of fabric and instead of feeling the cool satin slide through his fingertips, he felt the warmth of a human body. The body turned around and it was Ginny, her hair shimmered like the satin around her, framing her delicate oval face, her lips parted invitingly. She was wrapped around one of the layers of emerald satin fabric, she twirled around, in the beat of the drums, slowly unravelling the satin and revealing her tantalizing body. She reached behind her and pulled out an apple, placed her soft lips over it and took a bite, with each crunch, Draco felt his hormones surge and he could see a desire, a desperation glaze over the caramel-brown of Ginny's eyes. He leaned down and met her lips in a mixture of fire and ice, he could taste the apple on her lips as he devoured her kiss hungrily, his hands running over her body…
Crunch, crunch
Draco woke up to the sound of someone eating an apple. He was enveloped in the fresh scent of grass as he turned to his side to find the tent he built yesterday with Ginny was gone. He sat up and rubbed his eyes blearily, his brain still too fuzzy to from sleep to feel confused. His muscles felt heavy and sore from the tent building yesterday. The sun was shining cheerfully, but something was wrong, something was different. There were no trees at all around him, just grass. He stood up and saw that he was on a hill. He looked down and saw miles and miles of gently rolling hills.
"Awake?" he turned around at Ginny's voice and he saw her sitting underneath an apple tree with an apple in her hand. Her hair still looked half damp and his strangely erotic dream flashed back to him, making him feel uncomfortably hot.
"Are we…wait, we weren't here yesterday! What happened to our tent?" Draco's mind snapped fully awake when the situation had finally sunk in.
"I think there's some sort of magic in this place. First it pulls us in, then it keeps on moving us from one place to another. We have to somehow break the spell in order to escape," Ginny said thoughtfully and there was a little furrow between her eyebrows.
No, Draco, don't even say it, don't say the 'c' word!
"I can't believe you!" he exclaimed when he saw her calmness despite his frantic head turning as if somehow trying to see beyond the endless patches of green and into the realm they were in yesterday.
"Believe what?" she asked looking at his unnaturally red face, "by the way, did you get burned really bad in the sun yesterday or something? You look really red."
"There's some bloody spell going on and you're just sitting here calmly eating your apple!" he said as he stomach growled embarrassingly, which caused his face to turn even redder.
Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me today? Must stop the radish face…
"Well, Mr. Genius, isn't it obvious? I think the spell might have something to do with our emotions. Haven't you noticed how every time we've been moved, there was strong emotion evolved? The first time, I was really mad and annoyed with you and you were probably feeling good about yourself for taunting me. The second time, I was feeling scared and you were feeling…" she was about to say courageous, but he would probably feel insulted to be described with a Gryffindor trait., "stupid for saving me but glad at the same time so I could stop screaming. This time….I don't know. Was there a particularly strong emotion you were feeling last night or yesterday?"
Horny, turned on.
"No!" he replied a little too quickly, "are those apples poisonous?" he asked hoping to change the topic of emotions and keep it permanently changed.
"I'm eating it right now, so unless you want to wait three hours after I'm finished to see if I drop dead and froth at the mouth, I'll have to go with 'not poisonous'," she took another bite and the sound of the crunch turned Draco's face as red as the apple in Ginny's hand.
He turned around to hid his blushing, no, not blushing, merely filled with vitality, yes, filled with vitality, an excellent phrase. He continued reassuring himself, not noticing Ginny's curious stare as he clumsily climbed up the apple tree to pick one.
Draco returned with an apple in his hand and sat beside Ginny with an apple in his hand. There was a very awkward silence between them as Draco struggled to stop 'flushing with filled vitality' and Ginny sent little sideward glances over to Draco occasionally, just to see if he would mention anything odd that happened last night.
Draco could feel Ginny's stare on him, the only direction he could look at was forward, which was the stream. He stared at it so intently he could actually see the steam rising from brook and the colours of the rainbow in the screen of vapour, but the colours seemed to arrange themselves into fragments like a puzzle. He blinked several times to make sure his tired eyes weren't playing tricks on him. The fragments now turned into blobs that slowly resembled a picture. The shapes morphed into people and sounds were emitting from it. The scene suddenly sharpened and the sounds turned into voices of the people in the picture. Draco glanced sideways and saw that Ginny was watching the scene intently as well.
"Your baby sister's lost in the middle of nowhere and all you can think about is the bloody Minister of Magic!" Ron's angry voice screamed at Percy and the rest of the Weasley family was converged around the dinner table.
"Look, I'm not going to be much help anyways, this is an opportunity I can't-" Percy tried to explain but was cut off by George.
"Explain what? Explain why you're leaving the family at the time of need? Bill came from Egypt as soon as he hear!. Charlie apparated straight from Romania! Opportunities my arse!" George slammed his fist down onto the table, there was no sparkle of mischief in his eyes, only anger.
"We should contact the ministry anyways, I might as well head down there-"
"That's what owls are for. Stop making excuses for yourself, you don't want to be a Weasley. You think we're embarrassing you at that blasted ministry. You don't want to be associated with the likes of us, right?" Fred continued off for George with equal fire behind his blue irises.
"Just listen-"
"We've always been here for you and Dumbledore made you Head Boy, now you turn on him, you turn on us? You turn your back on Ginny? Your baby sister? Do you remember what pact we made when she was born?" Charlie growled accusingly at Percy.
Percy sighed and seemed to recite the lines from memory.
"We as the Weasley brothers vow to protect Ginvera Molly Weasley from all evils from the world and no matter what happens, she must never be harmed."
"And you're breaking your promise? A Weasley never turns his back on his family!" Bill glared at Percy and if looks could kill, Percy would have been murdered ruthlessly over and over again.
"Percy-" Mr. Weasley's voice interrupted coldly, but before he could begin, Percy's temper finally interrupted.
"Is it my fault, I don't want to associate with a bunch of trouble makers? Dumbledore's losing his touch! He's not even in power anymore! You-Know-Who isn't going to come back! The only way we're going to make the Weasley name worth anything is if we cooperate with the Ministry!"
"Does some job at the ministry matter more than the life of your sister?" the softer feminine voice of Mrs. Weasley interrupted and she looked at her son with her eyes moist with tears.
"Mother, its not that simple-"
"Tell me, tell me just how hard is it to choose between the ministry and your sister," Mr. Weasley asked his son coldly.
"Father, you don't understand-"
"All I understand is this: either you stay here and help look for Ginny, or you can leave for the ministry and this home forever," he stated and his face showed that there was no other way out of this.
"Arthur," Mrs. Weasley's voice interrupted as the tears began falling out of her eyes at the thought of having her family torn apart.
"Molly, there's no other way," Mr. Weasley replied without looking at his wife so her tears wouldn't soften his resolve in his decision. For once, he was the dominant one in the family.
There were a few more moments of silence as the family stared expectantly at Percy. Of course he would decide to stay, of course he would apologize to them for being a git. Afterwards, they'll be a family again, just like always.
"I'm sorry, some day you'll understand," Percy threw some emerald green Floo Powder into the fireplace before shouting 'The Ministry of Magic' loudly and disappearing into the emerald flames.
The Weasley family stared at the fireplace in silence as if hoping that this was all a hoax and he would be popping out of the fireplace any minute now with a wide grin on his face explaining to them that he was merely trying to prove that the twins weren't the only ones capable of pulling a joke.
But that never happened and they were still staring, frozen to the spot as the image slowly became distorted and the shapes morphed back into blobs and soon it was just the screen of colour again.
"Its not real," Ginny finally broke the silence. This couldn't be happening. Sure, Percy was ambitious and wanted to rise high in the ministry to prove himself. But he would never choose the ministry over her safety. This must be some kind of illusion created by the Death Eaters or something to make her believe that her family was falling for that. Just because Percy was never an affectionate person doesn't mean that he didn't care whether or not she returned home safely.
"How do you know? How do you know its not real?" Draco asked before getting a glimpse of her face. Once he did, he immediately regretted the words that left his mouth. She looked shocked, stricken, and in denial.
"Because its not possible. Once a Weasley, always a Weasley. We never turn our backs on each other," she seemed to be explaining to herself more than to Draco. It was an unspoken pact that existed in the family. Nobody ever broke it. It wasn't out of fear of a punishment or anything, it simply wasn't done. But deep inside, no matter how much she tried denying this, she couldn't help but know that these images weren't illusions.
Now that she had a few moments to think about it, there were a lot of occasions where she heard her parents whispering in their room. She always heard words like 'Dumbledore' and 'the Order.' The Daily Prophet had been printing lies about Harry and Dumbledore all summer and while the rest of the family scoffed at the ridiculous stories, Ginny always remembered Percy looking intently at the thrown away newspapers in the garbage can with a look quite different from the rest of the family. He seemed to be at the Ministry more often than he was at home. Even on those rare moments that he spent anytime at home, he would be surrounded by stacks of Ministry documents and holed up in his room. Whereas she wasn't as close to him as she was to her other brothers, he was always the one that took time to answer all her questions while the rest of her brothers played Quidditch. He was the one that told her what was the difference between a Goblin and an Elf. He was the one that told her all about Hogwarts and the spells. He even took the time to explain to her (in detail) all the spells she asked about. He was always there to listen to her problems about feeling left out in a big group of brothers. He cared about her so much, she knew how much he blamed himself for thinking that she would blab about his girlfriend when she was about to tell Ron about the Chamber of Secrets. But after he graduated from Hogwarts, all this seemed to change and he didn't even have time for her problems or questions anymore. She knew he was slowly ripping the bonds to his family away. Now, it was like a nightmare come true. In fact, just like the nightmare she had forced herself to forget about.
"I'm out of here! I don't want to be a Weasley anymore!" Percy screamed at the rest of the family.
"NO! Don't leave Percy!" Ginny seemed to be a little five year old girl again and pleaded desperately with him and clung onto his leg.
"I said, I'm out of here, I'm not your brother anymore," he angrily shook her hand off his leg and slammed the door shut.
Maybe it was her mind refusing her denial of her family splitting that caused that dream, maybe it was premonition, who knows? What mattered was the image from the stream was showing her an event that happened in her dream and possibly in real life.
There were a few more moments of silence before Draco asked another question.
"Why are we seeing these images? Where are they coming from?"
"I don't know," Ginny tucked her knees against her chest and put her head down, her voice was muffled, "I don't know," she repeated again. She needed to get away from all this. She wanted to go home and lie down on her bed, surrounded by the familiar smell of her bedspread and sleep the problems away. But she couldn't, she could feel Draco staring at her. Just staring.
Draco recognized this position. It was familiar because he himself often did this when he was alone in his room, knowing, realizing that no matter how rich and powerful he had, nobody ever understood him. Nobody ever tried and nobody ever cared. He remembered these moments where he would actually allow himself the luxury and pain of emotions. Where the dread and tears that threatened to fall reminded him of the curse and exhilaration of being human. He felt a sudden urge to move closer to her. To allow her to feel the warmth of another human being. To gently touch her cheek and wrap his arms around him so she could burrow in his chest and forget about all her troubles. Suddenly, he wanted to protect her from all these troubles. He wanted to shield her eyes if another one of those blasted images showed up. He wanted to be the one to tell her that yes, families stick together, and yes, those were just false images created by his father to trick her and that he was actually the one that abducted her. He wanted…so badly to comfort her.
Is this what compassion feels like? Is this what the feeling of your heart tearing at the sight of some one depressed feels like? Is it?
Before he could think about what he was doing, before his mind could process the social havoc that could erupt if he continued on, Draco found that he was sitting beside Ginny and his hand was on her shoulder.
His hand felt warm compared to the coldness of her body, she felt the sudden urge to shiver, and burrow deep into his touch and never come out. Suddenly, it seemed that in this mysterious place, there wasn't a Malfoy and a Weasley, instead there was simply two people, sharing the same disappointment, the same hole in their lives.
Ginny tilted her head sideways so it was rested on Draco's shoulder. He slid the hand that was touching her shoulder a little more to the right so he was now half embracing her. The feel of her body against his arm was comforting. There was an unspoken understanding between the two of them as they both stayed silent and still, comforting each other's family sorrows only with the feel of their heartbeats.
