Author's Note:
As a heads up, I have changed the rating on this story to M. This chapter, as you may recall from the previous version, is not explicit but does allude to dubious or flat out non-consent. If this bothers you, you have been warned not to read further.
Chapter 9 - Newport
Ginny delicately covered her mouth as she gasped at the opulence of the room they entered. She was fairly well accustomed to displays of wealth, having spent the better part of the last ten years living in a palace, but she expected nothing similar of a private home that housed three people.
"Oh! My dear, your robe is exquisite!" a voice from behind them called out joyfully. Ginny and Draco turned around to see the elder Malfoy couple enter the room.
Lucius Malfoy stopped dead in his tracks. "Don't tell me my only son married a Weasley," he snarled.
"Oh don't be silly, dear, she's not just a Weasley, she's a Malfoy now, after all. Besides, she just graduated from L'Academie des Sorcieres this morning, which I don't recall any other Malfoy bride doing before." She stopped chiding her husband to turn and look at Ginny again. "Really, darling, you absolutely outdid yourself with that robe."
"Draco, did you just spend all those Galleons just so we could be related to that blood-traitor lot?" he scowled.
"Well –" Draco began, but was interrupted by a hearty laugh coming from his bride.
"Really, Mr. Malfoy, have you never looked at your family tree? My grandmother was Cedrella Black, which means you became more closely related to 'that blood-traitor lot' when you married your wife." Ginny chuckled and shook her head while Lucius' face grew paler and stonier by the minute. Draco eyed his mother nervously.
"Well, dears," Narcissa said hastily. "I suppose it's high time you were off on your honeymoon! Best of luck, au revoir!" She thrust a small silver trinket at the two of them, which they both seized and were sucked off into the unknown.
After quite a bit more spinning than they were accustomed to, Draco and Ginny landed heavily in a bright, airy room. The sound of the sea crashing on the shore could be heard from a short distance away and a warm breeze caused the gauzy white drapes to billow out over the marble floors. Ginny let out of a sigh of contentment and sank onto the lavish cushions on the nearby sofa. Draco quirked an eyebrow at her behavior before noticing a note on the side table, which he promptly read.
Welcome, my darlings, to Newport!
You have left England and are now in the States, more specifically the state of Rhode Island. While the Muggles in this area certainly outdid themselves on the architecture, you are in the only Wizarding mansion in the area. Three house elves are available to tend to your every whim: simply call for Pally, Mabby, or Tilly.
As per a true honeymooning couple, you have been confined to these chambers for the duration of your stay. There is a small dining room, a bedroom, a sitting room, and a bathroom, all of which should be more than enough to amuse yourselves with. Don't try to get out, you'll only hurt yourselves.
I hope you have a wonderful week!
Mother
Draco growled, startling Ginny. "What is it?" she asked warily.
"My mother is the most meddlesome woman I have ever met," he grit out.
"Why?" Ginny asked in alarm. Draco proceeded to relay the contents of the letter to his new wife. "What!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet as her hands planted themselves on her hips. "I'll find a way out, I'm sure of it. We had to study the architecture of Newport once and it's absolutely lovely, I'm not going to sit right next door and not make any sort of effort to see it."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea…" he began carefully.
"And why not?" she demanded.
"Well, you see, my parents are known for dabbling in the Dark Arts, there's really no telling what Mother's done to this place, what charms she's activated, what charms she's placed, that sort of thing. There really could be some nasty consequences for trying to break free without her express approval."
"We'll just see about that," Ginny said darkly, brandishing her wand and stalking out of the room.
Ginny sighed in frustration as she tried to attack the windows in the bedroom yet again. She had decided that the best course of action would be to try and free open a window since she best dealt with fabrics, but she was beginning to wish she had her brother, Bill, here to help her with curse breaking. She was currently surrounded by the white, gauzy material that covered the windows and the windows were every bit as covered as they were when she first started. Draco quietly waded into the room, waist high in the gauzy fabric.
"No luck, I gather?"
"No," Ginny sighed, collapsing onto a nearby chair. "I've tried every reduction spell I know and half of them simply seem to multiply the fabric rather than make it smaller."
"Ouch," Draco said sympathetically. "Have you tried to get to the window itself?"
Ginny threw him a dark glare. "That was the very first thing I tried, you twit," she growled. "There are simply meters and meters of fabric obscuring the window here, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a spell similar to the multiplying ones used at high security vaults at Gringotts."
Draco pondered that for a moment. Given that he was waist high in material, he wouldn't be at all surprised if there was such a spell placed on the drapes, but Ginny was right, that was a very dangerous spell. Seemingly innocuous at first, it could potentially drown the victims in whatever material the spell had been placed on if they did not make an effort to stop getting past it.
"Why don't we try another route then?" he suggested. "See if there's, oh, I don't know, a hidden door or something."
Ginny glared at him. "If your mother put that sort of spell on the drapes, do you really think she'd leave a door around for us to simply waltz out of?"
"Probably not," Draco sighed. "But it's still worth a try, isn't it?"
After hours of searching a well placed revealing spell located a hidden door in the sitting room. It led to a dining room, which yet again, had obscured windows and no other visible means of entry.
"Well, I'm famished," Draco said, sinking into one of the chairs at the ornate table. "What do you say we call the elves and order some dinner before we search this room?"
"I suppose I'll think better on a full stomach," Ginny agreed, joining him at the table. "What were the elves names again?"
"Tilly!" Draco shouted brusquely, earning a glare from his new wife. A house elf appeared before them with a pop, pressing its nose against the floor.
"What can Tilly get Master?" it asked in a high pitched squeak.
"We'd like dinner for two, preferably some local specialty." He said in a bored tone, inspecting his meticulously clean fingernails.
"Please," Ginny added, tossing another glare towards her new husband as the elf popped out of the room. "I see that we're going to have to work on your manners towards elves."
"What? I treat them perfectly well!"
"You're quite rude to them," Ginny replied, as if speaking to a small child as she rolled her eyes. "No matter who they are, regardless of their station, they should always be treated with respect."
"I don't see any reason why," he frowned as the food appeared on the table.
Ginny quickly ladled out two bowls of the soup as she was quite hungry. "What is this?" Draco asked, frowning down at his bowl of creamy orange liquid.
Ginny quirked an eyebrow at him as she buttered a piece of bread. "You were the one that requested a 'local specialty'," she retorted, but she prodded the liquid with her wand, whisking it about and murmuring something that sounded rather guttural. Finally smoky lettering appeared above the dish, spelling out Lobster Bisque.
"There you go," Ginny said rubbing her temple and reaching for the glass of wine sitting in front of her.
"Where did you learn that?" Draco asked in amazement.
"My friend, Lena," Ginny said quietly, still massaging her left temple. "She studied magical culinary arts, an offshoot of potions, you know, but she's incredibly gifted in Charms as well. She invented that spell, along with a few others."
Draco barely managed to avoid choking on the bite of bread he had just eaten upon hearing this information. He gulped at his wine before asking incredulously, "She invented it?"
"Oh yes, we had to take a class spell creation years ago and she had an absolute blast with it and never really stopped," Ginny said with a dismissive wave of her hand, before suddenly freezing and wrinkling her nose. "I suppose you're going to be the first to see my alarm charm now…"
"Is there something wrong with it?" he asked, alarmed.
"Oh no," Ginny assured him before eating a spoonful of the bisque, raising her eyebrows in pleasant surprise at the taste. "It's just that you're the first one to see it… I was hoping to take the secret to my grave. This is actually quite good," she said before eating more soup.
Draco looked down at the liquid, which he now noticed had unidentified lumps floating about in it. "Are you certain?" he asked hesitantly.
"Of course I am," she snapped somewhat impatiently. "Eat up before it gets cold!"
The first thing Ginny noticed the next morning that she was significantly colder than usual. Then, as she sat up in bed, she gasped as the sheet slipped off her, revealing that she had neglected to wear nightclothes. Finally, she let out a scream and pulled the sheets up to her neck as a grunt came from next to her.
"Will you stop moving around?" Draco grumbled sleepily.
"What… I slept with you… I'm naked… I was going to sleep in the sitting room…" Ginny rambled as she began to hyperventilate.
Draco suddenly became more aware of his surroundings as a sheet was whipped off him, exposing himself to the chilly morning air. He heard a harshly whispered spell and suddenly Ginny was standing before him in a towering fury wearing a simple robe that had evidently been a bed sheet moments before. Looking down he realized that he too was unclothed and quickly pulled up the light down comforter.
"Draco Malfoy, what potion did you have the nerve to use on me?" Ginny demanded coldly, pulling herself up as much as she could, and placing her hands firmly on her hips.
"What are you talking about? I'm not even sure what's going on…" he uncharacteristically babbled, before looking in the direction one of Ginny's fingers was pointed in imposingly.
Ginny had woken up confused, had become agitated, then finally her temper boiled over as she realized she was displaying symptoms of potion use: she had always been particularly sensitive to newt in any form or quantity. After gaining composure and making herself decent, she had noticed a trail of clothing she recognized wearing the day before, leading from the dining room to the bed. Her knickers, she noted sourly, had a large tear in them. Pity, those had been her favorite knickers and even though she could repair them flawlessly, they would forever be tainted with recollections of this morning.
"How could you do this to me," she hissed menacingly, stalking back towards the bed. "Were you under orders from that father of yours to bed your wife using any means necessary to continue the Malfoy line? Or was this some other evil plan of your own devising?"
"I swear, Ginny, I didn't have anything to do with… this," he said, gesturing wildly towards the bed and trail of clothing.
"I'm sure you didn't," Ginny said contemptuously, whipping her wand out and placing a full body bind on him. "Now I am going to go get breakfast and you can stay here and think about what you've done."
Draco sat silently in the bed, thanking his lucky stars that she had only placed a full body bind on him. He had overheard a conversation between several of her brothers once, who had been complaining that she could throw a mean hex. He also had had training during the war on how to throw off a variety of hexes and he guessed that he had another few minutes before he was free. After another minute, he decided that while he could throw off the hex, he would probably just sit very, very still until Ginny calmed down a bit more and was less free with the wandwork.
He only had to wait about half an hour to see Ginny in a calmer state. Indeed, she came prancing back into the room, shooting him a sultry smile, and pointing her wand at her robe, changed it back into a sheet, which slid onto the floor. He fought against the body bind spell more urgently as she finally began draping herself over him.
"What did you have for breakfast?" he choked out at last, pushing her off of him.
"Why do you want to know what I ate?" she pouted, fluttering her eyelashes at him. She dropped her wand next to his hand and he let out an immense sigh of relief.
"Stupefy!" he cried out, the force of the spelling hitting her hard in the chest and she slumped over him again. He then carefully levitated her body off of him and onto the bed, as he scrambled to the floor.
"Pally!" he shouted and a small elf appeared next to him, scraping it's abnormally long nose against the floor. "Robe Miss Wea… Mrs. Malfoy in one of the nightgowns she brought."
"Yes, sir," the little elf squeaked before beginning to robe Ginny. Draco sat on the bench at the foot of the bed and placed a full body bind on her before awakening her. After standing guard over her for an exhausting three hours, the look in her eyes finally drifted from seductive to outraged and he lifted that spell from her.
"Malfoy, I swear to you I am not interested in this! What the hell have you…" Ginny began shouting.
"Silencio!" Draco shouted, rubbing a hand over his face. Ginny glared at him before walking over and attempting to punch his arm, but Draco caught her hand first.
"Look here, Ginny," he began angrily. "I have done nothing to you. The most I did was protect you from whatever spell or potion you were under and had a house elf dress you. Now listen closely, I'm going to take the spell off you and then you're going to tell me exactly what happened while you were in the dining room."
He lifted the spell and Ginny gave him another deadly glare. "I didn't even get breakfast, you prat! What good is telling you what happened in there?"
"Something clearly happened," he shot back. "You went into the dining room piss mad at me and came out trying to jump me! Are you sure you don't remember anything?"
Ginny frowned at his statement. "Well, I went in, called for Tilly and asked for pomegranate juice and croissants. I remember the juice appearing in front of me, but I don't even recall drinking it."
"What's the last thing you remember from last night?" he asked, realization beginning to dawn on him.
"I… I had just checked what the soup was with Lena's charm, why? You think it's something we're eating?" she asked curiously, a frown beginning to mar her forehead.
"Not what we're eating," Draco corrected, "what we're drinking. Last night, after you performed that charm, you had a sip of wine. I recall eating, but I don't recall drinking at all, although I've had a bit of a hangover this morning so I clearly drank more than two glasses."
"That makes sense," Ginny agreed reluctantly. "Whatever kind of potion it is, it's got some sort of newt in it. I'm rather sensitive to newt and my scalp has been tingling since I woke up."
"Newt's fairly common so that doesn't really give us any strong clues," Draco sighed. "And whoever did this – mind you, I'm willing to bet my life it's my mother – was smart: just about everything is prepared with water." He paused for a moment. "What am I thinking, I'm a wizard, I can conjure water! It'll be an awfully boring week, though."
"I'm sure we can survive for a week just drinking water," Ginny assured him, patting his hand. "It's quite good for you, you know."
"But it's water," he said, very nearly whining. "What if I want tea, juice, or even wine?"
Ginny frowned. "Tea we can do, easily," she said slowly. "It's nothing but tea leaves brewed in hot water, after all. I've never been able to get the hang of charms for foods: that was always Lena's specialty, so unfortunately I'm afraid juices and wines are out of the question."
"I can only charm vinegar into wine," Draco said, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Perhaps we should ask the house-elves for gallons of vinegar?"
"Tilly!" Ginny called out as they sat down. The elf appeared into the room with a loud pop and bowed deeply in front of Ginny.
"Mistress Ginevra called for Tilly?" she squeaked to the floor.
"Yes I did," Ginny said gently. "Now I was wondering, would it be possible for you to bring us some lunch? We'd like a tray of tea sandwiches and a pot of tea with extra tea leaves on the side, thank you."
"Of course, Mistress Ginny!" the elf squeaked delightedly. "Tilly would be glad to bring you and Master Draco lunch!"
Tilly snapped her fingers and disappeared from the room with another pop. A third pop filled the room and a silver platter covered in tea sandwiches and a tea set covered the table.
"Ah, perfect," Ginny exclaimed, lifting the lid of the tea pot. "I can just Scourgify this out… wait, Draco, take a sniff of this tea!"
Draco obligingly leaned forward, sniffing the steam rising from the tea. He instantly was assaulted with the smell of rain, leather, and a floral scent that was vaguely familiar but he was unable to place, but nonetheless present whenever he sniffed...
"It's some form of Amortentia, I'm sure of it," Ginny said excitedly, breaking his train of thought. "I can smell… well, that doesn't really matter," she said, her cheeks tinged pink with excitement and embarrassment. "Look at it, the steam from the tea is rising in spirals and I'm sure you recognized the scent. The only thing missing is the mother-of-pearl sheen, but since that's caused by ground pearls, this must be a variation. The pearls are what lends it its longevity, which explains why it's only lasting a few hours for us."
"Well, it's lovely and all that we've confirmed what caused last night," Ginny's face fell at this, "but really, what good does it do us? We can't exactly buy the ingredients to go out and brew a counter-potion."
"Right, right," she mumbled. "Scourgify."
The tea vanished from the pot. Ginny quickly added tea leaves to the pot and filled it with water before applying a heating charm. Before long, steam was rising from the pot again, although it no longer spiraled.
"All set?" Draco asked.
Ginny nodded brusquely. They ate lunch in silence.
Ginny remained stonily silent for the next few days. Finally, Draco couldn't stand the silence.
"Ginny?" She ignored him. "Ginny!" At this she turned and faced in the opposite direction, staring at the gauzy drapes. "Ginny, please talk to me."
"Why?"
Draco was less than pleased at this response, but it was the first word she had said in days and her voice was rusty with disuse.
"What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" she laughed in disbelief and turned to face him. "What's wrong? Being stuck in this blasted suite with your mother trying to force-feed us some form of Amortentia potion? You don't see anything wrong with that picture?"
Draco was now well and truly annoyed. "You don't think it bothers me? My father helped push this law through because it had a pureblooded agenda, but my mother helped push it through because she wanted grandchildren! Now that I've read the specific clauses, I'm sure she had a heavy hand in requiring five children from pureblood couples!"
Ginny stared at him incredulously so he continued. "We adhere to something called the Malfoy Code of Conduct: I should probably give you a copy to read once we return to the manor. Or France," he added as an afterthought. "At any rate, one of the requirements is that to contain the wealth only a male child is permitted, one sole male heir to continue the family line. Quite a number of spells are traditionally cast at the wedding, which is normally a considerably grander affair than ours, by the current head of the house on the couple to ensure that they can only bear a single male heir, among other things. Should the heir die prematurely, the head of house is able to cast more spells such that another heir can be produced."
Ginny laughed hollowly. "Your family is sick, you do realize that?"
"Yes, yes, I do, but it is also quite logical. Don't want to split up the family fortune now, do we?"
"Well, we will at any rate," Ginny sighed. "I suppose your father is going to hate me even more now."
Draco shrugged elegantly. "He's the one that pushed the law through, so either there's some loophole we can get through or he agrees with my mother and wants a herd of grandchildren. I'll have to ask him about it when we get back." He paused, his cheeks taking on a pink tinge. "I don't suppose there's some sort of test you can do to see if… you know…"
"What are you on about?" Ginny asked, her face contorted in confusion.
"Um, well, to see if, you know, you're," he stammered, finally whispering with his eyes squeezed shut, "expecting?"
Ten and a half years of etiquette lessons failed Ginny in this moment and her face flushed deep red. "No, no," she finally managed to get out. "Another week and a half and I'll let you know."
Draco's eyes squeezed shut, clearly not happy with the wait, however long. "Alright then," he said, before opening his mouth to speak again, but Ginny cut him off.
"Enough of that now," she said, her face beginning to resume its usual pallor. "I've had quite enough talking today; I'm going to get to work on some new designs."
Much to Draco's surprise, she stalked out of the room to do exactly that. When he angrily followed her into the dining room, she was busily transforming the now familiar room. She pointed her wand at the table, whereupon the tablecloth whipped itself off the table and into the form of a manikin in the corner of the room. Another spell shot at a flower vase in the corner of the room transfigured the hapless vase into a victrola which began to blast a song Draco didn't recognize, but yet found oddly cathartic. Another spell was quickly fired at the table and he was astonished to see the grains in the wood spring to life, showing a crude representation of a classical orchestra. Finally, she began pulling at the drapes, the fabric multiplying in her arms.
"What do you want?" she snarled, her arms full of the gauzy material as she finally realized who was in the room with her.
"I just wanted to talk," he snapped back at her.
"Well," she said, shooting a severing charm at the drapes, neatly separating the fabric in her arms from the fabric still protecting the windows, "I've heard quite enough of your crazy family today."
"Hey now," he said, clearly offended. "My family has not had a single instance of insanity! We're simply highly logical and Slytherin to the core!"
Ginny threw her arms up into the air, dumping the fabric on the table and Draco amusedly watched the grainy musicians flee in horror. "What is it with you wizards and houses?" she seethed. "All my brothers ever talk about was Gryffindor this, Gryffindor that, and how being in Gryffindor automatically made them so brave and valiant and how all Ravenclaws were nothing more than a bunch of bookworms, Hufflepuffs were nothing more than a bunch of goody-two shoes, and all Slytherins were liars!"
"Hey! I resent that!" Draco said hotly. "Gryffindors don't like Slytherins because we lie, only that we can lie so much more successfully."
Ginny looked heavenward and counted to ten. "You see," she said, considerably more calmly, "this is exactly what I'm talking about. Yes, I'm sure every house has a dominant trait, but who's to say there can't be a bookish Gryffindor? My brother Percy is a prime example there: he even told me that the Sorting Hat considered putting him in Ravenclaw. Both twins were candidates for Slytherin, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ron was a candidate for Hufflepuff with the way he follows Harry and Hermione around!"
"Well, the Sorting Hat never considered anything other than Slytherin for me," he said arrogantly. "I'm sure I'm a prime example of all the wonderful traits that that glorious house possesses."
"I'm sure you are," she said rolling her eyes. "But surely there was a brave Malfoy somewhere along the line who asked to be put into Slytherin because he couldn't stomach the thought of how his family would treat him as a Gryffindor? At any rate, please leave. As you can see, I'm rather busy."
Draco stalked angrily out of the room, determined to make her speak to him next.
As it turned out Ginny didn't speak to him at all until the morning that they were due to leave for their next destination. She took over the sitting room, transfiguring the sofa into a large squishy bed and very often he'd sneak peeks of her in the chilly evenings staring forlornly into the fire while sipping non-Amortentia laced tea. She finally met him in the dining room wearing a somber looking black robe which appeared to be made of the same material as the drapes, accented with a silver brooch.
"Are you all set?" she asked quietly.
He nodded brusquely as a swirling, shimmering blue light appeared above the table, finally materializing into another small silver trinket. He reached out to place a finger on it, but a small soft hand stopped him.
"Please," Ginny said softly. "I've been doing a bit of thinking over the past couple days, can we start over this week? I can't go through the rest of my life like this and I doubt you can either."
Draco's shoulders sagged in relief for a moment before he caught himself. "Of course," he said, his mouth forming a small smile. "Now let's go, shall we?"
Ginny returned his smile, her eyes never leaving his as she reached for the Portkey and they were sucked off into the unknown once again.
Author's Note 2:
Thank you all who stuck with me after not really updating in ages! I'm working on chapter 10 which is proving to be rather lengthy. The music Ginny was playing was Beethoven's 5th symphony. As usual, many thanks to my beta, Lynn.