A/N: I am so sorry that it took me like a month to update and it's not even a good update. It was SUPPOSED to be longer, but it kinda isn't. I am just so busy with my life right now that I really don't have the time to write... so sorry to anyone who still reads this fic...
Disclaimer: I am shamelessly stealing everything from JKR... yeah, right, all characters belong to JKR
Ginny followed Draco down the stony staircase that remained her of the Hogwarts dungeons. She walked closely behind him, partly because of the need to stay with him and make up for her behavior and partly because it was rather dark, and she was afraid of getting lost. When they finally reached the end of the staircase, they entered a spacey, underground, dark room in which Ginny could hear water dripping somewhere in the corner. The feeling that they were standing in a dungeon was enhanced by the sound, making Ginny almost expect Professor Snape to greet them with a sardonic remark. She knew it was impossible- Snape died during the War, and even if he did not, it was too dark to see anything.
Regardless of the fact that the light was missing, a thought that concerned her rescuers' identity remained on Ginny's mind. All throughout their mad journey across the country, the question lingered in the back of her mind, like a shadow at noon, just waiting to jump out, but in the light of on-going events it could not. And now, when she was standing in a dark room under the Malfoy Manor (II), Ginny could not help but wonder who the people that risked their lives for her were. She recalled their Patronuses, and yet that gave her no clue. She prided herself in knowing most of her close friends and families' animal, but she could place any of them no matter how hard she tried. Her thought process, though it took only a few seconds, was disturbed by a voice:
"Lumos!" One of Ginny's travel companions whispered, and the room that they were standing in was made visible.
Ginny soon realized that the room was nowhere near a dungeon. Rather, the stony room was a large underground bathroom. The dripping water was, naturally, dripping from a silver faucet into a square-pool bathtub. Two mirrors covered one of the walls in front of a white-marble sink, and there were fresh towels neatly stocked up in one of the cabinets. Ginny had seen many luxurious bathrooms, especially after the War, but this one certainly had been one of the most lavish and elegant. The Malfoys certainly had a style.
Ginny did not have much time to contemplate about the interior designs of the Malfoys, for one of her rescuers approached her rapidly, squeezing her in a tight hug.
"We almost lost you, Ginny!" the bearded man exclaimed as his dark hair started to turn dirty yellow.
Something in Ginny's head clicked.
"Luna?" she murmured in disbelief.
"Good job, Weasley," another voice said behind her, and once Luna let her go, Ginny moved around to see a smirk plastered on the face of Pansy Parkinson.
"Parkinson? Pansy Parkinson?" Ginny questioned with a certain amount of skepticism, as if she did not trust her own eyes.
"Surprised?" Pansy looked at her arrogantly. "What?" she continued, "Did you expect someone else? Granger-Weasley, perhaps? Well, don't read too much into this, Weasley. I did it for Draco."
"Of course," Ginny muttered coldly, avoiding the eyes of either of them.
"Don't mind Pansy, darling," a man, whom Ginny did not recognize instantly, came forward, "She is usually a little testy after flying. Not her greatest skill."
"Blaise Zabini?" Ginny felt like she was a in dream- a very real one, but still a dream.
"'tis I! 'tis I!" Blaise pronounced dramatically. "And I would like to say that it was my pleasure rescuing you, m'lady."
Ginny smiled lightly, looking at the man with wonder in her eyes. She remembered him from school, but she did not remember much. Now, he appeared to be most un-Slytherin.
"I am sure it was pleasure, Blaise- for you anyway. But we still have some work to do tonight," Pansy reminded him, coming forward.
"Well, feel free to proceed," Blaise said, leaning back against a wall.
"Blaise…" Pansy growled warningly.
"Wha? I've seen it all before." Blaise replied coyly in his defense.
"Honestly, Blaise, I doubt that there will be much to see," Draco, who kept quiet until now, intervened. "She's half-starved to death."
"If you don't like women any more that's fine with me, Draco." Blaise leered in reply.
"Blaise…" Luna's eyes met his, and Blaise slowly detached himself from the wall and walked towards the exit.
"That's right, mate, let's go," Draco smirked, following Blaise, "Be a good dog, and listen to your wife." And the two of them disappeared up the stairs.
"Wife?" Ginny's eyebrows rose as she made the connection.
"We got married," Luna explained. "Last month. That's why I wasn't there when you tried to kill Harry. We were in Australia."
"Yeah," Ginny nodded slowly. "I remember that."
"He proposed and I said yes," Luna continued, glad to finally share her happiness with her friend.
"That's how it usually goes," Pansy agreed bitterly. "Now can we please get to what we are supposed to be doing? I would like to get some sleep tonight."
"What are we supposed to be doing?" Ginny asked, her voice matching Pansy's. Ginny had never had a reason to like the other witch, and treating her nicely, especially when Pansy was being clearly unfriendly, was out of question.
"Changing your hair and general appearance," Luna answered before Pansy had the chance to open her mouth. "And you should take a bath as well. You smell worse than a dead and rotting Blibbering Humdinger."
There was a silence. And then Ginny chuckled. She had not done that in a long while. Luna smiled back. Pansy was looking at them with a bemused smirk. It seemed that the tension between the two, if not gone, at the very least decreased.
Ginny sniffed herself.
"I guess you are right, I do have a certain-"
"Body odor?" Pansy offered meekly.
"Yes, quite. Bath sounds wonderful." Ginny smiled, using the unfamiliar facial muscles.
After Ginny took a bath, scrubbing the Azkaban filth off herself, and realizing with a sudden worry that Draco was right, and she did look like a skeleton, the three witches spent about three hours putting a variety of lotions, balms, extracts, potions and charms on her. Ginny felt incredibly pampered, almost silly for all that attention she was getting, but it was nice. Though, she had to admit that the worst part of the whole makeover was when they changed her hair colour. She understood the necessity, yet she could not help feeling a little sad when her newly washed and flamboyant red mane took on different colours as the two witches were trying to pick the right one. In the end, they agreed on blonde- a mix between Luna's dirty blonde and Draco's platinum. In process of making her unrecognizable by her family and friends, Pansy also used a spell on Ginny's freckles and Luna altered her cheekbones and chin. When Ginny finally looked into the mirror, she saw her chin to be pointy and distinctly Malfoy-ish, her hair blonde and her cheekbones high. The only thing that remained the same about her face were her cinnamon-brown eyes, staring seriously back at her, for the playful spark, that made her a famous prankster at Hogwarts, had died out years ago.
"I think that blonde definitely works for you," Luna commented, standing behind Ginny.
"Better than that horrible orange," Pansy assented. "Now let's get you something to wear."
"What?" Ginny, who was currently thinking of the person whom she so closely resembled now, was not exactly paying much attention to the words of Pansy Parkinson.
"Clothes," Pansy said, as if she was explaining something to a five year old. "Here, we don't walk around naked. Or in our bathrobes."
"Really? Could have fooled me," Ginny retorted weakly.
"Accio clothes!" Luna ordered, and a pile of clothes came flying from one of the closets that lined the walls.
"They are yours," Luna pointed to the clothes. "We weren't sure what your size was, but we can shrink them if we have to."
Yes, she certainly was too skinny. As she moved, Ginny could feel that it was not the fat she lost; rather she lost quite a lot of her muscle tissue in Azkaban. She had no will to eat, and the dementors had no will to spoon-feed her anything. Well, they had the will, just not the means. It wouldn't have mattered if everything went according to the plan, and she died, but it didn't. It didn't go according to the plan from the beginning when Harry did not die. And then, well, then, everything went into havoc.
"Gin," Luna called, breaking Ginny's trance once again, "Why don't you try this on?"
Ginny did as she was told, pulling on a white t-shirt, a pair of dark-blue jeans and a black jumper.
"This will do for now," Pansy looked at her critically. "But when you go outside, you'll have to dress like a Malfoy."
"I know how to dress," Ginny replied dully, giving Pansy a leveled look. Since her life was not over, and it did not seem like it would be for a while, she should stop all this melancholy and see what she could do while still being alive.
"I was the wife of the head Auror," Ginny continued, now with more force. "I am sure I can dress like a Malfoy."
Pansy raised her eyebrows.
"I have my doubts, Mrs. Potter."
"Why don't you keep them to yourself then?" Ginny countered.
"Ginevra, really," Luna scolded her. "Pansy, why don't you go and call the boys? Ginny is ready. And then we can all go to bed."
Much to Ginny's surprise, Pansy obeyed and went up the stairs.
"Don't mind her, Gin," Luna told her once Pansy was gone. "She is not a bad person. A little mean, yes, but overall, she's not too bad. She loves Draco and Blaise very much."
"I could see that," Ginny's voice was laced with sarcasm, and she could almost taste the bile on her tongue.
Luna's silvery eyes examined her patiently, making Ginny shiver. She did not mean to sound so snappy.
"I am sorry," Ginny apologized quickly. "Now tell me about your honeymoon and marriage."
"It's wonderful," Luna started, obviously distracted by the opening. "It's perfect. It started off about a year back. Blaise and I met at this convention and well…" Most atypically, Luna was blushing, and Ginny was watching her with her friend's excitement mirrored in her own eyes.
"Il mio dio," Blaise muttered in Italian, being the first to come down the stairs, "E più bello di un sorgere del sole luglio."
Luna smiled.
"Yes, that will do." Draco commented, coming down.
"Will do?" Pansy was rather irritated by the remark. "We worked our asses off to make her look like this, and you can't do better than 'will do', Draco? What is she? A piece of furniture or a display poodle?" She scolded him angrily, before storming off.
"You look sizzling hot, my dear," Blaise complimented Ginny. "You girls did a great job."
The tension that positioned itself in the room once Draco entered was unmoved by Blaise's chitchat.
"We better go too," Blaise suggested, sensing the mood of the situation, "It is getting late."
"I will come and see you tomorrow," Luna squeezed Ginny's hands before leaving. "It's going to be alright."
The two of them hurried up the stairs, leaving Ginny and Draco alone in the bathroom. They looked at each other silently, neither too willing to speak.
"I'll show you your room," Draco offered with a gloom look on his face to break the silence.
"Okay," Ginny agreed, following him up the stairs.
They walked to a room in the east wing of the mansion in silence. Draco promptly opened the door, let her in, walked out and was about to close the door when Ginny chose to speak:
"Um, what about my wand?"
"It was snapped in two," Draco explained making a move to close the door again.
"I am going to need a wand."
It was true. Ginny felt incredibly vulnerable without that piece of wood.
"We'll get you a new one." Draco said, clearly not willing to deal with that at 5 o'clock in the morning, and was about to close the door again.
"I- thanks for rescuing me." Ginny told him.
"You repeat yourself, Weasley," Draco continued coldly, this time successful in closing the door, and leaving Ginny staring at the door with pain and anger on her face.
The rescuers, the brain behind the operation and the prisoner slept away the night and most of the day, not knowing that Harry Potter had meanwhile discovered the body of his ex-wife. They were oblivious in their slumber that the Weasleys were grief-stricken sitting at the Burrow, or that Hermione Granger-Weasley's mother was getting fed up with having to take care of two wizarding kids that almost always destroyed her house, or that in the election poles for the new Minister of Magic Ernie McMillan was leading with Susan Bones closely behind. No, they had no idea, and it can be said with a certain degree of certainty that they would not care.
After the long night and part of the morning, Luna and Blaise went home and slept the day away there. Pansy, Draco and Ginny slept it away at the Malfoy Manor, each in their separate room. However, at the end of the day, the three of them made it to the dinner which was conveniently served by Crabbe who was now a full-fledged employee of the Malfoys.
"Mother," Draco stood up as Narcissa entered, for the three of them were eating in silence. "This is Amelia, our cousin. I told you about her."
"Oh, of course," Narcissa walked forward, taking her place at the end of the maple table. If she was surprised by the name or appearance, she did not let it show.
Ginny had no idea what to do. She was never good at making up table conversation, but she felt like she should at least try to with this woman who was sitting to her right.
"That's a nice dress, Mrs. Malfoy," she complimented her, her own voice sounding fake and empty to her.
"Why, thank you, Amelia," Narcissa replied, watching her with her ice-blue eyes. "You must call me Narcissa. I cannot bear 'Mrs. Malfoy'."
Ginny was befuddled by the request, but she did her best to not let it show. Pansy and Draco watched the exchange, neither wanting to join the conversation most likely for the very same reasons.
"So what is it that you are going to do in England, Amelia?" Narcissa said, taking a sip of water from her goblet.
"I am not sure, Narcissa," Ginny answered, wondering if the other woman was trying to trick her.
"Well, there must be a purpose in your life, no?" Narcissa continued calmly.
"I-"
"Mother," Draco, Ginny doubted that he did it out of remorse, jumped in before she opened her mouth to speak. "I think that Amelia needs some time to rest after her mother's death. She is most welcome to do it here."
"Yes, of course, dear," Narcissa's icy gaze shifted on Draco, and an understanding passed between the mother and the son.
The moment was disrupted by something tapping on the window screen. A brown, tawny owl knocked on the window of the new Malfoy Manor, and Pansy let her in. It landed on the dinner table where the family was eating their dinner. Draco gave the owl a few Knuts, and untied a special edition of Daily Prophet from its leg. Glancing at the big picture of Harry Potter's face above the title 'Murderess Murdered', he snorted but proceeded to read out loud the article:
"Ginevra Weasley, recently condemned for an attempted murder of Harry J. Potter, was found dead this morning in Scotland. The prisoner was snatched from the dementors' claws on her way to Azkaban where she was to receive the Kiss, and brought to a small shack near the shore where she was brutally murdered by yet unidentified wizards or witches. Harry Potter says for the Ministry: "While we realized that Ginevra Weasley was a prisoner condemned to death, her death under such circumstances is unacceptable and the Ministry will look until we find her murderers. As of now, we don't know much more than the reporters, only that the murder was vicious and monstrous and in a complete opposition to our sense of justice…"
Draco didn't finish reading the article out loud, for he let go of the newspaper, allowing it to slip between his slender fingers and fall on the floor, and chuckled lightly to himself.
"That's perfect," Draco smirked smugly. "Potter could not have done it better if he knew what he was talking about."
Draco quickly skimmed the rest of the article, nodding approvingly at the pictures of the place, obviously content with what they did with the shack. Pansy was next to snatch the newspaper from him, and read it through. Ginny refrained from reading about her own death; it felt surreal to have it announced even by Draco, but she did not think she was in place to read about it.
Couple weeks went by and Ginny was getting used to her new life style with the Malfoys. Narcissa proved to be a fine companion and the two women spent much time together, since Narcissa went out seldom and Ginny had to stay inside most of the time as part of her disguise. She did not mind though, winter had never been her favorite time of the year; she simply thought it too cold. And so the two of them indulged in reading in the Malfoy library and discussing the books or taking care of the plants inside; Ginny taught Narcissa to cook and the older witch taught Ginny the fine art of fencing. It was quite a surprise too- Ginny would never expect the Narcissa Malfoy to fence. Yet, she did, and she was good at it. They added it partly to their schedule so Ginny could regain some of the muscles she lost during her stay in Azkaban and partly because Narcissa said that a woman needs to know how to defend herself. Ginny protested that they were witches and they didn't need to know how to use the sword, but she complied nonetheless.
There was always Luna who visited two or three times a week, to chat or just to check up on her. Ginny took quick liking to Blaise, who was funny and easy-going unlike the other two Slytherins she was spending time with recently. When she watched them together, Ginny could not have been happier for her friend.
Ginny was almost happy there. She was regaining her old self, even pulling a prank on Crabbe once when she put whipped cream on his hand when he was napping and then tickled him with a feather. It was rather funny at the time, even Draco who apparated home from work right on time to see Crabbe smear the whipped cream all over his face, laughed. Pansy who came to see what the ruckus was about chuckled as well, which was more than rare.
There were only two things that troubled Ginny during her stay at the Malfoy Manor. One was the cold and hostile attitude she received from Draco and Pansy. She could not blame Draco, since she was the one who slapped him, and his anger was thus justified. But she wished she hadn't, she was sure that there was something between them before that, but she was not sure anymore. The only thing she was certain of was that she wished he treated her like he did when he thought she was going to die. Pansy, on the other hand, was a terribly moody person. Sometimes, she would be nice to her, but other days, she was worse than a medusa on steroids. The only relief was that Pansy did not spend most of her days at the Manor. She was a highly qualified head-healer and worked long hours at a private hospital, coming to the Manor every now and then to spend the night.
Second problem was presented by her family. The week after her 'death' was made official, the newspapers had nothing but stories about the Weasleys and how they were suffering the loss of their only daughter. Ginny's heart broke whenever she saw a picture of them in the papers, because the very thought of her causing them so much pain was unbearable. Yes, they did not come to her when she needed them the most, but the pain that was displayed clearly on all of their faces- well, Ginny thought she lost her heart and that she had no emotions after Azkaban, they made her realize that she was wrong. She missed and secretly suffered with them.
Unknown to her, the family watched her closely, observing every time she cried into her pillow, or felt hurt surge through her when she saw a picture of the Golden Trio or one of her family in the papers. Draco, not taking to account his cold treatment of her, was most troubled by this, since he thought that Ginny was unhappy at the Manor and that really he did her a great disservice by having her saved. More importantly than that, he felt like she did not mean anything by that one kiss in the courtroom. He thought that whatever made her kiss him was gone, forever gone without ever coming back. And so he distanced himself from her, stay at work later than usual, and getting nothing done. He wanted to save Ginny to make her happy, but that failed, and he made her completely unhappy. And hence, he had nothing to do but share her unhappiness.
Those were his thought as he watched Ginny fence with Narcissa out of the window that looked out on the gym. That was when Pansy found him, leaning against the window sill when she returned home that night.
"Hungry, Malfoy?" she chirped and walked towards him through the archway, leaning her briefcase against the wall and coming closer. "I can see you drool from here."
"I didn't hear you come in," Draco replied.
"I apparated into the hall," Pansy explained, coming closer to watch them fence as well. "She's becoming quite good."
"Yes, she is," Draco nodded gloomily.
"Draco, dear, you cannot keep going like this," Pansy said in her most shrink-like voice. "You are unhappy and she is unhappy."
"I made her unhappy." Draco sulked in the manner of a four year old.
"Yes, now you have," Pansy agreed.
"I should have let her die," Draco's mood was not altered by Pansy's agreement.
"No, I don't think you should have done that," Pansy disagreed.
"Well, she is unhappy because she is alive," Draco continued in the same sulky manner.
"No, Draco, that is no why she is unhappy," Pansy's voice sounded tired like she was. "She is unhappy because she thinks that you are unhappy."
Draco frowned, "What?"
"Draco, dear, don't make me repeat myself," Pansy rolled her eyes. "She thinks that her presence is bothering you, and that's why she is unhappy. And also, I think, because she slapped you."
"She is feeling remorse?" Draco's eyes lit up at the idea. "Pansy, are you sure?"
"It's my job, Draco."
"No, you cannot be right."
"Draco, damn it." Pansy sighed, "How short-sighted are you? She is unhappy because of you. Now go, fix it."
A/N: He will fix it! In the next chapter once I get around to writing it...
Reviews (thanks to everyone who reviewed!):
Kanui d'Astor- Yeah, I liked the guilt scene too. The Weasleys still have feelings! I swear! xD
Dracoginnylover24- Better late then never, eh? Thanks for the review
lightcard- glad you like it!
PinkMusicalCherry- updated :D took me a while though
gineveramalfoy1894- ugh, hard to answer this review without giving the plot away forces self not to give the plot away thanks for reviewing!!
EB- Yeah, you got it! It was Luna... gotta love her Thanks for the rev!
miss devil's kiss- Yay! Great that you like it, and I am sorry that it confuses you. It should all become clear for a little while now before it gets all tangled up and crazy again...