Working for the Dragon

Chapter 14. Comfort

I gaped at him stupidly. What else could I have actually done? It felt like one of those things my muggle friends were always talking about.

The awkward moment where you don't know how to react to what someone said.

Those words flashed and disappeared like a bolt within my mind. There was pure silence around us except for the sounds of nature and the others who were taking a stroll.

Draco had drifted off into space. He stared ahead blankly as though he was trying to glare a hole in air or something. I watched him for a few seconds. He was sombre.

And then I realised that he was probably going mad wondering what one earth was going through my mind. Was I judging him?

No, I was not skilled in Legilimency. I just figured that if I revealed such a spicy piece of news to someone, I wanted them to react fast.

"You aren't joking." I finally stated quietly. It was the truth. Blaise and he were half-brothers but...

"No." He said solemnly. It was as good as a vow. I could see the truth clearly in his mercury eyes.

"How?" I pressed for information wondering if he'd tell me. I felt touched that he shared something like that with me.

"My parents were married for convenience though I think Mother eventually grew to love Father. He, on the other hand never saw her for the diamond that she is. He was constantly with whores and just other women in general until finally Mother broke the news that she was pregnant. At the same time, he was having an affair with Helena Zabini - (Her name is not stated and hey! It's fanfiction. ;)) He never treated Mother right. And Blaise's mum was just his mistress..." He shook his head disgustedly.

-"And then there was me. The heir to the Malfoy legacy, the new Malfoy generation. Of course, Lucius Malfoy never knew that he had another son. Blaise was lucky though, he doesn't have any Malfoy features. His father then never found out. No one knew, but today, I do. And so does Mother. It provided closure for her to get over that bastard I called my father."

"Wow..." I uttered. This was a lot to take in.

"All that glitters isn't gold, Ginny. The Malfoy's are a fantastic example of it." His eyes were so alive. They were filled with emotions.

Hatred, sadness, shame...

"So, how did you find out that Blaise was your half-brother?" I crushed the little piece was plastic that was used to wrap my sandwich.

He swirled his drink, its syrupy goodness had evolved to the bottom of the cup.

"During the war, Blaise and I were fighting side by side. Someone aimed a Sectumsempra at me but Blaise got in the way. He had lost a lot of blood by the time we had help and we needed to go Muggle, immediate blood donation or something like that. I realised that Blaise and I shared the same blood group so I volunteered to give him my blood. While doing some standard tests, they found out that we had matching...DNA." - He paused at that part, thoughtfully.

-" I refused to believe that. And then I got my hands on the Malfoy spell from one of the ancient Malfoy generation books and I tried it on him. If you weren't a Malfoy, it'd burn your skin, but it didn't. All the evidences were right there. I just had to believe it."

"And Blaise?-" I questioned curiously. "-How did he take it?"

"Blaise took it pretty well considering Mama Zabini has had seven husbands and counting. He always figured he was, as he puts it, 'somebody's bastard' anyway." Draco frowned at the last words in that sentence.

-"We were kind of like brothers anyway. It never really changed anything. The only person affected the most was Mother. She was shattered." His adoration and affection for his mother was clearly visible.

It wasn't particularly distinct but maybe because I spent all my time nowadays observing Draco, I realised that he had been betrayed one a too many times.

Fathers, we all needed them. The one person who taught you to walk, sports, self-defence. Every child needed two pillars of support, the father and the mother. All his life, Draco only had one. The father figure in his life was as good as non-existent.

He was hurting. My heart hurt for him but I knew that he didn't want my sympathy. He craved comfort and I couldn't give that to him because the truth was that I meant nothing.

"You're not such a bad guy, Draco." I said lightly, my hand on his shoulder.

He turned and met my light smile with a puzzled expression. I explained -

"If you were one, I'd have been fired a long time ago. And besides, you hardly make my fingers itch to pull a Ginny Weasley on you." I quipped.

It's as though the iceberg of the negatives in his eyes melted away, he smirked at me probably knowing that it was my way of comforting him.

"If you let the cat out of the bag... I might just turn into that bad guy."

"I might just take you up on that offer." I joked.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. It wasn't awkward, it was strangely comfortable. We were both fine with each other's presence.

"It's getting late." Draco reminded me after a few moments of zoning out in complete silence.

I stood up reluctant for this evening to end trudging and burying my feet in snow. We walked down the park towards where we had come from. Enjoying the weather, huddled in my cloak, my mind was a million miles away.

"Ginny!" Draco grasped my wrist rather roughly making me cry out in surprise. I looked at him, shaken.

"You were going the wrong way." He explained, -"Diagon Alley is in the opposite direction."

I stared at him, "We're not going home?"

"Not yet."

It was as though those two words made my day or something. My curiosity piqued though. Where were we headed off to now? I wanted so much to ask but Draco was in quite the mood, I wasn't so sure if he would take kindly to me asking.

We walked through a route that looked vaguely familiar but I didn't think too much of it. Everything would look familiar in this weather anyway. It was all covered in an icy white blanket. I observed my surroundings.

Finally, Draco paused, "I have some work to do in here." He informed me briefly as we walked inside this building of beautiful architecture. I admired the artistic designs made on this place; the kiddie hand prints made of the wall was simply striking. The bright and happy colours gave off a positive vibe in this place.

It reminded me of Teddy's playgroup sessions. I hadn't seen Teddy in a while. I thought wistfully planning to make more time for him.

As I observed the place, I saw Draco respectfully extending his greetings to a plump woman. She had a cheery face filled with smile lines. There was a very motherly aura about her.

"Isla... I trust that everything is fine around here?" He questioned calmly as he flipped through a file, studying their records.

I didn't really understand why he needed to do that but the thought of asking just was not so appealing.

"Of course son. Stop carrying the burden of the world on your shoulders. You work too hard, my dear. Now why don't you introduce me to that pretty little thing standing there," She replied in a matronly way.

Draco shook his head in exasperation but I could tell that he wasn't at all irate by what she said.

"Ginny..." He beckoned for me to join them.

"Isla, this is my secretary, Ginny. SECRETARY..." He emphasized on the word.

-"And Ginny, this is Isla. She is the managing director of the Dragon Foundation."

I had heard about the foundation before. It was one of the most highly respected charity organisations in modern wizarding society. It had started out as a way to help victims from the war and now participated in all forms of charity.

She laughed at his introduction as I greeted her, "Hello ma'am."

"Nonsense. How can such a pretty little thing be your secretary? I may be old, but I have eyes. The both of you are crazy about each other." I felt myself flush involuntarily.

In my case, I was sort of crazy about him thanks to the little crush.

"Oh dear. You caught us. Didn't she, darling?" He chuckled lightly. -"On the side note Ginny, while Isla here is the managing director of the Dragon foundation, she was also my governess as a child and she is Mother's aunt."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." It was so hard to believe that she was Narcissa's aunt. I didn't know the Blacks had any more relations that were alive. Not that I knew much about their family or their history. I bet Harry on the other hand was aware.

I waited for a couple more minutes before he was finally done checking on the records of the organisation. He exchanged a few more brief pleasantries with other staff before he finally walked over to me.

"Ready to go?" He held me by my funny bone gently.

"Always." I replied.

We walked toward the exit but were stopped by a squealing brunette and oddly enough, this time, she was greeting me. I stared at her utterly perplexed as to where did I know her from, not surprisingly, my mind was blank. Not even a whistle.

"We finally found you! Thank goodness I can never forget a face." She squeezed me tightly, violating my need for personal space.

I frowned at her, "Do I know you?"

"You donated 5000 galleons to this organisation for Christmas. We'd never forget such kindness." She chirped away merrily, completely unaware that I did not have the most pleasant expression plastered on my face.

What was she talking about? What on earth….? 5000 galleons.

Forget whistles, bells were ringing in my head. I thought my brain would fuse from how much I was struggling to recall how I knew her. Hell, she definitely was not from Hogwarts, that much was obvious.

Finally noticing my confused expression, she explained. "You donated 5000 galleons to us on Christmas Eve."

Ohhhh… that.

As she went on about my supposed generosity, I recalled telling Draco that I had blown my salary on video games, etc.

Drats! And now I couldn't look him in the eye. I smiled sheepishly at her, "It was nothing, just thought that I should do something good with my first ever salary."

She continued blabbering away excitedly about charity work and surprisingly, while I was lost in my thoughts, Draco continued to answer her. I heaved a sigh of relief when she took off, and walked on before Draco could say anything.

"So, video games and all huh?" Draco caught up to my pace easily. I could see his oh-so-sexy smirk plastered on his face from the corner of my eye.

I groaned in mortification. Why couldn't the floor open and swallow me?

Ignoring him, I walked forward towards the gates of the Dragon Foundation. He held me back and even then, I avoided his gaze.

"Ginny, look at me." He shook me gently, his hands locking my shoulders. I shook my head knowing that I was being immature about this.

His penetrating gaze remained on me for what felt like an eternity even though it was probably less than a minute. I felt myself flushing under his gaze. He tilted my chin to meet his gaze.

"I knew about this, the very night you donated the money. This is not news to me." He raised his eyebrows.

I stared at him in disbelief as I processed his words, "So you played along with my lie."

"Well, yes. You are quite the terrible liar you know that?" He replied wryly.

"And how did you find out?" I asked indignantly, feeling extremely irate.

"If I tell you, I'd have to kill you." He replied, seductively obviously trying to emit another reaction out of me.

I closed my eyes wanting to bang my head on the nearest solid matter available and that was exactly what I did.

Turns out, it was Draco Malfoy's amazingly muscular chest, which was rather painful as well. I rubbed my head forlornly as he laughed and pulled me into a hug.

"You silly girl, you do not have to be self-conscious around me. I thought we're already passed that with the Kamasutra thing." He ruffled my hair.

I smacked his shoulder and he laughed harder pulling me into a tighter embrace.

Being in his arms was amazing, his musky scent was intoxicating, his warmth, like a blanket of security. I was hugging the very person I was crazy over, and it was in his arms that I found the most comfort, that I felt the safest, protected.

Wow, it's been long since I've uploaded a chapter. This is for those who stuck around. :D Thank you so much. XOXOXO

Read, review and tell me what you think of this chapter. It has been lying around in my thumb drive for a while now.

Anyone has any good HP D/G fanfictions that I can read? You can promote your own as well. ;) We need more good D/G fanfics!