Haha.
Well, you win.
Here is chapter 21.
Hopefully, it will dispel any confusions or doubts from your mind.
If this chapter goes well, and I actually feel I can continue writing it..
Then you may actually have a chapter 22.
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Ginny started walking towards Hermione, who looked like a startled rabbit. She froze at the touch on her shoulder, slowly turning around (slowly enough that she saw Hermione scamper back through the portrait hole).
"Ginny, it doesn't have to end this way. .. It doesn't have to end at all." Draco seemed different, somehow. He wasn't Draco, he wasn't Malfoy, but was almost a bit of both, each side of his melancholy and pensive.
"Don't be silly, Draco. I just caught you a moment ago with Cho. Do you actually believe me to be so naïve? I was only gone a week, Draco, not long enough to be meeting girls in the wee hours of the morning." Look what he's driven me to.. I said wee hours! Exactly like Mum.. Draco Malfoy, (for he was no longer a separate being, but seemed to have managed to combine the sardonic Malfoy and the gentle Draco into one) heaved a sigh, looking up at Ginny with sad adoration and a defeat.
"I owe you an explanation, Ginny. Actually, I owe you more than that, but an explanation will have to do for now." He watched the portrait hole swing open again, this time revealing Ron and Hermione, arm in arm. "Can we.. er.. talk about this somewhere else? I would rather be dead than caught standing next to the Gryffindor common room." Ginny nodded mutely, handing her trunk to Ron and Hermione and following Draco down the stairs. After at least 10 minutes of companionable silence and walking, they reached the lake, Draco starting a slow circuit around it.
"Alright. I'm sure you remember when Harry and Cho were.. 'going out' shortly right near Valentine's. As Cho told me, she had never really wanted to, just need to talk to someone after Diggory's death. We, rather secretly, started seeing each other, meeting either late at night or early morning in the owlrey. It continued all through-out our 6th year, until we split apart for the summer, well aware that my father, in particular, would not agree with the match. Then, on the train to my final year at Hogwarts, I ran into a stubborn, red-headed girl who wouldn't change compartments." He paused, looking down at the water (which he was closest to).
"Something about you, Gin.. well, I've tried to tell you before, but I don't think you've ever believed me. You struck me as something special, something fiery and untamed and completely unnatural to me. You were something that I, for some reason, needed to chase after, to taste a bit of that fire, I guess. I didn't call it love then, because I thought love was the something that I shared with Cho. Well, Blaise wouldn't let me alone about you. He thought that I needed someone like you to come and muss my pre-arranged plans. He was right." Draco paused again, but it was a longer pause, this time, and when he started speaking again, it was passionately full of emotion; an emotion Ginny couldn't place.
"When I saw you in the Quidditch Stadium, I felt such a strange, warm feeling come over me, and it was something that I craved. The ice that my father molded around me since I was small, was beginning to melt away. It scared me, yet thrilled me all the same. So I kept you close, trying to protect you from the evils I knew. There was one evil I couldn't protect you from, and that was me. After seeing what Harry had done to you, it brought into graphic relief what I was capable of. If you held even a small bit of what I held in my entire being, that undying warmth and even bliss, then I knew I was capable of doing even worse evils than Potter did. So I pushed away, away from you, and back towards Cho." Ginny started shivering at the mention of Harry, feelings of anger and fear surging through her like currents. Draco slowly, almost hesitantly, put his arms around her, and she clung to him for a moment, willing the memories of Harry to disappear.
"And then, you left. I never stopped loving you, Ginny, and I never will. When you saw me, crying, for the first time in my life, actually crying. I was crying because of you. Because I didn't want to lose you, I wanted to keep you all for myself, as selfish as that sounds. And it scared me. I've never been as attached… as in love.. with anyone else. I feared that, one day, I would mess up, and I would lose you. And I couldn't imagine what I would do if I did. I just couldn't imagine going on and living, if you weren't safe. Even if you were someone else, at least you would be safe, from me, my family, and all of the curses that come along with it." Ginny could feel tears trailing down her cheeks, but didn't notice them. In this instant, she was afraid, madly in love, and yet so completely and utterly exhausted. She was scared of the passion with which Draco told her his deepest desires, his darkest thoughts. She was scared that she would never be enough, for one who had risked so much just to be with a short, red-headed, Weasley girl. She was madly in love, yet was afraid to show it, afraid that she would be shunned from everyone, even from Draco, if she did.
She was exhausted. Tired of running, of hiding, of trying to figure out why, of just plain thinking. Ginny sighed, hugging herself even closer to Draco, afraid that if she let go, even for an instant, he would disappear, like a figment of her imagination.
"What can we do, Draco? What can we do?" There was no way, once Draco graduated, that they had a chance of being together. The Weasleys would never forgive her if she told them. Draco, at least, wouldn't have to worry about his father for now. But Ginny still had a whole year left in Hogwarts, while Draco would be out in the wizarding world, exposed to thousands of other, much prettier, witches. What if she lost him to one of them?
"I don't know, Gin." Strangely enough, they had made it back to the Hogwarts doors. The sun was glowing rosily in the sky, signaling the beginning of another day.
The two walked into Hogwarts together, Draco walking up to the Gryffindor Tower with her, then, with a sweet little kiss, disappeared to the dungeons. Ginny walked into the common room (Hermione had thoughtfully put a note on her trunk with the password on it) dreamily, feeling like she had many a time before. She heaved her trunk up to the dormitory, dumping it onto her four-poster bed. She wouldn't bother to unpack it until later; luckily, she had packed all of her textbooks and supplies on top, and they were easily accessible. Although she felt completely and utterly at home with Draco, she still had one thing gnawing on her mind; Harry Potter.
Where had he gone to? After Dumbledore had found out he had beat Ginny… He had sent Harry to Azkaban, hadn't he? So, she had had a whole dream about Harry raping her, about talking to Draco about Cho.. Alright. She had it now. The dream had started… yes. It had started with thinking about talking to Draco (ch.14) about Cho.. and in it she had talked to Draco, and then been raped by Harry. Which meant.
It's all making sense now.. Ginny couldn't help grinning. She had finally figured it out.
But that still left Harry. He was somewhere in Azkaban, sitting in the cold, probably thinking about revenge on Draco and Ginny. Dumbledore had sent him to Azkaban, hadn't he? Ginny decided to find out, and set off in search of Ron and Hermione.
After packing her bags with all of the books and equipment she needed, Ginny set off towards the Great Hall in a throng of people. It seems she had sat in her dormitory for quite some time.. She spotted Ron and Hermione, immersed in a conversation, sitting at the Gryffindor table. She slid next to Hermione, coughing gently.
"Err, Hermione.. Was Harry ever sent to Azkaban?" Hermione looked startled for a moment.
"No.. Actually, I think he's still in Professor Dumbledore's office. Why?"
Oh, no. That can't be good.
What would happen if Harry escaped, like he had in the dream?
What if she relived her dream? And this time, no one would come to miraculously save her in the Shrieking Shack.
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Is that better?
Did I resolve what you wanted me to?
Well, other than Harry.
But I have evil, evil plans for Harry.
Err.
Review?