A/N: Thanks to all readers and reviewers, especially: AdriannaZaria, Queen of Night, AryaElf, and ijustsailedaway.
This entire fic is done... but basically, the reason why I didn't update here for such a long time is that I wanted to post the REVISED version. But there are so many fics in the revision queue right now that if I wait until it's perfectly revised, it will never get up here. So this will be kind of the first revised edition. It might get revised even more at some point.
Chapter 53
"I'll complete the story, though perhaps it might have been better untold. It was something rather shocking - indeed, very shocking."
- Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas
"Oh, and here's another thing. We're doing this on my terms, Malfoy," said Ginny. "So you'd better be honest with me, if you think you're even capable of it. Start out by telling me exactly what would happen next, if I were actually mad enough to take you up on this demented offer, which I'm not."
Draco sat stiffly away from her. "I'll be completely honest with you. You'd have a long, luscious week of preparation, of pleasure, like nothing you've ever felt or imagined—oh, I would follow through on my promise, Weasley. Every bit of it. I'd arrange to have all your art supplies brought here. You can finish your work. You'd go to the Bas-Bleu studio five days from now. And at the very end of it—on Halloween night, after your art opening- I would bring you back here, and I would finally take your virginity."
"At least you've laid all of your Snap cards out on the table, I suppose." She appraised him. "But I don't understand why you've deluded yourself into thinking for even one second that I'd actually go along with this. You offered me the same thing back at the end of May with that letter of credit from Gringotts. I tore it up into about a zillion pieces. You're just lucky you weren't in my studio at the time, Malfoy, or your balls would have been the least of your problems."
Draco winced, but he didn't look away. "That's why I wanted to explain."
"I'm listening," said Ginny. She leaned back against the headboard and crossed her arms.
"First, Weasley, you've got to understand the usual purpose of this room," said Draco. "It's generally used for companions and young boys during the month of pureblood initiation. Very similar to the one I remember when I was sixteen years old, actually."
Oh, gods, how I wish he hadn't said that, thought Ginny. "That's very interesting historical trivia, I'm sure. But what does it have to do with me, Malfoy?"
"I told you that I'd learned many things over the past four months," he said. "I'm about to share one of them with you."
A shiver ran all through her. "We've been here over three hours now. Could you speed it up a bit?"
"No," he said, and his grey eyes were very serious on hers. "Listen to me, Weasley. This is bloody important. A girl hasn't lost her virginity in this room for at least five hundred years, but I've found out what would happen if she did. If it happens here, if you give yourself to me here, and only here—in the Malfoy room in the Crystal Palace, and at a time of power, such as Halloween night- then you're safe. You would have to be a virgin or it wouldn't work, but of course I know now that you are—"
"Safe? What do you mean, safe?"
"Nobody could ever harm you because of what we'd done." He kept his eyes on hers. "Weasley, we could do anything we liked after that; we could go anywhere at all, and we could do it together. Safely."
More puzzle pieces clicked together in Ginny's head. "Is this the same thing as what you outlined for me back in May, at the cottage? When you told me about taking me to the Malfoy villa in France, and to NewYork, and to the Bahamas?"
"Ah… it's similar, I suppose. But what I didn't know at the time was that none of it was really possible then; that's why it was so wrong of me to send you that Gringotts letter. You simply wouldn't have been safe. I've learned in the last few months that this is the only way to guarantee your safety."
"If you remember telling me about those little plans of yours at the cottage in May," said Ginny, "then you remember what my reply was then! I don't know why you think it would be any different now, simply because it's safe, as you put it. What kind of a trade is that for becoming your—" She stopped, remembering how violently he'd reacted when she'd used the word whore. And I don't want to use that word about myself, either. "Official Malfoy mistress?"
Draco retreated slightly, and Ginny saw her furious face reflected in his eyes. "It's not like that at all, sweet- don't take out your wand- do I still have to call you 'Weasley?'"
"Yes! Except that very soon you won't have to call me anything, because I'll be—"
"No, no! Just give me a bit more time. Please. What you'd give me would be priceless, Weasley. Never, never think I don't understand that. There's nothing I wouldn't give you in return—nothing."
Draco held out his hands to her, and she looked at them. Beautiful, strong, well-shaped hands with those knobbly fingers. Oh, she remembered all too well what those fingers could do. His face looked so appealing. There's nothing I wouldn't give you. But he hadn't even mentioned giving her anything that she really wanted yet.
"Malfoy, why do you want me to do this with you?" Ginny asked desperately.
He stared at her. "Are you joking?"
"No, I'm not. Why? Is it just the novelty of shagging a virgin, and you're going to get tired of me after the first time? Is that all it is?"
"Of course not!" Draco started laughing. "Sw—all right, Weasley, you're still so innocent; you have no idea at all, do you? Or you wouldn't say anything as thick as that. Gods, but how I'm going to enjoy teaching you. Once you're thoroughly corrupted, you know, we can really begin to have fun." He tried to reach for her. She avoided him.
"So you only want me for general, all-purpose sex, then?" she asked.
He gave a frustrated sigh. "No, that's not it at all."
"What, then?"
"I just—" He stopped, looking oddly uncertain. "I don't know. But I can't—" He shook himself. "Think of it this way," said Draco. "You're perfectly aware of all the reasons to refuse my offer. There's hardly any need to go over those again. What about some reasons to accept it?"
"I can't think of a single—"
"Oh, no?" asked Draco, and then, without any warning at all, he leaned in and kissed her.
Ginny tried to resist him. She really did. The problem, of course, was that she wasn't resisting him at all, but herself, and that was a losing battle. He was tender and careful and very, very thorough, and at last, she sighed and gave up and let him explore her mouth, and she began searching for the chocolate again, and then it was all over. Deeper. Deeper. Something began to tingle and sizzle. Oh. The bond. And then…
"You tricked me!" she accused.
"Well, I did warn you about my possible use of persuasion," He shrugged, looking disgustingly unrepentant, in her opinion. As much as she could tell from about an inch away, anyway.
"Oh, yes, and there's another thing, of course," he murmured. "Weasley, did you see anything? Such as, oh, I don't know… a certain prisoner, slumped on a certain cot in a certain cell…"
"Shut up."
"Ah. So you did see something."
"I don't know," she said through clenched teeth. "I'm not sure. You can rot in Azkaban for all I care, anyway."
"Really? So you don't mind if I end up locked away for life, losing hope, waiting for a footstep that never comes and a voice I never hear—"
"Malfoy, you're an absolute fucker," she muttered under her breath, and then she grabbed his head and kissed him again.
Nothing. Nothing. Dark, gray, misty. Unease. Something not quite right? Maybe. Something coming. A pulse, like a heartbeat, about to break through. Something trying to form. Trying to take shape… Oh!
"No," said that painfully young Draco. "This can't be." And then he raised his wand-
Ginny gasped.
"Well?" asked Draco, smiling at her.
Oh gods, oh gods. What did I just see? That didn't have anything to do with Azkaban. It couldn't have done. I don't know where it happened, but it certainly wasn't in a cell at Azkaban. Am I somehow seeing things from Malfoy's past, things that can't be changed now no matter what I do? Fuck, how I wish I knew!
His face sobered. "You did see something, didn't you, Weasley?"
She turned to one side. "I don't know what I saw," she said to the tip of his nose.
"Neither do I," said Draco. "Divination's a very woolly subject at the best of times, as I believe Granger used to say. So forget about that, just for now."
"Oh, I already have," lied Ginny.
"Yes, yes, your indifference to my rotting away in Azkaban duly noted, Weasley. But what about this?" He leaned in and kissed her again, very gently, no more than a brush of his lips against hers. She groaned. "Ah, yes, you feel it as well, don't you?" he whispered. "Are you really willing to simply walk out of this room and leave that behind you?"
"Malfoy, I…" Gods, how to even say this to him? She didn't know how to put it into words herself. It didn't help that her head seemed to be whirling round and round in dizzy circles that were threatening to whirl her right out of that room. Ginny looked down briefly, trying to collect herself. No matter what I saw, or what I thought I saw, that can't make me accept this offer, she thought. I'd hate myself for the rest of my life if I gave in to Draco Malfoy because I wanted to save him from something that I don't understand, something that I don't even know is real. So that's got to go right out of the equation.
"You know that I feel it too," she said flatly. "But there are so many things you don't understand, Malfoy. I don't even know where to begin. I know what it's like for pureblood girls in your sort of circles. They can do just as they please; I've heard that they all start having sex whenever they want to, and nobody cares, or thinks any the worse of them for it. But it isn't like that in families like mine. Girls are expected to be virgins until they get married. I've already gone so much further than I'm supposed to, and yet you tell me that I'm still so innocent—it frightens me, Malfoy. You want me to give up everything to you, and I don't see any good reason to do it."
She waited for his reply, impossible thoughts swimming in the back of her head, thoughts that she wouldn't allow to the surface. If you said that you cared about me, that would be enough of a reason. More than enough. And I wouldn't be frightened anymore. That might have been one of them.
