Chapter 24
()()()
"Shit," was the first thing out of her mouth. Truthfully, Ginny knew she was probably going to have chickened out before she made it all the way down the stairs. But now, now Malfoy had seen her. "How, how is you are able to be up and walking about?" she asked slightly astounded at his ability to push through the pain he must be feeling. "I thought you were bedridden."
The pale boy looked to be in an enormous amount of that pain and weak, barely able to stand, but his grey eyes were locked on her and his expression seemed caught between curiosity and a sneer.
"Where am I, and who are you? What have you done to me?" he was growing louder.
"Shh," Ginny waved her arm and raised her other hand to her lips to hush him. She cast a look down the stairs to see if anyone was coming that might have heard him.
"I can go louder," he stated, raising his volume and immediately looking like that had been too much effort for him. He wavered on the steps and Ginny rushed to him, instinctively wanting to catch him before he fell.
"Come on, let's get you back to your room." She caught him under his arm, being sure to grab under his right arm and not his left.
"Who are you?" he repeated himself, not quite as loudly this time.
"Would you shut up before we get caught," Ginny growled at him under her breath.
There was the sound of a door opening below and footsteps, several of them.
"Just let me check," Sirius' voice sounded from the base of the stairs.
"You'll only have to call down for me anyways," a woman replied to him.
"Wha exacly's goin' on up 'ere?" came the unmistakable accent of Mundungus following along behind the other two.
Ginny's heart picked up. This was what she'd wanted five minutes ago, but now she was in fight or flight mode and instead of choosing either she was completely frozen to her spot. If they came around the corner and saw her then the jig was truly up.
"Who is down there? Who are you?" Malfoy asked her.
Ginny couldn't help but notice how his skin was nearly transparent with how sickly he was right then. Sirius was at the base of the stairs now and he made eye contact with her. "Matilda," she told Malfoy. "My name's Matilda." She said it just loud enough for Sirius to have heard her. "I tried to keep him quiet," she said to Sirius, "and stop him falling over."
Mrs. Tonks owned the woman's voice that had accompanied Sirius out of the meeting and she was too worried about her patient being up and about to pay Ginny much mind. She hustled up the steps and took over for Ginny in supporting Malfoy.
"Draco, my name is Andromeda," she told him calmly. "I am your aunt. We are trying to help you."
Ginny stepped away from them as Sirius and Dung came up the stairs. Sirius clutched her arm and pulled her into her room.
"Go back downstairs, Dung. I just need a word with Matilda here." Sirius did not sound happy.
Ginny cringed at the tone he used as he nearly pushed her into her room and closed the door behind him, throwing up a silencing spell. She stood back from him, biting her bottom lip and waiting for him to start yelling at her, to blow up like he did with Dumbledore over Harry being put in danger last September.
"What. Happened." His voice was low and threatening.
Her mouth opened to answer him, but initially no sound came out. She didn't want him upset with her. Their relationship wasn't like that of she and her parents; they were friends, he wasn't a father figure or anything, but she knew that he cared for her in somewhat of a parental capacity as well. She didn't want to disappoint him.
"I was on the landing, and he was coming down the stairs," she told him honestly.
"Did you hear him on the stairs, or were you already on the landing?" Sirius asked, easily coming to the correct conclusion.
"I was already there," she admitted quietly.
Sirius closed his eyes for a moment. "Ginny, were you going to just walk into the Order meeting?"
"I was considering it." It was almost painful to admit this. They had just talked about it that morning. What if he'd already been planning on bringing it up to her parents and Dumbledore?
His jaw was clenched so hard it looked to be painful. "Who are we supposed to say Matilda is?"
Ginny's eyebrows went up in surprise. "I, uh… your daughter?" she said, unable to come up with anything else.
Sirius was taken aback by that answer. "You look nothing like me. Who would we say your mum is? Why aren't you at Hogwarts? What is your surname supposed to be?"
Right, that answer had a lot of holes in the story.
Ginny was at a loss for a response. She didn't want to come up with a fake backstory. "So, our options are obliviate them," she pointed to the door, "or just tell the truth."
"Do you have any idea how many Ministry employees could be under the Imperius right now? How many Order members? The only people that know about you are those that you know very well and we'd be able to tell."
"I just want to rip off the fucking band aid and stop hiding all the time!" she broke. He might be mad about her attempt at blowing her cover, but she was tired of it all. Who knew how long it would be until they could kill the snake and then Tom himself. A little more freedom was all she was asking for.
"I know you do," he said mimicking the same tone. "How do you think I felt that first year when everyone thought I was a mad serial murderer? Then after that, when I still had to be in hiding. You've been doing really well so far Ginny. None of us want to chance the rest of your story getting out though."
"And you don't have to! They don't have to know how I survived," she pointed out. "They can all keep calling me Matilda for all I care. Just say I'm here and under your protection of something."
Sirius stared at her long and hard. He looked as though he wanted to pace, or chuck something breakable. "Fine," he snarled. "Fine." Turning around he yanked the door open hard. "Stay here," he barked back at her before slamming it shut.
And Ginny did just stand there, staring at the door. She could be Matilda. Matilda with no backstory, just someone who simply lived there. She'd been going by that name since Tonks gave it to her last summer in all her correspondence anyhow.
Now she just needed to wait for someone to tell her that that was, in fact, what was happening.
Ten minutes she simply stood there staring at the door and waiting for the handle on it to turn by someone on the other side of it.
And then it did.
Her mum was the first to come into her room, followed by her dad, Bill, Fleur and Sirius. All but Fleur had a very stern expression on their face. Fleur had the smallest, minutest, smile and glow about her. That was all Ginny needed to know that she had gotten her wish.
"Ginny," her mum started.
Ginny furrowed her brow at her. "Sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else," she looked around her in a farce before turning back as though she had been checking to see if someone was standing behind her. "My name's Matilda."
Her mothers chin jutted out slightly as she frowned at her daughter, quite obviously unimpressed with this new development. "Ginny," she repeated. "The Malfoy boy can think that you are some girl named Matilda, but the rest of the Order…" she turned to her husband then.
He stepped forward beside his wife. "Come on, let's go downstairs," he held his arm out to her in gesture.
Ginny's eyes grew wide, she checked the expression on every one of the faces before her to see if they were being serious about this. Not a one of them looked like they were about to dash her dreams.
"You. You mean I'm allowed at mealtimes? I don't have to disillusion herself before walking into the hall?" she asked with a grin.
All the stern faces on her mother, brother and Sirius' faces slowly faded away and they all gave her nods.
"Yes!" she celebrated and gave her mum a big hug. "Thank you!"
"Oh, come on then," her mother gave her a kiss to her temple. "There are still people gathered in the meeting room. We'll do a quick introduction and get this over with." She made sure that Ginny's eyes were focused on hers for this last bit. "No. Backstory. Understood?"
"Got it," Ginny nodded vigorously. "No backstory. Just Ginny Weasley, in hiding."
()()()
At ten o'clock Harry tried to give Ginny or Sirius a call. He wanted to give them an update.
It hadn't seemed that anyone at Hogwarts really noticed that Malfoy was missing. Snape certainly hadn't pointed out his absence, he was still the same miserable DADA professor.
Honestly, Malfoy had been hanging around only Crabbe and Goyle this year and those two idiots didn't seem to have noted their leaders absence either. They'd been sitting at the Slytherin table at mealtimes just shoveling food into their mouths as usual.
Hermione and Ron hadn't mentioned Malfoy's absence either, and it was only at the end of the day when they all had some privacy that Harry brought it up. Hermione had been astounded that 'a student had been kidnapped', even if it had been by Snape and for Order reasons, and then she and Ron got into an argument over why they should care. Giving Harry the cue to step away from them.
"Hey," Harry greeted Ginny when her face appeared in the mirror. "Oh," he spotted Sirius and grinned. "Hey!" He could make out the books of the study wall behind them.
"Hey, Pup," Sirius greeted him back. "Already packed to come here?"
"Have been for a week," Harry joked. It was true though. It wasn't like he wore his normal clothes during the school week anyhow.
"Guess what?! I'm officially alive! To the Order anyhow," Ginny couldn't contain herself.
"Really?!" he asked excitedly. "That's great. You won't have to hide while I'm there then!" She had mentioned it to him, but he only had the smallest hope that it was going to be possible she wouldn't be hidden away during the days while he was there.
"There is something else you need to be aware of though," Sirius started.
Ginny exchanged a fleeting and private look with Harry, they both knew where this was going to go. He was interested to hear it from Sirius' mouth though, he was the one properly involved in the 'experiment', or whatever they were calling it.
"The Malfoy boy is here," Sirius continued. "He is in a bad way, and he will be gone soon, but until he is he's going to be confined to the room you used last. He's weak, and he is to be left alone."
"He's on our side now?" Harry asked skeptically. "Somehow I just don't see that happening." Draco Malfoy may have been a bit more of a pansy than he wanted to let his classmates know, but he was still his fathers son and that man was selfish and a bastard.
Sirius paused and made a sour face. "He isn't… technically."
"Then you're forcing him to switch sides?" Ginny asked in surprise.
"We aren't forcing him," Sirius stated. "We're more… giving him the option to start over," he phrased carefully.
Ginny shared a disbelieving expression with Harry at that. He had no doubt that Malfoy was scared of the situation he was in, but the cowardly thing to do would be to crawl back to his Master after they removed his Mark and behave like a sniveling rat, like Pettigrew.
"Where is he going to go after you've stopped Riddle from being able to find him?" Harry wanted to know.
"There is a place in another country that has been set up as a safe house for him. He'll be going there in a few days, once he's recovered."
"What is Snape going to do once Riddle notices Malfoy isn't going home for the break?" Ginny wondered. "Isn't he going to get called out for not noticing that Malfoy was gone?"
Harry hadn't thought of that. Malfoy was the only student that he'd known was a Death Eater, it was probably Snape's job to keep an eye out for Malfoy for Riddle's side as well as the Orders. There was no way that Riddle would be forgiving of Snape simply losing sight of him. Particularly since it had appeared that Malfoy had some challenge or task that he was supposed to be doing for his Master around Hogwarts.
"From the way Snivellus is talking about it, he has a plan for when or if that occurs. We'll just have to wait and see how that plays out. Right now, I'm just focused on getting the kid fully rid of any trace of the Dark Mark and out of here," Sirius told them. From his expression Harry could see he was conflicted about it.
For the most part Harry understood that conflict. On the one hand, Malfoy had been a ponce all along and Harry could easily imagine him being a Death Eater. On the other hand though, he was still just a sixteen-year-old kid, and he had been noticeably more miserable and quiet this year than ever. He was easily in over his head.
"He managed to find the strength to get out of his room today," Ginny told Harry. "Found me on the second-floor landing, that's what brought about my extra little bit of freedom."
"He saw you?" Harry asked, feeling a shock of panic at that, though what Malfoy could have possibly done with that information in his predicament he wasn't sure.
"He thinks my name is Matilda," she assured him. "I don't think he was in any mental state to question it, nor did it look like he was connecting any dots given the color of my hair and my age. Doubt he ever spared my life a second thought when I went missing." She shook her head.
"Alright," Harry nodded, that made sense. The only time Malfoy really acknowledged Ron or the twins was to get in jabs about their previous state of financial being, an insult that fell rather flat now. There was a chance that Malfoy had no idea what his father had done to 'little Ginny Weasley' anyhow, it probably wouldn't be something the senior Malfoy would brag about; losing his masters Horcrux and 'killing' a little girl in the process.
Ginny was still more exposed now and Harry was a little worried. The only person he could think of that he knew was in the Order but wasn't one hundred percent trustworthy would be Mundungus Fletcher. Dung had done a lot of missions for the Order, that much Harry knew, but he also seemed like someone that would cave and spill all their secrets at the slightest provocation.
"Is there anything I can do to move things along while I'm there?" Harry asked. He still felt like his role in this whole thing with Riddle had fallen off the map since the Ministry incident. It was a bit of a relief, but he was sure he could contribute more. And now with Malfoy not even being at school he wasn't sure there was anything he could to do assist on the Hogwarts front. Even Dumbledore seemed to wonder how much assistance they would get from any tidbits of information from Slughorn on possible cohorts of Riddles from decades ago.
At least the man was still a stellar Potions Professor.
"Just study, play Quidditch and keep your eyes open," Sirius told him.
That had been exactly what Harry expected he'd say. Harry was really looking forward to this school break. He was going to be able to stay at the Order Headquarters and Ginny and he would be allowed to pop over to the Burrow this holiday. There wasn't too much he could complain about when he was finally going to have his arms wrapped around his girl again in just a day and a half and he knew he should just enjoy the calm while it lasted, his school years generally ended will all kinds of adrenaline pumping and life threatening adventures that he should rest up for.
()()()
Ginny was marveling at the novelty of it all. She was standing in the first floor sitting room and waiting for Harry to come through the Floo from McGonagall's office.
The first floor sitting room!
Harry wasn't the only person that was using the Floo today either; there had been three people that had come and gone while she'd been sat there waiting for him, Ginny hadn't seen those people since the Ministry incident, and they certainly hadn't seen her before at all. Emmeline Vance had a small start at the sight of her, Kingsley Shacklebot had merely nodded at her in greeting, and Dedalus Diggle gave a start and a chuckle each time he saw her.
When she went into the meeting room the other night there were several confused faces, then those expressions grew even more confused when they were told her name. Professor McGonagall had been there and she had actually had a shimmer of moisture in her eyes when Ginny was introduced to the room. The lot of them seemed to know better than to ask any further questions about just how a supposedly dead girl was standing in front of them, very much alive. Tom Riddle had come back from the dead after all, and Sirius was a wanted mass murderer.
This world simply wasn't what it seemed to be all the time.
Since she had been allowed to roam the halls freely those that hadn't known her story hadn't tried to talk to her anyway, save for Mrs. Tonks. Andromeda Tonks had seen her daughter and Ginny conversing like the friends they were and had joined them for tea after she'd been checking on Malfoy. They only talked about some outings they had been on over the last year though, nothing Earth shattering.
The fact that Ginny wasn't being punished in some way over her mistake at being seen was yet another miracle. She wasn't being banned from going on the roof or told she could no longer join the group that would be heading over to the Burrow during the holidays, nothing like that.
And she wasn't going to push her luck by bringing it up either.
"Any minute now," Sirius grinned as he came to join her, sitting on the opposite couch.
Ginny grinned back at him.
She was slightly annoyed that Harry's room location had been changed, but he had simply been moved to the one above Malfoy's. Ginny had climbed the stairs in the hidden stairway up one more level and found she could easily get into that room as well, it had just required her to use a scouring charm on the dust and cobwebs there. Clearly Dobby hadn't been using the stairs as no one in the house required him to hide.
Dobby was still doing a great job with cleaning and was enjoying working in a kitchen that didn't order him to bash his face with a frying pan for daring to speak.
The flames finally erupted green again and Harry came stumbling into the room, his rucksack tumbling off his shoulder and causing him to trip over it more. Sirius caught him before he hit the ground.
"Think you need a little more practice with that," Sirius chuckled and pulled Harry into a hug.
"Urgh, pass. I'll keep stumbling if it means I don't have to do that frequently," Harry told him as he returned the hug.
Ginny was anxiously awaiting her turn to greet Harry, a wide grin on her face and bouncing on the balls of her feet. The boys finally pulled apart and she nearly launched herself at him. Harry chuckled at her exuberance but hugged her back equally as hard, taking in a long whiff of her hair that she had been sure to wash especially for him that morning so it would smell as strong as possible.
"Merlin, that's good," he sagged slightly as though he got a little high from the scent.
Ginny pulled back and went in for a kiss, but the one Harry gave her wasn't nearly as long or thorough as she wanted. He basically just bumped their lips together and pulled back.
"That's it?" Sirius asked, taking the question right out of her mouth as she stood there too surprised to say anything about it.
"What?" Harry asked right back at him, his cheeks tinging a bit red as he picked up his rucksack and behaved like nothing was amiss.
"You haven't been able to kiss your girl in months, and that's all you give her?" Sirius eyebrow went up.
Harry's face turned more red and his eyes locked on Ginny's, there was this look in them that told her that that little kiss he'd given her wasn't at all what he had truly wanted to do, they just had an audience and he was too shy to kiss her properly in front of Sirius.
Ginny wasn't too shy about that though. "Yeah, Harry. Aren't you going to give it to me properly?" she waggled her eyebrows slightly in a tease.
"Ginny!" both of them stated, in entirely different tones.
"Fine," she shrugged, "you can do it later without an audience." She turned on her heel and headed out of the room , going straight to the one that Harry would be staying in, right across the hall from Sirius'. She was a little miffed that Harry had been exercising control over himself, perhaps she had been reading too many romance novels in her downtime though. She had been picturing a scene in her mind of him sweeping her off her feet and snogging the daylights out her. In that scene though Sirius wasn't standing there watching and the frantically embracing Harry and Ginny would wind up falling to the couch and getting a little carried away.
"So, he's in there?" Harry gestured to the door on the third landing where Malfoy was being hidden.
"Yep. They properly locked him in now, apparently the potion they had him on wore off quicker than anticipated because of the Diagonal machine that was filtering his blood was filtering out the potions as well," Ginny told him.
"Dialysis," Sirius corrected. "It was a damn stupid mistake," he shook his head. "Ah well, live and learn. We've gotten all of Riddle's blood out of his system now and his skin is healing with out the Mark coming back. That was what we were waiting for. He should be healthy enough to be moved in a days' time or so."
They got to the room Harry would be staying in and he tossed his rucksack down and did a small walk of the room while Sirius asked him more about what had been going on at school. Harry was answering him easily enough, but Ginny felt herself growing slightly warmer with every pass she saw Harry's eyes make of the cute outfit she'd picked out to wear for him today, it was modest, but a little snug.
Sirius had been great company for Ginny over these last few months, and she understood that he too was eager and happy to spend time with Harry, but he didn't seem even slightly aware of just how much she and Harry wanted to jump each other then. He kept going on about everything that they were going to be getting up to, and how Ginny wasn't doing her lessons this week so it meant they could all spend more time together.
Ginny really wanted to just tell Sirius point blank to get out, but she also didn't need him knowing that they were going to be saying a proper 'hello' the second he stepped into the hall either.
It was an hour before Ginny was the one that gave up. "Right," she stood up from the bed. "It's a nice sunny day outside. What say we go up to the roof?"
"Sure!" Sirius got up from his chair. "I'll go get us some drinks from downstairs." He went towards the door first and turned back with a wink before slipping out of sight, "let Harry 'give it to you properly'."
Ginny raised her eyebrows at Harry in expectation and challenge. "Are you going to greet me properly now?"
She had been teasing, but clearly the distance that had been between them for the past few months was making it a little awkward. Harry was looking eager, but also uncertain of how to proceed. He was simply standing there a few paces away from her, not making any move to come closer. They had been carrying on just fine through the mirrors, but now that they were in the same room there seemed to still be this distance between him, and it all stemmed from hesitancy. Hesitancy on his part.
"Do you not want to?" she asked in confusion. He was taking his sweet time thinking about it.
A panicked look came to his face. "What?! Of course I want to!"
"Well, good. Then get over here and snog me properly," she essentially demanded, her hands had instinctively gone to her hips as she told him what was what.
That seemed all the invitation Harry required. He grinned a true Harry grin and stalked over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and lowering his mouth to hers.
He lowered his mouth a little too quickly though and they actually bumped together a little too hard.
"Sorry," he winced.
Ginny chuckled. "Let me," she wrapped her hand around his neck and moved in slowly, planting her lips softly and completely against his own savoring the feel of them. This was better. Tentatively their lips moved against each other, heads turned at just the right angle and their bodies slowly coming together properly.
This was how she had imagined their first kiss after so long would be; one that made her feel slightly light-headed, and like she needed to hold on to him in order to keep herself upright. The feel of his touch against her was sending a lovely sensation through her whole body and she was eager to try and meld their bodies even closer together and make this feeling grow.
Harry seemed likewise effected and his shyness from only a moment ago clearly faded as he was now walking her backwards until she was pressed up against the dresser behind her.
His mouth opened slightly, and she followed suit their tongues touching tentatively at first, then their kiss grew deeper. There wasn't any amount of shy from either party now as Ginny gripped him tighter and Harry's hands lowered to her hips, lifting her onto the dresser, her legs instantly wrapping around his thighs.
This was the greeting she had wanted, one of uncontrolled desire leading to them being completely wrapped up in each other. This was where they had left off before he went back to school. His lips pulled away from hers, only to travel down the side of her neck and she could only purr with pleasure as her head lolled back from the contact.
His hand traveled up her side, under her shirt and his thumb grazed along her bra line. She gasped in slightly then all the breath in her lungs evacuated at that intimate touch.
Harry pulled back and they locked eyes, both of them with bruised lips and breathing heavily. His thumb was still stroking her softly right against her intimate fabric.
"Can I see?" he asked quietly.
Ginny's mind froze and her jaw dropped open a bit more. He wanted her to take off her shirt? Sirius was going to be back up the stairs in just a moment, but he wanted her to start removing clothes?
"The tattoo," he clarified hurriedly, a splash of embarrassed color coming to his cheeks. "Just. I, I didn't mean."
She let out a rather girly giggle. Every time she saw him get embarrassed and starting to stutter it always made her feel like she had to be the bold one. Making him slightly uncomfortable made her more confident somehow. "Alright," she smiled and slowly lifted up the side of her shirt so he could the art that adorned her skin.
"'Mazing," he said in awe as he admired it. "It's so perfect for you."
A shiver ran through her as his finger traced along the outline of the birdcage and phoenix. He had lowered himself to get a better look, crouching in front of her and bringing his face close enough to count the number of freckles that lay under the tattoo. He was also close enough that she felt his breath against her skin and it somehow seemed even more intimate than the position they had just been in.
Harry looked up at her with a big smile on his face. "I love it," he stated. "I've been thinking about what I might get if I were to."
"Yeah?" she asked eagerly. "What have you come up with?" She let her shirt fall back down.
"I'm not really sure." He moved to stand on his feet again and stood with his front pressed against her, his arms coming back down around her and settling at her hips in a way that felt completely natural. "I know my dad was a stag, that was his Animagus form, and my Patronus, so there's that."
The way he said it though, it didn't sound like he was overly enthusiastic about it. "Or?" Ginny pressed. There must have been another idea he had if he was almost shrugging over this one.
"You don't like it?" he asked, his brow furrowing over her reaction.
"It kind of sounds to me like you don't like it," she pointed out. "A stag would be a great way of honoring your dad, but you seem rather dismissive of the idea. I mean, don't get me wrong, this was basically pulled out of thin air while in the tattoo parlor," she pointed to her side. "But something about the way you said that makes me think there's something else you're interested in getting, just don't know what reaction it'll receive."
The look he gave her then told her she had guessed right.
Harry cupped the side of her face and leaned in to give her a sweet kiss. Ginny listed forwards as he tried to pull back, just to extend the kiss for a few more seconds.
"How do you know me so well?" he asked softly, smiling against her lips.
"Go on then," she encouraged.
"I need more time to think on it," he prefaced, "but I'd want something that incorporated all the things I love. Like if I could get a snitch, but if there was a design on it like when the wings were tucked, but it drew out a picture of a lily and an animal footprint. Something to symbolize freedom too, and…" he trailed off. "There's just so much I would want in there."
"I think you need to look into magical tattoo's then," Ginny told him. "There might be a way to have it change slightly to show you the images of your beloved symbols that are on your mind."
"Magical tattoo?" he asked with intrigue.
Ginny nodded, "Charlie has one. It's a dragon on his ankle. It breathes fire and can walk all the way around his ankle and settle down to sleep curled up or spread its wings and attempt to roar."
"That is so cool," he said with wide eyes.
"No need to decide right away," she smiled.
"Did I give you enough time to say 'hello'?" Sirius asked, leaning against the doorway.
"Yes, and thank you," Ginny told him and pushed Harry back slightly so she could get down from the dresser.
"Good. Because your mum just called through the Floo in the kitchen. Looks like the lot of us are going over to the Burrow for dinner," he grinned.
()()()