Chapter 3 - Enamored

Ginny slammed her hand against the wet stone wall for support, annoyed that she had to release her grip on Draco's tight, perfect bum to keep from falling over. She let out a loud moan that echoed around the showers as Draco's cock pushed on a particularly sensitive spot.

"You like that angle?" he growled in her ear.

All Ginny could do was nod and arch her back further as he continued to thrust into her from behind. He had a hand tangled in her hair and pulled slightly, forcing her to lean her head back until it was almost resting on his shoulder.

"Tell me what else you like," he demanded before sucking hard on her neck.

She'd learned, in just the few weeks she'd been having sex with Draco, that he was very possessive and loved to mark her like this. It was extremely annoying and she was getting a lot of practice with Glamour Charms, but in the moment, she never had the presence of mind to tell him to stop.

"Tell me," he repeated, moving his hands down to her hips and he slowed his thrusts.

"Touch me."

"Where?"

"Everywhere," she groaned, leaning her head forward and resting it on the back of one of her hands.

He moved one hand to her breast and one down between her legs, eliciting several more loud moans from her. When Ginny was right at the edge, he pulled out and turned her around. Draco gave her a dangerous look as he lifted her leg and linked it over his forearm, then carefully buried himself inside her again, pressing her against the cold stone behind her.

She reached around for something to hold on to, but there was nothing but wet stone, so she grabbed Draco's shoulders instead. "How are you staying upright?" she asked breathlessly.

"Magic."

She rolled her eyes, then wondered if maybe it wasn't a joke. Perhaps there was some sort of spell he'd applied to his feet to keep from slipping. Before she could consider it further, he was kissing her fiercely as he pumped in and out of her. This was something else she'd learned about Draco. No matter what position they started in, he always liked to finish facing her, usually while kissing her mouth or neck.

It wasn't long before Ginny found her release, knocking her head back against the stone wall. Shit, that would hurt tomorrow. Draco grabbed her chin and kissed her thoroughly and after a few more thrusts, was groaning into her mouth as he came. They untangled themselves, laughing when they both almost fell over, twice, then decided to actually take a shower.

It was unexpectedly intimate, bathing together, but Draco didn't seem perturbed, so Ginny tried not to be. For the first time, Ginny got a chance to really study him. He was tall - about six inches taller than her - and thin, with lean muscles, a similar build to Harry. But that's where the similarities stopped. Draco had flawless skin that looked a bit like marble, but it was marred in several spots by scars. Most of them were silver, but a few were red, meaning they were new. She wanted to ask about them but knew better.

The worst scar of all was the ugly black mark on his forearm, which she tried to avoid looking at and which he kept it hidden most of the time. He had very little hair on his body, just fine blond hairs on his limbs, under his arms, and his groin. Ginny reached out and laid her hands on his chest which, save for a few raised scars, was perfectly smooth, like stone. He really was like a statue.

He smirked at her, and she figured he knew she was admiring him. Draco knew he was good-looking, but he hadn't always been this handsome. When he was younger, his features had been too fine and pointy, but he'd grown into him and now his sharp jaw and high cheekbones were some of his best qualities. Okay, that was enough. She needed to stop openly gawking at him. Ginny was surprised he hadn't teased her for it yet.

She tried to take a step back, but he grabbed her by the waist, keeping her in place. He moved his hands to her shoulders, then slowly started trailing them down her sides. Now it seemed to be his turn to study her. Ginny kept her chin held high and tried not to be nervous. Everyone had always told her she was pretty, but she thought she was too thin, lacking the curves a lot of the witches her age had.

Draco didn't seem to mind. He was giving her an admiring look and she could tell he thought she was beautiful. She'd seen this look in his eyes before, but he'd never given her any compliments about her looks. Just like she had never told him how attractive she found him. She guessed he knew by the look on her face, just as she knew by the look on his.

When his eyes met hers again, he cupped her face in his hand and kissed her deeply. He rarely kissed her like this, just out of nowhere, when it had nothing to do with sex, and it scared her every time. These moments, which made this whole relationship seem like more than sex, were dangerous and Ginny was maintaining a mental list of them, so she could make sure they didn't get out of control.

This was one of those moments on the list - kissing just because. Also on the list were the fact that she called him Draco in her mind, their flying sessions (which were still pretty rare, since they could only go out at night and when Snape was away from the castle), and now, showering together.

When Draco pulled away he turned off the tap, then Summoned two towels, taking the time to wrap her up before he started drying himself off. Okay, that was sweet. Another thing she'd have to add to the list. The longer she spent with Draco, the longer this list was getting. "You're a decent flier," she said out of nowhere, desperate to change the course of her current thoughts.

He'd finished drying off and wrapped the towel around his waist before walking back to the lockers where their clothes were. She followed him and when he reached the lockers, he looked at her over his shoulder and cocked an eyebrow at her. "I'm certainly better than you."

She let out a sigh of relief. Good, they were taunting each other again. This was familiar territory, much better than intimate kisses in the shower. "You're only better because you fly every day. I haven't flown in months, but even with that handicap, I nearly out flew you tonight. Give it a few weeks and I'll be flying circles around you."

Draco scoffed. "Please…If we had Quidditch this year, I'm sure you'd be captain of Gryffindor and I'd be captain of Slytherin and my team would destroy yours."

Ginny snorted in protest as she pulled her jumper over her head.

"And not just my team," he continued, "you'd lose to all the house teams, since you'd have to fill your entire lineup with new players. Aren't you the only player still around from last year?"

"We'd be just fine."

Draco turned to face her, his expression serious now. "Even without your star player?"

The mood between them immediately changed from light to heavy. She could almost feel the shift in the air around them. In the three weeks they'd been together, neither of them had brought up Harry. But Ginny knew they both thought of him often. How could they not? Draco hated Harry, had been borderline obsessed with him in school, and Ginny suspected sometimes Draco was only with her as a way to get revenge on his former rival. And Harry - well - he'd be crushed if he knew about this.

"Is that what this is about?" she asked boldly.

"What?"

"This - the - you and me. Are you just hoping to upset Harry?"

Draco shrugged and continued to pull on his clothes. "I have bigger problems than Potter these days, plus, I assumed you weren't together anymore, though I don't really care."

That hurt, more than it should. Ginny tried not to let it show on her face. "You're right, I'm not with him. And the fact that I was - that really doesn't matter to you?"

He shrugged again and she wished she could read his expressions, but she could only guess at them about half the time and right now, he was doing an excellent job of keeping his face blank. "No. I'm the one fucking you now."

Ginny huffed and crossed her arms. Prat. But why did she care so much? Maybe she wasn't cut out for casual sex. "Do you have to be so crass?" she sneered.

"Would you prefer it if I called it making love?" Draco asked sardonically.

"Just call it shagging."

"Fine. Shagging it is." He turned to grab his pants and started pulling them on while Ginny stood there in her jumper and knickers, trying to work up the courage to say the next thing on her mind.

"Spit it out, Weasley," he said when he noticed her looking at him oddly.

She sighed. "Fine. I know this is just sex, we've confirmed that over a hundred times, but - well - you're the only person I'm having sex with and while we're doing this - I want to be the only person you're having sex with."

He was quiet, eerily so, so she continued prattling on to fill the silence. "It's probably not even an issue since you always seem to be with me on your nights off. I don't see when you'd have the time to be shagging anyone else, right?"

He nodded, then gestured to their brooms, which were leaning against the lockers behind her. "Have you ever done it on a broom?"

Ginny gave him an incredulous look. "Did you just hear me?"

"Yeah. No shagging anyone else. Got it."

Ginny needed something better than that. "Okay...um, can we shake on it?"

She held her hand out and Draco looked at it for a few seconds before grabbing it. When she raised her eyebrows at him, he added dutifully, "I agree to not shag any other witches while I'm shagging you. As you said - I don't have time anyway."

"So, this is a thing."

"A thing…? Brilliant vocabulary, Weasley. Or are you just rendered speechless in my presence?"

She rolled her eyes as he cocked his head back toward the brooms and asked, "Can we go back to the broom conversation?"

Ginny let out a long sigh of frustration. This Slytherin was impossible. "No, Malfoy, I have never shagged on a broom. I have no idea how that would even work."

"Me neither, but it would be fun to try, wouldn't it?" He shot her a playful grin. When she didn't respond, he stepped toward her and kissed her as he linked his thumbs under the elastic band of her knickers.

"You're insatiable," she grumbled, but she didn't push him away.

He smirked and kissed her jaw. "Don't pretend you're not insatiable, too," he said smoothly as he kissed the other side of her jaw, moving his hands further into her knickers so he was gripping her bum.

"Or have I satisfied you, fully?" he purred, kissing her neck. "No room for more? No desire to see what it feels like to fu-" He cut off and leaned back to give her a knowing smile, "I mean shag me while floating?"

Ginny could not believe this was working. What was wrong with her? But this was just sex, that was it. It was a nice stress relief and there were other benefits to this arrangement, too. She got to fly again, for one, and she felt safer than she had in ages, since Draco had a vested interest in protecting her from the Carrows. And, well, it was wartime, people did crazy things in the middle of wars. Ginny knew what she was doing and she wouldn't let this get out of hand.

Two weeks later, Ginny was lying on her stomach on the sofa in the common room of Draco's Head Boy Dormitory, waiting for him to arrive. The fact that she had the password to his dormitory was on her list of things that made this thing with Draco feel like more than sex. And the list was getting longer and longer.

It included things like: the time he'd helped her with her Potions assignment, all the times she'd caught him looking at her across the Great Hall, the few of those times when his lips had turned up slightly once their eyes met, and the feeling of butterflies that had appeared in her stomach in response to his small smile. There was also the night last weekend when they'd talked and laughed for hours, picking apart the odd children's stories they'd been told when they were young.

Ginny sighed and groaned as she rested her forehead against the arm of the sofa. She needed to pull back. She didn't want to end this completely (which in and of itself was a bad sign) but she could add more distance. Surely, Draco wouldn't mind.

Just then, the wizard in question stepped through the door. He was holding his arm close to his chest and looked surprised to see her there. "Oh, fuck. You're here. I forgot. You need to go."

Ginny looked at him curiously. He forgot? He never forgot anything. When she stepped close to him, she smelled an odd, noxious smoke. Ginny winced and wondered what sort of spell had caused that. Then she saw why he was holding his arm close. His wrist looked broken. "Malfoy, what happened?"

"I was in the forest," he said quickly, and they exchanged a knowing look. Draco disappeared into the Forbidden Forest several nights a week and while he always told her where he was, they never discussed the matter further. But Ginny knew what he was doing in there, he was helping people escape to safety. It was just one of those unspoken things between them, like how they were fighting on opposite sides of this war, and how important it was for their relationship to remain a secret.

"Did someone find you?" she asked. "Do they know what you've been doing? Are you-"

"Weasley!" he said sharply, pulling his good hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Go."

"No."

"You really are insatiable," he said with a dark laugh.

She ignored him and pulled her wand out, then took his wrist in her hand. He let out a cry of pain as she touched it. "This is really bad," she muttered, mostly to herself. "It's not just a clean break, but shattered. What happened?"

"Leave," he repeated through clenched teeth, but he couldn't do much more in his current position. She had his wrist in her hand and he couldn't push her away without hurting it further. He was at her mercy and they both knew it.

"I'm going to stay and heal this," Ginny said as she continued to examine his wrist.

"No. You're going to leave like I told you, otherwise I'm going to-"

Ginny silenced him with a wave of her wand, so she never got to find out what he was planning to do to her if she stayed. While he was temporarily distracted by the shock of having been Silenced, she grabbed his wand out of his pocket and tossed it across the room.

"Now hush," Ginny said before focusing back on the injury. She could feel Draco glaring daggers at her but ignored it as she thought through which healing spells to start with. She was pretty decent at healing basic injuries, including broken bones like this. You didn't grow up with six brothers without being good at healing.

But this injury was tricky, since there seemed to be countless breaks for her to tend to. She started on the bones on the inside of his wrist but had to be careful to get the right ones under her spell. After what must have been an hour, Ginny's back was sore and she kept shifting from one foot to the other. Draco had been standing in the exact same position the entire time and she wondered what his parents had done to him as a child to keep him from being fidgety. Actually, she probably didn't want to know.

"Let's sit." She cocked her head toward the sofa and chanced a look at him for the first time since she'd begun healing him. His face was blank. "Are you going to come with me, or are you going to make this difficult?"

He shot her a hateful glare, but when she tugged slightly on his arm, he followed her to the sofa. In another thirty minutes, she was finished. She ran her fingers along his smooth skin several times, then pressed on different parts of his wrist and was pleased when he didn't even flinch. She waved her wand and removed the Silencing Spell before leaning back against the arm of the sofa.

Once she'd released his hand, he began studying it carefully, then opening and closing his palm several times. "It's perfect," he said, clearly shocked.

"Always the element of surprise," she said under her breath, thinking of Ron, since this was something he'd have said. Her chest clenched painfully and tears stung her eyes. She tried to blink them back quickly so Draco wouldn't see.

He was looking at her and she thought he may have noticed she was upset, but he didn't press her on it. Because he doesn't care, she reminded herself. "Anyway," she sighed, "are you going to tell me how you got it?"

"No."

"Okay. That's fair." Ginny rose to her feet, stretched, and grabbed her bag. "I guess I should go."

"Why did you do this?" Draco was suddenly angry and Ginny had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. She was used to his extreme mood swings by now and knew if she could manage to keep from upsetting him further, that soon enough he'd be back to his usual, impassive self.

"Because you were hurt and I'm a nice person," she replied simply.

"You don't know how I got this. I'm a Death Eater. I could have received this fighting the Order - your family."

She faltered and almost asked, "Did you?" But she was caught by the look of pain in his eyes. Sometimes, Ginny's instincts with Draco were completely off the mark but other times, like now, she thought she knew exactly what he needed. And right now, he didn't need her to doubt him. He needed her to trust him and to believe he wasn't evil.

She stepped closer to him and placed a hand on his arm. "I trust you, Malfoy. I wouldn't be doing this thing with you if I didn't. Maybe you were fighting the Order just now, but I'm sure if you were, you were only doing it to appease You-Know-Who, to keep yourself and your family safe. And I'm sure your heart wasn't in it and that you weren't casting anything harmful."

Draco bit his lip and looked away from her, toward the fireplace. He said, almost inaudibly, "I don't get you, Weasley."

Ginny didn't know what to say to that. And he seemed to want to be alone right now, so she pulled her bag up higher on her shoulder and gave him arm a final pat before turning to the door.

"You can't go up to the Tower, alone," he said when she had her hand on the doorknob. "It's past curfew."

Ginny looked at the clock on the wall and saw he was right. Damn, healing his wrist had taken longer than she'd realized. She sighed and turned around to face him, as she thought of another item of her list of things that made this feel more than sex. Draco usually walked her back to the Gryffindor Tower (disguised, of course) anytime she stayed with him past curfew.

She walked over to him and tried to pull him toward the door, but he stayed in place. "Okay, well, come with me then," she urged.

Draco looked at her for a long time, then reached out and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "No."

She huffed in annoyance. "You're the one who said it was too dangerous for me to be out there alone because of the Carrows and Crabbe and Goyle patrolling the halls."

"I guess you'll have to stay." He turned around and disappeared into the bedroom, Summoning his wand, which was still on the floor, as he walked past it. Ginny stepped back in alarm. She'd never slept over here before. They didn't even cuddle in bed after sex. What did this mean?

"I thought this was just sex," she called after him.

He reappeared in the doorway and she expected him to look annoyed, or maybe just indifferent, but his eyes were sparkling with amusement. "You can leave whenever you want, Weasley. I'm not keeping you here."

She took a deep breath. He was right. He'd taught her how to perform Disillusionment Charms a few weeks ago (another item on the list, damn, how long was that list?), and that protection would probably be enough to get her safely back to her dormitory.

Or she could stay. This invitation felt rare and a small part of her didn't want to pass it up.

Ginny put her bag down, straightened her spine, and walked to the room where Draco was still leaning in the doorframe, watching her. When she reached him, he placed a hand on the side of her face, then pressed a soft kiss on her lips.

"Just when I think I have you figured out…" he whispered.

He moved his hand down to her neck and she stayed still as her heart raced in her chest. "Are you scared?" he asked after a few moments. His thumb was pressing on the pulse point on her neck and she assumed he was referring to her elevated heart rate.

"Yes," she said honestly. There was no use hiding it, since he could read her like a book.

"I thought Gryffindors - and you in particular - weren't afraid of anything," he murmured, placing a hand on her waist and pulling her close. "What scares you? Me?"

Ginny shook her head.

"Of course not. Is it our 'thing' - as you call it?"

Ginny nodded. He was quiet for several more seconds and even though he didn't say so, she could tell by his eyes that he felt the same way. "Okay," he said eventually, "that's fair."

Draco leaned in and kissed her again, then pulled her into the room, kicking the door closed as he guided her toward the bed. And just like that, the "thing" between them became more than sex.

It was two weeks before the Christmas Break and Ginny was sitting in the Head Boy Common Room, studying for her exams while Draco sat next to her, doing the same. She really shouldn't be here. She should be in the Gryffindor Common Room with her friends. It was bad enough that she spent several nights in the dungeons each week, but luckily, no one in her dorm had questioned it.

Before this "thing" with Draco (as she was still calling it), Ginny had slept over in the Ravenclaw Dormitories with Luna on occasion, so now, her dorm mates thought that's where she spent her nights. Luckily, she wasn't very close with any of the girls in her year, so they had no reason to pry further.

But it was harder to make excuses to her friends. They'd noticed her pulling away from the DA and she used what Draco had told her about the Carrows as an excuse. She explained that they were especially interested in her, so she needed to lie low, at least until after the break, then maybe, by then, they'd have moved on to someone else.

She should feel awful, since she was essentially giving up on fighting for Draco, a Death Eater, but she didn't. Perhaps it was all the time she was spending with Draco, but his words from earlier in the term were finally sinking in. Why would she risk herself for a few pranks? Ginny didn't mind risking herself for something real, but fighting just to fight seemed unnecessary.

That wasn't to say Ginny wasn't doing anything. She'd been planning. She'd made a long list of things she could do with the help of a defected Death Eater to assist the war effort. But first, she had to convince Draco to take the risk. Working tirelessly to keep the forest safe was a risk, and he was doing that, so maybe she could convince him to do more.

Ginny glanced over to make sure Draco was distracted before pulling the list out of her bag. She'd been waiting until she had a full list before talking to him. She had to admit as she scanned the parchment that this was probably as full as the list was going to get.

It included a variety of tasks with varying levels of difficulty and risk. There were smaller things, like continuing to divert students to safer detentions and sharing the Death Eater patrol schedules. There were items of medium difficulty, like securing one or two safe pathways into and out of the castle (something the DA had been wanting to do for ages, but could accomplish a lot more effectively with the help of a Death Eater like Draco, who was actually allowed to leave the grounds).

And there were large items, like sending messages to the Order through McGonagall about upcoming raids and recent meetings with You-Know-Who and helping the Order free the prisoners kept in the dungeons at Malfoy Manor.

Ginny knew now was the time to bring this up to Draco, as it wasn't going to get any easier the longer she waited. She'd listed everything in order of difficulty, hoping they could start small, to build Draco's confidence, before getting to the larger, more impactful items. But they had to do something. Hiding in his room and shagging while a war raged on around them, when Draco was in such a perfect position to help, seemed wrong.

"Spit it out, Weasley."

Ginny jumped and tightened her grip on the parchment. Shit, he'd noticed she was trying to work up the courage to speak to him. She wondered for the millionth time if he could pick her thoughts up out of the air.

She turned to find him looking at her expectedly, then just handed him the list, since words were failing her. She knew even with the best words, he was probably going to be angry, so decided to not even bother.

Draco's eyes scanned the parchment and as they did, she saw them turn to ice. When he finally looked back up at her, she had to force herself to stay in place and not shrink under his gaze.

"We could help," she explained. "Even from here and when you go home, to your meetings…" His eyes flashed with anger and she finally looked away from him, focusing down on her lap. "We - we don't have to just stand by and ignore it," she finished weakly.

His voice was cold when he spoke. "Ignore it? You think that's what I'm doing? You think I don't notice what's-?"

"You're not," she cut in, hoping to reassure him before he grew too cross with her. "That was a bad choice of words. You're obviously not ignoring this but you can do more. We can do more. Most of those are small, but they could still help end this war faster. Maybe-"

Draco swore and she stopped talking, assuming he was just growing more and more angry and was about to yell at her, but when she looked up at him, he wasn't glaring at her, but was looking down at his forearm The Mark was a darker black than she'd ever seen it and seemed to be raised slightly. It looked like the snake was about to jump off his skin and strike her.

"Is that…?"

"He's calling me."

A coldness settled in Ginny's stomach. "What? You, specifically?"

"I don't know, but I have to go. I have twenty minutes to get home." He'd already crossed the room and she could hear him changing his clothes in his bedroom. She shuddered as she remembered that You-Know-Who lived in his house.

When Draco reemerged, he looked scared. He grabbed his cloak and Death Eater mask from the hook near the door. As he stood there, taking several deep breaths, Ginny watched him make his face blank. After a few moments, the fear she'd seen before was gone.

"Good luck," she called.

Draco stopped with his hand on the door, facing away from her. "Can-" he started, then stopped to clear his throat before turning to look at her over his shoulder. "You can stay here...if you want. I probably won't be long."

"Oh, um, I should get back. My friends have started to miss me and-"

"Very well." There was a swish of robes, then the slamming of the door, and he was gone.

As Ginny packed her bag, her hands were shaking. Draco had never been called unexpectedly like this - or, well, not that he'd told her. What did it mean? Was he in danger? Did she care? Yes, she did. He'd become a sort of friend over the past several weeks and if he were hurt, she'd definitely be upset.

Tears stung her eyes as she remembered how he'd looked before he'd made his expression blank. Eyes wide with fear, looking at her almost pleadingly, like he was asking her to do something to help him. But there was nothing she could do, there was nothing anyone could do to help him, besides kill You-Know-Who.

Ginny remembered what he'd said at the door when he'd told her she could stay. He'd been about to say something else, "can" something, then changed his mind. Ginny realized what he'd been meaning to say - or rather, ask - when she was in the hall of the dungeons right outside his dormitory. He'd been about to ask, "Can you stay here?" but switched it to a less vulnerable sounding statement at the end.

Ginny turned around and went back to his dormitory. He'd been asking her to be here for him, because he was scared, and she'd denied him. Well, she could make it up by being here when he returned.

She dropped her bag on the sofa and began tidying up the Common Room. Her eyes landed on the list, which she'd almost forgotten about. So much for that. Should she try again? Ginny decided to tuck it into his bag. He'd find it eventually. Maybe he just needed some time to ponder it alone. Then, perhaps the next time she brought up the subject, he'd be more amenable.

Draco was gone for hours and Ginny grew tired of studying, so she curled herself up in his bed with a book, but soon fell asleep. She was awoken by someone placing a hand on her back and saying, "You stayed."

Ginny sat up in the bed and turned to find Draco standing at the edge. He'd changed into his pajamas and was wearing a haunted look that broke Ginny's heart. She leaned forward and hugged him. "Are you okay?"

She felt him nod, then he wrapped his arms around her and let out a long sigh. "Thank you," he whispered into her hair. She knew what he was thanking her for, and thought it was probably the first time he'd ever thanked her for anything.

Ginny leaned back and pulled him onto the bed. When he was sitting next to her, she reached out and grabbed his hand, then asked carefully, "Will you tell me what happened?"

She'd expected him to brush her off. She was used to that. No one ever told her anything. But he actually answered. He detailed the entire meeting, explaining the purpose (the initiation of a new Death Eater), and telling her the horrifying details of the ceremony. As if all that wasn't bad enough, he told her how You-Know-Who had pulled him aside at the end of the night just before he returned to the castle.

Draco stopped talking all of a sudden. After he was silent for several minutes, Ginny turned to him. "Tell me what he said."

Draco's jaw twitched. "You don't want to know."

"No. But I'd like to help you, and I think telling someone else might help."

He nodded, considering her words, then did something unexpected. He shifted down on the bed and laid his head on her lap, wrapping his arms around her as he did so. It was an oddly intimate gesture, but he did these on occasion, she reminded herself, and he was feeling especially vulnerable right now.

Soon, she found out why. Draco's voice was muffled as he spoke into her lap, but the room was quiet and she could understand him perfectly. He explained that one part of the Death Eater ceremony he hadn't mentioned in his summary of the night was killing a Muggle or Muggleborn. You-Know-Who would bring in a prisoner and have the new initiate kill them in front of the group. Ginny's stomach turned.

This was something Draco had never had to do, since there had never been a ceremony for his initiation. He'd hoped You-Know-Who had forgotten, or didn't care, but when he'd cornered Draco after the meeting, he told him he hadn't forgotten that Draco was the only Death Eater among his ranks who hasn't killed anyone, and that he'd be remedying that soon.

"I don't want to kill anyone." Draco's voice was weak and shaky. "I don't think I can, but if I don't - I'll be killed, or worse, my parents. He'd do that. He knows it would hurt me to watch them being hurt and killed, and if I don't obey, he'll do that to punish me."

Draco was crying now, shaking from his sobs, and Ginny had no idea what to say. What could she say? He was in an impossible situation. She could see herself choosing to die over the prospect of having to kill another person. But what if her family was threatened? Could she let them die?

Tears stung her eyes as she realized there was nothing she could do to help Draco. So she just rubbed his back and hugged him close, hoping that for now, simply being here for him would be enough.