Disclaimer: This belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. etc. I own
nothing!!!
(A/N: Now-Questions! You always claim to want them, but what do you do when you get them? EEEEEK! LilyAyl, you know I love ya, but ack! You asked me questions! ^-^ All kidding aside, I just went with my feelings on the last chapter-If I went wonky with the Mark and Voldemort and the Imperious, I'm sooo sorry! Somebody fill me in-I'm a true fan, but I've obviously missed some important stuff somewhere. No matter how many times I reread my chapters and ask myself questions, there's always some I miss, and I end up looking back on them a day later in horror! Smack me around if I do it again, will ya? I'm gonna get smacked around a lot…
Thanks for the review LilyAyl-I know I haven't really answered your question-I'm not quite sure how to. Not that I don't want to, I just haven't got an answer right now I guess. Sorry, I'm having a senior moment. Tired! If I come up with something, I'll explain. I sincerely hope you like this chapter. ^-^
Thanks to the rest of you guys too! Tomato Soup-I truly appreciate all the reviews! Thanks for taking the time to read my stuff! I'm so glad you enjoy it!
To Carolanne O'Rourke: What an, er, interesting review! Yes, I know I do have some grammatical errors. I'm very sorry; I truly try my best. (It's a pet peeve of mine to read very badly spelled fics as well, and if I just make a ton of usage errors, somebody please point them out!) I guess I'll have to break down and try to get a beta, huh? And as for the snogging-heh, heh, I'll work on that. It's way past time I guess. I truly appreciate the review-the very long review. It has to be a record of some kind! ^-^ Hope you like this chapter! ~ Lee)
7. Liberation!
"You're like an angel with the sweetest smile
But when you use it you're like an evil child.
That's what brings me back again
I love you more when you're doing something wrong
And that what's wrong with me…" -?
Harry and Ron were frantic.
Hermione had up and disappeared.
They'd retraced their steps over and over, and the girl had just simply dropped off the face of the earth-or Hogsmeade anyway.
Harry stopped Ron finally, as he was coming close to panicking, as his seeking green eyes alighted on something fluttering in the evening breeze outside the shrieking shack. "Ron."
Ron was almost trembling from head to foot, and turning his redhead frantically.
"Ron!"
Harry's friend jumped and glared at him. "What?"
"Look." Ron's brown eyes widened when he looked along to where Harry was pointing.
The thunderhead that had been threatening to open up over Hogsmeade all day long finally began letting loose a cold deluge with an ear- shattering roar.
"Do you think she's in there?" Ron stomped up to the rickety wooden gate, his fingers snatching a torn ribbon of a black fabric that looked disturbingly as if it had been ripped from a Hogwarts school robe.
Harry shook his head, his eyes narrowed, and his face solemn. "I don't know Ron-but-take a closer look. See how the fabric is nearly threadbare?"
Ron's face turned even whiter with the realization. "Ginny!"
"Hey!"
"AAAAH!"
Hermione jumped away from the two boys, a surprised look on her face. "God, you nearly frightened me half to death!"
Ron stared at her, wide-eyed, and then very simply grabbed her and kissed her as if he'd never see her again.
Harry rolled his eyes at the open snog-fest, but felt his racing heart sigh in relief that she was all right. He rubbed at the water on his glasses ineffectually and finally took them off.
Ron let go of the dazed looking girl and shook a finger in her face. The stern look on his face was made less so by the fact that rain was pouring down it.
"Woman, where have you been? Do you have any idea what you put me through? Why I've a mind to bend you over my knee-"
"Later, Ron!" Hermione took his hand and squeezed it briefly. "I'm sorry, but-I knew something was wrong-I went back to check on Ginny at the Three Broomsticks and she wasn't there-and nether was Malfoy."
"Why I'll-"
"So-" Hermione cut him off with a steely glance, "I went around the outside, and I found these footprints in the mud back there-what I assumed were Ginny and Draco's-only they stopped abruptly-and there were two other sets of footprints-a man's and a woman's, a different one see, because there was a pointed heel-and I know Ginny wears Mary-Jane's-anyway, I followed them around, and just guess where they came out." She took a deep, very much needed breath.
"The Shrieking Shack." Harry said grimly, eyeing the boarded up old house with severe dislike.
Ginny couldn't keep the panic from welling up inside of her-and she couldn't keep still just waiting for the bloody snake to finish her off either.
She opened her eyes, and flung her arm out, inwardly quailing when she felt it connect with the deadly serpent-it reared back, obviously taken by surprise, and Ginny dove over the thing, desperate to get away from it, only to land at Draco's feet-her wand clattered away across the floor.
She cursed inwardly as she looked up at his shadowed face, and she heard Voldemort hissing something in Parseltongue at the snake.
Draco's silvery eyes had gone soft and gray, and they had a haunted look in them that chilled her. "I didn't mean for this to happen." His voice was barely audible.
Standing hastily, she backed up against a wall, snapping despite her fear, "Yes, well it's a bit late for apologies, isn't it?"
Something shifted in his expression. He almost looked-annoyed.
"I can't believe you let them do this to you," she continued scornfully. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life as their puppet, Malfoy?"
"Be quiet, girl!" Lucius snapped.
The snake was drawing near again, a mad light in its eyes. Ginny ignored it.
"Do you really want to marry Pansy? Can you imagine what your children will look like?" Ginny inched her way down the wall, towards the door. It was locked, she'd never make it, but she had to try.
Draco slowly shook his head.
"You'll be ridiculed by everybody-your name will be a joke-well, even more of one than it is already-"
"Enough!" Voldemort hissed, stepping forward.
She watched as Draco actually frowned.
"If I die now, you'll never get that apology, Malfoy," Ginny said quickly, watching him desperately.
He closed his eyes, as if he were thinking.
Ginny saw Voldemort pointing his wand at her and fought the urge to scream. The huge snake was curling around her feet.
"Come on, Draco-I don't want to die. I- I think I might love you, you stupid prat!"
At that Draco seemed to wake up. He blinked, some color coming back into his face, and he dropped his wand.
"Ginny?"
"Avada-"
Just when Ginny thought all was lost, there was a sudden explosion, and she hit the floor hard.
Bits and pieces of the door lay smoking and smoldering on the floor.
Harry, Ron and Hermione rushed in, and Harry paused long enough to look over the mess and then at Ron.
Ron shrugged sheepishly. "Guess I got a little excited."
Harry shook his head. The smoke from Ron's spell was clearing-he saw a massive black snake coiling up before him and hissed at it impatiently to go away and not hurt anyone.
The snake seemed to look at him, surprised, before it slid away across the floor.
"Ginny?" Ron was calling through the haze-filled air.
"I'm here," a small voice coughed.
Harry dashed over to where she lay on the floor, looking filthy and battered.
"Gin, are you all right?" He knelt next to her, as Ron and Hermione did the same.
"Voldemort-he's here!" She sat up, gasping.
Hermione shook her head, looking at Harry. "There's no one else here but you and Malfoy, Ginny."
Malfoy? What was he doing there?
"Draco!" Ginny was on her feet in an instant, and Harry followed her to find him on his back in a corner.
"Are you alive?" She asked the quiet boy stupidly, lifting his head onto her lap.
What was going on, here, exactly, Harry wondered skeptically.
Malfoy was staring straight ahead, looking far more ruffled than He could ever remember seeing him-even when he'd been turned into a ferret.
"Are you all right, Malfoy?" Harry heard himself asking.
He thought for a moment that Malfoy wouldn't answer.
Then he turned his head, looked directly at Ginny, and muttered, "Are you sorry yet?"
Ginny looked back at Draco, caught off guard. "What?"
Draco looked up at her, his old sneer on his face. "If you hadn't started all of this we probably wouldn't have Voldemort breathing down our bloody necks."
Ginny felt her mouth fall wide open. She'd just told him she thought she loved him, and he was blaming all of this on her. What had she been thinking?
"How dare you blame all of this on me, you selfish, dirty little rat!" She dropped his head with a loud thud as she leapt to her feet.
"Ow!" Draco grabbed his head, groaning miserably.
That was when Harry and the others saw the Mark.
The rain was still pouring by the time they exited the Shrieking Shack. Ginny was still in a daze of sorts. This was certainly not how she'd thought the day would end up.
She had located Draco's muddied robes and shirt, and had helped him into them silently. He hadn't looked at her once.
"Well…we're going to have to walk back to the school now," Harry shouted over the rain. "We've missed the train." (A/N: I couldn't remember if they rode the train to Hogsmeade in the book or not-don't flame me! ^-^)
Ron groaned loudly. "We'll bloody drown!"
"Don't be stupid, Ron!" Hermione shook her head impatiently and made a swishing motion with her wand. "Umbrillious!"
Instantly the rain stopped falling over their heads-it was almost as if a huge, invisible umbrella had appeared over their heads.
"Wow! That was brilliant, Hermione!" Ron grinned at her, his dark amber brown eyes crinkling merrily at the corners. "I don't remember ever seeing that spell anywhere."
Hermione shrugged, though she looked pleased. "Just a little something I made up."
"For God's sake, will you two just get a room and go at it already?" Draco looked slightly green, and was slumping dangerously. "I'd like to get home sometime this week!"
Hermione blushed violently, and Ron fisted his hands threateningly.
"Draco-" Ginny put her hand on his arm and he looked down at her, shrugging it off with a disgusted look. Feeling wounded, Ginny pulled her arm close to her body.
"We'll get you home soon," she said emotionlessly.
He snorted. "I won't count on it, Weasley."
"Just be good enough to keep your mouth shut in the meantime."
Draco sneered but didn't say anything else.
Sighing tiredly, she started walking off in the direction of Honeydukes trying to tell herself she really wasn't as disappointed as she felt. She really wasn't.
"MotherFuffmph!"
Ron's frustrated curse was muffled by Hermione's hand as they stared at the mass of rocks in the tunnel before them. Dust was still swirling thickly in the air.
A cold chill ran through Ginny as they stood in the secret tunnel that led from the cellar in Honeydukes to Hogwarts.
Wet and shivering, she closed her eyes and slumped back tiredly against the wall of rocky earth.
"What are we going to do now?"
"Voldemort did this."
Harry looked over at Malfoy impatiently. "Why do you think that? He could have just brought the whole tunnel down on our heads and been rid of me once and for all. What makes you think this wasn't a natural occurrence?"
Ginny watched Draco give Harry a smirk. "Do you really think he'd make your death that easy after all the trouble you've given him?"
Harry's face paled slightly, but his eyes hardened dangerously. "You're already walking on thin ice with me, with the whole becoming a Death Eater thing, Malfoy."
"Ahh. Stop. You're scaring me," Draco said mockingly. "You think you're coming off as being tough, but why don't you just admit it-we all know why you've made it this far. Pure dumb luck."
"Stop baiting him," Ginny snapped suddenly. "I'm tired of listening to your tongue, Malfoy."
"You didn't seem to mind my tongue the other night in the library, luv."
Ginny promptly bit her tongue.
Harry swiftly looked on verge of physical violence.
"What did he just say?"
Ron looked as if he'd been slapped.
"Oh my God,"
Hermione's eyes looked ready to pop from her head.
"Ginny, you didn't!"
There was a long moment of silence as Ginny felt her stomach clench and she sent Draco an evil look.
"You touched my sister? I'll bloody murder you!"
To Ginny's surprise, Harry's fist made contact with Draco's chin before her brother could make a move.
Draco fought waking up with everything in his being. The searing pain in his arm was returning, and there were a hundred aches and pains stabbing through his body. He groaned and abruptly stopped as pain shrieked through his jaw.
"Malfoy?"
He opened his eyes to blurry darkness. "Gin?"
"Now he's calling her 'Gin'?" He heard Weasley mutter in disbelief.
"Quiet, Ron." Someone above him sighed-he recognized the voice as being Granger's.
"Did you have to hit him so hard, Harry?"
Potter made a nasty comment from somewhere over his head.
Soft cool fingertips curled against his, and he realized Ginny was holding his hand. His fingers tightened around hers briefly and she dropped his hand as if it were covered in Bubotuber pus.
Slowly everything came into focus, and he began to comprehend that that four-eyed git Potter had actually knocked him flat with one punch.
How humiliating.
Draco sat up, blinking in the near darkness and saw three pairs of eyes glaring at him. Ginny wouldn't look at him.
"Want to try that again, Potter?" He forced himself to his feet and rubbed his jaw and chin with a tentative hand. Though he felt unpleasantly like something a Kneazle might have left behind in a litter box, he felt compelled to defend his manhood. "I won't be so easy to take down while I'm actually looking at you."
"Just shut up, Draco," Ginny sighed, getting up from where she'd been kneeling next him on the ground. "Can we please get out of here?"
Draco set his jaw and held his burnt forearm gingerly. He made a mental note that if he ever got out of the Death Eater mess, he'd be making absolutely sure to keep Ginny's mouth busy elsewhere-her tongue had far too much poison in it to be allowed to run unimpeded.
"It'll take forever to get these rocks moved," he heard Potter say. "We'd be here for days."
"There's nothing to help it, then," Granger said matter-of-factly. "We'll have to use the path through the Forbidden Forest."
"Uh, Hermione? Do you really think that's a good idea? I mean, can't we just ask someone back in Hogsmeade for help?" Weasley swallowed audibly.
The coward. Draco figured his back was a rather lovely shade of yellow.
The fact that he himself had had a rather unpleasant experience in the Forest his first year that had made him run and shriek like a three-year- old girl child didn't matter one bit. He'd been…surprised was all.
Granger took Weasley's hand and Draco wanted to throw up.
"It's the only way around, Ron. If we go around Hogsmeade asking for help, who knows what Voldemort might do to those innocent people. We have to get back to Hogwarts."
Draco surprised himself by agreeing with her. "Granger's right."
After a full minute of surprised stares, he snorted in disgust. "Can we get on with it?"
Ginny watched Harry look at Malfoy crossly. "You want us to walk across the Forbidden Forest at night?"
Draco looked down his nose at Harry and crossed his arms, drawling importantly, "Well, I'm not carrying you."
As Harry looked about ready to snap, Ginny leapt forward and caught his arms, turning him from temptation. "Ignore him, Harry. We have to get out of here."
His green eyes looked murderous as he threw Malfoy a look over his shoulder and then sighed, straightening his glasses. "All right. I'll try to be civil-as long as Frankenstein's monster over there can keep his mouth shut."
Draco snorted, but didn't say anything further, which was considered no less than a miracle by Ginny.
The five of them retraced their steps through the tunnel, and back through Hogsmeade to the fenced off trail Hermione had spoken of. Thankfully the rain had stopped, and the moon was bright enough to light their way. They moved past the fence easily and took off across the forest, moving quickly but warily.
After a few minutes of uneasy silence, Ginny heard Draco ask disparagingly, "Who's Frankenstein anyway, Potter?"
No, the day was definitely not going as she had planned.
"Don't talk to me," Ginny hissed as Draco hurried along beside her.
"Hey, it's not my fault you decided to wander off and lose the others- I was trying to help you, you ungrateful brat."
"Yes, help me over a cliff," Ginny muttered nastily as she looked around for Harry and the others. "I did not wander off, either, I had to- well, it's none of your business, and if you hadn't been trying to spy on me, we wouldn't have gotten lost anyway!"
"Spy on you?" Draco ducked a low hanging branch and laughed in his infuriatingly derisive way.
"Why would I want to do that? All I'd get is an eyeful of freckles!"
Ginny's patience had worn thin by this point, and Ginny saw red. She slugged him-right in his sore arm.
"Arrgh!" Draco snarled and grabbed the raw Mark on his arm.
Upset, Ginny was torn between an apology and smacking him again when he looked down at her, his eyes flashing bright silver in the moonlight, and grabbed her wrists.
"Let me go!"
"You've been asking for this for a long time, Ginny Weasley!"
Eyes wide, Ginny felt him twist her arms behind her back and he pulled her against him. "W-what are you doing?"
"Something I should have a week ago!" He ducked his head and kissed her, hard.
Ginny tried jerking away from him, kicking him, and backing away from him-but nothing worked, and as a last resort, she opened her mouth to bite his lip-and to her horror, felt his tongue slip into her mouth!
She made a sound of fury in her throat and tried to bite him, but he pulled away from her as if he knew what she was going to try and chuckled. His lips moved along her jaw line and down her throat, making her knees buckle.
She closed her eyes as he nipped at the sensitive skin beneath her ear and she felt him lower her to the leave covered ground.
"S-stop it," she whispered against his shoulder.
He blew into her ear. "Make me."
"I-I'll scream!"
"Go ahead, I'd love to hear it-I had the feeling you'd be a screamer…"
Ginny felt intense heat flash through her body; warning bells went off and she scrambled to move away from him-but he had his weight against her, and she couldn't go anywhere. She decided she was mad because she didn't really want to move…"Ooooh, I hate you…stop touching my chest!"
"No? Guess I'll have to try elsewhere-"
"Oh my God, you…you're depraved!" Ginny gasped.
He pulled back long enough to look down at her with an unsettling grin. "Deprived is more like it."
She didn't think she'd ever seen him grin, and it made her very worried-mostly because it made him look unbelievably handsome.
"Please let me go…this isn't right," she said reluctantly several minutes later when he pulled away from her to breathe.
"You don't want me to," he said arrogantly.
"No…but we have to keep moving. It's dangerous out here."
He kissed her again, wrapping his hand around the back of her head and caressing he nape of her neck.
"Your hair feels like warm silk," he breathed into her ear a moment later.
"I bet you've said that a million times,"
Draco looked into her eyes, a serious expression on his face. "Yes. But I never meant it until now."
Ginny almost melted completely beneath him then, but there was crashing sound in the brush nearby, and she heard Ron cursing about 'bloody huge spiders'.
She expected Draco to move, but he didn't-he just stared down at her with the moon reflecting in his eyes.
"Get up!" She hissed. "Ron will kill you!"
He kissed her hard again and pushed away with a forlorn sigh. "It's actually Harry I'm wondering about," she heard him murmur, and she frowned in confusion before standing hastily, shaking leaves from her robes and hair.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione broke through the trees nearby, and Ron looked ready to strangle her.
"Where did you go? What were you doing? Did Malfoy touch you? Are you all right?"
"Touch her?" Ginny looked over at Draco as he laughed harshly. "Why would I want to do that? I already kissed her once, and it wasn't the best experience, I might add."
She stared at him, stung, her heart thudding painfully in her chest, and watched, disbelieving as he smirked at her.
"Although in her defense, I'd say she was more than willing to learn."
I want to die, Ginny thought miserably, feeling hot tears welling up in her eyes.
"You might be able to do something with her, Potter," the tall blonde boy went on coldly, "No offense, Gin-I just don't have much of a thing for redheads."
"You're suicidal, you know that?" Hermione huffed, suddenly straining with the effort of holding back two teenage boys.
Ginny glared at Draco, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Let's just go, please? I'm really tired. I-suddenly feel horribly…sick."
"I say we turn him over to Dumbledore and forget about it," Ron was muttering sourly as they finally entered the main hall.
"Well, we don't have much choice about that," Hermione said, looking distressed. "But he was obviously given the Mark unwillingly-"
"How do we know that, really?" Ron countered. "Ginny said she wasn't there when it was given to him."
Hermione looked unsure. "She said he didn't want it." She slapped her forehead. "Honestly, who would want it?"
"My Father?"
Everyone turned to stare at Draco as he muttered this bitterly.
"Could you stop talking about us as if we aren't here?" Ginny commented peevishly.
"Sorry," Ron said, not sounding as if he were really sorry at all.
"For God's sake, just take me to Pomfrey and then you can go running to the frigging Aurors, for all I care," Draco bit out angrily. He was very grudgingly leaning on Harry's shoulder as they walked along, and was most unhappy about it. He didn't have much of a choice, however, seeing as Ron had managed to trip him on the way out of the forest, and he'd twisted his ankle quite painfully.
"A trip to Azkaban sounds better at this moment than having to listen to you lot prattle on all night long."
"I don't care if you are hurt, Malfoy-say one more word and I'll turn you into a slug." Ginny said this in a low monotone.
"What happened to 'Draco, I think I love you'?" Draco growled mockingly to her under his breath.
"I think I can safely say that's no longer an issue," she murmured back. "What was it you said that night in the library? Temporary insanity?"
"Pity-guess you have no interest in finishing what we started back there in the Forbidden Forest, then?" He watched her with a detached expression in his silver eyes.
"I don't understand you," Ginny whispered, shaking her head. "First you tell me you think my hair feels like silk, and then you-"
"I'll go and fetch the Headmaster," Hermione spoke up suddenly. "Ginny, do you want to come?"
"Please." She looked at Draco and bit her lip. "I'm sorry for all that happened to you-but, just leave me alone." Ginny hurried away with the other girl gratefully after giving Draco a pleading look.
"What happened to her, Malfoy?" Ron asked threateningly, turning to look at him with angry brown eyes. His red hair was damp and spiky, and made Draco think of a ruffled rooster. A large, violently tempered rooster, but a rooster all the same…
Draco smirked, deciding he had nothing left to lose. He might as well settle the dagger a little deeper. "Nothing she didn't ask for."
Harry barely stopped his friend from settling his fist permanently in Malfoy's face-not that he wasn't tempted to do the boy physical harm himself…
"Let's just get him the Infirmary so we can see about Ginny," Harry forced himself to say calmly. "Who knows what she's been through?"
"If you did anything to her, Malfoy-" Ron began threateningly.
Malfoy snorted in disgust. "What are you going to do about it Weasley? Put a hit out on me as soon as you receive your welfare check?" (A/N: I know, I know-there's probably no such thing as welfare there-it was too funny not to use though!)
Harry shook his head and proceeded to help him up the stairs, almost wishing he had it in him to just drop the ferret flat on his ass.
"It'd probably be a good idea for you not to bait Ron right now, Malfoy. Just this once."
TBC
(A/N: Sorry about posting this late-it ran longer than I expected. Hope you liked it! ^-^)
(A/N: Now-Questions! You always claim to want them, but what do you do when you get them? EEEEEK! LilyAyl, you know I love ya, but ack! You asked me questions! ^-^ All kidding aside, I just went with my feelings on the last chapter-If I went wonky with the Mark and Voldemort and the Imperious, I'm sooo sorry! Somebody fill me in-I'm a true fan, but I've obviously missed some important stuff somewhere. No matter how many times I reread my chapters and ask myself questions, there's always some I miss, and I end up looking back on them a day later in horror! Smack me around if I do it again, will ya? I'm gonna get smacked around a lot…
Thanks for the review LilyAyl-I know I haven't really answered your question-I'm not quite sure how to. Not that I don't want to, I just haven't got an answer right now I guess. Sorry, I'm having a senior moment. Tired! If I come up with something, I'll explain. I sincerely hope you like this chapter. ^-^
Thanks to the rest of you guys too! Tomato Soup-I truly appreciate all the reviews! Thanks for taking the time to read my stuff! I'm so glad you enjoy it!
To Carolanne O'Rourke: What an, er, interesting review! Yes, I know I do have some grammatical errors. I'm very sorry; I truly try my best. (It's a pet peeve of mine to read very badly spelled fics as well, and if I just make a ton of usage errors, somebody please point them out!) I guess I'll have to break down and try to get a beta, huh? And as for the snogging-heh, heh, I'll work on that. It's way past time I guess. I truly appreciate the review-the very long review. It has to be a record of some kind! ^-^ Hope you like this chapter! ~ Lee)
7. Liberation!
"You're like an angel with the sweetest smile
But when you use it you're like an evil child.
That's what brings me back again
I love you more when you're doing something wrong
And that what's wrong with me…" -?
Harry and Ron were frantic.
Hermione had up and disappeared.
They'd retraced their steps over and over, and the girl had just simply dropped off the face of the earth-or Hogsmeade anyway.
Harry stopped Ron finally, as he was coming close to panicking, as his seeking green eyes alighted on something fluttering in the evening breeze outside the shrieking shack. "Ron."
Ron was almost trembling from head to foot, and turning his redhead frantically.
"Ron!"
Harry's friend jumped and glared at him. "What?"
"Look." Ron's brown eyes widened when he looked along to where Harry was pointing.
The thunderhead that had been threatening to open up over Hogsmeade all day long finally began letting loose a cold deluge with an ear- shattering roar.
"Do you think she's in there?" Ron stomped up to the rickety wooden gate, his fingers snatching a torn ribbon of a black fabric that looked disturbingly as if it had been ripped from a Hogwarts school robe.
Harry shook his head, his eyes narrowed, and his face solemn. "I don't know Ron-but-take a closer look. See how the fabric is nearly threadbare?"
Ron's face turned even whiter with the realization. "Ginny!"
"Hey!"
"AAAAH!"
Hermione jumped away from the two boys, a surprised look on her face. "God, you nearly frightened me half to death!"
Ron stared at her, wide-eyed, and then very simply grabbed her and kissed her as if he'd never see her again.
Harry rolled his eyes at the open snog-fest, but felt his racing heart sigh in relief that she was all right. He rubbed at the water on his glasses ineffectually and finally took them off.
Ron let go of the dazed looking girl and shook a finger in her face. The stern look on his face was made less so by the fact that rain was pouring down it.
"Woman, where have you been? Do you have any idea what you put me through? Why I've a mind to bend you over my knee-"
"Later, Ron!" Hermione took his hand and squeezed it briefly. "I'm sorry, but-I knew something was wrong-I went back to check on Ginny at the Three Broomsticks and she wasn't there-and nether was Malfoy."
"Why I'll-"
"So-" Hermione cut him off with a steely glance, "I went around the outside, and I found these footprints in the mud back there-what I assumed were Ginny and Draco's-only they stopped abruptly-and there were two other sets of footprints-a man's and a woman's, a different one see, because there was a pointed heel-and I know Ginny wears Mary-Jane's-anyway, I followed them around, and just guess where they came out." She took a deep, very much needed breath.
"The Shrieking Shack." Harry said grimly, eyeing the boarded up old house with severe dislike.
Ginny couldn't keep the panic from welling up inside of her-and she couldn't keep still just waiting for the bloody snake to finish her off either.
She opened her eyes, and flung her arm out, inwardly quailing when she felt it connect with the deadly serpent-it reared back, obviously taken by surprise, and Ginny dove over the thing, desperate to get away from it, only to land at Draco's feet-her wand clattered away across the floor.
She cursed inwardly as she looked up at his shadowed face, and she heard Voldemort hissing something in Parseltongue at the snake.
Draco's silvery eyes had gone soft and gray, and they had a haunted look in them that chilled her. "I didn't mean for this to happen." His voice was barely audible.
Standing hastily, she backed up against a wall, snapping despite her fear, "Yes, well it's a bit late for apologies, isn't it?"
Something shifted in his expression. He almost looked-annoyed.
"I can't believe you let them do this to you," she continued scornfully. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life as their puppet, Malfoy?"
"Be quiet, girl!" Lucius snapped.
The snake was drawing near again, a mad light in its eyes. Ginny ignored it.
"Do you really want to marry Pansy? Can you imagine what your children will look like?" Ginny inched her way down the wall, towards the door. It was locked, she'd never make it, but she had to try.
Draco slowly shook his head.
"You'll be ridiculed by everybody-your name will be a joke-well, even more of one than it is already-"
"Enough!" Voldemort hissed, stepping forward.
She watched as Draco actually frowned.
"If I die now, you'll never get that apology, Malfoy," Ginny said quickly, watching him desperately.
He closed his eyes, as if he were thinking.
Ginny saw Voldemort pointing his wand at her and fought the urge to scream. The huge snake was curling around her feet.
"Come on, Draco-I don't want to die. I- I think I might love you, you stupid prat!"
At that Draco seemed to wake up. He blinked, some color coming back into his face, and he dropped his wand.
"Ginny?"
"Avada-"
Just when Ginny thought all was lost, there was a sudden explosion, and she hit the floor hard.
Bits and pieces of the door lay smoking and smoldering on the floor.
Harry, Ron and Hermione rushed in, and Harry paused long enough to look over the mess and then at Ron.
Ron shrugged sheepishly. "Guess I got a little excited."
Harry shook his head. The smoke from Ron's spell was clearing-he saw a massive black snake coiling up before him and hissed at it impatiently to go away and not hurt anyone.
The snake seemed to look at him, surprised, before it slid away across the floor.
"Ginny?" Ron was calling through the haze-filled air.
"I'm here," a small voice coughed.
Harry dashed over to where she lay on the floor, looking filthy and battered.
"Gin, are you all right?" He knelt next to her, as Ron and Hermione did the same.
"Voldemort-he's here!" She sat up, gasping.
Hermione shook her head, looking at Harry. "There's no one else here but you and Malfoy, Ginny."
Malfoy? What was he doing there?
"Draco!" Ginny was on her feet in an instant, and Harry followed her to find him on his back in a corner.
"Are you alive?" She asked the quiet boy stupidly, lifting his head onto her lap.
What was going on, here, exactly, Harry wondered skeptically.
Malfoy was staring straight ahead, looking far more ruffled than He could ever remember seeing him-even when he'd been turned into a ferret.
"Are you all right, Malfoy?" Harry heard himself asking.
He thought for a moment that Malfoy wouldn't answer.
Then he turned his head, looked directly at Ginny, and muttered, "Are you sorry yet?"
Ginny looked back at Draco, caught off guard. "What?"
Draco looked up at her, his old sneer on his face. "If you hadn't started all of this we probably wouldn't have Voldemort breathing down our bloody necks."
Ginny felt her mouth fall wide open. She'd just told him she thought she loved him, and he was blaming all of this on her. What had she been thinking?
"How dare you blame all of this on me, you selfish, dirty little rat!" She dropped his head with a loud thud as she leapt to her feet.
"Ow!" Draco grabbed his head, groaning miserably.
That was when Harry and the others saw the Mark.
The rain was still pouring by the time they exited the Shrieking Shack. Ginny was still in a daze of sorts. This was certainly not how she'd thought the day would end up.
She had located Draco's muddied robes and shirt, and had helped him into them silently. He hadn't looked at her once.
"Well…we're going to have to walk back to the school now," Harry shouted over the rain. "We've missed the train." (A/N: I couldn't remember if they rode the train to Hogsmeade in the book or not-don't flame me! ^-^)
Ron groaned loudly. "We'll bloody drown!"
"Don't be stupid, Ron!" Hermione shook her head impatiently and made a swishing motion with her wand. "Umbrillious!"
Instantly the rain stopped falling over their heads-it was almost as if a huge, invisible umbrella had appeared over their heads.
"Wow! That was brilliant, Hermione!" Ron grinned at her, his dark amber brown eyes crinkling merrily at the corners. "I don't remember ever seeing that spell anywhere."
Hermione shrugged, though she looked pleased. "Just a little something I made up."
"For God's sake, will you two just get a room and go at it already?" Draco looked slightly green, and was slumping dangerously. "I'd like to get home sometime this week!"
Hermione blushed violently, and Ron fisted his hands threateningly.
"Draco-" Ginny put her hand on his arm and he looked down at her, shrugging it off with a disgusted look. Feeling wounded, Ginny pulled her arm close to her body.
"We'll get you home soon," she said emotionlessly.
He snorted. "I won't count on it, Weasley."
"Just be good enough to keep your mouth shut in the meantime."
Draco sneered but didn't say anything else.
Sighing tiredly, she started walking off in the direction of Honeydukes trying to tell herself she really wasn't as disappointed as she felt. She really wasn't.
"MotherFuffmph!"
Ron's frustrated curse was muffled by Hermione's hand as they stared at the mass of rocks in the tunnel before them. Dust was still swirling thickly in the air.
A cold chill ran through Ginny as they stood in the secret tunnel that led from the cellar in Honeydukes to Hogwarts.
Wet and shivering, she closed her eyes and slumped back tiredly against the wall of rocky earth.
"What are we going to do now?"
"Voldemort did this."
Harry looked over at Malfoy impatiently. "Why do you think that? He could have just brought the whole tunnel down on our heads and been rid of me once and for all. What makes you think this wasn't a natural occurrence?"
Ginny watched Draco give Harry a smirk. "Do you really think he'd make your death that easy after all the trouble you've given him?"
Harry's face paled slightly, but his eyes hardened dangerously. "You're already walking on thin ice with me, with the whole becoming a Death Eater thing, Malfoy."
"Ahh. Stop. You're scaring me," Draco said mockingly. "You think you're coming off as being tough, but why don't you just admit it-we all know why you've made it this far. Pure dumb luck."
"Stop baiting him," Ginny snapped suddenly. "I'm tired of listening to your tongue, Malfoy."
"You didn't seem to mind my tongue the other night in the library, luv."
Ginny promptly bit her tongue.
Harry swiftly looked on verge of physical violence.
"What did he just say?"
Ron looked as if he'd been slapped.
"Oh my God,"
Hermione's eyes looked ready to pop from her head.
"Ginny, you didn't!"
There was a long moment of silence as Ginny felt her stomach clench and she sent Draco an evil look.
"You touched my sister? I'll bloody murder you!"
To Ginny's surprise, Harry's fist made contact with Draco's chin before her brother could make a move.
Draco fought waking up with everything in his being. The searing pain in his arm was returning, and there were a hundred aches and pains stabbing through his body. He groaned and abruptly stopped as pain shrieked through his jaw.
"Malfoy?"
He opened his eyes to blurry darkness. "Gin?"
"Now he's calling her 'Gin'?" He heard Weasley mutter in disbelief.
"Quiet, Ron." Someone above him sighed-he recognized the voice as being Granger's.
"Did you have to hit him so hard, Harry?"
Potter made a nasty comment from somewhere over his head.
Soft cool fingertips curled against his, and he realized Ginny was holding his hand. His fingers tightened around hers briefly and she dropped his hand as if it were covered in Bubotuber pus.
Slowly everything came into focus, and he began to comprehend that that four-eyed git Potter had actually knocked him flat with one punch.
How humiliating.
Draco sat up, blinking in the near darkness and saw three pairs of eyes glaring at him. Ginny wouldn't look at him.
"Want to try that again, Potter?" He forced himself to his feet and rubbed his jaw and chin with a tentative hand. Though he felt unpleasantly like something a Kneazle might have left behind in a litter box, he felt compelled to defend his manhood. "I won't be so easy to take down while I'm actually looking at you."
"Just shut up, Draco," Ginny sighed, getting up from where she'd been kneeling next him on the ground. "Can we please get out of here?"
Draco set his jaw and held his burnt forearm gingerly. He made a mental note that if he ever got out of the Death Eater mess, he'd be making absolutely sure to keep Ginny's mouth busy elsewhere-her tongue had far too much poison in it to be allowed to run unimpeded.
"It'll take forever to get these rocks moved," he heard Potter say. "We'd be here for days."
"There's nothing to help it, then," Granger said matter-of-factly. "We'll have to use the path through the Forbidden Forest."
"Uh, Hermione? Do you really think that's a good idea? I mean, can't we just ask someone back in Hogsmeade for help?" Weasley swallowed audibly.
The coward. Draco figured his back was a rather lovely shade of yellow.
The fact that he himself had had a rather unpleasant experience in the Forest his first year that had made him run and shriek like a three-year- old girl child didn't matter one bit. He'd been…surprised was all.
Granger took Weasley's hand and Draco wanted to throw up.
"It's the only way around, Ron. If we go around Hogsmeade asking for help, who knows what Voldemort might do to those innocent people. We have to get back to Hogwarts."
Draco surprised himself by agreeing with her. "Granger's right."
After a full minute of surprised stares, he snorted in disgust. "Can we get on with it?"
Ginny watched Harry look at Malfoy crossly. "You want us to walk across the Forbidden Forest at night?"
Draco looked down his nose at Harry and crossed his arms, drawling importantly, "Well, I'm not carrying you."
As Harry looked about ready to snap, Ginny leapt forward and caught his arms, turning him from temptation. "Ignore him, Harry. We have to get out of here."
His green eyes looked murderous as he threw Malfoy a look over his shoulder and then sighed, straightening his glasses. "All right. I'll try to be civil-as long as Frankenstein's monster over there can keep his mouth shut."
Draco snorted, but didn't say anything further, which was considered no less than a miracle by Ginny.
The five of them retraced their steps through the tunnel, and back through Hogsmeade to the fenced off trail Hermione had spoken of. Thankfully the rain had stopped, and the moon was bright enough to light their way. They moved past the fence easily and took off across the forest, moving quickly but warily.
After a few minutes of uneasy silence, Ginny heard Draco ask disparagingly, "Who's Frankenstein anyway, Potter?"
No, the day was definitely not going as she had planned.
"Don't talk to me," Ginny hissed as Draco hurried along beside her.
"Hey, it's not my fault you decided to wander off and lose the others- I was trying to help you, you ungrateful brat."
"Yes, help me over a cliff," Ginny muttered nastily as she looked around for Harry and the others. "I did not wander off, either, I had to- well, it's none of your business, and if you hadn't been trying to spy on me, we wouldn't have gotten lost anyway!"
"Spy on you?" Draco ducked a low hanging branch and laughed in his infuriatingly derisive way.
"Why would I want to do that? All I'd get is an eyeful of freckles!"
Ginny's patience had worn thin by this point, and Ginny saw red. She slugged him-right in his sore arm.
"Arrgh!" Draco snarled and grabbed the raw Mark on his arm.
Upset, Ginny was torn between an apology and smacking him again when he looked down at her, his eyes flashing bright silver in the moonlight, and grabbed her wrists.
"Let me go!"
"You've been asking for this for a long time, Ginny Weasley!"
Eyes wide, Ginny felt him twist her arms behind her back and he pulled her against him. "W-what are you doing?"
"Something I should have a week ago!" He ducked his head and kissed her, hard.
Ginny tried jerking away from him, kicking him, and backing away from him-but nothing worked, and as a last resort, she opened her mouth to bite his lip-and to her horror, felt his tongue slip into her mouth!
She made a sound of fury in her throat and tried to bite him, but he pulled away from her as if he knew what she was going to try and chuckled. His lips moved along her jaw line and down her throat, making her knees buckle.
She closed her eyes as he nipped at the sensitive skin beneath her ear and she felt him lower her to the leave covered ground.
"S-stop it," she whispered against his shoulder.
He blew into her ear. "Make me."
"I-I'll scream!"
"Go ahead, I'd love to hear it-I had the feeling you'd be a screamer…"
Ginny felt intense heat flash through her body; warning bells went off and she scrambled to move away from him-but he had his weight against her, and she couldn't go anywhere. She decided she was mad because she didn't really want to move…"Ooooh, I hate you…stop touching my chest!"
"No? Guess I'll have to try elsewhere-"
"Oh my God, you…you're depraved!" Ginny gasped.
He pulled back long enough to look down at her with an unsettling grin. "Deprived is more like it."
She didn't think she'd ever seen him grin, and it made her very worried-mostly because it made him look unbelievably handsome.
"Please let me go…this isn't right," she said reluctantly several minutes later when he pulled away from her to breathe.
"You don't want me to," he said arrogantly.
"No…but we have to keep moving. It's dangerous out here."
He kissed her again, wrapping his hand around the back of her head and caressing he nape of her neck.
"Your hair feels like warm silk," he breathed into her ear a moment later.
"I bet you've said that a million times,"
Draco looked into her eyes, a serious expression on his face. "Yes. But I never meant it until now."
Ginny almost melted completely beneath him then, but there was crashing sound in the brush nearby, and she heard Ron cursing about 'bloody huge spiders'.
She expected Draco to move, but he didn't-he just stared down at her with the moon reflecting in his eyes.
"Get up!" She hissed. "Ron will kill you!"
He kissed her hard again and pushed away with a forlorn sigh. "It's actually Harry I'm wondering about," she heard him murmur, and she frowned in confusion before standing hastily, shaking leaves from her robes and hair.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione broke through the trees nearby, and Ron looked ready to strangle her.
"Where did you go? What were you doing? Did Malfoy touch you? Are you all right?"
"Touch her?" Ginny looked over at Draco as he laughed harshly. "Why would I want to do that? I already kissed her once, and it wasn't the best experience, I might add."
She stared at him, stung, her heart thudding painfully in her chest, and watched, disbelieving as he smirked at her.
"Although in her defense, I'd say she was more than willing to learn."
I want to die, Ginny thought miserably, feeling hot tears welling up in her eyes.
"You might be able to do something with her, Potter," the tall blonde boy went on coldly, "No offense, Gin-I just don't have much of a thing for redheads."
"You're suicidal, you know that?" Hermione huffed, suddenly straining with the effort of holding back two teenage boys.
Ginny glared at Draco, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Let's just go, please? I'm really tired. I-suddenly feel horribly…sick."
"I say we turn him over to Dumbledore and forget about it," Ron was muttering sourly as they finally entered the main hall.
"Well, we don't have much choice about that," Hermione said, looking distressed. "But he was obviously given the Mark unwillingly-"
"How do we know that, really?" Ron countered. "Ginny said she wasn't there when it was given to him."
Hermione looked unsure. "She said he didn't want it." She slapped her forehead. "Honestly, who would want it?"
"My Father?"
Everyone turned to stare at Draco as he muttered this bitterly.
"Could you stop talking about us as if we aren't here?" Ginny commented peevishly.
"Sorry," Ron said, not sounding as if he were really sorry at all.
"For God's sake, just take me to Pomfrey and then you can go running to the frigging Aurors, for all I care," Draco bit out angrily. He was very grudgingly leaning on Harry's shoulder as they walked along, and was most unhappy about it. He didn't have much of a choice, however, seeing as Ron had managed to trip him on the way out of the forest, and he'd twisted his ankle quite painfully.
"A trip to Azkaban sounds better at this moment than having to listen to you lot prattle on all night long."
"I don't care if you are hurt, Malfoy-say one more word and I'll turn you into a slug." Ginny said this in a low monotone.
"What happened to 'Draco, I think I love you'?" Draco growled mockingly to her under his breath.
"I think I can safely say that's no longer an issue," she murmured back. "What was it you said that night in the library? Temporary insanity?"
"Pity-guess you have no interest in finishing what we started back there in the Forbidden Forest, then?" He watched her with a detached expression in his silver eyes.
"I don't understand you," Ginny whispered, shaking her head. "First you tell me you think my hair feels like silk, and then you-"
"I'll go and fetch the Headmaster," Hermione spoke up suddenly. "Ginny, do you want to come?"
"Please." She looked at Draco and bit her lip. "I'm sorry for all that happened to you-but, just leave me alone." Ginny hurried away with the other girl gratefully after giving Draco a pleading look.
"What happened to her, Malfoy?" Ron asked threateningly, turning to look at him with angry brown eyes. His red hair was damp and spiky, and made Draco think of a ruffled rooster. A large, violently tempered rooster, but a rooster all the same…
Draco smirked, deciding he had nothing left to lose. He might as well settle the dagger a little deeper. "Nothing she didn't ask for."
Harry barely stopped his friend from settling his fist permanently in Malfoy's face-not that he wasn't tempted to do the boy physical harm himself…
"Let's just get him the Infirmary so we can see about Ginny," Harry forced himself to say calmly. "Who knows what she's been through?"
"If you did anything to her, Malfoy-" Ron began threateningly.
Malfoy snorted in disgust. "What are you going to do about it Weasley? Put a hit out on me as soon as you receive your welfare check?" (A/N: I know, I know-there's probably no such thing as welfare there-it was too funny not to use though!)
Harry shook his head and proceeded to help him up the stairs, almost wishing he had it in him to just drop the ferret flat on his ass.
"It'd probably be a good idea for you not to bait Ron right now, Malfoy. Just this once."
TBC
(A/N: Sorry about posting this late-it ran longer than I expected. Hope you liked it! ^-^)