Author Name: artificially flavoured
Author Email: scarred_lipgloss@hotmail.com
Category: Drama, Romance
Keywords: Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy.
Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF [Just in case. Vague references to the Triwizard Competition, Cedric Diggory, the Chamber of Secrets, Buckbeak and Sirius's escape as well as the Philosophers Stone will be made.]
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Depressed! Ginny and Guilty! Draco. A selection on P.O.V's which take you on a journey of tears, pain and laughter [i hope]. A tale of pain and of healing. A tale about believing. A tale of strength overcoming all odds and a story of loving and loosing. And of loving again. R/R please.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast books, and Warner Brothers. No money is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Authors Notes: hello everyone. Thank you for your warm reviews. A thank you note at the bottom for my lovely reviewers. I'm sorry that this isn't a brilliant chapter, but I did work hard on it. Please do read and review. I need a beta reader, so if anyone is up to the job, please do email me :) Please do read and review, construction criticism appreciated. Flames to be sent to my older brother. Oh and -snort- a couple of stupid sounding spells coming up :)

As usual all the italicized sentences are thoughts of the character, which i hope you shall know by the way they refer to their families/themselves/their surroundings. :) Enjoy the ride people. Fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy one. So without further ado, I present you, T'was One Dark Night, Chapter Two.

T'was One Dark Night
by artificially flavoured

Chapter Two: Footprints in the Dew.

There have been times I cannot hide,
There have been times when this was drear,
When my sad soul forgot it's pride
And longed for one to love me here.
-Emily Brontë


Sunlight played across my closed eyelids and formed a pattern upon them. I groaned as I turned over and buried my face in the pillows. My head was hammering. It felt like I'd walked into a wall and repeatedly bashed my head against it. All I wanted to do was sleep. My mouth felt like it was made of rubber and I craved water. I couldn't remember how I'd gotten home; all I could recollect was being at the bar and my last thought of sleep. After that, everything was a blank.

I sighed and tried to get back to sleep. I rolled over and groaned as the glare of the sun hit me once more. I turned over, so I was on my back and I stretched towards the ceiling as I slowly opened my eyes. As my eyes accustomed themselves to the sunlight, I looked up at the blue ceiling and I thought about the repercussions of my rash actions; the excuses I could offer; the apologies to make.

My brow furrowed in concentration as realization dawned and the thought pierced the haze of my dazed mind - my ceiling isn't blue. I started.

'Oh shit!' I whispered. 'This isn't my room.'

My eyes widened in shock. My headache forgotten, I jumped out of bed.

'OH BLOODY HELL! WHERE THE HELL AM I? WHAT AM I DOING HERE?' I shouted hysterically as I looked around. The room reeked of wealth, the walls; like the ceiling, were painted blue – the shade of the sky on a beautiful summer day, forget-me-not blue – the furniture was obviously mahogany and oak, even I could tell. I looked around me, dazed, still not in sync with my surroundings.

'BRILLIANT! JUST BLOODY AMAZING! MY WAND'S MISSING TOO!' I shrieked as I realised it wasn't in the back pocket of my jeans. I never wore my robes when I went to a bar. It would look a little weird if I showed up with robes billowing out behind me; so I usually wore muggle clothing and kept my wand in my back pocket, just in case. I always tried to blend into the background; remain inconspicuous. I don't like drawing attention to myself.

'You need to breathe, stay calm Ginny; you'll find a way out of here.' I said, not realising I was referring to myself in the third person.

I looked around me once again. I noticed the window by the dresser and I ran towards it. I looked out of the window and I realised it would be futile to jump; we were at least twelve floors up in a muggle building. I looked at the streets and the cars on the motorway, they looked like little toy cars from up here. Whoever brought me here must be rich.

That brought me back to the question I had been avoiding. What was I doing here? Who had brought me here and why? I wasn't tied to the bedpost and I couldn't see any guards outside my door, so I could safely say I hadn't been kidnapped; well it didn't look like it anyway. I walked towards the dresser and I sat down and made a face at my sorry reflection in the mirror. I looked like I'd been to hell and back-twice. My eyes were bloodshot and my complexion was pasty. My freckles stood out and my hair was as unruly as ever. I sighed. Well, if I had been kidnapped, I was going to go down fighting. I am a Weasley through and through, and I have been taught that if I wanted something bad enough, it was worth fighting for. I wasn't giving in without a fight, no matter what.
I needed something to threaten a person with. I started yanking the drawers open, looking for something I could use as a weapon.

In the first drawer, I found my wand.

The room was dark and smelt of decaying bodies and of blood. The only source of light in the room came from the small bluebell fire in the centre. It was damp and cold, a cold that made you feel like you would never be warm again, and that you would never see sunlight again. A chair stood in the middle of a circle which was drawn on the floor and surrounded by pentagrams which gleamed eerily in the glint of the bluebell fire. On closer inspection you saw that the pentagrams were drawn in blood. A snake slithered from the chair towards a huddled mass of clothing as the door in a corner opened and Lucius Malfoy entered.

Lucius Malfoy walked towards the Dark Lord's chair and kneeled on the floor, bowing his head.

'My Lord, I have done as you have asked.' He said; his eyes trained on the ground.

'And I expected no less from you Lucius. Those who are deserving are rewarded, while those who disobey me are punished.' The Dark Lord threw a contemptuous look at the huddled figure on the floor. 'You shall be rewarded Lucius.' The Dark Lord waved his wand and even the air around Lucius shimmered.

The Dark Lord narrowed his eyes in concentration as he focused his energy onto Lucius Malfoy; who stood in the middle of the pentagram.

"Protetor unbreakable, eu moldei-o para proteger meu empregado fiel. Proteja-o dos curses de seu inimigo, deixe-os rebound e bater aqueles que os moldam preferivelmente. Mantenha-o cofre e sem dano, envolvem-se em torno dele, e sabem-se que você não é unbreakable." he chanted.

The air around Lucius gleamed and hummed as the power and energy flowed towards him. Wave upon wave of energy covered him from head to toe.

"Você não pode ser quebrado exceto por meu mestre dos empregados ou por seu próprio sangue.'' The Dark Lord whispered as the air enveloped Lucius and the glistening air seemed to penetrate his skin, the magic going within him, becoming a part of him as he fell to floor in a dead faint.

I slowly opened the door and crept along the wall towards the light that shone at the end of the dark passageway. I held my wand tightly, my muscles tensed, ready for a sudden attack. I tip toed down the corridor, careful not to make a noise. I didn't see anyone in the corridor or hear anything except for the loud hammering of my heart. The dark corridor seemed to stretch forever and I didn't seem to be getting any closer to the end. I could feel door knobs and keys digging into my back, yet, it never occurred to me to open them.

The light at the end of the corridor drew me towards it, like it was a part of me, like what I would find at the end of the corridor could change my life forever; like I had been headed for that change ever since I had stepped out the house last night. It felt like it was inevitable, this, change that would happen. That I was destined for it; I had no choice in the matter. I wasn't sure about what the change was. In fact, I hadn't the slightest idea. It was like I was train hurtling towards the end, with no control over my surroundings or the course of the journey. It was out of my control, but it made me feel like I had a purpose. A purpose I didn't know yet, but I felt like I no longer led a meaningless life. The idea that I had at last a meaning, a purpose, a reason to live, to go on despite the odds, filled me with an almost maniacal sort of energy, excitement even, but at the same time, I dreaded the need to go on living, even with a purpose.

As these thoughts followed each other in quick succession, I was getting closer to the end of the dark corridor. It had never occurred to me to use a simple 'Lumos' spell to guide me down the corridor, so my eyes when I reached the end of the passageway were unused to the glare of the light streaming in through the windows. As my eyes adjusted to the light and I hid in the shadows of the corridor, I could hear the laboured breathing of a person in the grip of a terrifying dream. A dream in which you feel like you can never recover from, the kind of a dream that chills you to the bone. The kind of dream, when you wake up, you wouldn't be able to differentiate it from the blurred line of reality and dream. It makes you believe, and yet, it makes you want to disbelieve. It's the terrifying dream in which, you know that the reality of your dream would be far worse than the one you have dreamt. Once those dreams have come true, the reality is so much worse; that the recurring dreams are about ten times worse than what has happened. I would know, I have felt the same that the person there has. I have felt that I could never breathe again. I have felt the pulling force of the dark; the kind that drains even the strength you didn't know you possessed away.

This was the person who had brought me here and I was trying to relate to his pain. He could have been some sick psycho; who just wants me to be part of his brothel. Anytime now a slave would appear to perfume me and cart me off to join the master. I snorted at the image of some mysterious Sheikh evaluating my pros and cons and deciding if I was good enough for his brothel. I shook my head and gathering my floundering strength, I stepped into the room. I tiptoed towards the bundled mass of blankets on the couch, my wand ready in a position to attack.

As I neared the couch, I noticed a glint of gold in the sunlight. Stepping closer, I saw to my shock, Draco Malfoy.

to be continued...
'i am the only being whose doom' © emily brontë.
Please do review if you've read this. constructive criticism is appreciated. Do email me [ scarred_lipgloss@hotmail.com ] if fanfiction.net is being weird. I'll be happy to clear any doubts up, or to just talk about HP if you add me on msn :) oh and if you wish, you can add me on yahoo! messenger : diagonalley86
xx. be good.

My first five reviewers :) Thank you so very much.

weaslygurl4: Thank you for your encouragement. Much Appreciated. And hey :) who doesn't love Draco + Ginny?

? : Thank you. I would thank you in person, but you didn't sign in or leave an email, but I hope you do get to see this. Thank you.

Mariam: lol :) -basks in praise- thank you so very much for your very sweet and encouraging review, it made my day. I am hard at work on Chapt. 3 and as you know Chapt. 2 is out already [ sorry it's a load of shite ]. :) Your encouragement keeps me going :) even though I don't think your lavish praise is deserved. And hey, Thanks for being an amazing beta :)

m.white: Thank you. I hope its everything you hoped it'd be.

alex: Draco and Ginny are cute :) the plot just lets them get cute together :)