Ginny sat at the Gryffindor table the next morning waiting anxiously for the mail to arrive. Draco should get her letter today. After crying her eyes out last night, she had snuck out of Gryffindor Tower and up to the owlery with a short note to Draco reading,
'Meet me in the Greenhouses right after dinner tonight. Don't be late. Don't let anyone see you leave the great hall, and DON'T get any ideas. I'm coming fully armed.
Virginia WeasleyShe had decided to use her full name to show Draco she wasn't 'his little Ginny' anymore, and she never had been. With more than a little apprehension, she watched as the vast number of owls flew into the great hall.
~
The school barn owl that landed by his place at the Slytherin table came as quite a surprise to Draco Malfoy. When he noticed the script on the letter was unarguably girly, he glanced around to make sure that Pansy wasn't looking (she wasn't; he noted. She was talking to one of the Avery twins about fashion), before he opened the letter and read it. His eyes couldn't believe what he was reading. Why on earth was Ginny asking her to meet him. Perhaps she was jealous of him and Pansy together. Or maybe that noble Gryffindor spirit was getting the better of her and she had finally decided to return the Firebolt she had stolen from him. He glance up and found Ginny starring at him with unhidden anxiety in her body language. When he caught her eye, he raised a questionable eyebrow at her, but nodded yes. She tore her eyes away and focused on her plate once more.
~
Neither Draco nor Ginny noticed Harry Potter observing there little exchange, his green eyes narrowed in suspicion. He didn't like this one bit.
~
The day passed in odd intervals for Ginny. She was both anticipating and dreading meeting Draco tonight for the obvious reasons. On one hand, she hadn't had a conversation with Draco for ages and wasn't looking forwards to doing it again, but on the other, she so wanted to know if he would give her the potion or not. All she wanted was to get rid of his little brat. That's what it was too, Draco's little brat. It wasn't a baby; it certainly wasn't a life. It was Draco's foul little monster feeding off her that was only there because Draco had raped her, and she had done the math; it was conceived during one of the times she had struggled and begged him not to touch him. Children came from people like her parents; children did not come from rape. No, this thing is a parasite, and parasites are gotten rid of immediately.
At the end of dinner that day she told the trio that she had left one of her books in the greenhouses during her Herbology class that afternoon and she wanted to get it before it got dark.
"I'll go with you!" Harry offered. He still wasn't comfortable with what went on between his girlfriend and Draco that morning. Perhaps while scrolling with him to the greenhouses, she would open up and tell him what was going on.
"No," Ginny said, "that's all right, it's frightfully cold out. You stay inside the castle and I'll just run to get it."
"Are you sure Gin?"
"Of course I'm sure. Just save me a chair by the fire, and stay nice and warm so you can warm me up when I get back."
'Oh all right, bye sweet stuff," he said, using the pet name he had devised for her. Ron looked like he was going to react but when he saw Ginny giggle and give Harry an innocent kiss on the cheek he let it go. If Ginny didn't mind, he didn't mind.
Ginny rushed out of the Great Hall and headed out to the grounds. It was rather cold outside. Ginny wasn't a fan of being cold so she pulled her cloak closer to her body, and wished she had accepted Harry's offer that he join her. It would have been lovely to tell Harry about the baby, but she had a feeling the boy who lived wouldn't understand and would insist that she keep the baby. How could he understand? Harry's mother had died to protect him, and if it was Harry's baby, she might die to protect it too, but as it was Malfoy's brat--. She shuddered and wiped away at the tears that had begun to flow down her cheeks. She couldn't wait to get rid of this thing and have Malfoy behind her for good. Once this thing was gone she could just focus on her and Harry, and once Harry defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, they would settled down to a perfect little life in a stone cottage after having the perfect wedding.
Ginny reached the greenhouses, which were so laden with warming charms that she ceased being cold immediately. She found the book she had hidden in the corner so that she would come back to the tower with her textbook in hand.
~
Draco watched Ginny leave, waited five minutes and rose to leave too.
"Where are you going Draco?" Pansy asked.
"For a walk."
"A walk? It's a bit cold out there. Would you like me to come with you?"
"No. I'm going by myself."
A-all right," Pansy stuttered, "I'll miss you."
Draco rolled his eyes. That girl was so pathetically devoted.
~
Harry Potter didn't become alarmed about Ginny supposedly retrieving her book from the greenhouses until he saw Draco Malfoy exit the Great Hall early too.
"Let's go!" Harry said to Ron and Hermione.
"Yeah," Ron said, "let's." The trio got up bur Harry rushed ahead of them so that he was out in the entrance hall just in time to see the front doors open and a blond head walk out.
'Ginny can handle herself!' Harry told himself. 'There are tons of places to go on the grounds!' But Harry was still trying to force himself to believe it. 'You could follow her, and make sure Malfoy isn't up to anything! Just get your cloak.' Without so much as another thought he was running up the stairs to retrieve his cloak.
~
Draco clamped his teeth together to keep them from chattering in the cold. He saw Ginny in the green house, her red hair clearly visible in the flickering torchlight. The sight caused him to walk a little faster. When he entered she turned to face him and he couldn't help but be taken aback by her scowl.
"Why did you ask me here Ginny?" Draco asked.
"I'm pregnant," she said without ceremony. Draco's mouth dropped. So she asked him here just to rub it in that her and Potter were sleeping together?!
"Well I hope you and Harry have a nice little red-haired, green eyed brat, and for your sake I hope scareface's trademark disfigurement isn't hereditary."
"Not with Harry's baby, moron. Harry and I haven't been together like that yet. I wish it was Harry's but I'm not that blessed. It your little brat, and the only reason I'm even telling you is because I need you to write home to your daddy and get a potion that can help me get rid of it."
"You're getting rid of it?" Draco asked.
"Oh like you care!"
"I don't," Draco said quickly. "I'm just surprised that you don't either."
"Why would I want part of you living inside of me?"
"That's right. It is part mine isn't it? What if I don't want rid of it? What's your other option besides going to me?"
"You gave up any rights to any baby when you raped me. This is entirely my choice!"
"Don't get so upset. I'll get you that potion. What's the name again?"
"The Vir Potion. It has lots of side effects, but it's not illegal. That's the only potion I know of."
"I'll write home about it."
"Good. Now I'm leaving."
"Wait!" Draco called. She couldn't leave yet!
"What?" she said snapping her head back around to look at him.
"Why are you trusting me?"
"Because you're the only option I have," she snapped. "Besides, I don't care what you feed me. I'd rather be dead and poisoned than have anything to do with you."
"Does Potter know about my child?"
"No, and he's not finding out; no one is. There will be three people who know about this problem: you, your father, and me. If I could keep it to only me I would."
"I can't believe you're not going all motherly on me. You, out of all people!"
"I don't want anything of yours Malfoy. Goodbye!" she said with finality and left the greenhouse.
Draco Malfoy watched Ginny's retreating back. With a sigh he sat down on one of the benches. She was carrying his child. The thing was really going to be a nuisance and it really was for the best that it was just taken care of, but all the same, his child. He wondered during which time it had been conceived. He shook himself out of his stupor. He had a letter to write to his father.
~
Harry Potter was just running down the stairs.
'She's just going to get a book in the Greenhouse. Malfoy won't run into her. In fact this has nothing to do with Malfoy. She's your girlfriend and Malfoy knows he's got something coming if he lays a finger on her,' he told himself. He was just running around a corner, ready to jump to Ginny's defense in case Draco had done anything to her, when he ran smack into Ginny.
"Harry," she said, "Harry is that you?"
"Ginny!" Harry said wiping off the cloak, "I saw Malfoy leaving right after you. I thought he might be following you! Are you okay?"
"I'm, I'm fine Harry. You just gave me quite a scare, running around corners like that!"
"Sorry Ginny. I'm just so glad you're okay."
"I'm fine Harry," Ginny laughed, "let's just go back to the common room."
"Good idea." Harry said and the couple headed back to Gryffindor tower.
Later that night, around the time Ginny was drifting off into a very uneasy rest, she heard the door to her dormitory creak open.
"Who's there?" she asked grabbing her wand off her bedside table and trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
"Ginny? Is that you?" she heard a familiar voice ask.
"Harry? What are you doing here?" she asked sticking her head out of her curtains.
"My scar hurt," he informed her and sat down on the bed, "I had a dream where Voldermort killed everyone I knew: Ron, Hermione, Professor McGonagall, you…" he trailed off.
"Shouldn't you go to Madam Pomfrey, or Dumbledore?"
"I looked at the map," Harry said. "They're uh, well they're in Madam Pomfrey's sleeping quarters--er—together…" Harry said awkwardly.
Ginny shuddered at the thought.
"Well are you okay? Is there something I can do?"
Harry hesitated; it wasn't in his nature to ask for help, but something about Ginny made him just want to be with her and trust her completely.
"Do you think I could sleep in here?" he asked. "It's just so comforting to have you near by," he added quickly.
"Ummm—" Ginny hesitated.
"I'll be gone before morning and I can wear the cloak so no one knows I'm here."
"Uh sure," Ginny said finally and pulled the curtains back.
"Thanks!" Harry said, and even in the dark Ginny could see his green eyes brighten. Harry crawled up next to her and pulled her body close. "Mmmm," he said burrowing his nose in her red tresses.
Ginny tried not to stiffen, and she hated herself for it. Lying here in Harry's arms with a million secrets to keep from him felt way to close to lying in bed with Malfoy back in August. She never wanted to compare Harry to Malfoy.
In the course of the next week Harry kept a close eye on Draco Malfoy and Ginny. Even though Ginny had assured him that she had only passed Malfoy that night and that he probably hadn't even seen her, he still thought something was up. It also was unnerving that everyday at breakfast the next week Ginny looked anxiously at Draco when the mail came.
~
Draco was keeping a close eye on Ginny too. Somehow, the notion that she was carrying his child made him feel a surge or protection towards her, even though he knew that in two weeks time she would be rid of it. For the time being he felt ready to pounce every time he saw Harry put his arm around her.
He received a reply from his father three days after he wrote.
Dear Draco,
I'm glad life finds you well. Yes, in answer to you inquiry, I will still suggest to the Dark Lord that you be initiated. Although I still hold that you were very silly in some of your decision regarding the girl, other decision you made were worthwhile and show that you will be very useful to our cause. I'm sure Our Lord will share my point of view.
Ah yes, about the girl. I assumed the child would have a proper dose of birth control potion in her. It was very silly of her not to ask for some when she realized your intentions regarding her. It was, however, smart of her to ask you to help her. I would prefer not to have unauthorized heirs running around in the Wizarding World. The potion will not be difficult to brew but it does take some time. I had it started immediately so you should be receiving it within a fortnight's time of when you receive this letter. If my calculations are correct, Miss. Weasley is only a few weeks from being in her second trimester. Get the potion to the girl immediately. The side effects last only a few hours. Be a gentlemen and wait with her until they wear off, then take her to the hospital wing saying you found her in the hallway bleeding. I must be going Draco. The next time I write I will send the girl's potion.
Regards,
Father
Draco smiled after reading the letter. After much deliberation he had decided to ask his father if he would still be initiated. He had not expected such an enthusiastic yes. After feeling appropriately pleased for some time, he looked up to see Ginny staring intently at him. He mouthed a very clear, 'later,' to her and went back to eating.
~
Ginny's eyes too returned to her plate.
Draco kept his promise; that afternoon, he slipped out of potions a half-minute early to catch Ginny walking down to the dungeons. For once, he was glad she had the highly annoying habit of waiting for Harry outside of potions class.
"Here," he said passing her the bottom half of the letter. Just then the bell rang and the hall was flooded with students, including infamous trio. Draco walked off as if he hadn't so much as stopped and Ginny stuffed the letter in her pocket to read later.
"Hey Harry!" she said a slung her arms around his neck, pecking him on the lips.
"Hey, what was that about?"
"What was what about?"
"Malfoy, you were talking to him."
"Oh, I uh—saw that someone had tripped and it looked like he had a bad fall. I stopped to ask if he was okay before I knew who it was."
"Oh," was all Harry said.
"You know Harry, you don't have to worry about me. I can hold off Malfoy," Ginny said moving away from him. The students continued to stream around them. "It's only the memories that bother me."
"I know. I'm just don't trust Malfoy at all. I don't think it was just lust."
"Well I don't either. He was attached to me, but the other me, the one I pretended to be."
"What'd you pretend to be?"
"Devoted. I would act like he was the world and the sun to me but it was all just an act."
"You're not pretending with me are you?" Harry asked.
"Harry," Ginny said horrified, "of course I'm not pretending with you."
"I don't know Gin. You've been acting so strange lately. I don't know what to think."
"I've had so many memories from the manor lately. I want just Draco out of my life forever."
"But he is Ginny; it's only memories, and you're can't let memories get to you. Trust me; I know."
"I—" Ginny said her face faltering, 'you have no idea,' she thought, 'he's more in my life now than in August,' "I uh—I just don't feel like he's out of my life.
"Ginny," Harry said suddenly accusingly, "is there something you're not telling me?"
"Harry Potter, I don't like your tone!" she said, immediately on the defense.
"Are you avoiding the question?" he said, backing up from her in the now deserted corridor.
"Of course I'm not avoiding the question!"
"Then answer it! Are you hiding something from me or not?"
"I'm going through a hard time with Malfoy and all you can do is think that I'm keeping things from you. Well yes, I am keeping things from you. I'm not telling you what it felt like to be raped repeatedly. I'm not telling you how I wake up and feel like screaming sometimes because I'm certain my bed curtains are pink, and I'm back I'm the Malfoy Manor. You're right! I haven't told you how when you woke up with your scar hurting and you came to find me and crawl into my bed it made me want to scream because it was just like being back at the Manor, but I put up with it because you're you, and you're not Malfoy." Ginny yelled.
"Just like being back at the Manor?" Harry yelled. "Thank you for comparing me to a mad rapist and Death Eater."
"Well you're being as protective as him. I feel like I can't go anywhere without your approval!"
"Maybe that's because you ACT like you can't go anywhere without me!"
"You know I've been going through a hard time."
"That you won't tell me about!"
"Because I don't want relive it all!"
"Well you're obviously still dreaming about it or something. Perhaps you liked being his little whore and you're trying to seduce me too by acting all helpless."
"How DARE you even suggest that!" Ginny yelled.
"Well from everything I've seen it's the truth."
"I don't need this!" Ginny yelled turning towards the exit of the dungeons, "I'm leaving!"
"Fine go!" Harry yelled. He immediately began to regret his words, and slunk down against the wall to the sound of Ginny's sobs vibrating off the stone walls. He knew Ginny hated Draco; he knew wasn't pretending with him, and he knew it was horrible for him to say those things to her. But he also knew that she was hiding something from him. Uh, he was just so stressed lately. Every time a head of house and Dumbledore would receive a letter at the same time everyone knew that someone else's parents had been attacked. A quiet dread feel over the table when it was their head of house that stood with Dumbledore, and once the unlucky student had been notified the other pupils felt a mixture of relief that it wasn't them, immediately followed by guilt over their rejoicing over another students loss. And Harry knew it was all up to him to stop it, and he knew that everyone else thought so too. He hated knowing all this. He desperately wished that he could be just like Ron, not a care in the world, or at least not the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. Ginny had become a small beacon of hope and sanity in his life, but in the last week or so she had been acting so strangely. He knew there was something going on and he knew Malfoy had something to do with it. He just wished he knew what. He couldn't take it anymore, not without at least the little bit of sanity Ginny offered. And so Harry Potter, savior of the wizarding world, put his head in his hands, let himself go, and did something he hadn't done since he was very little; he cried.
~
Ginny stormed away from Harry in a very upset state. She didn't feel like sitting at the Gryffindor table and fending off question about where The Boy Wonder was, so she held her sobs in and rushed up through the entrance hall until she found an empty classroom and hurried inside. She couldn't believe Harry had said those things to her. Hell, she couldn't believe he could even think that, let alone voice it. He knew she hated Malfoy. Oh! Why was this happening to her? Why did she have to deal with the little parasite that Malfoy had forced into her? It simply wasn't fair. She had just started to forget about Malfoy all together then she had to realize that Malfoy was bothering her for a few more weeks. And now Harry was accusing her of actually liking Malfoy. Being with Harry was so nice; he had become a nice little break from school and the dread of Voldermort attacks. When she was sitting there with Harry, it was like the rest of the world didn't exist. Now, Harry was the one causing the problems. She curled up into a ball and sobbed, just sobbed until she felt she had no tears left to cry.
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