*WARNING* STORY WILL LIVE UP TO ITS R RATING IN THIS CHAPTER. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU! *WARNING*
Harry Potter sat at the Gryffindor table and glared at Draco walking hand in hand with Ginny towards them. He kissed her on the cheek and parted.
"Hey," Harry said.
"Hi," she said quietly and sat down.
"Are you okay," he stressed. Meaning of course, 'did that bastard touch you.'
She nodded and simply said, "I worked everything out to be okay, but I don't know for how long."
Harry didn't like the sound of that. What on earth did she mean 'I don't know for how long?' Lately, it had taken all of Harry's control not to possessively grab Ginny and move to Australia with her. It maddened him that Draco was able to even be in the same proximity of her when he should be rotting away in Azkaban sharing a bed with a Dementor, not Ginny, not his Ginny. And Ginny was, in a matter of speaking, 'his.' She'd willingly given him her heart, and although he didn't possess Ginny, they belonged to one another. Just as she was his, he was Ginny's.
"Would you all like to go for a walk around the lake and visit Hagrid?" Hermione spoke up, interpreting Ginny's sentence the same way Harry had.
"But it's too cold—oaf" Ron said, cutting himself off as he received a violent kick under the table from Hermione. "Er-rather-sure! That'd be lovely."
"Sounds good," Harry spoke up.
"Gin?"
"I'll have to tell Draco," she informed them all in a voice that was far too chipper to be under her own influence.
"Right, we'll wait for you here." Ron said.
Ginny arose, knowing Draco would say no, and that she'd be forced to spend the whole weekend alone with him.
"Hello," Draco said as she approached.
"Hi Honey," she said sweetly, "you wouldn't mind if I go for a stroll with my brother, would you?"
Draco didn't really believe she was going for a stroll with just Ron, and would have loved to tell her no, but he had no reason to do so. When she phrased the question like that, there was no possible way to tell her now without breaking face. His father had said in no uncertain terms that part of the reason for this marriage was to make it appear as if the Weasleys and the Malfoys were getting along. When that was the aim, he couldn't very well go and tell her, 'no, you can't go for a stroll with your horrid long-nosed brother and his mudblood girlfriend while Potter chats you up,' no matter how much he would have liked to.
She smiled, and Draco had a feeling it was the first genuine, non-mocking smile he'd seen on her in ages. It sent a morbid hatred through him. So much so, that he couldn't resist adding, "but hurry back, I have something to talk to Professor Snape about and then we have the whole afternoon to spend together."
The change in Ginny's face was miniscule, but something behind her eyes dimmed, yet no one could have noticed it if he hadn't been looking for it.
Thirty minutes later, after cloaks had been gotten, and Ginny had borrowed Lavender Brown's to save herself the trip to her own dormitory, the trio and Ginny were strolling the grounds.
"What did you mean by that?" Harry asked as soon as they were out of earshot of the rest of the students. Ginny was walking with her hands in the pockets of Lavender's cloak. So Harry wove his arm through hers and stuck his hand in his pocket; it would appear that they were just walking side by side from far away. The couples reached the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest and parted. Ron knew he could see Ginny anytime, and he was willing to sacrifice a little of his time with Ginny so she could be with Harry before the grounds were crowded with students and Ginny and Harry were forced to part. It was worth the sacrificed time; she did, after all, have that light shinning behind her eyes when she looked at him.
"I managed to avoid him last night by saying that he would leave bruises because I was going to struggle against him, but he says he's going to Snape to ask for a bruise-diminishing potion."
"Snape won't give it to him," Harry said, "not if we warn him what it's for."
"But we can't!" Ginny protested, already having thought of Harry's idea, "Draco's going to ask for it right now."
"You're strong Ginny," Harry said. He, by no means liked the idea of Draco touching Ginny, but the truth was truth, and the truth was that Ginny was going to have to deal with Draco at some point. He'd do everything possible to delay it, and make it the least painful experience he could, but in the end it was up to Ginny to pull through it.
"But Harry, it's not just sex. I might be able to deal with that. He's going to hit me. Yesterday morning he shoved me up against a bedpost, but he didn't have time to do anything because we had to leave for the Express. I've said so many things and pushed so many buttons these last few days. He keeps saying he's going to teach me a lesson. What'll I do? I can't and I won't let him do that. Do you know what that's like? Do you have any idea?"
"Of course not!" Harry sputtered, "but you're a strong girl Ginny; you stood up to Tom Riddle, didn't you?"
Ginny bowed her head; she didn't like talking about Tom Riddle.
"I can't do this Harry. I can't."
"But you have to! It's not going to help you any by telling yourself you'll break if he so much as touches you, because then you will. I'll do anything I can for you; I'll fight him, go to Snape about that potion, anything, but in the end, it has to be you."
Ginny stopped dead and removed her arm from Harry's, so she could turn to look at him. "What are you saying? That I should just accept that I'm Draco's little sex slave and move on? Just let him abuse and use me whenever he likes, then parade around in public with him like we're the perfect couple? What am I going to tell my baby, as to why Mummy always has bruises on her and why she can hear screams coming from my bedroom? Listen to yourself!"
"Listen to yourself! You CAN'T think like that. You have no chance of surviving the rest of this year if you do." The words were harsh, brutal, and decidedly cruel, but most of all, they were a necessity, and Harry wasn't going to stand back and wait, while Ginny talked herself into letting Draco turn her into a shell of her vibrant happy self. Words were spilling out of him that he knew really shouldn't be said, things that would make him blush under normal circumstances, but Ginny needed to hear this as straightforward
"I can't believe I'm hearing this. You're actually telling me to let him rape me!" she hissed on account of the contract not allowing her to yell.
"I'm telling you not to give him the pleasure of knowing what he's doing to you. He's sick Ginny, mentally sick, if he wants to use sex to teach you a lesson. Do you know what I like about being intimate with you? YOU! I like knowing that I'm causing you make those little sounds of enjoyment, and I like the fact that you're doing the same for me. Malfoy doesn't get pleasure from things like that! He gets it from causing you pain! The easiest way for you to turn me off is to act like all my efforts to get you excited are doing nothing, and I'm willing to bet that the best way to turn Malfoy off is to act like all his efforts to hurt you are doing nothing. Do you get what I'm saying? Just go limp, don't react to anything. It's going to happen sooner or later; you have to admit that. So know what to do when it does. You're a strong girl Ginny. You CAN do it, but NOT if you don't think you can."
"How can you say all those things?" Ginny, who was now crying uncontrollably asked through her tears.
Harry sighed wearily, "because it's the truth Ginny. Deep down, you know it too."
Ginny nodded and felt the tears start to flow. Ugh, she cried so much lately! But the tears ushered in a new feeling, heavy, but not entirely unpleasant. The knowledge that Harry was right weighed her down, but it somehow filled her with a feeling of safety. She could do this. The fight in her was now gone, replaced with the utter weight of what Harry had said. Draco Malfoy was a sick man; she knew that, but Harry had put everything in a different light. That didn't change the fact that she didn't want to do it, and it certainly wouldn't make it easy.
"It's not fair!" she cried and leaned into Harry's arms.
"I know it's not. I know," Harry cooed gently.
~
Professor Snape was sitting in his office reading the latest potions periodical when a knock interrupted his solitude. More than highly annoyed, he opened the door to find none other than Draco Malfoy. 'He wants something,' he immediately thought, 'and you're going to have to give it to him unless you want him running to that horrible father of his.'
"Hello Professor," Malfoy said smoothly.
"Mr. Malfoy." He nodded, "won't you come in?"
"Thank you, sir."
"What brings you down here, Mr. Malfoy?"
"I was wondering if you had some bruises dispersing potion that I might have?"
"Bruise-dispersing potion?"
"Yes, after Quidditch practice I tend to get rather bruised up and I think it will worry my wife."
Snape didn't believe that for a moment. There was something VERY fishy about that marriage. It simply wasn't possible that Ginny volunteered to marry Malfoy; her family was staunchly against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Snape knew this; he'd even once contacted her eldest brother Bill to warn him of a possible attack on Gringotts.
Snape shrugged and went to his cabinet to retrieve a bottle for him. Out of all the things he could ask for, bruise- dispersing potion was probably the least conspicuous for Dark Magic. The thing got rid of love bites. Draco was probably necking with some girl he didn't want Ginny to find out about. Although, that wouldn't quite work either, because he still doubted that Miss Weasley wanted to be with Draco Malfoy and probably wouldn't care if he were cheating on her. Then again, she was only sixteen, it was also just as probable that they had a mutual hatred, but misery loves company. There was no way Lucius was about to let Ginny go around necking with any boy, but he was quite certain Lucius would have no objections to Draco doing the exact same thing with another girl. Finally satisfied, Snape handed Draco the potion. Why was it his business if Draco wanted to cheat on Ginny? It'd take, 'the burden' off her.
"Thank you sir," he said and left.
'Go and fulfill all your adolescent desires,' he wanted to say, but instead he said, "Any time, Mr. Malfoy."
He'd only had the time to get thoroughly involved into another article before there was another knock on the door. He groaned and got up. Malfoy was not about to get another vial of bruise dispersing potion from him if that's what the little cretins wanted, but when he opened the door, he did not see Malfoy but Potter and his friends.
"Mr. Potter," he said curiously.
"Hi Professor," Harry said somewhat breathlessly, "may we come in?" Snape stuck his head out of the door and checked the hall before opening the door fully and allowing Potter and Co. to proceed.
"What's going on Potter?" Snape asked truly worried. Although Potter and him were NOT on what one would consider friendly terms, they certainly had a mutual agreement to work together to get rid of Voldemort. Thus, Potter visiting him without notice, especially when he looked like he had been running, was not good news.
"Listen, you haven't given Malfoy any potions that could get rid of bruises have you?" Harry asked.
'Uh-oh, maybe he was using them for more than I thought!'
"Why?" he asked aloud.
Potter's mouth opened and closed a few times, and there was that stubborn glint in his eye again. He was fighting something, though Snape didn't know what.
"I can't say," he finally managed to choke out, but his face indicated he'd wanted to say something different.
"Does it have anything to do with your sister Mr. Weasley?" There was a silence that followed.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Another silence.
"Did you give it to him or not?" Ron asked annoyed.
"I did," Snape said slowly.
"Let's go find her," Potter said, and the trio was off. Snape watched them go, hoping he hadn't put a very dangerous weapon in the hands of Draco Malfoy.
~
Ginny was desperately trying to fight the contract. After breakfast and commenced, the grounds flooded with people until it reached the point where Ginny was literally forced to find Ron and Hermione before anyone saw her alone with Harry. She'd told them about the potion so they'd agreed to go find Snape before Draco did, but as they grew closer and closer to the Potion's dungeon Ginny found herself turning around. All the contract had let her do was turn her head around and hiss, 'keep going,' to the trio before she threw her hair behind her and flounced upstairs. She'd hoped that once she was deep enough into the castle and well hidden from on lookers, she'd be able to take a few detours, but apparently there were students this deep in the castle just as there had been in the dungeons. She was headed straight back towards her room. 'Don't let him break you!' she told herself. A good five feet from her door, she was able to stop, but she heard the sounds of footsteps approaching and found her feet moving towards the door, her mouth forming the password.
~
The trio ran upstairs, desperately searching for Ginny, but having no idea where her room was, they had no luck whatsoever.
"We have to find her!" Harry gasped as they took a rest in an alcove where two suits of armor were showing a third a way to spontaneously fall down and scare unsuspecting first years that thought they had caused it.
"I'll say!"
"She's not ready to face him. I don't think she'll be able to do it."
"She bloody well better not have to!" Ron said.
"Come on you two, let's keep going." Hermione piped up, and they were off again.
~
When she opened the door, she found Draco Malfoy staring at her, holding a vial of what she could only assume to be a bruise-dispersing potion. He had a truly evil smirk on his face. She tried to bolt, but Draco waved his wand at the door and it had closed and locked again in seconds. She reached into her pocket and ever so slowly closed her fingers around her wand. She'd just stun him again, just as soon as he turned his back to her. But he didn't turn his back to her; instead, he slowly set down the bruise potion, keeping his eyes locked on her the entire time, as if he knew what her plan was. Which, Ginny realized, he probably did. It didn't take a genius to figure out what someone was going to do after they'd already done it twice. She swallowed and glanced down.
A split second later she found herself shoved against a wall with Draco Malfoy's body pressed firmly against hers. On instinct, a scream escaped her throat, but Draco Malfoy held one hand to her mouth while he used the other to cast what could only be a silencing charm on the room. Once done, he reached into the pocket where her wand was and threw both their wands against the far wall. Ginny was completely helpless and she felt it. Reason flew out the window; anything that Harry had said to her was forgotten. There was only one thought in her mind. 'Get away from Draco!'
"You didn't really think I was naïve enough to not know who you were really going for a walk with this morning did you Ginny," he said acidly and started kissing and biting her neck.
"I went with Ron. He's my brother!" she protested loudly and tried to wiggle out from between him and the wall, she managed but Draco had her wrist in his hand before she could make it far enough away from him and swung her onto the bed.
"Yeah right," he said pinning her down.
"I was with him the entire time!" she lied.
"I don't believe you, you little whore."
"I'm not a whore!" she defended herself and grabbed onto a section of his hair to pull his head back from his neck. "Draco I'm your wife, don't do this, please don't!"
In response he grabbed a much larger chunk of her hair and pulled down, forcing her to simultaneously expose her neck to him, and release his hair in response to the pain. She gasped at the sting of what was surely a large chunk of hair being ripped from her scalp, and Draco smiled. "You are my wife. So you'll do well to remember that next time you run off into the forest with Potter."
"Oh please stop," she said and tried to push his face away from her again. "Why? Oh please why?"
"To teach you a lesson, I've told you that before, Mrs. Malfoy" he said. Those words jogged something in Ginny's memory, though she couldn't grasp onto the thought before it slipped away in the face of terror.
"No no no no no!" she pleaded, tears leaking from her eyes.
"You're making it difficult," he whispered in her ear but she tried to move her head away from his. "Just stop struggling and it won't hurt in the least."
She couldn't not struggle. That would be allowing him to take her, and she couldn't do that.
"I'm not just going to let you take me," she said aloud as she tried to get away once more. If she could only get to her wand across the way she could stun him, then she could creep away and spend a night or two away under the protection of Harry's cloak.
"Just don't hurt me," she pleaded, "please just don't hurt me." Draco, in response, dug his nails into her skin and bit down hard on her neck."
"Why," she asked again, "why are you doing this."
"I told you, my little wife, you need to be taught a lesson. Not to mention," he chuckled, "I rather enjoy it." Her memory stirred again, but this time she was able to grab hold of what the memory was.
'Act like all his efforts to hurt you are doing nothing.'
She didn't think she could do it, but she could try. Summoning up all of her will power, she closed her eyes and tried to make her face go blank, but it was almost impossible. She wasn't able to keep her face slack when he pulled off all her clothes, leaving her completely vulnerable to his attacks, or when he first entered her, but while his hands roamed her body, and even when he spread her legs apart and she knew what was coming next, she didn't so much as flinch.
~
Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room feeling a sick sort of hatred brewing inside him. He had the map spread out before him, not caring who saw it, staring at the little dots of Draco and Ginny. It wasn't possible to tell exactly what was going on because Draco could be either on top of her, or sitting very close to her, but the point was that Ginny was stuck there with him. He blamed himself for not thinking of the map earlier. It was his map after all, had he thought of it sooner they might have been able to make it to her room before Draco had put the silencing charm on it, and they wouldn't have had to stand outside the room trying to penetrate the locking charm just knowing that inside, their girlfriend, sister, or friend was being violated by a man she was going to have to spend the rest of her life with. Why on earth had he told her to let him do it? That was so stupid. He was probably touching her right now and Ginny was letting him. His Ginny was being touched and caressed by a monster, a Death Eater. He'd kill him if he ever got the chance.
~
Ginny lay in bed and waited for Draco's breathing to become deep so she could slip out and away to Gryffindor tower. So it had happened, she'd been dreading it for a week and it had finally happened. And…it wasn't as bad as she had thought. She was still alive and breathing, he hadn't changed her into something else. In the dark, she raised her hand to look at it, and flexed her fingers. There were still five fingers and she was still essentially Ginny, with just one more bad experience under her belt. Once Draco finally did drift off into sleep Ginny got up and got dressed, her robes still fit. Looked in the mirror, she still looked the same, and tried to leave, but she couldn't. With a sigh, she plugged her nose and took a gulp of the potion, only to find it didn't taste nearly as bad she would have thought. In fact, it had a very distinctive, good taste. She'd survived it, and she could survive it again if she needed too.
Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long, but posting in the summer is going to take longer for reasons not under my control. If you'd like to be added to the e-mail update list, just say so and leave your e-mail address in the review.
