Abandon

The silence that filled the room was amazing. Nobody knew exactly what to respond to Devon. They looked blankly at him, as if prodding him further to say more. But he said nothing, the smile starting to fade away from the embrace of his face, his beatific features creasing as his eyes pondered the state of Ginny's sweater, which had miraculously ridden itself upwards her stomach. She noticed this, and frantically tugged the end of her sweater down, growing red in the face from embarrassment from being caught and shame.

His eyes emerged with anger as he saw Draco, whose shirt was unbuttoned, embellishing what had happened while he had been away.

"So," Devon started, the word like an eclipse over the room. "Little Princess is being treated like a queen, and she still isn't spoiled enough? Brat. Whore," he spat, clenching his fists in unmistakable fury that shook his shoulders silently. "Whore," he said again, in a more vicious tone, in a more louder range of his voice, his teeth gritted, grinding, while his saliva spread over the floor in droplets.

"Stop it," Ginny murmured, shaking her head from side to side. "No..."

"Don't you dare call her that," Draco suddenly spoke out, his eyes narrowing as he stood up, his fists clenching as well. He seemed to be drawing blood out of his skin with his fingernails. "Don't you dare, you bastard."

Devon grimaced slightly at being spoken back to in such a violent manner, but seemed to refrain himself from showing emotion. He stepped forward, circling Draco in small steps around him, his head lowered, not saying a thing before he stood right in front of him, his face inches away from his, his mouth now stretched into a firm smile.

"Malfoy, how ever did you pass the security?" he asked mockingly, with only slight curiousity ringing in his voice, his wand pointed at his forehead.

Ginny gasped, trying to sit up, but Devon gave her such a warning look that she cowered, huddling into herself, watching with fearful eyes as Devon's wand dug into Draco's bare skin. Draco seemed to blink several times before answering, his voice coming out with the first words as dead-prone and blank, then grew with expression.

"I daresay, Myers," Draco said, a grin spreading into his face. "You need a bit more help with the security - perhaps I could help you?"

Puzzlement pressed into her - what was going on? Why was Draco grinning, and most of all, why did he sound so jovial?

"Draco..." she croaked, furrowing her eyebrows as Devon released his wand grip from the silver-blonde.

"Shall we curse her together?" Devon asked excitedly, pointing his wand toward Ginny, who whose neck hairs were prickling sharply - something was wrong - there was something not right with this picture...

"May I?" Draco asked politely.

"Certainly." The brunette handed him the wand, in which he tucked upon his fingers.

"Draco...Draco...what're you doing?" she gasped as Draco turned around, facing her. His eyes were like pools of gray - there was nothing in them - nothing at all. He was dead, emotionless except for the malicious smile on his face. But Ginny knew the smile was forced, because his kneecaps were shaking rapidly, and sweat was dropping at the side of his neck and into his shoulder.

"Draco!" she screamed, but as soon as the name was out of her mouth, she heard him say something - and slid across the floor, landing against the wall before falling into the hard surface of the floor, the crack of her head deafening her eardrums, the split of her neck like slow motion as her neck snapped awkwardly at the side. Her legs and arms entangled at the painful position she was in, weakness filling her along with drowsiness.

She felt pain surging through her like no other as she shrieked, but nobody could hear her - she was trapped inside of her body, trying to escape from it, struggling out of her mouth, trying to comprehend exactly what was happening, but whenever she said something, blood seeped at the parting of her lips. She closed her eyes, letting herself drown into the sweet bliss that unconsciousness provided her, only whimpering as blood trickled out of her nostril and dribbled into her chin, drenching her sweater crossways, crawling right across the middle of her chest, where her heart would be. There was nothing else left to do then allow herself to crawl and settle into the darkness.

~*~

Vivid imagery flashed through her mind as if she was really seeing them. These visions only occupied the small space left in her mind, but it was enough. She felt herself move along with them, reaching out, trying to touch them with the tips of her fingers - but there was no use. They weren't real. Every time she tried to open her eyes it seemed as if she was suffocating into water that stung her eyelids and made the fluids inside of her flutter against herself. There was a buzzing in her ears, but whenever she tried to hear them, gnaw at them, they grew smaller, distancing themselves from her. Everything was growing away from her...everything.

"Ginny, wake up," said a voice. "Please, wake up."

I can't, she tried to say, but as her mouth parted, she felt her stomach lurch, urging itself to rinse out of her mouth, and frightened by the prospect of throwing up as she slept, she pursed her lips firmly, grinding her teeth against each other. Colors flashed by her mind, scenarios that were now visible across her closed eyes. One specific scenario - it was Ginny, wrapped around somebody as he held his arms across her back tightly. She was sobbing into him, and he was caressing her neck and shoulders all with one hand, telling her everything would be okay and everything was now mended, even her heart.

But every time she leaned forward and tried to grasp it, she couldn't.

Because it would never be real.

~*~

Draco could read words etched at the back of his brain. He could feel his whole body burning with his injuries, he could feel blood rushing to his head whenever he tried to blink or sit up. There was nobody else in this room, it was like a tiny cubicle, and he couldn't spread the curtains apart to see where he was - but the waver of medicine and something that smelled strongly like lemon could be sniffed throughout the air, hovering above him. His clothes had been changed, of course. The layers of clothing had been replacing with a small blue see-through overcoat that tied in the back. Each movement embellished on his wounds. He found himself flinching and silently crying for help every single millisecond.

He needn't know who changed his tray everyday, because he was asleep by that time, and when he awoke, fresh new meals had been placed, along with water. He only sipped a bit of water and didn't touch his food, only rolled it around with his fork when he was feeling energetic. Draco could only vaguely recall what had happened. Devon had forced him with a curse that made his mind jerk into something implacable, and he had attacked Ginny. After his body had hit realization that the two bodies on the floor were Mindy and Ginny, he had pounced on Devon, with all intentions of hurting him as much as possible. He could remember several duels with him, and by the end of it, he was looking down at an almost-lifeless Devon Myers sprawled on the white tiles, blood soaking in his hairs, and then Draco passed out quickly, weakness overcoming him like cold steel, wind brushing past him as he fell.

And yet, though pain surfaced against his flesh like pricking white-hot-pain in orderly fashion, the only image he was able to see was Ginny, limp, like a doll, instead of her hair cascading her shoulders it was blood, and instead of auburn strands of red spreading across her face, it was liquid crimson. What was worse besides the fact that she was hurt - was that he had caused her, no matter what the reason was. And instead of him falling with a thud on the floor - he never landed, he just kept on falling, the intensifying lightness surrounding his body. He wondered if he would ever stop.

~*~

Draco was writing. With his eyes fixated on his quill he wrote several letters that formed words that did not make sense, but they weren't supposed to. He was trying to occupy the time in the air, writing anything that came to him, ink sprouting the blank parchments with his small, black, and cursive writing. But suddenly his features transfixed from determination to surprise as he heard someone sniff beside him, indicating that he was not alone as he thought he was. He turned his head, and saw that it was Ginny, clutching herself. Oddly enough, she was not in her Christmas clothes, but in a white nightgown that fluttered across her legs and covered her arms. But there was still something engraved on the space between her neck and chest - the gleaming, heart-shaped scar.

"Draco, who are you writing to?" she asked in wonderment, her curly hair enveloping the sides of her face innocently.

"You," he found himself saying, his hand trembling on the parchment he was holding.

"What are you writing about?" She frowned, her brown eyes glowering in bewilderment.

"How I feel about you," Draco found those words trailing off his mouth like endless waves of water.

"And how do you feel?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, her lips uplifting into a small smile.

"I don't know," he confessed, the parchments falling out of his hand and into the floor. Ginny looked at him expectantly as she leaned over and picked it off the floor as if it were as light as a feather, and began to read, her eyes skimming the words, devouring them.

"I see," she whispered, her eyes peering over the parchment she had in her grasp. She was giving him a dreamy, calculating look.

"What does it say?" Draco asked, biting his lip, wondering if he wanted to know the answer.

"It says..." Ginny paused, poising forward, and pressing the parchment into his chest, rubbing into it vigorously, her nose wrinkling in that way it always did, as if she was trying to get a stain out of a dress. "You should know, Draco...it's your heart."

"It is?"

She offered him a coy grin. "Of course it is."

"Where are you going?" Draco blinked his eyes into vision as Ginny's body began to dissolve around the edges.

Ginny didn't answer.

"Wait! Will you ever come back?" he asked helplessly.

She nodded. "I will."

"When?" he prodded.

"When you figure it out..." she murmured, one finger on his forehead before she vanished into thin air, only circular motions that left behind her trace.

Draco Malfoy lurched from bed, a pained expression on his face as he woke up, sweat trickling down into his chin, the truth hitting him like a hammer drilling into his lungs, emotions that he had felt before, but had never distinguished, raining clearly into his mind.

He had figured it out.

~*~

Attentively, Harry reached out, softly shaking Draco's shoulders with both hands. It took only moments for the feminine eyelashes to flutter open, gray eyes looking wearily up at him. The snarl that escaped from his lips was well known. "Potter," he announced hastily.

"That's me," Harry replied in a jovial voice, a smile quivering at his lips. "Did I wake you from the beauty sleep?"

"No, of course not," Draco retorted, rolling his eyes. "I am still asleep, actually. See, I can talk in my sleep while I have my eyes open as well, and other amazing things. For example, do you know that when I use my feet to move forward, I can walk?" he asked, in mock amazement, shaking his head in false awe.

"Yes, that is astonishing," Harry nodded, his smile expanding as he took a seat beside the bed, while making sure he held the curtains apart so he could see him. "How have you been?"

"Where's Ginny?" Draco prompted, ignoring the question.

"--I mean, I haven't been able to visit you because you know, St. Mungo's, they only allowed family for a while but ---"

"Is she okay? Is she breathing?"

"--And they have restrictions, but I managed to sneak in -- "

"Potter..."

"--Then they caught me, and you were sound asleep anyways and so the next day I asked and they said they allowed other members outside the family to come in, as long as I don't have a criminal record and my name isn't from anything that was ---"

"Are you going to answer me?" he growled in frustration, watching Harry's lips move, his eyes distanced from Draco.

"--And I told them, it was actually one of the times I am grateful to be who I am - I told them straightforward, it's me, you dumbass, well actually I didn't really say dumbass, that's too Slytherin. But I said it's me you idiot, well actually, I didn't say idiot, because that's too cruel, so I said it's me you bas- well, actually, didn't say that either..."

"YOU ARE SO DAMN ANNOYING!"

"So I said - it's me, Harry--"

"POTTER!"

Harry stopped talking, the timid smile relaxing into his face. "What?" he blinked innocently.

"How is Ginny?"

His shoulders stiffened, and he seemed frozen for countless moments before he cleared his throat momentarily. "Ginny's...fine."

"Liar," Draco teased.

"She's - they're working on her," Harry offered in a small, vague voice.

Draco appeared to be crestfallen at this news. With a disdainful nod, he pressed his back against his bed once more, his head pounding, his stomach rolling with fresh worry.

"Oh." He closed his eyes, and could feel Harry's piercing stare lock into him, but said nothing at all. His limbs frozen, his heart pacing at a decreased pace, he merely recalled Ginny's face, her sweet, cute face, the freckles that sprinkled upon her nose, and how small she looked when she was sad, curled against herself in a little ball of sulking. "Oh," he echoed himself once more, now opening his eyes to the light that invaded his vision.

"She'll be fine," Harry said in a self-reassuring voice. "She will, Malfoy."

Draco turned his head, and saw the hopeful look that had washed over Harry's face, the twinkle of anticipation in his eyes, and the quiver of his chin. He turned away, emotion flashing through him. One could only hope.

~*~

It was the next day that Ginny Weasley woke up. The delusions had come to their limits, her head was pounding still, an aching pain that crossed through her forehead and into her neck whenever she made a movement, and when she forced herself to turn over, her throat would go dry, threatening to reveal all contents to escape from her stomach.

Severe pain reached her as Ginny opened her eyes, her chest protruding in surprise as she heard several noises that had disturbed her sleep rather quickly. A woman around her fourties was leaning over her, a brunette that gave a small squeak of horror as she saw Ginny's eyes opened before her, dropping the tray promptly on the floor.

"Sorry! Sorry!" the brunette apologized frantically, sweeping the mess on the floor with a swish of her wand, and it vanished quickly. "Didn't mean to wake you, Mrs. Malfoy."

"What?" Ginny raised an eyebrow at the nurse. "It's Miss Weasley, actually." She observed the nurse's name tag, which read: Brooke Cannings.

"Miss Weasley?" Brooke sputtered, her eyes widening with puzzlement. "Oh, I am sorry, I just started being a nurse again - I am so clumsy, you see. You look just like Lucius's first wife, I treated her when she was pregnant, when I used to be a Healer - they're glad to rid of me, heavens knows what I would've done to a patient." She shook her head, her hair shaking on her shoulders, straight wavy hair that curled at her back, her brown eyes glittering with familiarity. "I am being silly," she ridiculed herself, rolling her eyes as she waved her hands in a rapid manner of circular motions. "I always get people mixed up. What do you want, juice or water? I am sorry about the tray, I just---"

"Lucius Malfoy?" Ginny questioned curiously.

"Why, yes," Brooke replied, slightly breathless, twirling a strand of her hair in her fingers.

"But his wife has a different hair color," she reminded Brooke, unease beginning to grow at her stomach. "Why would you mix her up with me?"

"Oh," Brooke murmured. "I could've sworn...nothing, it's nothing, now, I am off to get a new tray..."

"No, wait!" Ginny said, quickly leaping forward, then grimacing immediately at the agony that it provided her. Clutching her chest, she sank back into her pillows.

"Be careful," Brooke warned her. "I still have one more wound to fix - your healer would've done it, but I am far more experienced in the healing process, even though I have a tendency to mend a bit more..." she gave a nervous laugh.

"Listen," Ginny croaked. "What did you mean? About Lucius Malfoy's 'first wife'?" she demanded. "You mean he had a second?" Ginny prompted, thinking of Narcissa Malfoy, the graceful, Veela-like beauty that she had once seen at the Qudditch Cup years ago.

"He might've..." she said thoughtfully in a vague sort of voice. "It's a possibility. I just remember - his first wife, as I call it, had red hair, just like yours, of course, I shouldn't have mixed you up with her, she was far more older, around her thirties, that. But she did have youth in her, and Lucius absolutely adored her."

"Why was she in St. Mungo's though? Isn't that for conditions far by superior?"

Brooke's eyes shone with sadness, and regretfully, she inclined her head at Ginny in wonderment. "Yes. I'll never forget it...,it was a condition like no other. She was pregnant, eight months I think...and she kept getting pains. It's not regular pains though, sometimes she'd collapse more than three times a day. We kept her for a while, I was a Healer then, so I thought it was something that had nothing to do with the baby. Well, at least I hoped so. But when we ran tests on her, the results kept coming out inconclusive, or damaged. It amazed us of course, and we had to do it many more times until anything showed up, and they showed us nothing we didn't already know. We had many theories, of course, but somehow they were never proven correctly. We tested to see if it was anything she was eating or drinking, but the results got damaged at that too. So finally, when she had the baby, I was present, and the baby - poor little thing, it barely survived, some condition with his heart. We tried to test his blood, but the moment we came back, the baby was gone, and so was Lucius, and the woman had fallen asleep." She shook her head, her voice trembling slightly, then looked up to see Ginny, who was awestruck.

"Oh, I am sorry," she cooed. "I've been blabbering again, I always do that..."

"C-can- you - " her throat caught dry. "Can you possibly remember what the baby's name was? Please?"

Brooke's frown turned into a timid uplift, her eyes dreamy and wondrous. "Yes. I couldn't remember the woman's name, but I can still remember his. What a strange name."

"What was it?" Ginny prodded impatiently, her legs shaking beneath the many layers of blankets. Brooke's eyes met hers.

"Draco," she announced. "Isn't it strange? Well, must go get you a new tray, dear."

And with that, Brooke turned swiftly with the tray in her hands, closing the door behind her.

Ginny could taste vomit coming from her throat, and forced it down with difficulty. She froze, lowering her head to glance downwards, and caught sight of the necklace Draco had given her. It's chain was concealing half of the heart-shaped scar with it's own glittering locket, dangling across her now feverish chest.

~*~

Draco Malfoy thought he was dreaming when his eyes opened, and he saw a shade of red flash by his eyes. It was Ginny, seated at the corner of his bed, huddled in the small way she always was, her knees to her chin, her arms around her legs, with her back to him. She looked more vulnerable than he had ever seen before, her hair strung over her face like manes of auburn, her shoulders slightly shaking. He forced himself to sit up, and lean over to her, in which she quickly turned her head, her mouth drifting into a faint smile.

"Hi," she greeted, her voice soft and timidly spoken. There was a scar on the bridge of her nose, but other than that, she looked more better than ever, the blood had evaportated, and she only cringed a tiny portion as she turned her head.

"Ginny..." he breathed, his hand caressing her shoulder, his eyes locking with hers. There was something in her eyes that confused him - they were glowering with something like sympathy and sheer emotion that he could not define. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"Yes," she agreed, nodding her head downwards, her eyes away from his.

"I - I am sorry," Draco suddenly stammered, his fingers moving from her shoulder and down her arm, tickling her bare skin until it met her hand, in which he tucked within his palm. It felt delicate in his grasp, smooth, soft skin he felt, a tingling vibration that crawled into his skin and turned around his blood as he held her hand, not meeting her eyes, but feeling comfortable, with their knees barely touching, but their flesh still brushing against each other.

"I know," Ginny murmured, raising her head. He was startled to see tears welling in her eyes, tears that sprinkled into her cheeks and rolled onto the opening of her lips. The bittersweet taste dissolved in her mouth as she took a shuddering breath. His hand fell away from hers, and he raised it to brush the tears away with the tips of his fingers, only leaving smears of liquid that ran crossways of her cheeks. His hand wandered her neck, and he felt something hard cling against his thumb. Draco looked down, observing the chain, his hand around the heart-shaped locket, and pushed it away, to see the scar that she had tried to hide. Carefully, he touched it with his index finger, prodding it slowly and methodically. She gave a pained gasp, but didn't protest. He felt a burning sensation lingering into his veins as he touched it. She closed her eyes and fell against him. He cradled her frail body in his arms, his hands clinging on desperately onto her strands of flaming red hair. The familiarity of her hair twirling in his fingers excluded the conclusion that this was a dream. The blissful feeling of her warmth, touch, smile, laugh and just, her, having her, in his arms. She was his, and he was hers.

It was neither a dream, a fantasy, nor a nightmare.

It was reality. And it struck him hard in the chest.

~*~

"They're asleep," hissed Harry warningly to Ron. "Don't wake them."

"I don't care! My sister's on top of him," Ron reminded him, sputtering in outrage, staring pointedly at the two bodies that were closely huddled together beside each other on the bed.

"Oh, stop emphasizing, Ron," said Hermione who had just arrived, a steaming mug of cocoa in her hands. "She's not on top of him. She probably went to comfort them. When she wakes up, we'll lead her back to her own room. Leave them alone."

Ron made a doubtful noise, but said nothing else, turning around and promptly exiting the room, his arms at his side, with a swift slam of the door. Harry threw Hermione an amused look, which she returned gratefully, and handed him the mug of cocoa.

"How is she?" Hermione asked, nodding toward Ginny as he took a sip, the heated liquid plunging down his throat.

"Seems pretty good now," Harry remarked teasingly, in which Hermione gave him a small punch on the shoulder playfully.

"I mean, how is she doing?" she prodded specifically.

"I think she's doing better. Malfoy's having tough luck though, I think he has pains when he moves," Harry notified her, shaking his head.

"Yes, what a shame," she retorted in an almost concerned voice, if it weren't for the slight sarcasm ringing in it. She turned to Harry, pushing her hair gently away from the corners of her face. "Are you okay?"

He shrugged, his arms folded across his chest now that he had set down the mug. "I suppose. I am just feeling a bit guilty. If I had gone with Malfoy --"

"Nothing would've changed, though," Hermione confirmed. "Believe me. Neither you or Draco could have opened the door. Restricted to family members only. The Myers are a very powerful purebred family. I think the snow security thing wasn't too bad, actually," she added carefully along an afterthought.

"Speaking of family..." he trailed off, his voice growing faint as Ginny gave a soft groan and turned over in her sleep, creating more distance from Draco.

"Mindy?" Hermione questioned.

Harry nodded in reply. She grabbed his arm with a frantic look at the couple in bed, who seemed to be waking in a slow but visible process, and they walked out the door, quietly closing the door behind them.

"I've spoken to her," she began dully. "She can hardly remember much. But she's definately Devon's sister."

"They look so different though," he objected.

"Yes, well, I suppose Mindy is on her mother's side and Devon's on his father's."

"How is Mindy doing?"

"She's moved back home for further treatment. The Deja Vu, that shop that she runs, is closed down, thank God. She acted as if it was her whole life. Maybe it was," Hermione said softly underneath her breath, an expression of pity growing over her face. She shuddered. "Maybe we should visit Mindy sometime."

"Maybe," Harry agreed half-heartedly, but wasn't really listening. After all, the way Hermione's eyes were glowering at the floor and the way her hair shook over her pretty, cherry-shaped face was quite a distracting event...

~*~

"Have a good sleep?" asked Draco, sitting up in his bed. He observed Ginny closely through his eyelashes, watching her rub her eyes vigorously, trying to rid of the sleep.

"Yes, I suppose," she murmured, then looked up at him. He truly looked amused, and almost happy, even though he flinched at least a couple of times. She didn't want anything to ruin his happiness. She thought of joking with him and talking with him for the whole day, touching him lightly, kissing him and taking care of him, and it was quite a tempting option. But she knew what she had to do. It might be painful for him to accept, and she had no idea why she was doing this, exactly, but keeping the secret that longed to be out was burning in her chest.

"Draco?" Ginny whispered, nuzzling her forehead against his neck. He pulled her closer underneath the covers, his heartbeat audible against hers.

"Mmm?" he whispered, his lips caught on her hair.

"Listen --" But before she could say anything else, the words tumbled into a gasp as the door swung open to reveal a very petite Narcissa Malfoy.

~*~