Haunted
She absolutely refuses to go upstairs alone. She always makes a house-elf accompany her, hopping up the steps before her to look for anything that might jump out of a closet or bedroom and harm her. The stairs creak with every step and she wills herself not to look into the empty rooms with the doors ajar, lest she see something that she would regret later. Nothing ever jumps out at her, but still she feels strangled by the sinister darkness and shadows and gloom that seem to be everywhere there.
She takes a bath, the overpowering smell of citrus shampoo everywhere and the house-elves guarding the door. They suppose that if that bloody window wasn't located so close to the bathtub, she might not be so afraid all the time, but, of course, they can do nothing to ease her fears aside from watching. She sinks under the water and surfaces a second later, breathing heavily. Sometimes her fears get the best of her.
She slides into bed, wearing Slytherin-green robes because he likes them, her muted red hair still wet and hanging around her shoulders. The stillness of the room throws her off-guard, and she half-wishes that something would attack her so the silence could finally be broken. She subconsciously memorizes the locations of her wand and the decorative swords hanging on the walls in case she needs to use them at a moment's notice.
He finally slides into bed next to her, smelling of syrup and cigarettes, still wearing bloody Death Eater robes, and he pushes the house-elves out of bed and wonders why they're there and is about to ask her, but she feigns sleep and he wraps his arms around her and goes to sleep for real.
They wake up the next morning to the sun shining into the shadowy room and he would have asked her about the house-elves, but he forgot last night and he seems to be forgetting a lot of things these days. She thinks maybe it's his "job", but maybe it's the house, like it is with her, because she can't imagine anything else scaring him but that terrible, gloomy, malicious house. He kisses her goodbye and leaves for "work", and she gathers her usual entourage of house-elves around her and makes breakfast while watching that window that she simply must get fixed one day so it will finally stay closed and not keep creaking so eerily every bloody time the wind blows. She looks at a picture of him that she framed and hung above the table and wishes that he were here right now to protect her.
He finally gets home that afternoon, and this time his robes are free from blood, and he smiles and hugs her and the house-elves disperse. He wants to ask her about them and why they always follow her around, but every time he tries, she always changes the subject or excuses herself and he's decided to just leave it alone. He does want her to be happy, after all, and if that means not talking about certain things, than so be it. He never asks, and she never tells him. Some things are better left unsaid.
Draco leaves again that night and Ginny curls up in bed in a pair of his Death Eater robes with blood splattered all over them and makes the house-elves sit at the bottom of the bed and watch while she reads a book so she can be ensured that nothing is coming for her. She wonders momentarily if Draco has ever noticed that his house is haunted. She thinks that perhaps he has. They live in a haunted house...and sometimes Ginny wonders if Draco even cares.
-End