Without Trust There is No Love
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and any other related materials. They all belong to J.K. Rowling. I absolutely own nothing but this plot that is seriously going nowhere. I barely own the title because I got it off Moulin Rouge. Please, do not sue me. The song "Learning to Breathe" belongs to Switchfoot.
Author's Note: Hello, my fans! I'm back!!! :: crickets chirp, owls hoot, tumbleweed rolls by:: Hmm…well, I haven't updated in quite a while. I'm sorry. My fic here seriously died on me. I'm updating because the inspiration is still in me…and the guilt that Anna has been giving me. I swear she's using subliminal messages to make me feel guilty.
"Ugh, don't you hate it when authors don't update…" -- YES, ANNA, YOU KNOW YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT!!
Anyways, this is gonna be a fast-paced moving story. I'm not going to go into ALL the minor details…I'm going to make this story as quickly as possible. Sorry. One day, I'll write a good, logical, average-paced story. In the meantime I have this, which will probably be a total of 10 to 15 chapters. .
Dedicated to everyone who loves this fic, especially Anna and Melanie (I recently converted her to D/G! ::celebrates::) J
Chapter 6: Regretting Everything
Draco tossed and turned on his bed. He groaned as he turned to his side and was nearly blinded by the dim light of a candle coming from an opening in the curtains. He squinted and reached over to pull the curtain over the opening. He was surrounded by darkness, now, and he stared blankly at the top of his canopy bed. In his mind, thoughts of Ginny and the test kept haunting him non-stop. And the same question recurred in his brain: what had gotten into him?
For sure, he knew that he was probably in love with the youngest Weasley. But what did he know about love? Certainly, he had not gotten any love from his family, and he never really actually loved his ex-girlfriends. But how could he, Draco Malfoy, have fallen so fast for the daughter of his father's enemy? He should hate her, like he hated the rest of the Weasleys; those Muggle-loving filth.
Having thought that, something inside him immediately regretted it. He didn't really think that. It was Lucius that did. Wanting to follow in his father's footsteps, Draco was raised to think that. It could be called brainwashing, thought Malfoy, but he considered that it was being raised the wrong way.
Throughout his childhood, he was taught that any witches and wizards, who were not Purebloods, were all considered worthless. They should be vanquished from the world, so that the wizarding world would be "cleansed". Up until now, that was what Draco thought it should be like. But, from talking to Ginny, he slowly began to change his mind and realized how wrong his father was.
He groaned again as he realized that he had already failed the test; but he didn't care if was going to become a Death Eater or not. In fact, he could care less. What really mattered was Ginny.
Now, here he was, a Malfoy, lying in the Slytherin dormitory, thinking of a Weasley who was in the Gryffindor dormitory. Even their houses were enemies. How could fate play such a cruel game?
After an hour or so of thinking, Draco fell asleep in the middle of his complicated thoughts.
He was standing in the middle of the Death Eater meeting room, which was empty of all the Death Eaters. It was dimly lit by the crackling fire at the side of him. A dark, tall, hooded figure stood before him. The silhouette's back was facing him, and the figure was holding his wand out to the side—as if it were a sword. Draco slowly drew out his wand and pointed it at the back of the silhouette.
Before Draco could say anything, the silhouette walked over to the corner of the room. In the corner cowered a young girl with blood and cuts all over her face. Beads of sweat mixed with tears and blood rolled down her whimpering face. Draco looked at her, shocked. To his horror, he realized that it was—
"Ginny," he whispered.
The figure leaned down and stroked her cheek with one pale hand. Ginny cried out in fright and tried to slap the hand away; but the hooded man caught her wrist violently.
"Get away from me." she choked out through her sobs.
For some reason, all Draco could do was watch in horror. He stood, rooted to the spot, pointing a shaking wand at the back of the man. Finally, the dark figure turned around and slowly took off the hood, revealing the face of a young man. His hair was black, and he looked pale.
He smirked and said, "So you are the Draco Malfoy that Ginny has been talking about all this time."
Draco looked at this stranger in bewilderment and said, "What?"
"Don't you know who I am, Malfoy?" the man said, twirling his wand between his fingers.
Draco stared at him and averted his eyes to the wand he was twirling. He backed away, as the man put his hand in his robe pocket to take out something. It turned out to be a black leather bound book. Draco could see that, imprinted in golden letters, it said: Tom Marvolo Riddle.
The name rang a bell, but he could not figure out where he had heard it before.
"D-do I know you?" asked Draco, unsurely.
Riddle stopped twirling his wand and smiled wickedly. He raised his wand up, turned around, and wrote his name in fiery letters. With a whip of his wand, the letters rearranged themselves and read: "I Am Lord Voldemort".
Then, he turned around. Draco stared at him in horror. He heard Ginny whimper, and he quickly looked at her. She was still cowering in the corner in blood and sobbing.
"Don't you remember, Draco," Voldemort said, smirking. "When I told you of Ginny Weasley and how foolish she was? Well, think back into your second year at Hogwarts. Do you remember the Chamber of Secrets? The heir of Slytherin? Yes, of course you do. Potter and his friends even assumed you to be the heir."
Draco frowned and didn't say anything. He slowly put his wand to his side.
"Ginny was the one that opened the Chamber. She began writing in this diary of mine," Riddle held up the black book, "Which your father conveniently dropped into her cauldron at Diagon Alley. You didn't know, Draco? She poured her heart and soul out to me in this book. I controlled her, Draco. I owned her. She was mine."
Draco felt a tinge of anger and jealousy boil inside him. He glared at this Tom Riddle and quickly raised his wand and pointed it at Riddle's chest.
Through gritted teeth, he said angrily, "You don't own her anymore. Let her go."
Tom smirked and said, "You think you can pass the test like this, Draco?"
"I don't care about it anymore. Damn the test! I don't even want to become a Death Eater to follow in your lead."snarled Draco.
"Really?" Tom said, amused. "What does your father, Lucius, think about that?"
"I don't know and I don't care."
"He'll kill you."
"I'm not afraid of death."
Tom laughed and said, "Then what are you afraid of, Mr. Malfoy?"
"Nothing." Draco answered, curtly.
"No, I think you're lying." Riddle said, turning around and walking towards Ginny again. "I think you're afraid of Ginny being taken away from you. You're afraid she will get hurt."
Draco remained silent.
"You love her, don't you?" Riddle said, quietly.
Draco looked at the badly beaten up Ginny. She had fainted. Looking away from her, he looked back at Riddle who was staring at him in a sick amusement.
"Yes." he whispered..
Riddle smirked and said, "She gave herself to me five years ago through the diary. She's mine."
Draco awoke with a start with sweat rolling down from his forehead. He breathed heavily as he quickly looked around to see if it was really just a dream. He was relieved when he heard snores because it made him realize he was still in the Slytherin dormitory. He kicked his blankets off and violently pulled the curtains around his bed open. Since he was in the dungeons, it was still pretty dark. By the looks of it, it was probably pretty early or very late at night. He quickly glanced at the clock that hung on the wall, and he faintly read that it was 4 in the morning.
Draco rubbed his temples and groaned.
What a hellish dream. he thought, getting up from his bed.
Suddenly, he started. He quickly got dressed and bolted out of the Slytherin dormitory. Having arrived in the common room, he saw that it was empty. Picking up his pace, he ran out of the common room and into a long, dark corridor. By instinct, he quickly lighted it up with his wand and continued running down the corridor. He reached a flight of winding stairs and caught his breath. Then, he ran up, two steps at a time. Luckily, it was empty upstairs.
He arrived at the Entrance Hall. A very dim light was shone around from the windows near the ceiling. Quickly, he went down another long corridor, leading to the Gryffindor Tower. He blindly ran through the darkness, and suddenly bumped into something. Hard.
He stumbled backwards and quickly whipped out his wand.
" Lumos!"
The tip of his wand illuminated a bright light, and he saw what he had bumped into. Actually, who he had bumped into. It was Ginny; the exact person he was looking for. He sighed with relief and helped her up. He smiled, but she looked away. Draco saw she had tears stained on her cheeks, and her eyes were red from crying. She started shaking in a fit of agitation.
"Ginny," Draco said, concernedly, "What's wrong."
She shook her head violently, still shaking from head to toe. Draco put his wand away and put his arms around her, hugging her tightly. He started leading her to the Entrance Hall because he didn't want to get caught in the middle of the corridor. Quietly, with one arm still around Ginny, he opened the door and led her outside.
"What's wrong, Ginny?" he asked again, facing her.
Ginny looked frightened. She was averting her eyes here and there, as if she were scared something was going to jump out at her and attack. Her lip quivered and tears leaked continuously down her cheek. Again, Draco sighed and held her close to him, putting his head on top of hers. He closed his eyes and gently told her to calm down. Ginny tightened her hold on him and sobbed quietly.
"Ginny," he said, firmly, "Tell me what happened."
She sniffed loudly and choked out, "It was him, Draco."
"Who?"
"Tom." Ginny cried. "Tom Riddle."
Draco felt his stomach lurch uncomfortably.
"He's always in my nightmares, haunting me." Ginny sobbed. "He taunts me by showing the body of my mother…and—and this time…"
Ginny stopped.
"What?" pressed Draco. "What did he do?"
A few seconds of silence went by, and Ginny exhaled shakily.
"You were there." Ginny began in a calmer voice. "So was he. I was in a corner. And Tom, he—he hurt me..."
Draco inhaled sharply. He had the same, exact dream. Ginny was just describing it in a nutshell.
"It's okay, Ginny." he whispered, soothingly. "He won't hurt you anymore…"
For a while, they remained standing in each other's arms. Ginny would occasionally sniff and try to calm down from everything. Then, Draco pushed away and took Ginny's hand, walking slowly towards the lake. The sun was just barely already rising and it already sent diamonds scattering into the lake. The giant squid appeared and then quickly disappeared when it caught sight of the two.
Draco found it very strange and somewhat frightening that he had the same dream. Was it really the Dark Lord sending them both a message? But why would the Dark Lord waste his time sending disturbing dreams to them? Did he not have better things to do?
And he could just owl us if he doesn't approve of our relationship…Draco thought, bitterly.
Draco froze. Did he just actually say that to himself? Was he really in love with Ginny?
He couldn't deny it. He already failed the test, so it didn't really matter anymore…
Ginny sat down on the shore of the lake, throwing random rocks into the water. Draco remained standing and observed her. Up until now, Draco did not realize how beautiful she was. Even though her eyes were red and swollen from crying, he still thought her to be quite attractive. Draco finally sat down with her and continued looking at her.
She sniffed and turned to face him. "What?"
He put an arm around her and pulled her to him. Draco kissed her gently on the lips.
"Whatever happens, I'll always be there."promised Draco.
Ginny raised an eyebrow and said, "That was sort of random, wasn't it?"
He shrugged and stated, "Just needed to let you know that."
They sat in silence, watching the sun rise from its sleep slowly. Birds began singing, and the whole world was waking up. The sky became a light blue and not a cloud was in sight. Ginny sighed and leaned against Draco, closing her eyes. Draco stared down at her, silently regretting what he agreed to do to her.
But he wasn't going to do it, he decided. She was everything to him, now. It was strange, he knew; but he couldn't help it. Ginny was like the first person that actually cared about him and talked to him like a friend.
Suddenly, Ginny's eyes fluttered opened and she smiled at Draco. She put her arms around him.
"But there was a very good part in my dream I didn't tell you about…"Ginny whispered in Draco's ear.
"And what's that?" Draco asked, quietly.
Ginny grew quiet and seemed to hesitate from answering. Her smile faded away, and she looked at Draco as if she was embarrassed to say it. Nervously, she smiled again and blushed.
Blushing harder then ever, she said, barely audible, "In—in my dream…you said you loved me…"
So this is the way
That I say I need you
This is the way
That I say I love you
This is the way
That I say I'm yours
This is the way
This is the way
That I'm learning to breathe
…::Switchfoot::..