Ginny's sudden scream filled the Hospital wing. Draco had been so close to her face, that he jumped, and had landed sprawled on his back on the hard floor. "That can't have been good." he muttered below his breath, picking himself up, pulling up on her bed to steady himself. His hair was mussed from the fall and his robes were half off of one shoulder and showing a flash of green shirt.
Blaise backed up. "My god." he heard footsteps. "Under the cloak, Drake." he hissed. He grabbed Draco's shirt collar and dragged him underneath the cloak, crouching down next to him. Draco pulled the cloak over himself, listening hard.
Another set of footsteps, these heavier and more menacing then Pomfrey's briskly moving, clipped stride. Then two people entered the room. Madame Pomfrey. And one less expected. Professor Snape. Draco's eyes widened, looking up at Snape. The two shifted slilently underneath the hospital bed, still shrouded in the cloak.
Snape, looking at Ginny, muttered something under his breath that sounded something like 'stupid bint'. Blaise nearly laughed. Draco's eyes narrowed dangerously, how dare he insult her. That was his job.
Snape barely glanced at her before turning to Madame Pomfrey. "Dumbledore told you she was having prophetic dreams, correct?" the nurse nodded. "Then why, pray tell, did you fdrag me up here. Obviously Miss Weasley, in some melodramatic attempt at gaining the attention she doesn't get from her brother and his friends, took Dreamless Sleep potion, knowing perfectly well that by taking an entire vial, it would have this effect."
Madame Pomfrey shot her fellow teacher a reproving look. "Albus thinks she had a new dream and was trying to find out if it was prophetic or not."
"Perhaps. Doubtless that will be her excuse, if she wakes up. But either way, anyone with even the tiniest knowledge of potions would know that it doesn't matter whether the particular dream is prophetic or not. Prophets cannot take dreamless sleep potion without having a violent reaction." given that Madame Pomfrey herself had not known this, obviously it required more than a slight knowledge of potions. After all, she was a magical healer. That required at least a E OWL and an E NEWT in potions. Draco listened to every word. He had told Ginny that this made prophetic dreams worse, but he never imagined she'd take so much. He looked to Blaise, his head cocked slightly in thought. He strained his hearing to the point where he couldv'e heard a pin drop.
"At any rate, Professor Snape, you were summoned to find a cure for Miss Weasley."
"There is no cure for a dream trance." said Snape crisply. Dream trance? That threw Draco completely.
"What!" said Madame Pomfrey. "We are to simply let her sit here forever?"
"You better cure her." Draco mouthed up at Snape, who had no idea he was there.
"Not forever, Madame Pomfrey. I do beg you not to be melodramatic. The chit will wake up when the dreams have been spent." as he spoke Ginny shuddered, shaking the bed she was on violently. A groan escaped her lips and an unintelligible scentence.
"And when will that be?" asked Madame Pomfrey stiffly.
"I am a potions master, not a deviner." said Snape. Madame Pomfrey gave him a prodding look. "I have no bleeding idea." said Snape shortly. He turned and left in a swish of black robes. Blaise felt almost as if he should clap. Snape always did put on quite the show. The funny part was that Blaise was fairly sure Snape was actually rather fond of Ginny. As fond as he was capable of being towards a Weasley and a Gryffindor.
Madame Pomfrey muttered disapprovingly, "Her brothers are going to have several litters of kittens. Oh and her poor parents... I just hope for her sake the poor child doesn't have to go to St. Mungo's. Goodness knows one stay in their psycological ward is enough for anyone... And the poor thing is only sixteen..." as she said this Madame Pomfrey was tucking a violently shaking Ginny tightly into bed, clucking her tounge against the roof of her mouth in a worried manner. "Poor Mister Potter, must have scared him out of his wits, walking in and hearing her having the worst nightmare since Merlin and then be unable to wake her..." still talking to herself, Madame Pomfrey left.
Draco waited for the room to be still again, before clambouring out from under the bed, turning and looking at Ginny. The cloak fell from his shoulders. "If Snape doesn't do something for her, he's going to regret it." he growled angrily.
"Draco." said Balise reasonably. "Have you considered the possibility that there may genuinely be nothing he can do? Snape may be a bit of an arse, although he likes us well enough, but he wouldn't intentionally let a student suffer. Physically, at any rate." Draco looked round at Blaise dangerously, he was purposefully trying to wind him up by contradicting everything he was saying, or he was stupid.
"Just pointing out the obvious because your obsession-hazed eyes can't see a damn thing but Miss Personality there."
"Blaise, shut up. It's really not helping!"
"Well you staring at her and ranting about Snape isn't either. At least do something to give the semblance of usefulness. I'm not required to be useful. I'm back up." said Blaise.
Ginny whimpered and turned over fitfully, with difficulty, because Madame Pomfrey had tucked her in rather tightly. That was soon fixed by her shaking and kicking. "He wouldn't... he wouldn't..." she was murmuring into her pillow, over and over. Her delicate legs were pumping as though she was running. The bed clothes fell off and slid to the ground in a blue and white heap of cotton.
Draco picked up her covers, and crumpled them into a ball in his hands. "Like what? I have no idea about this!" he replied, pretty pissed off
Ginny twitched. "Stooooop...." she moaned; a low, throaty wail. With that she turned over, right out of bed, landing with a thump. Draco quickly dropped to her side and picked her up, a scowl on his worry etched face.
Time passed. Christmas came and went. Before anyone knew it, it was after New Year and Christmas break was over. When Ron came back and found out about his sister he was livid Harry hadn't owled the family. Until he found out he had been forbidden to by Dumbledore, because the man felt that, as there was nothing to be done, it was best to let the Weasleys enjoy the holiday. Ginny had been in her trance for nearly two weeks now.
Draco had been up in the infirmary every night under his invisibility cloak. He was with her on Christmas eve, New Years eve, and whenever else he could be.
If Ginny's shaking and shuddering had become less violent it was only because she had had no peaceful sleep or food. Snape had informed Madame Pomfrey (and Draco, though he was not to know that), that Dream Trancers did not die of exhaustion or starvation.
However, unfortunately for Draco, this didn't mean not eating or, technically, sleeping was doing Ginny any good, either way. Her skin was so pale he could see every vein. She looked as though she couldn't possibly weigh more than a sheet of parchment. He was worried to the point where he where he wasn't eating, sleeping or doing anything much that resembled being normal.
As her movement had died down, Ginny had been talking that much more. This meant that Draco was regularly treated to pleas, cries for help and scentence fragments, none of which had any meaning, as far as he could tell, many of which included Harry's name. He was to the point where, if Ginny didn't die of shock when she woke, he might kill her himself for being so damned stupid. He sat there, disgruntled for hours on end at times when she just repeated Harry's name, his used scornfully a few times.
On January tenth, at two in the morning, Draco was just sitting next to Ginny. All of a sudden she gave a scream of "Noooooooo!" and sat bolt upright in bed, eyes wide open, shaking with terror.
Draco did a double take, looking at her. "Ginevra?" he said, in slightly shock.
"D-draco?" said Ginny tearfully.
Draco got up, and stood by her, looking down at her. "I'm here."
"He's coming to get us." said Ginny softly and slowly, looking around as though 'he' was hiding behind one of the mint green seperators that hid her from the rest of the room.
"He?" asked Draco, looking round behind him
"Voldemort." said Ginny, flinching as she said the name. Some things didn't change.
Draco didn't move. "That's not good." he simply replied.
"What happened?" asked Ginny, still shaking so violently she couldn't keep ahold of the bedsheets.
Draco rested his hand on her arm, trying to comfort her. "What happened where?"
"Why am I here? I couldn't wake up... It didn't matter how bad the dream was, I couldn't wake up." said Ginny. She tried to lean over to hug him and fell on him. Not bothering to move she started sobbing into his robes.
Draco held her closely. "You fell into a trance." he whispered to her. "That whole vial of dreamless sleep potion made everything worse."
"I took the whole vial?" murmured Ginny.
Draco nodded. "You did..." Ginny buried her face into his robes.
"Why'd did you take it all?" Draco asked in a harsh whisper.
"I didn't mean to. I took a sip and felt sort of hazy... I don't remember taking it all."
"Blaise went on about how you might've wanted to kill yourself." said Draco, angrily and through gritted teeth
Ginny shrunk back from him. "I didn't try to kill myself." she said in a tiny whisper.
"Good." replied Draco, feeling terrible inside, but the only way he knew how to show anything was through anger most the time.
"I know it was stupid.... I... I don't understand why it did that though.... I just wanted to find out if my new dream was prophetic
"New dream?" asked Draco, raising an eyebrow.
"The only prophetic dream I'd ever had was the one with the letters, and you and Harry..." said Ginny, utterly forgetting she'd refused to tell him much about that dream. "But I had one... I had one where I became a Death Eater. And I was trying to figure out if it was prophetic or not... Because..."
Draco waited for her to finish. He was watching her face, and thinking about all she was saying.
"Because I can't be a deatheater." said Ginny finally.
"That's what your dream said you would become..." said Draco quietly with thought.
"I am NOT going to be a Deatheater, Draco. Ever." said Ginny vehemently. She flopped over onto her pillows. He'd let her go while yelling at her and she was too weak to stay up by herself for long. The effect her flopping like a dead fish had on the statement she was making was not a good one.
Draco reached for her hand. " I know you aren't." he said, and then muttered inaudibly to himself.
"What was that?" asked Ginny, yawning. She was already plotting ways not to sleep. Ever again.
"I have no choice." He said, still quietly.
"Go to Dumbledore." said Ginny firmly. If she could keep him talking he wouldn't insist she get some real sleep. She didn't trust sleep. Sleep was bad, because sleeping meant dreaming and she never dreamed good things anymore. It was quite simple, really.
"Ha, and faced being disowned and killed!?"
"He would protect you." said Ginny, in the tone one uses to talk to a belligerent two year old.
"I can't be protected by him."
She pursed her lips. "If this is some stupid Slytherin pride thing, I swear Draco Malfoy-"
"Slytherin pride has nothing to do with it." interrupted Draco.
"Then pray tell, what does it have to do with?"
"Voldemort'll know where I am, and he'll know how Dumbledore was protecting me." said Draco, knowing that whatever he did there was no way he could escape it. Ginny kept her mouth shut, jaw tight. She was going to do something about this. But he didn't have to know it. Draco ran a hand back through his hair. He looked over at her, his steely eyes meeting her's.
"Didn't you miss me?" asked Ginny quietly.
"I have been sitting here every day since you fell into that trance, watching. I missed you." replied Draco.
"Well just how long is it going to take for you to kiss me?" demanded Ginny in an irritated manner, sounding just like him.
Draco smiled slightly, and, leaning forward and down, kissed Ginny. She wrapped skinny, pale arms around his neck and kissed him back. He could feel her bones. He had missed her so much, he just didn't show it, at all. He placed a hand on her side, her rib cage prominent under her robes. Draco thought she needed sustenance and soon. She pulled back, breathing hard, both because of the kiss, and because she was weak and needed to breathe more anyway.
Draco realised, and pulled away, giving her a little room to breath. "Sorry." he muttered to her.
Ginny shook her head. "Don't be." her stomach growled. "I'm hungry."
"You've wasted away. Want me to go get Madam Pomfrey and some food?"
Ginny nodded as vigorously as she could, yawning widely. I am not sleeping. I am not going to sleep, ever again. She told herself sternly. Sleep is vastly over rated anyway. Draco kissed her gently once more and dissappeared off to find Madam Pomfrey, and food.
Ginny was bravely fighting off sleep.
A little while later, Madam Pomffreys steps echoed up the hall, along with the patter of a little pair of feet, and Draco's hollow steps. Ginny was half asleep, laying weakly against her pillows. Draco opened the door, and all three of them entered. Madam Pomfrey rushed over to her and started to check her over. The house elf who was infront of Draco came in with a tray of food - soup, bread, juice, fruit etc.
Ginny flashed a smile at Draco, just hoping Madame Pomfrey didn't comment to her parents about Draco Malfoy being there when she woke up. That would be bad. He smiled back, glad she was awake again. "Thank you." she said softly to the house elf. The house elf bowed lowly, and squeaked a most gracious reply. He then left quickly.
Ginny dug into her food. She just hoped Madame Pomfrey didn't try and make her sleep. Draco stood behind at the curtain watching with a smile.
Madam Pomfrey tutted. "You are severely exhausted. You need to sleep." Ginny took a huge bite so that she wouldn't have to answer. Several huge bites.
"I can't give you any potions, but you are going to have to try - Mr. Malfoy what are you doing here still? SHOO!" Ginny shot Draco a pleading look. She had finished her food and really had no excuse to be awake.
Draco replied, "I have to speak with Ginevra." he wasn't going to give Madam Pomfrey a reason.
Madame Pomfrey let out a huff. "Alright, I am going to bed. Be sure she does get some sleep, and no more than fifteen minutes!" she turned on her heel and left.
Ginny collapsed back against her pillows. Draco glided over to her bed and sat down by her. She had her eyes wide, as though she was forcing them that way.
"Ginevra, if you want to sleep, I'll wake you up if you start thrashing around, or shouting. At least that way you'll get rest." said Draco quietly.
"No." said Ginny sharply.
"Why?" replied Draco, looking at her
"I can't go back to sleep." said Ginny, her lower lip quivering. "I-" she took a deep, shaky breath.
Draco took hold of her hand gently, his touch cold. " You need to rest." He said, looking at her.
"I won't." said Ginny stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest, thereby yanking her hand away from Draco. She stuck out her lower lip and glowered at him. It was actually rather funny.
Draco just looked at her. She was being stubborn, and Draco knew it. "You can't stay awake forever you know...!"
"Watch me." said Ginny defiantly. She made an interesting picture, propped up among her pillows, nearly the same shade as the bright white cases, her red hair in sharp contrast with her white skin. Draco watched her, his arms folded, grey eyes staring.
Her defiant stance melting. "Talk to me, please?" asked Ginny.
"I'll talk to you." Draco said with a slight smile. "Know how long you were asleep?"
Ginny shook her head. "Isn't it Christmas?"
"Missed Christmas, that was a good 15 days ago." He replied.
Ginny's eyes widened. "It's...." she calculated in her head. "January tenth."
Draco nodded. "Exactly."
"I not-slept for fifteen days. No wonder I'm exhau-" Ginny cut herself off.
" -sted." He finished.
"I'm fine." said Ginny primly, smoothing her sheets. Her whole body was tense, he could almost see her battling sleep. He went and sat on the bed, by her, curling an arm around her, hopefully, him being slightly warm would make her more drowsy, and, eventually, send her to sleep, she needed it.
"I-" yawn "Know perfectly well what you are doing, Mister Malfoy." said Ginny drowsily.
"Remember when you were with me you didn't dream?" said Draco quietly to her.
"I want you to know that I would not go to sleep for anybody else." said Ginny, yawning so wide she was sure her face was going to crack in two. She kissed his cheek. Then her head bobbed, once, twice, and fell onto his shoulder. She was fast asleep. Draco smiled, and held her. He was sure Madam Pomfrey wasn't going to be back, so he stayed there. He wondered if she knew what a weird scentence that had been. Smiling slightly, he pulled her covers over her, keeping her warm and comfortable.
Ginny woke up very, very early. She had gotten at least three hours of deep, dreamless sleep, however, and so she felt refreshed. Refreshed enough that she attempted to get out of bed, carefully slipping from under the arm of a sleeping Draco.
She promptly lost her footing and fell flat on her face. Draco woke up, after having drifted off, "Ginerva?" He said, sliding off the bed, and dropping to help her up.
"I don't like being helpless." gritted out Ginny. Draco helped her to her feet again, yawning widely.
"I can walk." said Ginny stubbornly, despite the fact she had fallen twice.
"Oh, so you chose to fall flat onto your face?" asked Draco, teasing her.
"I tripped." said Ginny defensively.
"Oh, you did, did you?" Draco helped her to sit on the bed again.
"Yes." said Ginny. "It's a long nightgown." she had been wearing a robe over her nightgown, but it had slipped off during the night. Actually, Draco noticed, it wasn't just long. It was also rather low cut. Draco shook his head slightly from side to side at her with a smile. He then sat next to Ginny, gracefully placing himself next to her. He topped it all off with a yawn.
"How eloquent of you." said Ginny sarcastically.
"Wasn't it just." replied Draco. Ginny rolled her eyes at him and curled up on the bed next to her boyfriend.
"You are a brat." said Ginny succinctly, even though she knew perfectly well the word was probably more suited for her. Absently she ran her figners through his hair. It was different, lately. Before they'd made out, and touched, sure, but there had never been so much casual touching, or cuddling. They didn't do gratuitous things, like straighten each other's collars, or smooth each others robes. Ginny couldn't remember them ever holding hands. Yet they had had sex. And Draco had, apparently, sat by her bedside for fifteen days, worrying about her.
Draco smiled slightly. "Aren't I just." he raised an eyebrow cheekily.
"Ohhh if I wasn't in a delicate condition, I'd smack you." said Ginny, scowling. Unfortunately, in her current stae she looked like a wet kitten rather than a mad lion.
Draco simply shook his head. "Of course you would." Ginny actually hissed at him and then pulled her covers over her head irritably. He scowled slightly, and watched her as she disappeared under the covers next to him. She snuggled up to him under the covers. A smiled curled up on his face, and put his arms around her. Popping her head out from her covers she kissed his nose and then pulled back into her blanket shell. He flicked the covers up, and ducked his head under aswell.
"Eeep, invasion!" squeaked Ginny. He laughed slightly, his low voice echoing tiredness.
"You need to go to your dorm and get some real sleep." said Ginny softly, pushing his hair out of his face. "Wouldn't want Pomfrey catching you here anyway."
"I don't sleep much, but you're right." replied Draco, sounding slightly defeated.
"I know I am. I'm a woman. I am always right." said Ginny haughtily, pushing him gently off the bed, legs first, so he didn't fall. He reluctantly got up, disappearing from below the covers. Gin poked her head out, smiling. Draco smiled back pushing his hair back from his eyes, and then putting his hands in his pockets.
"Night. Well, morning, as it's well after six, but you know what I mean." said Ginny with a smile. She grabbed his tie, "Didn't think you were getting away without a kiss, did you?" and then pulled him down, kissing him soundly.
"I do." said Draco. He laughed until his lips were quite securely pressed against hers. He rested a hand on her shoulder to stop himself falling onto her withthe force from her yanking his tie.
Ginny let go. "Bye."
"Bye." Draco said finally, before kissing her once more, and disappearing.
Ginny lay back on her pillows. No sleep. Not without Draco. Because if she dreamed again she was pretty sure she was going to go insane. She she started counting backwards from ten thousand, in her head. Loudly. She hadn't known it was possible to shout in your own head, but obviously it was. And while the concentration required for shouting, silently, at her brain gave her a headache, she was inordinately pleased.
Draco slipped off back to his dorm, via the kitchens to get food sent up to her again.
Ginny smiled widely when she saw a house elf come in the ward. She hadn't known her boyfriend was so considerate. Not many people knew a lot about Draco, sure he was incredibly cold to almost everyone including Ginny at times, but he had a heart. Even if it was a rather tempermental one.