A/N: This fic incorporates lyrics from the song "Walk Through the Fire" from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode. I'd suggest listening to it because it's an awesome song, I'd suggest even more to see the episode because it's pure awesomeness. Enjoy, and please review!

P.S. Woo can't wait for the Half-blood Prince!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rowling's characters nor do I claim ownership to the words in the song "Walk Through the Fire"

Drawn to the Fire

I touch the fire and it freezes me
I look into it and it's black
Why can't I feel?
My skin should crack and peel
I want the fire back

The tendrils of hair that cascaded before the girl's face were flames that sheilded her from the horror around her. She sat in utter darkness, not able to see a single thing. The only sound was a low rattling emitted from the object of her nightmares. His breathing seemed to fill the room and wrap around her. Ginny had never felt tinier or more helpless in her life. She had angered Lord Voldemort. The last thing anyone in her position ever wanted to do and Ginny had achieved it within the first few moments of consciousness. She had called him something vile, something loathsome and disgusting. She had called him by his birth name. Ginny didn't understand why the name had fell from her lips, she'd never truly thought of Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort as one and the same, despite the truth she knew. But the word was uttered, the deed done. And now she had to deal with an angered Dark Lord. However, he did not act on anger, instead he spoke very calmly.

"No one is to enter this room except by my specific command. We are leaving now."

This statement surprised Ginny because she had not been aware that there was anyone else in the darkness except for herself and Voldemort. Now she heard the rustle of cloaks and a hugely bright, yellow light cut through the darkness. Ginny watched as what looked like around twenty Death Eaters exited the room. Her eyes held fading hope as the light was distinguished by the closing door. She sat alone.

In her first year at Hogwarts, Ginny Weasley had communed with evil. It had burnt her and, in the aftermath, frozen her. She had been numb ever since that experience. Ginny would have gone into the fire again if only to feel something for one moment.

Now, through the smoke she calls to me
To make my way across the flame
To save the day or maybe melt away
I guess it's all the same

Draco Malfoy stood shocked. He couldn't see her well through the darkness, but even in the blackest night that hair would have shone. Weasel. What was that feeling in his chest? Curious. Heartburn? Draco thought back to what he'd eaten that day, no, that couldn't be. Then why was there this stabbing in his chest? His eyes burned as he realized that they wouldn't move from that flash of red in the darkness. Suddenly, Draco recalled the last time he'd seen little Ginny Weasley before now.

It had been just last year. Ginny was in his advanced potions class and they had been assigned an extra credit project to work on together. Draco had wondered at Snape's seemingly sadistic intentions in placing them together for the assignment. The pair sat in the library, Draco looking up the ingredients they would require to make their potion while Ginny hurried to finish her astronomy homework. Draco was agitated, he urged her to hurry up and finish so she could make herself useful with the project. She was struggling. Draco had leaned over her and helped her with the homework. He had told himself that his reasons were purely potions-related, but deep down he knew that something else had compelled him to help the Weasley girl. The same something that was tugging at his heart strings as he watched her sprawled out in the darkness.

It was building, rolling and gathering mass in his chest, that feeling telling him to sweep the little girl up in his arms and take her away from the bad men. I am one of the bad men. He stared out from the white mask hiding his identity, he was a Death Eater, these were not feelings Death Eaters were supposed to have. As he left the room with the other dark minions he couldn't keep the image of Ginny out of his head.

Over the next week Draco tried to stuff his feeling of protectiveness down into the dusty recesses of his mind, but somehow he had ended up thinking up plans to rescue Ginny. He would have to act soon.

So, I will walk through the fire
Cause where else can I turn?
I will walk through the fire
And let it burn

Draco's grip on her wrist was tremendous as they dashed down corridors of the Dark Lord's fortress. At long last Draco sped around the corner he'd been waiting for and saw the exit at the end of the hall. He sped up, dragging the redhead behind him and burst through the door out into the clear July night. Without giving the girl time to catch her breath, Draco grabbed her waist and apparated them both to his flat in London.

Ginny fell down to the floor at the force from the sudden apparation and the exhaustion from their flight from Voldemort. She looked around at her new surroundings slowly before glancing up to her unlikely savior.

The torch I bear is scorching me
And Ginny's laughing I've no doubt
I hope she fries
I'm free if that bitch dies!
I better help her out...

Finally gathering enough wits to speak, Ginny shrieked,"What happened??"

Draco had expected the Weasley to grovel at his feet in gratitude, he had expected her supplication, anything but to be shouted at! He found his usual sarcastic tone,"What happened? I saved your arse that's what, at great risk to my own I might add."

"But...wh-why?"

Draco had been posing this same question to himself all week, and he could not come up with an answer that satisfied him. That she expected him to answer this question angered him more than anything,"WHY?! Why does it matter? You're alive! If it weren't for my feat of kindness Voldemort would be serving up Weasley sandwiches to his Death Eaters! And you're going to question it? Do you have any gratitude at all??"

"You are a Death Eater." Ginny replied.

"You're right, I am! And maybe I should just go right back to Voldemort with you! You obviously don't seem too grateful to be out of his clutches!"

"OH! Typical, leave it to a Malfoy to use a rescue as leverage! What do you want, then?"

"WHAT?? Oh, you...you...gah! I can't look at you. Filth!"

With that Draco stormed into a room Ginny assumed was his bedroom. Behind the door he paced across the floor, seething too much for words. How dare she?? Of course she would assume that he'd only save her to get something from her. The little ungrateful wench! But as he fumed, Draco asked himself why he really rescued her and the feelings that he sparked did not please him. Ugh, I hope she just dies, maybe I'd be free of these god damn emotions! As Draco thought this he stopped in his pacing and listened.

He could hear the soft sounds of her whimpering out in the living room. With a groan he walked toward the door and stepped out into the living room. He glanced about and found her where he'd left her, on the floor, covering her face from view. Her shoulders were shaking dangerously. With hesitance Draco spanned the distance between them and took her into his arms.

And we are caught in the fire
At the point of no return
So we will walk through the fire
And let it
Burn