Disclaimer: I'm just trying to be creative here, no lawyers please.
Who Opened the Dragon's Heart
Chapter Nine
When Draco reached his Prefect bedroom he realized that Supper wouldn't start for another hour or so, so he decided to take a nap. He quickly took off his robes and lay down onto his bed, ready for relaxation. Slowly the lids of his eyes fell.
"I can't believe you're being nice to a Weasley!" a voice exclaimed, breaking through Draco's quite relaxing few seconds of sleep. With a jolt Draco pulled himself up, quickly grabbing his wand ready to curse whoever had broken into his bedroom. Glancing quickly around the room he saw no one.
"Who's there?" Draco barked. There was no reply. "I want you out of my room now! Or I swear I will curse you so badly you won't know who are!" After many moments Draco gave up on his intruder. He settled back down, this time clamping his hand onto his wand, and soon was relaxing nicely.
"Why isn't he allowed to be nice to a Weasley?" another voice filtered into Draco's ears. "I see no reason for him not to have a Gryffindor acquaintance," the voice finished before Draco roared again.
"OUT OF MY ROOM! BOTH OF YOU! WHOEVER YOU ARE I WANT YOU OUT!" Again, there was no reply to screams of Draco Malfoy. "Forget you then! Just leave me alone!"
"I most certainly will not leave you alone!" came the first voice. "You are a disgrace to all Pureblood wizards!"
"How is he a disgrace?" battle the second voice. "The Weasley's are just as pure as the Malfoy's."
"Yes, but the Malfoy's live in a clean environment, don't they?" pointed out the first voice. Draco was most certainly not scared by the thought of two voices arguing in his room, but it most certainly creeped him out. "How could you, Draco?" scorned the first voice. "Associating with a poor Muggle-loving Weasley."
"It's required!" Draco argued back. "My Potions assignment!"
"I don't believe a broom ride is part of your Potions assignment!" sneered the harsh voice. "Putting your arms around her? I'm disgusted with you!"
"I was protecting her!" Draco retorted.
"That's even more disgusting! Trying to save the little brat! It would have served her right to die. She had no reason to be on such a magnificent broom!"
"Now see here!" interjected the second voice. "I've remained quiet too long! Miss Weasley is a wonderful young woman! There is most certainly nothing wrong with them be around each other!"
"Not only does he disgust me, but you disgust me as well!" The first voice directed at the second voice. "Nothing wrong with the Weasley?"
"Would the two of you shut up and tell me who the hell you are?!" Draco's voice boomed, vibrating throughout his bedroom. "Show yourselves to me!"
"We can't," the second voice kindly explained. "We're your conscience, so to speak."
"My conscience?!" Draco snarled.
"That's right, we have no physical form. We're here to serve you."
"Much as I enjoy being served," Draco rebuked, "I don't enjoy being told what to do! Now the two of you need to vamoose!"
"We can't," growled the first voice. "Not until one of us is 100% satisfied."
"How do I accomplish that?" barked Draco.
"Well I'd be more than happy to see you kill the little chit," the first voice added devilishly.
"I on the other hand, want to see you and Ginny have a felicitous union."
"So I either have to kill her or become best friends with her to get you to go away?" Draco questioned.
"Precisely!" exclaimed the first voice.
"Gee," snarled Draco, "I wonder which one I'll choose. Let's see," he continued, weighing his options, "kill Ginny and wind up in Azkaban, or become friends with her and not go to Azkaban. I wonder which one I'll choose."
"I told you he wouldn't want to go to Azkaban," taunted the second voice.
"Both of you leave! Now!" Draco shouted. "I want some rest before supper!"
"As you wish, Malfoy," replied the first voice. "But remember, your father just might kill you and the Weasley girl if you become friends."
"Argh," Draco growled as he tried to rest. "Unbelievable, my conscience is trying to get me to kill Ginny!" There was no way he'd be able to rest now. He slowly left his bed and put his robes back on, preparing to go eat his supper.
Supper was uneventful and soon Draco was heading down to the spare room to work on the assignment with Ginny. "Great way to spend a Saturday night, eh Ginny," Draco asked when he opened the door and saw Ginny setting up.
"The best," Ginny replied with a smile. Wow, does she ever have the prettiest smile, thought Draco. "I was thinking," Ginny continued, "maybe we should start putting together the first report."
"Are you sure?" Draco questioned. "I don't think we have enough for 3 feet just yet."
"Phooey," agreed Ginny, "I guess you're right. I had just wanted to stop searching through these books. It really does get old after a while." They soon hit the books again, trying to find any things they might have missed before. Pretty soon it came time for their detention to start up. There was barely anything left to fix up in the room and they were soon finished.
"Great, our detention assignment is finished but we can't leave until 1:30, and there is no way I'm going to work anymore on that stupid project tonight."
"Well, we could always play Truth or Dare again," Ginny suggested with a smile.
"Oh, all right," Draco relented, "is there still no Dare to this part?"
"Right, no Dare yet. Want me to go first?"
"Sure, ask away."
"You said before that your mother pressed for you to study Music. What instruments did you learn to play?" Ginny asked after a bit of pondering.
"Piano and a bit of Violin," Draco cautiously replied.
"Wow, those are some great classics, you must have done great on both," Ginny answered in amazement.
"I was ok, I guess," Draco admitted modestly. "What about you? Can you do anything musical?"
"Not really, I've always wanted to. I'm sort of ok with singing. Not the greatest, but dogs don't howl when they hear me," Ginny added with a laugh.
"I guess that's always a good thing," Draco chuckled.
"What's your favorite food, Drake?" Ginny asked.
"Drake?" Draco questioned.
"I can't call you Drake?"
"No one else really calls me Drake," Draco admitted, "I call myself that when I'm talking to myself, though."
"You talk to yourself?" Ginny giggled.
"Every now and then, yea."
"So your favorite food is?"
"Capellini Pomodoro," Draco replied easily.
"Capellini Pomodoro?" Ginny asked, "What's that? Italian?"
"It's this absolutely amazing pasta dish. There's this amazing Italian restaurant in a little section of London, makes the most amazing Capellini. You should try it some time," Draco remarked as he continued on about this heavenly dish.
"It sounds really good," Ginny agreed.
"What's your favorite?"
"My mother's beef stew," Ginny replied dreamily. "It's great!"
"Beef stew?"
"Yeah, beef stew. What? Don't you like beef stew?"
"Never had it."
"You've never ever had beef stew?" Ginny exclaimed. Draco shook his head. "Do you want my mother to owl me some? I'm sure she would! She loves making it and knows I absolutely love it."
"Uh, if you really want to, I guess you could," Draco replied hesitantly.
"Perfect!" cheered Ginny. "All right, new question for Draco Malfoy. How far have you gone with a girl?"
"Honestly?" Draco questioned. "I've never had sex."
"Are you serious?!?" Ginny cried out in shock. "You're lying to me!"
"No I'm not," Draco smiled. "It's not that I haven't tried, believe me I have. But every time I get interrupted!"
"Aww, poor Drakie wakie," Ginny cooed, "he hasn't been able to get layed."
"Oh shut up, Weasley," Draco sneered. "I've still probably gotten farther than you!"
"Ok? So?"
"Grr," Draco growled, "I hate you stupid wait til marriage freaks."
"We're not freaks for wanting to save that special moment for the right one," Ginny argued.
"You sure about that, Ginny," Draco asked.
"Positive,"Ginny affirmed. "I'm looking forward to my wedding night."
"Lucky you," Draco muttered.
"What?"
"I said lucky you. I have Parkinson to look forward to," Draco grumbled.
"It must be difficult being betrothed to Parkingslut," Ginny sympathized, letting a Gryffindor nickname for Pansy slip through.
"Oh! I'm not betrothed to her," Draco corrected. "But I probably will end up being, Lucius will probably command it."
"I'm sorry, Draco."
"Nah, it's ok."
"Hey, Draco, can I ask you another question?"
"Sure, go ahead. I can't really think of too many more questions for you anyway."
"Would you tell me about why your opinion of Lucius changed so quickly?" Ginny asked cautiously. The next few moments the air between them was quite tense as Ginny waited for Draco's answer.
"I guess I could tell you a bit about my past," Draco slowly answered. "But when I'm done I get to hear about your life at the Burrow."
"You know my home is called the Burrow?" Ginny asked in shock. "And you actually want to hear about it?"
"Yeah, it'd be nice to hear about a loving family for once," Draco started staring at a corner of the room. Slowly he started speaking again. "Lucius Malfoy loves one thing, Dark Arts. He also hates only one thing, Muggles, Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers are included in that. He learned his two passions from his parents, who learned from their parents, who learned from their parents and so on. So naturally he taught them to me. As a little boy I looked up to my father with great admiration. I wanted to be just like him, act, speak and dress just like him.
"My father wanted me to be one of the greatest wizards of all time. He wanted me to surpass him in greatness, maybe even be greater than his master, Voldemort." Ginny shivered at Voldemort's name, but Draco was concentrating too much on his past to notice. "For hours and hours I would practice spells and incantations. Memorizations of beasts took up much of my free time. The little free time left over I spent outside, flying. Quidditch was rather important to Lucius, I was small, agile, nimble; the perfect seeker.
"At age seven Lucius decided I needed to be challenged more. However he was often away working on the re-uprising of his Lord, so he had my mother give me my advanced classes. I started Latin and of course the unknown Music courses. Let me tell you a little bit about Narcissa Malfoy. She wasn't raised just on Dark Arts. To her parents sophistication came first, if you weren't refined they would refused to acknowledge you. They pressed for the gentility and then added bits of the Dark Arts here and there. Music, of course, is an absolute must for any aristocrat to take part in. And my mother treasured so. My father despised it though. Thought it'd make any man weak. But my mother refused for me to not be brought up as she had been and therefore decided to teach me Music lessons whenever Lucius was not home, which was quite often. My mother was positively delighted when she saw me excel in Music.
"My mother and I lived together peacefully. It was only when Lucius was home that our lives were disturbed. If I ever made a slip in an incantation Lucius would help my build up my tolerance to Black Magic. It takes a sick man to use the Dark Arts on his own son, ya know. But Lucius did it, a few times a week. Soon it was even the tiniest errors that unleashed his wrath upon me. My shirt not being tucked in enough, my hair not sitting the right way, sometimes for not punishing a house elf enough.
"Then I finally went off to Hogwarts. Lucius expected me to be the top of my class. Granger didn't help that too much. He was also disappointed that I didn't make the Quidditch team, he had tried to pull some strings to let me join. My second year I made the Quidditch team, Lucius came to the first game, saw me lose, to Perfect Potter. The boy that Lucius despised, the boy that had defeated his master, twice! My next visit home I was given a nice lesson in the Dark Arts, I couldn't move for 2 days. Later that week I had heard my mother plead with Lucius to lessen my torturings, he slapped her so hard that she crashed into the cabinet 5 feet away. Most of my visits home continued like that.
"Then the summer before my 5th year happened. Lucius had left to do something for his master and Mother wanted me to play the piano while she ate her supper. Eagerly I got out my favorite Suite. I was reaching the end of the second movement when Lucius entered the dining room, he had forgotten papers for his meeting. The look on his face was horrible, he was positively livid. He screamed at my mother, calling her a common whore for teaching his son how to play a musical instrument. I tried to hold back his arms as he attacked her, but he waved a charm at me causing me to be thrown towards the wall. I was glued to the wall in a way. Forced to watch my father as he beat my mother into an almost lifeless body. Before he left again he used his favorite spell for me, Crucio. I tried to fight it as best I could. Unfortunately it was a while before I was able to move. As soon as I was able to however I contacted the emergency wizards at St. Mungo's. They were able to send a Mediwitch who knew enough to heal my mother and would keep her mouth shut about what she saw and heard. That day, my opinion of Lucius changed forever. I swore never to call him father. The monster had beat his wife to near death because she had taught me how to play piano. How can anyone respect a person after that? How can you consider them a person?" Draco's voice finally died down. He had never opened up this much to a person, ever. How was it that he so easily told Ginny his whole life story? He hadn't even described to Snape as much as he had given Ginny.
Throughout Draco's speech Ginny's feelings had gone through pity, sadness, and anger. She finally did what she had wanted to do since the beginning. She put her arm around Draco and whispered, "My God Draco. How could you have lived through all of that? It's horrible what your father did to you, what he made you do and to see. I understand how you can hate him so passionately."
"Yeah, well. I think you're pretty uncommon, seems to me most people wouldn't care what happened."
"Many people would care that you and your mother were being abused by Lucius. Did you know there are Abuse Centers all throughout London?"
"You can't go to Muggles for help against Lucius!" Draco snarled, shrugging off Ginny's arm. "Muggles can't protect you from a wizard and neither can other wizards." He paused trying to gain his control. "I'm going to protect my mother, myself. I'll do it on my own. She's counting on me to make our lives right again. Lucius will pay."
"I'm sure he will, Draco, I'm sure he will," Ginny whispered. She put her arm back around Malfoy and together the sat in complete silence. After what seemed like hours, yet also just a few seconds, a voice filtered into the room.
"Your detention is now complete," Snape's voice rang. "You may collect your wands and leave."
"Well," Ginny proclaimed, "that certainly went by fast, didn't it? I'm certainly tired. Don't know where all my energy went."
"Ginny," Draco interrupted, "shh." He turned to face her, looking down to gaze into her eyes. Even when they were sitting he still seemed to tower her in inches. He started to lower towards her head, Ginny gave a soft gasp and closed her eyes. Draco parted his lips as they came into soft contact with the soft skin above her eyes. He slowly pulled away as Ginny's eyes opened, Draco seemed lost in those milky brown orbs. Lost wasn't always a bad thing though, was it? Again Draco's head lowered, this time with a different part of Ginny's face his target.
"Draco," Ginny spoke in hushed tones, breaking the spell that Draco appeared to be under. "Perhaps we should go now."
Draco shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Right," he answered. "You're absolutely right." Together they slowly cleaned up their work area and then they both headed for the door.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Draco," Ginny said after she grabbed her wand, preparing to leave. Draco caught her hand before she could run off.
"Ginny," he started, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what just happened, I really don't know what came over me." With that he quickly walked the opposite direction, heading for his Slytherin room. Leaving Ginny to wonder about what had really happened this evening.
A/N: There, are you happy? They kissed! I hope the ending was good enough for you guys. I tried making up for the crappy beginning with an awesome ending. It better be good enough, Draco opened up and he kissed her. Now this certainly is my fastest update ever. Don't get to spoiled though. I doubt they'll keep coming this quick. Due to the immediate update of this new chapter I had only 1 reviewer.
HUGE THANK YOU!
DusktilDawn: I know he's such a gentlemen :-D, I just wanna keep him under my bed, or maybe in it, hehe. I hope you loved this chapter, I'm sort of dedicating it to you. Enjoy.