Author's Note: I'm baaaaacccckkkk! Miss me? Don't answer that, I'm far too euphoric to be bothered with people telling me they didn't realize I was gone. So, for any and none of those of you interested in this piece of shite, here's the next installment. RATED 'R' FOR THEMATIC ELEMENTS. Always wanted to say that. Oh, and to Ebonydiva2208 ...I did say Heather had ebony skin, didn't I? Stupid Kelsey, this is why we don't write twelve Fan-Fics at the same time. CHARACTER CONFUSION! Sorry...I hadn't meant for Heather to be, but if that's how you took my description, go for it; it doesn't really matter. If you want to imagine her with neon green skin, go ahead; it's all you. I only provide the writing, horrible though it is. So, without further ado...here.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Dancing Life

Chapter 26: A Storm: the Tempest after the Calm

Ginny was finding it very hard to concentrate on not shoving her plate of eggs straight into Ron's big, round, cheerfully boyish, stupid big brother face. Her knuckles were turning white where she was grasping onto the edge of her plate and her hands were shaking, though practically unnoticeably.

'Practically' as in her eggs were jumping all over her plate and almost everyone but Ron was noticing. He was just sitting there, shoveling bacon and toast into his wide mouth with the most alarming alacrity without really looking at her, talking enthusiastically to a sleepy Harry and an uninterested Hermione.

"At first I was a little worried because mum's always nagging at me for something or another. But then I realized that with Dad and the twins there…she'd be a bit better about it. Not to mention she's going to have kittens when she finds out about Ginny and Malfoy."

"Draco." Hermione corrected automatically. Ron stopped, his fully-loaded fork halfway to his already nearly overflowing mouth. He swallowed. "Right." He rolled his eyes and then proceeded to spoon more food into his mouth.

"I mean, she'll be too busy yelling at Ginny that she won't have time to bother me about that detention from Snape I got last week." Ron said cheerfully, not taking heed of the death glare Ginny was shooting him.

Hermione, however, caught the glance. "Ron, you deserved that detention." Ron's eyes widened comically, bacon hanging from his full mouth. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, you did! D'you think I'd be advocating Snape just for thrills? I hate the man about as much as you do, but what do you expect him to do when you blow up frog liver in his face?"

Ron chewed and stared moodily down at his plate. "Not like it made any difference, the slimy grease ball fairy-" Hermione's foot suddenly twitched uncontrollably, meeting Ron's knee sharply. Ron nearly sprayed half the Gryffindor table with eggs as he dove under the table to nurse his throbbing joint.

Hermione snuck a grin at Ginny, who caught it in a sideways glance and had to cram her mouth with eggs to keep from smiling.

Ron resurfaced from under the table, a typical What-the-hell-was-that-for scowl on his face. He opened his mouth to begin a row with Hermione, who was suddenly finding her muffin extremely interesting. Most of the Gryffindor table braced themselves for an explosive Ron-Hermione spat, and some even began setting up protective shelters made up of books and notebooks and other people. Food was destined to fly in their fights.

Ginny was just wishing she hadn't worn her new robes when someone plopped down between her and Ron, diverting his and Hermione's attention. Ginny glanced up as Dean smiled good-naturedly at her.

She could actually feel the blood draining from her face, flowing ice-cold through her veins. She felt it all settle somewhere in the pit of her stomach, and she felt a sudden, unexpected wave of nausea hit her.

Dean hadn't dared come this close to her in two years. And Ron was gaping at him, his menial quarrel with Hermione temporarily forgotten. Ginny stiffened frigidly as Dean shifted to turn more towards her, his knee brushing her leg. The touch sent electric volts up and down her entire leg,…but not the good kind the likes of Draco caused…these were positively repulsive.

She fought the impulse to slap his leg away, and instead simply tucked her legs to her side. Lavender Brown, on her other side, glanced over at her irritably when Ginny's knees bumped into her legs, but upon seeing the scene unfolding in front of her, her eyes lit up and she nudged Parvati beside her.

Ginny was completely unaware of any of this. Her entire focus was on Dean and it took all her willpower not to shake. She felt the trembles gliding through her; under her skin, through her veins, around her joints, pounding in her head and chest until she wanted to break down and submit to them.

Still her hands remained firmly immobile on the table, though her fists were clenched so tightly her knuckles were turning white. Her face was a blank mask, and she fought hard to keep it that way.

She hadn't felt this horrid about him since that first few months after the incident. But now, with him sitting casually down next to her as if nothing had ever happened, she felt fourteen again; scared stiff but too unsure to do anything but sit motionless.

Dean grinned affably at her, unaware of her discomfort. True, she wasn't beaming at him or swooning, but he supposed that was just because she was afraid of what Malfoy would do.

"Hey Gin." He said offhandedly. Ginny felt like a mound of sand had welled up in her mouth, and she swallowed with some difficulty. "Look, I was just wondering if you'd like to go to this dance bit with me." Ginny stared at him uncomprehendingly.

What in Godric's name was going on? Had they not split up? Had he not attacked her and practically raped her? Had Ron not tried to hex his naughty bits off several times? Had Heather not been backing Ron up? Did Dean not remember any of this? Was he insane? Was Snape seething up at the Head Table?

Ginny's attention was temporarily abstracted as Snape made a sudden, sharp movement up at the head table. And as Ginny turned her full glance on him, he did look rather peeved. Which was putting it mildly. Had the man been of any fouler disposition, he would have been smoking at the ears, his white face even redder than it was now.

What was moderately disconcerting was that his fierce glare was fixed on her. Ginny bit back the rhetorical question she was going to ask. But really, what was Snape glaring at? As Snape realized Ginny had caught his stare, he quickly turned away to whatever Flitwick was babbling about. Even as Ginny turned back to Dean, she saw the fork Snape was holding bend in his grip.

As she turned around, she felt an unsettling feeling centered at the base of her neck, making the hair there stand on end. She rolled her shoulders and tried to shiver, but it wouldn't come. Instead she was left with that maddening sensation of wanting to shudder, but not being able to.

She turned around completely in her seat, no longer facing the table. Ready to run. She thought dryly. As she did, she found a pair of steely blue eyes boring holes in her. Ginny flicked her gaze up at Dean, who was still staring at her expectantly, looking more and more hopeful and confidant with every second of her ostensible inner conflict.

She twisted her look back to Blaise, who was somewhere between glaring at Dean and questioning Ginny. Her wide brown eyes went ever wider in a silent plea. She could feel unwarranted tears prickling in her eyes and the last thing she wanted was for Dean to think he could make her cry like he had some kind of hold over her.

Blaise, fortunately, took the signal. He stood suddenly and strode unhesitant to where Ginny was half-sitting in her seat, looking ready to either cry or bolt. Blaise put a large hand out and Ginny took it unquestionably. He pulled her gently to her feet and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him.

He fixed that terrifyingly threatening glare back to Dean, who seemed to shrink a few inches. "Stay away from her mate. The next time I won't give you warning. And believe me, if you're up against me, you'll want one. So stay away. She's taken." And with that, he led Ginny from the Great Hall.

Once outside, Blaise continued to pull her along. Ginny, too weary to object, allowed him to. He pulled her into the nearest classroom and shut the door behind them. Ginny sat down on a desk, staring hollowly at the floor, all the fear, guilt and shame running through her all over again.

Blaise tentatively rubbed her back comfortingly. Ginny shuddered at first, but forced herself to realize that it was Blaise touching her, not Dean. Not Dean. Not Dean…She could still feel the spot where Dean had touched her, burning away at the flesh of her thigh.

It started at her knees. They started shaking, bouncing up and down uncontrollably. Then her legs. The tremors traveled up, bunching and tightening the muscles in her stomach, making her nausea intensify and overwhelm her. Her shoulders began to quake, shaking forcibly back and forth, and her trembling hands rose to hug herself tightly, as if to steady the violent trembles fighting to take control over her.

Blaise watched on in morbid fascination, completely at loss for what to do. It wasn't like he dealt with schizophrenics and psychotics everyday…you had to give him some credit, though. He did manage to help Ginny to the ground before running away as fast as possible. He had to find Draco…Draco would know what to do with someone in a fit. Of course he would…he was Draco.

Ginny rocked back and forth, volts like electric shock ripping through her, leaving her weak and sick. She gagged violently and rubbed at the burning spot on her leg. Her palms tingled with friction as she frantically scrubbed at the spot, pushing her skirt up hastily. Her pale flesh went first pink, then red as she scoured her leg furiously, jerks still shaking her body frenziedly.

She hardly noticed she was crying until her tears grew so thick and numerous that they linked her eyelashes together with moisture as they pushed forth past others to escape her eyes. She blinked chaotically, wiping her stinging eyes with her smarting hands.

A raw sob escaped her dry lips, which up to now had been firmly closed in a set grimace. She looked down at her leg and wild and inexplicable hatred and nausea welled up in her. She turned to her side, wobbly arms holding her up as she dry-retched beside her. Her stomach was heaving outrageously, yet it stayed in her, burning with feverish intensity; the same kind that bubbled under her skin where Dean had touched her.

She glanced down at her leg and could almost see a distinct impression, as if his leg had seared a mark on her leg with some unknown flaming power. And though she could never quite understand it, not even thinking rationally much later, she despised him more passionately than ever. Him and everything that linked her to him. Her eyes burned into her skin as his touch burned under it. Without warning or reasoning, Ginny started rubbing at her leg again. But this time it was complete animosity that fueled her movements.

The mark was still there; she could see it under the raw skin that seemed to blossom with flame, redness spreading all around it in a wide arc. She scratched at it, her nails sending grazes that stained her flaming red skin white momentarily before going an even darker red than the angry skin underneath it.

She clawed desperately at the mark; it burned even brighter, as if taunting her. Her nails started to scrape deeper, picking up skin under them. Livid crimson streaks lined her leg around the one spot that glowed spitefully up at her, matching her for intensity. The tears that fell hot from her eyes singed her already scorched skin, and it had to be Ginny's frenzied imagination; her tears just couldn't be sending little boiling puffs of steam up from her arid skin. Could they?

In her state, Ginny was in no position to question anything, especially herself. She'd gone past thinking by now, acting purely on emotions. As hate was the most dominant one present in her, it surfaced and reflected and bounced back to direct itself at her. When her skin ripped and tore, blood blossoming up ruby-red and thick, she didn't stop to think about what she was doing to herself. She just kept scuffing away, still shaking with both tears and shudders of revulsion.

She had no way of knowing how long she had sat there; if someone would have asked her right then, she would have just as likely said five seconds as five years. All she knew was hate and pain and despair.

She didn't even hear the door bursting open to let a mortified Blaise and frantic Draco in. She knew nothing of their presence until her hands were pulled away in two steel grips, away from her leg.

Draco felt her trembling in his grip. Her unrestrained arms were twisting and wrenching horribly, fighting to escape his hands. Her tear-stained face was turned far away from him, her body striving valiantly to get as far away as possible with her hands locked in a vise-like hold. Her legs were shaking just as badly, her knees jumping on the floor as she tried to push away from him.

Blaise was having a hard enough time holding her still. For a scrawny little thing, she had more strength than should have been possible. He wrapped his arms around her chest from behind, reaching to pull her arms to her body. She wriggled and writhed under both of them, tears falling ever steadily.

Getoffgetoffgetoffgetoff…Ginny's mind screamed hysterically, her brain pounding in her ears as her heart beat to a different, even wilder beat beneath her ribs. Somewhere in her panic, she found her vocal chords. "Get off me! Get off get off get off get off, please get off!" she chanted frantically, her eyes squeezed shut.

Even the protection of her eyelids couldn't keep out the image of Dean, eyes red and wild, standing over her with that horrible, almost tragically possessed look on his face. As he touched her and hit her and…

"GET OFF!" She screamed, bucking uncontrollably and shaking off Blaise's hold. Her elbow smacked him in the jaw as he let her go, and he fell back with a muffled grunt. Ginny's legs were pumping furiously, kicking at Draco's knees as she strained to pull away.

Draco bit his lip and stifled a groan of pain as her foot kicked a rather delicate body part, but he still didn't let her go. Instead, he pulled her close in one swift, powerful movement. Ginny pulled and jerked and beat at Draco's chest with her fists.

Draco took a chance. He let go of her hands just as she moved to hit him again. She fell onto his chest and he took the window of opportunity to wrap his arms firmly around her back, holding her to him tightly.

Ginny's energy seemed to be dying, but she was still fighting to get away, why…Draco really didn't understand. She finally went limp, her forehead falling to land on Draco's shoulder. Her heart was pounding painfully fast, and her head was hurting from either crying or screaming.

Draco felt her laborious breaths on his shoulder and leaned his head over so it rested on top of hers, still holding her tightly. "Shh…." He murmured softly as she took a shuddering breath. "Please…please please…just go…away…please…just go away…please…" she mumbled incoherently in ragged breaths. "Go away Dean…please…just go away…go away…go…away Dean…away…go…away…please…go…go…away…please…please Dean…go please…" she echoed those five words over and over, calming herself with every breath she took in and released.

Draco clutched her closer. I'm going to murder the bastard… he thought violently as Ginny shuddered and shook under his hold. "Please, Dean…just go away." She whispered one last time before closing her eyes gently and falling asleep, exhaustion seeping through every pore and running warm through her veins, lulling her to slumber in dreams filled with terrors and saviors and screams and kisses.

Draco held her tenderly, relinquishing his severe grip on her. Her body went lax in his arms and she curled up against him in sleep. Draco stared at a spot over her shoulder as he rubbed her back softly. Blaise eventually came up next to him, standing tall far above Draco, who was still on the floor, slumped against a wall with Ginny lying across him.

"Erm…Draco? Is she…" he paused hesitantly as Draco turned his head slowly up toward him, anger pushing the thoughtful look from his eyes. "…is she alright?" he finished. Draco's eyes went from soft grey to hard steel in a matter of seconds.

"What do you think, Blaise? Do you see what she's been through?" He gestured to her leg, with its torn and matted-blood spattered raw surface, to her hands, also smeared with her own blood and just as red, to her face, still pink and swollen from harsh tears. Blaise glanced guiltily down at her, biting his lip as he frowned.

"How could you just have left her?" Draco asked quietly, his eyes half-closing questioningly. Blaise stared moodily at the wall behind Draco, purposefully avoiding his eyes. "I don't know." He said just as quietly, the dead silence that punctuated each remark acting as a solemn barrier that prevented them from thinking of anything else. "I didn't know what to do. She was shaking…like she was having a fit or something." He glanced surreptitiously at Draco. "I got scared, alright? I didn't know what to do, and she was looking so ill. I thought you would know what to do, because I sure as hell didn't. Would you rather have let me leave her to that git Thomas?" he went from repentant to angry as he spoke, his eyes flashing as his voice rose.

He knew he shouldn't have left her there alone, but he hadn't exactly had time to analyze the situation, and he knew he needed to do something. Draco had no right to make him feel any guiltier than he already did.

Draco merely regarded Blaise with a tired, disappointed gaze. "Thank you for coming to get me." He finally said, his voice still hushed and non-threatening.

Blaise nodded, his anger dying. Looking at the soft, pained look Draco was fixing on Ginny, he couldn't help it. Draco did have every right to be mad with him. Though Blaise cared for Ginny very much as a friend, Draco loved her more than anything. Blaise tried to imagine what he'd do if it had been Heather and Draco instead of him and Ginny. He glanced once at Ginny's leg and shivered. He would be just as angry as Draco, he realized.

"Draco mate, I…" Draco shook his head, though remembering to add a comforting nod. "Don't worry. Let's just get her somewhere safe." He said , his voice lacking the harsh severity it had held minutes before faced with the harm of the one thing, the one person he'd come to care for more than himself. And he was a bloody well narcissistic prick, so that was saying a lot.

Draco stood, scooping Ginny up in his arms easily and cradling her to his chest gently. She shivered and looked ready to go into another panic attack (and for two older, stronger men, they most certainly weren't ready to take her on again) when the door to the classroom burst open.

Blaise arched an eyebrow as Heather flew into the room, not stopping to gasp or cry out in shock of seeing her best and dearest friend unconscious, shaking and bleeding in Draco's arms. She strode forward, blue Chinese silk robes billowing behind her as everyone got a good look of her nightclothes- she most obviously had rushed down here- her clothes were a rumpled mess and her hair wasn't even brushed. She went right up to Ginny and placed a cool hand to the older girl's forehead.

Immediately Ginny calmed and the deep lines etched in her brow smoothed out somewhat. She soothed enough that Draco could hold her without fear of being emasculated. Heather leaned into Ginny's ear and whispered comforting nonsense as she pulled a bottle from her robes pocket. Tilting Ginny's head back she let the yellowish gold potion spill down the girl's throat.

Draco felt tension he hadn't even noticed disappear as Ginny's entire body went limp. He turned questioning eyes to Heather. What was the potion? How had she known that Ginny was in trouble? How did she even know where to find them? How had she known to come? The questions whizzed through his head and into Heathers.

The younger girl sighed and tucked a strand of red hair behind Ginny's ear, a horribly pained look on her face as she gestured towards the door, her eyes suggesting Madame Pomfrey and a quick lie to get Ginny some rest.

Blaise turned his dark eyes to her matching ones, the same questions and more in their dark depths. Heather sighed heavily, staring after Draco as he took Ginny in his arms to the hospital wing. "Later." She said tiredly, and swept out of the room.