Chapter Two
Head Injuries
'Figures,' Ginny Weasley thought as she pulled her black cloak tighter around herself. 'I'm one of their best aurors and the best they can come up with was a stakeout. Where's the action?'
She was still in a foul mood over the meeting Dumbledore had called earlier that night. She was fine with going to Hogwarts as a 'security guard' as such, but the old Headmaster had asked her to stay after for a minute. When she did, he informed her that she would be placed in the dungeons, since it was easily one of the most dangerous places inside the school. He thought she would be able to hold her own, especially considering her reputation, which she had worked hard to earn.
Ginny was fine with this. What she was not fine with were the people she would be forced to work with. She would have to work with Blaise Zabini AND Draco Malfoy. One or the other alone she could have handled, but put together, they were one massive headache. Even for her.
The wind whipped at the hood covering her hair that was charmed black. She was currently crouching in the shadows on top of a building somewhere near Nocturn Alley. The only light was from the moon, and all it gave was a strobe light effect thanks to the quickly passing clouds.
Another auror was a little ways down the street, posing as a beggar. She knew there were two more hidden somewhere. All four of them were waiting for a deal to go down in the street below.
Suddenly, there was movement in the shadows hugging the buildings and a withered old man in black stepped into the moonlight, accompanied by two thugs. Ginny drew herself into the shadows more watching the moon glint off of the wrinkled man's bald head as he pulled a small wooden box out of the sleeve of his robe. She held her breath as the three looked around, checking their surroundings for uninvited guests like herself.
Another cloud flitted across the moon, throwing the alley into darkness for a split second. When it passed, only the greasy old man remained below.
Ginny gave a small jump of surprise. Alarmed, she quickly searched around.
One of the minions came back into sight with Justin Finch-Fletchy, one of the other three aurors, in tow and unconscious.
She turned around, intending to climb down the stairwell she had used to get up to the roof in the first place.
She silently moved over to it. Opening the door, she found herself staring at the pointy end of the second thug's wand. She ducked, just barely missing the stunning spell he threw at her, and kicked out at him with her left foot from a crouching position.
She aimed too low, though, and instead of throwing him backwards, he fell forwards. Right on top of her.
She tried to roll away in time, but he landed on her right arm. She lashed out, but he was on top and obviously heavier than her.
The burly man scrambled to his feet. Somewhere in the process, he had lost his wand, so he opted for grabbing her head of hair and smashing her forehead against the hard roof stone. Repeatedly.
The third smash, though, Ginny was ready and threw her left arm out to pound her forehead into, instead of cold stone.
With her right hand, she grabbed a fistful of the man's chest from over her shoulder. When he brought her head up for a fourth smash, she managed to get her left foot under her so she was crouching on her right knee. With his own momentum, she rolled forward with the thug in tow and sent him skidding across the roof.
She kept rolling right to a standing position, not waiting to land a sound punch to his nose. Grabbing her wand from the waistband of her black jeans, she stunned him and secured him with ropes.
That was when she noticed she was bleeding.
Head injuries are nasty things. Ginny hated getting them. Hurting any other part of her body was okay; she could easily push through the pain. But with head injuries, even the strongest most macho manly-man out there could fall over in a dead faint.
Feeling slightly woozy now that the adrenaline rush was gone, Ginny once again made her way towards the stairwell. Opening the door, she once again found herself at the mercy of someone else's wand. Focusing on the person behind the wand, which was harder than it should have been, she was relieved to see the friendly face of one of the other aurors.
"Oh, Colin. There you are. How's it going?"
"Ginny, you're bleeding!" Colin Creevy stated worriedly.
"Huh? Yeah. You see that big guy over there?" She motioned to the thug she had just dealt with. "Yeah, he was trying to make a sun roof in this building here, but all he could find to smash the stone with was my forehead."
She let a drunken giggle escape.
Colin tucked an arm around her waist as she swooned again. "Ah, Gin. Always making jokes. See if I were you, I'd have already passed out, and I definitely would not have been able to finish this guy off."
"Well, I take it from your ease that things below are okay?" she turned as serious as she could in the given situation.
"Yeah. While you were grappling up here, Abbot went after Finch-Fletchy and I after the old geezer. We got the artifact and the seller, but because of the disturbance, no buyer made their presence known." He said, helping her down the stairs.
"Damn," Ginny said, wiping at the blood oozing out of her forehead.
By the time they made it down to the street, an array of officials were already there, taking in evidence, carting off the crooks, and checking the aurors. Justin was already revived, talking quietly with Hannah. A healer bustled over to Ginny, taking in the large bruise forming on the side of her head, not to mention her left arm.
"There's nothing I can give you for the bruising, but I can give you a potion to make sure you don't fall into a coma from a concussion," the healer said kindly.
"Thank you," Ginny smiled as the young lady went looking for the potion. Colin heaved Ginny over to the other two aurors. "Alright, guys?"
"Yeah," Justin said, looking up at her. "Looks like you had more fun than the rest of us put together."
"Something like that," she grumbled as her head gave a nasty throb.
The healer appeared next to her again. "Here, take this before you go to sleep tonight. That should be all you need." She put a small bottle of watery greenish liquid in the palm of Ginny's hand.
"Thank you," Ginny said again as the healer wiped her sliced forehead with a rag. She hissed as the cool something touched her.
"Disinfectant," shrugged the healer before going off on her way.
Colin sighed. "C'mon, Ginny. Let's head back. Kingsley! We're gone!" He motioned to himself and Ginny, not noticing her wince at the loud voice. Her head was really starting to hurt.
Kingsley nodded his approval. With that, they were on their way back to Grimmauld Place. Joy.
Upon returning 'home,' Ginny excused herself from Colin's presence with the excuse of a need for water. He gave her a stern look and reminded her to take her medicine before heading up the stairs to his own room.
Just recently Harry Potter had turned the old house into a sort of boarding home for Order members without anywhere else to stay. Ginny had begun staying there to save money, and had just been too busy to look for anywhere else.
No one had to worry about mail because of the discovery of the P.O. Box system muggles had been using for years. ("Ingenious!" Ginny's father had exclaimed.)
Ginny walked woozily into the shadowy kitchen. The only light was from a small fire bouncing in the hearth. The firelight danced off her rapidly reddening hair where the black was starting to wear off. She shuffled over to the sink and got a glass out of a counter, wincing at the clacking sound it made when it hit the wooden counter-top. She quickly filled it with water and downed the entire contents, filling it up a second time.
"Isn't it a little late for 'happy hour'?" asked a cynical voice behind Ginny.
She whirled around, splashing water all over her black cloak. "Gods, Malfoy! I musta jumped six feet in the air! D'jou do that for?"
In the near-dark she could just make out his piercing silver gaze that seemed to be currently calculating her. "Or are you swooning about like a drunkard for another reason?"
He was greatly annoyed that she had awakened him this late at night. One minute he was soundly asleep and the next all his veela senses were going crazy. It felt like every nerve in his body was on fire. He knew that she was in trouble and had half a mind to bolt out after her and tear apart whoever was doing her harm. It was a good thing that he realized he didn't actually know where she was. He instead placated himself by confining himself to the kitchen to wait for her return.
He was pissed. First, at her for getting into trouble, and then at himself for feeling that way.
He had watched as she had come waddling in, again annoyed at feeling slightly concerned, and had only decided to make his presence known after seeing that she was in pain, but not dead. He eyed the now-healed cuts on her bruised forehead, a deep anger boiling up from somewhere.
"For your information, Malfoy, I ran into a little trouble at work." Shrugging off her cloak, she threw it over the back of a chair. She was left standing in the black jeans and t-shirt she had barely had time to change in to before heading off to work. Or the stakeout. Or whatever.
Taking an elastic band from her wrist, she piled up her short curls and secured them atop her head.
Then she made a big show of taking the little vile and downing the contents. And promptly gagged.
Still not moving from his seat in the shadows, Draco murmured, "And here I heard the big bad auror could look after herself."
Ginny took a rag from a draw and ran it under the cool water. Rinsing it out, she began running it over her burning face. 'I've got to get some sleep. I think I'm going to pass out.'
"I can look after myself. I'm not the one looking at a sentence in Azkaban, not to mention a broken nose, now am I?"
"No, but you are wavering around more than a seasick child on their first boat ride." Draco rolled his eyes. He slid back from the wooden table and stood in one fluid motion, eyeing the siren in front of him.
She had no idea that she was making him crazy. Her scent, so close, yet unable to be held. And the way she was running that cloth over her skin. He almost groaned. He wanted to take the rag away and run his own skin across her flushed face. He watched as she wiped it back and forth, leaving a trail of water while collecting blood, sweat, and grime.
Ginny huffed and turned around to run the now gross rag under the faucet again. She once again placed it on her head before turning around to resume the sparring. However, she turned a little too quickly and blacked out for a mere few seconds. When she again knew which way was up, she was flustered to find her nose protruding painfully into Malfoy's chest.
Waving her arms about so that he was forced to move back, she proclaimed, "Woah! You want a head injury too? Personal space!"
She quickly walked around him and picked up her cloak. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to bed before I pass out standing up right here in the middle of the room. G'night."
And she was off to bed.
Draco looked after her, his eyes hungry. When she had all but thrown herself into his arms, everywhere she touched seemed to be on fire. Her touch soaked right through his skin and into his veins, making them burn with desire.
Everything about her made him want to scream. Every time he came close to her, it was like standing too close to an open oven door. Everything about her screamed heat and passion and a burning fire deep within. The whole package was only intensified by the veela side of Draco.
There's only one word for a person like that.
What a little spitfire. Even if he couldn't stand her, he was thoroughly going to enjoy annoying the hell out of her this upcoming year.
It would be just like old times.
In a dark, moldy room long hidden from the sun, Voldemort sat starring one of his followers down.
"Did you get it?" he hissed.
The man abasing himself before him only whimpered.
"Fool!"
There was a green flash, and then, nothing.
