Title: Withering Rose
Disclaimer: I'm not JKR and I don't own anything... :( I wish I owned Draco
A/N: EDITED. Yes, major changes have ensued. I didn't particularly like it... I'm working with a friend now. Enter Sunita.
CHAPTER 1
"It is bitter to lose a friend to evil, before one loses him to death."
Mary Renault - The Praise Singer 1978
Ginny had been seeing him for 4 months now. However, no one knew.
They knew of course. Him. And her. But no one else.
Sometimes the things he said to her made her shudder. Not a good shudder, either. But that happened so rarely. It's nothing.... She thought. Everyone gets in foul moods. There were other times when she thought that they had something that no one else could ever have, that she felt emotions that no one had ever experienced.
It has been said in the past that Malfoys fall in love about as often as dragons decide to be merciful to trespassers. And a Malfoy loving one of those muggle-loving, penniless Weasleys was, of course, out of the question. Or was it?
Basically, Draco got want he wanted, and Ginny needed to feel like she meant something to someone, to feel like someone understood her. Around him she felt complete again.
Draco opened his eyes and saw red. However, it didn't startle him, it was something that he had grown accustomed to. Ginny lay sleeping next to him in his bed. He saw the bruises that stood out on her delicate arm like dark stains on white porcelain. She stirred in her sleep, then settled and was once again still. He looked out of his bedroom window, seeing the moonlight flooding the manor grounds, irregular dark and light spots where the beams of light passed between the clouds and fell to the ground. Not morning yet, he thought, and looked at the door. "Firmare," he whispered. At that, his eyes fluttered shut. Sleep washed over him like a gentle wave swiftly rolling onto sand, and his thoughts were pulled away into the darkness like the tiny grains into the ocean.
Ginny rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she made her way into the kitchen.
"Morning mum," she said, and then sat down at the table, looking at the plate of food in front of her. Only her and Ron were home with their parents now. All of her older brothers had jobs, including Fred and George, who had finally started their joke shop.
"Morning dear, how are you? You look exhausted," Molly said, giving Ginny a look of concern. Ginny had woken up late that morning, and had just used a portkey to return to her room. Not that her mother knew, or even suspected that anything was happening. Ginny had always been a well-behaved girl. She got decent marks at school, and was rarely in any considerable trouble.
"That's because I am. Summer makes everyone tired though doesn't it?" She looked up and at her mother. "Actually, I think I'm going to go lie down again." Ginny got up from her chair, leaving her plate untouched and walked to her room. She closed the door gently behind her, and that's when she fainted.
Firmare is Latin translated to "secure"