(¯·..·THREE·..·´¯)
What was he doing here? Ginny wondered, looking behind her and then creeping a bit farther ahead, pushing herself against the wall of an old brick building, trying to meld into the sparse shadows in case he turned around.
His hair was longer than it usually was, and not as well kept, either. His stance was tense as he walked, such an unfamiliar gate to the confident strut his had once so arrogantly displayed in the school corridors at Hogwarts.
She wondered what else was different about him, because there was something…Ginny tilted her head slightly, pondering if the only other difference in him was that she knew what now must Mark his left arm. She wondered how it felt, to have it burned on her skin, branded with a symbol of loyalty to a murderer. Shaking her head, Ginny snuck forward quietly, trying to invoke some sort of quiet, huntress instinct to silence her footsteps and camouflage her body into the shadows and brick.
Without any thought as to why she was following him, Ginny crept closer to the Slytherin boy, pausing as he slowed his pace. Ginny stopped abruptly as he turned down a corner, feeling slightly panicked.
I have no way to get home!
You'll find one.
Mom will be so worried about me…
She always is.
Casting a glance around, Ginny slipped around the corner and darted through the steadily falling shadows until she caught up with him. Breathing sharply, she pushed herself against the wall again, not quite sure what she was doing. Suddenly, in mid-stride, Draco Malfoy turned around on his heels, cloak billowing in a way that challenged Snape's, his arm thrust forward, wand pointed distinctly at Ginny.
Surprised, Ginny backed into a building wall behind her and stood still, her eyes darting from the sleek wand to his dark grey eyes, cold and unyielding.
"Weasley," he sneered at her. "Would be going into your Sixth Year now wouldn't you? Unquestioningly a Gryffindor- well, as they say, curiosity does kill the cat," he said, eyes sparking with malice as his wand hand rose higher, the tip directed at Ginny's heart. "Scared, Weasley?"
"No," she said defiantly, straightening up and taking a step away from the wall. "If you couldn't kill Dumbeldore, then-"
"Dumbledore was a much better wizard than you," Draco spat, the sneer vanishing from his face.
"And all the better a prize, wandless and cornered by a true coward," Ginny responded coolly, raising an eyebrow at the Slytherin.
"You don't know anything," he began coldy, but was again interrupted by the young redhead.
"Oh you know what I know that you didn't? Harry Potter was there. Professor Dumbledore could have saved himself when you cast Expelliarmus, but instead, he sent a Freezing Charm at Harry, who had been with him under an invisibility cloak, and sacrificed the chance to bring you down with the bat of an eye. It would have been so easy for him-"
"Why?" Draco asked, his face contorted into a mask of unidentifiable emotions.
"If you haven't noticed, Dumbledore was a very powerful, g-"
"Not him," Draco spat, eyeing her. "Why did he Freeze Potter? Why not have let him run into the castle to bring his precious staff running and save everything?"
"I- I don't know," Ginny stammered, the thought truthfully never having crossed her mind. "Maybe he just-"
"Wanted to die?" Draco turned his eyes away from her, looking thoughtful and confused, seeming to have forgotten Ginny existed. Taking her chance, she took a few steps back, eyeing him, ready to sprint away. "Oh no," Draco said, twitching his wand and sending a nonverbal charm that glued her feet to the dingy street ground.
"Let me go," she hollered, fishing her wand out of her pocket.
"Why are you following me?" Draco asked, arrogantly deflecting her Hex.
"I don't know."
"Why are you even here?"
"I don't know," she hollered. "I was using the Floo Network and didn't say it clearly enough!" Seeming to buy her story, or at least the part of how she had gotten to the same place as he, Draco lowered his wand and was silent for a moment.
"Well, you can't go back," he said, sounding thoughtful.
"What do you mean? You can't-"
"I can and I will," he snapped shortly, thrusting his wand up again. "No one can know where I am, or else…" he stopped talking abruptly, eyeing her for a moment; she watched his face mask, his eyes close off before Ginny even had realized they'd opened to read them. He stalked forward, grabbing her arm and closing his eyes. "It must be like normal apparition…just er, think of the Malfoy Manor."
"No! I've never seen it before, and I'm not-"
"I don't think seeing it really matters all that much, just, think of it," he commanded roughly, gripping her arm tighter and twisting slightly, pulling her into space. Ginny tried to yell but no noise could escape her lungs, which were being pressured into an almost nonexistence, all the rest of her being compressed as well, squishing her through the darkness.
Ginny opened her eyes, realizing she'd squeezed them shut in her discomfort. Looking around, she saw that Draco had dropped her arm and walked away a bit, twitching his robes into order.
"Elyn!" He called sharply, turning in a circle.
"Yes sir, Master Draco?" came a voice, small and squeaky. Startled, Ginny looked around the large, stone entrance room, settling her eyes on a small House Elf, popping with a crack into the room.
"Is Mother in?"
"No, Master Draco, the Mistress is out on her travels again, she is leaving you this letter, she is telling Elyn that she is in France with her mother for a while. She is telling me that I must make sure you is safe."
"Yes, yes, that's enough," Malfoy said monotonously, scanning the parchment before crumpling it into his pocket. "Weasley-".
"Let me out of here, Malfoy. If you'd be so kind to show me the door, and tell me where exactly I am, though I don't expect you'd-"
"You're right, I won't. You're staying here, so-"
"Oh no I am not," Ginny interrupted, glaring hatefully at him. "Why would you-"
"Because," he yelled at her, "You know that I'm home, you know where I was tonight, and you might know who I was with too, and what was being said, and-"
"No, no, no. I saw you, that's all, I don't know anything else, and why does it matter anyway?"
"I've no reason to believe you. And why do you think it matters?" he asked her angrily, his left arm compulsively twitching, his face, as before, going blank before she even had a chance to realize that it was readable.
"Oh…" Ginny murmured, and at an uncharacteristic loss of words, she looked down at her feet. Something hard grabbed her, wrapping around her forearm mercilessly. Automatically she jerked away, instincts to fight and flee flooding her veins, but the grip held.
Roughly, Draco Malfoy tugged Ginny in front of him and pushed her forwards, guiding her none too kindly down a hall. Stunned and surprisingly exhausted, Ginny simply watched him push in a door; then opening her mouth to say something, she ended up yelling in angry blurt of shock as he shoved her in and closed the door sharply.
"Elyn!" He hollered again, footsteps fading away.
"Let me out!" she yelled, furiously kicking the door and then wincing. Quieting instantly, Ginny pulled her wand from a cloak pocket at tentatively tapped it against the door handle. "Alohomora," she whispered. There was a click so silent she might have imagined it…With a joyous grin, Ginny turned the handle and tugged, but rather than open, the solid piece of wood glowed a greenish blue and threw her backwards, sending her into a heap on the stone floor.
She recognized that from somewhere…from a night not too long ago, fighting Death Eaters in Hogwarts School, them running through the portal effortlessly, the same thing that forcefully repelled those without the Mark… Hopeless, Ginny stood up and rubbed an aching elbow, taking in the room.
It was slightly small, all stone and practically barren, but for a tapestry depicting a snake, long and deadly, half coiled with it's head raised high, venomous fangs sinking into a bright red bird, dark blood shown spilling from it's wound. Disgusted, Ginny turned from it and the small, glossy wood tale beneath it. There was nothing else in the room.
Ginny turned back, ignored the tapestry, and went to the desk. Nothing was on it, nothing was in the drawers. Screaming in frustration, Ginny returned her attentions uselessly to the door, sending various spells, hexes, and charms at it. Growing weary, she looked around for any sense of time, wondering how long she'd sat before the bewitched door.
-&-&-&-&-&-&-&-
Slowly, she opened her eyes. The room was as mysteriously well lit as it had been before, when she'd first been put in it. How long had it been? She easily remembered the day she'd been taken captive into the infuriatingly plain room, sending all manners of useless magic at the door, which refused to let her out.
Looking dejected, Ginny sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked to the door. There it was- a small white plate, with two slices of buttered bread, two well-looking sausages, and a small goblet of water. So, it's morning again? She thought vaguely, taking her hair clip from her witches' robes and scratching another line on the desk's surface, surveying her work. Four lines, four mornings. She hadn't started marking her breakfast's right away, so all she knew was that it had been slightly longer than four days. Stuck in this godforsaken room.
What did her mother think? And the rest of her family? Harry? Did they look for her? Had they been, for whatever reasons, searching for her here, in this Manor, while she sat to rot on bread and scarce meats? Miserably, Ginny picked at the sausage and slowly ate the bread, knocking over her goblet of water with defiant sort of disdain, watching it run along the cracks between each part of the stone floor.
There was a creaking noise and Ginny turned, staying cross-legged on the floor, watching the hated door open and expose Draco Malfoy and a glimpse of hallway behind him. She glared uselessly at him, examining him closely behind her venomous look. He didn't look any different than the night she'd happened across him in the Muggle town, except that he was slightly more pale and withdrawn.
He still managed a sneer.
"You're going to get sick with dehydration, that's the second meal you've not drunk your water," he observed, eyeing the spilled drink and then flicking his gaze over her and to the desk. "And I did wish you'd stop scratching up the table, I was rather fond of it….No matter, it's less important than my life and success to this mission…" His face hardened as he looked at her, still glaring at him, though the look was fading.
"How do you know?" she asked him, disregarding the fact that she could only vaguely recall tipping her water yesterday. It was all so dull…
"I can watch you if I like…but anyway, I need you now, it's useless to keep you in here," he announced, watching her expression as it changed from being blank to looking bewildered.
"Excuse me?" she asked haughtily, watching him. He leaned down and grabbed her hand, jerking her to her feet before releasing her.
"I said: move," he answered coldly. "And don't try to run from the Manor, all the doors and windows out are sealed much more efficiently than this pathetic thing," he added, gesturing to the door that had kept her locked securely inside the room.
Ignoring the insult, Ginny stood, feeling disgustingly weak. Slowly, she moved into the hall, watching him close the door behind them and set off, away from the entrance he'd apparated her into days ago. Without thinking, only feeling tired and curious, Ginny followed him and entered into a much larger room, long and high ceilinged, with a table set in its center. It was set for a full dinner, and Ginny sat as Draco ordered, looking questioningly at him.
"It won't help me if you die," he said shortly, but when she rolled her eyes and gestured the food, he laughed maliciously. "Oh yes, I've been giving you the inappropriate meals…breakfast at night, lunch at dawn…it's amusing, to have you thinking you know the time of day and how long you'd been there according to the amount of breakfasts, which I didn't give you enough of… You've really been here for a week….Now eat," he ordered, picking up his elegant, silver fork. "I need you alive…you mine-as-well be so on good food."
Ginny picked up her fork, a long and sleek bit of slender metal, the prongs pointed sharply. For a moment she sat there, turning the metal through her fingers, watching him. Then, slowly, she stabbed the prongs of the utensil through a lump of creamy mashed potatoes, lifted it to her mouth, and ate it without thinking or tasting; she looked blank, though her eyes glimmered with thought.
It seemed to take so long for the meal to end, and when a small group of House Elves whisked away the plates, Ginny stared at Draco. He sat back with a goblet of what looked like red wine, settling comfortably and arching a delicate brow at her as he sipped.
"I'm not quite sure what to do with you. So since all exits are efficiently sealed, I suppose I'll allow you roam of the Manor. Since you're not going anywhere, not anytime soon, at least."
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked slowly, leaning forward and propping her elbows on the table. "I refuse to accommodate whatever plans you might have, Malfoy, so don't expect whatever this is to be easy," she said coolly, looking serenely at him.
"I don't expect it so," he said, watching her. "Though I suppose I'll make do," he added slowly, watching her. Ginny matched his gaze, her eyes unwilling sliding away from the twin pools of grey silver that were his own, falling to his hair. It looked like he'd groomed himself, cut his hair properly. It looked nice without all the gel slicking it back, falling around his face gently, a few strands invading his eyes. What was she thinking?
Draco watched her gaze slide to his hair and fall slowly back to his eyes, cold and amused. "Yes, Weasley, I'm rather aware of how hott I am, I get it enough from Parkinson… Would you mind stopping the fawning over me?"
With a sneer, Ginny stood roughly from her seat, shaking back her hair.
"You're pathetic," she said evenly, turning on her heal and stalking from the room, unsure of where she was going and deciding to explore the passages.
Draco smiled at getting to her and set down his drink, rising from his chair and stretching, watching her dark red hair glow almost in the lighting, the slightly curled ends bouncing on her back as she flounced from the room.
-a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-I-j-k-l-m-n-o-p-q-r-s-t-u-v-w-x-y-z-
A/N: at last, there is a glimmer of them noticing the physical things of each other! Next chapter I'll work in a bit of physical attraction and hopefully some mental as well. Since there is an actual plot I have in my head, I hope you'll forgive the slowness of them coming together! Please review, I'm sure it'll motivate me…hope to update soon )