Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any related material. So don't sue me, please.
The soft clink of china as Ginny set down her strong earl grey made Narcissa look up. "I'll send you home in a moment, Ginny, dear." She paused. "What you've done so far is brave and I respect that. You are a powerful and persuasive witch. I respect that. The dark lord looks upon you in higher esteem then I've ever seen him put upon anyone. I respect that. And as little as you may think of parenting within the dark methods, I do care about my son and I cannot respect you jerking and twisting him around and putting his life in danger."
Ginny took another sip of tea. Narcissa had conveyed no emotion thus far and Ginny would strive to do the same. "Where am I supposed to go from here, Madam Malfoy? I've killed innumerable people in the last few days, one of whom was the strongest double agent for the Order of the Phoenix. I also know that you were fucking him on the side. That's embarrassing, I know. I also know he wasn't the one sending letters to my brothers. But he was a liability and I don't tolerate liabilities. So don't become one.
" It's nice having power lying next to you every night, except that men of power run around on their wives and you don't see much of them unless they want to produce an heir. But you have to put on your face and a beautiful gown and clutch his arm while you greet other men who are out fucking anything without a voice and their wives who don't happen to have a voice and your husband eyes them and gives them a tour of the estate at least twice in the course of your banquet that took two months to arrange." Narcissa was still composed, but the glass was shaking on the saucer as her knuckles whitened. Ginny smirked.
"It's also nice to have a friendly little fellow to fall back on. The kind of guy that likes pillow talk and foreplay. For you that was Severus Snape. I like to think that in all that friendly pillow talk, his situation never came up. And I'm going to keep thinking that, unless you give me a reason not to. I don't know how you did it, but you raised Draco to be strong, good, humane man. So he gets to be second fiddle to some schmuck with a fast wand. But I don't think of him as second fiddle to anybody. Just like you would've liked a greasy black head on your pillow over that power any day. Me too. You and I are similar creatures." Suddenly out of the fireplace stumbled Lucius Malfoy, leering.
"Ah, Narcissa, my wife." He drew in a deep breath and twirled his wand like a baton, tucking it into his robes. "Miss Weasley." He picked up one of her hands and laid two cold lips upon the surface. "A pleasure, and may I thank you for the spectacular rescue."
"You may thank everyone for that rescue. I'm small potatoes to what the Death Eaters did today."
"May I take you for a tour of the house? It's quite lovely and I'd love to get reacquainted with it."
"Mmm. I understand" She smiled at Narcissa. "What time is it just now?"
"Almost midnight." She said sweetly from her chair, where she had not risen.
"Ooh. Lucius." Ginny shrugged. "Isn't that just the luck? I need to go home and secure my alibi, you see, they've called Albus Dumbledore and I need to be able to speak without fumbling and I'm not yet skilled with my voice using Imperius curse."
"Your voice will come with time." He smiled at her and she gave him her most winning back.
"I know."
"I put you to bed not fifteen minutes ago." Draco slurred.
"I know, love. But it's work, work, and work for me. Never a moment's rest. But I've got to go by Portkey now to my room. They've sent the word that it's clear and we just moved our man out of there. Speaking of which, I'll have to owl you. No. No. It's not secure. I'll talk to you. I promise I'll make it work." There was a loud snort from the couch. She kissed Blaise on the forehead. "Give her my love when she wakes up. She's going to need it, nursing the hangover she'll have tomorrow."
"Who else should I give your love?" He grabbed her face gently.
"Another thing that is too time consuming to discuss now and too secure to discuss over owl mail. I'll talk to you about it at school." She kissed him and pulled away flipping open a box with a smooth ball within it. She touched it and felt a yank behind her belly button. She landed unsteadily on her feet in her bedroom, yawning. She took off her coat, and unzipped her pants. She kicked off her shoes and peeled her socks off, taking a quick whiff of them and grimacing tossing them on the ground. Her pants came down and she struggled with one leg sitting down hard on the ground. She heard chairs scraping backwards and she cursed, pulling her t-shirt off and struggling into her nightgown. The footsteps neared her door and she tangled her feet in the sheets, grabbed onto her blankets and pillows and yanked with all her strength.
She thanked the gods that she hadn't turned on the lights, her parents rushed in and she sat up, blinking and yawning. "Mummy?"
"Oh my darling!" She rushed forward and gathered as much of Ginny as she could hold in her arms. "I thought you had been hurt." Dumbledore stood framed in the doorway.
"Professor, what are you doing here?" She asked as her mother helped her to her feet. She brushed her mother off. "I'm fine, Mummy. It doesn't make it any easier with you treating me like a china doll." Her mother stood back, obviously hurt. For the first time, it didn't bother Ginny. She was slowly steeling herself against the guilt betraying her family would induce. Then she smiled at her mother. "I'm sorry, Mum. I guess I'm just not myself right now. But I want to be, I swear." She hugged her mother tightly, pulling away and turning to the figures silhouetted in the doorframe.
Ginny heard a clinking and quickly dumped the dog tags back into her nightgown. "Well, I don't think I'll be able to go back to sleep. Why don't I come downstairs and we can have a cup of tea and discuss what is going on with my bloody body."
"Ginny." Molly scuffed her daughter on the shoulder and led her downstairs as the other figures remained silent, turning to go downstairs. "Don't swear."
"Sorry." She wondered what her mother would have thought of her conversation with Narcissa, it brought a smile to her face. "Is everyone mad at me?"
"No, darling, just confused." Her mother's face was hard as they descended the stairs. "We're all confused, aren't we?"
Ginny woke to a tapping on the window. She groaned and struggled out of bed, opening the window and taking the parchment from the familiar bird. She slit it open read the contents and groaned unhappily. Another fucking assignment for Ginny. She sat for a moment wallowing in self-pity before she resealed the envelope and sent it along to another party. There was a banging on her door and she opened it, still feeling supremely sorry for herself. She opened the door and her face suddenly softened. "Harry." She sighed.
"Hi Ginny." He blushed, but his face stayed serious. "Look at this." He held out the paper to her. She sucked in her breath and pretended that her legs had lost strength beneath her. He caught her by the armpits as she clawed at the paper.
"An attack? On Azkaban?" She looked up in disbelief. "Did any of the prisoners escape?" She kept her voice low and breathy, she noted with pleasure that it sounded as though she couldn't breath.
"All of them." He said with gravity.
"All…" Her legs dropped from under her again.
"Any casualties?" Harry helped her up again.
"All of the guards on duty."
"How many is that, Harry?"
"There are usually 300 – 350 guards on duty in Azkaban prison at one time." Ginny looked at Dumbledore shakily, as he appeared behind Harry. He handed her a cup of tea, which she took in shaking hands. She was getting better and better at acting. She tucked the paper under her arm and headed down the stairs after Dumbledore and Harry.
OVERWHELMING ESCAPE: Mass Azkaban Breakout Shows Grim Promise for More as Death Toll Rises.
Rahaad Khalid
Daily Prophet
Dale Blakely and other Azkaban personnel were flooing into work last night to begin their graveyard shifts in the infamous maximum security prison. What they found on the scene says Blakely, "Was the worst bloody massacre I ever seen." The death toll rises to 275, although search and rescue teams expect it to grow as they refine their searches through the premises.
"All the cells were open, bodies were strewn all about. All except one body had guard dogtags and that particular body was intact so that we could identify him as a guard." Said a thoroughly disturbed and anonymous rescuer today. "I ain't never seen nothing like it," she continued. "I don't think the guards managed to kill a single death eater." Though authorities are still unsure that death eaters can be blamed.
"No witnesses, no evidence." Bemoans an auror who also wishes to remain nameless. "This was a quick job with only one possible motive that we can't back up except for probable cause. That purpose is to swell the ranks of the Dark Lord."
Cornelius Fudge has not yet made a comment pertaining to the attack and has remained holed up in his office. The public awaits a sign of retaliation from Fudge, who has been functioning from a purely defensive standpoint since the Dark Lord was recognized as being back in power just a year and a half ago. Counselors will be on site in the ministry for those who, like many of us, are disturbed, shocked and scared by this new development in the Dark Lord's war.
Ginny took a long sip of tea and pushed away the food her mother offered. The rest of the front page was filled with tamer pictures from attack. "Darling, you need to eat. You have to keep up your strength."
"I'll be sick if I eat. Look at these." She pushed the paper away from herself. "Were their any order members that were guards last night?"
"No. No members of the order were guards in Azkaban." Arthur said from where he sat in an armchair with his head in his hands.
"But with such a huge staff, it's practically the main employer of the wizarding world! That seems impossible."
"Well, it's not, Gin. Alright?" Ron said grumpily.
"Ronnie, I was just asking a question, don't bite my head off, alright?" She put her fingers to her temples. Harry came behind her and laid his hands on her shoulders.
"You won't help anyone by yelling, Ron."
"That's right." Said Molly, buttering Ron's toast and shoving it in front of him. Ron scoffed loudly.
"Gin, I was hoping I could talk to you." Harry said shyly from behind her. "Can we go for a walk?"
"Um, sure, Harry." She smiled shyly and batted her eyelashes. His reaction made her want to toss her cookies. Could this boy be any sappier?
"Ah! Just stay in the back garden you two or go up to Ginny's room. This," Molly tapped the paper, "should teach you that nothing is safe any longer."
"Mama, don't be paranoid. Why would they attack our back garden when they could attack somewhere like Azkaban?" Ginny whined.
"Don't argue with me, Ginny, just stay in the back garden."
"Fine." She grabbed Harry's hand and skipped along dragging him behind. She went to the far wall and perched on a stone bench. Harry came, pushing back vines, getting his face smudged a little. He pushed his glasses up on his nose.
"What did you want to talk about Harry?" She asked sweetly. He fell down beside her on the bench, panting.
"You know, we said that us, you know, wouldn't go past, you know…"
"You had better tell me, Harry, I'm not sure that I know."
"You said that you didn't want it to go past that one time, but Ginny I really like you and -"
"I really like you too, Harry. What exactly are you asking?" She looked forward, biting her lip in anticipation.
"What I… Would you… Do you wanna… Will you go out with me?" He said, visibly nervous. Ginny smiled her widest smile and grabbed onto his hands, jumping onto him and kissing him all over the face.
"Of course!" She leaned back and beamed at him. "Of course I will, Oh Harry, I'm so happy that you asked me." He hugged her and kissed her again. She sighed.
"I'm really glad, too." There was crashing and banging inside the house. "Did you hear that?" She tried to look really worried.
"I'll go check it out."
"I'll come with you…" Ginny pulled out her wand and twirled it between her fingers. He looked horrified and she raised her eyebrows, "I'm faster than you, Harry."
"Right. Let's go." They went through the trees and Harry was bent over like a b-movie cop, but Ginny had already replaced her wand, she was safe. They wouldn't attack the burrow, yet. They went into the house where they found Molly screaming at the twins about something. Ginny touched Harry's arm and bit her lip. He followed her upstairs. When they reached her room, she kissed him softly and told him how happy she was that she was going to be his girlfriend. Mission Accomplished.
So, I've completed your little mission and it was the easiest thing that you've had me do. If you were a sixteen-year-old girl the sod would already be dead, hormones will be this boy's downfall. The only hard thing about this will be keeping up with all this sap and having him hang on long enough to put the pieces into place next year. He's even snoring in my bed, probably drooling all over my pillow. Should I kill him, love? Run downstairs in hysterical tears, wearing nothing but a sheet? The Boy Who Lived disgraced by death in a lover's arms.
But that's your job, I know. So I'll leave that to you, waiting for the day when you can replace him at my side. But for now, we'll have plenty of time to bond and for him to fall for me. With Wormtail and your Shape shifter making blunders left and right, I'll have to be here all of break and lie low and innocent for my parent's to believe that I'll be a good, law-abiding Gryffindor when I return to the Hogwarts community. It's looking like detention will be Draco and I's only time together, but maybe that was your intention. Harry is showing signs of waking, so I'll wrap this up and send it off. Be more careful than usual when sending these things around, I can't think of anyone who I would be owlling if I wasn't corresponding personally with the Dark Lord.
I'll get back to you about the attack and we can throw a few ideas around. I wish I could spend more time at Headquarters because we could finally get some real ground covered, but that'll be difficult.
Ginny
Ginny let Pig go the moment that Harry rolled over and blinked at her. "Would you hand me my glasses, Gin?"
"Sure, Harry." She passed them over to him and sat in her chair so that she was facing the bed."What's going on with the resistance, do you know?"
Harry turned so that he was facing the ceiling, Ginny shifted with annoyance. "Dumbledore told us not to tell you anything." He said uncomfortably.
"What?" Ginny asked quietly and bent her head. When he reached out to touch her arm she looked up to him with her lip bobbing and tears running down her face. The acting was easy, she was so angry. Her blood boiled, and a hot lump throbbed in her throat. "Why would he say that? Why does no one trust me? Dumbledore h-he said in my first year that my possession wouldn't be held against me and now he's making up lies about…" She broke into full-fledged sobs, amazed with herself. She shouldn't be too surprised though, she was under a lot of stress in an environment where you weren't allowed to show your emotions.
She climbed into Harry's arms and he held her closely. "I know, Gin. I'm so sorry. Look, we're all working hard to make sure that he goes away. I can tell you that much." She shook her head. Did he think she was three-years-old? He might as well have told her that they were making bad guy go bye bye for all the good that little bit of info had accomplished.
"You don't trust me either?" She sobbed.
"I do, I do, Gin. I just can't disobey Dumbledore. He knows so much and I just couldn't." She stopped and sniffled. She managed a watery smile, acting like she was trying to put on a brave face.
"Okay… I just. I want Dumbledore to trust me. I want to help end this war, Harry. I want the right side to get victory. No matter what it costs." She wasn't lying.
"Don't worry, Gin, it will." Ginny smiled to herself. It certainly would. There was a knock on the door that sent her bolt upright.
"I brought you two some sandwiches, you've been up here an awfully long time." Molly's voice was muffled a little as Ginny pulled on her overalls and Harry pulled on shorts and a t-shirt, as Ginny frantically sprayed perfume around the room. "Why is the door locked?"
"Of course you can come in, Mum!" Ginny unlocked the door and let her in. Her mother came in and sniffed the air, but smiled with satisfaction. "We must have locked it by accident. We've just been talking about all this stuff that's been happening because of the attack. It's really scary."
"Yeah, it is." Harry said awkwardly from where he was perched in the corner.
"Well, it's good you have each other to lean on. I just brought you some sandwiches." She set the plate on Ginny's bed. "Were you wearing that earlier?" She said suspiciously.
"I changed, I was in my pajamas before." Ginny kissed her mother. Harry swallowed visibly. Molly smiled at them both and turned to go.
"Just yell if you need anything, you two. And try and include Ron. He's been hanging out with the twins but Harry is his friend, okay Ginny?"
"Yes, Mum. Ronny can come up if he's so torn up to be spending time with the twins."
"I don't want any of your tongue, Gin, I'll see if Ron wants to come up." She closed the door and both let out a breath of air. It reopened. "And Gin, I want the door unlocked from now on."
"Yes, Mum." The door closed and they heard Molly walk down the stairs. Harry sighed again visibly. He sat down on the bed and opened his arms. Ginny stared at him for a second before she realized what he wanted and climbed into them.
"Why were you spraying perfume?"
"Mum has caught everyone but me and Ron for having sex because of the smell of the room. She says there's nothing like it. She's never wrong. But perfume can cover it enough that she won't be too rabid about it if we don't tell her we're dating until we get back to school, or we let Ron tell her."
"I don't want to lie to your parents." Harry said guiltily.
"Having sex isn't exactly all that hurtful, Harry. Performing dark magic in their house would be basically bad." Harry chuckled.
"Yeah, no kidding." He kissed her and she sighed as she felt herself being pushed back onto the bed for the third time with Harry on top of her. She couldn't deal with it, he made her want Draco so bad. She put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him away.
"Hold on, Harry, what if my mom really sends Ron up?" His eyes widened and he jumped back onto the chair that she had been sitting on. She flopped down onto her pillow and pulled on the panties that she hadn't had time to put on when her mother knocked on the door. Harry stuffed his boxers into his pockets.
"I really do want to hang out with Ron. I'll see you later, okay?" He leaned over her and kissed her.
"Yeah…" She kissed him back and tried to put feeling into it, but found herself unable to act as well here as when she had to portray blatant emotions on her face. He lifted himself up and smiled at her, turning towards the door. It snapped open in his face and he and Ron looked at each other in surprise.
"Someone downstairs for Ginny." He said gruffly. "You want to go throw around a quaffle or something, man?"
"Yeah, that sounds awesome." He gave Ginny a curious look, and she, confused as the rest of them, followed them down the stairs.
"Who is it, Ron?"
"Some Muggle." He said in the same gruff voice.
"Huh?" Her face twisted. She came down the stairs and saw a familiar back talking to her father, whose face had a familiar look of delight.
"Rick?" He turned and gulped. "What are you doing here?"
"I was hoping I could talk to you." He glanced around.
"About what?" She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. She saw his face and grabbed him by the elbow. "Would you like to go for a stroll outside?"
"Ginny." Her mother said, vaguely annoyed. "Can you please -?"
"Just for a little walk, mother, I'm suffocating." She said impatiently. Her mother, not wanting to be rash in front of a Muggle, allowed her to go.
"Not far is all I'm saying." She said testily. Ginny gestured for Rick to follow her and they walked out onto the drive. She headed for a grotto in the woods where they could talk and she could be out of her mother's eye line.
"What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Last night." He swallowed. "It was ridiculous, I know." He grabbed on to the shoulder of her overalls. "Those overalls. I love these things."
"What are you talking about? I was halfway across the country last night."
"You came to me about midnight last night and asked to talk. I – we… you know. I thought for sure you would remember." Rick grabbed her by the shoulder. "You had a couple glasses of wine, but you could take it when you were younger. I thought you could handle it later on."
"I'm trying to tell you that at midnight last night, I was far away from here." She covered her face in her hands.
"I have to go." She looked away and saw an owl flying through her window through a gap in the trees. "Look, don't mention this ever again. Don't contact me, and if I ever come to your house, don't let me in."
"But you said, last night…" She ran away from him. "You said you wanted me to come see you. I thought inside, that was just an act. You said that you would come back." She paused and turned. "Look, Rick, I don't want to go into it, but you may be in danger." He looked confused. "Stay here tonight."
"I thought you just said –"
"My parents will take care of you tonight, I'll smooth this over and then you can go home, but right now, just listen to me, okay? It could be your life."
He followed her. "Virginia, I don't understand."
"Good."
She opened the door with her wand, when she saw who rode the Dark Lord on the bed she hit her with a hard spell. The woman flew against the wall, swimming in blonde hair. Voldemort looked fairly amused.
"I see you got my letter."
"I didn't fuck that Muggle!" She pointed at the woman. "She did."
"And why do you say that?"
"Her wand." Ginny picked it up and twirled it between her fingers before snapping it. "She got careless." The woman sobbed in the corner. "Shut up!"
"And what shall we do?" Voldemort got from the bed and with a flick of his wrist was dressed. "Kill her, love?"
"Not yet." Ginny grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into a chamber off the Dark Lord's bedroom. "Wait there and think about what's going to happen to you."
She sealed the door. The Dark Lord, watched her amused.
"She was going to be our new potions teacher."
"You knew I hadn't done it." Ginny said softly, pulling the elastic out of her hair. "You knew it all along. You just wanted to get me here." She unbuttoned her robes and let them slide to the ground. "You wanted me to see you two together." She tugged at the knot of her bender until it released and the magic crackled to the floor. "Why?"
He smiled and nodded.
"I just don't like it." Draco ran his hands through his smooth hair. Ginny had caught him just as he was getting out of the shower. "He didn't even put her under any kind of controlling spell?"
"None." Ginny shook her head, biting her lip. "Ha! Imagine how potions was for me before? Intensify that by at least a hundred." Draco chuckled.
"This Potter business, too…"
"I know. This isn't exactly my day, either."
"And he took to it?" Draco said uncomfortably. Ginny stood up and pulled her shirt over her head. She had just been napping with Draco, who had flown her to her window when she had visited him after her meeting with the Dark Lord. Her foot slid across the invisibility cloak they had been wearing.
"Like a duck to water." She pulled her hair back. "I should really go entertain my Muggle guest."
"He's probably being entertained to death by your Muggle loving father."
"Probably." She leaned over to kiss Draco on the lips. "Spend the night with me tonight?"
"And be your third lay of the day?" Draco pouted. "Not likely."
"You'll be the only one that wasn't strictly a business venture." She said tentatively then giggled. "See, now I'm all raring to go and you're getting uppity about my being a slut. I can't help it you know."
"Yeah, I do." He pulled her down and kissed her again. There was a knock on the door. Ginny tossed the invisibility cloak to Draco and she saw him squeeze into a corner. She opened the door. Her mother bustled in with a basket of laundry.
"Why don't you go downstairs with that Muggle? He seems lovely and rather eager to talk to you. He seems to be putting two and two together and he's going to need a little emotional support. Where are you planning on putting him?"
"Percy's not home until this weekend." Ginny said sweetly, grabbing the basket from her mother.
"It's such a mess in here." Molly started plucking at the clothes on the floor.
"Don't Mum." Ginny put a hand on her mother's shoulder. "I'll clean it up later."
"Alright. I'll give you another fifteen minutes and then you can come join the family with your friend." She smiled at Ginny and sniffed around.
"Is that cologne?"
"I think it might have been Harry's that he was wearing earlier." Ginny said, sniffing the air curiously.
"Very possibly." Her mother still wasn't buying it. Hopefully she didn't recognize Salazar for Men. She smiled a little and looked around. "Fifteen minutes."
"Yes, Mum." She shut the door in her mother's face, locking it.
"Less cologne, next time." She said, pulling the cloak away from his face.
"What if your Mum is listening, then?"
"Then it's a good thing I put the sound proofing charm on there this morning when I was up here with Harry."
"Will it last that long?" Ginny put a finger to his lips.
"Don't worry about it." She kissed him softly and turned to grab his broomstick from her closet. He pulled the cloak over his head again and kissed her once more before kicking away from the window. Ginny sighed and closed it tight behind her.
"So. What's up with your family?"
"I know they kind of fly in from left field, but they're harmless, truly."
"Is this some mystical Merlin type of shit?" Ginny shifted uncomfortably in her garden seat.
"Uh. I guess you could say that." She looked at him, staring off into space. "I can
erase your memory if you like." She offered.
"Oh. Lovely." He fell back to lay in her lap. She tapped her fingers gently along his forehead, back and forth. "So, explain to me again how it wasn't you last night?"
"Okay. Well. I can't." Ginny chuckled. "But shoot anyone who comes to the door that looks like me unless I give you a surefire sign. Something no one but I would know."
"Tired?" Rick asked as she yawned widely.
"How could you tell?" She joked. There was a twig snapping. Ginny quickly stood up and whipped out her wand. "Lumos." She sighed and sat back down. Rick replaced his head, looking wounded. "Hey, Bill."
"Bad news, Gin." He said in the chair next to the bench where Ginny and Rick lay.
"Another attack?" Bill glanced at Rick and the hand that ran through his hair.
"No. A murder. But the women who did it are going to be the first prisoners to go back to Azkaban."
"None of the others have been tracked down?" Ginny knew well that most were hiding out in headquarters going through extensive animagus training. Those that were already animagi were on missions.
"No." Bill started to cry softly.
"Who was murdered, Bill?" Ginny touched a hand to his back.
"Fluer Delacour." Ginny gasped. She was inwardly celebrating.
"She had just signed on for a teaching position at Hogwarts. The new potions professor." Bill said softly. He looked at Ginny. "You'll never believe who did it."
"Who?" She whispered her fingers trembling on her lips.
"Narcissa Malfoy and Blaise Zabini." Bill whispered, his head falling back into his hands. "May they burn in hell."