Chapter 4: What A Mess

Draco tossed and turned from his position on the couch, his sleep anything but peaceful. His dreams had started out simple enough. It was one of those weird dreams that really doesn't make sense but is amusing nonetheless. Then everything got dark, a thick haze intruding upon his dream and mind.

"Noooo!" Draco heard a woman shriek. His heart quickened as he tried to see through the thick fog that was his mind. A silhouette appeared in the deep fog; it was a woman. She was crouched in the corner of a room. Her shoulders were heaving, making it obvious that she was crying. In an instant, the hazy picture became clear. Narcissa Malfoy was crying in the corner of one of the rooms in the Malfoy Mansion.

"Mother!" Draco cried out, but Narcissa didn't hear him. Her crying subdued as she picked up her wand from the wood floor. Sobbing, she brought her shaking hand to her temple.

"Draco," she stammered, her wand still at her temple.

"Mother!" Draco answered, but, again, she couldn't hear him. Narcissa gulped and took a deep breath. "Mother, what are you doing?" Draco asked the woman, knowing she wouldn't answer him, but he was terrified to words nonetheless.

"I love you, Draco," the disheveled woman stated firmly. "I'll be with you soon."

"No!" Draco shouted aloud as a bright green flash blinded him. When the light faded, Draco could see the crumpled form of his mother sprawled on the wood floor, her body still and limp. "Mother, no!" he shouted, as if it would make a difference.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked, floating through Draco's thoughts.

"No," Draco spat out through choked tears. "No, no, no, no!" he screamed as he collapsed next to his mother's form.

"Malfoy?" the voice asked soothingly, but Draco ignored it, focusing on his mother's dead body.

"What have you done, Mother?" he asked sadly, stroking the woman's silver blonde hair.

"Mother?" the voice asked, perplexed. "What on earth are you talking about, Malfoy?"

The words floated in one of Draco's ears and out the other. His mind couldn't get passed his mother's lifeless body sprawled out beneath him. He let the tears fall freely from his cheeks as he mourned his mother's death. How could this have happened? His mind screamed the question he'd never know the answer to. Why on earth would she do this? But his mind went back to her last words: "I'll be with you soon." What did she mean by that?

"For goodness sake, Malfoy!" the voice shouted at him, and Draco finally heard the words. "Wake up!"

"Ouch!" Draco said, alarmed, as he was hit upon the head. He opened his eyes slowly to see the Weasley standing over him, her eyes showing slight concern. He blinked slowly and wiped away tears from his cheeks, wondering when and why he had been crying. "What the bloody hell was that for?" he questioned the red head.

The concern Ginny's eyes held was gone. In its place was anger.

"You're unbelievable!" Ginny said, walking away from the disheveled blonde.

"Why?" Draco shouted right back at her, though his mind was on something else…something that felt like it was slipping away.

"Ugh!" Ginny sighed, "Just because you are!"

He looked at her, letting whatever was tugging at his mind to slip away entirely. "Hey! You are the one that hit me!"

"With a pillow!" Ginny said, exasperated, holding up the wimpy pillow that was still in her hands.

"Still," Draco said, rubbing the spot on his head where she had hit him.

"Sissy," Ginny said under her breath. Draco threw her a dirty look, so Ginny chucked the pillow at him. Draco picked up the pillow and threw it right back at her. Ducking, Ginny avoided the pillow easily. She watched it as it soared over her head and into the kitchen. "Nice try," she said with a laugh. Ginny ignored his glare as she walked over to the closet and got her cloak. Wrapping it around herself, Ginny walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked her as she reached the front door.

"To work, if you must know," Ginny stated plainly.

She opened the door as Draco shouted after her, "What am I supposed to do?"

Ginny stopped and stepped back into her house.

"Look, Malfoy," Ginny stated evenly, "I don't care what you do. Leave. Go wherever you want. Do whatever you want. I don't care." Ginny stepped out the door again, leaving Draco alone in her house.

Draco sat back on the couch with a sigh. What was he going to do? She obviously didn't care about turning him in or else she'd have done it already. Where could he go? Back to the Malfoy Mansion?

The Malfoy Mansion. An imagine of a lone room surfaced in his mind: it was the study. Why had he thought of that specific room? He had hardly ever gone in there, having not felt the urge to take down a book and just read.

"Hmmm…" he said aloud, contemplating what he should do. He didn't really have anything to do. He was free from Voldemort and the Death Eaters, something that was nearly impossible. If he had merely escaped, they would have tracked him down and killed him. But, and this was the sweet part, they already thought they had killed him. They had beaten the crap out of him when he was fleeing and had tried to kill him. The Dark Lord wouldn't be happy that he missed out on torturing Draco, but that didn't matter.

Oddly, Draco got up and decided to look around. Maybe he'd find something interesting in the pathetic building that the Weasley's called their home.

Ginny rushed in the room, forcing herself to be prepared for the next person. Scanning the room quickly, Ginny saw an unattended body in the corner of the room. She quickly knelt next to the injured form. The person was crumpled and limp, and it looked like someone had just tossed the body in the corner of the room. But when Ginny entered the room, she understood why. Every inch of the small room was taken up by Healers and their patients, many of them tending to bodies on the floor, like Ginny.

Ginny looked over the body quickly. The woman wasn't breathing, and her whole form was bloody. Ginny choked back the wave of nausea that passed as she touched the bloody body. The blood was everywhere, as Ginny searched for the source of it all. She gave up stopping the blood flow first when she couldn't find the wound right away. Instead, Ginny let her magic flow through the woman, forcing her lungs to work. She worked at it for a few minutes, trying to get the woman's heart beating as well, but there was nothing.

Ginny pulled her magic away, completely exhausted. She looked down at the bloody and crumpled form that was long gone from this world. Ginny sighed in defeat and leaned against the wall next to her, her hands shaking and heart thumping.

"Weasley?" the magical voice came across the room, directed to her ears only.

"Yes?" she asked weakly, her eyes never leaving the dead woman.

"Status?" it asked her.

"Dead." Ginny croaked as she smoothed back the woman's matted hair.

The voice didn't falter for one second, "Right. Room 47 needs you."

Ginny picked herself up from the ground and staggered from the room. She knew someone would be in there to take care of the body. Ginny had seen it before and was glad that it wasn't her job. She stumbled into the hallway, her mind a tangle of thoughts and emotions. No she told herself firmly. She couldn't break down, just couldn't. It was just another day at St. Mungo's, another death.

Keep going, Gin, she told herself. Keep going.

So she did. She managed to get to Room 47. Managed to save another life. Managed to forget the smell of blood (for the moment, at least). Managed to block the horrid images that would keep popping up in her mind…Ginny managed to keep going. It was almost simple once she got it down. The key was setting yourself away the world around you. When Ginny was facing another limp form, she'd work her hardest and wouldn't give up. But that was it. She'd done what she could, and then it was back to being detached. Detached and unemotional.

At the end of a long day's worth of work, Ginny disapparated home. She smiled slightly at the sight of her cozy home and briskly set forward to be welcomed by it.

"Oh, it's good to be home," Ginny stated serenely, as she stepped into her comforting house.

"And what's so special about this shabby old thing that you call a house?" sneered a voice from the kitchen.

Ginny closed her eyes slowly, hoping and praying she was imagining things. She turned around on the spot and opened her eyes slowly. Standing in her kitchen was none other than Draco Malfoy.

"Oh, lord," Ginny muttered, as she collapsed against the front door. "Please, let me be dreaming." She closed her eyes once more and counted back from ten slowly. When she got to one, Ginny opened her eyes again, but nothing had changed. Draco Malfoy was eating her food, sitting at her kitchen table, in her house.

"I can understand why someone might want to dream about me," he said in between bites and then asked with raised eyebrows, "but why dream of me when you can have me in reality?"

"Ugh," Ginny groaned from her position on the floor.

"What?" Draco asked as food fell from his open mouth. "What'd I say?"

Ginny got up quickly and hurried to her room. She slammed the door and flopped down on her bed, falling asleep as her head hit the blankets. Ginny's dreams started out very peaceful. She was back at Hogwarts, laughing and smiling with her friends gathered around her. And Harry was beside her, his arm wrapped around her waist. He was smiling at her, and Ginny couldn't help but blush.

"No!" came an earth shattering shout. Ginny's head whipped around as she searched for the source of the scream, but there was nothing. Harry gently squeezed her waist, bringing her attention back to her friends. Ginny laughed and smiled with them, but the scream still echoed in her ears.

"Oh, please, no!" shouted the same voice, and this time Ginny couldn't ignore it. She left her friends and Harry, who looked at her questioningly, but let her leave all the same. Ginny kept walking, and when she glanced back, everyone was gone and everything was dark.

"Hello?" Ginny asked tentatively to no one. "Hello? Is anyone there?" She kept walking, but it was getting dark really fast. Within a minute, Ginny could only see a foot in front of her. Everything was pitch black, and suddenly, it was freezing cold out. Ginny shivered as the wind whipped around her. Then the dark was all around her, pressing in on all sides. Ginny couldn't breathe; it was suffocating her. Just when her last breath was being drained from her, the same shout pulled her from the darkness and her dream.

"NO!" came the shout from downstairs. Ginny sat upright in her bed, beads of sweat dripping from her temples. She flung off the blanket and ran downstairs. The whole house was dark, and Ginny shivered, her dream flashing back at her.

"No, no, no…" Draco murmured as he tossed and turned on the couch in Ginny's family room.

"Malfoy!" Ginny shouted loudly, and Draco woke with a start.

"Huh?" he asked sleepily, looking around the room and then staring at Ginny.

"At least I didn't have to use a pillow this time," Ginny said as she rolled her eyes.

"What happened?" he asked sleepily.

"Well," she said with a deep breath, "you screamed so bloody loud that you woke me up."

"I-I did?" he asked with a frown. He closed his eyes in concentration, like he was trying with all his might to think of something.

"Did you have a bad dream or something?" Ginny asked tentatively, but Draco didn't answer. He stayed in his position on the couch, his eyes closed tight and his face set in a frown. Ginny waited a few moments before she spoke again, "Mal–?"

"Hush!" he ordered shortly. Ginny opened her mouth to retort back, but bit her tongue instead. There was something about the look on his face. Underneath the thin line that was his mouth, the scrunched eyebrows, and the tightly closed eyes, there was pain, confusion, and grief. Ginny spent their moments of silence scrutinizing his features. They were more delicate than usual, even vulnerable.

"It's gone," Draco said suddenly, and Ginny couldn't help but jump slightly.

"What is?" she asked to cover her jitters.

"The dream," he said with a sigh, closing his eyes once more, "the nightmare."

"Didn't you have a nightmare last night too?" Ginny asked delicately.

"I think so," Draco said as he sat up, "but I can't remember. I don't think the dreams were the same, but…ugh, I dunno." He sat there in frustration, and Ginny was silent…for the most part. Her grumbling stomach interrupted the silence, and she saw Draco's familiar smirk reappear on his face.

"Hungry?" he asked with a grin.

Ginny closed her eyes, slightly embarrassed. "A little," she mumbled.

"Well," he asked quietly, looking as if he was going to get up, "do you want something to eat?"

She looked at him skeptically. "Alright, sure."

"Okay," he said with a smirk, kicking his feet back and lying down again, "then go make something for yourself."

Ginny frowned, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well," Draco said, feigning contemplation, "I did wake you up in the middle of the night. I guess the least I can do is make you something to eat." He jumped up from the couch, not at all sleepy, and waltzed into the kitchen.

"That's very kind of you, though it won't take you very long anyway." She pointed out.

"And why might that be?" he asked, searching her cupboards for something to eat.

"Because you can use mag—" Ginny started but then stopped. She had forgotten that she had bound his magic.

"What was that?" he called to her, his head stuck into the cupboard. Ginny frowned, hearing the knowing smirk in his voice.

"Oh, come on," she said, defending herself. "It's not like you could do magic even if I unbound yours. You don't even have a wand!"

"Ahh," he said, emerging from the cupboard with a bunch of items in his hands, "but that's beside the point, isn't it?"

Ginny looked at him incredulously. "No, that is the point!" Man, he was infuriating!

"Actually," Draco said plainly, "you're wrong. If you unbound my magic, I could do anything. I could hex you into oblivion, clean this dump of house in a second, weed your garden out back, break the spell on your diary, fix up the rest of my scrapes and bruises that you failed to heal, and be able to whip up some magnificent food for the both of us in a heart beat. The fact that I don't have a wand is inconsequential."

"What?" Ginny asked, flabbergasted. "The fact that you don't have a wand is NOT inconsequential! That's the­…" she stopped mid-sentence to glare at him angrily. A few moments of silence caused Draco to look up from his project and into her death glare.

"What?" he asked her hesitantly.

"'Break the spell on your diary'?" Ginny quoted fiercely, sending waves of hatred at him.

"I…err…oh," he stopped abruptly, not knowing what kind of reaction would get him into the least bit of trouble.

"You read my diary?" she accused him angrily.

"No, no," Draco assured her. "Remember? I said I couldn't break the spell on your diary…so obviously I didn't read it."

Ginny gaped at him. "And what, may I ask, were you doing searching through my room and drawers?"

"Err…" Draco answered hesitantly, trying to find a reasonable answer. "I was bored?" he tried.

"Bored?" Ginny cried at him. "So you thought you'd just invade my personal space and go searching through my room? Just thought you'd shove aside any morals you might have and go through my things?"

They stared at each other for a moment. Draco was trying to think up the next lie, and Ginny was ready and waiting for the next crap that came out of his mouth.

"Maybe?" he tried.

"Ugh!" Ginny said, infuriated, as she threw her hands in the air. "I give up!"

She turned on the spot and went straight up to her room, slamming the door once more. Ginny flopped tiredly on the bed, watching the sun as it slowly began to peek out from the horizon. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. The kid was seriously going to give her a heart attack. It was worse living with him than it had been with Fred and George. At least they had been amusing.

A knock came from her door, and Ginny groaned loudly.

"Go away," she ordered simply. Another knock. "Do you not understand English anymore?" she asked rudely. "I said, go away!" Ginny tensed for a moment, waiting for another knock. She sighed, and let her head rest gently on the bed.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Ginny groaned again, but ignored it.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Nope, she said to herself, not listening.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

Still not listening.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

"Ugh!" Ginny roared, flinging herself from her bed and wrenching the door open. "What the bloody hell do you want?" She glared at Draco, but her death glare faltered as she saw the peace offering he held in his hands. Ginny looked from the thing on the plate to Draco and then back again.

"What is it?" she asked, despite herself. Draco grinned, and Ginny couldn't help but smile. He almost looked normal at the moment. The typical smirk he had ruined his naturally good features, but the goofy grin he had on now accented his natural good looks. Ginny frowned in disgust as she realized what she was thinking.

"You don't like it?" He asked, his voice betraying his hurt. He must have mistaken Ginny's frown at herself for the thing he'd constructed for her.

"No, no," Ginny tried to assure him. She opened her mouth to say more, but couldn't think of anything honest to say. Instead, she asked, "So…what is it?"

Draco grinned again, and said, "A sandwich!"

Ginny tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace. "Oh, right…a sandwich. Excellent…exactly what I wanted."

He held the plate out to her, and she took it tentatively. It kind of looked like a sandwich. The bread on both ends definitely signaled that it was a sandwich…but its innards were looking very toxic to Ginny.

"See," Draco explained, "you didn't have any sort of meat or anything, so I used beans! And you were kind of lacking on the condiments, so I used peanut butter! Then I threw in some other stuff I found in your cupboards that I thought would go well with it!"

Ginny looked to Draco, hoping he was joking. Nothing. She looked back at the "sandwich," tilting it this way and that to see if it looked more appetizing from a different angle.

"So," Draco said, breaking the awkward silence. Ginny opened her mouth again to say something, but, again, had to close it for the lack of honest words that would come out.

Finally, she looked up at him questioningly and asked, "Are you trying to kill me?"

Draco looked at her in confusion, "What?"

"I said," Ginny repeated, looking back at the death ticket in front of her that seemed to be decaying every second that they stood there, "are you trying to kill me?"

Draco said nothing, so Ginny spoke again.

"Look at this!" she said, thrusting it in front of his face. "It looks like it'd kill me even if I touched it!" She looked back at the thing in her hands. "What is this neon green stuff, here?" she asked, pointing at something that was gooey and oozing from underneath the bread.

Draco frowned slightly, betraying his disappointment, but then pulled on his impartial mask. "Well, if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it!" he told her angrily.

"Phew," Ginny said relieved, "Good because I definitely don't want to eat it."

Draco glared at her, and Ginny felt a twinge of guilt, "Come on, Malfoy!" she argued. "Look at it! Would you want to eat this?" Ginny asked, thrusting it closer to his face.

"If someone made it for me, then yes, I would!" he answered defiantly.

"Uh, huh," Ginny said absently, glancing back at the thing on the plate. It seemed to have grown from the time it'd been presented to her. "Right," Ginny said. "So, we're going to play a game!" Draco looked at her like she was crazy. "Just go with me here, Malfoy. Now, let's pretend that I had made the deadly sandwich and that I had given it to you."

She gave the plate and the sandwich to Draco, feeling cleaner when she had done so. Draco looked at her expectantly.

"Right," Ginny said, "Now eat it."

"Bu–," he argued, but Ginny cut him off.

"Just pretend, Malfoy. I made you this…delectable," she twitched as she said the word, "sandwich. Now eat it."

Draco turned the "sandwich" as Ginny had done, trying to find something appetizing about it. She cringed as she discovered some kind of purplish substance on the bottom piece of bread. It looked runny and chunky at the same time. Draco stood, examining his piece of work for a couple minutes. Then, with out a word, he waltzed into Ginny's room, opened the window, and tossed the "sandwich" and plate out of it. He walked back to Ginny, who was trying to conceal a grin, slowly.

"Well," Draco stated calmly, "I decided that if someone had the misfortune to eat that…thing, then they'd probably die," he paused, and then added, "or become very ill."

They stood there awkwardly, until Draco broke out into a grin.

"Okay, now that we've taken care of that national hazard," he stated, as Ginny giggled, "Do you want to whip us up something actually edible?" He grinned, and Ginny nodded agreement. They made their way to the kitchen, and with the flick of her wand, Ginny had breakfast cooking on its own.

"So, what are we having?" Draco asked hungrily.

"Eggs and toast," Ginny answered, surveying the food as it cooked and readied itself on its own. "Oh," she said, turning around, "And some orpples, if you'd like."

"Orpples?" Draco asked.

"Oh, it's this fruit that Fred and George managed to concoct when they were younger," Ginny explained, but Draco still looked confused. "It's mix of an apple and an orange."

Draco hesitated, not sure if he was ready to try something new after the sandwich disaster.

"They're delicious," Ginny assured him, "trust me. Now, there's a tree out back. You might have discovered it while you were searching everywhere today," she said a little too pointedly, "But if you just want to go pick some, then that'd be great."

Draco reluctantly got up from his chair and strolled out back. Indeed, he had seen the tree earlier during his little expedition. It had intrigued him then, and it did now when he stared at it. The orpples were round in shape and a red-orange in color. They looked appetizing as they hung innocently from the short tree. Draco picked half a dozen, and then turned to return to the house.

When he passed by the garden, he stepped back as two garden gnomes were fighting with tooth and nail over something slimy and discolored. Draco cringed as he realized it was the sandwich he'd thrown from Ginny's window just earlier.

He hurried back inside to see Ginny setting the table, the eggs and toast already placed out.

"So you know that sandwich?" Draco asked as he set down the orpples.

"I don't think you can hardly call it a sandwich," she pointed out without looking up.

"Fine," Draco said, exasperated. "You know that thing that tried to pass as a sandwich?"

Ginny grinned as she looked up at him, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I think we're about to find out if it really was toxic or not," Draco informed her. She raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.

"You didn't eat it, did you?" she asked seriously.

"Of course not," he said, "I'm not that dumb. But your garden gnomes seem to be. I passed two of them fighting over it on my way back. It looked even worse than when I tossed it out the window…" he paused to think. "What's odd, and a little disturbing, is the fact that the sandwich stuck together even though I threw it from a two story house."

"Ugh," Ginny moaned. "Stop, I'm losing my appetite."

They both sat down at the kitchen table and began to eat ravenously. Even though they'd just be discussing the sandwich, both Ginny and Draco were starving. They ate in silence, just existing in the other's company. After they had eaten their fill, they sat back in their chairs, lost in their own thoughts.

"So, what now?" Draco asked after quite a bit of time.

"Err," Ginny said, "Well, I have to go into work now."

"And what am I supposed to do?" he asked her again, just like the day before.

"Anything," Ginny said truthfully, but added, "Anything that doesn't include trying to break into my diary or going through my personal things."

"Right," Draco said not really listening, his mind racing with all the things he would do that day.

Ginny shook her head in defeat, and went up to her room to get ready quickly. She showered faster than fast, and was out the door sooner than expected. Looking back before she closed the door, she searched the front rooms for a sign of Malfoy, but he was nowhere to be seen. She sighed, but closed the door all the same and apparated to St. Mungo's.

The day passed in a haze, and Ginny was oddly happy. Or as happy as one could be in times like these. She managed to save every one of her patients that day and didn't allow her hopelessness to bring her down. At the end of the very long day, she quickly made it to her home. The sight of her house sent a warm sensation through her body, and she rushed forward, opening the front door.

When she opened the door, her heart sank. A cold chill hit her body hard as she backed up against the closed door. In front of her was a complete and total disaster. The couch was over turned, pictures hung askew on the walls, and a bunch of odds and ends littered the floor.

"Hello?" she called out tentatively. Ginny stepped forward, avoiding the mess on the floor. "Malfoy?" she asked a little louder. She stepped cautiously around debris, making her way to the kitchen, wand out just in case.

Ginny didn't even have time to gasp in shock as a hand covered her mouth. She was pulled back and pressed against the wall. Ginny closed her eyes, hoping she was just dreaming…though she knew she wasn't.

A/N:

Haha! I left you with a cliffhanger!! Well, I will hopefully have the next chapter up soon. I'm pretty good with updating and such…considering I really have nothing else to do. Ah, how I love beautiful summer days wasted in front of the computer. Haha.

So, a terrible thing happened while writing this chapter. I was worried that my imagination was broken!! Ah! I could NOT, for the life of me, think of anything to write. I know I got this chapter up quickly, but I spent FOREVER in front of the computer, longer than I have for all my other chapters. Hmm…maybe I just had a short attention span? Oh well, I believe it's gone now.