Part II, Chapter Four: Me and the Moon

..."It's me and the moon," she says
"And I've got no trouble with that."

-Something Corporate, Me and the Moon

Our eyes will adjust, thank God for the moon
- Rent (Light My Candle)

Warning: Now is where it gets confusing.

"Wow," Ginny whispered truthfully as Draco lit a candle so they could look around. The house was so old there was no electricity in the entire house.

"If I remember correctly..." Draco started, thinking in thought, "If you follow the red part of the carpet it will lead to Fayebris' private bedroom." He pointed to the carpet on the stairs, where a thick red line on the right side of the staircase snaked its way up the stairs. "The green part leads to Andasar's, and the gold..." He pointed to the small line connecting both colors. "Leads to Elye's room."

Ginny followed the gold line, but saw it went to nothing but a large stone wall. On the wall was a painting of a very happy family smiling in front of a fireplace. There was a woman with flowing red hair that seemed to be endless with freckles and beautiful hazel eyes. Next to her was a man with silvery-white hair and blue eyes, eyes that seemed cold. His smile, however, betrayed his eyes as he held an adorable baby girl. Her eyes were her father's cold blue, but her hair -- the little amount she had on her head -- was a brilliant red. She smiled and stared at the painting; these were her ancestors. These people betrayed their own families to be with the one they loved and risked death for their child. It would have been so easy for them just to give up and separate. But they were too in love.

Ginny sighed and turned around; Draco was already gone. What a wonderful host, she thought to herself, leaving the guest in the main room with not even a candle. She began to glance around for a candlestick, but found nothing. Just as she was about to use her wand, she heard the distinct sound of a baby crying.

"What the hell?" Ginny half-yelled, shocked. Did Draco have some secret child living in this house? Was it abandoned for so long that people were using it as a shagging shack, and now there was a baby somewhere in this house?

Ginny spun around, trying to figure out where she heard the cry from. Once again she heard it, coming from what seemed like behind her. But that was impossible, nothing was there but a painting! She looked closer and saw tears falling from Elye's eyes. Ginny felt as if she were going insane as the yelling became louder and louder and louder, to the point where she had to get rid of the screaming. It was fogging her brain, making her become dizzy. With a scream, she fell down the small, four stairs with a bang.

-----------------

Ginny woke up, confused, and looked around. The first thing that she saw was a painting of Fayebris -- and although she is pretty, if your head is banging, you can't remember where you are, and you have no idea what you're doing in a strange bed... it's the most terrifying thing a girl could set her eyes on. She let out another scream and sat up immediately.

... Which was dumb. She clutched her head and fell back on the pillow, moaning in agony. Why was her head hurting so? Why did her back hurt? Where the HELL was she?

"What is with you and the screaming?"

She screamed again and turned to find the voice: Draco Malfoy was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, looking quite like the cat that ate the canary.

Ginny nearly choked on her own spit. "MALFOY! What the -- you -- and -- bed -- and -- baby! Screaming! Head -- throbbing, painting -- staring! WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Draco was laughing so hard he was crying; Ginny was acting like a bloody lunatic, and boy, was it amusing.

"Do you have no recollection of what happened?" he asked between fits of laughter.

"Of course I do! You bloody left me all alone on the staircase without a candle -- thanks a lot -- and then when I started looking around I heard a baby cry! So, of course, I started looking around --"

"Wait." Draco looked at her closely and began to walk closer to the bed. "A baby?"

"Yes. A baby. As in humans, but a smaller form? Anyway, I heard it screaming, so I looked around and it was as if the screaming was hypnotizing me. The last thing I remember is falling," she explained, the throbbing in her head making her feel rather drunk. "Now, how did I get here?"

"A baby?" Draco asked again. "Where was it coming from?"

Ginny shrugged. "I don't know. It sounded like it was coming from... well... the painting. But I know that's silly. Now, how did I get here?"

"From the painting? Where, in the main room?"

"Yes," she answered, exasperated. "How. Did. I. Get. Here?"

Without answering, he left the room quickly.

"Malfoy! Wait!" she yelled, getting up although her back, head, and now legs were aching. "Ow, ow, ow... Malfoy! Stop! Ow... ow!" She ran -- well, more like wobbled -- her way down the stairs just in time to see Draco about to chop up the main painting with an axe. "STOP!" Draco didn't hear her, so she threw herself at him. Thankfully, he threw the axe down right before it could have chopped her into two. She nearly cried out in agony as her back throbbed from the fall.

"Bloody hell! Have you gone completely mad? I could have killed you! What the hell were you thinking, Weasel?"

Ginny took deep breaths, trying to regain a normal breathing rate as she stood up. "What was I thinking? What about what you were thinking? You were about to ruin the only remaining artifact of Fayebris and her family!"

Draco threw his hands up. "YOU SAID THE PAINTING WAS BLOODY CRYING! If I'm not incorrect, PAINTINGS DON'T DO THAT."

"Well..." she wrung her hands together. "I just meant that... well... maybe it was just my ears...?"

Draco shook his head and began to pace, speaking quickly. "I've been with you bloody two hours and already you've got me parading about the place as if I were your slave or something! First I hear you scream, and so I have to figure out where you are. Then I have to take your fat arse up practically twenty flights of stairs to put you in bed so you didn't bloody BLEED to death --"

"Hey! I do not have a fat--" Ginny trailed off. "Did you say you brought me upstairs and put me to bed?"

"No!" Draco snapped quickly. "Not like that. You were bleeding. You were going to get the carpet dirty with your... uh... well... blood."

Somewhere inside, Ginny knew he wasn't only thinking of his carpet. He couldn't let her bleed to death. And though she knew she should say thank you, the only thing that she felt like replying with was a nasty retort.

"Keep your slimy paws off of me, Ferret." The words came out quickly, easily, harshly. She was so used to saying words like these that it was hard for her to say a simple thank-you. She made a promise to herself that she wouldn't let him get under her skin, that she would avoid being personal with him at all costs -- this was her defense mechanism. To spit a cruel retort and then walk away.

And that's exactly what she did.

-----------------

Draco shook his head and walked back upstairs to Andasar's room, feeling like laughing. He looked in a full length mirror that stood on the right side of the wall and replayed how stupid he was in his head. He was about to go downstairs and take a walk when he saw something move in the mirror, and it wasn't him.

It was as if his skin was changing, morphing into another person. He looked down at his hands, but they were still his. In the mirror, however, they were longer, thinner. Draco was shocked to see his hair grow longer, whiter.

He was becoming his father.

He slowly slid away from the mirror, bumping into the edge of his bed. His knees buckled and he fell on the floor, his father still standing over him.

Inside his head, he heard a familiar voice hissing as he saw the reflection's mouth move in turn with what was being said.

"You were so stupid. You should have let her bleed! What were you thinking? She means nothing! If you left her bleeding, maybe she would have died!"

Draco shook his head fiercely, trying to get rid of the image of his father, but found it was no use.

"You help her out, and what does she say? Thank you?" His reflection shook his head and then morphed into an image of Ginny. "'Get your slimy paws off of me, Ferret!' So do that, Ferret! Leave this place! Give it to its rightful owners!"

He attempted to get up, but found he was too nervous to move. Seeing his father return back to the mirror, back into his life, was enough to give him nightmares for years.

-----------------

That was a little harsh, don't you think? Ginny asked herself as she climbed up the tall staircase and began walking to her room. I mean, he was only being kind. Maybe I should apologize... She turned around and started to walk back when something in her mind awakened.

'No! Why would you do that? He only did it so he could get glory. You put him in his place, and that was what he needed! You did exactly what you should have!'

But... I was rude. He was being nice, and I was so mean... If I'm going to live here, I don't want to live in constant warfare! If I apologize...

'Don't you dare! Then he'll know he can take advantage of your kindness, he'll use it against you! That's what Slytherins do.'

But... she shook her head. "I'm bloody talking to myself!" She sighed and opened the door of her room, the painting of Fayebris still shocking her a bit, but becoming not quite the scare it was before. She began to unpack her things, humming a song she couldn't quite place in her head. Just as she was folding up a pretty red top, she heard the baby's cry once again.

What's going on in this house? I swear, I'm going crazy, I almost thought I heard -- Cue the baby crying. I KNEW IT!

She carefully listened to the baby's yells, tiptoeing throughout the huge mansion to find out where the sound was coming from. She traveled through rooms she had never seen before, and each varied extremely from the other. One was bright pink with frill everywhere, the only things inside were a screen to change behind, a vanity, and a small closet. Another room was bright blue and held tennis rackets, brooms, and quidditch material. Each room described Fayebris' vast personality -- and it chilled Ginny to find that Fayebris was quite like herself.

The baby's voice led out of Fayebris' side of the mansion and towards Draco's. She faltered before deciding her curiosity was too overwhelming for her to just 'give up,' so she opened the green door with the snake engraved in the doorframe -- one of Draco's 'famous' rules. She continued following the voice upstairs, through snaking hallways and tiny doorways until she found herself in front of a huge door, where the screaming was to the point of craziness. Throwing the door open, she was surprised to see no baby at all.

Instead, she saw Draco, quivering in a far corner.

"Malfoy?" She asked quietly, walking up to him. She lightly tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to her, wiping furious tears from his eyes. She looked at him, for once, without loathing. She truly felt sorry for him, for whatever reason he was feeling so down.

And immediately the crying stopped.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking around.

"My father. In the mirror, is he still there?"

Ginny looked into the mirror but only saw her reflection. She shook her head. "No... he's not there."

Draco, as if not believing her word, looked himself, then, looking satisfied, stood up. "What are you doing here?"

"The crying again. And what do you mean, your father? He was... in the mirror?"

Draco shrugged. "I don't know. It was weird, I... I feel like this house is making me insane."

She nodded. "Me, too. I heard the crying and followed it up here. I have no idea what's going on... Did you hear anything?"

"No. Just my father."

It was silent as they pondered what could be going on, but none of their reasons made sense. She sat on his bed, her cloak riding up slightly to the point where Draco could see some of her leg.

"How's your... scar?"

"Oh..." Ginny lifted the cloak up a bit more and checked. "It seems to have gotten a bit smaller..." She stood up and looked in the mirror for a full view. For a second, her reflection was the only thing she saw... but after a few seconds, she saw Draco walking towards her. Wordlessly, he began kissing up and down her arm. She let out a quivering breath, scared of the feeling.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Draco looked up from his dressers, where he was throwing clothes in. "Uh... packing?"

"Is... that what they... call that these days?" she asked.

"Have they ever called it anything else?" He took a good look at her; she looked flushed, and her arm was sticking out. She was shaking slightly, breathing heavily. It looked like she was... well... "What the hell are you doing?"

"What are you doing? You're the one that comes over here, out of nowhere, and --" She spun around to reprimand him, but found he was suddenly half way across the room. "What are you doing over there? How'd you get there so fast?"

Draco rose an eyebrow. "Are you sure that when you fell you fell on your leg and not your head?"

"Don't give me that!" She hissed, pointing to the mirror and glancing at it at the same time. In the mirror, Draco was still standing there, kissing her arms. "You're in two places at once."

"...I don't think so... Wait, let me check." He dramatically checked around the room before looking back at her. "Nope, one of me. What are you going on about?"

She turned from the mirror and sat on the bed, facing away from it. "Your mirror is cursed."

Draco stood up, slightly protectively -- although he would never admit that he was feeling protective over Weaslette -- and looked behind her into the mirror.

"What do you mean, cursed?"

She turned around, looking at him with a sad smile playing on her face. "Cursed. Like me. Like this house. Cursed."

-----------------

Ginny was crying big, empty tears that had no meaning, no reason. Nothing in particular was making her cry. It was just the first night -- the first time she had ever slept alone in a strange house away from anyone she knew. Ever since first year, she had a fear of sleeping alone. At the age of sixteen, her father was lying in her room every night in a spare cot that once belonged to Bill. During the school year, she would wait until Hermione and Harry were safe in their beds, then would curl next to Ron on the couch. When she fell asleep, he would carry her up to her room.

Of all the things that frightened her about staying here, with Draco, in a huge house... the thing that wasn't on her list of worries was sleeping alone. Actually, she hadn't even thought of it until she laid down and realized that the house was too quiet. Too loud. Too bright. Too dark. Too empty. Too full. With the lights off, every shadow seemed to be haunting images, creeping up to her bed and trying to take her down under to a world of never ending night. With the lights on, the brightness laughed at her, telling her she had to get to sleep soon or she would be like a ghost in the morning.

She was sick of it. She couldn't lay down, she couldn't sit up. Reading didn't help -- all the books were written in incomprehensible 'olde english' and only frustrated her. She couldn't do anything but search the house, going as high as she could up the tall staircase.

She tumbled here and there, now and then shrieking about a cobweb or something. Eventually, when there were no more doors to open, she found one last, tiny door. It seemed more worn than the others, as if Fayebris spent every waking moment going through this door. In the center was a large imprint of a crescent-moon. Ginny quietly opened the door and gasped.

It was the roof, but small and safe. There were two chairs next to each other, pointing outward, and right in front of her, in all his glory, was the man in the moon. The moon had never looked more brilliant, and she sat down in one of the chairs, staring at it. As she sat in silence, she began to remember a song her mum sung to her when she first began having troubles going to sleep after people would leave her alone in her room. In a low, quiet voice, she tried to recreate the feeling of security her mother gave her when she was little. Half-way through her song the tears came.

"Somewhere, out there, beneath the pale moonlight...
Someone's thinking of me, and loving me tonight
Somewhere out there, someone's saying a prayer
That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star
And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky, oh...

Somewhere, out there, if love can see us through
Then we'll be together, somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true..."

She heard a sound from behind her and spun around quickly, self-conscious about her singing. Draco appeared in the doorway, leaning against its frame, watching her. She wiped away her tears with the back of her palm and crossed her arms.

-----------------

Draco looked at her closely; she was crying. But why? "What are you doing up here?"

She looked at him coldly. "I could ask you the same question."

"I heard you singing. I thought it was the ghost of Fayebris or something come to murder us in our sleep, and we couldn't have that, could we?" replied Draco with a smirk. He didn't mention the fact that he thought her singing was lovely, or that he heard her crying and actually felt somewhat sad for her. Why would he? Showing compassion only left you vulnerable. "Now your turn -- why are you up here?"

She was silent, trying to decide whether to tell him about her 'ailment.' No one knew except her family; she figured they didn't need to know. But since she was probably going to be up here a lot, singing, she thought she might as well get it out in the open now.

"Chronic secondary insomnia. I've had it for about six years."

Draco was silent. "Chronic secondary?"

"Yeah. Chronic means it happens very often, it's like a cycle. For me it's every day. Secondary means it's because of underlying problems."

"Such...as?"

She took a deep breath. "I'm sure you've heard all the gossip about the chamber."

He nodded. "Yes."

"Ever since then, my brain keeps replaying that night. It's like I can't forgive myself and I always feel vulnerable to... someone sneaking up on me like that, I guess. Pretending they're your friend and then betraying you. You know?" She sighed. "I can't go to sleep without someone else in the room. I'm so screwed up, it's not even funny."

"I wouldn't laugh," he said, letting an actual nice comment slip. He noticed his mistake and was about to say something mean, but she turned and looked at him with a smile.

"Thank you for listening. I didn't think I'd ever be able to have a conversation with you that didn't consist of cursing and yelling."

Draco let the gratitude lie in the air before commenting. "So, what are you going to do? Just sit out here until morning?"

"I don't know. I've never been in this situation before... not for years. I don't know how to handle it. I guess I'll just watch the sun rise or something." She looked at her watch. "You should go... you can sleep, take advantage of that. I'll stop singing. Sorry for waking you."

"Keep singing," he said simply. Without waiting for an answer, Draco walked to the door, slowly glancing at her before closing it shut. As he walked down the stairs, he thought of all the things he thought he knew about her... and all the things he knew nothing about.

Author's note: Hehehe. I hope you guys aren't too confused. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. This all makes sense in my twisted little head, and once I get to it in the story you'll reread this chapter and go, "OHHH!" No, I'm so serious, haha. You know what's sad though? I know exactly how she feels -- obviously not the part about her first year, but I can't sleep alone. I'm not scared of the dark or anything, I just can't sleep unless I know eventually someone will be coming in. So I guess I got a bit descriptive with that because it comes from experience.

The song she was singing comes from the movie "An American Tale" -- I didn't write it, nor did I write the two song sentences in the front of the chapter.

Thanks to all you fab reviewers! I hope this one came out a bit quicker -- I had a day off on Thursday, a snow day on Friday, a weekend, and practically no school today, so I guess I had time to write this. Hehe. Review please!