Title: Blurred lines

A/U: Starting in Chamber of Secrets Making its way through Ginny's years at Hogwarts; Ginny and Draco's POV.

TW: Mentions of abuse and addiction

Rating: M for Violence, Grief, Sexually suggestive content and coarse language.

Chapter 9: The Aftermath.

Narcissa wasn't there, nor was Lucius. The house was completely empty, apart from the house elves, who greeted them as they caught their breath in the foyer.

"Good evening, Masters Draco and Mistress Weasley. Master Lucius has given yous instructions to have dinner shortly then go to your rooms. We are expecting house guests when Master Lucius returns," said Dusty, one of the house elves, before promptly snapping her fingers and disappearing. The horrors of what had happened still screamed in their heads and they both welcomed the prospect of a hot meal and some time to think. The two of them made their way to the dining room where, the moment they sat down, Dusty approached them with the typical three courses: Potted crab and crackers for starters, a steak with black pepper sauce and sweet potato wedges and for dessert a chocolate gateau. Sliced thickly and served with fresh chocolate cream. The food was rich and hard to keep down but they both managed it; doing so much running and drinking and worrying. Following dinner they did as they were instructed, returning to Draco's room with hot chocolates on the way and a roaring fire in the hearth.

"So- do you think it's over yet?" Ginny said, voice hoarse from not speaking for over an hour.

"We were in that box for a while after the games ended and it was sound-proofed so well that the attacks could have just started or been going on for hours. It's not like anyone could hear if it had started before the games," Draco summarized. There was a lot more on his mind, like Why was his father so happy when he told them to leave as soon as the game ended? Was his mask still in the wardrobe under the false panel? Why was this happening again? The dark lord was gone, but his mark was still in the sky. Too many questions and not enough time to ponder. Before long he would be back at Hogwarts.

"Draco, are you alright?" Ginny said, breaking Draco out of his reverie.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's pretty late, are you going to bed soon?" Draco asked absentmindedly. He was still thinking of his family's hand in the attacks. There was no way they weren't. House guests? That winning grin on Lucius' face? He had to check. He had to make sure. He didn't wait for Ginny's answer "I just need to check something, I'll be right back." Draco was fairly certain his father wouldn't be back any time soon. He slinked out of the room and made his way quietly down the corridor. If the house elves found him snooping they'd report him to Lucius. Five minutes of careful stalking and pointed looks over his shoulder landed him in front of the double doors of the manor's master bedroom. A tentative push told Draco that the door wasn't locked. A further push made the door swing open. He rushed over to the wardrobe, slid open the false panel in the base, and saw everything he needed to. The compartment was empty. No mask, no cloak, nothing. He slid the panel back over the compartment, closed the wardrobe in haste and nearly ran back to his room. He was disgusted, not only with himself, but with his father. He had only barely escaped Azkaban Prison the last time he donned the mask, and now he was back at it again, casting dark marks over the biggest sporting event in near history.

When he reached his bedroom he expected Ginny to have cleared out to her own room, but there she laid. Fully stretched across one half of the sofa having snatched a blanket from her own bedroom. Draco joined her, taking the space she didn't cover with her legs and spreading his own legs onto the coffee table, taking the slack of Ginny's blanket and resting into an uneasy sleep.

The next morning came as a loathsome requirement of life. Draco could have happily just laid on the couch for the rest of his life next to Ginny. However, when Ginny wasn't there and the clock registered at 7:45, he realized that he didn't have any choice but to face the breakfast table. A lot of time had clearly passed since she left. Draco didn't think she vacated in the middle of the night to her own room but he doubted she'd want to wake up next to him like some crap romantic novel. Instead of wallowing he decided to take a shower and show up just on time to breakfast, the common courtesy in the house was to arrive early for morning chats and an opportunity to read the Daily Prophet; Draco wasn't going to give his family the satisfaction of adhering to tradition - even one as small as breakfast time. It was 7:59 by the time Draco finally decided to leave the confines of his bedroom and appear present to his family. To his surprise, Ginny was already seated, engaging in friendly conversation with his mother Narcissa.

"Ah Draco, so nice of you to finally join us. Have you seen the Prophet?" Narcissa said calmly with no air of malice at all. Just a typical greeting - something Draco was far too on edge to take at face value.

"I haven't, I had a late night," he lied. He wasn't prepared to let his passive aggressive defiance be noticed just yet. "What's the ministry blundering over this time?" he continued, trying to put his usual contempt in his voice whilst also inadvertently ignoring Ginny. He took the prophet from his mother and read the headline. It was as he had expected. The dark mark had been noticed, someone who had nothing to do with it had been blamed and sacked from their job. Rita Skeeter had gotten her hands on it as well and had written something about the "Gross misdirection of the Ministry's protection efforts." Draco cared very little about the Skeeter woman's diatribe of bilge, though he was curious about Barty Crouch. "Wasn't he the man who was supposed to organize our escort? The one who couldn't produce a corporeal patronus?" To Draco's disgust Lucius was barely trying to hide his involvement, but wasn't directly taking responsibility, even though Draco was fully certain that his face had been under one of those masks. After all, the Cruciatus Curse had always been his father's favourite Unforgivable curse. .

Draco felt like he was in a fever dream seeing Ginny and Narcissa casually conversing on the other side of the dinner table. He had to clench his hands into fists, digging his nails into his palms to persuade himself that this wasn't a dream. After all, Ginny had spent all of the summer holidays at the manor, so it was to be expected that the two women would get along well. Lucius, however, was trying his hardest to keep the contempt out of his face. This was saying something considering he usually never made any sort of effort to hide his scorn, , even when the perpetrator was in the room. He would look down his nose, sneer openly and, when people were being incredibly thick, he would roll his eyes, turn around and leave them behind with a flourish of his cloak, having them babble themselves into silence mid-sentence. To his merit though, he was giving it his best shot today. Maybe he was warming up to Ginny. Draco could only hope. There was only a week left until the end of term anyway so he wouldn't have to endure his fathers falsehoods any more. He finally locked eyes with Ginny who was sitting directly to his left. She smiled kindly at him. Draco smiled back and speared a kipper with his fork.

Once the family had stopped eating Draco and Ginny retreated hastily back to his room, heads reeling from what conversations had taken place at the dinner table. Lucius' blatant disregard for denying his involvement, him being unnerved by the presence of the dark mark even though he was one of the death eaters, and most importantly, the fact that they were supposed to be having house guests. Dusty had told them that, just after they returned from the World Cup. Ginny was either reading his mind or was asking herself the very same questions.

"So who do you think will be coming to visit?" Draco had his suspicions, but if he was right that would mean that the Ministry was covering up a mass breakout at Azkaban.

"If it's who I think it is, then we're in deep shit. You for being, well..."

"A blood traitor," Ginny provided.

"Yeah, and well me for..." Draco took in a shuddering breath. "Being involved with you."

"Let me guess, Bellatrix? I heard you talking about her at school, and how she's a massive nutter," Ginny said, the corners of her mouth pricking up in nervous mirth.

"She's a few cards short of a full deck, yes," Draco replied with a mirthless laugh, "Although that may be an incredibly gross understatement."

As it turned out, it wasn't Bellatrix Lestrange that was to be the Malfoy's house guest. It was Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle's fathers, as well as Nott Sr., and their respective offspring. Theo looked unnaturally subdued for someone on summer vacation, but perked up when he caught Ginny and Draco's eyes. Crabbe and Goyle looked happy as usual. Everyone assumed that due to their size they were both meat heads; however, this simply wasn't true. Both boys were smart when it came to Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, and, surprisingly, people. This became very apparent when, as Ginny went in to hug the shorter Crabbe, he whispered into her ear, "If you saw Theo before he saw you then you're right about something happening to him while he was at home, but I seriously don't recommend you say anything to him. I'll explain in due time. Greg knows too." Ginny gave him an appreciative squeeze to show that she understood, and then hugged Goyle in turn. Goyle, having seen their exchange and being wholly too tall to whisper to Ginny discreetly, settled for a tight embrace. When it was Theo's turn, Ginny shifted closer to him, turning her body so she could lay the side of her face against his collar bone and press her face into the crook of his neck. Theo let out a mirthful exhale through his nose and said, "Yes, yes Ginny, I am oh-so-glad to see you as well." Ginny giggled a little before giving him one final squeeze and backing off. He sighed theatrically as if a massive weight that had inhibited his breathing had just been lifted. Ginny rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile. Theo was always one to lighten the mood.

After making introductions for Ginny, Draco decided it would be a good idea to leave the grown-ups, all of whom were ex-death-Eaters, to their own private conversations. Theo was the first to speak. "Merlin, you could cut the tension in there with a knife. What's gotten them all worked up?" Either Theo didn't know, because he had no reason to suspect or just didn't care, or he was avoiding directly bringing it up. Draco didn't know, but they had to talk about it.

"They were in their masks at the World Cup," Draco deadpanned.

"That is true," Theo said, solving the conundrum, "But you also have to remember the Dark Mark had been cast in the sky."

"Why does that matter?" Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"All of those oldies downstairs think The Dark Lord is dead and gone and isn't coming back," Draco said, before Theo contributed further.

"They're all worried that the fact they've given up looking for him has been noticed by someone who is still completely devoted. That's what my dad says anyway. They just wanted some fun with the Muggles with the Death Eater outfits on to scare people, I don't think any of them actually support the whole 'The Dark Lord shall return' crowd's prediction," Theo said grimly. Goyle's slack jaw was an indicator of the magnitude of the bomb he had just inadvertently dropped.

"So, how sure of this are you?" Ginny asked, finally having some input. Draco was surprised at the fact she even cared. As a designated blood traitor, putting herself in the line of current Death Eater affairs wasn't the smartest choice. He thought about commenting, but Ginny was the strong independent type who would bite his head off if she thought he was trying to coddle her.

"I'm basically almost certain," Theo said, gesturing the weighing of the scales of what the conversation downstairs could be about. "Either my father is straight up lying because he knew I could hear him and he wanted to make me scared -ot going to lie, it kind of worked - or his old age and paranoia have finally driven him round the bend. Or, most worryingly,he's right, and their little show of domination at the cup has riled some rather unhappy magical extremists." With each point he listed, he put up a finger, he took a few moments to look at his hand, contemplation etched onto his face. As he did this, everyone else similarly weighed the possibility of each suggestion, using glances rather than physical gestures. The first to speak wasn't one of the quartet however. It was actually Dusty.

"Master Lucius wanted me to tell the young masters and mistress that lunch will be delivered into whichever room you would like it in, apart from the dining room where they are having a meeting. Dinner will be served as usual."

Draco nodded at the house elf. "We'll be having it here Dusty, thank you." The house elf bowed so low in response that his wrinkly hooked nose actually touched the black lacquered wooden floor of the room. He clicked his fingers and disappeared.

Draco wanted to continue discussing the parent problem but Ginny didn't appear to want to spend lunch talking about such serious topics. "I recommend we don't mention anything about our suspicions even to each other in what we think is private until we are back in Hogwarts," she said, looking at everyone in the room to ask if they agreed. She took their silence as tacit understanding. "Good. As you just saw, the house elves can simply pop in and out of this room without even needing to walk to the door." This comment actually elicited a vocal reaction in the form of an agreeing 'mmh' from Draco, and, deciding that would do, GInny suddenly changed to a more casual tone. "So, how has everyone's summer holiday been?"

A/N: Ohhhhhh my goodness meeeeeeeeeeee.

I am so sorry for making you all wait as long as you have for this update. Things have been pretty hectic to put it mildly but it all should start calming down now.

Big thanks to all of the readers and reviewers that have stuck around this long and an even bigger thanks to my betas knopflerfan and Madi for betaing this chapter in such short notice

I also apologize for how short this chapter is. The next one will be longer, around 6k words like the other ones :))

I hope you all have a lovely day

-Asmo :))