"Harry Potter?"
Harry glanced up from his lunch at a girl he faintly recognized from Ravenclaw. Her dirty blonde hair hung limp covering most of her face, although her shockingly blue eyes pierced through at Harry. He believed her rather beautiful in an odd kind of way.
"Hi, um..." He stuttered.
"Luna," she answered. "Away with the nargles, were you?"
Harry laughed rather nervously, unsure of how else to respond. However, he seemed to offend the girl with his laughter but before he had a chance to apologise she interrupted him.
"I just thought you should know, I've seen you and Ginny Weasley together a lot recently, she's been crying in the girl's toilet on the second floor for a few hours." And with that the curious girl walked away.
Harry paused shortly before entering Myrtle's bathroom. Glad to see the room empty apart from one stall closed, he moved closer to the closed door, through which he could hear sobbing.
"Gin," the crying paused. "It's me."
The door slowly opened. The pair looked at each other for a moment. In Harry's opinion, Ginny looked awful. Her hair was damp and plastered to her face, whilst her eyes were swollen and bloodshot. Harry leaned forward slowly, ensuring Ginny could sense each of his movements. He reached for the back of her neck and leant his forehead against hers. It took a moment, but with a sigh, Ginny finally relaxed against him, taking his free hand in one of hers and wrapping her arm around his waist. They stayed like that for a rather long time, until Ginny's breathing evened out.
Harry was glad that no one entered the bathroom and ruined this moment. With anyone else, he was sure a moment like that would have been awkward. However, with Ginny, he had found the two of them had become completely relaxed around each other. A moment like that was rather intimate, but with her, it could not have felt more natural.
He slid his hand down her neck, grasped her other hand and moved back to look at her face.
"Lake?" He suggested.
"Lake."
"You want to talk about it?" Harry said loudly. He was sat under a birch tree watching Ginny skim stones about 20 feet away from him. She hadn't said a word to him as he led her out of the toilet. She hadn't even protested as he had hesitantly slipped his hand into hers as they walked down the staircase, shielding her from entrance of the Great Hall and the onlookers that may be glancing their way.
"How are feeling about the second task?" Ginny managed a 5 stone skim as she finally shouted back to him, after a few minutes of silence.
"I'll take that as a no then, should I?" he had gotten up and walked down to where she was stood. Ginny hadn't heard him approach and flinched instinctively.
"Sorry," he said immediately, throwing two hands up in the air. "Sorry."
"Don't sneak up on me like that, okay?" she snapped at him. She turned to him with two hands on her hips and suddenly Harry was reminded so vividly of Mrs. Weasley that he began to laugh.
"Why are you laughing?" and then she was pointing at him. "Stop laughing Potter," she said dangerously.
Which only made him laugh more. He had doubled over when she began pointing at him. Oh, Merlin. She really was her Mother sometimes. Ginny didn't seem to find this funny at all.
"Yeah, it's hilarious, right Potter?" she spoke slowly. "This is all so hilarious, isn't it?" Harry placed his hands on his knees to support his upper body, his laughter choked in his throat as he finally sensed the threat in her throat.
"Hey, I didn't mean-,"
"No, please go ahead," she stared at him, taunting him. "Please, explain to me how anything about this situation is so hilarious. Hilarious enough to make you bend over wheezing."
She paused briefly, her eyes flashing with controlled rage.
"You know what happened the last time I was bent over?" she paused again, but not actually waiting for an answer. "What happens to me almost every night? Even when it's not actually physically happening, and it just comes to me in my nightmares? It happened to me last night again, when I trying to get just a few, just a few hours of peaceful sleep. I was bent over, and he was behind me. He was behind me fucking me into a desk."
Harry's face had gone blank. Ginny was shaking violently in front of him and he knew better than to interrupt right now.
"He was fucking me into a desk, Harry!" she laughed darkly. "Hilarious, right?! Ha, ha, ha! You know what he did then? Go on, guess Harry!"
He remained silent.
"No? You don't wanna make any guesses? You don't want to have any fun; you don't want to laugh anymore?" she was raising her voice and it was good no one was around. It felt good to scream and shout. "Well, let me tell you! He was wrapping his hands around my neck. Strangling me! You know what happens when someone is fucking you and starts strangling you?"
Again silence.
"When you finally manage to get air back into your lungs, it can make you orgasm!" she was hysterical. She was laughing, this empty, mechanical sound. "Today, he sprung up behind me in a corridor, he pushed himself against my back in this packed corridor with everyone around us, and so quickly that no one noticed, he grabbed me by the neck. And I was back there. It was only for a second, one split second. And I was there. I was there. In that room… bent over, I couldn't breathe… and I-I was back there Harry, and I-,"
She wasn't laughing, but she was having trouble breathing. Harry made to move towards her.
"NO!" she screamed, and she threw her arms up between them. "Don't come near me!"
She was seeing red, she could barely breathe, she couldn't focus on anything. She needed to breathe again. Not being able to breathe bought her back there. She didn't want to be back there anymore. She didn't want to be anywhere. She wanted space, she wanted to be alone, she wanted everything to be done. To stop. Her eyes were closed, and she tried to focus on her breathing. A few deep breaths and she'd be okay. She just needed to get some air back into her lungs. In. Out. In. Out.
Ginny didn't open her eyes until she felt she had regained what little control she could back. And then she stopped breathing again.
Pebbles. There were floating pebbles surrounding her, creating a barrier between her and Harry. The second she wondered where they had come from, they dropped down on to the floor below. Harry was staring at her, dumbstruck with awe.
"Was- was that-," she stuttered and shook her head. ""Harry, please, don't sneak up on me again from behind, okay?"
Harry nodded. He wasn't sure where to start and Ginny was shaking again. He was worried she might be on the verge of a breakdown.
"Hey," he spoke quietly so as not to startle her. "Gin, I'm really sorry. That was insensitive, I promise I wasn't laughing at your reaction. I wasn't laughing at scaring you. It's just – well you reminded me of your mum, shouting and… Well I'm just sorry, I'm-," he tried to gulp down the lump in his throat. "I'm just so sorry, Ginny" he finished lamely.
Harry had remained completely still whilst we spluttered out that appalling excuse and watched Ginny. Her hands were fisted in her hair, her forearms covering her face. He dared not moved, terrified he would scare her again. He felt awful, how could he have been so thick? He waited patiently for Ginny to come back to herself again.
He had sensed something was happening whilst Ginny was shouting at him. The air changed around her. It was as though it had cackled with electricity. And her hair… that hair looked as though it had turned into fire. It was standing on its edges, flickering. Harry's own hair, on the back of his neck and on his arms had also stood up.
He hadn't heard of anyone causing magical accidents when they got emotional. Just himself. He certainly hadn't witnessed it before where he hadn't been the one causing it. It was… Well it was actually pretty bloody amazing. Ginny looked like an angel. A terrifyingly beautiful angel with red hair fluttering and lashing up against her face like some kind of crazy halo. The power flowed off her.
He watched as she slowly bought her breathing back to a normal pace and dropped her arms to her side. Ginny's eyes were wide and full of fear.
"What- What just happened?" she trembled. It looked as though her knees were about to buckle but Harry remained where he was. Every inch of him fought to grab a hold of her, she looked as though she may faint. "Was that- Did I do that?" she continued in a whisper.
Her arms wrapped around her stomach, almost as though she was holding herself together. Harry's body ached to get closer to her, to help her stand, but still he waited until Ginny ready to accept his help. She had turned a terrible shade of white.
"Ginny?" Harry slowly raised his hands in the air. "Ginny, how about we sit down for a second?"
Ginny nodded slowly and made to move closer to him however her legs chose that moment to fold underneath her. Harry closed the space between them fast enough to grab Ginny's forearms and stop her face from connecting with the floor. He bought the two of them to the ground slowly in his arms. Ginny had grasped the front of his robes and was clinging to them and Harry pulled her close to him as he settled the two of them on the pebbles.
"Well," he gaped, his eyes full of admiration. "That was unexpected."
Ginny managed a soft chuckle. She felt exhausted, her body ached all over and her head was pounding. Ginny took a moment against Harry's chest, striving to gather herself. When she finally looked up at Harry she chucked nervously again at his expression.
"I- that's never happened before," she felt dazed. "I don't know where that came from."
"Can you do it again?" his face was so close to her. Ginny looked up into his eyes, barely a few inches away from hers. His eyes were wide, he was breathing heavily, excitedly and a broad smile was plastered across his face.
Ginny found herself inside the Room of Requirement for the first time this week with Draco Malfoy. This was different than before, according to the trio. This was a lot less frequent than with Hermione. Ron and Harry seemed to think this was a good sign, this radio silence from Malfoy. She wasn't so sure, and Hermione agreed with her.
Ginny was sat on the sofa wearing a different set of lingerie from last time. This set was cream, a mixture of soft lace and cotton. It was something like a set of underwear she already owned. Ginny made a mental note to throw that pair away when she got back to the Gryffindor Tower.
She sat with her hands folded in her lap, staring at a hangnail on her right thumb. She was resisting the urge to bite at it whilst glancing up occasionally at Malfoy. He was silhouetted against the fireplace, his back to her leaning on the mantle with one hand and clutching a tumbler in his other hand. He hadn't spoken since he had come into the room. When he had entered the first thing he did was pull a bottle of firewhiskey from his bag and the room provided two glasses for him. He poured one for himself and one for Ginny and shoved the glass towards her without looking at her. She had hesitated at first thinking maybe he had slipped something else inside. It didn't take long for her to change her mind though. Maybe being drunk or drugged would make this night pass easier. She had finished her fourth glass now and was considering pouring herself a fifth.
She felt fuzzy and found that comforting. They had been sat in silence like this neither of them really looking at each other, each of them occasionally pouring a drink, for at least 30 minutes. Ginny was trying to work up the courage to ask him if her … services would be needed this evening when something solid flew past her face.
Malfoy's glass of firewhiskey splattered across the wall behind her. Ginny's face span towards Malfoy's and she caught a glimpse of his expression before he turned his back on her again and placed two hands on the mantle, leaning over close to the flames. Those damp streaks underneath his eyes must have been backsplash from the firewhiskey.
"I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!" the scream from Malfoy was harsh, raw. Ginny had never heard something so feral, so intense and she felt a chill right down to her bones.
She didn't even see him move, he was so fast, one second his face was almost in the fire and the next he was on her. His hand fisted in her hair and the other around her neck, dragging her backwards so she was horizontal on the sofa, he positioned himself above her. Removing the hand from her hair only to place it round her neck with her other hand, bending so they were nose to nose.
They stayed like that. Each staring into the other persons eyes. Ginny didn't dare move. She was barely breathing. Malfoy was panting. His eyes switching back and forth between Ginny's left and right. His eyes leaking again, splashing droplets on her face. His hands were resting on her neck, not quite squeezing, but tight enough to make Ginny's breathing somewhat uncomfortable. His eyes were peeking out behind loose strand of platinum white hair and locked with her eyes. It felt like he was trying to read her mind, trying to find something, to see something. She was the first to look away.
When Ginny finally plucked up the courage to look back up at Malfoy again, his whole demeanor had changed. His eyes were manic, and his face had split into a disturbing grin. Ginny was frozen.
"Right then," his grin widened. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
This didn't make sense; she didn't understand what had just happened. His was face was calmer before, his whole demeanor had changed. Now he was like a different person. Before she could think on it too much, he gave a quick, intense and painful squeeze to the throat and she was aware of her surroundings again. He stood slowly leaning over her, still with that awful smile on his face. He grabbed her hands and pulled her on to her feet, so she was facing him.
"Get on your knees, blood traitor," he whispered to her as he stroked her cheek gently. Ginny hesitated for a split second. A mistake. Malfoy placed both hands on her shoulders and pressed Ginny down to her knees hard, they smacked the floor uncomfortably. She found herself eye level with Malfoy's zipper.
"Will it be easy tonight, girl?" his voice hissed down to her. She glimpsed up at his face. Ginny had never likened anyone's face to a snake before, never thought anyone's eyes could mimic slits, but that is Ginny had seen in every part of his face. "Or should I just use an Imperious Curse?"
She shook her head slowly, the liquor from earlier was definitely slowing her responses. Ginny had considered it briefly, again thinking perhaps the fogginess might be welcoming, however thinking of the harm he could cause her body whilst she did not react to the pain… it could take her weeks to recover from that.
Ginny inched herself forward, trying not to squint at the pain in her knees and pulled down Malfoy's zipper, before receiving a blow to the side of her face. She felt something warm trickle down the side of her face and into her eyes. It took the room a few seconds to catch up with her eyesight, everything swam in front of her momentarily.
"You answer me when I talk to you, Weasel," Malfoy whispered into Ginny's ear.
"Yes, sir," she croaked out. Everything was off-balance, she could barely see anything out of left eye which was filling with more blood every second that passed. She could feel a dull throb behind her left ear and suddenly the tears began to flow. Ginny had ended up on her hands and knees and let her head hang forward, her hair making a curtain around her face.
"Good girl."
Ginny didn't have to be looking at Malfoy to know that he was smiling.
