CONTEST WINNER THIS CHAPTER: User Whiplashlarue recommended the song "Love Song" by Pink for Blaise & Ginny this go around, and I thought it a perfect complement to Ginny's thoughts here. So, this chapter is dedicated to Whiplashlarue - congratulations! Lyrics for that song appear at the bottom of this chapter. Hope you'll find this song somehow and give it a listen.

Remember, I'll accept song suggestions for each couple, as well as digitally manipulated images of live people and your original hand-drawn or digitally drawn fanart for this story up until the end of this fic is published. SEND ME YOUR LISTS OR ARTWORK (rzzmg yahoo . com)! I'll pick my favorites, and reward you, as promised! Here are some of the entries so far: s905 . photobucket albums / ac260 / RZZMG / Eros%20Psyche / CONTEST%20IMAGES /

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CHAPTER NINE (#4): Blaise & Ginny

Well, it had certainly been a very exhausting, but very satisfying night as far as Ginny was concerned. She was officially ready to call the game done and over, and to stay here in this bed and sleep in Blaise's arms for a million years.

The only problem with that plan was her brain wasn't cooperating with the whole 'resting up' idea. It wouldn't shut off. It whirled over the night's revelations, storming through her brain, whipping her up into a state of restless anxiety. Her thoughts were a miniature hurricane in the making, and the repetitiveness was driving her spare: Her parents had lied to her. She was a Sex-Witch. Blaise loved her. She'd revealed her darkest secrets to him. She'd fallen in love back. They were mated for life. The Ministry would watch them from now on. She was going to be considered a freak by society. Her parents had lied to her…

That last was the biggest blow of all. Why hadn't her mum and dad told her what to expect, if they knew sex magic was passed through the females of their lines? Wouldn't they have even suspected Ginny could be a carrier? Had they really not intended on telling her? Merlin's beard and Circe's wand, what might have happened if she'd woken up on her seventeenth birthday, fully feral Veela and no one to explain things or guide her through it?

Visions of skeletal, dried-up mummies lying across her bed danced before her eyes.

Oh, Godric, she could have killed someone by draining the life right out of them! She would have done, if not for Blaise helping her through her awakening. He'd been able to siphon energy from her even as she had taken from him. They'd balanced each other out, neither draining the other, equally feeding the need of their sexual hungers in a safe manner...

Equal.

There was no doubt in her mind any longer: Blaise was her other half. He was her opposite in every way that counted. The male to her female. The Slytherin to her Gryffindor. The dark to her light.

And yet, they were so much alike in so many other, important and secret ways...

Peeking through her long, sooty lashes, she glanced up at Blaise. He was fast asleep and relaxed in a manner she'd never noted him to be when awake. In the two years she'd known him, prior to tonight, he'd always worn a sneer, a scowl, or an affected expression of boredom. Very rarely had she ever seen him smile or laugh in public; he was an intense, serious man in general. Yet now his jaw was slack, his lids fluttering as he dreamed, and the strain lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth were gone. He looked almost innocent and carefree. He seemed content and at peace.

In a roundabout sort of way, tonight's game had been responsible for his transformation, hadn't it? It was responsible for hers as well, and for bringing them together. It was strange to think that a handful of old magical cards could have such an impact on a person's life.

Blaise shifted slightly, and his hipbone pressed into Ginny's abdomen, making her suddenly, acutely aware of the need to pee once more. Gah! Honestly, she had a bladder the size of a Gobstone!

With a sigh, she extricated herself from her sleeping lover's embrace without waking him (it took some tricky manoeuvering, but she managed it with a few sly moves), and snuck out of bed. Once she was off the mattress and back on her feet, Blaise flipped over and burrowed his head into the pillow where she'd recently lain, making a discontented noise in his throat, as if he could sense she was missing.

Ginny stifled a giggle behind her hand. Godric, he was cute enough to nibble upon, wasn't he? "Be right back," she whispered and blew her lover an imaginary kiss.

Blaise let out a small snore and fidgeted a bit, but was soon breathing in an even, slow rhythm once more.

Taking one last, longing look at him in repose, with the dark line of his body only half-covered by the white sheet, the rest bared to the world without shame –bless the Founders, but he was absolutely delicious, wasn't he?– she tiptoed towards her discarded robe where it lay on the carpeted floor, and gathered it up. Wrapping it about her body to ward off the slight chill she felt, she quietly headed out the door into the main room.

The stone floor of the common area was cold to her toes, so she hurried through to the women's. Right as she entered the loo, she heard her brother and Pansy exit their private chamber, Ron growling about needing to be fed.

"-going to shag me to death, woman! I need my strength if you expect me to perform!"

The door to the loo closed behind her, cutting of that conversation, thank Merlin!

Quickly checking her face and hair in one of the mirrors over the sinks as she moved past –she looked SO well-shagged!– Ginny randomly picked a stall in the middle of the row, untied her robe, and sat down to do her business. Her mid-section felt full enough to burst just then, so it was a relief when she could finally purge all that liquid.

Resting her elbows on her thighs, she cradled her face in her hands and let her mind go as free as the rest of her was currently doing...

Although Blaise hadn't had enough energy left for another round of sex this last time, her lover had instead put his talented fingers and tongue to good use. He'd used every trick in the book –the wiggling tongue, the circling clit tease, and the hard, long suck– to get her to the point of mewling and begging like a wanton slag (seriously, the man could make an eighty-year, devoted nun toss her vows!). Right as Ginny had been about to come, however, Harry had invaded their private sanctuary, and the moment had been abruptly lost.

Blaise had been furious! Lightning fast, he'd moved to shield Ginny's nudity with his bigger body (as if Harry hadn't seen her naked a time or two already!), and had emitted a possessive growl that had made the hair on the back of her nape stand on end.

Her ex may have had bad timing, but he'd certainly made up for it with quick thinking and tact. Beet-red in the face, Harry had quickly stepped back and slammed the door shut, making no comment whatsoever about catching them in a compromising position (as Ron would have done) and leaving them to it.

That had been the end of her fun time, unfortunately. Ginny's sex drive had abruptly flagged as she moved away from pleasure's sharp edge, and her lover had been astute enough to pick up on that fact. He'd rolled off her (with much grumbling under his breath about 'tearing Potter's eyes from his head'), and they'd squirmed into a comfortable resting embrace in the middle of the mattress, preparing for bed. It had taken Blaise mere seconds to fall asleep, snuggled against her under the sheets (why, oh why, couldn't shehave been born with the 'fall instantly to sleep after the sex is over' talent set? Noooooo, instead she'd been gifted with the 'energy-vampire from Hell' skill!).

Now, here she was in the loo, exhausted both mentally and physically, letting her body drain in an effort to keep from wetting the bed in her sleep - something she hadn't done since she was seven. It had been a really long night, and she was so completely ready for sleep.

Speaking of which... Stones, but she hadn't that much to drink, had she? What had it been - one glass of water in eight hours? She must have one really fully bladder!

When the flood finally tapered off, she reached for some paper and wiped. A little more dribbled out of her, falling into the toilet, making a sporadic tinkling sound. She reached for more paper and wiped again. When she pulled her hand back, the tips of her fingers felt warm, almost sticky. She glanced down.

Blood.

She was bleeding, except it wasn't red blood, as she'd expect, but brownish in colour, like it would be on the first day of her period.

Huh.

Quickly, she counted the days in her head. No, she wasn't due to have her menses for another two weeks. So why was she bleeding now?

Alarmed, she pulled more paper off the roll and wiped again. She looked at it before tossing it down into the bowl. It was literally soaked with blood, and this time, the colour was cherry red. There were also rather large-sized clots on the tissue.

Hand shaking, she reached for more paper and did it again, and again, and again... Bright red blood began leaking out of her in streams.

Oh, Circe! Why didn't it stop? What was happening? Had Blaise accidentally torn something inside of her? Had they been too rough in bed? She hadn't felt any discomfort when he'd been inside her, but with all of the funky aura stuff going on between them, it was possible she hadn't felt the damage when it had been dealt, too caught up in the pleasure.

For long minutes, she kept trying to staunch the flow of blood. Beneath her, the bowl filled up with red tissues. Before long, she ran out of paper.

Terrified, she stood up on wobbly knees and headed for the next stall over. A warm liquid trail dripped down the inside of one of her thighs, leaving a splattered mess on the floor behind her. She'd clean that later, once she'd gotten the bleeding stopped. Sitting down on the toilet seat, she started in on the next stall's bog roll, pulling and wiping continuously.

It had to be her period, right? Bad timing, but maybe it had something to do with her Sex-Witch side waking up early? Maybe that had thrown her body's internal clock off? It seemed plausible... Only she never bled this much all at once, even during her periods, which were rather awful to start. In fact, she couldn't recall a time she'd ever bled like this.

When the cramping began, it wasn't horrible, but it was a bit sharper that she was used to tolerating.

Deciding she'd had enough, Ginny called for help. "Dobby, I need you," she summoned the house-elf, her voice choked with fear.

There was no crack of Apparition signalling the elf had heard and obeyed.

Ginny cleared her throat, and tried again. "Dobby, come to me," she commanded in a louder, firmer voice.

She waited, but there was no response.

Her panic abruptly gave way to the infamous Weasley anger, which burned hot and bright in her chest. "What the hell is going on?" she snarled. "Dobby, come here this instant!"

The elf did not appear, despite the third summons – which meant he either wouldn't come, or he couldn't come. Either way, no Dobby meant there was no easy way to get access to a pair of knickers and some cloth menstrual pads.

It meant that Ginny was entirely on her own. She was going to have to devise a plan to get back to the room she shared with Blaise, so she could have access to her wand.

Blast, if only she were as good as Hermione with wandless charms!

Hermione...

W.W.H.D?

First, Ginny knew, her best friend wouldn't panic so easily. Hermione was great under pressure. She channelled some of her friend's level-headedness, taking a deep breath and letting it out nice and slow to regain a bit of internal calm. Stubbornly, she ignored the tinkling sound below her, too; she knew what it meant, but freaking over the little river she was currently bleeding out wouldn't help one bit.

Second, Hermione would use what was available to her to create a temporary solution to the problem. Ginny glanced around. Well, there was plenty of bog paper... She formulated a quick plan in her head.

Wadding up some loo paper, she winced and groaned in protest at the nasty idea she was about to put into play, and then took a deep breath and got to it. Drastic times called for drastic measures, she figured, and if one didn't have a sewing kit handy, a plaster would work in a jiff. She shoved the bundled paper up inside her body to try to contain the bleeding, then pulled the edges of her robe together, and hurried out of the loo to her own room, keeping her thighs together as much as possible as she fast-walked the distance.

The moment she got back inside her own room, she grabbed her wand and conjured from the bed linens a pair of cotton knickers and a thick cloth menstrual pad to line the crotch. She then Evanesco'd the tissue between her legs and used a Cleansing Charm to wipe the blood from her skin.

Blaise woke up right as she sat on the edge of the bed, trying to fend off a sudden, unexpected dizzy spell. "What's going on?" he asked around a lazy yawn, stretching. "Where'd you go, my lioness?" His tone changed an instant later, as he came fully awake and alert. "Why is there blood on the hem of your robe?" He fingered the bloody stain on the white terry cloth's edging. "Are you hurt? What happened?" He tilted her chin up and turned her head, forcing her to meet his eye. "Tell me."

Ginny shook off the uncomfortable wooziness and shrugged. "I got my period."

Blaise frowned. "Your- Er, was it due to come this weekend?"

Slowly, she shook her head, feeling unaccountably awkward discussing the topic with Blaise. It was silly to be so self-conscious of a natural, uncontrollable body function, right? Like passing gas, a menstrual cycle just happened. Every woman on the planet experienced the same thing, so why did it feel so weird talking about it? Why was she suddenly so very hesitant to discuss the matter, as if it were too private a thing to share?

"It's... um... two weeks early."

Blaise considered that fact with a frown. "I wonder if the early awakening of your powers didn't throw you off."

"That was my guess, too," she admitted.

Blaise's arms came around her and he pulled her in tight to his chest. Resting his hands on her abdomen, he rubbed gentle circles over her skin, transferring heat and comfort. "Are you cramping?"

Ginny nodded. "Now, yeah."

"Does this help?" he asked, rubbing a little faster.

She nodded again.

Blaise pressed a small kiss to her temple and nuzzled her throat. "Ginevra, are you alright? You're not saying much. I never pictured you as the silent, grumpy type."

Neither did she. In fact, she tended to be a woman with a hex ready and waiting on the tip of her tongue throughout the week of her periods, and everyone knew to stay well out of her way during that time. Right now though, all she felt was ill-sorted, unsure, and weirdly awkward, like some young teenage girl experiencing her first bleeding. It was doubly uncomfortable speaking to a man about it.

What was wrong with her? This was not like her at all. She was acting all girly, like... like Tracey Davis, or something.

"I... I'm embarrassed telling you about it."

"Why? It's a normal, natural thing for a woman," Blaise reassured her.

She cuddled into him, feeling strangely vulnerable. "I know. It's just... I can't explain it. I went to the loo, thinking I had to, you know, pee. But it wasn't just that. I was bleeding, a lot - more than usual. All that blood..."

A strong cramp passed through her mid-section just then, causing her to hiss and tense up. Another followed directly on its heels, and she pulled away from Blaise, hunching in on herself as the pain continued.

"Ow. Owwwww!" she cried, wrapping her arms around her mid-section.

There was another rush of fluid between her legs, and she knew she was bleeding again. It was worse than before, though. The cloth pad between her legs suddenly felt too damp, as if it had absorbed all it could take.

"Ginevra?" Blaise sounded a bit panicked. "What's happening? Talk to me."

Another pain-filled wave rolled over her, and Ginny collapsed to the mattress, scrunching up into a foetal position. A sharp sob escaped her lips. "It hurts!"

Blaise was on his feet in a microsecond, reaching for his discarded wand and his robe, donning it. He sucked air in between his teeth, and cast a Scourgify upon her. "You're bleeding everywhere. Can I move you?" he asked, reaching for her. "I want to take you to the Hospital Wing."

Tears rolled down her cheeks as the pain intensified. "Move me! Just... please, do something!" she begged as the cramps intensified.

"Hold on, kitten," he said, gathering her up into his arms and cradling her to him. "I'm getting you help."

The chimes above rang out, letting them know it was the end of this action round.

Ginny turned her face into Blaise's neck and held onto him for dear life as he hurried them out of their room, managing to get the door open with a negligent wave of his wand and a non-verbal charm.

Seamus and Lavender had come out of their private room at the same time as Blaise rushed Ginny through the common area. "Holy shite," Seamus swore, just as another pain-searing cramp overtook Ginny and she screamed into Blaise's shoulder. Another gush of wet flowed from between her legs. "Wha's wrong wit' her? Is tha' blood? Where did all tha' blood come from?"

Lavender hurried over. "Oh, Godric! Blaise, take her to Madam Pomfrey right now! Sea, go with him, just in case."

"Hurry," Ginny whispered to her fiancé as the pain briefly lulled.

Blaise tightened his hold on her. "I will, love."

He took three steps, and abruptly stopped.

"Where's the door?"

Panting, Ginny looked up and over, noting that the solid grey stone of the wall had no break in it whatsoever. The wooden door they'd walked through at the start of the game was gone.

"Wasn't it right here?" Blaise demanded. "Where'd it go?"

"Maybe it goes away if it's not used," Seamus suggested, sounding slightly panicked. "I'll ask the room for another one." He walked back and forth in front of the wall three times as required, making a silent request for a door that would lead back into Hogwarts.

There was no change.

Swearing, he tried it again with the same results.

Blaise shifted. "Let me try. Maybe it has something to do with need."

Ginny held on, feeling light-headed as Blaise walked in quiet desperation up and back, up and back, up and back.

No door appeared in the wall. It remained solid stone.

"What the fuck is going on?" he raged. "Where's the goddamned door?"

"What's tha' house-elf's name?" Seamus asked. "He can Apparate in and out o' here without a door."

Ginny took a deep breath, feeling another cramp roll her in pain. Thankfully, it was much less intense than the last. "D-Dobby. He didn't come w-when I called earlier."

Blaise summoned Dobby, repeatedly. The elf didn't appear.

"Try your wands," Blaise instructed Ginny's Housemates, stepping back far enough to avoid potential backlash from spells. "Any spell you can think of to break through." He cast a Protego around himself and Ginny and moved them far enough away from any potential shrapnel.

Seamus and Lavender attacked the wall with fervour, unleashing an assortment of spells.

"Dissendium," Lavender called out.

"Deprimo," Seamus chased her spell with his own.

"Confringo," she countered.

"Bombarda Maxima."

"Incendio."

"Defodio."

"Expulso."

"Deletrius."

The two went on and on for some time, getting desperate enough to even try disintegrating the wall with "Reducto," vanishing the wall with "Evanesco", and even cast a "Finite Incantatum" on the entire room, all to no effect.

"What. The. Fuck!" Seamus panted in fury. He was clearly spooked, and wasn't handling the situation well. "No door. No elf. No sodding way out!"

Ginny heard all of it, and felt a shiver of dread chase up her spine. It was the same sensation as she'd felt at the start of all of this when she'd first spied the game's cards in Malfoy's hands, back in the alcove yesterday. She gripped Blaise tighter and could only whimper as another spasm gripped her womb.

Blaise kissed her forehead and held her close. "Don't worry, kitten. We'll find a way out. We'll get you to Pomfrey soon. Just hang onto me."

Too exhausted to reply, she laid her head back down on Blaise's shoulder and closed her eyes. As she was pulled into unconsciousness, her last thought was that her body and mind had finally run themselves out.

TO BE CONTINUED...

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Hmmm, Hermione didn't show up in the loo from Ginny's perspective, and yet Ron and Pansy had seen her walk through into the women's during their action round. What do you think that means? Review and let me know your guesses!

.

"Dissendium" = Spell that opens secret passages. Canon.

"Deprimo" = Spell that places a downward pressure on an object to fracture it. Canon.

"Confringo" = Blasting spell. Canon.

"Bombarda Maxima" = Blasting spell at maximum-strength. Canon.

"Incendio" = Fiery Explosion spell. Canon.

"Defodio" = Gouging spell. Canon.

"Expulso" = Spell that uses an invisible magical force to push on an object to provoke an explosion backwards. Canon.

"Deletrius" = Disintegration spell. Canon.

"Reducto" = Spell that reduces a thing to dust particles. Canon.

"Evanesco" = Vanishing spell. Canon.

"Finite Incantatum" = Charm to end spell effects. Canon.

.

Musical selection for this chapter: "Love Song" by Pink. Lyrics are as follows...

I've never written a love song
that didn't end in tears.
Maybe you'll rewrite my love song,
if you can replace my fears.

I need your patience and guidance,
and all your lovin' and more.
When thunder rolls through my life,
will you be able to weather the storm?

There's so much I would give ya, baby,
if I'd only let myself.
There's this well of emotions
I feel I must protect.

But what's the point of this armor
if it keeps the love away, too?
I'd rather bleed with cuts of love
than live without any scars.

Baby, can I trust this,
or do all things end?
I need to hear that you'd die for me...
again and again and again.
So tell me when you look in my eyes:
can you share all the pain and happy times?
'Cause I will love you for the rest of my life.

This is my very first love song
that didn't end in tears.
I think you re-wrote my love song
for the rest of my years.

I will love you for the rest of my life.