Draco Malfoy shoved his prisoner into his chambers unceremoniously with a disgusted scowl on his face. The redhead stumbled and fell to her knees. The ropes holding her arms behind her back strained against her efforts to break free, but the bindings held, as they had through the journey to Malfoy Manor.
"Let me go!" Ginny Weasley demanded for the thousandth time that day.
To her surprise, her request was granted. Draco waved his hand and the ropes which held her dissolved. Lighting quick, Ginny leaped at Draco and made for his wand. Before she could reach him, new ropes wound themselves around her body, and she fell to the ground with a loud crash.
"Merlin's balls, Weasley," Draco exclaimed, "I was actually trying to be nice to you."
He stepped over her struggling form and threw himself on a green chaise. Ginny watched from the floor as Draco took off his shoes and socks and examined a gash on his ankle. He turned to Ginny and spoke, "Are you hurt?"
Ginny responded with a look of contempt. "I fought in a war yesterday, was captured and beaten, and spent the night in a dungeon. Of course I'm fucking hurt."
Draco walked over to a cupboard and drew from it a small wooden chest. He knelt beside the young witch and began talking as he pulled out vials and bandages from the box.
"All right, Weasley. I'm going to untie you so I can take a look at your injuries. It would be much easier on the both of us if you keep still."
Ginny relented and didn't lash out when her bonds dissolved around her. She sat up slowly and massaged the spots were the ropes had left angry red marks on her skin.
"I would apologize for that," Draco spoke, "but it's pretty much your own damn fault that you had to be tied up again."
He received an icy stare in response, but Ginny remained sitting on the floor.
"Can you stand up?" he questioned. The young woman nodded and made to get up, only for her legs to give out under her. With a swoop Draco caught her and set her down on the same chaise he had been sitting on earlier.
Draco looked over his prisoner, deciding on where to begin. There was dried blood all over her trousers and left shoulder, and many cuts and bruises along her arms, plus who knew how many more potential internal injuries.
"Any broken bones, do you think?"
"I don't think so… I think I'd know if I'd broken something."
"You never know," he replied, "with the adrenaline rushing through you and all your other injuries you might not have noticed it yet."
Ginny nodded, but did not elaborate further.
"I'm going to have a look at your shoulder, all right?"
Again, all Draco received in response was a nod. He pushed the collar of Ginny's robes to expose her injury. A severing charm had narrowly missed its mark and cut her rather badly. The skin around it was red and swollen, caked with dried blood, and dirty with dust and bits of debris.
Draco walked over to a gigantic four-poster bed and grabbed an emerald throw-blanket.
"You're going to have to step out of your robes for me to do this properly. Here," he handed her the blanket, "you can cover yourself with this."
The man turned his back to give his prisoner some privacy. When he turned around, Ginny Weasley was naked, covering herself with the embroidered silver and emerald cloth. She looked down in embarrassment.
Draco pretended not to notice her blushing cheeks and got to work. After sitting the witch down, he summoned a wash basin from the corner of the room, filled it with his wand, and began to sponge Ginny's wounded shoulder. The amount of dirt and blood that came off her injury was so overwhelming that he had to change the water several times. Ginny cringed every time the sponge touched her, the cut sending jolts of burning pain up her neck, but Draco did not stop until he felt completely satisfied the wound was clean.
"I'm afraid my stores of Dittany have been thoroughly depleted. Snape ought to be making more, but with such high demand, it may be a while until we see any. In the meantime…"
Draco pulled out a small jar from the chest. The smell it released upon opening was pungent, but gave Ginny relief from the pain once applied to her skin. Draco sponged the area around the wound as well – arm, neck, upper chest, and upper back – and applied a bandage, which he fixed with a charmed adhesive. He continued cleaning the rest of her exposed skin, stopping here and there to treat minor cuts and scrapes with the same greenish paste. He found another sizeable cut on her foot that required additional attention, but ultimately he was pleased with his work.
"All right, Weasley. You're going to have to take the blanket off now." He noticed her look of panic, and almost felt sorry for her. He knew he wasn't about to violate her, but perhaps she did not know that.
Ginny let the blanket fall, trying to keep a nonchalant look. Draco could see her hands trembling, but he pretended not to notice. He would avoid looking anywhere private for any longer than absolutely necessary. She may be my prisoner, he thought, but I am still a gentleman.
Draco intended to work his way down from her chest, but a gash on Ginny's thigh was so gruesome that it made him completely forget there was a naked woman mere centimeters away from him. There were several cuts, some of them deep, all very ragged. The skin was many shades of purple, green, and yellow, and her entire right thigh was obviously swollen.
"Damned hippogriphs, Weasley! What the fuck happened?"
"I got hit when the wall exploded."
Draco looked exasperated for a second, but soon regained his composure.
He set to work cleaning and bandaging the cuts. By the end, Ginny's entire right thigh was covered in bandages. Draco checked that nothing was too tight, and repeatedly questioned Ginny to ensure she was comfortable. She only ever nodded in response.
Aside from another, small cut at her hip, nothing else seemed amiss. Draco decided to skip washing the area between Ginny's legs entirely, and instead convinced the young woman to turn around and allow him to wash her back. Once he was finished, he handed her the sponge.
"I'm going to take care of my own cuts in the washroom. You can finish cleaning yourself off. If you find anything else that needs attention, just call me over. I'll find some clean robes for you as well."
Ginny quickly covered herself with the blanket and watched as Draco picked up the medicinal chest and wandered through another door at the end of the room. Once he was gone, she began working the sponge over all the areas Draco had skipped. She hadn't bathed in days, and was glad for the opportunity to do so. Once she felt satisfied, Ginny wrapped the blanket around herself once more, and curled up on the chaise lounge.
By the time Draco returned with an array of bandages around his arms and a clean set of robes for Ginny, the witch was fast asleep on the chaise. Not wanting to wake her, Draco cast a levitation charm and gently floated her towards his gigantic four-poster bed. He pulled the covers and slid her in, still wrapped in the throw blanket. For a moment, he considered dressing Ginny in sleeping robes, but decided against bearing her body to him while she was unconscious. He tucked her in carefully and dimmed the lights.
Feeling rather sleepy himself, Draco changed into silken sleeping robes and made his way back to the lounge. He transfigured it into a cushy single bed, complete with blankets and pillows. It wasn't as comfortable as his own, but it was quite doable, and Draco felt proud of his transfiguration skills. He crawled under the covers and felt himself approaching sleep.
It was many hours later that Draco was woken up by screams.
He was out of bed in a heartbeat, quickly transfiguring himself out of sleeping clothes and into robes. With a quick spell he lit the chandelier above him and rushed toward the four-poster bed where the screams were coming from.
He found Ginny entangled in the sheets, thrashing about and screaming. Draco let out a sigh of relief – it was only a nightmare. Her naked form was fully exposed, and Draco was pleased to see his bandages held well. He considered letting her sleep it off, but the thrashing was violent and he worried she might fall off the bed.
"Weasley," he called gently, "Weasley, wake up. You're having a nightmare."
The calling did not appear to work – Ginny continued screaming, her body twisting from side to side. Draco called her name louder, "Weasley," and touched her shoulder.
The young witch suddenly bolted upright. Draco narrowly avoided a collision between her fist and his jaw. Before he could stop her, Ginny had scrambled out of bed. Her eyes were wide and panicked, darting around wildly.
She's still in her nightmare, Draco realized. Slowly, he moved towards her; his palms extended forward to show he meant no harm.
"Easy now, Weasley. I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe. Stay cool."
Ginny was frozen in place. Her body was tense, looking as if she might run at any moment. Not until Draco placed his hands on her shoulders did her eyes close. Her shoulders slumped and her legs began to give under her. Draco wrapped his arms around his prisoner to keep her from falling, and guided her back to sit on the bed.
"Bloody hell, Weasley. You almost gave me a heart attack."
The young witch murmured something indistinguishable. She leaned her head on the shoulder of the man sitting next to her. Instinctively, Draco put his arms around her and held her for a moment, before realizing she was naked and probably cold.
"Here, do you want some sleeping robes?"
He received a feeble nod as response. After a quick Accio charm he was helping Ginny into pajamas. With the exhaustion she had lost her previous bashfulness, and Draco was allowed to dress her completely. He helped her back into the bed, and was about to return to his own when, unexpectedly, Ginny spoke.
"Malfoy, why are you being so nice to me?"
Draco couldn't help but smile at the question. He had wondered if it might come up.
"Look, Weasley, despite what all the propaganda may have you led you to believe, not all of us are evil and sadistic. For all it's worth, I think you probably made the right choice in following Potter. You had something worth fighting for, at least. It was a stupid choice and a hopeless fight which got you nothing but grief in the end, but it was probably right.
"I, on the other hand, played purely for politics. It was a choice driven by cunning and intellect, not ideology. I chose the side I knew would win, which is why I'm now your master and you're my servant.
"That being said, I'm not particularly keen in watching you suffer – the Dark Lord has tortured enough people in front of me. In truth, I didn't even want a slave, but we can't refuse gifts from the He-Who-Has-Returned. I'm confident we'll find some use for you around here."
Ginny nodded in understanding. "Well… thank you," she murmured.
"You're welcome," he responded before turning off the lights and returning to sleep.
Author's Note: Yes, I have returned after a long hiatus. It was all the requests for updates, really :) Hermione's story is coming up next!