Chapter 20
The ground of the cemetery was damp with morning dew and the last puffs of the previous night's fog rolled over the ground. It smelled of freshly turned earth and old magic, the kind that sent shivers of anticipation up and down your spine and caused goose bumps to rise on unsuspecting flesh. The grass was crisp under their feet as the two Aurors stepped slowly and carefully towards a line of large tombs at the back of the fenced in enclosure.
Draco stopped a few feet ahead of her. He was crouched down, wand held in his right hand—waiting for trouble. She crawled over to him when she saw the beckoning crook of his finger.
They sat on the ground together, surveying the land. The atmosphere around them felt tight and electric with a strange sort of nervousness. It was uncomfortable, but then again that may not have had anything to do with the cemetery at all.
The redhead sent a sideways glance towards her partner. It was awkward being in such a creepy place in the early morning hours beside your partner with whom you weren't currently on speaking terms, Ginny decided.
They hadn't spoken all morning, not verbally. Instead they had been using a series of complicated hand gestures and facial expressions to talk. They understood each other, somehow, and right now they both understood that they were not ready to talk.
The sound of a twig snapping made Ginny tense and she held her wand out in front of her, searching the distance.
She jumped, her wand pointing skyward when a bird flew from his perch in a tree a few meters away. Flapping wings and cawing sounded above her, and realizing what it was, she grabbed her chest, her heart pounding.
A warm hand touched her wrist, a comforting gesture that made her whole arm tingle. She looked up to see Draco looking at her. When her eyes met his, he looked away quickly and removed his hand, a blush staining his cheeks.
Yes, Very awkward.
Things were not right between them. She wasn't sure they ever could be. Not as long as his touch made lust swirl in her belly. Not as long as he was with Rosa. Not ever.
She released a deep breath and noticed that Draco was on the move again and motioning for her to follow. She followed a few feet away from him, watching her back and sides for anything unexpected. She refused to let herself fail again. Nott had gone in easily, but something told her that Crabbe would not. He would put up a fight, and she was ready for him.
The damp ground had soaked through her robes long ago and she shivered as a breeze blew through the air. They made their way towards the back and Ginny marveled at the craftsmanship of the tombs and monuments. The mausoleums were lined perfectly in a row and each was made of beautiful marble, crafted in Grecian style with pillars and triangles. Some were more ornate than others, with angels or doves carved into the stone.
Only the best for the purebloods, Ginny thought to herself. It was a pureblood cemetery, and many that had fallen during the war were buried here, beside their ancestors.
They walked stealthy down the line, searching for a tomb that had Gregory Goyle, Jr. on it. As they passed an obviously feminine mausoleum with carved flowers on the door, Ginny noticed that Draco refused to even look at it. She searched for a name, and there, above the door, it was. Parkinson. Pansy. She sent a sad glance at the blonde's back, wondering who else he knew that was laid to rest here. Friends, family, his mother?
Draco froze and Ginny stopped, crouching closer to the ground and pointing her wand in the direction Draco was facing. Squinting her eyes, she could just make out a tomb near the end of the line with 'Goyle' carved deeply into the marble in big capital letters.
They'd found it. Now it was only a question of if Crabbe was hiding here, somewhere. The two Aurors made their way silently closer, moving quickly, and both very aware of their surroundings. They reached the tomb, a thick walled grey structure that looked very old. They checked the perimeter, and when they came back to the front, they noticed that the door was opened a crack.
Someone had been there.
Draco motioned for Ginny to stand against the wall. He counted to three on his fingers when she was in position. On three, he pushed the door open and they rushed inside, each pointing their wands in different directions.
"No one's here," Draco said aloud after a moment, making Ginny jump. It was the first thing either of them had said all morning.
"Mm." She agreed, looking around at the inside of the Goyle tomb. On the side walls, there were multiple urns with names on them, and the back wall was covered in a very detailed carving of someone who was obviously Gregory Goyle's ancestor, if the thick uni-brow and puffy cheeks were any indication.
Her eyes trailed down to the floor and she noticed that it was littered with food wrappers and containers. She kicked lightly at an empty can with a picture of beans on the front. This was how Vincent Crabbe had decided to live? It was sad if you thought about it.
"I guess Crabbe never got over Goyle's death," Draco said, summing up her thoughts. He crouched down, sitting back on his heels, and sifted through the numerous wrappers on the floor. "Let's see if we can find anything, there's no telling when he might be back."
Ginny turned towards her partner to say something when her heart stopped and her breath caught in her throat.
Crabbe.
The heavy set man was standing behind Draco, his wand pointed at the blonde's back. He'd been here all along.
It felt as though some one had slowed down time. She watched as the unsuspecting Draco searched for clues, his shoulder length hair falling into his eyes. She saw Vincent Crabbe raising his wand and opening his mouth.
Her heart jumped, thumping loudly in her chest and time sped up to normal speed. "STUPEFY!" she shouted loud and clear, her wand unwavering from her target.
Draco's eyes shot up to hers in shock, and then he whipped around, watching as his would-be attacker fell to the ground. His gaze darted to hers once more and he gave a short, relieved, barking laugh, making Ginny grin despite herself.
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"We've already spoken to Nott and he told us some interesting things about you, Crabbe," Draco said as he paced the interrogation room floor. "Now we're interested in hearing your side of the story. It will go better for you if you cooperate, better if you don't fight the Veritaserum."
The puffy faced man looked at Draco sardonically, or at least tried to. The feeling behind it was kind of lost when you saw the blank look in his eyes. Crabbe had never been very intelligent and it seemed that had not changed over the years. "Ask away. I can't help but answer truthfully, so you might as well get started." Or maybe it had.
They started with the normal questions; where he was on certain nights, what he had been doing since the war, how he and Nott fell in together, and finally what he knew.
"Who all is involved?" Draco asked.
Crabbe's face screwed up in concentration. "Me, Nott, Avery, Mr. X, and someone else that I don't know—"
"Avery!" Ginny asked, stepping forward. The third voice. "Was Avery there the night you received the money from Ms. Carrows?" She blushed slightly at the memory of that night and her first kiss with her partner.
"Yeah, he was there. He doesn't always come for the pickups, only when Mr. X asks him to. Usually he just tells us that Mr. X has sent him a letter and what it says."
Draco's eyes gleamed. "What do the letters usually say?"
"Dunno, never read them. Only Avery reads them and I guess they tell him when the slaves will be ready," he answered.
"Where can we find Avery?" Ginny prodded.
"No idea. He jest tends to… show up."
The questioning continued for another hour, and once they were sure that they had extracted all of the information they could from him, they left the room to see Kingsley waiting on the other side of the door. "You've done well", he said as another Auror entered the now mostly vacated room and walked the bound Crabbe down the hall, leading him to his cell.
Draco nodded and Ginny smiled.
"Don't let it get to your heads." Kingsley laughed, shaking his head at the two before dismissing them. As they turned the corner, they heard his deep timber yell at them to not forget the paperwork.
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Ginny suppressed a groan when she entered her office and saw the mountain of papers on her desk waiting to be filled and signed. She sat at her desk and got started, pulling back her sleeves. She looked up for a second when Draco sat across from her, his own pile of papers stacked upon his desk and then turned back to her work.
A few minutes later, Ginny swore that she was feeling the strangest sensation. The space between her eyes was tingling and her body felt warmer. Confused, she raised her eyes only to see two stormy grey ones looking at her. Looking through her. Her body heated even more, under his gaze. Don't you dare blush, Ginevra Molly!
She stared back at him, studying him while he studied her, but soon it became unbearable. Annoyance flared in her chest. "What are you looking at, ferret?" They were the first words she had directed at him all day, and she was proud of how strong her voice sounded.
"You," he said and she snorted. He scowled at her and then let his eyes fall to his desk. "I wanted to… I wanted to th—"
'Oh gods. Is he thanking me? It can't be! He doesn't thank anyone' she thought, her hands shaking slightly. Surely the world was ending if he was expressing his gratitude, especially to a Weasley. She glanced out the window, relieved to see that the day still looked clear and safe.
"I wanted to thank you, Ginny. For saving me," he admitted, his eyes meeting hers once more.
She sat, staring at him in shock. She didn't know what to say or do. Her chest filled with a strange kind of warmth. Draco Malfoy had just thanked her. He had expressed human emotion. He had—
Suddenly, Draco sneered. "But he wouldn't have hit me anyway. Crabbe never had good aim."
"W-What?" she sputtered, deflated. He'd ruined it. He had apologized and then… ruined it.
"I said you wasted your effort…"
"I—I... Eughhh! You egotistical asshole! You disgust me."
"Ouch, Weasel. That hurts. I thought you saved me because you cared."
They both stiffened at his words. Ginny's gaze fell from his and she twisted her fingers together in her lap.
"You do care," he gasped out as he watched her. His heart thumped a joyous rhythm against his ribcage.
"I don't," she denied, scowling at him defiantly as he rose out of his chair and walked towards her.
He leaned in to her, bracing his hands on her desk and looking deeply into her chocolate eyes. "You do." He breathed, his hand reaching up to cup her face. She pushed her chair back quickly, extending the space between them.
"It doesn't matter. You're with Rosa. And I will not be used," she said determinedly.
"I won't use you, Ginny," he whispered, licking his lips as he searched her face.
She laughed bitterly. "You already have. You already do."
"So you say."
Before she could retort, he had moved in. He simply moved into her, grabbing her arms and pulling her up onto her feet. He ran his hands up the sides of her body, over her shoulders, along her throat, and then he cupped her face in them. Then his mouth was on hers. Somehow she found herself backed against her desk, pressed snuggly between it and his body. His hands slid into her hair and she whimpered against his mouth, her eyes fluttering closed.
The kiss was slow and smooth, a simple sliding of mouth upon mouth. He nipped at her bottom lip and she gasped, parting her lips, and the tone of the kiss changed from gentle warmth to flashing heat.
Her eyes shot open as the echo of warning bells went off in her head, shaking her. She ripped her mouth away from his, her breathing short and uneven. "No!" she gasped out, pulling from his hold.
"I won't let you go," he said, grabbing her hand in his and looking into her eyes.
She smiled at him sadly. "You don't have a choice," she said before leaving the office, and him, behind once more.
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A/N: Once again: Thanks to my wonderful recent reviewers! minx, nooby85, AuntAnnie, beckysue2, Robin, Madame Mina, babi-gurl-chels, Draco-and-Ginerva-4-ever, princess-emerelda, Libeku Taganashi, harrypotterchick4ever, CanYouLovetheImaginary, kasey07, Dumbledore's Troop, seeker, Pyro Symptoms Unleashed, jasmine, QueenBee11.
You guys are the greatest!
Kasey 07 asked me what the title meant because it is a very weird word, isnt it? Doesnt exactly roll off the tongue- Ginnugagap, sounds like I was lazy with the title and made it up, lol!
It actually comes from Norse mythology:
Ginnungagap- ("seeming emptiness"), in the cosmology of Norse mythology, is the primordial void separating Niflheim and Muspell, the land of eternal ice and snow and the land of eternal heat and flame.
In the beginning, before the world of men and gods existed, the spring Hvergelmir, deep in the frozen wastes of Niflheim, gave rise to eleven rivers known as the Elivagar. Over a long period of time, water of the Elivagar ran across Niflheim and poured into the northern part of Ginnungagap. The water froze, forming vast sheets of ice in the void. Hot air from Muspell melted some of the ice, creating a zone of meltwater amid the ice and snow. Here life began, and the first living thing was a frost giant.
I thought it served this story well. This fic is all about getting over your past, and getting passed the barriers that keep you from a happy future. So the void in this story or the 'ginnugagap' is their pasts and eventually--over time the void will disappear (as they are no longer held back by the restrictions of their pasts and how they were raised) and they will find a common ground, love.
To answer some other questions posed by beckysue2 and Robin: I think this fic has about...15-20 more chapters to go. I never meant for it to be this long, oops. And yes, Draco and Ginny will get together in the end. I promise fluffiness and cake for everyone
Special thanks to my beta Vickie!