Full Summary: A spell gone wrong sends Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy back to Hogwarts and into their sixteen year old bodies. While struggling to trust each other enough to find a way back, they must deal with their own moral issues. Can they stop the war before the people they love die or are they fated to watch their history repeat itself.
Pairings: Draco/Ginny, slight Ron/Hermione
A/N: don't own don't sue
The lyrics at the beginning are from 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.' by Noah and the Whale
Chapter Four
Isa likes brandy and the way it hits her lips
She's a rock 'n' roll survivor with pendulum hips
She's got deep brown eyes
That've seen it all
Working at a nightclub that was called The Avenue
The bar men used to call her "Little Lisa, Looney Tunes"
She went down on almost anyone
From the hard time living 'til the Chelsea days
From when her hair was sweet blonde 'til the day it turned grey
She said
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
You've got more than money than sense, my friend
You've got heart and you're goin' your own way
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
What you don't have now will come back again
You've got heart and you're goin' your own way
Some people wear their history like a map on their face
And Joey was an artist just living out of case
But his best word was his letters home
His standard works of fiction about imaginary success
When chorus girls in neon were his closest things to friends
But to a writer, the truth is no big deal
From the hard time living to the sleepless nights
And the black and blue body from the weekend fights
He'd say
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
You've got more than money than sense, my friend
You've got heart and you go in your own way
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
What you don't have now will come back again
You've got heart and you go in your own way
On my last night on earth, I won't look to the sky
Just breathe in the air and blink in the light
On my last night on earth, I'll pay a high price
To have no regrets and be done with my life
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
You've got more than money than sense, my friend
You've got heart and you go in your own way
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
What you don't have now will come back again
You've got heart and you go in your own way
The house was pitch black but surprisingly warm and the fireplace sprang to life as they traversed the long hallway and entered the drawing room. Ginny had a brief impression of expensive antique furniture, tall winged-back chairs and a truly gargantuan piano by the window, before she was crowded in by Malfoy behind her. She hovered uncomfortably and then sank down onto a little velvet stool by the side of a chair. Malfoy was doing something, wandering around touching various things with his wand. Ginny edged closer to the fire, her wet skirt and feet cooling her temperature until she shivered.
"Come on."
He swept out of the room through an elaborate archway without looking to see if she was following him. After a moment of stubborn refusal, she reluctantly got to her feet and hurried after him. Her bare feet left damp footprints on the wooden floor and she couldn't resist swivelling her head in all directions trying to take everything in. She'd never been in a house like this before. And this was just their summer house? The archway led into a smaller room, one side of which opened out onto a dark garden. She followed him around a few old-fashioned sofas and low tables and through another archway.
She couldn't stifle the excited little huff that escaped her at the sight of the room they'd entered. It was clearly a library. Wall to wall books reaching the ceiling high up above them. She craned her neck back. The ceiling was pure glass, impossible to tell what it was against the dark sky. The fireplace sprang to life and Malfoy crossed the room towards a relatively huge desk in the centre. It was bare of any papers or books but there was a large pile of blank parchment and a quill before the plush leather seat. Not really knowing what to do with herself, Ginny wandered over to the fireplace to warm her bare feet.
Malfoy took a seat at the desk and started scribbling immediately, the scratching of the quill loud in the quiet room. She was itching to get her hands on the books above her head but she was damned if she was going to help herself to anything in Malfoy's house.
"Who are you writing to?" She finally asked, the silence hurting her ears.
"My father."
He blinked in surprise when her hand crashed down on the desk in front of him, snatching the half-written letter out of his grasp.
"Are you stupid?" She seethed angrily. "You don't know anything about when we are, you idiot. You don't know who your father's grovelling after or even if he's still alive."
His silver eyes flashed in the firelight and for a moment she tensed, fully expecting him to lash out and strike her. She could almost see the struggle going on behind his eyes. Eventually he managed to clamp down on whatever emotion he'd been fighting with.
"Alright then, Weasley. What's your bright idea?" His upper lip lifted into a contemptuous sneer. "Granger I suppose."
Annoyed that he'd read the thought so clearly written across her pale freckled face, she scowled at him heartily. They stood there glaring at each other. It did not escape his sixteen-year-old notice that her chest was heaving quite impressively in that little black top. Her hair had fallen out of its pins and was straggling over her bare shoulders, damp from the light rain.
"What?" She said shortly when she realised his glare had deepened. "Stop looking at me like that, Malfoy."
"So if we can't go to my father…" He gave her a very shrewd look that thoroughly startled her. "And we're not going to Granger… now what?"
She glowered at him, her mouth opening and then closing. She had no idea. She'd never had a problem that going to her mother or Hermione or even Harry hadn't fixed before. Hermione was clearly about to pop and would probably think she'd lost her mind. As would her mother. And she did not think this was in Harry's range of expertise. Her mind ran through the options and with a sickening jolt she realised she didn't even know if her mother was alive. She ran the scene at the bar back through her head but it was all a blur.
Malfoy saw the colour drain from her cheeks so suddenly that he actually felt a flush of concern and he blinked at the sudden feeling.
"I don't—" She broke off and he could see her hands trembling as she worried the thin silver chain around her throat. "I don't even know if my family is alive."
He reeled back as if she'd struck him and she realised that the thought hadn't occurred to him that his parents might be dead. It was almost impossible for Malfoy to get any paler than he already was but a faint flush crawled along his cheekbones and his pupils dilated.
"We should sleep." He finally said, slightly hoarsely.
Still stunned, Ginny followed him out of the room and up a winding staircase. She didn't take note of how many doors they passed before he stopped. He shoved open a door that looked to Ginny exactly the same as all the others. He turned away without looking at her, disappearing into a room further down the hallway. The turning of the lock was very loud in the silence. Ginny hesitated on the threshold and then pushed the door fully open. To her surprise, she'd always imagined the Malfoy's taste to be very dark and gloomy with lots of green, the room was very prettily decorated.
There was a fire burning, as there seemed to be in every room they occupied. A huge four-poster dressed in pale gold and cream bedding and piles of frothy pillows, rather dainty cream curtains that were almost see-through at every post, took up most of the room. A big chest embroidered with a forest scene lay at the end of the bed. A big full-length mirror reflected her pale slender figure back at her. She laid her wand on the big chest of drawers and took out the pins from her hair.
She had no idea how late it was. She cautiously opened a door by the bed, hoping it led to a bathroom of some sort. It did. She ran the water into a huge claw-foot tub, enjoying the steam that filled the room. She found little pots on a shelf filled with bath salts and she poured a few in. It occurred to her, as she slipped out of her damp clothes and climbed into the tub, that Malfoy had probably heard the water running. She knew it would annoy him to know what she was doing in his house without his permission and she felt a brief flicker of smug satisfaction. It also occurred to her, as she slipped down into the warm soapy water, that he now knew she was naked.
It gave her a strange feeling, to know that someone was aware she was naked only a few rooms away. At Hogwarts there'd been dozens of girls fighting for the showers and tubs and it had been quite obvious that naked girls were a few feet from you while you showered but this was something else entirely. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant notion and she frowned guiltily at the thought. What about Dean? She'd never had those kinds of thoughts about him and he was her boyfriend! Well not really, not in any detail. Of course, when she'd been sequestered with Dean in a dark corner and his fumbling hands had been trembling on her waist and struggling to get under her uniform, she'd had a few teenage rumblings below her belly but she'd never really considered doing anything about it.
The thought of Malfoy contemplating her being naked took all the pleasure out of her soak and she hurriedly scrubbed her hair and climbed out of the tub. She towelled off the water and slipped on a silky robe hanging from the back of the door. She went over to a cream wardrobe taller than she was, her feet padding on the thick carpet. This was clearly just a guest room because the wardrobe was empty except for a nightdress, a cloak and an old-fashioned gown.
She slid off the robe and pulled the nightgown on. She'd never worn anything like it in her life. It was a little bit sexier than she'd expected and she didn't even want to think about why such a thing was hanging in the wardrobe. Soft ivory silk, it fell to the floor in a sweep, puddling over her toes. She felt quite naked with her shoulders and a good portion of her upper back and chest bared and she hurriedly climbed onto the bed. She paused when she heard something crackling. Rolling over she discovered a clean sheet of parchment and a quill. Had they been there before she'd taken her bath? Or had Malfoy left them there for her?
In the end she decided they must have already been there because the idea of Malfoy being only a door's width away from her naked body made her tingle in unexpected places. She scribbled a quick note to her parents, finding it very hard to make small talk with all the possibilities crashing through her head. She rolled up the parchment and stared at it. Now what? There must be an owlery around here somewhere. She climbed back down from the big bed, slipped the cloak from the wardrobe around her shoulders and left the room.
She hesitated in the hallway, looking from one end to the other. It all looked exactly the same. Logically the owlery would be the highest point of the house. She figured if she wandered for long enough she'd have to find a staircase.
"Stupid house. Endless corridors. Who needs this many rooms?" Ginny cursed as she stubbed her bare toes on a small coffee table in yet another reception room.
She'd been wandering around for what seemed like hours and, unless the house was magically expanded somehow, she could only have been going in circles. She couldn't even find her way back to her room now. Stumbling over a small table as she made her way back into the hallway, she tripped on the voluminous cloak and flew into a half open door. The door bounced off her shoulder, flew open and she fell face first into a dark room.
"Nice entrance, Weasley. Very graceful."
She felt a hand grab the back of the cloak and yank her abruptly back onto her feet. She shrugged Malfoy's hand away, brushing her hair off her face irritably.
"Well if you didn't live in this bloody maze! Nobody needs a house this big, it's ridiculous-" She broke off at the sight of a quite naked Malfoy lounging against the doorframe she'd just fallen through.
Well almost naked, on closer inspection he did have a pair of grey silk shorts on which were dangling perilously low on his hips. Huh, he had a little trail of soft-looking blond hair under his belly button. The contours of his chest looked surprisingly solid. There was something dark inked over his heart. She had never actually seen a naked man before, she'd seen Dean with his top off after Quidditch practice a few times and you didn't share a house with six brothers and not catch a glimpse of too much flesh every once in a while but she tried her best to forget those incidents.
"I am quite impressive, aren't I?" He said smugly, cupping his hand so he could examine his fingernails in the light from his wand.
"You look like one of those plastic dolls they make for twelve year old witches." Ginny snapped rudely and quite unthruthfully. "Except for the receding hairline."
Malfoy scowled, his hand fluttering automatically to his hair which was still thick and lustrous.
"What are you doing creeping around?" He demanded.
"I was looking for an owl." She said sulkily.
"Well why didn't you ring for one." He said impatiently as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Ginny must have been staring at him blankly because he rolled his eyes. "You open the shutters of your window and ring the chimes. The owls are trained to respond." He gave her a withering look. "Aren't your owls trained from hatchlings?"
His lip curled mockingly and she glared at him, flushing hotly at the implied insult.
"No Malfoy." She snapped icily.
She wanted very much to sweep past him and make a haughty exit but she still had no idea where she was.
"What are you doing creeping around in the middle of the night, anyway?"
"I was woken up by a herd of wild hippogriffs crashing around demolishing my house." He nudged the broken table in the hallway pointedly with his foot. "Come on, Weasley."
Ginny did not like being ordered around but he had already walked away and she could end up staying here all night if she didn't follow. She was only two floors up from her room after all. On the way down the second flight of stairs, she tripped on the cloak once again and stumbled straight into Malfoy's broad back. She let out a long stream of expletives that left Malfoy staring at her in amazement, too stunned to be annoyed, and ripped off the cloak.
"Hey that cost more than your entire house!" He barked irritably as she tossed it onto the floor and stamped on it a few times for good measure.
"Don't be ridiculous. It would hardly be left in an old wardrobe if it was worth something, would it?"
Malfoy opened his mouth to retort but his tongue seemed to have gone numb. Now he might have had experience fumbling under the blankets of his four poster with Pansy and a couple of other Slytherins, but he had never seen anything that looked like Ginny Weasley right at that moment. The lacy nightdress had slipped down one freckled shoulder, her still slightly damp hair was rippling over the other, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were sparkling and her chest was heaving rather impressively.
"Stop gawping at me." She snapped tightly, propping her hands on her hips and glaring at him.
This did nothing except stretch the silken material tighter across her flat stomach and hips and greatly increase the dark hollow of skin the lace exposed.
"I think I can find my room from here, Malfoy." She said quietly. "Thank you."
He continued to stare at her with an inscrutable expression on his face and then he gave her a jerky nod and left. Once he was out of sight, Ginny leaned back against the wood panelled wall, a rather shaky hand at her throat. Did these sorts of sensations come with the older body? She had no idea what just happened between the two of them but she did not like it one bit. Malfoy was the enemy. Always had been and always would be. That was where they stood and that was how exactly how she liked it. Still, it took her a good few moments of steadying her breathing before she had the strength in her knees to make her way to her room.