CONSOLATION PRIZE: PART FOUR

That night Ginny was curled up on her couch, in her favourite track suit bottoms and a spaghetti strap black top, waiting for her order of Chinese food to arrive. She hugged her stomach as it growled loudly and then stared at the Floo, willing it to flare up. She had ordered twenty five minutes ago and they promised delivery within half an hour. She glanced at the clock on her wall, and watched as the hand crept slowly towards half six. Why did time insist on moving so slowly?

Ginny jumped at the insistent rapping at her door. She crossed the room quickly, opening the door with one last glance at the Floo.

'Good you're home,' Malfoy said. He was holding a small stack of files in his hand. 'Got some files I wanted to look over. Personnel files for Monday.' He thrust them into her hands and brushed past her into her flat. He looked around, noting the tatty couch and open bedroom door. An empty fireplace lay directly to his right. Her kitchen and lounge room were separated by the white kitchen counter and a small round table. 'Could you have found a smaller flat?

'It's more than what you can currently afford,' she retorted. 'How did you get my address?'

He was saved from answering as the fireplace roared into life.

'That'd be my food,' Ginny said in relief, rushing to her Floo to let the delivery man in. She quickly handed him his Galleons and smiled as the scent began to waft up to her nostrils.

'Oh good, I'm starved,' Malfoy said walking over and taking the paper bag from her hands. 'I hope you ordered Honey Chicken.'

'Hey, that's my food,' she cried, grabbing for the bag. He took her food!

'I have been feeding you for three days and you can't share a bit of yours?'

'I didn't order enough!' she protested as he finally relented and allowed her to take the bag from him. She strode past him into her kitchen. She started unpacking the bag, pulling out the square boxes and piling them on the counter. He watched from the doorway as she paused and looked back at him. She looked into the bag. She huffed and threw the boxes back into the bag.

'Fine,' she conceded. 'I ordered enough for you to share.' She shoved the bag into his hands. 'Go put it on the table, I'll get the plates.'

She grabbed two plates and two wine glasses. She set them on the table as Malfoy unpacked the bag, opening each container to peer inside as he did so. She darted back into the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine.

'Red okay with you?' she asked, uncorking it and pouring it into her glass before he had a chance to answer.

'You're supposed to let it sit and breathe, Weasley,' Malfoy informed her as he shook off his robe and hung it over a chair. He sat down and grabbed the box closest to him. He licked his lips as used chopsticks to load his plate with honey chicken.

While they ate, they looked over the personnel files he had bought.

'I still reckon it's the last one we saw,' Ginny said through a mouth full of fried rice. 'He was the least convincing of the lot.'

Malfoy nodded his agreement and took a sip of his wine. 'I already have someone following him.'

'Someone following him?' Ginny asked sceptically. The last thing she needed was Malfoy sending some thug after her prime suspect.

'Don't be so quick to judge, Weasley,' he scolded with a small smile. 'I hired a private investigator to tail him for a bit.'

Ginny opened her mouth and then closed it quickly. She watched as he expertly picked up his fried rice, getting it to his mouth without spilling a grain. She took a deep breath.

'What're you paying him with?' she asked quietly. 'It's just I've seen your Gringotts records and I've seen what private eyes charge...' she trailed off as he stiffened and stood up from the table.

He walked over to her fireplace and turned to face her. 'Greg gave me a loan,' he said slowly, as if the words were being pulled from him.

'Greg?' She asked confused. She got up and approached him slowly.

'Goyle,' he clarified. He was still tense and refused to meet her eyes. She noticed a slight pink tinge to his face as he turned his back to her pretending to be looking at the photos arranged on her mantle.

She didn't like it when he was like this. She preferred him to be on the attack. This new, almost ashamed Malfoy was disconcerting.

'Fred gave me that,' Ginny said, desperate to change the subject, as she noticed Malfoy running his fingers over the Babushka doll that sat among the family photos on her mantle.

He tore his hand away from the doll as if it had burnt him. 'Please tell me you're not using it as an urn.'

'What? No!' she cried. She lunged forward, grabbing the doll off the mantle and holding it protectively to her chest. 'He gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday. Actually,' she amended thoughtfully, 'I'm pretty sure he won it in a bet.'

'In that case,' Draco snorted. 'I think he lost. What?' he asked at her look. 'It's made of cheap wood. It's not worth very much.'

She looked down at the doll. Her still blue eyes looked back at her. The doll's decorations were scorched into the wood, her clothes highlighted with purple and blue glitter. She had a simplified version of the Taj Mahal on her belly, the rounded tops filled with gold glitter. She smiled. 'Yes it is.'

'Why don't you have all the dolls set out on the mantle?' he asked. 'That's kind of the idea of a Matryoshka doll.'

'Because they don't have any glitter on them,' she said as if it were obvious. 'And it's a Babushka doll.'

'Oh, well now, that would be a shame. No glitter,' he said with faux sincerity. 'And it's a Matryoshka doll.'

'Whatever.' She placed the doll carefully back on the mantle. 'It's from Fred.'

'It's alright,' he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

She smiled sadly up at him. 'I like it.'

He stared down at her making Ginny feel almost uncomfortable. She wished she was a little bit taller so her head at least reached past his shoulder. She was hyperaware of everything around her. He was so close to her now. Her eyes kept flicking to his lips and she had the insane urge to kiss him.

He seemed surprised when she reached up to him, pulling his head down to meet hers. As her lips pressed against his, she felt a sudden wave of horror that he was never going to respond, but then his lips began to move slowly with hers and he wrapped his arms around her waist. He pulled her close to him and Ginny went up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck.

She broke the kiss, breathing heavily. She was surprised at herself. For a kiss so languid, it had left her breathless. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. He leaned down and kissed her hard. His hands run up her back and curled around into her hair. Ginny gasped as his lips broke away from her and trailed down her neck.

It wasn't until her knees hit the back of the couch, that she realised he had slowly pushed them back. She pulled him down on top of her as she laid down. Draco's hand ran down her thigh and hooked under her knee, pulling it up by his hip as he settled between her legs. Ginny wrapped her leg around his hip, her foot sliding across his bum and down the back of his thigh. She fumbled with the buttons of his shirt and waistcoat as he sucked on her neck. He pushed his hand beneath her shirt, cupping her breasts. Ginny moaned and pushed her chest into his hands.

Draco sat up and pulled Ginny with him, settling her on his lap, straddling his thighs. He slid his hands across her stomach and bunched the material of her tank top in his hands. In one swift motion, he dragged in over her head and dropped it to the floor. Ginny pushed his shirt and waistcoat off his shoulders, running her hands down his arms.

She trailed her hands down his chest, rolling his nipples and tracing the faint outline of his abs. She threw her head back as Draco laid open mouthed kisses down her neck and chest, catching her nipple in his mouth. He dropped his hands and wrapped them around the back of her thighs, hoisting her up as he stood and carried her to her bedroom.

*~*

Ginny stretched in her bed the next morning, a smile on her face. She rolled over and her smile fell as she was greeted by cold sheets. Ginny squeezed her eyes shut, wondering why in the name of Merlin she had expected anything different from him. She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and wished it didn't hurt that he wasn't there. Finally, she rolled out of bed and made her way to the shower. A hot shower always made her feel better.

She stood under the spray and sighed. So he left before she woke up. What was the big deal? It wasn't like that had never happened before. He probably had an early meeting. Except it was Saturday and she had seen his schedule. He didn't have anything planned, which meant he just didn't want to be here.

She grabbed a comb and ripped it through her conditioner soaked hair. Ginny's head jerked as it snagged on knots. That's why there were tears forming behind her eyes, she decided. The bastard had knotted her hair and now it hurt trying to get them out. It had nothing to do with the fact he had snuck out of her flat.

She spent the rest of the weekend restlessly pacing her apartment, attempting to read the book Hermione had given her for her last birthday and trying in vain to cover the love bite on her neck. She slumped on the couch Sunday afternoon in a foul mood, the hickey still clearly visible beneath the make-up and charms she had applied. She refused to look at up at the silent Floo.

She would not pine, she decided. She would not sit around waiting for him to Floo her. Ginny Weasley did not pine. Okay, that was a lie. She had pined for Harry for that brief three year period but besides that never! She would not pine for Draco bloody Malfoy.

She sighed and looked over at her empty fireplace and then glanced at the clock.

Bastard.