A/N: does not allow writers to block anonymous reviews anymore, and this is just vile. These cowards always leave flames, and they aren't even brave enough to do it under their own names. Also, their grammar, punctuation, and spelling are unfailingly terrible. Anyway… Thanks to all readers.
And YES- it's the last chapter.
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"So it's true, then," says Draco. "You admit it."
"Yes." It is a tremendous, horrible relief.
"Ah." He slumps back into the chair, as if his anger is spent, at least for the moment. "How did it happen, exactly?"
"Dumbledore called me into his office at the beginning of my fifth year," says Ginny. "He told me exactly what I'd have to do. I was supposed to date Harry as a cover as soon I could get him to do it, but my real mission was to get close to you. I was ordered to 'allow you certain intimacies'—his words, not mine—and then to build up to having sex. And he said I'd get power over you, because you would've had your pureblood initiation ceremony already."
"So that first time you came to Malfoy Manor over three years ago, you could have let me do it," says Draco. "I was sixteen years old. Why did you stop me?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you now," says Ginny. "Anyway, then he left instructions for me after he died. I was supposed to wait to have sex with you until the next May Day because then I could get the most power that way, and that's what I did."
"And you were ordered to convince me to come back with you to Hogwarts, where I'd be forced to reveal all of the Death Eaters' secrets," says Draco. "Never mind that this could have put my parents in appalling danger."
"Yes," says Ginny.
"And to think that I almost did it. If you'd asked me once more…just once…" Draco laughs, a hoarse, cracked sound. "So I was right, wasn't I? Your latest betrayal is just a piece cut from the same cloth. You used me to get Potter out, and then you washed your hands of me."
"That part isn't true," Ginny says tightly. "But I don't expect you to believe me now."
"You're right about that."
She reaches her hand out to him, and then draws it back. "Malfoy, I want to tell you why I had to do all of those things. I said that I didn't have any choice, and I meant it, but I want you to know why."
"Don't you dare," says Draco, his eyes lighting up with fury again. "I knew you'd done all of this, Weasley; I'd figured it out since I'd been down here, but if you even try to give me some sort of explanation—"
"But then you'd see that I'm telling the truth now!" persists Ginny, coming closer to him.
"I mean it, if I hear one word—" snarls Draco.
'Draco, listen to me—" She reaches out her hand to him again, pleadingly, thinking that if he knows, if he just knows-
"Don't touch me!" he spits at her. "Don't ever touch me again, if you put one finger on me, just one—" He backs away and she keeps moving forward, her eyes begging him to listen, her arms outstretched, and finally she makes a grab for him.
Draco's hands go up to fend her off, instinctively, and she stumbles and starts to fall. He seizes her wrist. She struggles without thinking; even as thin as he's become, he is so strong, his fingers bite into her skin, and she knows that he is so angry and the guards can't hear her and he could anything he wants to do to her. And he knows her terrible secret now, the one she's hidden from everyone for well over three years now, the one she's kept separate and apart even in her own mind.
You have a very important role to play in the resistance against Lord Voldemort, Ginny, Dumbledore told her that day when he called her into his office when she was barely fifteen years old, frightened by his piercing blue eyes that saw too much and the memories of just how much he knew about what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets with the shade of Tom Riddle. How very useful it will be if you agree to perform certain… vital tasks, shall we say. Otherwise, it may be regrettably necessary to inform others of your role in opening the Chamber of Secrets… your friends, members of your family, Ministry officials, perhaps… how unfortunate if your father's position were endangered by public knowledge of his daughter's youthful indiscretions. All you will be required to do in return is to make yourself agreeable to this Slytherin boy, Draco Malfoy. And eventually, of course… to do more. And she had whispered terrified agreement. Oh yes, she knew all too well then what Albus Dumbledore was, or could be. And now, the memories seem so real!
As she realizes too late, Draco is only trying to keep her from falling ungracefully on the stone floor. But because of her struggling, she does fall. She is still caught up in the fear and misery that overwhelmed her that day, the emotions she now wants to explain to him so much, and they seem almost palpable in this cell, pressing in on her with sinister force. When the floor rushes up to meet her, she sobs in horror. Draco tries to catch her, and she pushes his hands away, screaming.
"Don't! Oh, gods, don't! Don't touch me!"
Then she lies on her side on the floor, crying. He straightens up and looks at her. "I wasn't going to hurt you," he says slowly. "I couldn't hurt you. No matter what you've done to me, Weasley, no matter what you are, no matter how you've hurt me, I can't hurt you. Not even now that I know the truth." His face twists. "I am weak. So weak. My father was right."
He sits next to her on the floor and gives her a bitter smile. "Let me tell you something, Weasley. When I was sixteen years old, I was under orders as well. I was supposed to seduce you and 'divest you of your innocence'—my father's phrase, not mine, by the way. I was supposed to do the dirty deed at Malfoy Manor because of the greatest concentration of power existing in that place, and so on and so forth, etc., etc., I'm sure you can guess all the tiresome details. Oh, yes, and I wasn't supposed to shag anyone else but you after the pureblood initiation ceremony, because that was part of the entire plan to get the most power, as well."
Ginny sits up and licks her lips. They have suddenly gone very dry. "Why didn't you do it the first time I came to Malfoy Manor, then? It had already been almost a year after your initiation; you were just a few months away from your seventeenth birthday. It must've been torture to go through all that time without having sex again. Oh—and then we didn't do anything and I left, so you had to wait another year! I mean, it must have been just bloody awful to have to wait and wait, once you knew what you were missing and we'd come so close the last time—"
"Yes, it was, and please don't remind me of it now," says Draco. "There's a bit more to it. If you didn't go along with the idea of having sex with me willingly the second time, I was supposed to take you by force."
"But you didn't."
"No, I didn't. I never would have done, either. Still, the point is that if I can hate you, then I suppose that you can hate me just as well. Come on, Weasley, get up." He reaches out his hand to her and pulls her to her feet, and his eyes close for a moment, as if in exquisite pain.
He feels it as well, thinks Ginny. No matter what has just happened, no matter what they have confessed to one another, no matter what secrets have been revealed, and no matter how terrible this place is, something happens when they touch each other that makes everything else dissolve and disappear, and there is nothing left but him and her. She takes a deep breath.
"I still wish I'd stayed with you two years ago," she says.
Draco stops. "Really," he says cautiously. "Even knowing everything that you know now."
"Yes."
"And why is that?"
"Because I'm yours," she says. "No matter what you are, Draco, no matter what you've done—I'm going to start calling you by your first name again, by the way—I'm yours, and I've come back to you, and I'll never leave you again."
"I see," Draco says carefully. "All right. How about this, then? I wish I'd gone away with you two years ago, no matter what might have happened because of it. How does that sound?"
"Perfect," she says.
"Would you have gone anywhere in the world with me?" he asks. "Would you have left everything and everyone behind?"
"Yes, yes, yes," she says.
"I would have done as well," he says with a sigh. "Well, shite. That settles it."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"It's very simple," he says, leaning forward, running his hand along the side of her face, her neck, her shoulder, skimming down to her waist, her hip. "I've gone mad after all, Ginny."
"What? No. Draco, no, you've got the wrong idea completely—"
"Yes," he says. "This has been a hallucination from beginning to end. Gods, but the first bit was horrifying. I suppose it was because of this horrible place, but at least it's got better now, to say the least. At least I hope it has." He looks anxious. "Ginny, kiss me, quickly."
"Draco, listen to me," Ginny tries to say between kisses on his face, his neck, his throat, his arms, his hands, every bit of exposed skin she can reach, and even though he is too thin and his skin is painfully dry and hot, she never, never wants to stop, and it's hard to remember that she should also use actual words to explain to him that this is really happening, especially because he starts kissing her back, fiercely and feverishly.
"I can't believe I fought madness so hard," he says. "I should've prayed for it instead. But I never knew it would be like this, Ginny; I never knew it would mean you'd come to me this way, and say impossible things, and promise to stay with me—you'll be with me all the time, won't you? And it feels as if you're really kissing me! Will sex work out this well, do you think? Let's try it."
"Draco! You're not mad! I'm really here," she insists.
"Well, of course that's what my hallucinatory version of you would say. Let's have sex right now, Ginny," Draco says eagerly. "I want to try that bit out. If I'm mad and this is all a hallucination, the guards won't notice a thing anyway. Unless… well, do you think they'll just see me wanking off or something? Not that it matters. Come on, Ginny!" He takes her by the hand and pulls her towards the little cot in the corner, and for a moment, she is truly tempted to let him do it.
But then they both hear the sound of boots clattering down the staircase.
"Psst! Psst! Over here!" Luna's silvery-blue eyes blink at them from the high little window. "I'm dreadfully sorry to interrupt such an about-to-be-intimate moment, but you've both just got to leave right away. Harry and Hermione are on their way down. They heard that you asked to see Draco, and I'm afraid that they figured out a few things from there… well, I'd leave rather quickly if I were you."
"Oh, no," moans Ginny.
"Wait a minute," says Draco. "That's Lovegood, and she can see us. That means…" His eyes grow cold. "You're no hallucination, are you?"
"What else do you think I've been trying to tell you for the past half hour?" hisses Ginny.
"But, then… but, all of the things that you've said to me…"
"But then I meant that everything I said to you, Draco! Luna—how are we supposed to get out of here if the door is the only way out and they're coming down the stairs right now?"
"Oh, there's always another way out," says Luna. "Goodbye." The little window slides shut.
Ginny turns to Draco. "That water I hear dripping. Where's it coming from?"
"It's an underground river flowing beneath Stonehenge. That's where we are, in fact; but we're in a magical space, not the one Muggles see."
"But could we somehow—I don't know—come out there?" Ginny asks urgently.
"It would take more magic than I know, even if I had my wand," says Draco. "Listen to me. We don't have much time." He takes his hands in hers. "You're real, aren't you?"
"Yes, and if we don't get the hell out of here before the guards get in, we're going to find out just how real we both are!"
"We can't get out. There's no escape. Listen. The things I said to you, the things I've done, the things you've done to me—they don't really matter, do they? Nothing really matters, except—I couldn't say it before the Aurors came for me, but I wish I had, and I'll say it now." Draco bends his head. "I love you, I love you, Ginny. Always. No matter what you are, no matter what I am. I love you."
And in a flash, Ginny understands. She knows where the magic could come from, enough magic to get them both out of the deepest cell of the dungeons of Malfoy Manor, a magic that has been built up between them through years of passion and sacrifice and betrayal and reunion.
"Ginny!" a voice bellows from just outside the door. Harry's voice, she thought. She looks straight into Draco's beautiful gray eyes.
"I love you, Draco Malfoy," she says in a clear, strong voice, and the world dissolves around them.
Ginny opens her eyes. The sun shines down onto bright green grass around her, dotted with little white flowers. When she looks up, she sees craggy gray stone. A circle of stones, as if caught in a graceful dance of giants. Stonehenge. Draco's hand is clasped in hers. He sits up.
"Gods, I feel human again. You can't know what it was like to be trapped in that cell. I really was going mad, Ginny. I... I'm sorry for the things I said to you when you first came in." He bites his lower lip. "You can't know how sorry I am."
"A Malfoy's apologized twice in thirty seconds," says Ginny. "Who would've thought?"
"Yes, well…" Draco looks away slightly. "Rather a lot of things have changed, haven't they?" The wind ruffles his silvery hair. "Anyway, we did it. We got out." He looks around him in wonder. "I never would have thought… but we actually managed it. Why is that Muggle in a blue coat coming towards us, by the way? He doesn't look happy in the least."
"I think we'd better get out of here," says Ginny in an undertone. "Tourists are definitely not supposed to be this close to the megaliths."
"Hmmph. Tourists," says Draco, his face darkening, but he allows Ginny to lead him away into the green field. "What Muggles mistakenly refer to as Stonehenge has been part of Malfoy lands for over ten thousand years, you know."
"Yes. Uh… about that…" Ginny gulps. Well, might as well begin the shocking revelations now. Of course, they've already more than begun, haven't they? "Draco, there's something you need to know. I, uh, made some financial arrangements in this past month, and you haven't lost any of your money after all."
Draco stares at her. "How'd you manage that? Everything was forfeit to the Ministry when I was thrown into prison."
"Well, Luna helped. She's very clever."
"Lovegood?" Draco's face darkens further. "I've already heard quite enough about her part in my getting locked in a keyless dungeon. Apparently, she's the one who hatched the plan to betray me, along with you—" He stopped. "Oh. Ah…"
She takes his hand. "Draco, you must have realized by now that I didn't betray you. But I had to pretend that I did, because otherwise, I never could've got in to see you at Malfoy Manor. But I never would have really done it, not now." She hesitates. The warm spring wind blows around them, and the sun shines, and the dirty, ugly past seems as if it could be smoothed over so easily, along with the secrets that she had never thought would be dragged out into the light of day. But she can't allow this to happen; there can't be shadows between them. "You guessed right, about what happened before," she finally says. "You know that now."
"I told you what I did as well," says Draco. "Ginny, I had no choice. You've got to believe me. I couldn't go against what my father wanted, and I was a miserable snotty cold little bastard on top of that, infatuated with the Dark Arts, and half the time I believed what Voldemort said, but I never would have hurt you, Ginny, please, believe me—"
She puts a finger over his lips. "I do, Draco, I do. I just want you to know that I didn't have any choice, either. Dumbledore threatened me when I was barely fifteen years old; if I didn't do what he wanted—with you—I mean, then he was going to do something terrible to me."
"If he weren't already dead, I think I'd like to go back to Hogwarts and kill him," says Draco.
"Voldemort and Snape did the job pretty thoroughly between them," Ginny says dryly. "But I think from the very beginning, Draco, I… I loved you. Even when I was only fifteen years old and stupid and thought I loved Harry, I didn't. I've always loved you."
He takes her in his arms and gives her a look that makes her wish fiercely that he could pull her down into the tall grass and make love to her all afternoon long. But she hasn't told him what she started out wanting to tell him, and with a sigh, she pushes him away.
"Draco, there's something else, and you have to know what it is. It's not really about the money. Well, I suppose that it is in a way-"
"You said you'd saved it. Did you have to sign away your soul to Satan? If so, I'll get it back. He's a Malfoy ancestor, so there's no problem there," says Draco.
"No, that's not it," says Ginny. "Um… I saved the money and the property as well, but there's going to be a little problem with Malfoy Manor. I don't know if you can exactly go back to it." She waits anxiously for his response.
"I always hated that gloomy old pile," says Draco briskly. "I've got a lovely little villa in the South of France. We ought to go there and spend a few weeks. How does that sound?"
"Really nice, Draco, but… uh… there's a reason why you can't go back to Malfoy Manor."
"Because the Ministry is taking it over? Quite honestly, I don't think I care." Draco shrugs.
Might as well get the explosion over with. Ginny stops. "Draco, there's only one way to keep the Ministry from ever finding you and recapturing you again. If you don't do this, then there's always going to be a chance that they can throw you back into prison. Maybe even Azkaban, if they manage to round up some Dementors. I… I know that this is going to be…"
He scans her face. "Ginny, what is it?"
"You've got to give up magic. You've got to live as a Muggle, Draco. You've got to break your wand and never use it again."
He is silent for a long time. She watches him even more anxiously.
"You're right. There's no other way. And I'll understand," he finally says.
"Understand what?"
"If you don't think that you can find it in you to be with me when I'm not a wizard."
All of her breath goes out in a rush. "Are you bloody serious?" she asks incredulously. "You'll never get rid of me, Draco Malfoy. I don't give a damn if you're a wizard or not."
He sighs in relief. "That's good. Because that bit about understanding was a load of shite. I'd hunt you down to the ends of the earth and get you back by sneaky underhanded tricks. If necessary, I'd beg and plead and be perfectly disgusting. I'd do things that no Malfoy's ever done, for you. I'd do anything that can be done to bring you back to me."
"I wouldn't leave you in the first place," Ginny says simply."But…" She hesitates. "Draco, won't it be… well… difficult? I suppose I don't just mean living without magic. I think what I mean is finding a life after the war's finally over. Who are we without all the fighting? Sometimes I feel like that's what I've spent my entire life doing, and I'm not sure how to do anything else."
He leans up against the back of a monolith. "I do feel as if I don't know who I am anymore, Ginny," he says quietly. "But I cannot be the man I was. No; not a man. A boy, a cruel and frightened boy… I was only sixteen when I was forced to take the Dark Mark, did you know that?" He looks past her, into the distance. "'The years that lie between… darkness, nothing but darkness…" He turns to her suddenly with a crooked smile. "Except for the parts that included you, of course. Could we learn to live in daylight together, do you think?"
"The sun's already risen, Draco," Ginny says softly.
"So it has," he says. He turns her to him and leans forwards and kisses her in the sunlight with the birds singing and the scent of flowers all around them, and Ginny thinks that no matter what lies ahead for both of them, rising through fathoms of darkness to find Draco Malfoy in her arms is very, very good indeed.
_the end_
Author notes: Here's the original prompt for the D/G exchange.
Briefly describe what you'd like to receive in your
fic: I would like
a fic set in a post war world, in which neither
Volemort nor Harry
have won but both have disappeared and no one knows
what's become of
them. The ministry is obsolete and there's some sort
of civil war
between death eaters and order's members for the
control of what's
left of their world. In this scenario Draco and Ginny
have being force
to be the leaders of each group, and fight each other
not with magic
or strength but with their heads. And against their
hearts.
The tone/mood of the fic: dark, kind of angsty
An element/line of dialogue/object you would
specifically like in your
fic: "You can't win this game, silly girl. With
your king missing, you
have no reason to fight. Nothing to protect, no one to
come back to…"
Or some other allusion at chess and the fact that
Ginny is missing the
most important piece of the game.
Preferred rating of the the fic you want: Definitely
naughty or above.
Canon or AU? AU but as canon as posible
Deal Breakers (anything you don't want?): Ginny or
Draco death, sexual
violence, love at first sight