LIFE AFTER DEATH
Part Five: "Daddy!".
Ginny moved restlessly under the velvet covers, she was sweating profusely, and she could feel a headache coming on from all the worrying that she was experiencing. Where was Tom? Has he done something terrible? She wished Lizzy would cry, she wanted a distraction from all this worrying. The astronomical clock read Midnight, and Ginny threw the covers off herself, and began pacing the room. What if something had happened to Ron and Hermione? Would Tom believe them? Just then the sound of footsteps reached her ears, and she immediately recognised them as Tom's, the swiftness and purposefulness of every footfall was what had given him away.
She rushed back to bed, pretending that she did not know anything of where he had been, and sat up in bed as he entered the bedroom, his face completely unreadable. "Why are you awake at this time?" she heard him mutter.
"I was waiting for you to come to bed," she said gently, "did something at the meeting hold you back?" she questioned in a curious tone; hopefully he would not catch onto what she really wanted to know.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, Ginevra, something did hold me back," he replied, an air of coldness in his voice, "but, now is not the time to discuss such matters, it is, however, time for you and I to sleep."
She looked away from him to hide the disappointment in her eyes, and she lay back down angrily; she had stayed awake for nothing, and now she would not be able to sleep. "You are upset," she heard him say, "why?"
"I'm not tired," she replied, hoping he would get the message and tell her about Ron and Hermione.
"Ah," he smirked as he unbuttoned his shirt, "if you are not tired, then perhaps you could take off that rather irritating nightdress that you have insisted upon wearing; where did you get it from? I don't remember purchasing it."
"It was from when I was staying at Grimmauld Place," she whispered, trying to hide the hurt that she was feeling, it reminded her of Harry; still, she had feelings for him, she had lied to Tom about not liking his arch-nemesis any longer.
"Well, then, it will be destroyed," he laid next to her on his side, and leant over her, his hand on her full breast as he kissed her. "I guarantee that you'll be tired after this, sweet little Ginny."
"A-After what?" she said rather naively.
He chuckled, and unbuckled his belt. "What do you think, Princess?" he murmured close to her ear, his breath making her ear tingle. "I've had a stressful day, well, night, and I want you to soothe me like a good wife."
"Tom…" she said softly, putting on her act once more, "Lizzy could wake any moment…."
"Mmm, that's why we have a Nanny, Ginevra, that is what I'm paying the woman for, to look after the children," he replied simply to her very slight obstacle. "So, you see, we have plenty of time." He placed his hand on the hem of her nightdress, and muttered something under his breath, and the cotton started to burn.
Ginny began to scream until Tom covered her mouth withhis hand, and it wasn't until the burning reached her stomach did she realise that the fire was simply burning through the fabric. "Don't do that again! You scared me!" she said loudly, her heart racing.
He gave a low laugh, and pulled the covers over themselves. "Well, I didn't mean to frighten you, precious," he said huskily, the sheets completely covering them from head to toe. Ginny wasn't surprised at Tom for this weird thing, since she knew he was strange. "Will you unzip me, Ginny?" he said, his voice holding a commanding tone to it, instead of a questioning one.
"What?" she said, frowning slightly.
"I want you to unzip my trousers," he said in an almost aggravated tone.
"Oh…" she said quietly, and she fumbled around quickly, hidden under the darkness of the cover, thankfully, she thought, since she knew she was blushing furiously. And she was sure she had touched him where she ought not to a few times, and she was starting to get annoyed, where the hell was his goddamn zip? She gasped as she felt him take her hand, and felt even more embarrassed as she heard him chuckle quietly.
"There," he muttered, and Ginny could feel the metal of the zip as he let go of her hand. Why was she still embarrassed around him? It irked her. She finally got the zip down, and instantly moved her hand away, for fear of things she didn't even want to think about. "Come closer, little Red," he said in a low voice, "where I can feel you."
She obeyed him, and felt him slide an arm around her waist possessively, much like he would before she fell pregnant with Lizzy. A few weeks after she had given birth to Lizzy, things began to return to normal; an authoritave Tom, a fearing Ginny, yet Leo remained his usual self, generally being a nuisance in Tom's eyes, and constantly wanting to see the new baby.
"Tom, what if I become pregnant again?" she said softly.
"Well, then, I shall be pleased, but, I want you to myself for sometime, so, no, you shan't be having any children for now," he replied, his hand gliding upward to settle on the side of her breast. "Does that answer satisfy you?"
She smiled, truly happy, and Tom just stared down at her through the darkness. "Yes, it does," she replied.
"You are happy with my decision?"
"Yes," Ginny replied. "I also think we need to catch up a bit," she said, not wanting to come across as extremely happy about not bearing anymore of his children, for the time being. Ginny pushed herself closer to him, her hand upon his chest, and her face turned up toward his. "See, we agree on something."
He scoffed, and reached down to kiss her. "Yes, you are quite right, Ginny, we finally agree on something…."
Tom tied up the bootlace quickly, and stood up, his cloak making a swooshing sound as he did so. He smirked as he looked over Ginny, lying on her stomach with the covers only hiding the lower part of her slim, but curvaceous figure. He had told her she would be tired after he took her, and look at her now, sleeping past her usual time of awakening.
He could not hold back a chuckle at remembering the previous night; very playful she had been, very playful indeed…. Tom left the room then, a smile on his face as he walked down the corridor, when he heard light footsteps behind him. He span around swiftly, causing the person following him to gasp.
"What are you doing, boy?" he said coldly.
"Mama 'wake?" Leo said, his big brown eyes wide with childish innocence.
"No," Tom replied in the same tone. "Now, go back to your bedroom," he ordered.
"I bored," he announced, as he stepped closer to Tom. "Play with me," he demanded, his commanding expression much like Tom's, and he could not help but smirk. "Daddy play, now." Leo gripped onto Tom's leg.
"Get off me, boy!" Tom barked. "I am not… playing with you, go and amuse yourself, God knows you have plenty of toys."
Leo whined. "Toys boring! Daddy play with me," he insisted, "play now!"
"Boy, if you don't go away, I will cur-."
"Leo," he heard a soft voice call, "leave your Father alone." Tom looked up to see Ginny dressed in a different nightie, with a tired expression on her face, as she beckoned for Leo to come to her. Yet, she completely ignored Tom's gaze. "Come, Leo, don't you want to see Elizabeth?"
"Lissy 'wake?" he said distractedly, letting go of Tom's leg.
"Yes, she's awake, come," Ginny repeated.
"Uh… no!" Leo refused. "Daddy play, now! Mama, tell Daddy to play," he whined.
"If you call me that one more time, boy-."
"Tom, don't be horrible to him, he's only 3 years old," Ginny said, acknowledging his presence finally. She walked closer to him. "Will you just let him follow you around?" she whispered, looking up at him with her large brown eyes shining.
"Yes…" he replied, and when Ginny moved away from him, he snapped out of it. "Ginny, I'm sorting out important matters today, so if you need something, you'll have to wait, yes?" Ginny nodded. "Good…. Come, boy." Tom ordered, gesturing for Leo to follow him.
Once Tom had reached his study, with Leo jogging behind him, he sat down, and pulled out some parchment that had writing on it; they were details of – "What's that?"
"Parchment," Tom replied quickly, wanting the boy to shut up.
They were details of the two prisoners who were kept in the manor; Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Only kept alive for Ginny's purpose, otherwise she would have gone mad, and he couldn't have a mad Empress. It had been very unexpected yesterday evening, when Nott had arrived with Hermione Granger, the Mudblood, at the meeting, claiming to have given into – "Why is there blue stuff on it?"
"So I know what this person wants to say to me," Tom answered in an irritable tone.
"I bored," he moaned again. "Play hide and seek."
"For fu-… yes… let's play hide and seek," Tom smirked. "Go and hide somewhere in the room, and I'll count to, oh, a million."
"Yay! You never find me," Leo said energetically, and he ran off somewhere.
Finally. The Mudblood had claimed to have given into the Dark, and was willing to receive the Dark Mark. Tom had laughed at first, and ordered for her to thrown back into her cell, but the girl persisted, and made claims that Ronald had the same feelings as she. That's when his mind began working into overdrive. If Ginny's brother became a follower, then that would be an achievement in itself; to have Potter's greatest friend turn against him. Not to mention, Tom would get a little more adoration from Ginny for letting her brother out.
But, he needed to think on it a bit more, what if they turned against him, and took Ginny away from him again? He put the parchment back into his drawer, and raised his hand, muttering a spell to locate the boy. Tom walked forward, and turned at the second opening of the bookcase, and found Leo pressed against the bookcase. "I found you," Tom said in a dull tone.
"Ohh…."
"Come, no more foolish games, boy," Tom pulled him by the shoulder to stand in front of him. "I shall have no more of your mindlessness, you can go back to your Mother."
"No!" he stamped his feet, clearly beginning to have a tantrum. "Daddy play," and he clung onto his leg again, with Tom feeling himself become angrier each second. "I tell Mummy off you!"
Tom laughed coldly. "You think I am afraid of your Mother?" Tom sneered down at the young boy. "You're Mother listens to me, boy, and she does anything I say. "Tom held onto Leo's shoulder and led him out into the corridor. "Now, go back to your Mother, this instant."
Tom watched Leo turn the corner, and disappear from his sight. Then he shut his study door, and walked in the opposite direction, toward the cells. It was time to test that temper of Ron Weasley's; he never forgot the last time he saw Ginny's brother, it was way back when he had first gotten Ginny back.
The sound of rusty metal grating against the stone floor filled the damp dungeon with long forgotten sound. Tom stepped forward, his heel not making any sound as he walked forward. He sneered to himself as he remembered the night before, when Ginny had hidden under the bed, and she had given herself away by sniggering; he didn't know why she was being so tiresome, after all, he had offered her options, and she chose to come back to him. He grimaced as he heard the sound of a rat; horrid creatures….
"Cell number 22," he mumbled to himself, and he stopped in front of a tiny cell, dry hay in the corner, with one occupant, Ron Weasley. He looked broken and defeated on the floor of the slimy cell, his back to his sole visitor. Tom had come to question him about the whereabouts of the most prestigious Aurors, all though, Tom doubted that he knew anything. He made a disapproving tutting sound to grab the attention of Ginny's brother, and in one swift turning movement, Tom got exactly what he wanted.
"You!" he said hoarsely. Tom presumed that there would have been more venom in his voice, had he spoken to someone in the past few weeks.
"Is that any way to greet family, Mr. Weasley?" Tom said tauntingly, tutting once more disapprovingly.
"What the fuck do you want?" He was on his feet now, and he looked nothing like the broken man from minutes before. He was the same height as Tom, and appeared to be physically stronger too, but, Tom observed, he was on the wrong side of the bars. "I want to see Ginny, you snake, what have you done to her?" he hissed, his voice still croaky.
"Ah, Ginny…. I haven't done a thing to her, she is quite alright," he replied with a smug smirk. "And I wouldn't let her see you when you are… unworthy of her presence."
Ron shouted with pure rage, and Tom had not even noticed that he had ran forward, until his hand came shooting through the bars, aiming to wrap around Tom's throat. He missed by a millimetre. "What a joke, you are, Mr. Weasley!" Tom laughed coldly. "Thinking you can harm me with your filthy muggle-loving hands, when I have all the power in the world," Tom finished in a dangerous hiss.
"You're forgetting that Ginny has "filthy muggle-loving hands", and I'd rather be a joke, than a rapist," Ron sneered viciously, retracting his hand, and moving backward, his face twisted into a look of pure hatred. "That's all you are, a dirty rapist!"
"Say that again, and I'll-."
"You're a fucking rapist!"
Tom's hand flew upward, and the next thing Ron knew was that he was on the floor, feeling immense pain rushing through him. The Cruciatus…. "She loves me!" Tom screamed over Ron's yells. "You took her from me, and she came back willingly!"
Ron managed to laugh through the pain, which infuriated Tom even more.
"She... ahh… fucking hates you!" Ron shouted, and suddenly, it stopped.
"You'll never understand, Weasley," Tom whispered in a deadly tone. "Ginny belongs to me, it's as simple as that."
"No… she hates you, she doesn't belong to anyone," Ron said quietly. "Want to know what she told me? She told me she used to wish she was dead whenever you touched her, she told me that she made you believe every word she would say, every single word, and, this takes the cake, she told me you actually believed it when she said she missed you.!" Ron was laughing almost hysterically at this point, and it took a lot of control for Tom stop himself from killing him right there and then.
"I hope you enjoy laughing for another month or so, because it'll be the only other sound you'll hear apart from the rats!"
Tom smirked to himself in the present, he had stormed out of the Malfoy Dungeons, and Apparated back to his manor. That was when he had made the decision to keep Ginny from seeing Leo until she started behaving. Now, after three years, he was going to see whether this temperamental man could withstand Tom's annoyances, and truly see whether the Mudblood's claim had any truth to it.
"Mummy!" Ginny heard a whining voice out in the hallway. She stood away from Lizzy's crib, and walked over to the door, to find Leo running awkwardly toward her. "Mama," he said grumpily, a frown much like Tom's on his face. "Daddy not play with me."
"Never mind, darling, your Father is very busy," Ginny reassured, as she took the small boy's hand, and led him into the adjoining Nursery. "Maybe you can play with him another time," she almost scoffed at her own words, and felt guilty for lying. "But, don't be sulky, baby, Lizzy is awake, now, and she wants to say hello."
"Lissy… she a littler baby," Leo announced as he peered over the edge of the crib. "I hold Lissy," he said quietly.
"No, not yet, darling, you're too young , and you might drop her," Ginny said soothingly, "and she might cry if you drop her, you don't want her to be upset, do you?"
"No, but Lissy not cry a lot," he muttered, shaking his head from side to side for added emphasis.
"That's because she is a good girl," Ginny stroked the baby's cheek, and watched as Leo reached out to touch her hand, but tentatively so, as though he thought she could break at the slightest movements. "Where did your Father take you?"
"A room with table, and loads and loads of books, I hide behind one and Daddy took forever to find me!" he replied enthusiastically.
Ginny smiled at the thought of Tom playing Hide and Seek. "What did he do?"
"Read," he said simply.
"A book?"
"No, a p-parshmemt."
"Parchment?" Leo nodded and returned to looking at the peaceful baby girl. Ginny wondered if that had anything to do with the plan… still she was being forced to wait for information of the outcome of last nights meeting, not that he ever told her anything about the meetings, but since Hermione and Ron concerned her, then surely he would have to tell her. Eventually….
Sapphire Crystal: As you are blessed with essay writing skills, which probably helps a lot more, one of us is burdened with not so great essay writing skills. :D Me, of course. Tom likes her pregnant because it is like she has to depend on him more than when she is not pregnant. And, don't worry, the "one-sided" thing may be resolved, if the story goes that way.
SailorHecate: I love questions, as long as I can answer them properly. Tom being a good father? Hmmm, I think this chapter confirms that answer. But, what do you expect? Tom never had a Father to model his own behaviour toward his kid on. I'm not sure what you mean about your 2nd question. He doesn't dislike Leo, it is just that he wants him to stop acting, well, childish, since Tom doesn't really grasp this parenting thing too well, it's a good thing Ginny's there!
Kusakabe Maron: Can you send me the pic again? Also send me the URL for your website again. Sorry about that.
Nyah1: I really loved your review for some reason. And I am still in the dark as to whether I can make it a happy ending, since I've got about five potential ways of ending it.
A/N: Well, I am back again from that dreaded writer's block. And it seems as though this story is going to be longer than I actually planned it to be, what with Hermione's little plan coming into effect, how will Ginny cope with being kept in the dark, and will Ron manage to hold his temper? I am asking for 10 Reviews now, people, since that attack of writers block might infect me again, I need more ammo to defend myself. LOL.