Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.
A/N: I know that it's been over a month since I've updated. I'm sorry! I'll try harder. Promise! ;) Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. It's probably not what you expect. It's a bit longer than the others, though. Please tell me what you think!
Keep the Faith
Chapter 4
Ginny woke up around eight the next morning. After lying in bed for a while, remembering what happened the day before, her nerves took over, and she was physically sick. Ever since, all she'd been feeling was self pity and frustration with her situation. She settled with trying to find a way to make Draco Malfoy spill the secrets he kept from her.
It was an hour before she couldn't stand it any longer. She needed to eat something. Giving in to her hunger, Ginny opened the crack of her door and peered out. No sign of Malfoy; she breathed a sigh of relief. Creeping out, she shut the door quietly, and walked quietly down the hall. She noticed details that she hadn't the night before, like the dark wood colour and the green pattern of the wallpaper. Very Malfoy-ish. Ginny descended quietly down the stairs and stopped at the bottom. She peered around the wall to see if her way was clear. She saw that he wasn't in the kitchen, and he wasn't at the table. Ginny straightened, and walked into the room, more relaxed.
Ginny opened up the fridge, and looked inside. She was hungry, but she realised that nothing seemed appetizing in the least. Ginny poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice and rummaged through the cupboards. Ginny took out a thing of pancake mix and a pan. It was her favourite breakfast, and if she had to force herself to eat something, that was her best bet. She turned on the stove and proceeded to make the pancakes.
She found some maple syrup, and butter, and put it all on the table. Ginny sat down. She frowned. It seemed like she'd made a lot more than she'd intended. It made sense, really, considering that when she normally cooked, it was for a large family; three people at a minimum.
Ginny stared at the table in front of her for a long while, unable to find her appetite. She was seriously contemplating getting up and walking away. She didn't want to eat. She needed to eat, but she didn't want to.
Ginny twirled a fork in one hand and rested her chin in the other. Eventually, Ginny looked away. She decidedly stood up, her decision made to not eat.
She'd half risen from the table when Draco Malfoy entered the room, and she froze into place like a deer in headlights. Malfoy stopped in his tracks when he saw her. They glared at one another for a moment, until Malfoy's eyes shifted down to the table. His brow creased in puzzlement for a moment. Then he looked back up at her with a look of cynical understanding.
"Going somewhere?" he asked, his voice an undertone of sarcasm.
Ginny mentally shook herself. "Yes, as a matter of fact." She replied with an air of defiance. "I wouldn't want to stay in the same room as you for longer than necessary." Ginny stepped away from the table and made her way to stalk past Draco out of the room.
Draco rolled his eyes, and caught her by the arm as she made to walk by. "Not so fast Weasley."
Ginny looked at where he touched her for a moment, and then glared up at him, trying to wrench her arm free. "Let go of me." She demanded. He ignored her. He wasn't holding her hard, but his grip was iron.
He glared back, and then relented. He sighed, his scrutinizing silver eyes never leaving her face. "Would you stay and eat something if I left?"
Ginny looked at him, speculating.
"No." She didn't know why she didn't just lie to him, and the look in his eyes told her that it would have been easier for her if she had. But she couldn't make herself eat. Ginny glanced over to the table, distracted for a moment. She suddenly felt nauseous.
"Then go sit back down." He commanded with an air of authority that was, to Ginny, undeserved. Ginny looked back at him to see that he'd narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not hungry." She looked away.
"Yes I can see that." She couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "You made all of that and you're not going to eat it?" The question was rhetorical. Ginny didn't answer. She looked back at the table.
With his grip back on her arm, Malfoy guided her back to the table and forced her to sit down. Ginny's glare returned full force.
"Listen, Weasley. You haven't eaten since early yesterday. You have to be hungry, and if you aren't, your body needs the food, so I'm going to sit here," he sat down opposite her, crossing his arms. "Until you eat something."
Ginny begrudgingly picked up her fork, and cast an annoyed glance at Draco. He raised an eyebrow in response.
Ginny poured syrup on a pancake and took a small bite. Her original sick feeling was overruled by her hunger, and the more she ate, the more she felt better. Momentarily at least.
As he sat there watching her, Ginny noticed the darkness around his grey eyes. He obviously hadn't gotten much sleep, or was that partially from the black eye? She felt another twinge of satisfaction at the recent memory.
"Why do you care whether or not I eat, Malfoy?"
"I don't." he shrugged.
Ginny gave him a sceptical look. "Really."
"Really." He repeated.
Malfoy stood up suddenly and made his way to the fridge to pour himself a glass of juice.
"Malfoy?"
"What Weasley?" his unforgiving voice made her cringe.
Ginny paused, knowing she was repeating herself, but not able to stop herself.
"What are you going to do with me?"
Draco cast a sideways look at her from where he stood leaning against the counter. He proceeded to ignore her.
Ginny inwardly fumed for a minute. How was she going to get past his barrier and get him to reveal something?
"Fine, don't tell me." She huffed.
"Okay I won't." He smirked.
"Malfoy you are infuriating."
"Well you're not exactly a pile of sweets either." he deadpanned.
"Then why on earth am I here? You don't want my company obviously."
"You couldn't be more right." The dark look he gave her sent her chills. "You're a Weasley. Who would want your company?"
Ginny's face burned with chagrin, and she knew that her ears had probably turned red from the heat. It was a family trait. Ginny knew she should expect comments like that from him, but deep down, she couldn't help from feeling hurt and humiliated. Ginny stood up angrily, all sense of self-preservation lost with her pride.
"More people than would want the company of a Malfoy, that's for sure." She bit out. "You're all just horrible monsters aren't you?"
Malfoy's anger turned up a notch. "You don't know anything about us Weasley." He faced her angrily.
"Well then, enlighten me." Her voice shook. "Are you not all Death Eaters? Are you not murderers?-" she stopped, not because she'd crossed the same line again, but for seeing the stricken look on Draco's face. It was covered by his glare a moment after. Had she really seen that? Did he not realise what he was like?
"Shut up Weasley." His voice had a different tone to it than before. Was he offended? Or did she just imagine that?
"No. I won't. I mean, what kind of man kidnaps a defenceless girl? Obviously you have some devious plan. Are you trying to lure somebody here to kill them? My family maybe? You're a cold heartless bastard Malfoy. You all are."
The words were out before she could stop herself. Ginny cursed herself for letting her mouth speak before her mind. She was never very good at hiding her emotions or opinions. "And I'll believe that all I want, unless you're willing to prove me wrong."
And with that she marched out of the room, avoiding Draco's eyes.
Draco stared after her, motionless as his hand gripped his empty glass of juice.
He set it down hard on the counter. He turned and gripped the edges of the counter, staring into the empty sink. He couldn't think. The little witch was infuriating.
What the hell did she know?
Draco closed his eyes. Her opinion meant nothing. He should just ignore everything she'd said, but somehow he couldn't. She did have reason to think that Draco was a Death Eater, considering that she must have known, along with everyone else that he had been working for Lord Voldemort last year and she obviously thinks he's a murderer because of the fact that he'd threatened her life. Of course she would think these things. He wanted her to think these things. So why did it bother him so much?
No one had ever said anything like that to him before her, not at least with so much hatred and conviction.
Draco forced himself to put it in the back of his mind. There was no logical reason he was thinking like this, and forced himself to forget about it.
He made his way to his room, and sat down in a leather armchair in the corner. He picked up what looked like a normal pad of paper. He twisted it around with his hands absentmindedly. This was his only communication out of the house. There was another one, identical to this, and when he wrote in this one, whatever he'd written would show up in the other. Draco flipped over the cover sheet, and froze, surprised to see words written there. He read them.
Draco. They know. Write the letter now.
The message was short and sweet, and to him, it made perfect sense. Those who were essential to his plan now knew that Ginny was missing. If he acted soon, then they would have no reason to go public. Draco picked up a quill from the table next to him, and found some ink in the drawer.
Dipping his quill in the ink, Draco began to write, a feeling of hope that now his plan would really begin.
To Mr. Weasley, …
He finished the letter and it disappeared on the paper.
Ginny had flopped down on the couch, an old book open across her stomach, and she hadn't moved in the last twenty minutes.
She was currently in the library. She'd put the fire on, and the heat now spread throughout the cold room, giving it a lazy atmosphere. Ginny listened to the crackling fire absentmindedly.
After hiding away in her room since she'd lost her temper at breakfast, Ginny had gotten bored with nothing to do, so she'd explored a little bit. Curiosity had gotten hold of her when she'd come across this room for a second time. Now that it was no longer occupied with Malfoy's unwanted presence, it looked much more inviting, and she'd taken the opportunity to look around. Shelves upon shelves of books lined the walls, and Ginny went around and picked out a random book. It turned out to be some sort of mystery novel. She'd read about a hundred pages into it only to discover that it was about a kidnapping. This brought her current situation to mind, which reading the book had managed to block out for a couple of hours. Frustrated, Ginny had thrown the book across the room, where it fell to the ground, abandoned.
She'd then rummaged around the bookshelves a little more in hopes to find something a little more cheerful to occupy her mind with, and she happily found an old book of fairy tales. She'd gotten through about five stories when she realised that every princess had her prince, and every girl had her knight in shining armour. To her dismay, it did nothing to cheer her up. In fact, she found herself becoming more and more depressed. She didn't have a knight in shining armour, not even a knight in rusty armour. The only people who would go through any lengths to rescue her were her parents and her brothers. And the order, she'd thought belatedly. But she had no one like these fairy tale princesses had.
But then there was Harry.
Would he do anything to save her? Undoubtedly he would, Ginny mused, but not for the reasons she wanted. He would do it not because it was her that he loved, which he didn't Ginny reminded herself, but because it was the right thing to do. Not to mention the fact that he had disappeared off the planet. Ginny supposed that in a way, he was like a brother. Even though he'd broken her heart, he had always been like a part of her family, ever since she was ten and he was eleven, her parents had treated him like their own son. Even last summer, he was a groomsman at Bill's wedding. Fleur had been insistent on that point. Ginny cringed as she thought of the bittersweet memory…
The day had been bright and sunny. The outdoor wedding was to take place in the backyard at two in the afternoon. The Burrow was alive with people. All the Weasleys were there, save Percy, but Ginny knew not to dwell on that so as not to ruin the mood. All morning people began to arrive to help prepare for the event. Bill's friends were there, all laughing and having a good time, and Fleur's family were being introduced to the Weasleys. Ginny sat down on the porch, taking a break from kitchen duty, and watched everyone having a good time and catching up. Lunch was in the process of being made for the guests, and Molly had insisted that Ginny help.
"Ginny!" Ginny turned her head to the sound. Fleur was making her way toward her, followed by her family. There was a skip to her step, showing her obvious happiness. Ginny smiled a bright smile for her benefit, and tried to stop herself from inwardly cringing. Phlegm, the name was mostly habit by now, had been worse than normal in the past week, as her excitement began to build up. Ginny had taken most of the brunt of it, as she was the only other girl in the house. Fleur gave a twirl and stopped, beaming in front of Ginny. "Hi Fleur." She stood up.
"Zees eez maman, et papa." She motioned to her parents. Ginny nodded to them kindly. They were very striking people, and Ginny could see where Fleur got her mesmerising looks. "And do you remember my seester, Gabrielle?" Ginny said yes, as she vaguely remembered the girl from her third year.
Fleur turned back to her family. "Ça c'est Ginny Weasley. Elle est la petit soeur de Bill." She sang in her own language. Ginny knew enough french by now to know that she didn't like being called petit, and she had to bite her tongue from frowning.
And with that, Fleur bounced away with her parents in tow. Ginny sat back down, before she noticed that Gabrielle stood there still.
"Bonjour." She smiled at Ginny. Ginny smiled back.
"Hi." She replied. "Have a seat." She patted the porch next to her.
Gabrielle's smile grew brighter and she sat down beside her.
"Are you excited? We are going to be… comment est-ce qu'on le dit,… seesters-in-law!" Ginny nodded, trying to be friendly, but she couldn't help but notice just how much of her demeanour was like her sisters.
Gabrielle started talking about the wedding plans, and after a while, Ginny began to notice that she wasn't so self-absorbed as Fleur, just friendly, and she began to enjoy the conversation.
But then suddenly, Gabrielle grasped Ginny's arm and squealed excitedly. "La voila! C'est Harry Potter!" Ginny followed her look and saw that she was indeed right. Harry was walking down the laneway with Ron and Hermione. They had all been staying with Harry since the beginning of the summer. Ginny's heart lifted for a brief moment before sinking in her chest.
Ginny watched as Gabrielle ran over to them and launched herself on Harry who at first looked shocked, but then laughed. She couldn't hear what Gabrielle was saying, but she seemed to have a lot to say. Ginny took the moment to study them. Ginny knew Gabrielle was young, maybe thirteen, but she had an intimidating beauty, like her sister. Her long silver blonde hair glittered in the sun, her perfect figure accented by flattering robes. Ginny felt immensely inadequate in comparison. A feeling of irritation overcame her as she noticed Harry's attention was focused on the girl. She was openly flirting with him, and he didn't seem to mind.
As she watched them all chatting away, Harry's eyes met hers and it seemed like time stopped. He excused himself and made his way over to her. Ginny smiled as he approached. He took a seat beside her, a little farther than was maybe necessary. Ginny had to fight the urge to inch closer to him. A month ago, she would have done it mindlessly, but now, she knew he didn't want her to.
"Hi Harry." She said, not quite looking at him.
"How are you Ginny?" She hadn't realised until that moment, just how much she'd missed his voice.
"Fine." She looked into his green eyes. Why did he have to be so damn good looking?
"I-" he began, and then stopped. He looked away.
"Ginny!" Molly's voice yelled from the kitchen. "Come in here and help me! You've been sitting out there for quite a while now."
"Okay mum!" Ginny yelled back and rolling her eyes comically at Harry, she said to him: "Duty calls. See you later, yeah?" And she went inside, leaving him alone on the porch.
The rest of the afternoon went as planned. The wedding was beautiful, Bill had never seemed happier. Ginny, clad in a full length, tight-fitting gold dress, hair done up like princess, all from the direction of Fleur of course, had walked down the isle arm in arm with one of Bill's friends. Gabrielle went arm in arm with Harry. And even though she knew the girl was young, Ginny had a hard time getting rid of the jealous feelings so that she could feel happy for Bill.
She had managed to not think about Harry for the rest of the day, entertaining herself with her brothers and other friends of Bill's that she'd never before met.
At the very end of the night, when most guests had gone, and Ginny was on her way up to her room to undress and shower, when she passed by Ron's room. Ron's voice called her from within. She peaked her head into his room. Harry and Hermione were all sitting together looking grave.
"What is it Ron?" She asked.
"We need to talk to you." He said quietly. "Close the door on your way in."
She did just that, more curious than ever about their solemn expressions. She sat down on the bed with them. "What's the matter?" she asked.
"Well, here's the long and short of it Ginny." It was Hermione who spoke this time, putting a comforting hand on her knee. "Well, you see…" she trailed off, sharing a look with Ron.
"The three of us are leaving." Harry finished for her. He refused to look at Ginny.
"What do you mean, leaving?" A cold fear filled her insides.
"Indefinitely." Said Ron again. "I'm sorry Gin. We can't tell you what we're doing. It's complicated."
"You could say that it's too dangerous for anyone to know what we're doing." Said Hermione with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. This means we're saying goodbye Ginny. We'll be gone tomorrow."
Ginny looked between the three of them, shock coursing through her. She felt somehow…betrayed. Admittedly, she knew Harry was bound to do something of this nature. She'd expected that, but for him to bring Hermione and Ron? Why was she always excluded from their plans? She cared just as much as them.
"Harry," her voice shook. "Can I speak to you for a moment?" he nodded and followed her out to the hallway.
"Take me with you, Harry." She said once the door was closed. "Whatever you're doing, I want to go with you."
"No. You can't."
"Why not?" she said angrily, tears making an appearance.
"Because it's too dangerous. The less people that know, the better. Trust me." He inched closer to her in what seemed like concern.
"But you're letting Ron and Hermione go with you?"
Harry looked away, his expression pained for a moment, as Ginny knew he searched for an answer for her. Ginny tried a different approach. She felt bitter, seeing him open to the silver-haired girl's flirting all day. "Did you ever care for me at all, because if you did, you will at least consider this."
When he didn't answer, Ginny continued, "Why are you doing this? Do you honestly not care for me?"
When he didn't answer, Ginny mustered up the courage and kissed him with a last desperate hope. Her kiss was forceful. At first he didn't react, but then Ginny felt butterflies as his lips moved greedily against hers and his hands brushed over her hips.
But then he stepped back, and pushed her away. Ginny stood frozen as she saw the dark look in his eyes that had certainly not been there before.
"Harry?" she asked tentatively, all thoughts gone. There was a strange look in his eyes and she didn't like it.
"Don't-" he began angrily, but never continued.
"No." he repeated, his face frustrated. "I'm sorry Gin. You're not coming. It's for your own good." He said with a tone of finality.
It wasn't until he'd returned to the room that she realised that the look he'd had was one she actually saw quite often, just never aimed at her.
Cold anger. It filled her with a cold emptiness that she hadn't been able to be rid of for months.
Ginny shivered, remembering.
The next day they had gone, and she hadn't seen or heard from them since. That had been one of the worst moments of her life, to realize that your love was unrequited. It had taken her months to start feeling like she could live without them.
Ginny groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. Why did she have to go thinking about him now? It always made her feel worse. Ginny stood up to go put the traitorous book back where it belonged. She swayed on the spot, having to hold onto the armrest so as not to fall over. She felt kind of woozy from the heat of the fire, so Ginny settled for putting the book down on the nearest table and lay back down.
With nothing else to do, Ginny's mind wandered back to the morning's argument.
Why couldn't she keep her temper in check? She should have just kept her own mouth shut. And she should definitely do that from now on if she wanted to live. Thinking that sentence was frustrating because in all honesty, he did not behave like a killer. For Merlin's sake he was forcing her to eat food and basically ignoring her. But why on earth was he offended? Okay, it's true that I was offended when he talked about my family, but his reaction differed from the night before. Last night he was furious, but today he didn't say anything. What does that even mean?
Ginny didn't know what to make of any of this. He didn't make any sense.
I have to get something out of him. How? I don't know.
It was evening when Draco entered the library with the purpose of finding an old Daily Prophet newspaper. He barely made it into the room before he stopped short. The first thing he noticed was the warmth of the room and the soft light from the burning embers in the fireplace. The second thing he noticed was the red-headed girl asleep on the couch. Bemused, Draco walked further into the room. He found the stack of newspapers he wanted and rummaged through them to find the right one. Apparently he was making too much noise for her, because soon enough, Ginny's sleepy head lifted up in his direction, giving him an annoyed look before groaning and snuggling further into the couch.
"You know, Weasley. You do have a very nice bed that you can sleep on instead of that old couch." He told her, and Ginny started mumbling rude things into the couch. He smirked.
When he turned to leave, Draco looked down at the table and snorted. "Oh bloody hell Weasley. Fairy Tales?"
He heard a muffled growl. He couldn't help but snicker.
He picked the book up and stepped closer to her. "Out of all the books in here, this is what you read?" his mocking amusement evident.
A string of words followed, but he couldn't discern what she'd said, though he thought he heard the word prince and maybe the word wanker.
"What was that Weasley? You're talking to the fabric."
"I said, sod off." She opened her unfocused eyes and turned slightly to glare at him. The words came out half-heartedly, and the glare wasn't even full force.
Draco narrowed his eyes, puzzled at her strange behaviour. Something seemed off about her. "Weasley what's the matter with you?"
Ginny slowly raised herself to a sitting position. "What do you think is the matter with me? You're here." She raised a hand to her forehead as if in pain. "Feel free to go away, Malfoy." She groaned.
But Draco didn't move. He scrutinised her. Her face was flushed, she was sleeping all day, her head apparently hurt, and she won't eat. She's obviously sick, he thought, annoyed. Why did she have to get sick? Great that just makes matters so much better.
"Are you sick?" his voice full of disgust.
She stared back. "No." she leaned back slowly, sinking into the couch once more.
"Right. You're a bad liar, Weasley."
"You're quite wrong actually. I'm a bloody good liar. Ask my brothers. I'm even better than they are." Her weak voice was full of conviction.
Draco scrutinised her for a moment. That doesn't say much. "Well how very nice for you, Weasley, but I'd rather not talk to any of your twelve or so brothers." He looked disturbed at the thought.
"Six."
"What?"
"I have six brothers, thank you."
"Great Weasley. Don't care."
Ginny opened an eye and gave him a look, which still seemed to have that annoying, superiority quality to it that so infuriated him. She then smirked an unexplained smirk at him before lying back down and ignoring him completely.
Draco closed his eyes, keeping down his temper and then turned and walked out of the room. He made his way to his bedroom.
Draco shut the door completely, and paced around for a while. What was he going to do? How bloody annoying for her to get sick. Great timing, Weasley, while we're stuck in the middle of nowhere with no access to magic. Be ill on your own time.
He threw the paper down on the desk and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. He considered his options. He could let her be and see if she gets better on her own. But then she probably wouldn't eat anything and that would make her worse. Or, he would be forced to take care of her. The horrifying notion filled him with dread for a moment, until he remembered something. Draco pushed himself off the wall and walked into the rather large bathroom that attached to his room. The bathroom was impeccably clean and organized. Draco paused for a moment, before pushing aside a curtain that looked like it should cover a window to find a secret cabinet. Pulling the door open, Draco stared for a moment. This stuff wasn't technically for this purpose, but… he remembered how to do it. Making up his mind, Draco grabbed a couple of vials from it and closed it all back up. Taking a clean glass from beside the sink, Draco began his mixture.
Half an hour later Draco re-entered the room in a much better mood. What surprised him the most was that doing something even remotely related to magic put him in a better mood than he had been since staying in this wretched house. The room had darkened even more, and was only mildly lit from the light in the hallway.
Ginny was in the exact same position as before. Draco went over and sat on the sturdy coffee table in front of the couch.
"Weasley." He said, none too gently. She didn't move.
"Hey, Weasley." He said a little louder.
She groaned a little. "What do you want Malfoy?"
He didn't answer.
Ginny sat up slowly, all the while glaring at the man that interrupted her sleep.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Drink this." Ginny suddenly noticed the drink he held toward her and stared at it, uncomprehending. Ginny's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Then she moved her eyes to Draco's face. He was watching her with a closed expression.
"No." she told him. Draco's expression darkened with annoyance.
"Why on earth not, Weasley, it'll make you all better." He reasoned, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice at the last part.
Ginny rolled her eyes and pushed the drink back toward him, her fingers brushing over his as she did so. "Right. That makes it all okay now." Her sarcasm bit back. "Do you think I'm stupid Malfoy? Why would I accept anything as ominous as that from you?"
"There's nothing wrong with it." He returned, defensively.
"You could be trying to poison me." She explained, a little annoyed that he did not catch on.
"Well I'm not." His eyes narrowed. But it's not a bad idea, he thought darkly. Merlin she was annoying.
"Well I don't quite believe you." Draco sighed.
"Just drink it."
"No way."
"Do you want to be sick?"
"No but I'd rather take that chance." Draco scowled, then tore his eyes from hers and looked away.
"Fine, it's your life."
"That's right, now if you would just give it back." She glowered.
Draco stopped and glared.
"Do you want me to force you? Because I will, you know, and I am not going to have your death on my hands, just because you won't drink-." he stopped.
The moment the words were out of his mouth, true as they were, he froze, inwardly cursing himself
It must have shown on his face, because Ginny's eyebrows shot up and she stared. Well, at first she stared like nobody's business, but then she began to smirk.
"Okay." She began slowly, probing eyes never leaving his face.
"Okay what?" he asked sceptically. "You do want me to force you?" That doesn't make sense.
"No," she rolled her eyes at him. "I'll drink it." She reached for the glass he held in his hand.
He wouldn't budge, and his eyes were on her face, searching for the reason for her change of mind. "Why?"
Ginny almost cracked a smile at his indignance. Almost. Reverse psychology was funny. "I thought you wanted me to?"
His grip suddenly lessened its hold, and Ginny took the drink. She sniffed it, immediately regretting agreeing to this. "Gross."
"Get over it." He rolled his eyes. Ginny raised an eyebrow at him.
One, two, three. Ginny grimaced and gulped it down. It didn't taste nearly as bad as it smelled, and for that she was grateful.
She shoved the glass back at Draco, and wiped her mouth with her sleeve, finding Draco's furrowed brow and confused look amusing.
"What?" She asked, cringing at the aftertaste of the revolting potion. Strangely enough, Ginny already began to feel less feverish and nauseous. A rush of relief coursed through her as she realised two things.
Number one, that the potion was safe.
"Why did you drink it?" he demanded.
And number two:
"Because you don't want to kill me."
Ginny couldn't help but smile in response to Draco's frustrated look of loathing. He ran a hand through his silver blond hair, stood up and walked angrily out of the room.
Ginny was suddenly felt very sleepy. Maybe the drink had a sleeping potion in it too. She tugged an Afghan from the armrest of the couch and pulled it around her.
What would happen now that she knew Draco wouldn't kill her? Would she be able to talk to him without being scared of his actions? Would anything actually be different? Probably not.
And then it came to her, as she dozed off.
She could be civil with him, and maybe if she kept it up, and if she was lucky, she could trick him into telling. It was a long shot, but it was all she had.
When Ginny had next woken up, the sun was already shining through the window and the room was brightly lit.
Ginny felt better than she had in the past couple of days. The constant headache was gone, and she no longer felt ill, and her appetite had returned.
And Draco Malfoy admitted that he didn't want her death on his hands.
Ginny felt rather optimistic, and rather in control, which made her happy. Less angry and frightened might be the better phrase.
After showering and changing her clothes, Ginny made her way happily down the stairs. She almost bounced into the kitchen where Draco sat eating a bowl of cereal. He looked up with a look of death on his face.
Ginny paused. He was obviously not a morning person.
"Good Morning!" she sang as she went to cupboards and pulled out a skillet.
She placed it on the stove and went to the fridge. She paused in her step as she glanced at Malfoy. He held a spoon over the bowl and he stared at her with a wary expression on his face. He was frozen in place. Ginny looked away, and took a couple of eggs out of the fridge, her actions much less enthusiastic, bogged down by his lovely morning attitude. She glanced back at Draco. He had relaxed some, and his arms were now crossed, watching her carefully.
She began to cook, and the sound of the eggs frying in the pan filled the room. She looked back at Draco again to see that he now stared at the table in front of him, as though in thought.
For some reason, she didn't know why, the silence was killing her. The first words she could think of were:
"Would you like some eggs Malfoy?" she asked, immediately regretting it. This whole talking to him thing was turning out to be harder than she'd imagined.
His eyes caught hers again, and she was surprised to see that he was not glaring, just… looking. He held her gaze.
"No, thank you." His innocent words were marred by his icy tone.
Well, at least he was polite. The corner of her lip twitched up and Ginny tore her eyes away from him and finished what she was doing. She put the eggs on a plate with some toast and brought it over to the table, putting it down and sitting down adjacent to him.
Draco was still watching her, his cereal forgotten. Ginny picked up a piece of toast, gave him a smile and began to eat.
"Are you sure you don't want any? It must be better than…that." She looked pointedly down at his bowl. Draco followed her gaze and shrugged, looking coolly back at her.
"I guess that depends how bad your cooking is." He smirked.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "It's eggs and toast, Malfoy. How anyone could get that wrong is beyond me."
"I'm sure you could find a way."
He wasn't serious, she could tell. Inside, Ginny rejoiced. Finally a conversation that wasn't filled with malice, no matter how pathetic.
"What are you doing, Weasley?" he asked suddenly. It was totally out of the blue, but Ginny knew what he meant. He was confused as to why she was talking to him. For all he knew, she should be avoiding him like the plague.
"I'm being civil, Malfoy." She answered truthfully.
"Why?"
Ginny sighed. Figures he needed a reason for someone to have a normal conversation with him.
"Well," she began, slowly, "I've decided that since I'm apparently going to be here indefinitely," she couldn't stop the sarcasm. "I don't really want to be avoiding you all the time. That would take way too much effort."
And the rest of the truth she would not tell him. Ginny had realised that he did not want to kill her, but she also knew that he was still a Death Eater. He was still using her for some evil purpose of his. But at least it was a purpose of his. Not some Death Eaters. At least, that's what she hoped. Harry's words still rang through her head: he wouldn't have killed Dumbledore.
There were a couple of things that she was now sure about.
And she would give him the benefit of the doubt.
"And you think that talking to me is going to get me to reveal something, is that it?" he drawled, his raised eyebrow was suddenly mocking, all-knowing.
Ginny's eyes snapped to his face again. How had he guessed? Irritation took over as Malfoy smirked when he realised that he'd guessed right, and Ginny realised that he wasn't stupid. He was a slytherin, and he did have half a brain, unfortunately. She should have known.
Ginny relented, since she knew her reaction had given away the truth and there was no way to cover it.
"Well…okay, there's that too." She admitted, running her hand through her read hair. "But, I mean, you're never going to tell me anything on your own, right?" she looked to him for confirmation.
Draco nodded, leaning back in his chair.
"Then how am I supposed to figure anything out?" Ginny sighed, frustrated, looking at her empty plate.
Draco considered her for a moment. With sudden realisation, he said, more to himself than to her, "And you're not going to stop trying, are you?"
"Nope." She said, cheering up as she realised he was catching on. "If you know anything about Weasleys, you should know that we don't give up."
"I can imagine." He said, frowning. In fact, he hadn't considered that. Maybe that explained why her actions always puzzled him.
"But you're also not very cunning." he added, and Ginny felt the heat rise in her face.
"Well, okay, maybe I'm not the best at manipulating people, Malfoy, but I do have another idea."
"And what's that, Weasley?" his eyes watched her with amusement.
"What if…" she stopped, wondering if she should say this or not.
"Go on, Weasley."
"What if I guess things? What if I guess what you're doing? Will you tell me if I'm right?" brown eyes wide with hope.
Draco considered everything. She already thinks that I won't kill her now. Unfortunately I don't have the control that I wanted over her. Would it really be consequential if she knew some things? Nothing would ever be in her power. That was true. He didn't think there was really any way that she could guess the actual truth.
But it might be more fun if he just let her guess.
"Why should I do that?"
Ginny frowned, realising that there wasn't really any reason why he would. Good point.
"Humour me, then." She said dryly.
Draco grinned at that. Ginny wondered why he found this so amusing, but he said nothing.
"Well?" she asked.
"Alright." Draco
"What?" She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Honestly, Malfoy, I wasn't expecting you to say yes."
"Well, I'm sure it'll suffice to amuse me Weasley. For now."
"Right. Figures." But she grinned, and stood up to clean her dishes. She went to the sink and washed her dishes. She would use this to her advantage. Maybe she'll guess the truth from his reactions. With one last glance back at Draco's face, seeing that he was lost in thought with a puzzled look, Ginny left the room.
The first thing he'd thought when he'd seen her that morning was whether or not he'd somehow messed up the potion because she sure as hell had no reason to be cheerful. But then he'd realised the truth. That she was trying to be normal with him and put him off his guard somehow. Obviously the little witch was not very smart. Did she really think I wouldn't see through her?
But now that Draco had agreed to this little game of hers, he couldn't help but think that he shouldn't have. He couldn't see that she would ever guess the truth. He had thought that maybe it would prove to entertain him for a while in this prison of a house; she wasn't the only one who couldn't leave. The enchantments on this place were impenetrable.
But after he'd thought about it some more, Draco wondered what would happened if she did guess correctly, even through the chances of that happening were small.
She had just better not. Draco frowned, lost in thought.
It was with this look on his face, sitting in a chair with his legs propped up, and arms crossed, that Ginny found him later in the day. Little did she know he was inwardly cursing himself for the words he let slip the night before.
She entered the room, and Draco looked up with a bored and expectant look.
Ginny sat down on the same couch that she'd slept on the night before, revelling in the comfort of it. "Malfoy." She said in greeting.
"Weasley. What do you want?"
"Nothing." Her sideways glance at him and mild smirk told him otherwise. She curled up, bringing her knees up to her chest.
Draco stared in silence, annoyed with her presence.
"Alright then." Draco pondered getting up and leaving, but he realised that it didn't really bother him to be in the same room as her when she was not being annoying.
She looked over at him sideways, resting her head on her knees, her red hair flowing around her in waves.
"Why don't you use magic?" she asked him.
Draco frowned. So she didn't want nothing. He had the urge to roll his eyes, but her question stopped him.
"I thought the deal was that you guess, and I tell you how wrong you are." He muttered.
Ginny grinned. "It was worth a shot." But then she acquiesced. "Fine then. I think that you don't use magic because you don't want anything traced back to you."
"Still not a question, Weasley." Was his sharp response to her inquisitive look.
She sighed. "Okay, Malfoy. Is it because you don't want to be traced?"
Draco shrugged in response. She smiled, taking that as a yes.
"Okay, then that means that you must be hiding from somebody." If I am a hostage, then he must be hiding from whoever he's using me as a hostage for.
"And who would that be?" his eyes were suddenly void of all emotion, and his posture slightly defensive; Ginny noticed.
Ginny sighed and turned to face him completely. "Do you want to know what I think?" She really just wanted to get this off her chest.
"No."
"Well, you're going to hear it anyway. I do not think that you are working for the Death Eaters, even though I think you are one." She paused to look at his reaction. His eyes darkened and he stared at her, motionless. Ginny frowned. "I think that you are doing this on your own. And I also think that the only explanation is that I am a hostage."
Draco looked at her for a while, thinking that she was more perceptive than he'd previously thought. She looked at him expectantly. Apparently this was what she really wanted to know. "Alright, Weasley. That part is true. You are a … hostage." He frowned at the word. He had decided that she would probably have to know sooner or later anyway, so what was the harm? The only result might be her misbehaviour, and that he could deal with. "Any idea as to why?" For some reason he found himself to be enjoying this question and answer thing, even if she was getting some of her answers.
Ginny looked away, frowning. "No, not really. I mean, it has to be for people that care about me, like my family or the o-" she stopped. She shouldn't be talking about the Order around him. "Or my friends. Or else, why would you choose me? It can't be for money, because we're not rich like you."
"Obviously."
Ginny glared. "And you have more than enough already."
Draco smirked. It was true. Money was certainly not an issue.
"So you're either trying to lure someone to you, to kill them maybe, or you want to use them for something else."
Draco watched Ginny as she got lost in her own train of thought. He thought maybe she was finished.
"Is that all?" Draco said disinterestedly. Ginny looked up again, her eyes full of a mixture of things; questions, anger, uncertainty, hope. But hell if he could interpret them further than that.
"Why me?" she said again. "Of all people, why me? Is it only because of who I am friends with, or who my family is? Or is it something else?"
"Something else like what?" he asked, truly intrigued at her perceptiveness.
"I don't know." She responded quietly and let out a sigh. "Just something." Her brow creased, and Draco suddenly felt like he needed to say something.
"Weasley?" he said to get her attention. She looked up. "Just so you know, there were a number of factors that singled you out. I doubt you would be able to guess them all." And with that he smirked and watched coolly as Ginny huffed and crossed her arms.
"You are so frustrating, Malfoy." He smirked at her, purely enjoying the redhead's frustration.
After a moment they lapsed into silence.
"Remus, what can we do?"
"I don't know, Arthur. I don't know." Replied the thoughtful voice of the man beside him.
Arthur sighed and leaned back in his armchair. The whole affair with his one and only daughter gone missing felt like it had taken years off his life. When she'd been declared missing from Hogwarts by Minerva, he'd almost had a heart attack. It was enough that so much had already happened to his family, and that Ron had taken off and hadn't been heard from in months, but for his only daughter to go missing? After he'd heard the information, he'd kept a cool head, which surprised some of the order and certainly took a lot of effort on his part, and he'd organized a search party. This was all secretive so far, as it had to be, so it was kept within the Order. When the search had turned up nothing once again, Arthur, under the assumption that she had been kidnapped, had rallied up the Order members for ideas. They had all been off in various directions looking for clues up until last night when Arthur got the owl.
The note, that now resided folded up in his pocket, had been explicit and ruthless, but it was who the letter was from that surprised and angered him more than anything.
It was from Draco Malfoy, and this was quite a mind-bending thought. That boy had almost killed Albus Dumbledore and quite soon afterward had disappeared with the man that actually did. And neither had been seen since.
Draco had been searched for endlessly by the Order at one point, and they had concluded that he was either dead, or in hiding, because they had found no trace of him. But for him to turn up now?
He didn't even know what to think. Arthur shook his head.
Molly was especially upset about it all.
Tonks made her way into the room carrying a tray of tea, which Arthur stood up to take from her, as it looked rather tipsy and it was a common occurrence for her to make an accident out of anything. Arthur set it down and they all took a cup. Tonks sank into the couch beside Remus, who promptly put his arm around her, in comfort. Arthur knew that Tonks really liked Ginny and that they got along well. She had been there to comfort Ginny after Harry, Ron and Hermione had left.
Tonks was as worried as the rest of them.
"Arthur?" said Tonks. "What do you think?"
He pulled out the letter from his pocket, Tonks and Remus hadn't seen it yet. "This is the letter." He passed it to them. "He's made it so that if I write on the back, the ink will disappear, and appear on his end somewhere. Smart method of communication, unfortunately. Oddly reminiscent of that diary, though. It makes me nervous." He sighed. "Do you think it's at all traceable?"
Remus studied it attentively for a minute. "No." he said. "I'm sorry Arthur. This is the same charm that we used as kids to keep in touch during detentions, only it was with mirrors."
"So there's no way to find him from this?" asked Tonks.
"No, I'm afraid not." Replied Arthur wearily.
"So what are you going to tell him?" asked Remus.
"I'm going to tell him that I have some terms that need to be satisfied before anything is done." Arthur took a sip of his tea.
"What specifically?" asked Tonks.
"I need proof that she's alright, that's what. And if the boy's smart, then he'll listen. That way, if he lets me see her, we'll have a better idea of how to resolve this. But, if I have to do what he wants, I will, but you know as well as I do that it sure as hell wont be easy. And I sure as hell don't want to."