APOCALYPSE ROSE CHAPTER 1 FFNET
A/N: First of all, I want to make sure you know that the character death DOESN'T refer to Draco or Ginny. I'm not going to be that mean! 😉 But by the end, this does get dark. A lot of eventual smut, too.
So I know that this is absolutely insanely long, but I blame Ginny for the whole thing. :P Also, there's no way I would have gotten all of this done without being stuck at home for a while. Seriously, though, I've been more inspired while writing this than for any D/G fic in a LONG time.
There are just a couple of specific differences from canon up to the turning point where everything is different (you'll know that when you see it.) Ginny and the DA try to steal the Sword of Gryffindor from Snape's office later than the canon date of Halloween, and Luna is kidnapped later than the canon date of December 20th.
In the books, Draco does go back to Hogwarts for his seventh year; in the films, he doesn't. I've settled on a compromise between the two. While he's at Malfoy Manor during that entire year and doesn't formally attend school, he does go back at very specific times… as Ginny finds out.
September 24, 1997
Two days before the feast of Mabon
The first time Draco Malfoy saved Ginny Weasley, she was sure it was an accident.
It all began behind an abandoned greenhouse at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, fast becoming one of Ginny's favorite hiding places that autumn. She, Colin, and Neville had been discussing a new plan in hushed whispers for over an hour, and she was all too aware that they had probably already stayed too long. An awful feeling of frustration was rising in her chest. They were going round and round, unable to come up with any solution to the problem.
"I just can't believe that there isn't any way to do this," she said flatly.
"I don't know, Gin," said Colin. "Maybe there really isn't. I try to keep hope springing eternal and all, but I'm running out of ideas."
Neville nodded soberly. He was becoming more and more sober and quiet that autumn already, even though the term had barely begun.
She leaned against the battered wooden table shoved up against the greenhouse and looked at them both with a sinking feeling. They'd been trying to figure out if there any way that they could make a herbal Befuddlement preparation that might confuse or sedate the Carrows. The siblings were already teaching horrid things about Muggles in classes, already giving uncooperative students baleful glares from beneath lowered brows, already tapping their wands against their hands as if itching to cast the most painful hexes they could think of. All three of them could see the year shaping up in a very unpleasant way. They'd gone over many possibilities, including salves, teas, infusions, incense burners, and Kneazel bites. The problem was that none of them could see a way to get either of the Carrows anywhere near any preparation they conjured up.
"Maybe some sort of nasty potion?" Colin hazarded a guess.
"We've been over that already." Ginny rubbed her nose, her patience starting to fray. "We can't very well get those two to drink it."
"A potion wouldn't work anyway, unless it was brewed with dark magic," pointed out Neville with a shudder. "That's what I've been trying to explain. Herbs aren't strong enough on their own."
Ginny tried to fight the uncomfortable feeling that this just might be how the entire year was going to go. It would be impossible to oppose the Carrows. You'll never succeed, a tiny voice whispered in her head. Might as well give up right now. She gritted her teeth, determined to ignore it.
"That's right out then," she said. "Unless you know any accursed Dark Arts potions recipes."
"No, and I can't think of anyone who would. Well, except…"
"Except who?" sighed Ginny.
Neville hesitated. "Except Malfoy."
As one, they all shivered. It was as if a cloud had passed over the sun. Draco Malfoy hadn't been seen at Hogwarts since that horrible night in the spring, when he'd let Death Eaters into the school and then disappeared with Snape. That professor had returned as headmaster, but Malfoy had not.
Colin cleared his throat. "Oh, I'm sure we could get him to help us if he ever deigns to shows up at school again. We'll just ask really nicely and bat our eyelashes… okay, that wouldn't help much if I did it. Maybe you could try it, Gin."
Ginny shuddered. "I'd rather hex Malfoy than talk to him if we do see him. And I don't think we would anyway… He's never come back to school at all, has he?"
"No," said Colin. "Well, unless you listen to the gossip that claims Malfoy lurks near all the haunted towers of Hogwarts at three in the morning, kidnapping first years and stealing their souls for some unholy purpose under Voldemort's orders."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Did you make that up?"
"Of course not!" Colin was indignant. "Dennis said he heard it somewhere. Maybe from the giant squid. Anyway, Malfoy obviously has to be doing something for Voldemort, or he would've come back to school like everyone else in the first place."
"Wonder what it is," Neville said quietly.
All three of them flicked glances at each other and fell silent.
"Whatever horrible thing he's doing, I'm sure he's over the moon about it all," Ginny said. She had meant her voice to sound light, but somehow, it did not.
Neville cleared his throat. "I've heard that Malfoy will be back again."
"Great, something else to look forward to," sighed Colin. "Along with a light spot of torture from the Carrows for not agreeing when they say that Muggles are the lowest form of pond scum, we can expect Draco Malfoy to turn up some fine day."
"Colin," Ginny said in a warning tone. His words were just a bit too close to the truth to be passed off as a joke. She turned to Neville. "I don't suppose your gran said when this would happen?"
"She says she doesn't know exactly when, but he'll come back to school at some point. And she's always right,' said Neville. "So I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him."
Ginny shivered, and this time, she could not quite put her finger on the reason why. She shook herself. It was hardly the time to try to untangle her motivations.
"Whatever it is Malfoy's doing, so it doesn't matter right now. What does is that it's really late," she said. "We need to leave."
"Right," said Neville. "One at a time."
Colin left first, then Neville. Ginny knew that she should wait a few minutes at least. She leaned against the table again and looked out over the field, all the way to the little-used tower at the very edge of the forest. She had never seen another student there, but Ginny had marked it as her own special place during her first year. She would walk up the crumbling stairs and sit in the circular room at the top and rest, think, recharge so that she could face the school again with her hard bright surface intact. I wish I had time to go there now, she thought sadly. Perhaps, if she had a chance to lie on the fur rug in front of the fireplace and stare into the dancing flames, she could somehow sort out her jumbled thoughts and emotions. That sinking feeling was starting again, the one that had begun the first day of the autumn term when Snape had stepped forward as headmaster and Alecto Carrow had glowered from the Muggle Studies classroom. It was the same tangled feeling that reminded her of the dark days of the summer after her first year, when she was wounded and afraid and nobody would talk about what had happened to her, nobody wanted to know what Tom Riddle had done to her, how he had violated her mind even though he could not touch her body—
Something rustled from the greenhouse. Ginny blinked, snapped out of the rush of darkening thoughts. She held her breath, but the noise was not repeated. Probably a stray raven fluttering its wings, or maybe a deer on its way back to the forest. After waiting another minute or so, Ginny stepped out of the shadow of the ramshackle greenhouse into the sun. She flicked her eyes from side to side, still far from convinced that the sound she'd heard was an animal or bird. But there was nothing to do but leave; her next Defense against the Dark Arts class started in twenty minutes, and the last thing she wanted to do was to give Amycus Carrow an excuse to pounce on her for being late. She was just about ready to start back towards Gryffindor Tower when the door to the greenhouse swung open. The figure stepped out into the late afternoon sunlight and revealed itself as Alecto Carrow.
Ginny jumped slightly. She couldn't help it. I left it too late, she thought. I knew it. If I hadn't been thinking those things… no, if we hadn't started talking about that—that minion of evil, Draco Malfoy, we all would've left on time. Damn him anyway! Too late for that, I'm sure; he's headed for hellfire if anybody ever was.
The professor of Muggle studies stopped and gave her a long look from under hooded eyelids.
"Miss Weasley," she said, in a low, raspy voice.
"Professor," she croaked through a suddenly dry throat.
"Miss Weasley. Would you mind telling me precisely what you are doing here?" she asked.
Both of the Carrows had apparently decided to copy Snape's speaking style. It seemed to have got him in with Voldemort, after all, and from what Ginny had heard, the siblings were not as confident in their Dark Lord's favor as they would like to be. Alecto had decided to combine the sarcasm and raised eyebrows with Bellatrix Lestrange's cackling voice and sinuous movements, which did not mix well.
"Er… an assignment, that's all," hedged Ginny.
"Oh? Which assignment would that be?"
Ginny thought rapidly. "The Mabon potion."
"Really? How strange, then, that Headmaster Snape just informed me that the potions will be completed after the feast of Mabon," said Alecto. She tapped her wand against the palm of her other hand in a way that was rapidly becoming all too familiar to Ginny. She wasn't sure which sibling was worse, but one thing she could already say for sure was that Alecto liked to cause physical pain more than her brother did. But she was both a professor and the Deputy Headmistress; there was nothing Ginny could do to escape whatever punishment she decided to dole out. Perhaps I could distract her, somehow…
"It's my opinion, Miss Weasley, that you have no valid reason to be here. You're out of bounds," said Alecto. She leaned closer to Ginny, fixing her with a glare from dark eyes. The sun flashed across the reddish hair scraped back from her low, furrowed brow as she lifted the tip of her wand. "And that infraction requires discipline."
Ginny tensed for a harsh Stinging hex, or really, the gods only knew what. The Carrows both seemed to feel as if they had something to prove to Voldemort, and they never missed a chance to demonstrate their devotion, or their willingness to bring Hogwarts students into line with their dark lord's commands and desires. Ginny had already seen far too much of their behavior in that direction, even though less than a full month of the fall term had passed. I won't scream, no matter that woman does, she vowed. I won't make a noise. But she couldn't help glancing away, cowardly as she felt for doing so.
A tall, pale figure rounded the corner, coming from the other side of the greenhouse. The sun was directly behind him, dazzling Ginny's eyes, and for a moment, all she could see was the brilliance of his hair, as if his head was alight with white witchfire. Then he moved out of the sun's rays, and she recognized Draco Malfoy.
Alecto Carrow gave a little jump. "Ah. Malfoy." Her voice sounded flustered for the first time.
He nodded to her slightly, a cold correct motion. "Professor Carrow. May I speak to you for a moment?"
"I am- disciplining a student."
"So I see." His cool grey eyes seemed to take in the entire situation, although Ginny could not have said what he thought about it. There seemed to be no emotion in his expression at all.
"Just a moment, then." Carrow turned back to Ginny, the wand firm in her hand.
"I haven't got a moment," said Malfoy. "I need to speak with you now."
"I need to deal with Miss Weasley first," said Alecto.
"No, you don't," said Draco Malfoy. "This is a great deal more important." He raked Ginny up and down with a dismissive glance, as if to say that he rated her importance very low indeed.
"Ah… all right." Alecto Carrow looked more flustered than ever. Ginny's eyebrows went up. She could just picture the sort of hex she'd get if she tried speaking to the woman with half the arrogance Draco Malfoy was so casually displaying.
They went to the other side of the table and spoke in lowered voices for several minutes. Ginny could catch no more than snatches of the conversation, whatever it was.
"-these blood traitors need to be taught a lesson and put in their place."
"That may well be the case, but he doesn't have any time to waste. His projects must be completed. Would you like me to inform him that you've got in my way and wasted my time?"
Alecto gulped visibly. "No. No, of course not, Malfoy."
He smirked. "Very well, then." Something about the way the corner of his mouth turned up made Ginny think that he was simply having a go at Alecto Carrow, seeing how much nonsense the woman would swallow about his supposed tasks for Voldemort. He's only bluffing, she thought. Spoiled, snotty little prat. Trying to make himself sound more important than he is.
Either way, Ginny debated the wisdom of making a run for it. No. They're both ignoring me now, but if I make a move, they just might remember I'm here. Of course, what happens after they're done talking? Malfoy might just want to get in on whatever the punishment turns out to be…
While she was still arguing with herself, Alecto nodded and turned abruptly to leave. She started back across the field, walking in a chastened way, deflated. However, Draco Malfoy walked to stand directly in front of Ginny, looking down at her. He clearly wasn't going to just leave. Did he expect her to say something? What could she possibly say? She'd be damned if she was going to thank him for keeping Alecto Carrow off her, even though she suspected that might be the wisest thing to do.
He moved to block the sun, turning his hair into a blinding shimmer of platinum even as the light threw his face into shadow again. She couldn't tell if he was still holding that unblinking stare or not.
"I'll think you'd better get to wherever it is you were going, Weasley," he finally said. There was no expression of any kind in his words. Ginny wasn't entirely sure that he would move to let her pass, but he did step aside. The sun flickered across his features, immobile, perfect and still as marble with just a hint of gold.
Two thoughts occupied her mind as she made her way back towards Gryffindor Tower. First of all, Draco Malfoy had spoken to a professor with astonishing, almost insulting familiarity. She herself had no objection to that attitude at all when it came to Alecto Carrow, but she did have to wonder why he'd clearly had no compunction in doing it. And second, his pale skin lost its deathly look when lit by the rays of the sun, and his sharp features were softened into curves that might have been called handsome, if they had belonged to anyone else. She decided to forget that last point as soon as possible.
October 29th, 1997.
Two days before Samhain.
The second time Draco Malfoy saved Ginny Weasley, she could still convince herself that it was an accident, although not as easily as she had done the first time.
She was crouching in front of the student supply cupboard in the corner of the Potions classroom, rifling through bottles and twisted paper spills of powders. Her heart thumped. Even though there wasn't another class for hours, it was incredibly dangerous to be here. Snape had a way of turning up where she and the other members of Dumbledore's Army least expected or wanted him to be, and the potions classroom was a more likely location for this phenomenon than anywhere else in the castle. But she had no choice. Less than half an hour earlier, at the very end of class, Neville had asked Alecto Carrow just how much Muggle blood she actually had. Her eyes had darkened to smoldering coals, and she had hit him with a Slashing hex. A gasp had gone around the room. Even the purebloods whose parents were in with the Death Eaters looked shocked, as if even they had ever expected things to go this far, to see a professor actually hex a student in a classroom. Now they had, and Ginny was afraid this meant they would go further still.
"Mallow root, turmeric, ginger," she muttered, stuffing ingredients into a small basket at her side. "Maritime pine, green tea, oh bother, where's the willow bark… we can't be out of it. Come on, willow bark!" Her feet were itching to leave, but this potion would not work without that final ingredient, she knew. "Aha!" She grabbed a vial of infusion from the back of the shelf with a sigh of relief. But just as she began to get to her feet, the classroom door opened behind her.
It could be anyone, she told herself. Maybe just another student. Yes, that's it. I can brazen it out, pretend I'm just getting an ingredient for myself. When she turned to the door, she saw Amycus Carrow. Her heart gave a wild, uncoordinated leap.
Ginny took deep breaths, trying to tamp down the pounding in her chest. "Professor," she said tightly, moving towards the door, wishing desperately that there were another way out of the room. He stepped into her path, blocking her exit.
"Miss Weasley,' he said, in his most oily voice. "May I ask what you are doing here?"
She thought rapidly. This might be considerably worse than being caught by Snape. The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor loved a spot of light torture as much as his sister did.
"I was, um, just getting ingredients for a potion I need for class," she hedged.
"Then may I ask why you didn't get them during a Potions class? I believe that students are not permitted to access this supply closet after hours."
"Uh… I want to finish the assignment today?" Ginny hated the way that her voice turned up at the end of sentences if she was trying to lie her way out of the situation.
Amycus inclined his head, the faint light flashing across his close-cropped reddish hair. His eyes glittered above his long, narrow nose. Ginny suddenly had a very bad feeling about the way this entire situation was going.
"I think you're not quite being accurate about the reason why you're here, Miss Weasley. You're trying to prepare some sort of Soothing potion for Neville Longbottom, are you not?"
"Yes, Professor," Ginny said tightly. His sister must have filled him in about what had happened, but she couldn't be sure how much he knew. It would be worse to lie about what could be so easily checked.
"But injured students are supposed to go to the infirmary," said Amycus. His thin lips curved up in a nasty smirk. Ginny thought that he knew very well why they hadn't taken her injured friend there. She, Neville, and Luna had discussed the situation in frantic whispers, and they'd decided that it would not be a good idea to send Neville to Madam Pomfrey if it was at all possible to avoid doing so. The infirmarian had already got in trouble more than once for being too outspoken when students came to her with spell damage from the Carrows.
Amycus stepped closer to her. "And this isn't the first time you've got yourself in trouble lately, is it? Seems to me that this is a pattern of misbehavior, Miss Weasley."
Ginny was not sure how to respond to that. He certainly had to know about the time his sister had caught her the month before. They were becoming more and more bold, the Carrows, now that a couple of months of school had gone by and nobody had reined in their teaching style. As with Alecto, Amycus seemed to have a great deal to prove. They had both somehow avoided spending any time in Azkaban, they had spent several years away from Voldemort, and they hadn't flown to his side instantly on his return. Ginny did not know what either or them might do at this point.
"It also seems," Amycus said softly, "that some discipline might be required." His eyes flicked from her face down to her chest.
Ginny's breath stopped. She dug her fingernails into her palms. This was worse than what had happened with Alecto the month before. At least the female Carrow didn't seem to have any interest in ogling her when nobody was looking, which she'd caught Amycus doing more than once. But never as blatantly as now, when the two of them were all alone in a deserted classroom and he was between her and the door. There's nothing to be afraid of, she told herself. Nothing at all. There are bound to be people walking through the dungeons this time of day. They'd hear me if I screamed. An unpleasant thought struck her. How many of them would care, though?
Amycus was reaching for his wand now, his eyes still trained well below her face. "Yes," he said in a near-whisper. "Some sort of punishment will be required, Miss Weasley. I'm afraid that it may need to be rather severe. Of course, if you plead with me nicely, I may be persuaded to be a bit more lenient…uh!" He stumbled forward. Ginny sidestepped him, and he fell into a row of pickled grindylows. He grabbed at the shelf, sprawling ungracefully against the wall. Millicent Bulstrode bounced into the room just behind him.
"Professor Carrow!" she yelled. "I was looking for you! I need help with, um… the, uh…" She tapped her finger against her chin, swinging an elbow and sending Amycus back into the row of glass jars. "Skipping hex!" she finished.
"Ergh-" Amycus fell sideways and collapsed into a chair. She leaned down to him and kept talking in a loud, happy voice.
"It doesn't matter how much I practice, Professor. People just keep jumping up and down, and they can't stop. But they don't skip. Nobody will let me practice on them anymore. I need loads of help!"
"Hard to argue with that," muttered Amycus, struggling to get out of the chair. One leg was wedged behind him.
Millicent looked at Ginny. "Hey, what's she doing here?"
Ginny gave her an uncertain glance. The other girl had been surprisingly pleasant so far that term, but she was still a Slytherin. Would she really stop Amycus Carrow from handing out punishment, or would she just shrug and turn away as soon as he got started? From the way the DADA professor's smirk was creeping back across his face, it seemed that he wasn't very worried about anything Millicent might do.
"I am engaged in student discipline, Miss Bulstrode," he said. "If you wait in the corridor, I will be with you shortly."
Oh gods, thought Ginny, her entire body tensing. I am about to get hexed. And if that's the worse that happens, I'll be lucky. No—I won't let Carrow get away with anything else, no matter what I have to do! Visions of being expelled dancing in her head, she stared at Amycus Carrow's hand moving towards the holster at his belt.
The doorway darkened. A tall, slender figure blotted out the faint light from the torches high on the wall, transferring the glow to a head of brilliant hair. Then the figure stepped forward, and Ginny recognized Draco Malfoy.
"Professor Carrow," he said in the low, drawling voice she remembered all too well.
Prompt #50 by Jaden Malfoy:
Prompt: A post-apocalypse fic! Draco and Ginny are two of the few survivors.
Must Haves: At least one, desperate, "We could die tomorrow so we should make the most of today/tonight" scene.
No-No's: No Trio-Bashing, no Harry/Hermione, no nicknames like Weaselette or Ferret