Through a Long and Sleepless Night - Chapter 8
He was already there when she slowly opened the door to the empty classroom they had been favoring for their meetings.
He seemed withdrawn, with dark circles standing stark against his already pale skin.
Ginny frowned, feeling guilty at the excitement she had walking towards their meeting place. Her brain had been going a mile a minute last night after she woke up from the dream and, in her growing excitement, she had forgotten that it wasn't a dream for him.
She slowly pulled out the chair next to him and gently lowered herself down. He didn't look at her and she realized that he was probably still processing everything. She scooted closer to him, trying to decide if he would appreciate human contact right now. Malfoy wasn't like her, she reminded herself. So although she always liked having some kind of physical contact when she was feeling down, he may not feel the same way.
But she remembered how he reacted to having her arm placed around him and thought to hell with it.
She tilted her head to lean on his shoulder and she could've sworn she heard him sigh at the close contact.
"My offer still stands, you know."
"Not today, Weasley," he whispered so quietly she had to strain to hear his voice. "This is enough." These next words were mumbled and he sighed again, straightening up in his seat so her neck wasn't straining as much.
She nodded and linked an arm with his. When he didn't pull away, she squeezed as hard as she could. She had learned from Hermione that squeezing someone as an act of comfort could help out with the production of something Muggles named sever-tonin? No, that wasn't right. Serotonin? That's what it was! Serotonin. And so, she got in the habit of making sure to give all of her friends and family a squeeze when they were feeling down.
As she loosened her grip, she heard his breathing even out and she smiled. She let her own eyes flutter shut even though she wasn't tired.
She was certain that he would talk when he was ready, but for now she was content with letting him sleep.
The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in their normal meeting spot, with her head resting on his shoulders.
This little fact seemed very incongruous with the sight before him.
He was somehow outside and he was being pulled along by someone. He focused in and was surprised to see that she was the one pulling him along. She was laughing as her hair whipped around behind her, letting him notice how the sun glinted off of the little bits of gold somehow spun into her crimson locks.
He could hear the constant splashing of the lake's shoreline nearby, so he reasoned that he must be on school grounds. This was confirmed when he looked down to see not his now-normal all black, but his actual school uniform. Her cloak trailed behind her when he tilted his head back up, confirming that they were running away from the school for some reason.
When they reached the large oak tree he remembered from their second time finding each other in the dreamworld, she skidded to a halt. She now dragged him toward the trunk, under a shadier area, and away from possibly prying eyes. She pressed herself against it and he could feel her grip his tie before she gave it a gentle yank.
He was so close to her now, to the point where his mind couldn't concentrate on figuring out what was going on because all he could think about was how beautiful she looked as she smiled at him.
She briefly looked around before bringing her attention back to him. Her smile morphed into a smirk as she draped her arms around his neck.
He was moving on sensation and instinctively placed his hands on her hips, letting his thumb caress the area over her skirt.
"I think we're finally alone now, Draco."
As soon as he heard his name, he pressed his lips to hers. He was certain he was dreaming because she had never used his real name before, but he didn't care. She felt perfect. Her soft lips opened so invitingly to him and he let his tongue seek out hers, only to be rewarded with hers darting forward to tangle up with his.
Spurred on by her enthusiasm, he began lowering a hand to trace along the curve of her bum. When he began alternating between rubbing it in slow circles and kneading it, she broke away with a gasp, leaning her head back in enjoyment. He took the opportunity to begin a trail of kisses — starting at her jawline, then down her neck, ending at the little hollow just below her collarbone. He swirled his tongue in that delicious space, wondering if she would make the same breathy moans in real life.
That thought forced him to slow down as he had no idea if the real version of her had actually fallen asleep, much less considered reciprocating anything he was currently dreaming about.
He broke away, chuckling at the adorable frown spreading across her face.
"Is everything okay?" she asked, slowly bringing her hands down.
He grabbed ahold of them before they had fully dropped to her sides. He placed a kiss on one of the palms, then laced his fingers with hers. "Everything's fine, Gin," he replied, reassuring her with a rare grin, enjoying how her nickname felt on his tongue.
She arched an eyebrow in question and he was fascinated by how good she looked with that expression.
"I just thought I heard something and I didn't want to be interrupted."
That answer seemed to satisfy her, causing her to pull him close for a lingering hug. He chuckled once more at the contented sigh she let out and kissed the top of her head.
He held her for a moment, relishing in the comfort her touch provided, before feeling like someone had started jostling him about.
Draco very nearly sprung out of his seat upon waking, leaning forward to the point where he almost hit his head against the desk.
"Is everything okay?"
He placed his palms flat on the table and leaned back, slowly turning to look at the real Ginny. It felt like deja vu hearing her echo the words he had only just heard come from her in his dream. But the real Ginny wasn't giving him one of her wide-eyed little pouts. The real Ginny had her brows furrowed in concern with eyes searching for a sign of discomfort from him.
"I'm sorry for waking you up so abruptly," she continued before he had a chance to reply. "It was getting towards dinner and I know you usually try to leave before then."
Her eyes kept scanning his face for something. She must've found what she was looking for, though, as she let a playful smirk tug at her mouth.
"What?" he asked, praying to whoever would listen that she didn't figure out what he had been dreaming about.
"You had a pleasant dream, didn't you?" She laughed as he started sputtering for an answer that had enough plausible deniability to seem legitimate. "There's no use hiding it, Malfoy. It's really interesting seeing you blush."
"How do you know it was pleasant? I could've been reliving an embarrassing moment."
She scoffed at the suggestion. "If it was embarrassing, you'd probably be sulking more." She tapped a finger against the lips he had kissed in his dreams and it took all of him to not stare. "No, I'm pretty confident in assuming that you had a good dream. Was it about someone?"
Fucking hell. He almost forgot how persistent she could be when she had her mind set on something. He couldn't flat out deny anything because it would only encourage her, especially since it wasn't like this was a sensitive topic for him. Well, it was, he reasoned, but not in the way his memory from last night had been. It was only sensitive in the sense that he did not need her finding out that he dreamt about snogging the ever-loving crap out of her. That little scene would be filed away in one of his brain's many compartments; right next to thoughts about how much he liked hearing her laugh and how good he thought she smelled.
"I can neither confirm nor deny," he replied after clearing his throat.
"Which means it was, so now I'm curious as to who you were dreaming about."
He sighed, wracking his brain for something that would get her to lose interest. It wasn't like he could say, Well, Weasley, remember that promise I made about not trying to get in your pants? It seems that I am now very interested in breaking that promise providing you also feel the same way. Oh, you don't? That's exactly what I thought, too, so why don't we just forget this entire discussion so you can go back to tolerating me and pining after Harry bleeding Potter.
He could feel her eyes trained on him as he thought. Eventually she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, arching her eyebrow like she did in his dream and sweet Merlin. Why wasn't his brain doing its damn job of filing things away where they belonged?
Another sigh and it came to him. It was deceptively simple, but it was vague enough to get the job done.
He smirked; one of his normal, almost omniscient smirks and Ginny took a visible gulp at the expression. It was never a good thing if Malfoy did that. That usually meant he was about to say something she was going to regret asking about later.
"Well, since you seem so intent on knowing about my dream, maybe I should detail how I was in an abandoned classroom — much like this one, I might add — sh —"
She quickly placed a hand over his mouth, her face turning red as she realized how right she was about regretting asking for details. It wasn't that she wasn't used to boys having those kinds of dreams, she just didn't need to hear about them. It was bad enough accidentally hearing Ron mention to Harry that he'd had a very vivid dream about Hermione. She definitely didn't need to know about the kind of weird shit Malfoy might be into.
He almost grinned against her mouth at her admittedly adorable reaction, but she didn't need to know that he was lying. He figured that with the amount of brothers she had, there was an extremely high chance of her hearing about encounters that she'd probably want scrubbed from her memory. And from the look on her face, the odds had been in his favor.
"Ugh, forget I even asked." She shivered as she brought her hand away. "I'll just pretend that you were about to say that you dreamt about snogging a girl," she continued, rubbing her fingers against her temples with her eyes closed.
He allowed himself a smile in that moment; enjoying the irony of her course correcting to what he did actually dream about. But that was for him to know and for her to, realistically, never find out.
Malfoy told her he couldn't make any promises, but he thought he could sneak away at some point during the Christmas holidays.
She was surprised when she didn't feel compelled to tell her family or Tonks or Lupin about Malfoy's memory of Tom forcing him to use the Cruciatus Curse on what had to be other Death Eaters. He had never fully explained the situation yet, but she had at least surmised that Tom had taken over his family's home. She also surmised that he was purposefully avoiding any kind of discussion about what she saw. And although it frustrated her, she kept reminding herself that he would discuss it in time. It was his story to tell, not hers.
It probably would've been a huge help if she had told them, though. It could've probably helped them plan some kind of attack on the seemingly massive manor, but something in her was telling her it wasn't a good idea.
He told her at one point that her trusted her. She had come to trust him, too. If only because there was a chance of him seeing a memory of hers that wasn't of her own volition. That, and, as much as she didn't want to admit it, the annoying prat had gone from being tolerable to somewhat enjoyable to be around.
She didn't know when that switch happened, but a shift had occurred and she had to force herself to not overthink it. Which was very difficult when one considered their situation. She was suddenly very grateful that Harry was off being all noble because she shuddered to think about how he would react.
She couldn't very well say, I know he's been a monumental asshole since you first entered Hogwarts, but it's not like either one of us chose to have this weird dream connection. Besides, Harry, he did promise to stay away from my knickers. I also can't help the fact that he's kind of decent once you get to know him.
Nevermind that Ron would've thrown a daily fit if he found out that not only was his baby sister willingly meeting up with Malfoy, even if it was in the name of science, but that his girlfriend (Ginny hoped) was also willingly taking part in these meetings, too!
She giggled at the thought. Ron would probably whinge about Malfoy forcing the two girls into doing his homework or washing his clothes or some other kind of task because of course they would only be around Malfoy because they were being blackmailed.
It would've been even worse if her brother had said any of those things in front of Malfoy. Ron always walked into a joke and she knew the smarmy blond Slytherin would've made several insinuations about how he was corrupting Ron's sweet baby sister.
Ginny sat up in bed at that last implication. She knew he had made a promise, but why was her brain flirting with the idea of what might happen if he did break that promise?
She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes. She was waiting for Harry. They may be broken up for now, but he told her on his birthday that he wouldn't forget her. Even if she was growing closer to Malfoy, it didn't mean that he was developing any kind of additional attachment to her. Their meetings were simply a means to an end and he'd probably stop associating with her should their connection go away.
Feeling only slightly convinced by that final train of thought, she lowered herself onto her back, remembering that she needed to focus on her theory on the off chance that it worked.
She began slowing down her breathing. In for four, out for four. Then she began to clear her mind, bringing the memory to the forefront and locking it in.
After her third time replaying it, her body relaxed; letting her slip away into the dream.
A/N - Apologies for the delays, but I hope y'all enjoyed the lil crumb in this chapter lol. I do have to state, though, that I plan on slowing down on the updates for this fic. I do have two more chapters written, which will be posted every other week, but I may only be updating this once a month after that. I've been having a tough time actually writing the next things I have planned, so I wanted to let y'all know just in case.
In the meantime, I'm still updating As You Wish and The Laws Have Changed frequently, if you need to get your fix with a different fic lol.
I've also written TWO stories for the Draco x Ginny Discord's 2024 Fic Fest, so definitely be on the look out for those once we start posting later in the summer.
Thank you all for reading!