Draco had it bad. He had spent the better part of his second years focused on a little red headed witch with second hand robes and childish braids. She was a little bit of nothing, still there was something intriguing about her. Almost as if behind the dirt on her innocent face lurked something sinister. For nearly eight months he had watched her and could find no answer to the questions she presented.
He had been toying with the idea of what it would be like to kiss her since he first saw her standing in Perfect Potter’s wake and with the recent decision to take action he set about learning her routine. He had not been as successful as he would have hoped to be, there were hours unaccounted for that not even his best spells could shed light on, but he knew enough to know that she would be passing by this very stairwell in less then ten minuets.
He tended to be fascinated with things he could not understand so it didn’t overly surprise him that he was fixated on her. But that did not mean that he enjoyed it and so he planned on ending it the only way he knew how: by getting her alone and questioning her until she told him what he wanted. And to do that he had to catch her unaware.
Draco stood in the shadows and waited. It was the fifth time this week that he had done so and he was determined that this time he would succeed. Yesterday she had been surrounded by a group of giggling girls but he was sure today that would not be the case, even though there was no reason for him to think this other than his own unswerving belief that when he wanted something bad enough the world obliged.
He stiffened as he heard footsteps and groaned as the sounds veered off to the left. He was not patient by nature and the last week had been trying. He didn’t get everything that he wanted, but he got enough for him to expect things to just drop into his lap. It had always been the case that as soon as his Mother or Father knew what he desired what he wanted wrapped in a bow and presented to him.
Ginny Weasley was not one of those things. If she had been he would not be cooling his heals in a remote hallway in hopes of catching her on her own. Unlike most of the girls in his house, she was immune to his money. She didn’t seem to find him the slightest bit interesting the few times he had tried to catch her attention. Not even when he smiled at her.
Instead of batting her eyelashes at him when she noticed his stare she would smirk as if she knew all his secrets. Each of the three previous times he had tried to talk to her she had gone all funny. Her tone had lowered to a harsh whisper and she would say the oddest things. Then she would laugh and wander away before he could think to reply.
But tonight it would be different. Tonight he would have her to himself and all her cryptic signals would be explained.
He heard footsteps again and knew they were hers. He smiled to himself before shooting his hand into the open and dragging her back with it into the shadows. He pulled her close to him. He looked into her startled brown eyes tried not to show how nervous he was. Before she could stop him his mouth was on hers.
~}~}@
Ginny felt the heat coming off of the boy’s body and rational thought slammed back into her brain. Dear God! She thought to herself as she scrambled to break the stranger’s embrace. One minute she had been studying diligently in her room and the next she was in a vaguely familiar hallway being snogged senseless by… well she wasn’t all to sure whom.
She felt his arms loosen and jerked away from him. The lighting was so poor that she still could not make out his face. Ginny thought about leaving it well enough alone, just walking away and letting this become another foggy memory, but something inside her refused. Instead she whipped out her wand and said ‘lumos’ with a less than confident air. She was rewarded with a string of curses as the small but powerful beam of light temporally blinded her assailant. She bit her lip in confusion as his identify was revealed.
She was thrown off balance at the sight of him. She had thought it was Neville again and had been ready to give him a good set down, but talking to Neville would have been a hundred times easier then talking to the boy in front of her. She had to collect herself, had to make sense of what was happening to her and decided in that moment that sarcasm would be as good a defense as any.
“Draco bloody Malfoy? You have got to be joking.” She lowered her wand and snickered softly. “Did you mistake me for someone else then?”
“Pardon?” Draco quickly recovered and hid his embarrassment by straightening his robes.
“I was just wondering why a paragon of pureblood virtues such as yourself would ruin his track record by kissing a Weasley.”
And then she knew. Ginny thought of all the reasons the son of the man who introduced her to Tom might have for kissing her and shuddered. She lowered her eyes in fear to study her nails, desperately hoping to maintain her nonchalant facade.
Draco saw the fear flash in her eyes and pondered what it could mean. Was she afraid of him after only one kiss? He bit out another curse then shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from grabbing her and finding out. He looked her up and down sneering to cover his uncertainty.
“Incapable of speech Malfoy? What a shame.”
His eyes flew to her face in astonishment at the causal mocking in her tone. He stared at her for a long moment while he frantically tried to think of a witty comeback.
“Well if all you are going to do is leer at me then I had best be on my way. I am sure I had a very good reason for being down here so if you will just excuse me.”
She made as if to push past him and Draco reacted without thought. He caught her arm and pulled her back to him. His other arm circled her waist and he watched her eyes darken. His breath hitched and he leaned in as if to kiss her again.
“What you want belongs to another.”
He pulled back to arm length from her and studied the madness in her eyes. She had said the words with no whisper to mask the harsh sound of it. Her head lolled to one side and the vacant expression on her face made his heart race.
“You know nothing of my wants.” He meant it to sound authoritative but it came out squeaky instead. The girl in his arms laughed wildly and focused her haunted gazed on him.
“I know more about you than you think child. I can feel your lust through your hands and see your desire in your eyes. But she is not for you. This body has been marked mine and you have not the power to take it from me.”
Draco did not know who was speaking but it was not her.
“I want her.” He said forcefully. “What I want I get. I’ll make her mine.” He emphasized his words with a sharp shake. Half way through it he felt her body relax and knew that the spirit which possessed her had left.
“Blessed hell!” Ginny shoved Draco away and shook her head in disgust. “What is it with boys? One minuet I am little old Ginny Weasley barely noticed and happy that way and the next I have boy after boy dragging me into dark corners to paw at me.” She glared at Draco and crossed her arms protectively in front of her chest.
“Which other boys have been kissing you?”
Ginny felt herself flinch away from his question. His words too closely mirrored the ones that Tom had so softly asked after she dutifully reported her first kiss. It was fear of him that had her rubbing her arms as if cold.
Draco saw her withdraw deep inside herself and puzzled over what could have made her do so. He cupped her chin and raised her frighten eyes to his own. He watched as the panic in them turned to anger and smiled for the first time that day. His grip tightened as he leaned close to whisper in her ear.
“Some day you will be mine, Ginny.” He pulled back to gage her reaction. Whatever he was expecting it was not the carefree laughter that filled the empty hall.
“Yours? Don’t be absurd. You should know better than others who I belong to.” She placed a mocking smile on her lips before saying “Should I tell you what I told Neville? Would it help if I said I loved someone else?”
“Hero worship does not equate love.”
“Are all you boys so very clueless? I don’t love Harry. I don’t even like him. Before you bring up that singing Valentine why don’t you try and think of why I might be so obvious about my crush.” He blinked at her. She shook her head. “I’m a good girl now and do what I am told.”
Draco just looked at her. He had no idea what she was alluding to. He had seen nothing but the surface of her actions while he watched her and had never taken the time to see if the girl was anything other than she appeared to be.
“Even you cannot be that dense Malfoy. You just talked to him. Remember now?”
“You are in love with the spirit possessing you?”
“Wrong again.” Ginny sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair. “I never said I loved him. I said I belong to him. I may not be a willing participant in the game, but then very few of the players are.”
“That sounds suspiciously like Death Eater talk Ginny.”
“You are even farther out of the loop than I thought. Do you even know who Tom Marvolo Riddle is? Or is that classified knowledge that junior Death Eaters don’t learn till they receive their mark?” Her lips twisted into a sardonic smile. “Hell, if I was Voldemort that’s how I would run things. Wouldn’t want my questionable past to be known by my followers until it was too late for them to change their mind.”
Draco did not want to admit that he did not understand half of the things she was talking about and so he decided to go with the typical route. He would sneer at her and demand proof before talking to her about things that good little witches should know nothing about. He opened his mouth to do just that but she cut him off with a wave of her hand.
“Don’t try it Malfoy. I know ten times more than you do. I have an inside connection. I don’t think that your Daddy realized how very talkative Mr. Riddle is. For the first few months he only told me what I wanted to hear but since December he hasn’t so much as stopped for breath. But then I guess he doesn’t need to does he.” She said, once again hiding her fear behind her sardonic words. Still the bitterness in them was undeniable.
Draco narrowed his eyes at her before grabbing her left arm tightly. She winced as he pushed up her sleeve and examine her arm. He peered at the smooth white flesh and felt relief bubble through him when no sign of the dark mark or a spell to hide could be seen. When he ran his hand down the length of it she laughed again.
“Better wizards than you have been fooled by that arm.”
She shook free from his grasp and tugged her wand from her pocket. She pointed it at her bare arm and slowly peeled away layer after layer of the complex glamour spells that Tom had taught her. When she was done it looked like someone had traced the outline of the dark mark into her skin with a blunt quill. The lines were thick but blurry and the greenish black ink shimmered with magic.
“What the hell is that?” Draco said before he thought better of it. “I mean, everyone knows what the dark mark is meant to look like and it isn’t that!”
“Everyone you say? I had no idea what one looked like until Tom showed me.” Her eyes locked with his for a second then she lowered her head again and ran a finger along the pattern on her arm. “Besides, I did not accept the mark willingly. He placed it on me. The more I used the book the darker it got. When I finally understood what was going on I tossed the thrice damned thing into the loo. But Harry couldn’t leave well enough alone now could he. Prat.”
Draco choked on his laughter and ended up sputtering indignantly. Ginny huffed then thought better of being angry and joined him in his mirth.
“I guess when you think about it it is pretty amusing. I don’t even want to know why he was in the girls loo to start with.”
“I think I love you,” he laughed.
He knew it was the wrong thing to say the second it left his mouth. He saw her bristle, the companionship of the last few minuets a thing of the past.
“Don’t be a fool Malfoy. I told you I belong to him and his plans for me don’t involve being alive to see the next term.”
She pointed her wand at her arm again and murmured something to soft for him to hear. Within seconds her arm was flawless and she rolled her sleeve back down. She stepped away from him and shivered slightly.
“I won’t pretend like I know what is going on with you Ginny. I am not your friend and I don’t have any advice, but if you make it to next year I might like to become one. Remember that.” He reached out and touched her face.
She frowned up at him. She hesitated a moment then darted in and pecked his cheek. She pulled back before he fully realized what she had done. Then she was gone.
~}~}~@
Draco slumped against the wall staring at the spot she had stood in only moments before. He was a smart boy and smart boys could admit when they were wrong. He should never have taken the next step. He should have let his desire to understand her go unfulfilled, just let her remain a mystery. But he hadn’t and now he was even more tangled in the web that was Ginny Weasley.
He had been toying with the idea of what it would be like to kiss her since he first saw her standing in Perfect Potter’s wake and with the recent decision to take action he set about learning her routine. He had not been as successful as he would have hoped to be, there were hours unaccounted for that not even his best spells could shed light on, but he knew enough to know that she would be passing by this very stairwell in less then ten minuets.
He tended to be fascinated with things he could not understand so it didn’t overly surprise him that he was fixated on her. But that did not mean that he enjoyed it and so he planned on ending it the only way he knew how: by getting her alone and questioning her until she told him what he wanted. And to do that he had to catch her unaware.
Draco stood in the shadows and waited. It was the fifth time this week that he had done so and he was determined that this time he would succeed. Yesterday she had been surrounded by a group of giggling girls but he was sure today that would not be the case, even though there was no reason for him to think this other than his own unswerving belief that when he wanted something bad enough the world obliged.
He stiffened as he heard footsteps and groaned as the sounds veered off to the left. He was not patient by nature and the last week had been trying. He didn’t get everything that he wanted, but he got enough for him to expect things to just drop into his lap. It had always been the case that as soon as his Mother or Father knew what he desired what he wanted wrapped in a bow and presented to him.
Ginny Weasley was not one of those things. If she had been he would not be cooling his heals in a remote hallway in hopes of catching her on her own. Unlike most of the girls in his house, she was immune to his money. She didn’t seem to find him the slightest bit interesting the few times he had tried to catch her attention. Not even when he smiled at her.
Instead of batting her eyelashes at him when she noticed his stare she would smirk as if she knew all his secrets. Each of the three previous times he had tried to talk to her she had gone all funny. Her tone had lowered to a harsh whisper and she would say the oddest things. Then she would laugh and wander away before he could think to reply.
But tonight it would be different. Tonight he would have her to himself and all her cryptic signals would be explained.
He heard footsteps again and knew they were hers. He smiled to himself before shooting his hand into the open and dragging her back with it into the shadows. He pulled her close to him. He looked into her startled brown eyes tried not to show how nervous he was. Before she could stop him his mouth was on hers.
~}~}@
Ginny felt the heat coming off of the boy’s body and rational thought slammed back into her brain. Dear God! She thought to herself as she scrambled to break the stranger’s embrace. One minute she had been studying diligently in her room and the next she was in a vaguely familiar hallway being snogged senseless by… well she wasn’t all to sure whom.
She felt his arms loosen and jerked away from him. The lighting was so poor that she still could not make out his face. Ginny thought about leaving it well enough alone, just walking away and letting this become another foggy memory, but something inside her refused. Instead she whipped out her wand and said ‘lumos’ with a less than confident air. She was rewarded with a string of curses as the small but powerful beam of light temporally blinded her assailant. She bit her lip in confusion as his identify was revealed.
She was thrown off balance at the sight of him. She had thought it was Neville again and had been ready to give him a good set down, but talking to Neville would have been a hundred times easier then talking to the boy in front of her. She had to collect herself, had to make sense of what was happening to her and decided in that moment that sarcasm would be as good a defense as any.
“Draco bloody Malfoy? You have got to be joking.” She lowered her wand and snickered softly. “Did you mistake me for someone else then?”
“Pardon?” Draco quickly recovered and hid his embarrassment by straightening his robes.
“I was just wondering why a paragon of pureblood virtues such as yourself would ruin his track record by kissing a Weasley.”
And then she knew. Ginny thought of all the reasons the son of the man who introduced her to Tom might have for kissing her and shuddered. She lowered her eyes in fear to study her nails, desperately hoping to maintain her nonchalant facade.
Draco saw the fear flash in her eyes and pondered what it could mean. Was she afraid of him after only one kiss? He bit out another curse then shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from grabbing her and finding out. He looked her up and down sneering to cover his uncertainty.
“Incapable of speech Malfoy? What a shame.”
His eyes flew to her face in astonishment at the causal mocking in her tone. He stared at her for a long moment while he frantically tried to think of a witty comeback.
“Well if all you are going to do is leer at me then I had best be on my way. I am sure I had a very good reason for being down here so if you will just excuse me.”
She made as if to push past him and Draco reacted without thought. He caught her arm and pulled her back to him. His other arm circled her waist and he watched her eyes darken. His breath hitched and he leaned in as if to kiss her again.
“What you want belongs to another.”
He pulled back to arm length from her and studied the madness in her eyes. She had said the words with no whisper to mask the harsh sound of it. Her head lolled to one side and the vacant expression on her face made his heart race.
“You know nothing of my wants.” He meant it to sound authoritative but it came out squeaky instead. The girl in his arms laughed wildly and focused her haunted gazed on him.
“I know more about you than you think child. I can feel your lust through your hands and see your desire in your eyes. But she is not for you. This body has been marked mine and you have not the power to take it from me.”
Draco did not know who was speaking but it was not her.
“I want her.” He said forcefully. “What I want I get. I’ll make her mine.” He emphasized his words with a sharp shake. Half way through it he felt her body relax and knew that the spirit which possessed her had left.
“Blessed hell!” Ginny shoved Draco away and shook her head in disgust. “What is it with boys? One minuet I am little old Ginny Weasley barely noticed and happy that way and the next I have boy after boy dragging me into dark corners to paw at me.” She glared at Draco and crossed her arms protectively in front of her chest.
“Which other boys have been kissing you?”
Ginny felt herself flinch away from his question. His words too closely mirrored the ones that Tom had so softly asked after she dutifully reported her first kiss. It was fear of him that had her rubbing her arms as if cold.
Draco saw her withdraw deep inside herself and puzzled over what could have made her do so. He cupped her chin and raised her frighten eyes to his own. He watched as the panic in them turned to anger and smiled for the first time that day. His grip tightened as he leaned close to whisper in her ear.
“Some day you will be mine, Ginny.” He pulled back to gage her reaction. Whatever he was expecting it was not the carefree laughter that filled the empty hall.
“Yours? Don’t be absurd. You should know better than others who I belong to.” She placed a mocking smile on her lips before saying “Should I tell you what I told Neville? Would it help if I said I loved someone else?”
“Hero worship does not equate love.”
“Are all you boys so very clueless? I don’t love Harry. I don’t even like him. Before you bring up that singing Valentine why don’t you try and think of why I might be so obvious about my crush.” He blinked at her. She shook her head. “I’m a good girl now and do what I am told.”
Draco just looked at her. He had no idea what she was alluding to. He had seen nothing but the surface of her actions while he watched her and had never taken the time to see if the girl was anything other than she appeared to be.
“Even you cannot be that dense Malfoy. You just talked to him. Remember now?”
“You are in love with the spirit possessing you?”
“Wrong again.” Ginny sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair. “I never said I loved him. I said I belong to him. I may not be a willing participant in the game, but then very few of the players are.”
“That sounds suspiciously like Death Eater talk Ginny.”
“You are even farther out of the loop than I thought. Do you even know who Tom Marvolo Riddle is? Or is that classified knowledge that junior Death Eaters don’t learn till they receive their mark?” Her lips twisted into a sardonic smile. “Hell, if I was Voldemort that’s how I would run things. Wouldn’t want my questionable past to be known by my followers until it was too late for them to change their mind.”
Draco did not want to admit that he did not understand half of the things she was talking about and so he decided to go with the typical route. He would sneer at her and demand proof before talking to her about things that good little witches should know nothing about. He opened his mouth to do just that but she cut him off with a wave of her hand.
“Don’t try it Malfoy. I know ten times more than you do. I have an inside connection. I don’t think that your Daddy realized how very talkative Mr. Riddle is. For the first few months he only told me what I wanted to hear but since December he hasn’t so much as stopped for breath. But then I guess he doesn’t need to does he.” She said, once again hiding her fear behind her sardonic words. Still the bitterness in them was undeniable.
Draco narrowed his eyes at her before grabbing her left arm tightly. She winced as he pushed up her sleeve and examine her arm. He peered at the smooth white flesh and felt relief bubble through him when no sign of the dark mark or a spell to hide could be seen. When he ran his hand down the length of it she laughed again.
“Better wizards than you have been fooled by that arm.”
She shook free from his grasp and tugged her wand from her pocket. She pointed it at her bare arm and slowly peeled away layer after layer of the complex glamour spells that Tom had taught her. When she was done it looked like someone had traced the outline of the dark mark into her skin with a blunt quill. The lines were thick but blurry and the greenish black ink shimmered with magic.
“What the hell is that?” Draco said before he thought better of it. “I mean, everyone knows what the dark mark is meant to look like and it isn’t that!”
“Everyone you say? I had no idea what one looked like until Tom showed me.” Her eyes locked with his for a second then she lowered her head again and ran a finger along the pattern on her arm. “Besides, I did not accept the mark willingly. He placed it on me. The more I used the book the darker it got. When I finally understood what was going on I tossed the thrice damned thing into the loo. But Harry couldn’t leave well enough alone now could he. Prat.”
Draco choked on his laughter and ended up sputtering indignantly. Ginny huffed then thought better of being angry and joined him in his mirth.
“I guess when you think about it it is pretty amusing. I don’t even want to know why he was in the girls loo to start with.”
“I think I love you,” he laughed.
He knew it was the wrong thing to say the second it left his mouth. He saw her bristle, the companionship of the last few minuets a thing of the past.
“Don’t be a fool Malfoy. I told you I belong to him and his plans for me don’t involve being alive to see the next term.”
She pointed her wand at her arm again and murmured something to soft for him to hear. Within seconds her arm was flawless and she rolled her sleeve back down. She stepped away from him and shivered slightly.
“I won’t pretend like I know what is going on with you Ginny. I am not your friend and I don’t have any advice, but if you make it to next year I might like to become one. Remember that.” He reached out and touched her face.
She frowned up at him. She hesitated a moment then darted in and pecked his cheek. She pulled back before he fully realized what she had done. Then she was gone.
~}~}~@
Draco slumped against the wall staring at the spot she had stood in only moments before. He was a smart boy and smart boys could admit when they were wrong. He should never have taken the next step. He should have let his desire to understand her go unfulfilled, just let her remain a mystery. But he hadn’t and now he was even more tangled in the web that was Ginny Weasley.
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