Getting Personal

CHAPTER 5

Ginny climbed slowly through the portrait hole. Sure enough, she spotted Ron, Harry, and Hermione sitting in front of the fire. Determinedly, she marched across the room and sat down in front of them. They all grew silent and looked at her. "Look," she said, taking a deep breath, "I know you two are mad at me-"

"Tuh!" Ron interrupted.

"But I need to talk to you. All of you."

She told them her conversation with Draco. "It's what Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat were talking about, Harry."

Before he or Ron could speak Hermione opened her mouth. "She's right Harry."

"Right," Ron snorted. "Malfoy wants to help Harry kill You Know Who?"

"No," Ginny shook her head. "I don't think he wants to. I think he knows that he has to."

"I think you may be right," Ron said, leaning back in his chair. "Malfoy does have her under the controlling curse."

"Like he would even know it," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"His father probably taught him," Ron scathed.

"Really, Ron," she shook her head.

Ginny glanced back at Harry. "Will you at least talk to him about it? He said that the end was coming soon."

Harry sighed. "Every time Voldemort has gotten near me he probably thought the end was coming, for me at least."

She nodded. "That's true. But Harry, you know what Dumbledore's been saying about-"

"I'll think about it," he interrupted. "I'm tired." He stood up and shuffled towards the stairs. "Goodnight."

"Good job, Ginny," Ron hissed.

"Oh stop," Hermione shook her head as Ginny climbed into Harry's warm chair. "He knows the truth."

Ron threw Hermione an angry look and climbed the stairs after Harry.

"Sorry," Ginny muttered. "I didn't mean to make them mad."

"Oh, you didn't. Well, at least not Harry. He's mentioned it a time or two."

"Really?"

"Uh huh. I think the very idea of him having to trust Malfoy that much scares him."

Ginny nodded.

"So how was it?"

"What?"

"Your night. I notice you're in late."

Ginny cracked a smile. "It was very nice, actually. We didn't hear the clock though, and Snape had to send us to bed."

Hermione cringed and Ginny chucked.

"It wasn't that bad. All we did was sit and talk, mostly about that stuff. That's what we were doing when Snape found us."

"I guess I'll go to bed too," Hermione said finally.

The common room was nearly empty. "Wait. I have a question?"

"Yeah?" Hermione turned to face Ginny.

"Did you kiss Ron?"

"Ginny!" Hermione began to blush.

"Well?"

"If you must know, yes."

Ginny smiled. "It's about time."

Ginny remained downstairs, staring into the fire, her mind pouring over thoughts of Draco. She liked him and that scared her. Being vulnerable, especially to someone like Draco Malfoy scared her a lot. She dozed several time in the large squishy chair that was so comfortably warm before finally forcing herself out of the chair. That's when the portrait opened.

Ginny looked up in surprise, unable to figure who would be coming in so late.

Draco Malfoy stood on the other side of the hole, wearing red flannel pants and a thin t-shirt. "Hi," he said.

Ginny looked back at her chair and then pinched her arm. "Ouch!"

"What are you doing?" he asked, climbing through the hole and looking around.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, rubbing her arm.

"I couldn't sleep," he shrugged. "So I came to see you."

"How did you know the password?"

He chuckled. "I don't know if I did or not. That lady is so drunk, she'd probably let anyone in."

"You can't stay in here. Someone will see you."

"So I came all the way over here for nothing?" he pouted.

Ginny shook her head. "I can't believe you're in here. It's probably 2 in the morning."

"Pretty close." He stepped closer to her and circled his arms around her waist. "I need a proper goodnight kiss."

When they parted, Ginny looked at him and took a deep breath. "We can't stay down here."

"Okay," he shrugged, surprising himself for giving up so easily. He suddenly felt like he couldn't just use Ginny the way he had tried to convince himself.

"No, come here." She led him to a winding set of stairs. "Hang on. There's a trick to this." She tapped the wall with her wand, carefully selecting four bricks.

"What are you doing?"

"If you try to come up these it will turn into a slide. Ron found that out for us."

"Your brother tried to come into the girl's dorm?" he asked, interested.

"It was during the day," she rolled her eyes.

She led Draco up the staircase to her dorm room which was second from the top. The room was quiet, with only the sound of steady breathing filling the air. "Get in there," she commanded, pointing to her bed.

Draco looked at her with interest in his eyes and did as he was told. Quickly she pulled the curtains around him and then changed carefully into her nightshirt. She climbed into the bed and pulled out her wand. "So that no one gets curious." She performed a simple sticking charm on her curtains and then slowly lay down beside Draco.

"How many other people have you done this for?" he asked, his silky voice laced with the barest suggestion of reproach, the tiniest hint of anger.

"None. You're the," she stopped and sat up. "You're the first. You should probably go."

"Hey," he pulled her towards him as she reached for the curtain. "It was just a question."

Ginny stared at him, unwilling to let him get off that easy. "What's going on?"

"Nothing is going on. Right now, I just want to kiss you. Right here."

Her breath stopped in her throat as he crawled across the bed towards her. His hair was falling carelessly down towards his eyes, his lower lip called for her, sticking out in a rather pouty manner, and so Ginny reached out her hands, cradled his face, and decided to taste his lip.

Does this make me a whore? Am I like Pansy? What if we get caught? What will Ron say? I am so stupid. And then Draco's lips moved from her mouth to her ear and then to her neck, and his hands left her shoulders and slid down her arms. This feels really, really good.

"You have to go," Ginny murmured sleepily, hours later. "You can't be in here when everyone gets up."

"I will," Draco mumbled, shifting so that his face resting in the crook of Ginny's neck. "Ginny?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you a virgin?"

Ginny's eyes opened. Was that what this was all about? But if Draco simply wanted to get under her robes, there were probably less time consuming ways to do so. She stared at the dark red curtain that fell around them. What if someone opened this right now and found the two of them nearly asleep and mostly naked? "Yeah, I am."

"Okay." He returned to kissing her back over and over.

What about you? she wanted to say. Are you a virgin? But she remained silent, not quiet sure she wanted to know the answer to the question. She scooted up to her headboard and picked up her watch. "It's almost 6. The professors will be up soon."

"No they won't," he argued. "We were all up late last night. Everyone is going to sleep in."

She giggled. "You really have to go."

"But I don't want to."

"I don't want you to either, but you have to."

He rose up until he was on his knees and pulled her to him. "One more kiss." He held her tightly, and although Ginny assumed she would be uncomfortable, with her bare chest sandwiched against his, she wasn't. Draco reached blindly beside him and began to pull on his night shirt. "I don't think my shirt had buttons."

Ginny leaned closer. "Nope. That's mine."

"Who cares?" he shrugged.

She felt a secret thrill seeing him in her too big flannel shirt. She pulled on his t-shirt and tugged a pair of jogging pants under them. The shirt smelled like Draco, not just like his cologne, but like his skin and hair and warm breath. She walked with Draco down the steps and blew him a kiss at the portrait hole, then scurried back to her bed, petrified at the thought of being caught.

CHAPTER 6

"Ginny!"

Ginny smiled slightly, admiring Draco's bare flesh.

"It's after 3!"

She rolled over, and found to her dismay that it wasn't Draco beneath her, but her bed. Ugh. Only a dream.

"Ginny, are you okay?"

"Huh?" Ginny reached up to rub her eyes, looked down and saw that she was wearing a gray t-shirt; a gray t-shirt that smelled very much like her date. Good. So only part of it had been a dream.

"Ginny!"

Ginny rolled to the side and saw Hermione staring at her. "Are you okay? I thought you were sick. It's 3:30."

"Really?" She sat up and yawned, and Hermione suddenly gasped.

"You are so busted!"

Ginny's eyes quickly darted around the bed, looking for evidence, but she saw none. "What?"

Hermione jumped onto the bed and pulled the curtains shut. "Your neck."

Ginny scooted towards the foot of her bed, dug around in her trunk and came up with a small mirror. On her neck were half a dozen large purple and blue hickeys. "Oh. That's bad."

"You didn't have those last night."

"Yes I did."

"Ginny Weasley, you did not!"

"Shhh," she hissed. "Someone is going to hear you!"

"Sorry." Hermione looked around, pulled out her wand, and quickly said a silencing spell. "There."

"That's it?" Ginny asked.

"What?"

"Now no one can hear us?"

"Right."

That's good to know. "Can you help me cover these?" she pleaded. "Ron will go ballistic."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and smiled. "First, I want to hear the details."

"That's evil," she pouted.

"Fine. You explain to your brother and your housemates and your teachers how you left the dance just fine and woke up looking like a Blast Ended Skwert had got the best of you."

Ginny groaned and flopped back down. "I was just about to go to bed when he showed up."

"Who?"

"Draco."

"Where?"
"In the common room."

"But how-"

"Okay," Ginny interrupted. "Let me tell you and then you can ask questions."

"Right. Sorry."

"No one was in there, and I was literally heading for the stairs when the portrait opened, and there he was, just standing there. I asked him what he was doing and he said he wanted a proper goodnight kiss. So I asked him how he knew the password, and he said he wasn't sure if he did, but the Fat Lady was drunk, so it was easy to get in." Ginny decided to leave her story at that.

"You got all those hickeys from a proper kiss goodnight in the common room?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

"Well, yeah. I mean we were alone."

Hermione reached up and tugged the curtains on the left side of Ginny's bed. "Then why in the world would your curtains be charmed shut?"

Ginny let an audible groan escape. Only Hermione would think to check such a thing. "Okay. Fine. I did let him up here. But we didn't do anything terrible. I mean, we weren't naked!" At least not totally naked.

"Weren't you afraid of getting caught?" she hissed.

"Well, no. I mean, people aren't exactly looking for Draco Malfoy to be in my bed, you know."

Hermione shook her head. "As a Prefect, I should not let this go unnoticed, but as your friend, I will. I think being your friend comes first."

Ginny could barely keep herself from rolling her eyes. Hermione was becoming more like Percy every day. "Now will you help me cover these?"

She pulled out her wand again. "Only if you promise not to do this ever again!"

"Hermione! I will not promise that. You said you'd help me if I told you, and I did!"

"Fine. I think the covering spell will work well for this."

"How long will it last?" Ginny asked, gathering up her hair.

"It's pretty strong. About two weeks." She muttered several words, flicked her wand once, and Ginny felt a tingling spread across her neck.

"Thanks." She looked and the mirror, and to her relief, saw nothing.

"You know," Hermione said quietly. "If you allow him up here again, things that are horrible could very well happen."

"I'm beginning to think they wouldn't be all that horrible," Ginny replied cheerfully before jumping out of bed.

***

"I've already got an owl from my father," Draco told her in the library. "He's a bit upset that I took you to the dance."

Ginny nodded and peaked up over her stack of books to make sure Madam Pince wasn't watching. "My parents would be too, I suppose. Why did you tell him?"

"I didn't. Probably Pansy." His lips curled into a sneer. "She's rather angry that I didn't take her to the dance."

Ginny nodded thoughtfully. That explained a lot of things. The holidays had been in full effect for a week now, and this was the first day she had spent time alone with Draco and he was still as confusing as could be.

"So I think it would be best if we didn't see each other anymore." His eyes were cold again, the way they were whenever he saw Harry or Ron.

"What?" she asked, positive she had misunderstood.

"I mean, it's been fun, really. I had a good time. But obviously our lives are going in two different directions."

Ginny stared at him silently, wondering if this was the same person who had sworn a week ago that he wasn't going to be like his father.

"So I'll see you around, Weasley."

With that he stood up, gathered his books and left the library, and Ginny remained still, unsure what had just happened.

Two days before classes started again, one day before the few students who had left Hogwarts for the holidays would be back, Hermione opened her copy of the Daily Prophet at the breakfast table and let out a scream.

"What?" Ginny looked over while Ron and Harry leaned across the table.

"Oh no, no," she gasped. "Listen." By then, the Great Hall had fallen silent and all the students were hanging onto her words. "There was an attack yesterday evening in Diagon Alley, believed to be headed by You Know Who's Death Eaters, and aimed at any Muggle born witch or wizard. Several witches and wizards were injured and three were killed. The attack went awry when the wife of a known Death Eater, Martha Crabbe, apparently tried to stop the attack, resulting in her death, the death of her son Vincent Crabbe, and Philip Poddington, current employee of the month at Frances's Fine Frocks." Hermione's voice trailed off, and in the silence, Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"Now that you all know," he began, surveying them over his glasses, "I will remind you again that it is more important now than it ever has been for us to unite within. We will not be strong if we cannot do so. Now, may we have a moment of peace for our fellow student."

While the heads around her bowed, Ginny's eyes darted towards the empty seat on the left side of Draco. He stared determinedly at his cup.

"I can't believe this," Ron said as they headed towards the common room. "I mean, even a Death Eater wouldn't kill his own son, would he?"

"Apparently so," Harry sighed.

"This just goes to show you what kind of people they are," Hermione began, and then fell silent as Draco crossed their path.

Draco stared at them defiantly, as if ready to attack if they even offered one word of consolation.

When he had passed, Ron muttered, "I just don't know how Dumbledore thinks we can unite with them. I'm glad you had sense enough not to see him anymore, Ginny. It was bad enough that you even went to the dance with him."

Hermione shot him a dirty look.

"Oh," Ginny noted. "I left my good quill in the Great Hall. I'll be right back." She retraced her footsteps back to the entrance hall, glanced around quickly, and then darted down the narrow hallway she had seen Draco enter. She found him in a dim, unused dungeon, staring at a thick book.

"Get out."

"I just wanted to see how you were," she told him quietly.

"Get out."

"I'm, I'm sorry."

"Why?" he asked coldly. "You didn't do anything."

"I know. But I'm sorry that your friend is gone."

Draco shrugged indifferently. "He should have known better."

"Draco . . ."

"What do you want, Weasley?" he demanded, standing up so quickly the table fell over. "Do you want me to cry on your shoulder and beg you to comfort me? Well it's not going to happen."

She shook her red head. "No. I just wanted to check on you.
"Well I'm fine," he roared. "Bloody terrific."

Ginny just watched him silently as he raged.

"Get out! Go back to your little friends and tell them how Draco Malfoy is having a breakdown! Tell them, Draco doesn't care that his friend died. He's probably on the verge of joining his father! Get out!" He stepped towards her. "Out!"

Ginny stepped backwards.

"Now!" He grabbed her by the wrists and shoved her, but she didn't go out the door. Instead, she hit the door jam and stumbled.

Ginny stood to her feet and took a deep breath. "Fine. I'm going. You did a good job though. I was ready to believe that you weren't the person I had always thought you were."

"Well I guess I'm not, am I?" His hand was raised as if he was going to hit her.

"No. You're worse. I never thought that even you could reduce yourself to this."

Draco stared at her, his eyes wide with fury. He lowered his hand slightly and grabbed her. "Get out, before I do something I regret."

Ginny wrenched herself out of his grasp and turned for the door. On the other side of the doorway she paused and said over her shoulder, "We'll help you if you ever need it. You know we will."