AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Hey y'all! I'm really, really sorry for the delay of this chapter but, as I think I've mentioned before, I'm on my senior year and so I've had a lot to cope with lately... I appreciate your understanding!
Well, once again, thank you! Thank You! THANK YOU! For all the great reviews I've received from you... I know sometimes it's a drag to write them, so I wanted you to know how much I do appreciate them...
And now... on with the story!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK Rowling's amazing characters. However the plot and the new characters are all mine.
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Chapter VIII: IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH...
Draco grumbled as he listened to his alarm-clock and wished yet again that the night was longer...
"Or maybe not..." he told himself, upon remembering last night's incident.
Meanwhile, the clock's beep kept growing louder and the blonde roared with contempt as he pulled back the blanket and stretched his arm, reaching towards the night table, with his eyes still closed.
"I'm up! I'm up!" he scowled and smacked the alarm clock violently, dropping it to the floor, which switched the snooze-proof mode on, causing it to jump around the room, still beeping, while getting louder.
"Bloody hell!" he scowled, jumping out of bed and tripping over the navy-blue blanket that was tangled around his ankles, making a loud thud and groaning with pain and anger.
"Damn clock!" he growled, reaching for his wand that lied over the table while chasing the shrilling, annoying device. "Silencio!" he yelled, pointing directly at it.
His target went instantly silent, but kept jumping happily around the room.
"Impedimenta!" he finally cursed.
The clock froze in midair and fell over the floor, motionless.
"There! That ought to shut you up..." He uttered, while he straightened his back, which produced a muffled shriek.
"Hmph!" he cried, feeling a pricking pain somewhere in his backbone. He couldn't keep sleeping in that couch for much longer, he thought, or else he would end looking as if a giant hypogriff had sat his huge horse arse over his back.
Draco rubbed the area that stung him roughly, as he made his way to the bathroom, only after having taken a glimpse towards the place where a red-headed girl still seemed to be sleeping pleasantly. Despite the time, he decided not to wake her yet; he didn't have the heart, or the courage for that matter.
As the cold drops of water ran through his face and naked body, he pondered yet again upon last night's events. He still couldn't conceive exactly what had happened; he could've sworn that she wanted him as badly as he did. Everything was almost perfect until, all of a sudden, she roughly brushed him off, as if she had suddenly remembered something, almost as a burning reflex.
"Was she still a virgin?" he wondered, rinsing the soap off his body. "No way..." he answered himself. "Not with that horny Scar face as his boyfriend for so long..." He shivered at the thought of the two of them making out. Just disgusting... "That Potty boy sure didn't deserve her..." he thought, clenching his fists. But why was he having this feeling of anger inside him? It was almost... "Jealousy?" he wondered, and quickly rejected the idea, while he brusquely closed the faucet and stepped out of the shower.
When he was finally fully dressed, he returned to his bed to wake Ginny up. As much as he didn't want to disturb her, he knew that she would get punished it she didn't arrive to duties on time.
And he cared..?
Draco cautiously leaned over and placed a hand over her shoulder. "Ginny..." he whispered, shaking her gently, but it didn't seem to bother the red-head in the slightest.
The blonde cleared his throat.
"Ginny," he said a little louder this time, to her ear, but still the reaction didn't change whatsoever. He carefully turned her around, face up. "Ginny!" he yelled, shaking her more avidly, but the girl stayed immobile.
"What is it with girls and sleeping nowadays," he thought, rolling his eyes. Then something hit him.
"Wait a minute..." he uttered, noticing how pale she was and reaching towards her fore-head, removing his hand quickly upon realizing how warm it was. "Damn! You're boiling!".
Ginny uttered a weak moan but didn't open her eyes.
"Ginny?" he called again, unsuccessfully, and then sighed. "If she's late for morning duties, that old hag might even kill her..." he thought.
He stood up and paced across the room, thinking of a possible solution, as he glanced at her from time to time. He then made up his mind and strummed to her side again.
"If it works for me, then it works for you..." he uttered, as he cast a duplicating charm on her. The blonde watched in awe as a hazy image of the red-head followed the movement of his wand out of Ginny's body and finally materialized on the floor next to him. He had never practiced that spell on anybody else than himself.
"Now listen!" he begun, speaking to the duplication of Ginny in an authoritative voice, providing that he looked straight into her empty eyes. "You shall carry out your duties as usual and return here when you're finished".
The red-head nodded, absent-mindedly.
"That's it! Off you go!" he uttered, whacking her bottom, as she made her way towards the door and the blonde smirked mischievously. "And stay away from trouble!" he yelled, as she exited the room.
Then Draco turned towards the real Ginny again and quickly replaced his smirk by a severe expression, furrowing his brow.
"Now what am I going to do with you?" he said, looking at the pale red-head with worry, then to his wrist watch.
7:55. He would never make it to his first lesson in five minutes... Unless...
"Of course..." he uttered, smirking at his own brilliantness while he quickly duplicated himself.
Soon there was an empty-looking, motionless Draco standing by his side.
"It's Mortal Charms with Professor Vanderbilt in room 25. Run there, do everything you're told -" he paused. "I mean, what your teacher tells you, anyway... And be back at the end of the lessons. Go!" he instructed, and pushed his double, that had now recovered the glow in his eyes and sprinted at an incredible speed towards the exit.
"Well now, let's see..." he uttered, gazing at the suffering Ginny. "Damn it! I always sucked at those healing lessons that my father forced me to take," he thought angrily, biting the knuckles of his clenched fist. "That's it!" he cried, remembering that instant-symptom-diagnose apparatus his mother had gifted him in one occasion.
He quickly fetched from one cupboard to his left, took it out of the dusty box and started reading through the instructions.
"Alright," he begun. "Place the instant-symptom-diagnose solution 2000 over the patient's forehead..." he rested the white squared device on Ginny's head. "That's right, then... Press the orange button, wait thirty seconds and read the diagnose and treatment on the black screen". He carefully followed every step and waited anxiously for thirty seconds to pass, after which he raised the instrument and read.
"DIAGNOSE: Severe common cold. TREATMENT: 50 cc of Pepperup potion, a soup-spoon every 2 hours, until totally cured"
Draco felt much more relieved with the optimistic diagnose and soon found the bottle of Pepperup in his cupboard. He sat by Ginny's side and poured the icy-blue coloured liquid into a spoon, that he reached to the red-head's lips, lifting her chin gently, so that her mouth opened.
As the girl painfully swallowed, Draco was relieved to see that colour was returning to her face.
"Ginny?" he called but, as expected, she was still asleep.
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*Flashback*
Ginny shivered as Harry wrapped an arm around her waist, from behind, pulling her to lay by his side, in the king-sized bed of the main bedroom at Grimmauld Place.
The whole Weasley family and Hermione Granger had been invited to spend a week at Harry's home, considered one of the safest places at the time, as they were in an alert state, declared by the Ministry of Magic.
It was past midnight when Harry, wearing a pair of navy-blue boxers and a wife-beater, had sneaked into the girl's bedroom and in a whisper, asked the young red-head, who was wearing pyjama shorts and a tanktop, to follow him.
Now, they seemed immerse in an everlasting kiss, as she grabbed the back of his head and he caressed her face with one hand and held her waist with another. Ginny moved her hands to the end of his back and pulled his t-shirt off. The raven-haired boy begun placing warm kisses around her face, then following a trace around her neck and finally stopping at her collarbone to take a nip, that caused her to moan with pleasure.
Harry slowly slid the hand he had on her waist to her hips and, grabbing the edge of her pyjamas, he begun pulling her shorts down, to reveal a pair of pale pink knickers. At the sight of these, he groaned with arousal and Ginny felt her heart pound a thousand beats per second.
This was it.
Harry pulled the edge of her knickers when Ginny's eyes widened, as she pushed him away and moaned with her body racked in pain. What was happening to her?
"Ginny! Are you alright?" Harry asked with worry, standing to his feet, as the red-head gasped. "Luv?" he added, resting a soothing hand on her shoulder, at which she violently shrugged off.
"Leave me alone!" she said, grabbing her pyjama shorts and running out of his bedroom.
*End of Flashback*
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Ginny woke up feeling deeply stirred by the nightmare... She regularly had dreams remembering those kinds of moments with Harry, but they never stopped affecting her.
She slowly sat up on the bed and felt a deep headache, which caused her to bring a hand to her forehead to confirm that, although it was warm, she didn't have fever. Then she fixed her eyes on the blonde man who was sleeping face down, by her side, with his mouth open, holding a bottle in one hand and a spoon in the other. Ginny furrowed her brow.
"What is this all about?" she wondered. "Draco," she whispered to his ear, causing him to startle and sit up brusquely.
"What the -? Who...?" he begun, stuttering looking in all directions, finally focusing on Ginny, who rolled her eyes. "Ginny!" he yelled mirthfully, a cheerful smile appearing on his face, then rejecting the tone he had used and wearing his usual gallant smirk, he added. "I mean... Ginny," he said, in a much hoarse tone. "Urm... How do you feel?"
Feeling slightly light-headed, and not knowing exactly what to believe, the red-head answered in a calm tone:
"What is going on here?" she inquired, blinking her eyes that were just getting used to the light. "Morning duties!" she remembered, desperate.
"Don't worry, I've sent a double to replace you".
Ginny furrowed her brow, unbelieving.
"You were sick and passed out all morning," Draco added matter-of-factly.
"Was I?" she said between a yawn.
"Are you better now?" he asked, trying his best not to sound too worried or concerned.
"I guess..." she replied. "But how come I get better so soon?"
Draco blushed at the question; he refused to admit he had been taking care of her for over five hours. What kind of pillock does that sort of thing?
"I... erm... you just..." he begun. "I don't know," he lied, lifting his shoulders.
"Then why are you here?" she asked, naturally.
"Well I... di-dn't-feel... like-going-to-lessons today..." he said in a cut voice, still trying to sound casual. Draco felt much more relieved at the red-head's believing semblance. Her eyes, however, soon travelled to his hands, and Ginny furrowed her brow.
"What are you doing with that?" she inquired, taking the bottle from his hand. "Pepperup potion?" she read, turning to look Draco.
The blonde was silent, he didn't know how to lie anymore.
"You were taking care of me?" her look suddenly softened and her eyes shimmered with a special glow. How could he deny?
"I... erm... Yeah, well, sort of... Just for a little while, I didn't really... I only -"
"That's so nice of you, Draco..." she interrupted, causing the blonde to get a tight knot in his throat.
"Nice? Did she just say nice?" Draco didn't remember being described with such a word ever, but he liked it, maybe not only because of the word, but also because of the speaker...
"You think so, huh?" he said, staring down at the covers.
Ginny nodded.
"Well," he begun, in an attempt to change subject. "Are you hungry?" The red-head grimaced at the question."You have to eat, don't you?"
"Actually... I am a little hungry, yeah," she answered, looking sideways at him. "So what's the menu today, Mr. Healer?" she asked, teasingly.
"For you? I was thinking of a nice, healthy chicken soup with, let's say... strawberry jello? how does that sound to you?" He looked at Ginny who had an annoyed look. "What?"
"That can scarcely be called food, Draco..."
"Well, I'm so sorry, Miss Gourmandise, but the patients at my hospital don't get to eat fish and chips, so I guess that would be a delicious chicken soup and jello for you and..." he stopped to think for a second, gazing at the ceiling. "I guess a boring, ol' tasteless lasagna bolognese pour moi," he said in an un-eager tone. "With a cup of mint babarrois for dessert... why not?".
The red-head glared at him.
"Though I'd love to have your soup! It's delicious, really!" She didn't say anything and crossed her arms. "I'll go get it, you'll see…"
Draco opened a cabinet where there was an artifact that looked like a muggle microwave, but not quite; it was a lot bigger and there was only one single button and a microphone that stuck from the side.
Ginny watched in awe as the blonde stood in front of it and repeated the order. The machine begun making weird noises, green sparks jumping behind the glass door, and then, with a loud beep, became silent again. Ginny rubbed her eyes hard as he saw Draco remove a tray with a large plate of steaming soup and what seemed to be her strawberry jello, contained in a glass cup, with a chocolate leaf on the top. He placed the tray on her knees and returned to remove his tempting tray, with a lasagna with grated cheese on the top and a cup of mint babarrois on the side, with the same chocolate leaf she had seen in her dessert. He sat next to her and placed his napkin on his lap.
"Well," he begun, grabbing his fork. "Bon apetit!"
Ginny looked at her soup, then back to Draco's lasagna... Her food seemed so precarious next to his'… Her eyes were like those of a dog outside a butchery, but still she decided not to protest anymore and, unwillingly, took a full spoon of her soup.
The warm liquid felt so comforting against her sore throat and, once again, Draco was right: it was absolutely delicious. The chicken was so soft, the recipe was just...
"Perfect," she uttered.
"Excuse me?" he asked.
"The soup, it's exactly as you said, it's delicious!" she replied. "How did you -?"
"Ah... Just one of them old cooking artifacts they built for my Dad a couple of years ago," he explained, after which a silence followed.
"Draco, about last night... I -"
"No," he hurried to censure. He really didn't feel ready to talk about it, as much as it intrigued him, nor was he willing to ruin lunch.
Ginny furrowed her brow.
"I mean, please never mind... I think it was... pretty clear as it was," he uttered distantly.
The red-head smiled weakly.
"Alright then..." she replied, and resumed her meal.
Ginny didn't know how hungry she was at first, but the taste of the soup strengthened her appetite and soon she was halfway through the dessert, while Draco was still having his last portion of lasagna, and moving the plate aside to carry on with his own dessert.
When she finished the jello, her eyes shimmered at the sight of the chocolate leaf she had specially left for the end. She picked it up and was just imagining how sweet and soft it would feel against her tongue when a hand quickly withdrew it from her fingers and she stared in agony as Draco put it inside his mouth and chewed it briefly.
"Sorry, the leaves always come with dessert as a default," he limited to explain, while the red-head still had her fingers together and gazed at the spot where her leaf had disappeared. Draco resumed his lunch and turned to her. "What? You didn't think you were going to be given chocolates, right?"
Ginny snapped out of it.
"You dolt!" she grumbled, hitting him in the shoulder with her still weak fist. Draco raised his hands defensively, chuckling. "Don't you dare laugh!" she chuckled as well and they fell into a prolonged laughter, until they were both quiet again, staring at each other.
"What?" Draco chortled, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"You..." she begun. "Have this..." she added, pointing with her forefinger to the corner of his mouth were a bit of babarrois was.
"Oh!" he replied, feeling his cheeks flushing, as he reached for his napkin.
"No..." she commanded. "Let me get it," she said with a smirk and leaned over, to lick the pale green remains of fluffy cream from his lips, after which she felt the intrepid desire to bite his lower lip. This move made the blonde respond by grabbing her upper lip between his own teeth. Ginny then begun sucking gently, which caused Draco to groan with pleasure as he draped his arms around her shoulders to pull her closer and deepened the kiss by inserting his tongue, that felt cold and fresh, due to the mint from his dessert.
Then, it was his turn to pull her apart.
"Wait," he said, standing to his feet.
"What?" Ginny asked, disconcerted.
"I want to show you something," he briefly explained, as he walked across the room, to his closet again where, after having mumbled a number of unlocking charms, he opened a huge, grey, steel box, from which he took a black velvet case. Draco returned to Ginny's side and opened it, as she gazed in amazement.
It was a platinum brooch that had his family crest, with a number of small, delicately cut, ravishing sapphires that spelled the words "tui mens apud tui cor".
"Wow, Draco; it's beautiful... Where did you get it?" she inquired, reaching to pick it up. "May I?" she asked, as Draco nodded.
"It's a family heirloom, worn from generation to generation," he explained. "It belonged to my mother".
"What do those words mean?" she asked, dumbfounded at the delicate, luxurious artwork.
"It says tui mens apud tui cor," he read in a perfect latin."Your mind, in consequence of your heart".
"I would've never thought your family would keep something with such inscription".
Draco didn't reply.
"I mean -!" she begun, noticing how she had probably upset Draco. "You know, with all of you being Slytherins and all..." she explained.
"It's alright... It's hard to be seen as anything else when you carry such heavy blood through your veins" he uttered, melancholically. "Sometimes I wish I hadn't been born a Malfoy," he added.
"Are you serious!" Ginny asked in amazement. The blonde smirked.
"Not really, no," he replied, as the red-head rolled her eyes and sighed. "But it's not easy, I'll tell you that much," he uttered, seriously. "Ginny?"
"Yes?" she replied.
"Would you do me a favor?" he asked. The red-head nodded.
"Try it on," asked, softly. Ginny furrowed her brow, uncertain of what he was speaking about. "The brooch".
"Oh!" she uttered. "Alright..." she answered, pulling her hair back and picking the brooch in her hands.
"May I?" Draco asked, grabbing one side of the brooch, Ginny nodded. The blonde pinned the dashing piece of jewelry to her chest. He stared at it, entranced and, after a while, Ginny started feeling uncomfortable about having someone staring at her breasts.
"So..." she begun, clearing her throat. "This belonged to your mother?"
"It's yours".
"What?" she questioned, thinking she might have heard wrong, but she got no answer back. "No, Draco, I couldn't possibly -"
"Please," he begged. "I... I really want you to have it".
Ginny gaped her eyes at him, then gazed at the brooch... It was by far the most expensive thing she had ever worn.
"I don't know what to say..." she begun, her cheeks blushing.
"Say you'll wear it for me".
"I have nothing to give you in return," she explained.
"Don't worry," Draco soon replied, smirking. "You'll find something to pay me back sometime..."
The truth is that this was no ordinary brooch... It had been charmed hundreds of years ago by one of the first Malfoy's. It was said that whoever wore it, would never cheat on the person who gifted it so, as long as the woman wore it, she would be bound to that person forever, never able to love another again.
However, if the owner should decide to give it away to someone else, the charm would be broken and it would mean that she didn't love the man who gave it to her on first place anymore...
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Done with chapter VIII! Yay! I know it might've not been as eventful as other chapters, but I really felt I needed a chapter to consolidate their relationship a bit further... and, of course, further bother you about Ginny's problem (whatever it is...). I hope I did somehow achieve to break the ice in a subtle way...
Well, that's it for know, but I warn you... Hang On! Because the next two chapters... uuffff... a lot is going to happen.
Once again, special thanks to my REVIEWERS from last chapter: **chocolatefroggie** **monagy3** **Kristen** **Tears ofthe Phoenix** **hunnee** **Cassie** **Mooshy** **Peanut** **Momentyne** **Olivia Weasley** **kate** **emvee** **Gracefulklutz** **Seana** **I wish I were Hermione** **serenity237** **tw1light** **Lady of the Horses** and the many **Anonymous**.
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