AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Chapter nine already! whoohoo! Who would've thought...
Thank you so much once again to all those who reviewed! I'm so glad that you like this ficcie... It's so encouraging when someone bothers to read your stuff and even tell you they think it's good... I might cry!
So before that happens, I'll better carry on, which is probably what you guys are waiting for anyway :P ... So there you go!
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 IX: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE...
Ginny opened her eyes, slightly startled by the snoring beast that lied by her side. She sighed and stared at him, as a ray of light peeked between the curtains and gave the blonde's semblance a celestial glow.
Yes, the red-head didn't have the heart to force him to sleep in the couch anymore. Ginny pitied the way his joints creaked painfully like rusted, old hinges with his every movement and, as much as she enjoyed the fact that he was suffering on her behalf, she couldn't afford being the object of his torture any longer, plus... She didn't want him to be so far from her either. Something about the way he had cared for her so dearly, had caused an effect on her. Now, she almost... trusted him.
"Me sleeping with a Malfoy in the same bed?" she wondered. "Who would've thought..." They had reached an agreement, though; Draco had promised not to touch her during her sleep.
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*Flashback*
"Neither must you, you kinky temptress!" he had hurried to protest.
"Me?" Ginny gasped in faked astonishment.
"Yeah, you! Don't act as if you didn't know what I'm talking about..." he said, referring to the fact that she had licked the remains of desert from his mouth and then bitten his lip. "Tease!"
"Prig!"
"Vain!"
"Woman-Player!"
"Vamp!"
"Snob!"
"Flirt!"
"Sissy!"
"Sissy?" he questioned, furrowing his brow.
"Oh, come on, Draco, you turned all soft on me today..."
"I did not!"
"Yes you did!"
"No, I didn't!"
"Yes you did!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"DID-NOT!"
"DID-TOO! and that's the end of it..." she censured.
"Caring for a woman has nothing to do with my manhood; if anything, it exalts it," he explained with self-confidence. He couldn't believe he was arguing with her like a five-year-old. "But still," he added, "you must not play with me while I'm sleeping, alright? If you're going to take advantage of me, I'd rather be awake, mind you..."
It was Ginny's turn to roll her eyes.
"Yes, I know it will be hard, considering my irresistible anatomy, but Ginevra," he said, raising his hands in front of him. "You must resist, alright? Just try to keep your hands to yourself and count to a million or something…"
"Alright, I'll try my best, Draco," the red-head replied, "though I can't promise anything..." she teased.
"Then neither can I..." he suggested, after which she showed her tongue to him. "What was that for? Do you want me to do something about that loose tongue of yours? Needing some exercise, I'm afraid..." he added in a professional tone, as if stating a diagnose.
"What do I know, you're the healer here, right? What do you say?" she asked, flirtatiously.
"I say..." he begun in a suave voice, clenching his chin. "you should rest your vocal cords..." he begun, placing his forefinger on top of her lips and grabbing her waist with his free hand. "And you could use a professional massage..." he continued, brushing his lips against hers. "From an expert..." he added in a sensual voice, pulling her roughly against him, which caused the red-head to moan, at which the blonde took advantage and slid his pliable tongue inside hers, rubbing it skillfully against his own.
Ginny responded immediately and gave in to his exquisite exploration. He then traced a path of kisses down to her neck, leaving Ginny in a convenient position to lick his ear lobe and take a nip at it, playfully, at which the blonde responded with a deep groan.
Thus, they examined every single clothe-free inch of their upper bodies which, unfortunately, wasn't near as much as they were craving for. Soon, however, when things warmed up and Draco started pulling her dress' zipper down, she pulled away in alarm, uttering a suffocated cry at the back of her throat.
"What is it, now?" Draco inquired, feeling worried and slightly frustrated once again.
"It's..." she begun, panting, then faking a couple of coughs. "I- I might infect you," she lied.
"Oh, come on!" he protested. "Then I'm infected, I can live with a common cold, mind you. Now come here..." he urged, grabbing her waist again.
"No!" she yelled, pushing him away bluntly. Draco now looked pretty shocked. "I mean, please, Draco, alright? I'm really tired, I might have a fever..." she lied, taking a hand to her forehead.
Draco sighed. "A head-ache..." he snorted, indifferently. He remembered hearing stories from Crabbe and Goyle of women who shoved them off by claiming they had 'head-aches'... But this happening to him? This was far more than he could take...
"Yeah," she agreed, nodding. "Urm, Draco?"
"What?" he asked, sullenly.
"Could you spare me a pair of boxers and a t-shirt?"
"What!" he scowled. "That's one of the most disgusting things I've heard lately."
"Why? Are you that dirty?" she suggested.
"Of course not!" he censured, blushing. "It's just that... my boxers..."
"It's just a short, isn't it?" she asked.
"Well yes, but..." he thought for a while.
"Come on, Draco, it's so uncomfortable to sleep with this uniform," she said, lifting the hem of her dress.
"Fine, then sleep without it!" he resolved, with a mischievous smirk.
"Ha-ha," she snapped, sardonically.
"Alright, second drawer to the left," he instructed, nonchalantly.
The red-head made her way to the walking closet at her right.
"Draco..." he heard her call out.
"Oh, sorry," he replied. "Alohomora," he uttered, pointing his wand to the locked drawers.
Ginny closed the door of the closet and in less than two minutes she was out, wearing a pair of baggy, black boxers and a wife beater, that didn't do too much to ease Draco's emotions... Should he have known that she was going to look so hot before, he wouldn't have hesitated so much at her request. Draco would've never thought that such a shirt could be worn seductively before, but now, predicting her delicately round curves through the thin, white, material, he felt a little more than light-headed...
"It's a little chilly in here..." she commented, wrapping her arms around her chest and blushing upon seeing the hungry look with which Draco stared at her chest.
"So I see..." he replied, fixing his eyes in two slender protuberances in her t-shirt.
"Draco!" she scowled, smacking his head.
"Alright, alright, just kidding!" he said defensively, avoiding her fists. "But I must admit that that outfit looks much better on you than I thought it did on me and, believe me, that's saying something," he added and winked at her.
"Fair enough," she replied, in an attempt to keep her face colours in a normal range... "Good night, Draco," she said, slipping into the bed. "You better remember your promise," she added.
"Good night, Ginevra," he replied, unbuttoning his shirt off. Ginny watched between her almost shut eyelids as he undid his belt buckle and pulled his trousers down. He then pulled back the covers of his side of the bed and rolled over, pulling the covers to his side, with which Ginny ended up half uncovered.
"Hey!" she yelled, pulling the covers back roughly, leaving the blonde in her previous condition.
"But it's my bed, mind you!" he complained, pulling it back again.
The covers went back and forth for a while until Draco growled.
"Stop it, alright!" he scowled.
Ginny broke into laughter.
"It's not funny!" he protested in annoyance. Draco had never actually shared the bed with another woman to sleep, nor had he needed to. "Look, you take the upper cover and I take the lower one, alright?" he asked, but the red-head was still laughing. "Truce?" he offered.
"Truce..." she replied, and tried her best to clear her mind for a good, deserved sleep.
*End of Flashback*
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Now, two days later, she pressed her eyes hard and stretched her arms, yawning nonchalantly.
With the Pepper-up potion, she soon begun feeling better, but Draco would not allow her to return to her duties until she had had a good week of rest, or at least that's what he told her, so that she would stay in bed, and he could make her company, of course.
Before they knew it, they begun talking about practically everything, from Hogwarts School to their families and past relationships. However, neither of them was too eager to speak about this last topic, questions that Draco would normally respond with his usual "A gentleman has no memory" line.
Ginny's mind returned to the blonde who now pressed his eyelids shut, to open them sleepily, squinting as he tried to adjust to the light.
"Hi there, you sleeping ogre..." she whispered, tenderly, removing a lock of hair from his face and tugging it behind his ear.
Draco grumbled, closing his eyes again.
"Do that thing you do with my hair..." he pleaded, with his eyes closed.
Ginny caressed the hair at the back of his head, tangling her fingers in his golden locks, then rubbing his head and scratching it softly.
"Hmmmm... I love it..." the blonde muttered, in a pleasant purr.
"Draco," she uttered.
"Hmm?"
"Will you let me come out of bed today?" she questioned, not that she complained about spending a third day of deserved rest...
"Uh, uh..." he answered sleepily. Ginny sighed and he wrapped an arm around her. "Stay with me, it's Sunday," he uttered. "Besides, you're still not completely cured," he yawned.
"Oh really?" she replied.
They lied hugged like that for another half an hour, slumbering, and then they finally decided it was time to wake up and take a shower.
"I'll go to talk to Professor Vanderbilt about tomorrow's essay, Gin," Draco said as he tuck his shirt in. "I'll be back in an hour or so," he added, striding off towards the door. He had already duplicated Ginny's body, so that she could stay in bed yet again.
"Alright," she replied.
"Don't miss me too much, okay?" he uttered with a smirk.
" I'll try..." she answered, rolling her eyes as the blonde blew a kiss at her, winking his eye and shut the door behind him.
Ginny yawned and stretched her arms again, feeling a little tired of resting, as contradictory as it may sound. She made the bed and then sat at the end of it. She was bored; what would she do in that whole hour, sixty precious minutes, thirty-six hundred seconds to be exact...
Suddenly, a thought hit her mind upon the memory of an intriguing piece of literature she had examined some weeks ago... Draco's diary.
Ginny raised an eyebrow as she slowly walked towards the swivel chair. She leaned over and found it just where she had left it last time. Sure Draco hadn't noticed. She smirked and sat on the chair to flick through the pages.
"... I don't know what it was, but there was something about that kiss... Absurd really, she being a Weasley and all, but still, It's hard to describe the way she turned me on; her lips, her chocolate eyes, her smooth skin and that body... Oh my God, her body was on fire! I wondered how that tight arse would feel against..."
Ginny stopped reading that, one of his last entries, and changed the page rapidly, sensing there might've been something she really didn't wish to know the details of. The red-head, however, felt the blood running to her face; it was so awkward to acknowledge being described under such terms... In a good sort of way, though...
"...He did it again tonight. Sometimes I feel he will never stop until she kills her and I feel so powerless about it and I know that there's nothing I can do, as much as I want to. I just want to jump and defend her, but I know he won't show mercy for me, as he never does for her..."
The red-head furrowed her brow, not quite understanding what Draco was referring to. His words seemed so random, like some sort of stream of conscience, as if he had been overwhelmed by his emotions. She flicked through the following pages and stopped at a paragraph that caught her attention again.
"... I jumped and told him that he shouldn't do that, that I would kill him if he would make her suffer once again, but soon I realized my mistake. He slapped me, threw me to the floor and kicked me while she cried and I couldn't do anything… but, more than the strokes it pained me that she was crying so much. Damn I can barely see the letters in this paper properly, my eyes are so swelled with the blows he gave me... I swear to God that some day I will -"
"What do you think you're doing?" Draco hissed from the other side of the room. He had just arrived. Ginny gasped in astonishment and gaped her eyes, closing the diary violently.
"Draco, I -"
"You what? You thought you could mess with my private stuff just because we're living together?" He was looking so angry that Ginny feared he would hit her for a second.
"Look, I'm sorry, Draco, I just -"
"No, Ginevra!" he retorted. "You have no right to sneak into my stuff unauthorized, who the bloody hell do you think you are?" he scowled. "Give me that!" he demanded seizing the book off her hands.
"What do you fear so much, Draco? What are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding anything!" he barked, his face was red with fury.
"Then why are you so mad at this?" she inquired "Draco...?" she paused, staring tenderly at the fire that glowed in his infuriated eyes. "Did your father hurt you?"
"What exactly do you think you know, Ginevra? You don't know anything!" he scowled defensively.
"I would know if you would tell me!"
"I would tell you if you weren't so unnerving!" he hissed.
"Stop yelling at me!" she commanded, feeling deeply distressed.
"I wouldn't have yelled at you in first place if you wouldn't have felt like taking a peek at my stuff!"
"I wouldn't have done it if you would just let me in!" she uttered.
"I -!" he gasped and paused. Then he sighed, releasing some of his anger. "So what if he did, huh?"
"What?"
"What if he did hurt me, would it make any difference? Does it change anything? It does change everything! Right? So yes, I was a lonely child who would cry watching how his father bit the hell out of his mother and whenever he couldn't take it anymore and broke into the fight, got beaten even worse. How pathetic does that sound to you, who always lived amidst a loving family who was always there for you! Huh? My parents didn't give a shit about me, Ginevra! God, I would've died to have a fraction of the love your parents gave you, if you want to know..."
Ginny how as a single tear begun running down his cheek.
"Now go ahead and laugh," he uttered, sobbing while wiping his eyes roughly with his sleeve. "I don't care..." he added, and looked away.
"I'm so sorry, Draco," she said, grabbing his arm tenderly. "I didn't -"
"Don't pity me..." he responded, shrugging off and walking towards the window. "I'd rather have you laughing at me, mind you".
"Why are you so god damn arrogant, Draco?" she snapped. "Why can't you just accept that you've got feelings as well as everybody else! You're not made out of stone, you know!" she yelled. "Draco, let me help you..." she said, placing a soothing hand over his shoulder. "I want to know you..." she uttered. "I want - I want to..."
She doubted.
"…love you," she resumed, tears peeking through the corner of her eyes. Ginny was impressed to see that Draco covered her hand with his own, clenching it firmly.
"Ginny..." he said, turning around, his eyes shining, full of regret.
"Shh, it's alright..." she hurried to say. Ginny knew that Draco wasn't prepared to say 'I'm sorry' and she wouldn't force it on him either.
He sank his humid head on her shoulder and she wrapped her arms around him dearly.
"There, there..." she uttered, stroking the back of his head.
"You're the best that's ever happened to me," he begun. "Promise you won't ever give up on me," he begged, staring at her straight into the eyes.
Ginny waited a few moments before answering. "I promise," she whispered, and he pressed his body harder against hers.
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Thus, a week went by and the red-head felt that she had never been so close to anybody in her entire life, not even... Harry? As a matter of fact, for some strange reason, she didn't even give her ex-boyfriend so much thought anymore. Whether it was due to the fact that she was finally letting go of him, or because she was having so much fun, she didn't know, but all that seemed to matter right then was him, that once-despicable bastard that now was her only concern.
Sure he wasn't exactly prince charming and he was never as soft and mellow as he had been the night when the diary incident took place, but their relationship was so much fun as it was, so fresh...
Predictably, pointless discussions and brawls concerning topics such as the dirty socks that one had left on the way to the bathroom never seemed to end, taking place in a daily basis, but it was exactly that sort of trivialities and the continuous bickering that made their relationship entertaining, challenging. It was as though they only woke up each day to see what fate had prepared for them, to conquer the other one's heart once again, almost like a real seduction game...
"Finally!" Ginny exclaimed, tying her hair up in a neat bun. "I thought I was going to lay in that bed forever..."
"It wasn't that bad, though, was it?" Draco asked, shaking his head avidly so that his wet hair would dry faster.
"I mean… that bad..." she said, jokingly.
"Hey!" he complained.
"Just kidding, you dolt..." Ginny said, giving him a soft peck on the cheek. Then she realized that the dashing brooch was still perched to her uniform and she tried to pin it off.
"No!" Draco yelled, focusing his silver eyes on the brooch.
"What now?" she asked.
"Don't take it off..." he pleaded.
"Draco, I love it, you heard me say it was really beautiful, but honey, you know the bloody hag will never allow me to wear such a thing".
"Ginny -"
"As a matter of fact, she will probably rip it off my uniform and pin it on her own robes or something."
"Ginny -"
"No! Even better! She will think I stole it and send me to the dungeons with Filch, that's what she'll do," she said with conviction.
"GINNY!" he yelled.
"What?"
"She won't," he said, simply.
"You can be sure as hell that she will," she censured.
"Nope..."
Ginny furrowed her brow at his stubbornness.
"'Cause she won't even notice it," he explained. The red-head rolled her eyes.
"Honestly, Draco... This isn't exactly a thing that would go unnoticed, least of all in front of those hawk eyes of hers..."
"I know... but she just can't see it".
"And why is that, if I may ask?" she inquired, crossing her arms.
"Because it's a charmed brooch and only magical people can see it".
"So?" she questioned, raising her brows.
"Ginny," he uttered. "Draggery is a squib..."
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Alright, this chapter ended up being much longer than I expected it to be, so I had to split it in two (I haven't written part II yet, though). It's just that I got so carried away with the dialogues... I had so much fun writing them! I hope you liked them too.
As always, I invite you to leave your opinion, which I will very much appreciate, of course. You know what I love about reviews? I just love it when people refer to a specific part of the chapter, like something, even a specific line that they specially enjoyed. That's awesome... At the same time, I get an idea of the sort of things you like the most and I can include more of that in further chapters... Plus, of course, reviews encourage me to write next chapter faster, of course. I think I won't update until I reach 200 reviews though... Approximately 700 persons read each chapter when it comes out, 30 more reviews shouldn't be a problem, right? lol
THANKYOU so much to chapter VIII's reviewers: **Tears_ofthe_Phoenix** **Adrial** **Mooshy **down2earthangl85** **hunnee** **Peanut** **Seana** **Nadia_** **Earl** **emvee** **chocolatefroggie** **serenity237** **monagy3** and the shy **Anonymous** =) AND I REPLIED EVERY SINGLE REVIEW FROM LAST CHAPTER! YAY!
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