Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind
By Miranda Aurelia (Blue Lady)
Summary: When a spell backfires and Ginny accidentally mind-bonds herself to Draco, she decides to have some fun - especially since Draco hasn't a clue as to just who it is he's bonded to!
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for their support! For those of you that wanted a longer fic, there's always the possibility of a sequel if this fic turns out okay - which hopefully, it does! As usual, Harry Potter belongs to the talented JKR.
Chapter 2
Ginny didn't give anymore thought to the voice she had heard last night, which had sounded eerily like Malfoy - and that was more than enough incentive to forget about it.
However, this would last only until Quidditch practise that afternoon...
Ginny had just tossed the Quaffle to Karen when she spotted the a group of Slytherins heading onto the field.
Apparently Harry had noticed as well, because he immediately zoomed downwards on his Firebolt towards the Slytherin team.
By the time Ginny had arrived with the rest of the Gryffindors, Harry and Draco were engaged in another arguement, it seemed, about who had the right to use the field this afternoon.
"We booked it first, Malfoy." Harry said coldly.
"And we got special permission from Professor Snape. The Ravenclaw-Slytherin game is coming up and that supercedes-"
"You're going to lose anyways, so why bother?" Ron called out as he landed on the spot besides Harry.
Draco snorted, "Then I suppose nobody saw your staring contest with Looney in the middle of a game which almost cost your team the last game against Hufflepuff?" he finished with a sneer.
"Malfoy, do you have to be such a pain in the arse?" Ginny hadn't intended to say that out loud, and a blush appeared on her face when everyone's eyes immediately fastened onto her.
"Potter, you have such devoted groupies," here, a glint appeared in Draco's eyes as he turned to Ginny, "It's a shame that Potter's too head over heels for Granger to appreciate the effort you make on his behalf."
Ginny looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm simply refering to your futile project, Weasley."
"I've told you a million times already!" A tinge of scarlet appeared on Ginny's face, "It's for Potions, you stupid prat!"
Meanwhile, Ron was starting to lose his patience, not to mention it seemed that his little sister was keeping something from him.... "What are you two talking about?!"
Ginny turned on him. "None of your business!"
However, her brother chose to misinterpret this, "Ginevra Weasely-"
"Hey! He's the one-" Ginny pointed angrily at Draco, "-that you're supposed to be yelling at here!"
"Ginny," Ron ignored her previous comment, "Are you sneaking around with Malfoy?!"
Ginny stared at her brother, her jaw dropping open. "Ron, are you crazy?!" She finally managed to splutter.
"Stating the obvious now, aren't we, Weasley?"
"Shut up Malfoy!" Both Ginny and Ron yelled at the blond.
"Sure, gang up on the innocent bystander. Is it my fault that Ginevra here finds me so damn attract-"
"Silencio!" It was so sudden that Draco didn't even have time to duck before Ginny's curse hit him straight on.
"Bloody hell Weasley!" Ginny gasped as Draco's voice sounded in her mind.
The color slowly disappeared from Ginny's face as she continued looking at the blond, a shell-shocked expression on her face. Meanwhile, one of Draco's teammates finally managed to perform the counter-curse.
"What the hell was that for?" spat Draco angrily, rubbing his throat.
However, Ginny just started backing away slowly from the two teams before she turned and ran.
"Ginny! Where are you going?!" yelled Ron. However, his sister didn't bother replying.
There was a moment of silence on the pitch before Harry spoke up, "So where were we again?"
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"Hermione!" Ginny burst into the warm Gryffindor common room, her breath coming out in short pants as she scanned the area for signs of her brown-haired friend.
Meanwhile, Hermione had been throughly engrossed in a particularly difficult arithmacy question when she found Ginny tugging on her arm urgently. Seeing the worried look on Ginny's face and knowing that Harry and his team were practising this afternoon, Hermione immediately assumed the worse. "Has something happened to Harry?!"
"No!" Ginny took a deep breath, "No, he's fine. It's just me."
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked in concern.
The redhead grew silent. "I don't know if I'm starting to go crazy..." she paused, "I think I can hear what Malfoy is thinking."
"What?!"
"It's probably just me though..." continued Ginny wearily.
"When did this start?" interrupted the other girl.
Ginny thought for a second. "I would say yesterday..." she said quietly, "Remember when I spaced out last night? That was the first time. Then Quidditch practise today...he was arguing with Harry again, I started yelling at him, and then he said something and I yelled back at him...then I realized that he hadn't said it out loud..." She buried her head in her hands, "Tell me I'm not going crazy, Hermione! Tell me!"
"You're not going crazy," said Hermione firmly, "But tell me, did you come into contact with Malfoy at all yesterday?"
"Of course! That stupid prat was bugging me and I threw that curse at him-"
"What were the words you used?"
"Praesentia concateno..." Ginny hesitated, "Why?"
A look of understanding seemed to come over Hermione's face before she hurried towards the stairs leading to the girls dorms. "Let me go get my book," She threw over her shoulder as she rushed up the stairs.
Ginny continued to stare at her hands as heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs and Hermione returned, rapidly flipping through the bookmarked pages.
"You're sure that your exact words were Praesentia concateno?" Hermione said, still flipping through various pages.
"Yes."
Hermione only nodded as she finally found the page that she wanted. Sliding a finger slowly down the page, she said softly, "The spell you were meaning to cast on him was Praesentia iniuria."
"So what does Praesentia concateno do?" Ginny asked, even though she had a pretty good idea of what the answer would be.
"It creates a temporary mind bond between the caster and the person it was directed at."
Ginny groaned, "I am so dead. So does this mean that Malfoy can hear everything I'm thinking as well?"
"Actually it depends." Hermione's brow furrowed, "The book doesn't go into too much detail, but it seems that both people can only hear the other person's thoughts when their mind is unoccupied or if it was their intent for the other person to hear it..."
A look of horror appeared on Ginny's face. "So that means while I'm sleeping in History of Magic, Malfoy can hear every one of my thoughts?"
"It would appear so, but while you can shield your thoughts from him, he can't shield his unless he knows what spell this is," here Hermione gave her a cheeky smile, "And this book here just happens to be the only copy in the entire library."
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That night, Ginny found herself turning in bed restlessly. Apparently the bond was growing stronger because she could hear even more snippets of Malfoy's thoughts than before.
Hermione had told her that this bond only lasted for about two weeks, at which it would then the connection would start fading. However, it was only in extremely rare cases that the bond strengthened over time. The other girl had wanted to explain more, but Ginny hadn't felt like pondering the prospect of sharing a mind-bond with Malfoy for the rest of her life.
Ron had asked her why she had ran off so abruptly that afternoon instead of using that migraine curse she had thrown at Malfoy earlier. Ginny hadn't felt like disclosing her mistake, so she told her brother as much of the truth as she could without mentioning the part about the bond.
She rolled onto her side and then squeezed her eyes shut in frustration. Of all people, she had to bond herself to Malfoy?! Why couldn't she have cursed someone she actually liked?!
At least Hermione had managed to provide her with the mind-shielding spell. Ginny burrowed deeper into the covers - she would be absolutely mortified if Draco could hear her thoughts.....
.....but since she could hear his, couldn't she use that to her advantage....say, a bit of blackmail?
A look of glee soon spread across Ginny's face as she contemplated this. As she finally drifted off to sleep, her last thought was that maybe being mind-bonded to Draco Malfoy wasn't such a bad thing after all.
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