Bewitched Times
By: Adrial
Chapter 3
Twist of Fate
AN: OK, guys I KNOW. It's been more than ages. It's been a CENTURY since my last update but I swear to you, this chapter has been the most difficult thing I've ever written. Nothing worked to start with and I ended up throwing out everything I wrote to begin with. So, after months of starting and stopping, I finally sat down and FINALLY the words started to come in the right way. If you're a writer, you'll know what I'm talking about. But I digress. I am so happy to be done with this chapter and I'm itching to start the next ones. We'll finally get back on the track I intended to begin with; I just have this habit of putting in suspense when I promise humor. Anyways, I do you hope enjoy this chapter and let me know how you felt about it! Happy reading!
~Adrial
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Ribbons of yellow sunlight were streaming warmly across the desk that Ginny had procured from the tip of her wand early next morning. Her quill was poised rigidly over an expectant scroll of parchment, impaling the only section of paper that hadn't yet been stained gold by the sun's rays.
Her hair was hanging in lifeless curls that draped the sides of her face like rumpled curtains. She shook them out of her eyes and chewed fitfully on the corner of her lip. Finally, with a sigh, she let the quill slip from her fingers. It left a slash of black on the empty parchment, and she began swirling nonsense characters around it, adding faces and squiggles for hair. Soon enough she had an entire family of stick figures all lined up from tallest to shortest, seven of them to be exact. For good measure, she sketched a few lopsided boxes and piled them atop one another haphazardly in the background.
As she admired her creation, a smile formed on her lips for about a millisecond. Then she crumpled the scroll into a wad and lobbed it violently across the room.
She'd had not a wink of sleep since the previous night after the wine tasting festivities had come to a close. She, like all the other elf-thirsty journalists, had waited for ages to get her scheduled interview with the vineyard's newest moguls. The fifty or so elves had been seated at a sprawling mahogany table that ran the length of the eleven hundred square foot ballroom where the tasting had commenced. They seemed slightly unnerved by their sudden popularity, especially by the fact that their seats were at face-level with the wizards speaking with them.
Ginny had had to beg her interviewee to look her in the eye for the first five minutes of their ten minute interview. Finally, the tiny elf named Nelson was able to lift his knobby head and settle two watery eyes on the point directly between Ginny's nose and mouth, but his hand was slippery with sweat she had gasped it in her own. Her mind was already switching into reporter mode and she made mental notes to focus her piece on popularity's seemingly null effect on the elves' comfort level with wizards.
Later on, she and Morgan actually had quite a nice time sipping the exotically delicious wines, making notes of which ones they liked best and which ones they would order as the complimentary bottle that would be reserved for each guest. Ginny's choice, le Chenin Blanc, was poised on her bureau in a lovely golden basket that an attendant had delivered only recently.
The evening would have been quite perfect, in fact, had she not been so distracted by the sight of Draco Malfoy lurking amongst his guests as smooth and conceited as Ginny had ever remembered him. Not that she remembered much of the Draco from Hogwarts. She hardly bothered thinking of what anyone she'd known from school used to be like really. The apocalypse that had been the War had left those lucky enough to remaining standing at its end little doubt that the self they'd known at its preface would never truly return.
She wondered how Draco could possibly hold up his own charade so effortlessly. Even when he smiled sardonically at the pleasure that flooded his guests' faces as they nursed their silver goblets, she almost believed he was enjoying himself. Even a spirit as cruel and cold as a Malfoy's could not have remained unscathed by the War.
Least of all Draco's, she thought to herself as she tapped her quill against a new sheet of parchment and tried to focus her thoughts on the notes she'd stacked neatly before her. But what had he been doing for the past nine years? She hardly thought he'd spent them silently building up a fortress for generations of his family's servants to stand upon. If anything, Ginny would have thought he'd be halfway across the country with his tail permanently lodged between his legs or at least in Azkaban. He'd been a death eater, after all, even if it was for only a year.
Here her thoughts began to conflict. Draco had been a death eater, true, but the vision of what she'd stumbled upon that night kept flashing across her mind. She felt silly for even questioning the validity of Draco's vile actions during the war; and honestly, when one evil destroys another, does it really matter what turn of events brought the two against one another in the first place?
She shoved her chair back and stood with a yawn. If she couldn't clear her head then she'd never churn out anything close to a cover story. She decided after a moment that nothing else like a quick shower could calm herself. So she slipped out of her night things and stepped into the bathroom.
As she was pummeled by hot water, she focused her attentions on the foamy blanket that covered her body and the rivulets that rippled across her, sliding from skin to tile. When she finally opened them, she felt slightly dizzy from the steam that hovered thick in the air. The door to the shower stall was covered in fog so she could barely see through the other side as she eased it open to fill her lungs with fresh air.
"AAAHHH!!!"
"MON DIEU!!*"
The sound of shattering glass split the air in the next second as Ginny slammed the door shut only to have it explode into shards at her feet.
"Fuckfuckfuckfuck!" She frantically scrambled to make sure all of her various private parts were covered as completely as possible while tiny red spirals of blood were swiveling down her legs and onto the floor of the shower. Stabbing, ice hot spikes of pain shot up and down her legs, later to be echoed by the stinging prickle of tears as they gathered stubbornly in her eyes.
She could hardly bring her face up to meet the eyes of a stunned and scarlet-faced Adrien Cordier. He'd spun around so quickly that he slipped over the bathroom rug and ended up sprawled halfway across the counter. He snatched up the white towel Ginny had lain out for herself and threw it over his eyes.
"Pardon moi! Pardon moi!" He sputtered stupidly. Ginny fought down a whimper and growled.
"Would you please stop blubbering about in bloody French and get me my fucking wand?!" Her skin was already red from her shower but as she saw Adrien fumble blindly for his wand that had somehow ended up near the bathroom door, it turned ten shades deeper and dangerously approached purple.
"I did not intend to see anything…I swear!"
"Let's not even discuss the reason for you barging into my bathroom right now, please, before I stab you with what's left of this door!"
Adrien opened his mouth to apologize again but once he remembered the sound of shattering glass, he jerked himself around and whipped the towel from his eyes. At the sight of blood trickling down Ginny's legs and into a pool at her feet, his eyes nearly bugged out of his purpling face.
"MERDE!*" He threw himself at Ginny and tried to lift her away from the pile of broken glass but she began thrashing about so wildly that all he could do was retreat and cower beside the sink.
"What the bloody sodding hell do you think you're doing? I'm NAKED!"
"Oui, I see that, but you are also standing in a pile of broken glass right now!"
"Get me my wand!"
"Get out of the shower!"
"Get me my bloody wand before I-"
"Do you want to die from loss of the blood?!"
"Do you want to be murdered by a witch who's capable of breaking glass doors with her bare hands?!"
Adrien seemed to be tiring by that point. Whether it was from worry over Ginny's tattered legs or fear for his life, he finally relented and turned back around.
"Fine, I will get you your wand. But please, let me get my own first. I need to clean up this mess."
Ginny was boiling with a rage so deep by that point that she could hardly nod in agreement.
"Keep your back turned would you?!"
Adrien jumped at her screeching and took up the towel to block his peripheral vision as he reached for his wand on the other end of the bathroom floor.
When he retrieved it and said the words to repair the door, Ginny sighed with relief. He stepped out of the bathroom and after a moment or two he came back with Ginny's wand and a bathrobe clutched in his hand.
"I have it," he said and kept his eyes covered as he handed both to Ginny over the top of the shower door.
"Merci," Ginny spat with all the venom she could muster. Her legs were burning with pain and she was in no mood to be polite.
Adrien leaned against the countertop and ignored her biting retort. He had resolved not to leave until he had made sure she was alright. At the sound of Ginny whispering incantations that filled the shower stall with a pale blue haze, he felt slightly better. Healing was not his strong suit.
"Alright, I'm done. Do you want to leave now or were you hoping for another look-see before you go?"
"Ginevra…it was not my intention to walk in on you in this…this state," He began.
Ginny rolled her eyes as she wrapped herself in the white robe and very carefully opened the stall door once more. She felt only marginally satisfied to see the look of unease on Adrien's face as he met her vicious glare face-on. Beneath the anxiety she could see the beginnings of shame stirring in his blue eyes.
She inhaled deeply and tried to calm her nerves. When she spoke again it was with great precision and care that she kept each syllable even and sans the venom.
"Adrien, would you just please explain to me why you were in my bathroom?"
"I was only going to leave you this letter," He reached into his pocket and withdrew a folded scrap of parchment and handed it to Ginny.
She eyed it as if it were a snake about to bite her.
"You couldn't have left it on my bureau?"
Adrien seemed slightly unnerved by this question. "I suppose that might have been a better plan, non?"
Ginny tightly smiled and gave him a curt nod.
"Oui."
"I only wished to have your response as soon as possible. I-I was going to wait outside until you read it…but since that does not seem to be able to happen…" He gestured for her to read the letter.
She unfolded the parchment and suddenly felt her stomach flipping most uncomfortably.
Mademoiselle Ginevra,
I noticed that you were not seeming to enjoy yourself during the tasting of wines this previous evening. I am deeply regretful that the festivities were not to your approval, and to make up for your most unpleasant evening, I would very much love if you would allow me to treat you to a private wine sampling in my quarters this afternoon. Perhaps with the right company you might enjoy yourself this second time. If you agree I will be outside waiting most eagerly.
~Adrien
When she finished she was sure her cheeks had returned to their previous shades of ripening plums. She suddenly felt very badly for screaming at him before and flattered at the same time that he had taken notice of her at all last night. She hadn't even realized he was there; there were so many people crowded around that she could hardly keep track of Morgan let alone anyone else.
"U-um…I don't really know what to say," She cleared her throat and tried to forget that she was still soaking wet in her bathrobe in front of a near stranger.
"Sorry for nearly attacking you…or…" She gave him a small smile and wrung her fingers together. She was happily surprised to hear him chuckle.
"I had no idea a woman could be have such a temper."
It was Ginny's turn to laugh. "Really? Aren't you French, Monsieur? My sister-in-law is and she could scare off an army of dementors with one of her glares."
Adrien smiled and shook his head, "Ah, but I have only rarely been around those kind of French women in my life. I attended a school for all boys until I was seventeen and then the academy for five years more. French girls at the academy might have been fairly self-absorbed, but they would never upset themselves to the point of breaking glass doors all over themselves. Needless to say," He caught Ginny's weary glare and backtracked, "The only real women I suppose I knew were my mother and sisters."
Ginny wrapped her arms around her waist bemusedly. "Wow…that must have sucked for your dating life."
"Excuse me?" He cocked his head in confusion, "What do you mean to say with `sucked'?"
"No no no! I only meant…" Ginny choked on a laugh, "Well…it's just a silly saying. I just meant that being around only men and egocentric French women must have made dating quite…difficult."
"Well we shall see, shall we not, whether or not I am horrible at dating," He smiled and held out his hand expectantly.
"Do you accept my invitation?"
Ginny eyed his hand for a moment. She did have an article due for print by 12:00 …but she didn't necessarily have to be in the office to hand it in to Collin, did she?
"Um…" She twirled the sash on her robe in her fingers, "I-to be honest, Adrien, I've just sort of gotten out of a relationship and I don't think..." She smiled and tried to gather the right words, but Adrien held up a hand to silence her.
"I believe you have mistaken my intentions. I only wish to drink wine with you. Not…erm…drink wine with you."
He laughed awkwardly and Ginny found herself smiling despite herself. He definitely seemed harmless enough.
"Well, when you put it so eloquently," She laughed at Adrien's nervous expression, "I suppose you've got a point. I would love to `drink wine' with you."
Adrien smiled so widely that Ginny could almost see his molars and she stared at the floor to hide the delight on her features.
"I suppose that means I am forgiven for walking in on you." Adrien boldly said.
Ginny's head rose and she poked him in the chest firmly enough to get her point across.
"If you swear that you'll never speak a word of this incident to anyone, I might be able to forgive you."
Adrien nodded fervently. "Je promets*."
Ginny allowed herself a bemused smile at his boyish grin and shifted her weight on her feet. "I just have to finish writing this article for my editor. I'll hopefully be done by twelve, though. Is 12:30 alright?"
Adrien nodded and finally they made their way out of the bathroom. She opened the door to see him out, but before he left, his hand brushed across her cheek and lingered for a moment. Shivers were dancing down her neck and to her spine before she could stop them.
"Before I leave you, there is one thing that I do not quite understand."
Ginny nodded dumbly for him to continue.
"In France, we celebrate the bodies of women. To us, it symbolizes the place where life begins and is more beautiful than the wonders of any other human treasure. Yet, you cover and shield yours as if you are ashamed of its splendor."
Ginny's voice was lodged somewhere between her heart and her throat suddenly and she simply stood there, feeling his hand burning against her skin and the sincerity in his voice.
"Do not hide, mon petit feu*. A beauty such as yours should be left unveiled for all of the world to celebrate."
He left her with the burning imprint of warm fingers against her face, and it took a full minute before she could actually force herself to let the moment elapse into time.
When she did finally close the door and retreat to her desk, the sight of blank parchment and her pile of notes could not have been more unwelcome. Morgan was right-there was definitely something about these French boys…
"Oh, bugger." She sighed in mock defeat and had to force her quill to begin to write. It took a great amount of will power to churn out the words that sprang to life in her mind, but eventually Adrien's face was drowned out by her racing thoughts. As the story practically fell out of the tip of her quill, she felt the familiar excitement spark inside her chest. When she finally put her quill down and eyed the finished result of an hour's work proudly, the spark in her chest continued to grow.
Once she had summoned one of the manor's complimentary owls and had the article sent off to Collin, she realized that the excitement was no longer about her story. The grandfather clock next to her bureau had just announced that in thirty minutes time she was going to see Adrien again.
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Ginny had no idea where Adrien's quarters were and he had thankfully sent word that someone would arrive to guide her. Right on time, she opened her door at the knock of Adrien's personal assistant, Reginald. However, looking slightly perturbed to have been reduced to the role of escort, Reginald did not respond to Ginny's kind remarks on the beauty of the manor as they wove their way through bustling corridors full of stragglers. He kept his face still and straight in the direction they were heading.
Apart from the some hundred and fifty guest rooms at the Manor, the eastern wing was home exclusively to the Malfoy family. As the pair reached the end of guests' quarters, Ginny felt her pulse quicken and wrapped her arms tightly around her waist.
Behind a massive set of polished wooden doors, the atmosphere of her surroundings shifted dramatically. No longer could she feel the warmth of the sun on her neck from the glass ceilings of the corridors or hear the friendly chatter of people as they dragged luggage and companions in the opposite direction.
The walls were eerily beautiful, she noted, though the faces that stared gloomily down upon her from antique frames unnerved her to the point that she had to restrain from covering the sides of her face to block off the empty black eyes that seemed to follow her every step.
"The Malfoys are extremely proud of their lineage." Reginald finally broke his icy silence. Ginny was so startled that she tripped over her own foot and nearly tossed her handbag across the hall. When she righted herself and saw a slight tremor ripple across Reginald's lips, her insides curled with annoyance.
"So I've heard," she finally said, clutching her bag much tighter to her chest. After another complicated set of endless corridors, Ginny was beginning to wonder how she'd ever find her way back to her room.
"I suppose I can see how Adrien might have thought I'd need some help finding my way to his quarters, though I can't imagine that playing tour guide could be part of your regular duties," she said innocently. Reginald's face was unemotionally rigid when she turned to glance at him briefly.
"It is my pleasure, mademoiselle. I can assure you."
Ginny nodded in mock agreement. She could sense his clenched teeth and agitation at her statement. After a moment, she said, "I suppose somebody wants to make sure I don't go poking around. I am a conniving, ruthless journalist after all. Isn't that right?"
Reginald gave her a split-second look of unsettlement before he straightened his shoulders and picked up his pace.
"Miss Weasley is most intelligent."
"Why, thank you." Ginny smiled smugly.
"However," Reginald interjected, "I am afraid that Mr. Cordier sees you as little threat around here. He simply wanted to make sure you didn't lose your way. As you can see, the Malfoy Manor is an impressively vast and confusing place."
Ginny said under her breath, "Oh yes, very impressive."
That was the end of their conversation. All signs of the friendly Reginald Ginny had met the previous day were gone and she wasn't quite sure why he felt the need to be so cold toward her. Perhaps he really did think she was simply looking for a story in agreeing to meet with Cordier in private. The thought nestled into her mind and she partially wished that it had been her reason for accepting his invitation.
Biting her lip as she walked silently beside Reginald, she tried to settle her thoughts. Reading too far into things was not the way to present herself as a calm and collected professional, after all. But then, was she really trying to impress Adrien?
Here you go again, Ginny. One bloody sonnet and you're stumbling blindly toward some man you know absolutely nothing about…
"Here we are," Reginald announced at last. Before Ginny loomed a set of highly polished wooden doors with a crest similar to that of the one on the manor's front entrance. However, this one was etched in marble and looked notably less alarming with the symbol of the fleur de lis in lieu of a sprawling serpent.
Ginny inhaled deeply and nodded her thanks to Reginald before rapping her fist thrice against the door. From behind the thick wood she thought she heard the sound of scattering papers but just as she leaned in to have a better listen, the door flew open and Adrien was standing before her.
"Ah bien, I was beginning to worry that even poor Reginald had gotten lost in this ridiculous maze of my cousin's!" Adrien bowed and placed a pleasant kiss on the back of Ginny's hand. She laughed nervously and brushed some hair behind her ear before entering.
"You know, it's a good thing you sent him for me. Otherwise-" Her words trailed into silence at the sight that met her eyes.
She assumed that she was in Adrien's study, for there was a massive desk in the farthest corner where towering windows overlooked an icy blue lake she'd never seen before. Behind the desk that was littered with quills and parchment and very much unlike her own at home were bookshelves upon bookshelves that swelled with thick volumes of such literature she'd never seen before. The familiar odor of pages both unturned and overused filled her nostrils with the memory of Hogwarts' library. She fought the urge to hold her voice to a whisper in case Madame Pince might be lurking about.
Apart from his work space, the sheer size of the room overwhelmed her. She could tell it was rarely used, but the living space that contained giant leather furniture and foreign-looking throws and rugs donning the floors and seats seemed intimidating and inviting at the same time. She tried to picture Adrien lounging lazily upon the squishy looking couch with one of his many books propped up on his lap and could only allow herself to part from the image when Adrien's hand fell on her shoulder and steered her toward a far greater sight.
In the middle of the room, a magically suspended table floated beneath an intricately decorated silk cloth. On top, plates of desserts and as many cheeses as Ginny had ever remembered seeing in her life were piled together like miniature towers. Around trays garnished with grapes in colors ranging from blood red to leafy greens, bottles of wines were propped.
It took a full minute before Ginny even noticed that as Adrien ushered her to a seat beside the floating table, the bottles were tipping themselves into silver goblets that stood beside their dishes.
Adrien looked at Ginny's startled eyes from his seat across the table with an apprehensive gaze. Anxiously, he licked his lips and tried to gauge her reaction.
"Do you like it?"
Ginny seemed startled from her astonishment and brought her attention to the gentlemen before her. For a moment, the intense green of his eyes seemed to rattle her insides, but she swallowed and nodded her head fervently.
"It's wonderful," She sincerely assured him. Adrien seemed relieved by her reaction and relaxed his body with a sigh.
"Good. I was worried it was too much for a first-" He stopped himself suddenly and cleared his throat.
Ginny fiddled with her napkin in her lap and smiled at him.
"It's perfect, Adrien. Thank you," She searched her mind for something else to say but only came up with, "It's nice to have a break from working once in a while."
To what she thought was a lame segue to further conversation, Adrien openly voiced his agreement.
"So, what is it exactly that you do, Adrien?" Ginny had taken her first sip of the rippling purple ocean she'd found in the first goblet that soared its way into her palm. Sighing, she let the tart liquid dance across her tongue before she swallowed.
Adrien was silent for longer than Ginny thought necessary and when she looked up, she seemed to startle him from some deep thought and he jumped slightly.
"Oh, yes, I am the liaison of affairs in communication for the French and British ministries of magic." At Ginny's silence, he explained further. "It is not the most interesting job, I can assure you. I simply make sure that both Wizarding societies are getting along well enough. Two can not exist in harmony if neither can understand the other, after all."
Ginny was honestly impressed. She'd never really thought of the ways that foreign ministries interacted with one another.
"No, no…it sounds fascinating." The wine tasted so much better than it had last night; Adrien was right about pleasant company's effect on enjoying the wine. She offered him a friendly grin and, realizing that she'd already finished the first, took a sip from her second goblet.
She'd only touched her lips to the wine when Adrien suddenly began to chuckle to himself.
"Something the matter?" She set the goblet down and stared beseechingly at his pink face.
Adrien held up his hands at her look of annoyance and quickly said, "Please, do not think me rude, Ginevra. It's only that," He choked on a tremor of a laugh, "I had forgotten how the British women love their wine."
Ginny crossed her arms over her chest, "And what do you exactly mean by that?"
"Well, it is called wine tasting, non? You drink yours as if it is water and you are a camel in the desert."
"I beg your pardon," Ginny said through clenched teeth.
Adrien could sense her escalating irritation and quickly tried to recover himself.
"At a wine tasting, one must allow the wine to only caress the taste buds. In this way, you let the flavor of the wine grace your senses. Allow it enough time to impress itself upon you before you then-pardon my English-spit it back in the goblet."
"Pardon moi, Monsieur, but I have never been properly informed on the etiquette
of wine tasting."
"You think I am trying to laugh at you, do you not?" Adrien's expression betrayed his bemusement.
Ginny shook her head, "Of course not. You've only mentioned what a bunch of graceless drunks British women are. How on earth could I think-"
"Graceless drunks?" Adrien interrupted her with a smirk that reminded her so much of his cousin that she gripped the edge of the table to steady the jolt of nerves that skittered up her spine. "I'm afraid you have misunderstood me. I meant no harm...I simply have a habit of voicing my thoughts when I should keep them to myself." He offered her an apologetic smile.
Ginny shrugged back her shoulders but did not speak for a long while. She was silently berating herself for taking Adrien's criticism so personally but seemed to have no clue how to express to him that she'd just had her emotions trampled on by someone very close to her heart and now she was as fragile as the glass that had fallen so easily at her feet earlier that morning. Anything might have set off her temper at that point, and here she was mucking up her chance to get to know a genuinely nice guy because she had been too blind to see an accident waiting to happen six months before.
During her elapsed silence, Adrien had grown increasingly amazed at how difficult this new witch was being. He had always admired a challenge. And once again, his mouth ran off before his mind caught up with it and he was voicing that exact thought to Ginny in the next moment.
"It is astounding to me how much stubbornness such a beautiful woman can possess."
Ginny left her mouth hanging open for a few seconds before it finally sealed itself shut behind two tightly pursed lips.
Adrien realized that he might have gone too far. Lucky for him that Ginny was too busy trying to sort out whether or not his last statement was meant to be complimentary or insulting.
"Please forgive me. I have done it again.
Ginny tried to fathom his bluntness. She knew she was stubborn. It was a fact of life at that point. Yet to hear him round out her personality in a few short words unnerved her completely.
"I apologize if I offended you, Ginevra. But you are unlike any woman-"
"You really must mingle with females more, Adrien. I can assure you that any number of them would have the same reaction to being called-"
"I did not call you anything. I only wished-"
"Honestly, arrogance must surely run in the family. You and your cousin seem to have been thoroughly doused in that gene pool."
Adrien was about to respond but was interrupted, however, by a familiar buzzing sound that Ginny recognized from the previous afternoon when the manor's receptionist had paged Adrien.
He cursed softly under his breath and ignored the sound, turning to Ginny with a frustrated sigh.
"This was not how I planned for things to go, I am afraid."
Ginny tried not to meet the sincerity in his eyes. All she wanted to do was be angry with him for no apparent reason other than the fact that he was being kind to her and she was too scared to accept it.
"No…no, Adrien. It's not you," She began, feeling increasingly stupid, "I'm a little out of sorts right now. You see, just recently-"
Bzzzzzzzzzzz…
She eyed him questioningly as the incessant buzz filled the room even more loudly this time.
"D'you suppose you'd better get that?"
Adrien sighed and shook his head. "No, it is nothing. Please continue."
Ginny swallowed. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to pour out her woes to a near stranger on their first quasi-date.
"I was saying that I…" I've just been chucked by my fuckwit of a boyfriend for some skinny blonde bint from the fashion column. She pursed her lips and tried to think of a better way to explain herself.
"Look. Perhaps right now isn't the best time for me to finish that sentence." She smiled weakly. "I've gotten about a half hour's worth of sleep and I'm, as you can probably tell, a bit on edge at the moment."
Adrien kept his eyes on hers as he nodded in understanding. "I knew it. I have moved too quickly."
Ginny began to shake her head and disagree but he cut her off by rising out of his seat and coming around the table before her, "No, no. It is true. But the fact is that," He brought his hand to her face again like he had only a few hours before and traced the hollows of her cheekbones. "I could not have lived with my self if I missed the chance to get to know you better, Ginevra."
Thankfully, the obnoxious buzzing sound filled their ears once more and Ginny could hide her flushed cheeks with a startled expression.
"The buzzing, Adrien, perhaps-"
"No, it does not matter. I have the pleasure of standing in front of a lovely and intelligent woman right now and all else can wait."
As he said this, Ginny felt her pulse quicken and the hairs on her neck stand up strangely. Something about the way Adrien's hand felt on her skin, the jittery feeling she got in her stomach when he leaned in closer to her face, and the intense gaze of his eyes on her own felt increasingly wrong to her. But she was in no position to stop him now, with his lips inches from her own and steadily drawing nearer.
"A-Adrien…" She swallowed and tried to lean further away but found the table blocking her movement. His breath was hot on her mouth and the buzz that filled her ears seemed to crawl deep beneath her skin. As much as she knew she should want this, some tiny part of her intuition was screaming that it wasn't right.
When the door to Adrien's study suddenly flew open and the sound of a furious voice replaced the buzzing her ears, Ginny wondered if she felt relieved or slightly disappointed. However, when she turned her head away from Adrien and saw Draco's face, she felt her insides clench and all thoughts slipped from her mind.
Draco only offered her a glance that she barely noticed. He turned glaring eyes upon his cousin.
"Draco, what can I do for you?" Adrien looked as annoyed as Ginny had felt earlier and she took the opportunity to avert her gaze to something other than Draco's face. She became increasingly aware of Adrien's hand on her cheek and tried to discreetly shrug it off.
"I've been paging you across this damn manor for over an hour, Adrien. We had a meeting with the ministry forty-five minutes ago that you seem to have skived off to try to get into the press' knickers!"
"What are you raving about? That meeting was not scheduled until later this evening." Adrien reluctantly dropped his hand from Ginny's face and gave her a reassuring glance before walking toward his seething cousin.
"If you would have answered my bloody page you would have known that they decided to meet earlier than planned. It's my arse on the line here, Cordier, and if you aren't willing to show up then maybe I should-"
Adrien stepped to Draco's level and glared into his face, "Perhaps we could discuss this matter later, cousin. As you can see, I have a guest at the moment."
But Ginny was already gathering her handbag and pushing her chair under the suspended table.
"Don't worry, I was just leaving." She brushed past the two men and made sure keep a wide breath of Draco. Adrien grabbed her arm to stop her before she made it past him, though.
"No, if anyone should leave it should be my idiot cousin!"
"Oh, please. Let her go. It shouldn't be long before you've got another of your brainless bints in here anyway."
"Ferme le bouche, s'il vous plait!*"
Draco yawned with a look of haughty boredom on his face. "Must you ramble in that disgusting language of yours? I've a hard enough time understanding you in your imitation of proper English."
"Why don't you let me go so you two can have your little row and I can get on with my day!" Ginny growled. She threw Adrien's hand from her arm and straightened herself
Adrien seemed cut by her words but Draco sneered bemusedly.
"Nice to see the weasel still has a voice." With Draco's first true acknowledgement of her presence, Ginny tried not to seem startled. She shrugged her coat over her shoulders and glared at him as convincingly as she could.
"Nice to see the ferret still finds pleasure in showing his arse every chance he gets!" She spat. Draco's face reformed to show mock appreciation.
"My, my. Not much has changed in the last decade has it?"
"Least of all you," Ginny mustered all the venom in her body and glared at him so fiercely that Adrien took a step back as if the glare was meant for him.
"I thought you two had never met," He said perplexedly.
Draco thankfully answered because Ginny had no clue what to say. They hadn't ever really made introductions to each other. He had antagonized her brother and friends for six years but the closest she'd ever been to him was in her fourth year when she'd slammed a bat bogey hex directly between his eyes in Umbridge's office.
"I try to forget the days when I had to share breathing space with this breed of trash."
"Would you like me to remind you how excellent this trash is at aiming a hex, Malfoy?" Ginny pulled her wand from her bag in a lightening quick movement and in the next moment Draco's was sheathed as well.
"Don't forget who my mentor was, Weasley."
"Oh, you can't possibly mean the rotten mound of dirt that was left of Voldemort after Harry was finished with him, can you?"
Draco's eyes flashed, "Watch your tongue!"
"Still loyal to a dead lord, Draco? That's got to be the most pathetic thing I've ever seen!"
"Alright, please put away your wands…" Adrien beseeched them halfheartedly and looked very weary of being caught between the two.
Ginny took Draco's furious silence as an invite to go on.
"Perhaps you simply missed having a father figure around, is that it? After your dad was out of the way you turned to the almighty Dark Lord to get some father-to-son attention, eh? Too bad by that time he was begging for mercy at the feet of a seventeen year old!"
"Sectum Semp-!"
"Expelliarmus!"
A massive explosion of light surrounded the trio and when it dissipated, Adrien was holding a struggling Malfoy against his chest and shouting wildly for Ginny to leave. Malfoy's wand was naught to be seen and Ginny was frozen with her wand aimed directly at his chest. Her eyes were wet with the fierce emotions that were rippling through her body.
Draco's face was the picture of loathing; he strained against Adrien's tightening grip like a loose cannon ready to catapult itself into oblivion.
With a deep ocean of thoughts churning in her mind, Ginny felt that it was definitely time for her to leave. But as she stared into the dark grey of Draco's shining eyes, she found herself incapable of moving.
In his reaction to her statement, Ginny realized that there was no pretending that she had imagined that dreadful night so long ago. In all this time, she'd never truly questioned the motives of what had happened. And she realized that to Draco, who she was sure had known she'd been there, she was the last link to his horrible past.
As she stared into Draco's crumpled face and pulsing veins, she knew he was fighting to erase that link, her own recollection of the event. As long as he knew she knew, he would never be able to escape it. Ginny brought her hand to her chest and tried to swallow the feelings of pity she felt rising into her throat for the tortured soul before her.
"Is that why you did it, Draco? Because he told you to? You loved your precious lord more than you loved your own father, didn't you?"
"You don't know what the fuck you are talking about!" Draco's voice became a roar that shook her to the core. She tore her eyes from Draco's and took one glance at Adrien's look of confusion and alarm before hurling herself from the room. She finally had the answer that she'd been trying to convince herself for years she never needed.
It was the truth that had been as prevalent on Lucius Malfoy's face as his body was engulfed by a flaming green light on the night of Lord Voldemort's defeat as it was now, in the eyes of the owner of the wand that Ginny had seen aimed at the spot where in some twisted hand of fate, a father had fallen at the hands of his son.
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Happy belated holidays!!
Peace in '06!
Oh yeah...REVIEW! : )
Translations:
`Mon Dieu!'= My God!
`Merde!' = Shit!
`Mon petit feu' = my little fire
`je promets' = I promise
`ferme la bouche' = shut up!
`s'il vous plait' = please
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