Author's Note: This chapter and the future 5 chapters were all written well before OOTP was released, so some major details may not be exactly cannon. Just read you'll know what I mean.
Chapter IV: Colin, Quidditch, and Let's Make a Deal
Draco walked along the unending corridors of St. Mungos Hospital. Bright green torch lights casting shadows on the pale blue walls, as a 'guard' walked a few steps ahead of him and another a few steps behind. They group walked in silence, the only noise the loud click of Draco's black boots on the stone floor.
He had travelled here every other Sunday since the year he left Hogwarts. Every other Sunday since the fall of the Dark Lord at the hands of Harry Potter. Every other Sunday since his father had gone insane and had to be incarcerated. Fudge had been arrogant enough in his ignorance to sentence Lucius Malfoy to St Mungo's other than Azkaban.
'Stupid Fudge,' Draco thought, darkly.'Stupid, Fat, Foolish, Too-short, bowler-hat wearing Fudge.'
The armed guard, Draco knew as Michael from their brief meeting when he arrived, stopped at a stretch of gray bricked stone. His head of light brown hair, which was cut unfashionably short, fell a bit shorter than Draco's own. Michael taped his light-wand against the stones in a pattern Draco had imprinted in his mind and he yawned with boredom as the dark-gray stones parted like the Red sea.
The room Draco stepped into was a bright sterile white contrasting greatly to the darkness of the hall. It held a single white sheeted cot and sitting at the only table in the room was a man he didn't care very much to see. His long pale fingers gently clasped together laying on the brown and beige chess board before him. His long white locks falling on his equally white uniformed shoulders.
"Good afternoon, Draco," he drawled, as unsurprised to see Draco, as Draco was to see him.
"Good afternoon, Father."
~*~*~*~
Ginny yawned stretching her freckled arms over her head. She was sitting in her dark office, the only light coming from the small window. She liked going to her office on Sundays, it meant no one would be there. No one to bother or berate her.
She was examining the dagger, again. The beautiful knife with it's odd jewels embedded deeply in it's silver hilt. Ginny could see her face's reflection contorted in the flat blade as if it were a carnival mirror. She was studying it closely when she noticed the smallest edge of writing along the boundary: To hear with sight.
"To hear with sight?" Ginny read into her empty office, confused as to what it could mean.
"What?" asked muffled feminine voice from the door.
Startled, Ginny looked up and in the threshold stood a tall blonde behind a stack of over filled boxes.
"Good afternoon Holly," she greeted, making her way to help her coworker with the boxes.
~*~*~*~
Draco sat in a small wooden chair at an equally small table across from his father. His father's black marble Knight had taken his white marble Rook. He still was not quite sure how his father accomplished this, but he had to take his father's word for it.
Lucius had begun topics on many things, but Draco had dropped each one quickly, answering with a short 'Yes' and 'No sir'. He did not want to be here with every fiber of his being. The only reason he made these awkward visits was to please his mother, and up to a year ago the visits had been a mere twice a month.
"Draco," he began, dragging his black queen across the board. "How is that map business of your's coming along? The Weasley girl still helping you."
Draco was not surprised to discover his father's knowledge of the map. He had been the one to suggest the Belgian curator, Mr. Roberts, but he still felt a slight uneasiness having not informed him of Ginny's involvement.
"Yes sir," he answered, curbing the surprise from his voice. He kept his eyes fixed on the chess pieces, hoping his father might want to drop the subject.
"Do you care to indulge?" asked Lucius, his silky voice more demanding than inquiring.
"The plan is coming along smoothly," he answered pursing his lips as he glided his remaining white rook across the board to take his father's bishop, "Weasley's involvement has been minimal and by tomorrow evening she will have none at all." He paused and then added as an afterthought, "She was quite useless, really."
"My young son," Draco felt his father's smooth but cold finger pulling his chin up to meet cool gray orbs, "that is where you are wrong."
"What do you mean?" he asked, pulling subtly away from his father. His eyes falling back to the inanimate chess pieces. The Ministry refused to allow any magical objects within Lucius Malfoy's grasp. Draco had to leave his wand when he arrived as if he were visiting a common criminal.
"I mean,"whispered Lucius as he leaned over the game, his thin white locks brushing the board and weaving between the pieces. "You could use her Draco."
"That skinny brat," he spat, sitting back in his chair, away from the table and his father, "I think not."
"You think too much," replied Lucius, a sneer forming on his lips, his pale eyes growing wide. He saw the excitement in and behind his father's eyes. The same distinguishable gray eyes he saw every morning in the mirror, but the ones before him now had an eccentric gleam to them, undeniably belonging to a mad man. He knew the Fudge's Ministry was quick to acknowledge his father's insanity. The man was indeed crazy. The doctors and nurses agreed that it had been many factors: The fall of his dark lord. The world he fought two wars for collapsing around him.
His behavior was humiliating, running off into his own world, speaking in gibberish and third person. Draco had been sure it was an act, something to fool the ministry. He was wrong.
After all the medi-wizard's tests, he was given the chance to speak privately with his father. Draco was sure his father would turn to him with his thin lips curled in the Malfoy smirk and explain to him how it was all staged. That it was his way of diverting the ministry and escaping a lifetime in Azkaban. That he would be home to take care of his wife. To Draco's horror he just sat in the chair speaking soothingly to himself.
Unfortunately, he was getting better. The episodes of embarrassing convulsions had subsided. He was holding half lucid conversations and occasionally could hold a non-wizarding game of chess. Draco would have claimed him sane. He held his self in the same demeanor Draco had remembered from childhood, cold but clearheaded. The only difference was the irrational look in his eyes.
Now the same mad eyes coupled with the same smooth voice, was trying to convince him to use Ginny Weasley. The same Ginny Weasley, who had brought his father so much disappointment Draco's second year attending Hogwarts. Draco knew he shouldn't be entertaining his father's ideas, the man was crazy. But to save his mother Draco would gladly snog a Dementor, and if that meant making deals with a devil, the so be it.
Draco suddenly found himself very uncomfortable sitting across from a lunatic, and he quickly found an excuse to break the intense eye contact with his father, glancing at his shiny new wrist watch. To his relief it was nearly five o'clock and his mother's nurses would be expecting him home.
"I have to go," he announced, hoping his voice was steady. He slowly rose from his chair, as his father withdrew into his own, "Lovely time as always, Father."
"You'll do well to heed my word, boy," the elder Malfoy called to his son's retreating back.
Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes, even with his back facing his father, the man would somehow know.
*~*~*
Ginny stood next to her bed, the entire contents of her wardrobe covering her daisy yellow sheets. She had come home earlier than she had wanted, relinquishing the office to her lanky colleague. Now, her only worry was finding something to wear.
She had never been taken on a real date before. While attending Hogwarts, she had accepted a few invitations to Hogsmeade, but Ron quickly put an end to it. Since she began working at the Ministry, she'd had enough offers for an after work butterbeer, but with her busy job no time to accept any. Seamus and Neville, who both worked for the Ministry, had brought her on many lunch dates and if all else failed she got to come home to her Colin.
Colin, Ginny thought, smiling to herself. Colin Alan Creevey, her best friend and forever her rock.
They hadn't been close, barely talking at all, their first four years at school then a chance encounter on the stairs to Gryffindor tower changed all that. Colin had been jumping for his camera being, which was being held high over his head, by three boys from their own house and year. Ginny threatened them, to give Colin his camera and leave him alone or else. The large fifth years ignored Ginny, insisting on taunting Colin for being so small, un-athletic, and for his odd fascination with the Boy-Who-Lived.
Ginny remembered jumping for the camera herself, but to no avail. She recalled reluctantly drawing her wand from her robes and giving them another chance.
But again the boys refused to give it back, content in their knowledge that Ginny already had lost the House thirty points when in Potions she'd dumped the contents of her hot cauldron on the top of a foul mouthed Slytherin.
Ginny was ready to take the responsibility of losing House points and the torment of another detention, but to her relief Hermione seemed to emerge from the stone walls of the corridor. Hermione looked the part of an administrator, her prefect badge flashing on her black robes, her lips set, and her two best friends flanking her sides. The boys immediately stiffened and without a word the tallest boy, who was holding the camera, dropped it into Hermione's hands. Ginny smiled to see her brother and Harry standing behind the brunette, smirking at each other.
. Colin had been terribly embarrassed, but thanked Ginny and Hermione anyway and that evening in the Great Hall, he intentionally sat by her for the first time. Ginny was happy to find Colin could be a bit of a chatter box, he could talk for hours without taking a single breath, leaving Ginny no room for discussion but she liked it that way.
"Colin," Ginny called into the empty air of their flat.
"What?" answered Colin, from where Ginny was convinced was the kitchen.
"Come help me find something to wear," she whined, throwing a fairly new peach robe to the bed.
"Don't have to yell ya' know," Colin replied, through a mouth of corn-beef sandwich. He was leaning against the open door of her bedroom. "So," he asked swallowing, "I reckon, another date with Seamus, eh?"
"No," Ginny said hoping her voice was casual.
"Well," he asked confused, "then who?"
"It's not a date, but I'm not telling you. You'll just make fun," she said, picking up an awful pink dress Penny had bought her holding it to her blue cotton pajama clad chest, before throwing it to the ground.
"C'mon Gin-bug, tell me," begged Colin, shaking his head at a blue jumper she was holding. "I told you when I took out that model chap."
"You weren't embarrassed, you were damn well proud."
"I was not, models are shallow," he argued, handing her a knee length cream colored dress.
"Oh, yes you were," she insisted, holding the new dress up. "You ran around the flat for hours singing, 'I'm taking out Jason Morgan' at the top of your bloody lungs."
"No, I wasn't. I was singing 'I'm taking out super-model Jason Morgan,'" Colin sang, giving Ginny a thumbs up to her new dress.
"Either way, it's not a date. It's…business and I'm not telling you," she answered, gathering the rest of her clothes off the bed.
"Well, date or not, you're going to look lovely, Gin."
Colin helped Ginny put her clothes away, berating her for the not so fashionable choices that filled her wardrobe. It consisted mostly of oversized Weasley sweaters, denim and corduroy trousers, shoes that were either too big or too small, but at the back of her closet bound in brown paper was prettiest cloak Ginny owned.
*~*~*
Quidditch was one of the few things Draco truly cared for. To him the game was more like a piece of a rare art then a simple competition. The crowds cheering, the mascots dancing, the individual players soaring higher and higher, the overall excitement added to the experience.
He admitted Quidditch was different when you were playing. It was more than just a sport, it was the most beautiful and exciting experience you could imagine. The wind whipping by you and the adrenalin pumping through your veins as you hover meters above the pitch, one fatal swift of a bludger and they would be carting you off to the hospital wing. He missed playing, he really did, but he couldn't. Good as he was in school, it was nothing compared to professional quidditch, so instead he did the next best thing, and bought himself a quidditch team.
His quidditch team, Puddlemere United, was facing the Chudley Canons or as Draco preffered to refer to them as talent less orange pigs, who unfortunately for all, learned to fly. Draco's already burning hatred for the team only grew as he heard the announcement of the team's players on that Monday afternoon.
"-and as Seeker, Mr. Harry Potter," an overly excited voice proclaimed from the announcer's box.
Draco clasped his around his champagne glass a little too tightly and the light-gold substance began shaking.
"Didn't know, did you?" asked Ginny, taking a small sip from her own glass. She was sitting two seats away from him, her pale legs crossed. She was wearing a wide strapped, pale cream dress that fell just above her name when she sat, giving him his first generous look at her fair legs. 'Suitable for muggles,' Draco thought, "but what else can you expect from a Weasley.' Her mass of wild hair, was for once tamed, worn down and straight, covering her arms and back like a deep red cloak. She was pretty Draco reluctantly admitted, his father's unstable words ringing clear in his head. 'Weasley, might be useful for something," he smirked.
"Didn't know what?" he asked, dragging his eyes up her crossed legs, semi-crossed arms, and eventually reaching her face. He took a sip from his cool glass.
"Don't play dumb," she answered, putting her glass on the table. They were relaxing in his private owner's box, waiting for the match to begin. "You didn't know Harry played for the Cannons."
"My Weasley," he started with sarcasm, "your surveillance skills are quite the marvel, how did the Auror trainers, ever let you slip through their fingers?"
"I was too good," Ginny added, not sounding very confident, but her eyes never left a certain orange pig.
"Obviously not good enough for Potter, he surely didn't notice."
"Look Malfoy," Ginny started, "I'm here about the map, not you and Harry's immature post-Hogwarts battle of bigger…bananas."
Draco was in the middle of taking a sip of his bubbly and used all his self-control to swallow it. "Well," he cleared his throat, "since we have all talk of bananas out of the way, I believe we should get down to the real reason you're here."
"What would you like to know?" he asked, ready to only give Ginny the information she needed to know.
Ginny and Draco shared the information each one had collected, occasionally stopping to watch an amazing play as they zoomed through the crisp September air. They didn't get much bartered between them as it was a quick game. Harry catching the snitch in an almost personal record, bringing the Cannons' their third win of the season.
Draco took the loss much better then Ginny had been expecting. Surprisingly, he didn't break his comfortable stadium chair, throw their shared bottle of champagne shattering it against the wall of the large room, or he didn't run out the door proclaiming he was going to kill Walt Mc Heel, the head coach of his team. He stiffly stood up, his pink lips, pressed firmly together.
"Lovely," he exhaled, his thin nostrils flaring.
*~*~*
The stadium's large security troll opened the door to the owner's box. Draco let Ginny step through first, allowing her to stand on the balcony by herself for a moment. She stopped at the railing to look down onto the small groups of lucky fans adorned in blue and orange waiting anxiously for their team player's to step from their locker rooms, each one hoping to get a picture of their favorite player or an autograph.
"Pathetic," Draco mumbled over he shoulder in disgust.
She heard a group of young girls scream and she felt his head, next to her own, move as a tall raven maned figure was making his way through the sea of orange and blue. A taller man with ginger hair and freckles bound to his side, pushing people off as they grabbed for the Cannons' young Seeker.
"Ron! Harry!" she called from the balcony, hoping her brother could hear her over the noisy crowd.
She saw Ron looked up at the sound of her voice and felt Draco's warm fingers clasp around her bare upper arm. Ron's sapphire eyes squinting as he sought her out. Ginny waved with her free arm and he waved back. Ron grabbed his friends arm, saying something into his ear, and pointing at the balcony Ginny and Draco were standing on. Harry looked up, his green eyes barely making contact with her brown, as he waved and the two boys she considered brothers continued on their way out.
Neither man noticed Malfoy standing so closely behind Ginny. He took in her disappointed expression and obvious self-pity. Her brother and lifelong crush barely noticing her with the young owner of a quidditch team alone in his private box, both barely waving as they continued with their busy lives. Draco filed this emotion with the rest for future reference. He had collected all the small sensitivities he had witnessed from her and placing them in a folder labeled, 'Ginny' in his mind of filing cabinets. He knew they would be more than useful in the future.
"C'mon Weasley," he ordered, the hand around her freckled arm steering her away from the railing and down the steps.
~*~*~*~
Due to Harry catching the snitch and ending the game quickly, they had been unable to exchange the more important information, so Draco invited her to an early dinner.
The restaurant he chose mirrored the mood of their date, not a romantic spore in the atmosphere. The air was stuffy and reeked of elderly wizards and witches. The utensils and dishes set before her were polished to a silver shine, but were entirely too many for her taste. Her wooden chair was anything but comfortable, and Ginny was positive it was magically manipulating her spine as it perfected her posture.
Her eyes roamed over to Draco, who besides his young appearance, looked at ease in his surroundings. His back straight, his head high in his arrogance, and his long fingers wrapped delicately around the body of his glass as he took a small sip of the wine their water had declared as being 'a very good year'.
"Great team you bought there," Ginny asked mockingly, remembering the huge loss his team had suffered at the very hands of his school rival.
"Oh, yes," he said, taking another sip of his wine, "I see them taking the league championship."
"Do you really?" asked Ginny, surprised at Draco's sudden enthusiasm for his team. She'd been under the impression that the he'd considered them in less than a good light, after not saying a word since they'd left the stadium.
"My God no," he snickered, lowering his glass. The mirthless laugh, wasn't a pleasant sound to Ginny's ears.
"That's not funny," she insisted. "To cut your team down that way, do you really expect them to do well with encouraging speeches like that."
"Oh please," he said taking another sip of his dark drink, "I've only met one of them, that Scottish fellow…Wood."
"What?" she asked baffled, "You haven't even met your team, the men whose futures you hold in the palm-"
"I bought the team. I'm not their coach," Draco interrupted, "I don't go down to the pitch, give them hugs, kisses, pat their backs, and read them bed time stories. That's not my thing," again he took a sip, "My money is all the encouragement they need."
"I see," Ginny sighed, rolling her own half-full glass over in her hands, the dark purple liquid turning red as it swirled onto the sides. They sat in silence a few more moments before Ginny asked a question she'd been dying to know the answer. "So, you erased Hermione's memory eh?"
"Not so loud, Weasley," he hissed, his eyes darting around to the other tables before settling back on her own, "And to answer you silly question-No I didn't." He brought his wineglass once more to his lips, before setting it empty onto the white table cloth. "I haven't seen Granger in …well over a year."
Ginny didn't understand why, but she believed him, maybe it was the fact he had no use in lying to her now. He admitted to Ginny that he had been the one to break into her house and steal his map.
"But it was my map! I had every right to take it back," he hissed dangerously at her, defending his actions.
He also admitted that he had knowledge of Hermione's memory being tampered, but that nothing harmful had or would come of it. Ginny had exhaled loudly with this news, however Draco refused to disclose who had done the tampering, leaving her with many unanswered questions.
"So," he said, staring at her, "Are you going to help or not?"
"Me?" Ginny asked, surprised.
Draco nodded.
"Me," she repeated.
"A name you call yourself," Draco said, massaging his brow with his fingers. "Now, if you're going to burst into song, I'd rather be somewhere else. So are you or are you not?"
"Not what?" she asked. Did Draco Malfoy just ask for my help? Again."
"Going to help me," he replied, a whiny tinge to his voice.
Ginny opened her mouth to say something, but Draco unexpectedly raised his hand to stop her.
"If you answer my question with a question, I might have to strangle you, understand?"
Ginny paused for a moment weighing how serious Draco's statement was, "Why should I?" she asked, her voice unexpectedly calm as she pushed him.
Draco's mouth opened then closed and his light eyes narrowed for a moment. He appeared to have not been expecting this protest. 'He's probably never been told no,' Ginny thought, watching him think.
"Double your pay," he offered, with a smirk.
"Double my pay?" Ginny asked insulted, crossing her freckled arms on the table, "Do I look like a bought woman?"
"Do you honestly want the answer?" he asked teasingly and for a few seconds studied Ginny's face. No sign of a smile, but narrowed brown eyes and a set pink mouth. He sighed, giving an ounce of defeat, "What do you want?"
"First, I'd like to know exactly what you want with it," Ginny began, pushing her wine glass around nervously with fingers trying to curb the urge to begin chewing on her thumbnail.
"Part of what?" he asked.
"Part of the map," Ginny answered.
"What for?" he asked, one pale brow arching. He was beginning to question Virginia Weasley's intentions, maybe his father was wrong, maybe he shouldn't involve her. She had already tried to cross him once.
"You answer my question first," Ginny smiled, revealing a deep dimple among her many freckles. She knew she had the upper hand and she was going to use it. Draco doesn't want me,' she thought, 'he needs me." Someone else needed you once too," another voice offered up, but Ginny ignored it.
"Well, then we really are in trouble. I'll only give you a quarter of the map, and that might I add is generous, but of your earlier question the subject is closed," he said, sliding his uncomfortable chair back and standing up, "So it seems we have arrived at impasse, Miss. Weasley."
He took a dark velvet sack from his long gray jacket and deposited a few gold coins onto the table, marking the end of their dinner, his demeanor uncaring that Ginny had just refused to help him. He was walking away from their table, expecting Ginny to follow, and she could feel her opportunity slipping by. Maybe she was wrong and whatever plans Malfoy had for the map, he could do on his own.
"Malfoy," she called after him scrambling from her seat and, thinking the sound of her own voice was sickeningly pathetic. "I'll help you."
Draco abruptly stopped and Ginny ran into his back.
"You will," he said, standing to the side to allow her to walk before him.
"Yes," she said sounding defeated. She was making a deal with the devil she knew, but what other choice did she have.
"I knew you'd see the light," he said smirking at her back as she walked ahead of him.
TBC...
Author's Note: I know Ginny seemed a litte dismissive about Hermione's memory being erased, but she doesn't forget these things and she seemed abit too hasty to help Malfoy. Well that will come back too. Reviewers:
Adrienne: I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I hope you stick around. I can't believe I'm the first new story your reading. Wow thank you so much and suberb writing, well I'm not so sure about that, but again thank you. There will be more on Draco and his mother's relationship in future chapters.
Batgirl: Thankyou so much, I hoped you liked this chapter too. Yeah, the UST's pretty high and it get's higher.
Dawn Wood: Thankyou for loving the story and don't worry all your questions will be answered, especially about Ginny's power and Draco's mother. They are both key roles.
Resse Darling: No, Mrs. Malfoy isn't at St. Mungo's I think that would put her too far away for Draco's tastes, she's being cared for at Malfoy Manor. Don't worry it all comes up. Thanks for the review.
gabrielle-Again, thank-you and don't worry there will be many more Draco Ginny fights.
Clair: Thanks for the review and well the sickness will come back soon.
ennui: I suppose Ginny would find Muggle things irritating and mundane after a while. Thanks for the review.
Huge Thanks To: dracoginnyr, tosha1986, iziy, Erin,
To: 17842 Enter Name, 17837 Enter Name, 17179 Enter Name: I'm not sure who you are, but I thankyou.