Author's Notes:
Schlepping back with more of our story. Much appreciation to everyone who left a review and to all who continue to read this tale. A heartfelt thanks to Marcia, my beta, for not being afraid to call trash - well, trash! -fallenwitch
Chapter 14
His Kiss
When she didn't come to him, he went to her. Four hours after Healer Topman finished the longest post-resurrection check-up in the history of the wizarding world, Draco tracked his illustrious houseguest down in the library, surrounded by many old and expensive friends.
But she wasn't looking at the books on the shelves. She was staring, with one longing hand on the window, at her old haunts - the wild meadows, the black lake, the tip of the forest - tranquil and silent and bathed in the autumn of day's fading glory.
She heard the soft sound of his boots crossing the room and coming to a halt behind her, but she continued to stare at her irretrievably lost past, and her heart ached. She didn't want to turn around and face him. She dreaded facing him. She wanted to stand there until the floor opened up and swallowed her six feet under.
"You have a wonderful life here," she said, without turning around.
"It could have been your life as well."
She shook her head.
If she closed her eyes and let go, the beginning came into focus, sharp and undiluted - a naïve young woman with passionate beliefs, a world that turned on a single axis, and a bitter winter night when Nikolay Levski died. It was one misstep, one miscalculation, no more or less, but it gave birth to an explosion, a shrieking cascade of dominos.
"Was life here so horrible? Did I not treat you well enough? Or was the idea of spending the rest of your life with a filthy Death Eater too much?" He watched as she turned her head and stared up at him.
"Of course not. It had nothing to do with you. You were wonderful to me. You know that. But I had obligations in place, things I needed to do long before I came to you."
Wasn't that the problem? It was never about him. He was nothing more than a stinking pit stop along the way. He would rather she loath him than dismiss him. He wasn't the type of wizard one dismissed - until now.
"Marrying Chervenko, killing Levski, and taking over Bulgaria? Those kinds of things?"
She nodded.
"I see," he drawled, studying her, "so letting you play Quidditch and romp around in that ridiculous outfit Blaise bought you wouldn't have made a difference, would it?"
She laughed, a soft, bittersweet cry, while shaking her head, but there was no laughter in his eyes or boyish smile tugging at his lips. There was only darkness and pain and exhaustion sweeping through his deserted heart.
"I'm sorry, Draco."
"I couldn't give you what you needed, could I?"
She shook her head.
Did she hear him sucking up what was left of his nonexistent pride? She told him what he knew all along - what he couldn't bear to hear - that he wasn't wizard enough for her. If the situation weren't so dire for him, he would have burst out laughing at the idea of some witch telling him he wasn't wizard enough. But here he was, and there she was, and no one was laughing.
"You love your husband?"
"Yes, I love Christo."
"Does he give you everything you need? Is he everything you want? Are you happy, Ginny?"
"Yes."
Draco nodded. Hell, he was proud of himself for remaining upright at this point. It was one thing to hold these fears in the back of your heart. It was another to have the witch of your dreams whisper them into your miserable face, shattering your fucking world a second time around.
It was past time for Draco's foolish fantasy to end. There was nothing more to be done. Hell, it was over before it began. If he had to pry his goddamn heart away from her and beat it into submission, then so be it. But there would never be another for him like her. He was fatally afflicted with the witch. She lived under his skin, in his vision, and within the walls of his heart. Try as he might, he could not rid himself of her infestation.
"You're welcome to stay as long as needed. Healer Topman will tend to your medical needs. Sam and Frank and the elves are here for anything else. I'll be returning to my flat this afternoon."
Now that he had resurrected the witch, his usefulness in her life was over and he had no desire to hang around like an unwanted puppy dog, sniffing out fallen crumbs of her affection. He knew what he was signing up for when he took her dying arse home, but it was much too lovely an arse to let die, regardless of its political and emotional affiliations. He had no regrets.
Draco leaned over and kissed Ginny on the cheek, pausing a moment as her intoxicating scent washed over him. Then he took her hand and gently kissed it. As he left that last lingering kiss, an odd warmth skidded up his lips, followed by a slow, twisting fizzle. Draco glanced up at Ginny, who stared back at him in a moment of paralysis, before snatching her hand away from his. Draco snatched it back. They struggled a moment or two with Ginny furiously yanking and jerking her hand, trying to free it from Draco's grasp, but he held it firm, staring at the remarkable transformation that had taken place on her left hand.
Gone were her wedding band and engagement ring. In their place was the goddamn engagement ring he had placed on her reluctant finger over a year ago, the one he thought she had pawned in pursuit of her rebel husband. Had his kiss inadvertently broken the charm?
Draco looked up at Ginny's horrified, dark eyes. "Liar," he spat out, furious.
"So what?" she spat back, wrenching her hand away from his. "Christo couldn't get a proper ring for me before the war. There wasn't time."
"If your husband had time to procure the entire country of Bulgaria, he had time to get a bloody fucking ring for his wife," Draco glowered down her lying throat. If he had to strangle the truth out of the confabulating witch, he would.
"Get away from me," Ginny hissed, shoving Draco back with both of her hands to his chest and scrambling backwards - right up until she hit a wall, stopping her hasty retreat.
Draco went after her, one fuming step at a time, until the only thing between him and that wall of books was one anxious, lying witch. "Is there anything about you that isn't a lie?" he snarled, inches away and closing.
Ginny reached back and pulled a book off the shelf, holding it above his head in a threatening fashion. "Don't you dare - "
"Dare what?" he asked, slamming both of his hands on either side of her, trapping her against the shelf.
Her fearful, dark eyes darted back and forth, watching his arms encage her. "Touch me." When he raised an eyebrow at this, she hissed, "Don't you dare touch me, Draco."
"I wouldn't think of it, Mrs. Chervenko."
Ginny watched as Draco's scathing eyes tore through her, from the top of her crimson locks to tips of her terrified toes. Good god almighty, he was going to kill her. If he didn't kill her, he was going to maim her. If he didn't maim her, he was going to Crucio her. Ginny didn't close her eyes or try to flee the horrid situation. No, she stood there, prepared to take her punishment like the witch she was. And if she survived his thrashing, she was going to Port back to Bulgaria and kill Christo with her own two hands. Bulgaria could find itself another Minister of Magic because their current Minister was dead on her arrival. Dead.
"Goddamn it, Ginny," Draco cursed as he punched his fist into the wall of books half an inch away from Ginny's face, sending a shudder through the bookcase and down the spine of its female visitor. Collapsing against Ginny, Draco sandwiched her between his rage-rigid body and the books behind her, burying his miserable face in his fist on the shelf.
Ginny stood frozen under Draco's weight, listening to his erratic breathing and watching the pounding artery on his throat, aware of her own terrified heart matching its furious beat. When he didn't move, when he didn't speak, when he stood there without a sign of any kind, Ginny looked up. All she saw was the underside of his tense jaw. The book slipped from her hand and fell to the floor with a thud.
In a flash of movement, Draco had her upper arms in his fists, ripping her away from the bookcase and holding her inches from his livid face.
"Why did you do it, Ginny? Why? What did you need so badly that you married Chervenko to get it? I would have given you everything I owned. I would have laid down my life for you. What was it Ginny? What?" Draco shook the unfathomable witch until her teeth rattled. "No more lies. Do you hear me? Or so help me, I'll tear you apart where you stand."
Ginny swallowed her nonexistent saliva and nodded. "No lies."
Did he need to drag out the bloody Veritaserum and shove it down her throat? Because he wasn't beneath doing that, not where this witch was concerned.
"You won't need your Veritaserum."
Was she a Legilimens as well? Good lord, what next? Draco hesitated, weighing the pros and cons, before deciding against the Veritaserum. Hell, knowing her, she already had some ancient Dark countercurse hidden up the sleeve of her robes. She was going to tell him what she was going to tell him, and it was up to his sorry Slytherin arse to sift through her crap for the truth of the matter, wherever the fuck it was hiding this time.
"Well? What was so damn important?" he spat out, not loosening his bruising hold on her arms.
"You," she whispered, looking into his angry eyes. "I needed you."
"Me?" he said, incredulous. "You had me, Ginny."
"No, Draco, I needed you safe. From the moment I realized I was out of Levski's prison, I began plotting his assassination, waiting for my opportunity. Then you told me you loved me and intended to marry me and everything changed. I still needed to kill Levski but not for me. I needed to kill Levski for you, to keep you safe. But I couldn't kill Levski unless I married Christo and broke the magical bond between us, ensuring your safety in the event of my death."
Draco stared at the inane, insane, out-of-her-fucking-mind witch. "Were you out of your mind, Ginny? I could have protected both of us from Levski. You didn't need to go off and marry Chervenko and risk your life killing Levski."
She shook her head. "No, you couldn't. Why do you think I was never the marrying kind? Because I didn't want a husband or a family? Of course I wanted those things, but Levski swore to me that the day I crawled out of his prison alive was the day he began preparing for the sport of one day killing my husband and my children and everyone else I held close to my heart. I knew Levski and his ways. There was no protection from him. The only protection I could give you was killing him."
"Why didn't you come to me, Ginny? Why didn't you say something? We could have figured something out. Hell, I would have killed Levski for you."
"Wizards like Levski don't get killed without igniting a firestorm. If you killed Levski, England would have been embroiled in another war. No witch's life is worth a war. You were safest knowing nothing. It left you clean enough to pass a Veritaserum test and prevented you from coming after me. If you stepped foot in Bulgaria, Christo would have had you killed. No," she said sharply, silencing him with one hand in the air, "Christo's killed every invincible Death Eater in Bulgaria. He would have killed you, too. This was never your war, Draco. It was mine."
"And Chervenko?"
"It became Christo's war when Levski killed Christo's father, Closimir, during the War. Christo and I were either going to die together trying to assassinate Levski and his family or we were going to come out alive and free from him."
Draco shook his head in disbelief. "Now you're married to the most wanted wizard on the Continent. Every Death Eating country in Europe wants him dead. A slightly larger problem than Levski, wouldn't you say?"
"No, because my goal was to keep you safe, and now you're safe. I'm not afraid of the consequences of my actions. Christo and I are well suited. With the life he lives, having me by his side has been an asset. I willingly followed Christo into the Bulgarian war and will go wherever his path leads. We will live or die together, like we've been doing for the past year. For you, Draco, I'm a liability and an embarrassment."
Draco let go of Ginny and leaned against the bookcase, lest he fall down. "This marriage to Chervenko... "
"...is forever. I'm his wife, Draco, in every sense of the word."
"No, Ginny, no."
"He's a good wizard, Draco. He loves me and takes care of me. He sent me here to save my life. Isn't that what you wanted for me?"
Draco was too mute with shock to speak. No, that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be her good wizard. He wanted to love her and care for her, not some goddamn Bulgarian rebel trash who dragged her into a bloody war and pushed her to the edge of the fucking veil.
"You don't love him, Ginny," Draco said, as if that would make a difference.
"But I care for him, and it's enough."
Draco ran an unsteady hand down his face. That goddamn magical contract had been the death of them both. Chervenko had a leash around her neck the entire time, playing her like a fucking puppet, and Draco as well.
Draco looked over at Ginny. "Stay."
"What?"
"Don't go back to Bulgaria. Stay here with me."
Ginny turned to Draco and laid her hand on his chest. "I can't do that. You know that."
"Why not? I don't give a damn about Chervenko."
"Well, he gives a damn about you. The entire Continent gives a damn about all three of us, whether we like it or not. How would it look, the wife of the Minister of Magic of free Bulgaria shacking up with one of the most powerful Death Eaters in England? It would be a political nightmare for all of us, and I don't fancy being kidnapped or killed." When Draco opened his mouth to protest, Ginny reached up and put her finger over his mouth, silencing him. "No, Draco. I owe Christo a wizard's debt twice over. His father died saving my life. I can't repay him with that kind of political and emotional betrayal. Besides, Christo won't allow it. He'll come and take me back. It's his right."
"Ginny," Draco cried, reaching out and gathering his lost witch into his aching arms, "what have you done?" But he couldn't think or argue or debate the facts anymore. All he could do was cradle Ginny to his exploding heart and listen to that goddamn clock ticking.
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