Unofficial Portkey Archive

Blue-Eyed Angel

Chapter Thirteen

Narcissa moved about Draco's apartment Thursday morning, tending to the children there. She considered Draco one of "the children," because he would forever be her baby, no matter how many babies he had himself. Dressed like a Muggle, in black slacks and a cropped but fitted jacket, she still somehow managed to look cultured and sophisticated with her long sliver hair pulled up into a twist, her posture so straight even in her relaxed state that she could have balanced a stack of books on her head as she moved and they wouldn't have teetered. She looed good, as she should since she was only just turning fifty and she took damn good care of herself.

It was near noon and she was preparing lunch. Michelangelo wanted cheesy macaroni and Clarissa wanted a jam sandwich with no crust. Draco wanted none of that. He wouldn't eat. Narcissa tried tempting him with his favorite: peanut butter at the very least, and he had not refused, he had simply ignored her. He was lying in bed while the children were actually up. They were taking it easy and watching some television with a frequent reminder from their grandmother for "a little less noise," because she knew how much Draco wanted to sleep.

With the kids halfheartedly trying to push each other off the couch with their feet as they sat foot to foot on the couch, each sharing an end of the same blanket, there was a knock at the door.

"Who on earth…?" Narcissa asked, wiping her delicate hands on a kitchen rag while walking out into the living room to answer the door.

"Stop that, you two," she said over her shoulder, Michelangelo pulling on the blanket so it covered his sister less for no reason other than to annoy her and get her to start whining.

Narcissa opened the front door cautiously so she could lean around it and not allow anyone to see in. She had no idea who was at the door, and call her paranoid but she did not trust anyone that showed up there unexpectedly to have good intentions.

Reamann stood on the front steps, looking awkward yet hopeful.

"Hello, are you Draco's mother?" he asked, trying to be polite and keep the surprise out of his voice at her youthful appearance and obvious resemblance to Draco. Damn she looked good if she was his mother, and damn if he were wrong and she took offence to him implying that she was old enough to have mothered him. Women were so sensitive like that about their age.

"Who are you?" she asked, not answering him his question.

"Reamann Rossiter, I work with Draco at the Ministry, or rather, he helps me out at the Ministry on a case I'm working…but anyways, I have been over before, met his children and all, and I know he is sick so I have a potion for him to help him feel a little bit better. I wanted to talk…"

"Come in," she said, leaning out of the doorway to disappear behind it and allow Reamann in. Reamann, caught off guard by her sudden and ready invitation, closed his mouth slowly and stepped in.

"Thank you," he said as she closed the door behind him after he was barely inside.

"He is in his bedroom, first room on the right down the hall there," she said, pointing to a dark hallway at the far end of the living room, across from the front door.

"Um, thank you," he said, still uneasy. Draco's mother didn't look like an overly trusting woman, but the moment he said he would offer to help Draco feel better she invited him in and was now pushing him to see her son. He supposed he couldn't blame her, but honestly, he was dreading seeing Draco enough that he would have liked to be stalled for a moment longer.

"Hello, Reamann," Clarissa said, smiling up at him, kicking her brother hard under their shared blanket as she pulled it under her chin.

"Mr. Rossiter," Michelangelo said through his teeth, his shin hurting now.

"Hello you two, how are you feeling?" he asked, noting that they looked worn out and a little paler than he remembered them, but otherwise pretty perky.

"As good as could be expected," Clarissa said, snuggling down but smiling. Michelangelo said nothing as he tried to pull the blanket away from her. It was honestly large enough for them to share, they were just being difficult.

"You look, good," he said, honest but still a little amazed.

"Try not to sound so surprised," Michelangelo said blandly.

"Michael, be kind," Narcissa warned before turning to Reamann. "Children are remarkably resilient. They bounce back so much better than," she said, abruptly stopping there to sigh. "They are tough," she said, patting Michelangelo on the head and putting the war of the blanket to an end with a leer in their direction.

Reamann understood what Narcissa had almost said. The children were fairing better than Draco was, most likely far better by measure of how heavy her sigh had been.

"I would have brought more of this draught if I had thought of you two possibly needing it," he said, leaning over to rest his hands on his knees while talking to them, hoping to build up the nerve to go see Draco by talking to his children a little. He really did like the kids; they were really quite intriguing and sweet.

"We are doing okay. Dad's really the one that needs it," Michelangelo said, looking up at Reamann with eyes of complete understanding of the situation which made Reamann 's posture of leaning over and smiling almost condescending.

"He usually this bad?" Reamann asked, hoping, in some dark, twisted, selfish way, that to be the case, if only to ease his own guilt for having put Draco under more stress than usual. Thinking that, Reamann felt rather disgusted with himself.

"He hasn't been this bad in a while," Clarissa piped in, pulling the blanket up then to cover her mouth, her pale and delicately frowning eyebrows creasing in the middle with her concern as her mass of long curling hair spilled out all-around her while she leaned against the couch arm.

Reamann straightened, his stomach almost too tight to allow it. Narcissa was at his side when he turned.

"When you go in there," she said softly as though to exclude the children from the conversation at that point, "could you possibly get him to eat something? He worries me when he doesn't eat," she said, the sincere concern on her face so honest it seeped over onto him.

"I will," he promised, knowing that the time was up and he had to go see Draco now.

Draco's closed bedroom door was the first on the right, barely into the hallway so it would have been hard to miss with the living room but feet to his right. There was another door a little further down on the left that was open and looked like a bathroom and then another on the very end that he could only guess what probably where the children slept. Standing in front of the door Reamann looked to his right, into the living room, and sighed.

"Alright," he whispered to himself, looking at the door.

Should he knock or just enter?

If Draco was not feeling well he did not want to cause a headache or something with knocking, but Draco also seemed like the kind of person that would demand a knock before someone entered.

Reamann settled for tapping him knuckles softly on the wood as he opened the door.

"Draco?" he asked softly, leaning in around the door. He saw and took in Draco's bedroom immediately. There was one window on the wall opposite him that was tall and narrow and blocked off with heavy drapes. Directly below the window was a mattress on the floor. There was a lamp and clock on Reamann 's right along with an old, almost antique looking wardrobe and a guitar leaning against the wall in the corner. On the left was a battered dresser against that wall opposite the wardrobe. The floor was clean, and wooden, only a small rug on the left side of the bed to offer some defense against the cold of the floor. The room was very small, narrow so that really, the only space was at the foot of the bed where the door swung, and the narrow space on either side of the mattress, narrower on the side with the wardrobe.

There was a lump under the blankets on the bed. That was all that indicated that Draco was there. He did not answer.

"Hey, Draco," Reamann said, closing the door behind him and standing there in the awkward silence of the room.

"Please tell me that I imagined…that I dreamed, that you had come to visit me last night while at the Ministry," Draco mumbled from under his blankets.

Reamann's uncomfortable silence spoke volumes.

"Damn it, Reamann," Draco growled, muffled only a touch by the bedding.

"I just had to do something, I was going crazy. I intended on just dropping off the letter and leaving. It was only by accidental chance that I saw you at all, but I'm still very sorry," he said while moving over to the left of the bed so he was no longer standing by the door. Draco rolled over with a groan like he was in pain. He looked right at him and Reamann couldn't hold his gaze. Draco's eyes were red and dry looking, almost like he had been crying but something more like he was just exhausted and in pain. His throat was bruised, like someone had choked him. It didn't take Reamann but a second to realize that was probably from last night, and it had been Draco himself that had caused the bruises, when he had nearly choked himself with his collar.

Reamann felt guilt at that. Draco wouldn't have had those bruises if he had not gone there.

"You came here today to ease your own guilt, but to also ask if I had read your note," he said and Reamann's mouth opened, ready to deny that last. "Save it, Reamann," he said, not needing to hold up his hand to effectively cut Reamann off. It was near impossible to lie to Draco sometimes, with Draco ready and capable of looking into his mind. "I understand that the case had a major turn for the worse, but that does not excuse what you did. This is now the third time you have disregarded my right to and desire for privacy so as to feed your own curiosity and ease your discomfort at the expense of my own."

"Draco, I'm sorry that I keep offending you like this. I just find you very interesting and want to learn more, but you are so…"

"No, you don't trust me, and you are curious about the stories. You want to see if they are true," he said, cutting Reamann off.

"Draco, I trust you. I have said it before that I trust you,"

"And you lied," Draco said, rolling over with obvious pain at the effort but his desire to not look at Reamann at the moment overpowering even that.

Reamann had to look away. He did not like that that Draco appeared to be so thin that he could see his spine, and he be damned if Draco did not seriously look like he was dying. It seemed Draco was too immersed in his own suffering to mind the fact that he had presented his boney back to Reamann and just took some deep breaths. Reamann flinched as he caught a glimpse of Draco's ribs expanding just under the skin, and Draco spoke.

"Please answer me this, Reamann," he said as though forcing his words through his teeth and past his pain, "What did you really accomplish by going there last night? Was your own ease of mind really worth it, at the expense of my pride and privacy?"

"Draco, I did not mean,"

"I don't think this is working out, Reamann," he said suddenly.

"Draco, what do you mean?"

"Sebastian has been assigned to the case now; you do not need me."

"I don't want to work with him, he's a bigger prat than you could ever be, and you and I have been working since the beginning on this."

"Sebastian is very smart; you won't need to use me anymore with him on the case,"

"Draco, I'm not using you-"

"Just get out," Draco said firmly, still presenting his back to Reamann.

"Draco, we had a deal. You help me, I help you," he said and Draco huffed a little, curling up a little more, making the bones just that much more prominent and painfully obvious, forcing Reamann to swallow. "Draco, you need this potion," he said, holding out the vial he had brought over for Draco. "Don't tell me you don't. Your mother is worried sick in the other room. She wants you to eat something, and honestly, I think it would do you some good to-"

"I said get out," Draco said, his voice so low in a growl that it was actually hoarse. It was clear his throat obviously hurt. "Get out of my house, get out of my life. I was doing fine without you, and I will continue to be fine without you," he said, his voice firm despite the despair prevalent in it.

Reamann now had the impression that Draco had shown him his back on purpose, with intent on making him feel uncomfortable and awkward, to chase him out. It had worked if that was the case. He seriously wanted to just run from the scene and he felt guilty looking down at how sick Draco was.

Damn him.

Reamann set the little bottle down on top of Draco's dresser without a word and closed the door behind him as he left. Draco did not get up right away for the potion. He laid there for a long while, thankful that presenting his back had successfully hidden his tears from the other man.

"Did he say what he wanted to eat?" Narcissa asked as Reamann walked towards the front door, prepared to let himself out without saying anything to anyone. The hopefulness in Narcissa's voice was enough to make his stomach churn. He couldn't leave just yet.

"I'm sorry," he said, turning slowly. Narcissa looked at him, brow frowning, eyes sadly hopeful still. "I realize now that my presence is not only inappropriate, but not appreciated. I did not mean to hurt your son like I have, and I hope you can forgive me. I don't expect him to," he said, turning around to let himself out.

Narcissa was left standing there, hurting, unsure of what to do to help her baby in the other room.

"Nana? What's wrong?" Clarissa asked from behind her.

"Come on you two, let's get you cleaned up and dressed to visit your uncle Lupin and see how he is feeling," she said, sniffing back her tears, readying the children to visit her niece so that Draco could have some peace.

----------------

Ginny checked her note, checked the address in the building, and then checked her note again. She had the right place. She had Apparated to a safe point from the Ministry and had walked nearly half a mile to get there. Now she was standing on the sidewalk in front of Draco's home and had lost her nerve. She was not having second thoughts, but she was suddenly feeling a little insecure.

What if she asked him out and he said no?

Would he really say no?

He seemed interested enough earlier in the week, when he had thrown her down on his desk and nearly ravished her...though, she had been more than willing to allow him to ravish her.

She would have to explain to him her ideas, thoughts, and feelings on the matter and he might not want to. He might like the idea of her cheating, he might not want to be the "other man" in her life, and really, could she blame him?

Unfolding and then refolding her note over and over again she stood there in the cold, snow built up in little mounds at the sides of the sidewalk and Ginny had a distinct mental image of Draco outside, in hat, scarf, and gloves, manually shoveling the walk.

Why did that make her smile?

It was not funny that he could not use magic.

But then why did her heart flutter warmly whenever she thought of him doing the simplest and most humble of things? Surely there were witches and wizards that opted to actually wash their own clothing, or sweep their own floors. Magic was a connivance, not an excuse to be lazy. Right?

She was a poor example of that. She owned only one broom, and it was not the sweeping kind.

"Hello, Ms. Weasley," Narcissa Malfoy said, suddenly beside her.

Ginny jumped a little and placed her empty hand over her heart, squishing down her puffy scarf.

"Oh, Mrs. Malfoy, you startled me," she said, letting out a puff of breath.

"That is plain to see, dear," she said in a very cold and rolling tone that made Ginny feel subordinate. Draco could talk very much like that, and she wondered if it was a learned or hereditary quality. She did not like Narcissa making her feel inferior, and took a deep breath, knowing that was just how Narcissa was and not to take it personal, or to heart because that would likely only satisfy the woman.

"I, I came to see Draco," Ginny announced, standing outside with the woman, realizing she would likely have to get an invitation from her to come in.

"I'm sorry. My son is not going to be having all this company today. He needs his rest," Narcissa said, turning to walk up the steps, leaving Ginny to stand there.

"Please, I have to talk to him, it's important," she said.

"No," Narcissa said, not even going as far to say "come another time," and thus giving Ginny the impression that the woman was turning her away because she was a Weasley. That made her hot with anger.

"I'm his girlfriend and I demand to see him," she huffed, the words coming out before she even thought of what she was saying. Once they were out in the air Ginny wanted to hiccup and swallow them before they reached Narcissa, but she could not. Narcissa turned from the door where she had been about to unlock it to stare.

"Excuse me?" she said, caught somewhere between indignant outrage at being addressed with such disrespect, and shock from Ginny's declaration.

"Please, I need to see him," she said.

"My son would not date a…he would not date you," Narcissa said firmly.

"You clearly don't know him as well as you had thought then," Ginny said, feeling sick to her stomach. This could end very badly. She did not want to get in a fight with Draco's mother over being Draco's girlfriend before she even had the chance to talk to Draco and ask him out.

"I know all there is to know about my son, we have no secrets from each other, he and I," she said firmly, looking now angry and insulted.

"Did he tell you about the lunch date we had last week?" she asked, holding onto that one truth in all that she said and putting all her ferocity behind it. They had gone on a date, and she could be under any truth potion of any potency and admit to that much. The truth gave her the courage to stand tall before the tall, willowy, pale mother before her. Draco's mother was almost a polar opposite of her own mother.

Narcissa looked flushed and angry.

"Wait here," she said curtly, turning and unlocking the door.

She let herself in and slammed the door behind her.

Ginny was not sure if the woman was just going to lock herself inside after telling her to wait and never come back out, or what. Ginny had a feeling the woman, as despicable as she thought her to be, was better than that. She still had half a mind to storm up the rickety looking metal stairs and pound on the door. She resisted, but it took effort.

Ginny stood outside, waiting, waiting, waiting. She was ready to let herself in after five minutes, unlocking the door with a charm and barging in, but Narcissa opened the door with a very sour look on her face that robbed her of her natural beauty.

"My son said to let his…girlfriend…in," she said, looking like it pained her something to say that. Ginny smiled triumphantly in a way that was mean because of its friendly innocence. She wanted to taunt and stick her tongue out in an "I told you so," manner, but resisted. She was not ten anymore, and Narcissa was not one of her brothers.

"Thank you," she said, allowing Narcissa to close the front door. She took off her coat, and scarf, and hat, and Narcissa gathered them up and disappeared into the kitchen with them without a word. Ginny was left standing in the lowly living room, not sure where to go but knowing not to ask Narcissa. Beyond the woman being completely unwilling to be helpful, Draco's girlfriend should know her way around his apartment.

Ginny walked across the orange carpet of the living room and tried to make it seem like it was not the first time she had seen it, all while under the watchful eye of a small barn owl. She supposed she would have another opportunity to look at it and take in its state, right then she had to play the part, the part of Draco's concerned girlfriend come to see him.

She saw a door on the right immediately after stepping into the hallway and considered it for a long moment. Was it his? She could not guess and be wrong, his mother was eavesdropping.

Looking over her shoulder carefully she saw a bathroom to her back left and another door that was closed and on her left at the end of the hall.

"Shit," she said, balling her hands into fists. She had a feeling to try the other door first and make it seem like she had just gone to use the bathroom if she happened to be wrong, but she took a gamble and knocked on the door while opening it.

"Draco?" she asked.

Leaning in she saw him sitting up in bed, blankets over his lap. He had a wholly green jumper on and looked terribly ill. He normally looked good in green, but the jumper only made his face look all the more thin and his color all the more lacking.

"Hello there," he said, looking up at her, his hair long and tangled looking over his right shoulder like he had just pulled it out of his collar. Despite how deplorable his health seemed, he looked pretty welcoming.

"I, I just came here to…"

"Well come in, sit down," he said, an edge of command to his words. Ginny wanted to fight that, not liking being ordered about but seeing the sense in not standing in the half-open doorway with Draco's mother trying to listen in from the other room.

Ginny stepped in the rest of the way and turned to close the door while looking through the gap, seeing Narcissa in the living room, pretending to tidy up the already neat and organized place while listening in.

"My mother said my `girlfriend' was here to see me," he said and Ginny's face blushed brightly while her back was still to him.

"About that, I'm sorry. I couldn't think of anything else to say that would get her to let me in,"

"Or anything that could possibly make her madder," he said. Ginny got the impression he was angry with her, but when she peeked over her shoulder she saw amusement on his face.

"It just sort of came out," she said, turning to face him now.

"I'm flattered then," he said with a smirk. "She did not give me your name, she simply said my `girlfriend' and I had to take a guess who on earth would make such a claim," he said with his arms crossed over his chest.

"And you guessed me," she said, not making it a question.

"Well, since you are the only woman I have recently snogged, I did not have a long list to choose from. I also noted my mother's outrage and knew it couldn't all stem from simply not being told I was, supposedly, seeing someone. You being a Weasley and the ex-Mrs. Potter seemed to compensate for that nicely," he said with amusement.

"I'm sorry if I have caused some trouble between you and your mother," she said, feeling guilty now, again.

"She will get over it. She has wanted me to date for years but has been unsuccessful in persuading me. I suppose she can complain all she likes about who I apparently picked, but not that I haven't finally done what she has wanted for so long," he said wish a shrug that seemed to cause him some amount of pain. It was subtle and well hidden, but Ginny had been looking him in the eyes, and while his face had remained largely unchanged, a tension appeared around his lips and eyes that gave away his soreness at the simple movement.

"You really haven't dated?" she asked, a little shocked. Draco had said as much on their lunch date, but she had thought he meant serious relationships, not all dating in general.

"Surprised?" he asked.

"Well, I mean, I just thought…you know…after getting out of Azkaban you would want to, well, see some women and stuff," she said, not wanting to flat out say that she had expected him to get out of Azkaban like some randy animal, ready to shag any woman in his path, but she certainly had expected him to have seen someone in the three years he had been out.

"Well, it is hard to get a date when you are Draco Malfoy: Death Eater and Werewolf, and I could only imagine the disaster a blind-date would be, if I had friends to set one up for me that is. I rather not inflict myself on others, and I have other responsibilities in my life that take precedence over my somewhat lacking romantic-life, making it somewhat easier to push aside," he said, sounding comfortable with that but Ginny getting the feeling he was hiding how he truly felt about the matter from her. Surely it hurt him to be unable to meet women because he was a werewolf and a "Death Eater" and a prisoner out of Azkaban.

"Oh," she said, not sure what to say.

"Well, I assumed you had a legitimate reason for coming here and giving my mother a coronary," he said with a smile, clearly happy to see her, and possibly hoping she had come just to see how he was.

"Well, I would like to say I came here just to see how you were feeling, but that's not true. I came here for another reason," she said slowly, Draco's face not falling but something in his eyes shifting. How could no one but her see how much he guarded himself? If one knew what to look for he was obvious and his emotion apparent. He was disappointed that she had come there for reasons other than to just see him.

"And what would that be?" he asked coolly.

"I needed to ask you something," she said, Draco's eyes closing off like a door shutting. It hurt her to see that.

"You are here to ask something of me?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"I see," he said, bitter at the last, thinking of Reamann and how he had come only to ease his own mind and ask more of him.

"I wanted to ask you," she said, starting slowly, looking away, "If you wanted to, you know, um," she said, words failing her at that point, her stomach in knots.

What was with her?

She had asked a guy out before.

Her mother may have thought it improper for her, a girl, to ask a guy out, but Ginny considered herself a modern witch and woman and she did not hold tight to the traditions of the past. Women could ask men out…so why was she tongue-tied?

"No, I don't know, Weasley," Draco said smoothly.

Ginny cleared her throat. Draco addressing her by her last name enough to pull her out of her slump and continue on.

"Well, you said you didn't have a girlfriend just now, so I guess I'm kind of free to ask you…I mean, to enquire if you're interested in any way…of, well," she mumbled.

"Why, Weasley, are you asking me out?" Draco asked, the surprise honest in his voice, but his tone able to recover enough to be mocking.

"I realize it's crazy, and sudden, and if you are not interested I fully understand…"

"No," he said and Ginny looked at him, that not being an answer but him just trying to stop her rambling. "It's not that, I'm just a little stunned. Are you not with Reamann?" he asked and Ginny flushed.

"Well, okay, yes, but hear me out…" she said, moving over to his bed and sitting on the mattress, at the foot so there was still as much space between them as possible.

Draco's expression looked like he just could not wait to hear the explanation for this.

"Yes, I'm with Reamann, but you know from our…um…lunch date, that things between him and I are not too glamorous at the moment,"

"So you are dumping him to see me," Draco asked, knowing that was not the answer.

"Not exactly," she said, feeling uncomfortable. "I can't break things off with Reamann,"

"I know this, we talked about it in length already," Draco said.

"And I can only imagine how well it would go over with, well, everyone should I start dating you," she mumbled.

"Draco Malfoy: Death Eater and Werewolf," he stated simply and Ginny felt awkward. Draco was as laidback as ever, but she knew he was bothered.

"But I can't continue to be with Reamann and just be miserable," she said and Draco nodded slowly. "I understand this is a terrible thing to ask of someone, but, well, I was hoping, you know, we could discreetly…you know,"

"Weasley, are you asking me to help you cheat on your boyfriend of three years, who happens to be my partner, less than a week before Christmas?" he asked, looking at her up and down like he had never really seen her before in true light.

"Well, when you lump it all together like that it's gonna sound bad," she flushed, tucking her hair behind her ear nervously.

"No, it's not that I think it's terrible… it really, really is mind you…I'm just surprised. What happened to that noble honest streak in all Gryffindors?" he asked, sounding mocking again.

"We tend to be rule breakers," she said with a blush.

"I can see that," he said, smiling, feeling the same was true about Slytherins. Really, the two houses were not that different in the end, Slytherin was just better, not that he was biased or anything.

"I just really like being around you, and I really thought we had a connection that night, back before the final battle," she said, looking anywhere but at his face at that moment. Draco shifted a little too in what looked like obvious discomfort.

"Well, I'm not sure how well this would all work out," he said softly. Ginny looked up at him. "There is a level of discomfort here between us, you see" he said and she gave him a look, him using her words against her now. "Don't deny it, you feel it too or you would not be flushing and shifting, and avoiding my gaze," he said, pointing at her like she was about to accuse him of just making up excuses. "I'll admit, awright, I had been honest with you that night," he said, painfully clearing his throat before continuing. "I honestly did not expect to live and had given up on everything, ready to just go out with wands blazing, but, thanks to you…" he said, not finishing the thought but just shrugging stiffly.

"Are you ungrateful?" she asked, getting the sense he felt that he had failed in his plan, plan to die a hero rather than live to be shamed as a traitor. Something told her he felt shame, but not because of others' opinions of him, but in that he had failed in something.

"No, no. I appreciate it. Nearly died and would have without you," he said, lightly, almost raising the mood a bit, "but now I have to live with the fact that you know all my little secrets," he said, leering at her, hissing that last word.

"You make it sound like letting someone in and see the real you is a bad thing," she said, leaning back to take him in fully though it was not necessary with the distance already between them.

"I don't trust people," he said flatly.

"You don't trust me?"

"I have put myself in a position with my carelessness that I have to, now don't I?"

"You think I would blackmail you or something, knowing what I know?"

"You saying you wouldn't?"

"What do you have that I could want?" she asked, not meaning to imply that he was so meager that he had nothing she would want, but the idea of blackmailing him was just that ridiculous to her.

"Other than my hot body?" he teased and she playfully leaned over to slap his leg.

"Prat!" she laughed. She knew he was making a joke at his own expense, knowing full-well that he was not looking all that glamorous at the moment in his oversized jumper with the moth-hole near the collar and his tangled wasit-length white hair. She thought he was adorable however, even with the black and purple bruises blotting the skin of his throat and neck. Maybe it was that deep seeded mothering instinct in her she had inherited from her mother, but she just wanted to scoop Draco up and baby him, take care of him.

"You really feel so disinclined to go out with me that you would only do so through blackmail or the threat of it at least?" she asked.

"Well, you are a Weasley," he simply stated and she bared her teeth in a playful growl. He had said before that Weasleys crossed the line when it came to the limits of whom he would date, but then, he didn't really date at all.

"You kissed a Weasley, and I didn't blackmail you into that."

"Just one more piece of blackmail worthy material you have on me, Weasley," he said, leaning in a little.

"Are you agreeing to this, Malfoy?"

"Do I have a choice, Weasley?" he asked, still implying that she was blackmailing him.

"No, I guess you don't. You better be ready to spend a lot of afternoons and evenings with me because I'm going to blackmail you until we are exhausted and weak in the knees," she said, leaning in so their noses brushed. Draco liked what she was implying, and rubbed the tip of his nose against hers. Most people would call it an Eskimo kiss, but to him, or any werewolf, it was nuzzling, and he liked it.

"You manipulative woman, you would have made a fine Slytherin," he said, sliding his nose over her cheek to speack softly into her ear.

"And you showed quite a bit of courage befitting a Gryffindor those years ago," she said and he breathed and laugh while their faces were so close together and pulled away so their nosed were just barely touching again. Ginny leaned forward the rest of the way to kiss him then, and he pressed right back, deepening the kiss and her allowing it when his tongue slipped out to trace across her bottom lip.

They kissed for a moment, each leaning over the gap between them, but when Ginny shifted to move closer he broke the kiss and looked away.

"No," he said, "I'm not feeling well," he confessed, shifting and not hiding the pain in his face that time.

"Do you have something for it?" she asked, looking at him and feeling her heart pull. Hermione had said he was not allowed potions. Would Muggle painkillers help any?

"On my dresser. I was about to take it when you showed up," he said, looking at the little potion bottle that was so close and yet so far away. His jumper had been under the covers by his knees, him having taken it off and on all morning as he went from hot to cold rapidly. He was still hot, but he had thrown the warm jumper on so that Ginny would not see him like Reamann had. He did not want her seeing him. He was self-conscious enough about how he looked to put his discomfort aside. He was supposed to be strong and confident…but he wasn't. His Malfoy ancestors would be shamed.

"I'll get it for you," she said, him not having to ask or even hint that he would like her to get it. She made it an offer. Draco would have refused on principle, so as not to look weak and helpless, but she was already striding over in those few steps to the dresser and he had to admit, it was a nice chance to check out her bum, a bum he had just agreed to date, and it was nice to be babied by someone who was not his mother.

Speaking of which, his mother was just outside there door, frozen in the hallway, prepared to act as though she were on her way to the bathroom if she were to be discovered. She was trying to listen in, but Ginny and he had talked too softly for her to have been able to hear much of anything.

"Mother, a little privacy please. Ginny I will not be doing anything inappropriate, I assure you, but this is quite rude," he whispered into her head. She huffed a little and moved on to the bathroom to close the door firmly, even though she had not needed to go there in the first place. Draco knew then she had not heard anything, otherwise her thoughts would have been angry, not indignant.

Ginny sat beside him this time, close enough to be warm and affectionate without being too forward or leading to a misunderstanding of her intentions. She had missed the whole exchange between Draco and his mother.

Draco allowed her to sit close, and suppressed a smile.

Okay, so he had just, sort of, agreed to date the Weasley girl. Girl no more, a woman really. Something told him he should be screaming at himself for this, but it was surprisingly quiet in his head. There was no inner conflict, no "Malfoys don't do this, or that," just a content peace he had never realized he had been lacking.

Now that his voices were not arguing over the fact that he liked her and him denying it, there seemed to be nothing but ease there.

He knew he had had a serious crush on the girl in his sixth year, even if he had denied it for months back then, and he had made a move once that night so long ago it seemed…but he had not realized it had lived on all these years, through his marriage, and jail time, and children.

Draco felt his stomach drop out.

His children! Oh shit.

"Draco, is everything alright?" Ginny asked, looking at Draco's suddenly horrified face, him having yet to take the potion she had fetched him. She was tempted to ask him how he had gotten it since he wasn't supposed to have any, but she didn't want to know, especially if he had acquired it through some illegal means. It was easier to ignore when she didn't know the truth.

"Oh, oh, it's nothing. Just dreading the taste," she said, holding the vial up a little to indicate what he meant.

What was he going to do?

He had just agreed to date a woman that did not realize he was a father of two!

She knew he had been married, but he had not mentioned that in the three years he had been married he had had two kiddies.

Draco took a long gulp of the potion with a tip back of his head like it was a shot glass, scrunching his eyes closed at the foul taste.

The children were not home at the moment, but if they had been, would she have still asked, or would she have turned away?

There were more than just the reasons he had detailed to Ginny as to why he did not date. Most women that could deal with his past, and his personality, and disorders, did not want the extra baggage of a man with two children already. The few that wouldn't care, would mind that he was a Death Eater baring the Dark Mark and a werewolf with some serious issues with a lot of things. He just could not win.

He had to tell her, but sitting there, her so close, he feared she would reject him, and he liked having her there.

He would tell her later.

He wanted to enjoy this, having someone, however brief a time.

Let him have a girlfriend for a night. It was nice.

Draco leaned over and kissed to corner of Ginny's mouth. She smiled and turned a little to kiss him on the lips but he kept the kisses light and chaste. He did not need to share with her how foul the potion was. The taste wouldn't have been so bad, it the texture had not been so grainy. It was enough together to make him consider the pain as a better alternative. Almost.

Ginny carefully wrapped her arms around Draco so that she hung on his shoulders and arms a little, careful not to put too much weight on him, his hair tickling her cheek.

Draco surpassed a happy giggle. Malfoys did not giggle. But he had never gotten snuggles and such from his wife. They had sort of been separated by space, and bars, for the extent of their relationship, and his only other girlfriend, Pansy, had been affectionate, but he had not felt anything for her, so their embraces had felt sort of hollow and empty. Numb. He liked this, and he did not want it to end. He tilted his head a little so that it was leaning atop of hers so he could nuzzle her hair a little and she giggled for them both. He was grateful.

"I want you to come to the Remembrance Ball," she said suddenly, Draco becoming utterly still in her arms.

"What?" he asked.

"I know, it's strange to ask, but I really think you should go,"

"Um, Weasley, darling," he said, still calling her by her last name but adding "darling" to keep things light, "There is a reason as to why I was not invited to my Hogwarts ten year reunion," he said, looking down at her and her pulling away enough and leaning less so that they were looking right at each other.

"Draco, I know there are people out there that think of you as, well, a bad guy,"

"The majority, actually," he corrected for her.

"But you have a right to be there. You should have been one of the people honored, and it is open to all that work at the Ministry, so you cannot be denied."

"Even if I were to go, and somehow manage to get in, I think most would be insulted and infuriated by my presence. Being unarmed in a room of grudge-bearing witches and wizards is not my idea of a good time," he said.

"I would be there," she said.

"Reamann so dimwitted that he would not catch on to his bint bringing another date to the ball?" he asked.

"No, see, I will talk to Reamann, I will have him talk to you, and invite you, so he will think it was his idea that you are there. He and I would be on your side at least," she said.

"I'm not so sure about that," he said, Ginny looking at him questioningly. Draco went into a brief explanation of the "fight" he had just been in with Reamann and why he was angry at Reamann in the first place.

"Oh, Draco, you have to forgive Reamann. He really has a problem with asking the first questions that come to mind without thinking and realizing it comes across as rude and nosey. He is just incurably curious. He means well," she said.

"That doesn't make it any better, or make me feel any less violated," Draco grumbled, picking at the edge of the little bottle where there was a knot in the cord that held the cork.

"Give him another chance. He needs you," she said.

"I know he does," Draco said, sounding defeated and mildly depressed. Ginny wrapped her arms around him and kissed the side of his nose.

"Come with me to the ball," she pleaded.

"Oh, don't do that," he wined.

"Please," she begged, pouting and batting her eyelashes.

"No, no…with the eyes, and the pouting, damn you! My mother does this to me. You damned, manipulative women," he said, almost mentioning his daughter just then but catching himself. Ginny didn't need to know just yet that his daughter had him wrapped around her little finger with the slightest of pouts.

How was it that he was such a softy when it came to women? No means no. He kept telling himself that, but he already felt himself cave in.

"Please," he pressed, pouting her bottom lip out as far as it would go in a silly pout that he just had no defenses against.

"I have nothing to wear," he said, sighing at his defeat, Ginny smiling.

"If I found you something, you would go?" she asked, sounding excited.

"I am a glutton for punishment," he said, glancing over at her out of the corner of his eyes. She grinned broadly, rewarding him with that smile he had fallen in love with back at Hogwarts.

Oh how long he had waited to be the cause of such a grin. He had seen it from a distance, but had never been its lucky recipient.

Before he did something truly embarrassing like grin back at her stupidly in a moment that would be so damn fluffy and mushy for him to stomach with his tummy full of nasty potion, he swooped in for a kiss. Turning carefully despite his pain he kissed her, and she kissed him. She fell backwards onto the bed, and he followed, not breaking the kiss, but straining his bruised neck because he had to move slower.

He laid himself partially on top of her as they kissed and she had to make a conscious effort not to grab him too roughly, as roughly as she wanted to. She did not want to hurt him.

Their kissing peeked at nearly ravenous, and settled to being repetitive pecks on the lips as he laid there on her, looking down, his hair draping down on the right side like a curtain it so often resembled.

"Thank you," he said, Ginny caught of guard between two kisses with him saying that.

"For what?" she asked.

"For saving my life," he said.

"Draco, we have been over this before…you saved mine first, we are even," she said, already having tried to explain this to him.

"There is more than one way to save a man's life," he said, giving her another, lingering, kiss.

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Author's Note:

There you go, D+G action! Official, and fluffy, and oh so delish.

Reamann got yelled at, which was what you all had been wanting, Ginny and Draco have finally hooked up, which you all wanted, and you got to see Narcissa be a mummy, and the kids again. Yay for this chapter! Was it relatively angst free? So Draco is apparently a little thin, but I find that smexy. :)

REVIEW! IT'S GOOD KARMA

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