The Adventure
By RowlingIdol
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own the song `The Adventure'. This chapter contains slight language, teen drinking and sexual references. Review if you wish! They are most appreciated.
Authors Note- Here it is! We are nearing the end! EEEE! Hope you like it! :)
Chapter 14: The Adventure
Ginny could feel her heart stop.
"Surprised to see me?" Marcus purred, stepping out from behind the chair.
"Flint!" Ginny spat. "What have you done with Draco?"
She looked around as far as her head could turn.
"Heh heh. Bint hasn't figured it out yet." said the second voice. A shorter and wider figure came out of the shadows.
"Goyle. Should have known if he was here so were you." Ginny said shaking her head. She quickly turned her attention back to Marcus.
"What have you done with Draco? Tell me!"
"Bloke is probably still passed out in the alley."
"But!…… Polyjuice….." Ginny said.
It had been Marcus all along. Draco wasn't anywhere near her. And from what Marcus said, wherever he was, he was unconscious.
"How smart you are Red."
"What do you want from me?" Ginny asked, trying to keep her voice from wavering. She wasn't doing a good job by the grin that appeared on Marcus's face.
"I'm just looking for a good time is all, doll!" Marcus said leaning in close to her and running a finger down her cheek. Ginny turned her head in disgust, scrunching up her face.
"And some loot!" Goyle joined in.
Marcus leaned away from Ginny and rolled his eyes.
"Goyle, for Merlin's sake do you have to let her in on ALL of our plans?"
"What `loot'? You know my family is poor." Ginny said.
"I take back what I said about you being smart." Marcus said. "Of course you're poor. Poorer than dirt. But if Malfoy is interested in you, and he most certainly is VERY interested considering where he was last month…. And where you were headed to tonight…."
"What do you mean? What he did do last month?"
Marcus opened his mouth to speak but Goyle greedily jumped in again.
"He and Zabini were outside a shop in Muggle London. Talking about some `plans' Draco had. And that YOU, missy, were going to DIE."
"Would you shut the fuck up already Goyle?!" Marcus shouted, raising his hand to Goyle, who winced and shuffled backwards.
"So Goyle overheard some big plans Malfoy was making. He told me about them and I decided we would hijack those plans for our big finale!"
"Finale? What finale?" Ginny asked.
Marcus ignored her question.
"After all, Zabini did say you were going to die…."
"I thought you wanted your `loot'. How are you going to get `loot' if I'm dead?"
"We're holding you ransom you nit!" Goyle said from behind Marcus.
"If Malfoy is interested in you, it must be for something other than money. That's what I'M interested in." Marcus said, giving Ginny a look that made Ginny feel dirty and not in a good way.
"And Goyle pointed out that Malfoy would pay a hefty sum of money to keep you out of harms way. So I came up with a plan to get what I wanted."
"What exactly is that." Ginny asked.
"Revenge."
Ginny glared at him for a good minute before it clicked all together.
"YOU." Ginny spat. She started thrashing in her chair, trying to kick at him, scooting the chair forward in a cloud of dust.
"You've been starting all the fires!"
"EXACTLY!" Marcus cried happily as he avoided her feet.
"Don't you want to know why I keep starting fires?" He asked
"Why?" Ginny grunted, still swinging her feet.
"It's my desire!" Marcus said, throwing his hands up in a flourish.
"Desire to get my perfect revenge. Revenge on Malfoy, Zabini, even Malfoy's father." Marcus said, beginning to pace back and forth in front of Ginny who had stopped trying to kick.
"But why did you have to burn all those other buildings?" She asked, breathing heavily.
"It had to be done. I wasn't going to start out with the bar. That would have been too obvious."
"But what about the people that were hurt from those fires that you started?"
"That bitch at Gladrags turned me down for a date!" Goyle said angrily.
"The ransom idea was surprisingly his. So I let him choose the first victim." Marcus explained. Ginny glared.
"And Dumbledore's?"
"We meant to burn the actual pub, but Goyle tripped while sneaking up to the pub and ending up setting the shed on fire instead.
"The dragon rumors?"
"Have you smelled this guy?" Marcus asked, pointing over his shoulder to Goyle. Goyle sulked.
"On top of that, he fell in a pile of goat shit. The guy from the paper was drunk of his ass and saw Goyle's fat shadow and caught wind of the shit as Goyle passed by him in the alley. That's all."
"I don't have to ask about Zabini's. That one is obvious."
"Obviously." Marcus said.
"The warehouse?"
"Goyle accidentally started the fire while we were planning your kidnapping."
Ginny realized she must be in the basement of the warehouse.
"We figured if the Ministry was smart enough, they would link Draco's move to Hogsmeade with the fires, and the blame would be placed on him."
Ginny wasn't going to say that Harry had already made that connection. It would please Marcus too much.
"So how did you know where I was going to be tonight? Was it you that sent the owl with the invite?"
"No. That was all Draco's doing. Goyle has been a loyal spy. He intercepted the owl."
"The turd bit me!" Goyle commented.
"Once we knew where you were going to be, we headed out early. Git should have been paying more attention. Surprised he wasn't."
"Bonked him on the head we did!" Goyle gleefully said.
"If you knocked him out, how is he going to get you your `loot'?"
"We sent a ransom note while you were still knocked out. He`ll get it when he wakes up." Marcus said.
Ginny felt sick. She was surprised she hadn't thrown up yet.
"What are you going to do in the meantime?"
"Well, you're all dressed up aren't you?" Marcus said, grinning evilly. "Why don't we have some FUN."
~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~
Everything was white.
White and nothing else.
Draco held his hands up to his head.
His head felt like it had split.
He could feel a large goose egg on the back of his head, covered in his silky white blonde hair.
He squinted his eyes as he tried to see anything around him. Anything. Anything at all.
But he saw nothing. Just a blank, white room.
A blank, white, room.
He wondered where he was.
He was still in his suit he realized as he looked down. He took his hands off his head, his head throbbing even more as he did so.
He smoothed the jacket fabric out of habit.
He strained to hear amongst the deep thudding in his ears of his headache.
He couldn't hear anything.
He was alone.
What the hell had happened?
~*~*~*~
"Why don't we have some FUN." Marcus suggested.
Ginny took in a sharp breath as Marcus advanced towards her, Goyle evilly chuckling behind him.
Marcus whipped out his wand from his back pocket.
Ginny squeezed her eyes shut.
`Please! Please don't let him hurt me!' she thought incredibly hard.
"Open those pretty little eyes of yours Red. Don't make me hurt you more." Marcus hissed.
With the sound an intense crash Ginny's eyes flew open.
"What the---" Marcus started, turning around.
A gigantic white bear raced down the stairs of the basement, snarling and growling as it made its way towards Marcus.
"It's a bear! Run!!!!" Goyle shouted.
It wasn't just a bear. It was a Patronus.
"Expelliarmus!" came a deep shout.
Marcus's wand flew out of his hand.
"You take him! I'll handle Goyle!" came another shout.
"Ginny!" came another voice.
"Hermione!" Ginny cried out as the bushy haired girl came into view.
"Ginny! Oh Merlin! Are you all right?" Hermione asked breathlessly as she whipped out her wand to sever the ropes that held Ginny to the chair.
"Draco! Where's Draco? They hurt Draco!" Ginny sobbed.
"No time to explain. Let's get you out of here!" Hermione said, putting her arms around her shoulders and whisking her past the duel that was going on. Ginny didn't even know who her rescuers were. All that she knew was that she was safe.
But what about Draco…..
~*~*~*~
Draco was getting increasingly annoyed at this white room he was stuck in.
It felt like he had been there an eternity. There was nothing to do but sit, stand, and pace.
He had walked to try to find an end to the room but it kept going. He tried to walk back to where he had begun, but he wouldn't have known where it was had he once been.
He had screamed a couple of times. He tried to sleep, but sleep never came.
He often pondered about why he hadn't begun starving to death. Or why he didn't have to use the loo. At least his head didn't hurt so much anymore.
Maybe he was dead.
This wasn't exactly his idea of heaven. Not that he was going to end up there anyways he had figured.
If this was hell, this concept was nothing compared to the stories back in the real world.
If this wasn't hell, he was terrified to find out what it was, because for him, this blank white room was torture enough.
He was convinced he was going crazy in here. He had thought he had heard his name a couple of times, but it was merely a whisper when he thought he heard it.
He missed Ginny. He missed his family. He missed his friends.
This boring blank white room sure sucked.
"Draco."
There it was again! This time it was louder. It made him lift his head from his position on the floor, where he had been sitting with his head between his legs.
He knew he had heard his name for sure this time.
It had been louder.
It had…. No…. It couldn't have…. It couldn't be….
It had sounded like Ginny.
He gripped his hair with his hands, making his head throb more.
His body shuddered as he thought with all his might about Ginny. About the woman he loved. About everything he wanted with her.
His eyes hurt.
He saw black.
He saw mismatched shapes as his palms pressed dangerously against his eyelids.
He saw white.
He saw light.
He saw her.
~*~*~*~
"Get the doctor quick!!!" Ginny shouted.
There was a scramble of noise and movement to Draco's right.
"Ginny?" Draco whispered, eyes squinting.
"Yes, it's me!" Ginny said, beginning to cry.
She pawed at his hand. He stretched his fingers under the hold she had on him.
"Where am I?" He croaked, his voice dry.
"Oh Bloody hell. I haven't left." He muttered, still seeing that he was in a blank room of white.
Except this room had a door. And he apparently was in a bed.
A man in a white robe entered the room.
"Good morning Mr. Malfoy. How are you feeling?" the man asked.
"Sore." Draco said, trying to turn his head.
"Ah ah!" The man warned as Draco winced at the movement.
"Lie still Mr. Malfoy. You need to take things easy. You've been unconscious for a while."
This man must be a doctor Draco presumed.
"What's a while?" He asked.
"A… a little over a week." The doctor admitted.
"What happened?" He demanded, his eyes opening more and more with each passing minute.
"We'll get to that later Mr. Malfoy. I will get a nurse the nurses to bring you some water."
The doctor left the room and as soon as he had gone the room filled with Blaise and Luna.
"You're awake mate! Finally! Rent was due on the first but I'll let this slide. Considering you've been out of it and all…." Blaise said with a smile.
"I'm so happy!" Luna said, bursting into tears. She ran around and joined in with Ginny's tears of joy.
"Will anyone tell me what's going on?" Draco asked as he moved to sit up in the bed.
"Ooooh." He said, raising a hand to his head. His head still hurt, and apparently there was a large muslin bandage around it.
`That must not be good for my hair' he thought.
"Marcus and Goyle intercepted you on your way to dinner." Blaise started.
"They knocked you out and dragged you into an alley." Ginny added.
"While you were out, they took some of your hair-- "
Draco gasped.
"-- And used Polyjuice potion so that Marcus could turn into you to trick Ginny."
"Where's that rat bastard I am going to gut him like the son of --" Draco said, starting to get up out of his bed.
"Don't! It's okay! I'm okay!" Ginny said, putting her hands on his shoulders to push him back down onto the bed.
"He's in Azkaban now. Same with Goyle. Doesn't seem like they will be getting out anytime soon. The Ministry isn't taking any post-war crimes lightly. With all the fires they caused, the damages, the people they hurt, they've got a lot of counts against them." Blaise said.
Draco thought a moment.
"So those fires were started by them?"
"Yes. They knocked me out too and took me to the abandoned warehouse where the last fire had been."
"Were you unconscious for over a week?" Draco asked.
"Well, no…" Ginny said. Draco nearly pouted.
"They had her tied to a chair. Merlin knows what they were going to do with her. Musical chairs is very hard when you're tied down." Luna said.
There was silence in the room. Blaise cleared his throat.
"Yes. Yes it is." He said, patting her shoulder.
"So what happened? You're okay?" Draco asked, squeezing Ginny's hand.
She nodded and smiled at him as she wiped away tears with her free hand.
"I had been teaching Blaise how to produce a Patronus while we were waiting for you two to get back to the flat." Luna said.
"Why were you waiting for us?" Draco asked.
"They won't tell me either." Ginny whispered to Draco. His heart plummeted as he realized why.
"It got really late." Blaise said hurriedly, skirting the secretive details at the look on Draco's face. "And you hadn't shown up so we decided to head to the restaurant to find you guys. And they told us that you never made it to your reservation."
"So Blaise and I used our Patronuses to find you guys!" Luna said.
"I'm a bear." Blaise said proudly.
"Super." Draco said through gritted teeth.
"As soon as we found your body lying in the alley, Luna waited with you until the Ministry arrived while I went to find Ginny."
"How did you manage that." Draco asked.
Blaise and Ginny exchanged a glance.
"I had some help." Blaise said bluntly.
"Potter." Draco growled.
"Now Draco. He helped save me." Ginny said, trying to calm him down.
"Great. That's twice he's done that now." Draco said.
They were quiet as a nurse came in and brought Draco a large glass of ice water and some red gelatin. They resumed talking once she left.
"I needed help finding where she was. And I didn't know at the time who was behind this so I needed backup." Blaise explained.
Draco attacked his gelatin with a flimsy utensil.
"How did you figure out where she was." He wanted to know, shoving gelatin in his mouth.
"Harry had still been working on the fire case with his Auror training. The warehouse was the only obvious location where she might be. He had a feeling the fires and the attack were related."
"He was right." Ginny said.
"So he and Hermione came back to Hogsmeade with Blaise and they took down Flint and Goyle."
"Why Granger not your brother?"
"We needed them alive for the Ministry. Let me just put it that way." Blaise said.
"Where are my parents?" Draco wanted to know.
"They're on their way. The nurses owled them when you woke up." Luna said.
~*~*~*~
As if on cue, Narcissa came rushing through the door, followed closely by Lucius, who tried to act as if he hadn't been hurrying as well.
"My boy!" Narcissa cried, running over to see Draco. She pet his hair which made him grimace.
"Oh thank Merlin." She said, kissing his forehead. Blaise grinned. Luna said `awww'.
"You're looking well." Lucius said stiffly. Despite the blank look on his face Ginny could tell by his eyes that he was relieved to see Draco had awoken.
"Same to you." Draco replied. A smile tugged at the corner of Lucius' mouth.
"Have they filled you in with what happened?" Lucius asked, eyes flicking towards Ginny for a second.
"Yes. I think I've got everything for the most part. I still don't quite understand what they wanted with Ginny…"
"Ah yes. Miss Ginevra." Lucius said.
"Your interest in her piqued the interest of Mr. Flint and he hoped to use your name to his advantage." Lucius said.
"That filthy boy sent a RANSOM note! Of all things! A RANSON note!" Narcissa huffed.
"Why did they send it to you?" Draco asked.
"We're assuming it was Goyle who sent the owl. The owl was meant to go flat we think, but it went to the manor instead." Blaise interjected.
"Imagine our surprise when we got the letter!" Narcissa continued. "So we went to the flat to find you, and we found it empty. And that's when we were alerted by the Ministry that you were at St. Mungo's."
Draco sighed.
"What a mess." He mumbled.
"Your father took to it personally that those boys were sent to Azkaban." Narcissa told Draco quietly. Draco looked at his father who looked away. Perhaps he was a bit pink in the cheeks? Draco must be seeing things.
"they will not be harming our family ever again." Lucius said sternly.
"Oh Draco!" Narcissa gushed. "I do hope you get better! I had to cancel your birthday party and I'm eager to send out new invitations."
Draco thought again about what day it had been when he had been attacked. If it was indeed over a week later, he had missed his birthday.
"Oh great. That's three years of shitty birthdays in a row." Draco said.
"Draco! Language!" Narcissa said.
"Sorry Mother." Draco said.
"We still had a little celebration!" Luna spoke up. She handed Draco a picture.
Obviously Ginny had taken the photo since she wasn't in it. It was of Draco, unconscious, with a pointy birthday party hat atop his bandaged head, with Luna on one side and Blaise on the other, both with party hats matching his on their own heads, grinning from ear to ear. Blaise in the picture even blows a party horn.
"Oh Bloody hell. Sorry Mother." Draco said, setting the picture aside.
"I think it was a sweet gesture." Narcissa said.
"I've got to go speak with the doctor on when you can be released from the hospital. Please excuse us." Narcissa said as she went to leave the room with Lucius.
"If you're okay mate, we've got to get back to the bar. Its almost opening time." Blaise said, looking at his watch.
Draco nodded.
Blaise gave him a wink. Luna grinned and waved at him as they left.
~*~*~*~
"I'm so glad you're all right." Ginny whispered to Draco.
"I'm so glad YOU'RE all right." Draco said.
"I was really scared for you. Nine days is a long time."
"You have no idea." Draco said, shifting uncomfortably in his hospital bed.
"After all the trouble Flint has given us, I'm glad we won't be seeing him again."
"As my father has, I will do the same, to make sure he doesn't get out." Draco promised. He squeezed her hand and she returned the gesture.
"Do you know where my belongings are?" Draco inquired.
"Oh!" Ginny said, looking around the room.
"The doctor put your clothes around here somewhere. I can imagine that those pajamas aren't all that comfortable." Ginny said to him as she got up and poked around in the small dresser in the corner of the room.
"Ah here they are." Ginny asked, lifting out a pair of folded clothes.
She brought them over to him,
"They're a bit dirty. I assume you want your mother to take them back to be washed?"
"Something like that." Draco said, fingering the jacket.
"Draco…. About that night…." Ginny said, fiddling with the hospital sheet.
"Yes?" Draco asked, looking over at her.
"Well. It's too bad the night got ruined.' She said, smiling slightly and giving a breathy chuckle.
"Yes…. Yes its too bad. I will have to work twice as hard on planning the next outing. You have no idea how much my head hurts right now." He said as he unfolded the jacket in his lap.
Ginny giggled.
"I was meaning to give this to you the other night." Draco said quietly, reaching into the inside of his jacket.
"Not the way I planned to do this at all… But…. I guess that just symbolizes our relationship." Draco said.
"Hold out your hand." He told her.
Ginny slowly held out her hand, palm facing up, ready for him to drop what he was holding into her hand.
He however took her hand, gently turned it over, and focused on a certain finger.
"Would you do the great honor….. Of marrying me?" Draco asked.
As he drew his hand away, Ginny gasped at the sight of the ring he had placed on her finger.
"I cannot live…. I cannot breathe…. Unless you do this with me." He murmured to her in the silence of the room.
" I will." Ginny shakily whispered.
She brought her hands up to Draco's face and pulled him in close for a kiss.
"Here we go. Life's waiting to begin." He told her as they broke apart.
"A new life." Ginny added, giggling nervously.
"An adventure." He concluded, kissing her again.
~*~*~*~
Authors Note- Please stay tuned for the Epilogue! It was posted at the same time as this chapter. Don't miss it! Reviews are definitely welcome! Thank you all!
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