Disclaimer: JK owns them all!
I googled the Malfoy motto so hope it's right ;) also, I know the bit of magic Draco works in his dorm would probably be impossible in Hogwarts as I'm sure they would take measures to stop that sort of thing, but I figure Draco is a talented boy ;)
I'm sorry it has taken so long for this update I have been mega busy but I hope you enjoy it… let me know!
*******
A muggle man was bound by invisible bonds, a silencing spell placed upon him. Draco watched, unable to look away as the man screamed until he was red in the face and his veins looked close to bursting - all to no avail. Not a sound escaped him. Draco's face was hard, and one side of it was a harsh red, contrasting strikingly with his pale skin. A reminder to face forward, face this truth, not to turn away. "You will do this Draco. You will become this. To deny it is to deny your family. Your honour. Your name. You are a Malfoy. Planto Nex non Bellum! Avada Kedavra!"
Draco awoke with a shudder, feeling cold dread engulf his heart at the dream he had just endured. Memory - not dream, he reminded himself grimly. Planto Nex non Bellum. Draco gave a quiet derisive laugh at the family motto. Make Death Not War - meaning: don't fight them, just kill them. The youngest Malfoy angrily wiped the slight wetness that was forming at his eyes as he sat up in his four poster bed. He recalled how the slumped body had showed no sign of movement except for the tears which continued to run down the man's face, even after life had left his eyes. Draco had stood, in silence, for many minutes. He had felt Lucius' gaze boring into him, but his own eyes had not left the man's face. Eventually, after an eternity, he had realised he needed to speak, needed to get away. He spat to the side, hoping to expel the need to vomit, to clear his mouth of the iron taste of his own blood. His eyes had finally met his father's. "May I leave?" Lucius had eyed him slowly, but nodded. Draco had guessed then - guessed that Lucius assumed Draco had spat at the memory of the muggle, spat on his existence. Lucius was wrong.
Draco had adapted his personal space as soon as he had the chance after arriving back at Hogwarts, casting an extension charm to the upper panel of his four poster. This meant that although his bed was the same size, the curtains now hung down leaving a foot wide gap around his bed, which meant he had enough room to stand and walk around the edge of his bed without having to leave the privacy of the drawn curtains. What's more, he had managed to make it an Undetectable Extension Charm. The perk of this was that one of the traits of the spell was to make the area extended act as if it had had a silencing spell on it - it wouldn't be very undetectable if whatever was enclosed revealed itself through sound. This meant that Draco had managed to surround himself in a wall of silence, and this insulated him from being heard by others in his dorm.
Draco leaned over to view his watch, and saw the hands pointing at 11am. He sighed heavily as he pulled himself out of bed. The library would probably already be packed with students who had spent the previous day enjoying the freedom of the weekend, thus ensuring Sunday was a panic to get Monday's homework completed.
Mercifully he could hear no sounds from his dorm, and presumed the other Slytherins were occupying themselves with one or another of their more unsavoury past times. After a quick shower and dressing, Draco gathered his book bag and headed for the library, a place he was getting more and more acquainted with.
Hoping he would find a free table, he was nevertheless unsurprised when upon entering the library his initial thoughts were confirmed. As he wove through the aisles it appeared that every private space was filled. Having no desire to sit on the edge of a group of friends and be stared at like a leper, Draco pushed further into the depths. Almost accidentally he had trodden a course which had brought him to the roped entrance of the area he and Ginny completed their library duties in. A thought occurred to him, and he walked confidently towards it. The rope willingly let him pass, and Draco smiled almost in relief as he rounded the edge of a bookshelf and found himself at his and Ginny's dictation desk. He carefully pushed their books to the back of the desk, aware that damaging them would cause mass hysteria among at least two women. Opening his own books at the newly created space, Draco congratulated himself on acquiring a duty which had effectively supplied him with a place of privacy, seemingly at any time.
It was a few hours later when Draco began to contemplate lunch. He was just starting to wonder whether it would be safe to leave his books and bag at the desk whilst he ate; when he suddenly heard footsteps approach. He turned just in time to see a red faced Ginny stop in her tracks, squealing a noise of surprise. He looked at her suspiciously, wondering what she was doing.
"Oh." She finally said. "It's you."
He was aware he was looking at her as though she were a bit of a moron when she huffed:
"Well you just surprised me. Obviously I wasn't expecting anyone to be here."
He nodded at that, and as she continued to stare at him he felt the need to break the uncomfortable silence. "Well," he said, awkwardly clearing his throat, "I am." Who's the moron now, Malfoy? he thought to himself dumbly at his less than smooth response.
Ginny looked torn as she hovered on the edge of the space surrounding the table, and she finally explained her hesitation as words tumbled from her lips.
"Look Malfoy, I know this isn't exactly comfortable but I really could do with working here too. It's jammed out there... As I'm sure you already know. And everyone's being so damn noisy I'm surprised Pince isn't having a fit! There's no way I can concentrate out there. So... I'm going to sit here. Too. If you don't mind."
She seemed to add the last bit grudgingly, but her words had made Draco smile, as he understood her frustration. Realising she was uncertainly waiting for an answer he replied. "No. Of course not..." He apprehensively slid over a little to create more room.
She gratefully walked over to the desk, unloading her things. Draco didn't pay her much attention until she sat down, and then drew four massive chicken sandwiches out of her bag and placed them on the table in front of her. He eyed them in disbelief, and she must have caught his look.
"What?" She asked defensively. "I suddenly remembered I had this assignment due and figured I hadn't got time for dinner, so I nipped by the kitchens."
"So I see," Draco responded, quickly looking away.
Ginny rolled her eyes in response. "Alright Malfoy, I know my eyes are bigger than my stomach is, but I'm starving. I didn't have breakfast." And with that she picked up a sandwich and dug in.
Malfoy couldn't help be jealous in his hungered state, but now that she was there he found it hard to find the will to leave for the Great Hall. After a moment she hesitantly spoke again.
"Have you, um. Have you eaten? Lunch I mean."
Draco looked at her to see a blush colour her cheeks, and she quickly looked disinterestedly away from his grey eyes. "No." He curtly answered, fixing his own eyes back on his work. After a slight pause she replied:
"Well. You're welcome to... I mean if you even like chicken sandwiches... I know it's nothing special but..."
God, why did she have to sound so stupid? Ginny thought to herself as she spoke. She sighed and tried to start again.
"You can have a sandwich if you like," she stated simply, feeling the blush rise up again. It was a stupid gesture, and she prepared herself for humiliation as Malfoy retorted he wouldn't be seen dead eating a chicken sandwich rather than a full roast on a Sunday, and in a library nonetheless. She was therefore surprised when his hopeful, "seriously?" reached her ears. She glanced over at him to check he wasn't taking the piss, but seeing his expression she decided he wasn't.
"Sure," she said, tearing her eyes away from him. "Go ahead."
As Malfoy happily tucked in to a sandwich Ginny tried to block out the thoughts his intense grey eyes had stirred in her. She had dreamt of him again last night, though only briefly. She dreamt that they were here, in the library, in their section. Malfoy had reached over to check a spelling on her page and their hands had brushed, and from there things had suddenly changed, the air had been thick with expectation as their eyes locked. Ginny had wanted him so much, she had awoken surprised again to not find him there, and confused beyond belief.
At the end of the day, Ginny thought to herself with a small frown on her face, he is hot. And beautiful. And really, really hot. And now she had noticed it, there didn't seem to be much chance of making herself un-notice it. She knew he was a slimy, evil, Slytherin git on the inside. But unfortunately, on the outside, it was a whole different matter.
"Could you just watch my stuff for a minute?" Malfoy's awkward request broke her from her thoughts. She looked at him in surprise and saw a small measure of defiance or something akin to it enter his eyes, which he didn't move from staring at her, even as he looked acutely uncomfortable.
"Sure," she complied quickly, hoping to lessen the tension she could see in his face. For a split second he looked relieved, before quickly standing and exiting.
"Pull yourself together Ginny," she whispered to herself sternly. Thoughts of how cute he looked when he was unsure were not helpful. It was just hard, Ginny reflected, to hate him so much when he hadn't done anything in the past week to give her ammunition. When she had first realised she would be sharing the job with him she had expected the time to be torture, for him to bombard her with insults and judgements about her family, her hair, her blood traitor status... Anything. But he hadn't so much as hinted at any of that. He'd been... Polite. He'd made her laugh. He'd let her join him today when he could have complained about her presence. He'd eaten her sandwich. She smiled to herself absently.
She heard footsteps approaching and hastily looked back to her work so that she could at least pretend she had been working in Malfoy's absence. How long had she been daydreaming? She made a concerted effort not to look up when he dragged the chair out from beside her, but her attention was caught when an array of cakes and pastries were laid out before her. She looked up in surprise at Malfoy.
"Thought you might still be hungry," he smirked, before picking up a slice of treacle tart and tucking in, instantly absorbed again by his work.
Ginny was glad of his diverted attention as she was sure a blush was rising on her cheeks, so she quickly reached out and took an eclair.
"Thanks, she murmured, and saw him nod although his eyes never left the page. "Madam Pince will kill us if she finds this lot here though, you know."
"It's ok," Draco said, finally looking up at her and smiling beautifully, "I can magic them away." He explained in a mysterious tone, and once more a Weasley laughed at a Malfoy, but in a very different way from usual.
*******
It was much later that Ginny had finally finished all of her homework, and she shut the last book with a satisfied smile. Her and Draco hadn't spoken much, but their silence wasn't awkward, and occasionally they had spoken about the merits of each of the cakes they were eating, and discussed their favourites. When Ginny had confessed her love of chocolate brownies, Draco had frowned slightly and said, "I'm sorry I didn't bring any up." Ginny was so taken aback by his comment that she quickly laughed and said, "Yeah well you'll know for next time won't you Malfoy." To which he had quietly replied "I suppose I will".
"I'm done" Ginny stated, a small measure of relief colouring her words as she stood and began to pack her bag. Malfoy made no response so Ginny continued: "you can't still be working?"
"I'm just doing some further reading," he replied cautiously. Ginny carefully tried to peer at the book he was studying without alerting him to her prying.
"Isn't that advanced NEWT level work?" She asked with shock when she realised what she was looking at - work that she only knew Hermione was undertaking.
Malfoy's head snapped up as he caught her peering and he quickly stood.
"Weasley, it's just further reading. I'm not taking the advanced levels, I'm just trying to educate myself further. Ok? I'm not taking the tests." He paused, then looked carefully into Ginny's eyes. "Please... Please don't tell Potter or Granger or your brother about this. They'll think..." He trailed off and seemed to pick up again on another angle, "Granger would throw a fit if I were taking the same levels as her. And I'm not. So no need for her to panic. Ok?"
His eyes seemed to beg Ginny, to search inside her to see what her answer would be before she spoke. He stood over her but leaned down slightly to look at her better. He seemed so worried she quickly wanted to reassure him.
"Sure, Draco," she replied. "I won't say a thing." She flashed him a quick smile and saw tension leave his body, then quickly turned and walked away.
Since when had she started calling him Draco?