TWO
Malfoy Manor was huge, forbidding from the outside, but inside his suite of rooms, there was something warm there. Huge still, like everything in the home, his rooms screamed luxury. She expected darkness inside this home but was proven wrong. His office was well lit, lots of windows and sunshine came in. It was a mix between a library and an alchemy station. His second bedroom was a wardrobe, filled with the finest robes and mirrors. His bathroom was white marble and gold – looking like something made for royalty. But it was the master bedroom that felt the warmest, in the fire light, his white silk sheets shone beneath the edges of the plush green duvet.
It was that very fireplace that she arrived in, she spoke his name as she tossed the powder to the ground and she was stepping into his room. It was his own concoction of floo powder, something he’d given to her to be sure she could always find him if she wanted him but to never pressure her to come to him. Rather than a place, all she had to do was say his name and she would be taken to him.
Draco moved to her instantly, his arms wrapping around her and lips crashing into hers with a kiss that took her breath away. Her arms moved up around his neck, holding him in the intense kiss. He groaned softly into her mouth as his hands slid up her sides, barely brushing the sides of her breasts on his way to her neck. With one hand on her jaw the other pushed into her fire-red hair as he latched onto her.
He tasted like oranges and Ginny couldn’t seem to get enough. She pushed herself higher on her toes to bring herself that much closer to him as her fingers toyed with the buttons on his shirt until it was hanging open. She pushed her hands under the white fabric, brushing over his skin and it all came rushing back to her. The way his bare skin felt beneath her fingers, the cut of the muscles on his stomach, the bump of the scar across his chest. It was as if there had been no time lost between them.
Draco’s skin shivered at her touch, he’d dreamed of her fingers on him again with every fantasy he had. He pulled back slightly, looking down at her flushed face as he took in a deep breath. She watched him with big eyes as her breath slowly came back to her. “Don’t stop.” She told him, pulling him back against her. She didn’t want to think about what they were doing, she didn’t want to think about the vows she was breaking, she only wanted to have one more moment with him.
“I won’t.” He told her with a smile as he leaned back in. He kissed her again, deep and long while his hands roamed over her body. He had longed to feel her again. His long fingers took hold of her shirt and slowly worked the fabric up her body. Ginny’s arms rose instinctively and jumper was dropped to the floor without another thought. She pushed the loosened shirt from his shoulders in turn as she slid her hands down his back. His skin was different - she noticed, feeling scars on his back that hadn’t been there sixth year. She wanted to stop and look, wanted to ask him and make sure he was okay but it was Draco that pulled back.
He leaned down as his lip began to move down her neck. He left a trail of kisses across her collarbone that she was sure she could still feel even after he moved past them. Her eyes fluttered open as he kissed down her chest while lowering himself to his knees. She ran fingers through his hair as she looked down to him with a soft smile and love in her eyes. He glanced up at her as he kissed over her stomach. He wanted to say so much in that moment. He wanted to tell her how he’d longed for her, how he knew the moment he walked away that he wanted to be back beside her. He wanted to tell her how he wanted to turn back time and run away with her, how he didn’t care about anything except her.
He wanted to tell her that he loved her.
But he didn’t speak. Instead he just wrapped his arms around her legs and rested his head against her middle. He clung to her for a second as he forced all the words back. He had one chance with her again – just one – and he couldn’t ruin it with his stupid notions of love for another man’s wife.
Ginny didn’t need the words; his actions had always been far louder to her. She looked down into his eyes as her fingertips brushed over his cheek. So pale and smooth, he was beautiful to her. She knew she was being foolish, she was never going to be able to turn back now.
It was a mistake even going there, meeting him alone after many secret and heavy conversations they’d shared. He wrote that he wanted to see her; she returned the sentiments. When his next owl came to the Harpies locker room with the unique floo powder, she knew she shouldn’t go. It was a mistake. But knowing that didn’t stop her from going to him as soon as she could. When she wrote the words ‘I need to see you.’ she told herself it was just once, she’d go to him, she’d get the closure she never got before. But even as she told herself the lie, she knew how stupid she was being. She knew that Draco, of all people, wasn’t so easy to let go of.
Draco felt a strong pull to Ginny from the beginning. His jealousy of Potter only excelled as he saw how she fawned over him. Of course she’d never defend him like she did for Saint Potter; she’d never look across the room at him that way, never send him secret notes of affection. It was just one more thing Potter had that he didn’t deserve. Draco was sure that in time she’d grow to hate him, just as they all did…and why shouldn’t she? After all he mocked her, he mocked them all. He was better than they were, and she was stupid not to want him. They were all fools. The thoughts of a young boy filled with jealousy and hate never made sense to the adults who looked back on them – unless those thoughts remained. The jealousy over Potter having her when he’d loved her so much, that would be something he was sure would never change.
He gave her one more look – almost checking on her before he hooked his fingers over the top of her skirt and slid it down her hips. Ginny’s eyes closed as his lips moved over newly exposed skin. He kissed his way back up her body as he stood once more, reaching her lips again. She reacted quickly, kissing him hungrily as her fingers moved to the button of his slacks.
Skin to skin and wrapped up in one another, the two tangled in the white sheets. Her lips swollen from contrast kissing and his pale skin flushed from the heat between them. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed deeply, eyes locking on his. They were so close together she couldn’t see anything in the room except his eyes as he rested between her legs. He wanted to say so much, he wanted to tell her he loved her, wanted to tell her he needed her. But in the moment only one thing came to mind. “Are you sure?” He asked softly, his body aching for her.
Ginny searched his eyes as he stared at her and as he spoke she wished he hadn’t. She knew this was wrong, this was horribly wrong. But…this was Draco. She’d dreamt of this moment so many times. They’d come close in school, but never made it this far, never even made it to be completely naked. But now he was there holding her so gently, looking at her with those pale blue eyes. Was she sure? This was wrong, this was beyond wrong. She’d taken vows, she was married and loved her husband…but she couldn’t deny love for Draco as well. Just one time. She told herself. Just one time to free herself from it all.
She moved in, kissing him. “No.” She replied honestly, no need to lie to him. “But I want this. I want you.” She continued, placing another kiss to his lips.
The kiss deepened, evolving to more and more as he shifted against her slowly. They’d always been passionate together, practically fighting for control with their mouths as they kissed and groped at one another. But something happened over the years, something in their growth and their need for one another seemed to show them both that fighting for control was useless, neither of them had any control where the other was concerned. Be it a sense of romance or just being careful not to ruin their one chance, they fell into a romantic moment that neither would forget.
The silk sheets clung to them as Draco and Ginny in turn clung to one another. Draco looked at her in the glowing firelight and the mix of the sweat on her skin and the flush in her cheeks made her look like she was glowing. There in the manor, in his bed, Ginny felt like she was in another world…even as if she’d gone back in time. It was just the two of them and the world outside of these walls didn’t exist. She didn’t let thoughts of Harry come into her mind, she saw only the lean blonde man at her side.
She hadn’t come with the explicit purpose of making love to him, she knew something would happen they’d talked too much about the past to think that nothing would happen but she had no idea that it would be this intense. She stared at him for a long time as questions went through her own mind. When the silence finally broke, they both tried to speak at the same time and both let out a laugh. “You first.” She told him with a smile, shifting to lay on her side propped up on her elbow to face him.
The words were on the edge of his mouth, the questions he so wanted answers to, but something held him back. “Where’d you get this?” he asked, his fingertips brushing over a scar on her shoulder. She glanced at it, but didn’t need to see it to remember as a smile crept on her lips.
“Quidditch. We were in a match with the Wasps and I was heading straight for the goal.” Her eyes lit up as talked about the game she loved. “Their Chaser swoops down right in front of me just as a bludger flew in. The bludger broke his broom and he flew right into me, broken handle went right into my shoulder.” She grinned a little despite the massive pain the event had caused her. She spoke the same way she wore her scars: with pride. “Probably would have healed better if I’d gotten the dittany but I couldn’t pass up scoring first.” She added with a little laugh.
Just at the talk of scars her eyes moved over to his arm. She expected to see the black marks she’d first seen at Hogwarts. She’d expected the burn in his skin was still as dark and sinister as it had ever been. But it looked nothing like it once had. It now looked like any other pale scar, her brow furrowed some, barely able to see it. Ginny reached over and Draco’s eyes watched intently. He held his breath as her fingertips brushed over the indentations only exhaling when she met his eyes once more. “It faded.” He told her softly. “My father told me that it happened when He was defeated the first time…that it only got dark again when He came back.”
“So if it ever gets darker?” She asked, a hint of concern in her eyes.
“It won’t.”
“Okay, but…hypothetically, what would do if you looked down and saw it getting darker again?” She watched his eyes as they went from the scar back to her.
“I’d...” He swallowed hard, part of him not wanting to say the words, not wanting to be the coward he knew he was – but there was no point in lying to her. “I’d like to say I’d fight, but I’d run. Take my family and go where they’d never find us.” Her fingers moved over the scar once more, remembering when it was there. Seeing it for the first time at sixteen…
Ginny could feel her stomach drop as he approached her with sleeves rolled up. Her eyes caught the mark on his arm and she couldn’t seem to look away. It terrified her as much as it disgusted her. She knew what he was – but she chose to ignore it. If she just refused to see that part of him…if she loved him so deeply it over-rode the hate…it could all be okay.
He reached for her only to have her lean back away from his touch. His brow furrowed some, not understanding what he’d done. They’d not fought at all today. “Roll your sleeve back down. I don’t want to look at that.” She told him bluntly. That mark stood for everything wrong in the world and she hated that he was branded with it.
His eyes darted down quickly and noticed that the burned mark on his arm was clear to her now. Had she really never seen it before? “Gin, it’s just…” He began as he started to roll down his sleeves for her.
“I know what it is.” She replied sharply. “I know what it is and what it means and I hate it.” She used her anger to cover her fear. If anything that mark terrified her. It forced her to face that she loved a man who wore the mark of evil on his skin. “If you want to be with me, keep that thing covered up.” Her voice wavered only slightly, but it was enough to show him it wasn’t just anger she was feeling.
“Bloody hell, Ginny, it’s just a mark, it can’t actually hurt you.”
“I don’t care!”
And while a fight was close to starting, the two ended up embracing while hidden in the dark corridor and kissing deeply. The anger somehow fueled them in their angst ridden teen years. As much as she hated the Death Eaters, she refused to see him as one. Refused to let that mark be the reason she wouldn’t see him. And while only four years, they’d both changed so much that those fears didn’t control her any longer. Now she could touch that scar without fear…something about that ability made her feel strong.
Ginny leaned in, her hand flat against his forearm and kissed him.
The single fearless kiss deepened almost instantly. Draco’s arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. Her chest pressed to his and in no time they were making love again with an overwhelming passion. Her eyes locked on his as he leaned down over her, he breathed out her name, kissing her and holding her. In that moment he felt more complete than he’d felt in a long time and it would fall away like a punch to the gut when she left him that evening to go back home to her husband.