Ashes By Now

One Week Later

“Your father has been located in a hospital in America,” Molly said, bustling about the kitchen, “Harry and I are going to visit him.”

“I’m coming too,” Ginny said, already decided. Molly clucked and shook her head. “I’m sorry, you can’t. The only way to the hospital is through apparition, and you haven’t taken your test yet.”

Well, that certainly wasn’t her fault. She had been begging her mother to take her for the test for weeks now. Her mother was always too busy. Things had been tense between her and Draco since the week before when they had shared a dream, and Ginny had been avoiding him since then. Of course, when she found out she had to stay home alone with him for three days Ginny suggested he go, and Harry stay.

“Why can’t you take Malfoy?” Ginny asked, “I’m old enough to stay home alone.”

“Harry is going,” Molly said absent-mindedly, and continued packing her things.

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” Draco asked offended, and Ginny rolled her eyes at him, sometimes he really could be foolish.

“No!” Ginny denied quickly, “I just think it would do you some good to, you know, leave, stretch your legs.” Draco shrugged, they both knew what she was trying to do, and he really didn’t care, or at least he told himself he didn’t.

So off Molly and Harry went, to visit a father Ginny hadn’t seen in a month. She sighed in defeat, and they spent the first day in comfortable silence, that Ginny broke around ten the second night.

“Tom marked me,” she said quietly, Draco heard anyway. He choked on the juice he had been drinking, his eyes watering with the effort to breathe. Even that gesture was graceful with the blonde boy. Ginny smiled wanly. “He marked me. When the diary was destroyed he clung to my mind.”

“Diary?" Draco asked frowning. He had no idea what she was talking about.

“You didn’t know your father gave me Tom Riddle’s diary my first year and I opened the Chamber of Secrets?” Ginny asked. She knew Dumbledore had edited the story, but she had no idea how much he had left out, namely her. Why were people always trying to protect her?

“Are you saying Tom Riddle is still in you?” Draco asked after a moment, rather sharply for Ginny’s liking, it made her nervous, and she hid her face. She nodded, looking up at him. “Tom Riddle isn’t a memory, he’s Voldermort’s soul.”

Draco frowned again, “Are you sure?” Ginny nodded, looking away.

“He clings to me, me and my humanity Draco. I feel him, hear him sometimes, just like he feels and hears me. I’m the one thing he wants, because to him I’m the one unreachable thing.” Draco looked at her in shock. “The nightmares are from Tom, he’s baiting me. He wants me to be like him.”

“Why? I thought you said he clings to your humanity.”

“If I’m like him, then he knows he can have me, and I don’t want that,” Ginny said sadly, curling into a ball on her side and lying down upon the couch. They fell back into silence.

~~~Draco worked on a stack of papers as Ginny watched, before slowly falling asleep. She dreamed of many things, running, kissing Tom, and then of kissing Draco as he held her in his arms. She only just realized she felt his warmth as he carried her to her room.

Draco carried her to her room, and sat her on her bed. Rooting around for her pajamas he quickly found them. He pulled her shirt off, and stared. He tried not to, really, he did… but he couldn’t help himself. She had the most beautiful body he had ever seen. She slowly woke up, as if she felt the chill of the room along with his gaze upon her skin.

“Draco?” she asked hesitantly, licking her lips, and he growled low in his throat, pulling her close for a mind shattering kiss. When he finally pulled away, breathing heavy, he said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” take advantage of you, he was going to say, while he blushed profusely. She cut him off with a searing kiss that jerked at lower regions. She opened her mouth to him and giggled as he explored her languidly.

“Are you giggling?” he asked, pretending to be cross, pulling away.

“Well, it did tickle,” she said smartly, kissing his jaw. He cocked an eyebrow, and trailed kisses down her neck, to the pulse at her throat. “Does this tickle?” he asked, then he trailed kisses over the top of her breasts before licking her nipple through her bra.

“Hmm, yes, I suppose it does,” she gasped, as he claimed her mouth again. She could hear his heart beating frantically, and vaguely wondered if he could hear hers as well.

“Ginny,” he began softly….

**************

"Arthur!" Molly all but shouted and flung herself at her bed ridden husband. Harry stood next to his long time friend and stand-in father.

"Arthur, its nice tosee you well." Not that a broken leg was truely well.

"Arthur, what happened?" Molly demanded after a short squeeze.

"They killed the girl who looked like Ginny," he said, "When they realized it wasn't her they used the killing curse." Molly gasped and Harry looked around the room in suspinsion.

"I think Lucius Malfoy was one of them."

"What makes you say that Mr. Weasley?" Harry asked with a frown.

"He mentioned the Chamber of Secrets, only Lucius Malfoy knows that Ginny opened the Chamber."

If Malfoy was involved then whatever they had planned for Ginny had to be important enough to involve Voldemort's right-hand man.

"Where is young Malfoy?" Arthur asked curiously.

"Back at the burrow with Ginny," Molly replied simply.

"WHAT!" Arthur yelled, shooting straight up in his hospital bed. It was followed by an "Ouch!" and a "bugger!" as it jarred his healing leg.

**************

Ginny heard voices, angry voices. She snuggled deeper into the warmth of her bed, and hoped who ever it was would go away. She worked on blocking the voices out, but the voices were steadily rising, and she became aware that they were not going away. She opened one eye and both the faces and voices broke through her subconscious. It was Draco and a very, very pissed off Harry.

“How could you sleep with her knowing you were deceiving her?” Harry demanded rather loudly, maybe he was hoping the auburn haired youth would wake up. Or maybe he was as pissed as he looked. Draco flinched and Ginny sat up.

“What the hell is going on?” she demanded, confused. They didn’t seem to hear her.

“Don’t blame this completely on me, Potter, she asked me to,” Draco shot back.

“This wasn’t part of the mission,” Harry snapped, “You were sent here to protect her, not fuck her brains out.” Which, Draco noted silently, he did rather well.

“What the FUCK is going on here?” Ginny demanded, and both boys finally looked at her.

“This arse hole was sent to protect you,” Harry shouted pointing at Draco as he emphasized every other word.

“WE were sent to protect you…” Draco said, but Ginny cut in.

“You’ve been lying to me? And what, Mum’s been purposefully keeping me here?”

Both boys looked away and Ginny gasped. “Oh gods,” she said clutching her stomach and feeling sick, “I don’t believe this…I don’t believe this.”

“Ginny,” Harry said, stepping closer to Ginny, as she was on the edge of hyperventilating. Ginny flagged him down, and pulling her discarded clothes on she ran out her bedroom door. She could hear them running after her, and she thumped quickly out the kitchen door and into the yard. She could feel Harry reach for her and throwing herself to the ground into a side fall maneuver watched as his arm missed her. She quickly rolled away and to her feet, into her fighting pose, a side horse stance. Draco stepped toward her and she turned slightly toward him.

“Don’t, don’t come near me,” she growled, and added as an after thought, “Don’t touch me.” Harry stepped forward and she said, “Don’t Harry, I will lay you flat on your ass.”

“Ginny, you don’t know how to fight,” Harry said evenly. Ginny had learned the basics in kenpo while she was in America staying with her friend Tarra Williams.

“What do you think I did in America, Harry!? Stood around and played dress-up! Trust me, I can fight, and right now I have no qualms about kicking either of your asses. How could you not tell me, you’re supposed to be my friend.” She turned to Draco, “And you, you’ll always be that blonde coward I knew from Hogwarts,” Ginny could have ranted on but Harry chose that moment to touch her shoulder, and grabbing his ram she pinned it behind his back. She proceeded to shove him into Draco, sending them both toppling over and ran away from them.

“Ginny! Ginny wait!” Harry called, trying to chase her, but succeeded in falling over Draco instead. Ginny didn’t know how long she ran but she soon met the borders of her property and ran into a veil like thing. It seemed to want to keep her in, so she struggled against it, before finally breaking through, and running on.

“Come, Ginny, my darling,” Tom’s voice echoed in her mind, “Let me help you escape from here, you know I can.”

“I thought I sealed you away,” Ginny huffed. Tom laughed at that.

“It doesn’t matter what you try to do to me, I’m still here, and I always will be,” he said smugly, “And you’ll always be with me.”

“Go away, Tom,” Ginny said angrily, “I’ve had enough of guys to last me forever.” And she shoved the dark haired boy’s image to the back of her mind. No amount of skill in kenpo was going to protect her from Tom.