Clichés, Kisses and Killing

Clichés, Kisses and Killing.

Chapter 7: Survival.

If the world crashes down over me

I know that my life is complete.

Because I've held you in my arms all night

Because I can't imagine life without you by my side.

'If The World Crashes Down' - Enrique Iglesias.

Harry and Ron were thrown onto the ground next to Ginny and Draco, and they stared at them in surprise.

"Malfoy?" Ron struggled into sitting position. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Taking a bath, Weasley, what the fuck does it look like?"

"Piss off, you little ferret!"

"Or what, you useless loser?" Ron sneered again and Ginny snapped.

"Shut up, both of you!" They looked at her in surprise. "Just shut the hell up! I'm sick of you two always on at each other. I've been sick of it ever since Draco and I have been together! All the snide comments and the stupid fucking fights! Well I've had it! Just shut up!"

"You're with Malfoy?" asked Ron, after a moment's silence. He was silenced by a glare from his sister.

"She's been with him since her birthday party," Harry muttered.

"Since her what?" he shrieked. Ginny just closed her eyes and tried to breathe. They were interrupted from their glaring by the door opening and Lucius Malfoy sweeping into the room.

"Up." He undid their bonds with a sweep of his wand and they stood immediately as his wand was still pointing in their direction. He turned to Draco and sneered. "Are you happy now, Draco? Now you've got all your little friends around you, the ones you betrayed your own side for, I'm sure you'll be extremely comfortable."

"They aren't my friends." He was staring at his father, his eyes cold. "But I was never on your side. I followed what you did because I had nothing else to follow, Father." He spat out the last word. "And the problem is with your little regime is that it's irritating as hell because we all have to grovel to one man and we know that we could annihilate him if we all got together. The only problem with it is: whom can you trust? You're all too shit scared to challenge him because you don't know if the same people who tell you you're brilliant, and it's a great idea to get rid of him, might just turn around and tell him everything. And before you know it, Avada Kedavra! And it's all over."

Draco stepped forward.

"Well, sorry. But I've never been one to accept anyone else's superiority, not since I was too little to know better." His gaze travelled up and down his father's body, a sneer on his lips, and it was perfectly clear whom he was talking about.

Lucius was practically shaking with anger, which Draco knew was unusual for him because he never showed real emotion, he never showed anything that would make him more human than he could bear. Draco saw the anger and spite turn in his father's eyes and he knew he was in for a ride.

"Draco, you are a pathetic excuse for a son, you always have been and you always will be." His eyes narrowed menacingly. "And now we've found your final weakness, one that you will die for. Your pathetic excuses for friends and lovers. We have Harry Potter, the boy whose parents were so pathetic they let themselves die for the sake of a child, and two Weasleys, members of the most disgraceful excuses for a pureblood family in the entire wizarding world. Are you in with the Mudblood whore as well?" Draco's eyes narrowed this time, making them all think he looked startlingly like his father.

"There are a lot of things that can disgrace a family, Father. My friends aren't one of those things." They all looked at him. Harry and Ron nearly fell over when they were referred to as 'friends' of Draco Malfoy.

"Don't be a fool, boy. You can join one of two sides here. The winning side, who will give you power if you grovel for it, or you can join your little pack, and their slow descent into a painful death." Draco stared at him, his breathing quickening. "Choose, Draco, choose and try to improve yourself. Believe me, it's all uphill from here, you always have been wretchedly inadequate."

Ginny, her face red with trying to control her anger and hatred towards Lucius stepped forward and opened her mouth to try and speak. Lucius turned his wand on her. His thin mouth twisted into his almost-smile. His mouth opened and then everything happened very fast.

As Lucius hissed 'Crucio!' Draco moved in front of Ginny by flinging himself across her, making them face-to-face for an instant before he was on the floor screaming. Lucius stopped the spell and Draco lay on the cold floor, his breathing laboured, tears in the corners of his eyes. Lucius' breathing was fierce, showing his anger, and Draco heaved himself up to lean back on his elbows.

Staring at his father from underneath some hair that had fallen across his face, Draco tried to slow his fevered breathing.

"I've made my choice, Father."

"Don't address me with that name, boy. I am not your father, as I have no son. Now you'll just have to wait and die in anguish with your useless friends and wish you had chosen my power." Lucius leaned his face down close to the features that were eerily like his own. "For now, I'll just have to show you a slither of that pain." He stood up and pointed his wand down at the boy's lean body.

Again and again, Lucius Malfoy hit his son with the Cruciatus curse until Draco was almost unconscious, his whole body shaking with fear and pain. Lucius swept out of the dungeon, his black robes billowing behind him, and Draco rolled over onto his knees. He leant forward with his head in his hands and began to cry. His whole body shuddered with every dry, forceful sob and Ginny kneeled down next to him, reaching out to touch his shoulder gently.

"Don't," he sobbed. She jerked her hand back and sat still, watching him as his pain shot through his body and poured out of his mouth with wretched cries.

*~*~*~*~*

As they stood in the dungeon and stared at Draco Malfoy as he sobbed on the stone floor, a silent agreement ran through them. He was redeemed in every way possible. He had just saved Ginny from being exposed to the Cruciatus curse and that had just overridden everything terrible he had ever done to them. Despite their love for Ginny and their happiness that she had not been hurt, they were still amazed at Draco's display of loyalty, and that was what kept them silent as he choked out his sobs on the floor next to them.

*~*~*~*~*

Ginny leaned back against the wall and stroked Draco's hair as he laid his head on her legs. She looked down at him and saw that his eyes were closed and he had stopped shaking with sobs every few minutes. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw his chest begin to rise and fall rhythmically, indicating that he was falling asleep. She was glad he was getting some sleep, he had been crying silently for about the last two hours.

She looked up at Harry and Ron, sitting on the opposite side of the room, and they smiled hesitatingly back. She nodded when they raised their eyebrows and nodded at Draco in a silent question. She was just closing her eyes herself, having managed to get thoughts of Lucius Malfoy out of her head, when the door slammed open and Draco jerked awake.

A Death Eater walked in. She didn't recognise him, but obviously Ron did because his eyes flashed and he stood up immediately and would have dived forwards if Harry hadn't held him back. Ginny held Draco's arm as he pulled himself into a sitting position without wincing once. She stood up swiftly and held her hand out to help him to his feet. He stood and faced the Death Eater, raising his chin as the cloaked man sneered cruelly.

"You have nothing to be cocky about, Malfoy, you have nothing now."

"I have a soul, does that count?" The Death Eater smiled.

"Who needs a soul when they have the power I have?"

"The power to grovel? The power to kiss someone else's arse? Congratulations on that, I'm so jealous." Draco's tone was patronizing and Ginny could sense what was coming.

The Death Eater raised his wand and Draco flew backwards into one of the cells, smacking against the wall with a crunch and a cry of pain. Ginny was suddenly in the air and she flew after Draco, landing on top of him and making him groan as her weight hit him full in the stomach. She crawled off him and cupped his face in her hands, checking that he was okay.

Hearing a crash, she looked round to see that Ron and Harry were being dragged into the cell next to hers, separated by a stone wall, but with the same iron railings at the front. There was a line of identical cells facing them on the opposite wall, and she could hear Ron and Harry shuffling around and Ron swearing colourfully as they Death Eater left.

"Are you okay, Ginny?" Ron's voice was concerned and Ginny nodded then remembered he couldn't see her.

"I'm so-so. Just a little caged and bruised."

"Malfoy?" She could hear the self-control it was taking Harry to ask after Draco and she smiled.

"He's not so good. He'll live, I think; he's just bruised. Very, very bruised." She settled next to him and took him in her arms so that he could settle against the warmth of her body and relax. He wrapped his arms around her. He was still silent. He hadn't spoken to her since Lucius left, apart from the choked 'Don't' that he had said when she had tried to touch him.

"Ginny," he whispered.

"Yes?" She leaned a little over him to hear whatever he said.

"I love you." He smiled as she kissed his cheek softly.

"I know, Draco, I know. I love you too, no matter what's happened in the past." He nodded and she leaned down to kiss his cheek again.

He sat up then, pushing her face away, and she frowned at him as he took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead, then her cheeks and then the tip of her nose. He finally reached her mouth and she delved between his lips kissing him deeply as she tried to forget everything that had happened.

He moved her onto her back so that he was leaning over her and she smoothed her hands over his chest as he moved above her to slide his hand inside her blouse.

And suddenly, in Ginny's world, everything was perfect. Her mind refused to compute anything that had just happened. All that mattered was the fact that Draco was kissing her and he loved her and she could feel his bare skin on her's as he undid the buttons on the front of her shirt.

*~*~*~*~*

Harry and Ron sat side-by-side in the cell and stared at the opposite wall. Harry closed his eyes for a moment and opened them to find Ron looking sideways at him.

"You okay?" Harry nodded and smiled as much as he could manage.

"How about you?"

"A little shocked still. Malfoy and Ginny, having sex, going out, in secret, you knowing. It all builds up." Harry nodded again.

"How did you know?"

"Hermione and I walked in on them kissing in a classroom."

"Hermione knows as well?"

"Yes. Ginny made us promise not to tell you, so don't get mad. She's our friend as well, and we love you, Ron, but we promised her." He nodded. "And, anyway, how do you know they're sleeping together?"

"Lucius Malfoy just said friends and lovers. I'm working on the assumption that you aren't sleeping with him, and I know I'm not, so it only left one person really."

"Good detective work, Sherlock."

"Thanks." It made Ron smile a little, and Harry was glad to see him do it because it was the first time in far too long. They continued to stare at the wall for a little longer and Harry began to think about his life and why they were all in this mess.

"I'm sorry," he said suddenly.

"For what?" Ron turned to look at him, frowning. "Don't tell me, you slept with my sister too?" Harry shook his head.

"For getting you into this mess, and for hurting you all by being your friend." Ron was staring at Harry, his mouth hanging open. "And I'm sorry you had to see Hermione in so much pain, and I'm sorry they keep putting you through so much pain, and I'm sorry that your sister is here as well, because she shouldn't be." Harry looked down at his hands in his lap, and his face was so sad that Ron's temper flared.

"Shut up!" Harry looked up in shock. "Just stop feeling so damned sorry for yourself, Harry! Contrary to your belief, the world does not revolve around you. Yes, maybe we are all here because of you, but if you weren't here, none of us would be alive. You defeated Voldemort when you were one year old, and you had no part in it, it was just something he hadn't anticipated.

'But if you hadn't, if you hadn't been alive, we would have lived under his reign of terror since the day we were born. If we were born at all. Now, I know you think all this is your fault because we're friends and we've all been captured. But if we weren't friends with you, Harry, we'd be here anyway. We all would have been up in that tower, and we all would have been captured, it doesn't matter that we're your friends. This would have happened without our friendship, and I'd rather that we had our friendship if we have to go through this, if it's all the same to you." Harry stared at his best friend and smiled.

"Thanks, Ron, I think I needed that."

"Damn right, you needed that," he muttered. Harry decided to change the subject, he didn't want to get Ron riled up again.

"I wonder if Ginny and Draco are okay? They're pretty quiet."

"Draco's probably asleep, he had a really bad time of it, didn't he?"

"You're telling me," Ron answered. "How can someone do that to their own son?" Harry shook his head and shrugged. "Anyway, they've probably just curled up together in a corner for comfort, they must be exhausted."

*~*~*~*~*

Ginny and Draco were silent as they moved together on the floor, their mouths locked together to stop any sound escaping as their hands roved over each other's bodies in a desperate attempt to lose themselves.

Ginny sighed as Draco's mouth slid away from hers suddenly and buried itself in her neck, kissing softly and nuzzling at her soft skin. She opened her mouth to make a sound, and then remembered she couldn't, and Draco, almost sensing what she was doing, closed his mouth over hers again. She lost the sound in the kiss and let her hands slide up into his hair, holding him as close to her as possible.

As their bodies reached what they had been searching for, Ginny's grip tightened in his hair and Draco grabbed at her legs and back, as their kiss remained unbroken. Ginny let her lips drop away from his and tried to breathe as quietly as she could manage. His face was buried in the hollow between her shoulder and her neck and she could feel the short bursts of warm air that was his breathing on her skin.

And everything that had happened flooded back into the front of her mind, but she didn't care, because she had the only thing she needed to survive.