Of Binding Spells and Chartreuse

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Then everything happened at once, so quickly that Ginny could not begin to absorb it all.

In a flash, the room was filled with several black-cloaked figures, moving as efficiently as if they were taking part in a well-choreographed dance. Most of them were masked as well. But one was not, and Ginny realized that she had seen him first. He was a tall man with brilliantly fair hair. He moved towards the bed, flanked by two others who protected either side of him. The man took in the scene with a glance, and gave a curt nod, as if by pre-arranged signal. Ginny looked up into the face of Lucius Malfoy.

She had done nothing except to clutch the bedclothes to her chest to hide her nakedness. There had hardly seemed time to make any other move. Draco had pressed himself closely to her side. Dimly, she heard that his breathing was shallow, and very fast. He was holding her wrist so hard that his grip was painful.

"Well, well, well," Lucius Malfoy said at last. "So you did find her."

Draco made no reply.

"Yet somehow you neglected to inform us of that fact." His voice was so like Draco's, Ginny thought irrelevantly. But something was different. What was it? Was it that he'd lowered it to a dangerous drawl, so that it sounded like the purr of a giant cat about to strike? No, that can't be it. Draco can sound like that too.

Lucius walked around the bed slowly, the heels of his boots making sharp little raps on the wooden floor. He paused and looked down at his son. "It rather looks as if you've taken matters into your own hands, doesn't it, Draco?"

Why doesn't he say something? wondered Ginny. Or would that make it worse? Or is it that... no, it couldn't be, I won't think of things like that... but why he won't look at me? Draco, look at me, please. Turn your head and look at me... But Draco stared into his father's eyes and did not look away.

Lucius turned to look back at Ginny then, as if her message had gone slightly astray. His glance was cold and appraising. "Yes," he finally said, his voice soft. "I believe that what's happened is clear enough." He straightened.

"Get dressed, Draco," he said.

"What will happen now?" Draco asked, still not moving. His voice sounded oddly remote, as if he actually cared very little about whatever the answer might be. Ginny felt an odd chill begin to wash over her skin. She wondered if she could reach her wand. No. It was over on the bedside table, and then I put it back there. That Death Eater's got it, and Draco's, as well.

"We'll deal with the new situation once we've had time to regroup," said Lucius. "In the meantime, the only thing to do is to get the Weasley girl back to the Manor, and to see what can be salvaged."

"Can anything be?" Draco asked in the same tone of voice.

"There's always something to be salvaged," said Lucius.

"You don't seem nearly as angry as I would have expected you to be, Father."

"Well, I wouldn't say that I was pleased. And yet..." His voice softened slightly. "I admit it, Draco-- I cannot pretend to be entirely surprised by this. After spending a year assigned to watch her every movement, perhaps this sort of outcome was inevitable."

"Really," Draco said thoughtfully.

"May I assume that..." Lucius swept a hand over the bed "... well, that this situation is all that it appears to be?"

"You may."

"Ah. Then you did not do so badly as you might have done, Draco. Although there are one or two things I must know... " Lucius leaned forward, and spoke in confidential tones. "You were her first, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"And the Weasley girl was, er... willing?"

"Oh, yes."

Draco's father smiled. The smile exaggerated the resemblance between them to the point of caricature. "Then the ritual can still be performed."

"Can it?"

"Certainly. A Malfoy has taken her virginity, which is really all that was required. And a willing sacrifice carries even more power. The power obtained from it won't be as pure, that's true. But then..." Lucius shrugged in a seemingly casual gesture, but he did not take his eyes off his son. "Many things are perhaps not as pure as they ought to be. We all slip, Draco; we all stumble. But we pick ourselves up, and we go on. Do you understand what I am saying to you?"

"Yes," said Draco. "I think I do." He was already reaching for his green silk boxers by the side of the bed, and putting them on. Ginny could not quite seem to get any words out of her mouth, but then she was not entirely sure what she would have said, anyway. Stupid little girl, kept echoing in her mind idiotically, again and again. A stupid little girl's problems... but could I be called a little girl anymore, now that I've done what I've done? Does it even matter, if I'm going to be as stupid as this? And it seemed to her that the violent end of her nightmare about the snake had at last been fulfilled. So this is what it meant. And maybe this is what I deserve, for opening myself to such evil. Is Draco as evil as his father? Or is he only weak?

"Get up, Ginny Weasley," said Lucius Malfoy's flat voice. "Dress yourself." She looked up to see Draco standing by his father's side, far from fully dressed but looking at her just as coldly as his father was doing. She clutched the sheets more tightly to her naked body. The other Death Eaters in the room were staring at her, she was sure of it. Their masked heads were turned to her, which somehow made it worse than if she had been able to see their faces.

"No, I won't," she said, amazed at the evenness of her voice. "Not in front of--of you."

"You've got nothing I haven't seen." Draco snickered. "So it's a bit late for maidenly modesty, isn't it, Weasley?" He reached down to pull the corner of the sheet from her hand. She snatched it away from him with more strength than she would have thought she had left.

"We have no time to waste here," Lucius said impatiently. He began pulling his wand out of its holster at his waist. Draco stopped his father with a hand on his wrist.

"I'll take care of her, Father."

"Very good," said Lucius. "Dolohov... if you would..." He gestured to one of the faceless Death Eaters at his side, who took Draco's wand from the folds of his robe and handed it to him.

"A Calming spell, I should think," said Lucius. "I cast a rather complex Silencing spell on this room, but still, I'd like to keep her quiet. Screaming is so unseemly."

Draco raised his wand. Ginny closed her eyes. It's cowardly of me, maybe. But I can't bear to look on his face just now. She waited to hear the words of the spell. When she did hear them, she knew, it would be a clean break, a quick, agonizing snap of everything that had been between Draco and her.

"Serpentsortia!"

Her eyes snapped open. Draco had not turned the wand on her. He had whirled on Lucius Malfoy instead, and at that spell a green serpent had blossomed from the end of his wand. A complete expression of shock had overtaken his father's face, watching the snake glide forward. Lucius's white, stunned face seemed to blur into the dark shapes of the Death Eaters. They all shrank back. But then they surged forward, towards the bed. Ginny scrambled to get up, no longer knowing what she was doing. Draco grabbed her wrist and yanked her across the room, into the bathroom. He moved too quickly for the Death Eaters to react, since most of them were still backing away from the snake, and she allowed him to drag her with him.

"Patefacio!" he cried, pointing the wand at the doorknob. The door slammed shut. Dimly, she heard snarls and swearing from the outer room. Showers of green sparks flew from the knob, but it remained still. Draco collapsed against the wall.

"It worked. Can't believe it did. We're safe. For awhile, anyway." Before she could respond, he pulled her towards him with one arm and buried his face in her hair, breathing in long shuddering sighs that were almost like sobs.

"That was the same spell you used against Harry in that dueling club in my first year, wasn't it?" she asked, because she could not think of anything else to say.

"I suppose Potter told you about that. Yes, it was," said Draco. He lifted his head. Incredibly, he grinned at her. "Good thing I know a few Dark Arts spells, isn't it?"

Ginny realized that she was still naked. She pulled a large towel off the rack and wrapped it around herself, tucking it in, avoiding looking at him.

"That wasn't very well thought out on my part, was it?" he asked her, tapping his wand against his left hand. "That's not even a real snake, you know.... Wish we could've got your wand."

"You wanted me to have my wand?" Ginny asked stupidly.

"Maybe we could've actually beaten them then," he said.

"You mean... you didn't mean any of those things you said?"

He shrugged. "I didn't actually say much of anything, or didn't you notice? I simply allowed my father to think I was agreeing with him. I knew it was the only way to get my wand back."

"But what about when you said that I didn't have anything you hadn't seen, and that it was a bit late for maidenly modesty?"

"Well, you don't. And it is, don't you think?"

"Ooh--" Her eyes snapped fire at him.

"Hush. D'you really want to spend our last moments arguing, Ginny?"

"Won't that door hold?" she whispered.

"Not for long," he said.

"So what now?" she asked. Funny, how calm I feel. It's shock really, I suppose.

"Now's when I tell you that I'll love you to my dying day," said Draco. "Which this may very well be."

"You--you love me?" Ginny repeated.

"Is there an echo in here?" Draco asked.

"You love me," she said softly.

"If I don't have another chance to tell you, I should hate to have lost this one." Draco picked up one of her hands and stroked the fingers. "Yes. I love you. I never thought I'd really love anyone, but I do love you. Why else would I have done such a mad, perfectly idiotic thing?"

Ginny nodded. "It makes sense. But you seem--awfully calm."

And suddenly he grinned, that flashing smile that was so heartbreakingly sweet on his narrow, pale face. "Well, I can't think of anyone I'd rather die with. Can you?"

"No. But--"

"Also," said Draco, "there's something else, Ginny. Something you may not have thought of. But I have. If the spell just holds long enough, we might--"

The door splintered open with a tremendous flash of green flame. Ginny turned to face it, feeling some of Draco's unnatural calm herself. Great clouds of fog and mist blocked the doorway completely. Ginny was sure that when they cleared, she would see the masked faces of Death Eaters. She thought that might be preferable to seeing Lucius Malfoy's face. But then, she'd probably see that too. Draco loves me, she thought, and fleetingly she wondered if it would be her last thought, after all. Nothing seemed to matter very much in that moment, now that she knew what she knew. Although I would like to have told him as well. That's my only regret, really. Then the clouds did clear all at once, as magical mist always does.

The face of her brother Ron popped into view, redder than his hair and contorted weirdly with rage. It was a frightening sight.

"I knew it!" he yelled. "I knew it. Look where she is--and where he is--and she's not wearing, she doesn't have any-- look what he did to her--I knew this would happen--"

He strode forward as he spoke, arms outstretched, one hand finally seizing Draco around the neck and slamming his head against the wall. With his other hand, Ron grabbed Ginny by the wrist and dragged her up, hurling her towards the other side of the room so that she lay on the floor, half in and half out of the bathroom. Her hastily knotted towel fell off, and he threw her his outer robe without looking at her nakedness.

"Put that on," he growled. "This minute. Mum!" he called, turning his head. "Don't come in quite yet! I mean it!"

Too late, Ginny realized just how much danger Draco was in now. "Please, Ron, it's not what you think!" She tried to wriggle forward and grab at his foot. "Let me explain--what are you doing--"

Ron shook off his sister and advanced to pin Draco against the wall, jabbing his wand into the other boy's naked chest where he was sprawled on the floor. "I should jam this through your throat," he snarled. "Give me an excuse and I will. Ginny, will you put on that cloak!"

She struggled to get up, but the breath had been knocked out of her and her legs felt boneless. Draco sat up, shaking his head. Even as Ron held a wand at his throat, his grey eyes went to her. "I don't give a damn what you do to me," Draco said coldly, "but if you lay a hand on Ginny again--"

"You're not in any position to make demands!" blustered Ron. "And how dare you even say her name--you dragged my sister here and forced yourself on her and summoned all the Death Eaters and--"

"Ron, have you gone completely mad?" Ginny demanded. "Of course he didn't. Draco saved me. If you'd just listen--"

"Enough," said Harry, coming up behind Ginny and moving past her into the bathroom. He pulled Ron up from his half-kneeling position by the back of the neck. "You can't do this," he said quietly. "You know you can't, Ron. We don't know enough yet. Come on. We've secured all the Death Eaters; we had the element of surprise, no harm's done. At least..." Harry closed his eyes briefly. "Never mind. Let's just take him in."

Ron gave Draco a filthy look. "Cover him up first," he growled. Harry threw Draco his own cloak.

"Put that on, Malfoy," he said. "You're coming with us."

"What are you going to do with Ginny?" Draco demanded, making no move.

"She'll be all right," Harry said coldly. "What do you care?"

"I won't leave her," Draco said flatly. "You don't know anything that's been going on, Potter, or anything that's been planned, or you never would have left her either. You don't have the faintest idea what sort of danger she was in, and still is."

"I know now." Harry rubbed his chin wearily. "You think I don't know how I've failed her?"

Draco looked at the other boy, clearly startled.

"We know everything now," Harry continued. "or some of it, anyway. You're coming to Dumbledore with us, and you're going to tell him everything you know."

Draco nodded. "I will."

"It's not your choice to make," said Ron. "We'll get it out of you if we have to use Cruciatus and--"

"Ron," said Harry, shooting his friend a warning glance. "You saw..."

"No loss, I'd say," muttered Ron.

"Ron..."

Ron subsided, still mumbling darkly.

"I suppose you want this," Draco said, speaking to Harry. He held out his wand.

Harry took it, and then hesitated. He gave Draco a strange look. It took Ginny a few moments to identify it as one of pity. He tapped his own wand against his palm. "Malfoy," he said. "I'd rather like to put a temporary Blinding spell on you. It'll only last ten minutes or so."

"No," said Draco. "Whatever waits for me now, I want to see it."

Harry shrugged. "As you like."

They frog-marched Draco out of the room, one boy holding each arm in a death grip, but he struggled to get away from them when they passed Ginny. Ron snarled something incoherent. "Potter," Draco finally said, not looking at Harry. "Let me say goodbye to her."

"That's the last thing you're ever going to say to her--" began Ron.

"Make it fast, Malfoy," Harry said.

Draco turned to Ginny, his eyes desperate. She wanted to rush forward and grab him and never let him go again, but something in her brother's face stopped her; maybe it would only make the whole situation that much worse. For Draco's sake, she had to stay calm, she realized.

"This had to come," said Draco urgently. "We'll see each other again--"

"The fuck you will," interrupted Ron.

Draco struggled to touch her, but Ron and Harry between them held him fast. "Come to me," he said. "Come to me soon, Ginny."

Then the door closed behind the three of them, and Draco was gone.

When Molly Weasley bustled into the bathroom a few moments later, easy tears spilling down her weather-beaten, comfortable face, Ginny would not speak to her. She stiffened in her mother's arms when Molly tried to hug her daughter. At last, her mother retreated, her brown eyes hurt and bewildered. Tonks came in then, and helped Ginny wrap herself in Ron's robe, and asked softly if she was all right. She was quick and efficient, with the sort of steely efficiency that always did seem to lurk just below her cheerful, goofy surface, and Ginny was grateful.

"Where are my own clothes?" she asked.

"They had to be taken away, Ginny," said Tonks, her face sober. "As evidence."

"As--evidence? For what?"

The other woman did not answer.

Tonks and Emmeline Vance helped Ginny out into the hotel corridor. She still would not let her mother touch her. She could barely walk, and she wondered if that was an aftereffect of everything she had done with Draco, or if it was shock. Glancing around the room, Ginny decided that it had to be shock. The neat little rooms had been torn apart, the dressing table mirror smashed, the furniture tipped over or broken. Nearly all of the Death Eaters were gone; she guessed that they had been overcome by additional Aurors, who had then Apparated with them back to the Ministry. But she saw Elphias Doge and Kingsley Shacklebolt standing together over a black-clad figure that lay motionless on the floor, discussing something in whispers. She saw the figure's face out of the corner of her eye as she passed it, although Tonks tried to grab Ginny's head and turn it away. For a heart-stopping instant, she thought it was Draco, lying dead. But it was not; the hair was longer, the body taller, and the face stamped with something quite different for all its similarity. An additional twenty-five years of life, of course, but also something more. Ginny realized that it must be the sum of all the choices that Lucius Malfoy had ever made and that Draco had not. Then she realized that Draco had been taken out this same way, and he had seen his father lying motionless on the floor. At that, she felt the only pang of sorrow that anyone was likely to ever feel for the death of Lucius Malfoy.

She turned her head away. The room began to blur. Her mother walked by her side, and her sorrowful face started to run together with the memory of Lucius Malfoy's dead one. "Ginny!" That was her mother's voice, but it seemed to be coming from a long way away. "Ginny--"

"She can't take any more," said Tonks, and then the world slipped into blackness.

She floated in an emotionless space, beyond love and grief, where everything was a very soft grey. She smiled contentedly. Am I dead? Well, if I am, I suppose this isn't so bad. Except that I'd like to see Draco again. Yes, I would. Very much. But she couldn't be sure where she was. A tall, dark man with spiky black hair and fathomless black eyes walked beside her. His long dark cloak seemed to move in a wind that Ginny could not feel.

"Am I dead?" she asked him. It seemed the most natural question in the world to ask. And there was, of course, nothing strange about the fact that he was there to answer her.

"No," he said. "You are not in my sister's realm, little mortal, but in mine."

"Who is your sister?" she asked, feeling oddly as if she ought to know.

"She is the Lady Death."

"You're the Lord of Dreams, aren't you? One of the Endless?" she asked.

He inclined his head, and she saw that his eyes seemed to have stars in their depths. "I am," he said.

"So this is a dream, then."

"Do you wish to awake?" he asked. Ginny wondered why he hadn't answered her question directly.

"Well, I don't know," she said uneasily. "Could I ask you a question first?"

Something like a smile touched his lips. "What else is it the lot of mortals to do?"

"Does that mean I can ask it, or not?"

"It is not my place to permit or forbid such a thing," said Dream.

That doesn't sound promising, somehow. "Is Draco Malfoy all right?"

"That I cannot tell you," said Dream. "Immortals will answer three questions, but only three. And that I have done."

"Wh--what?" said Ginny, her voice beginning to rise in panic. "But, wait! I didn't know! I wouldn't have wasted my questions on such stupid things if I'd known! I--"

"But I can grant you one wish," said Dream, as if he had not heard her. "That is permitted."

"Then I don't want to wake up! Not just yet. Let me stay in the dream for a bit longer. Let me figure out--"

The Immortal raised his hand to her then, and she saw that its dead-white palm was perfectly smooth. There was not even a hint of a line. He passed it over her face without a word.

"Wait--" Ginny began.

Her eyes opened with the plea still on her lips.

Slowly, she sat up, wincing at her sore muscles and the cotton-dry feel of her mouth and throat. She looked down at herself, her brows knitting in confusion. She was dressed in a white cotton nightgown that wasn't hers. The bed was unfamiliar, too. Or is it? I've seen this before. And it was at Hogwarts. She turned her head to take in the rows of little beds with the white sheets hung as dividers between them and the vast, echoing room. I'm in the infirmary. She shook her head wearily. So Lord Morpheus hadn't granted her request, assuming that the entire thing hadn't been just a dream, and nothing more. But somehow she didn't think so. She had studied magic long enough to sense the presence of one of the Endless. You just can't trust Immortals these days, she thought.

Ginny lay back in bed with a sigh, and in that movement she saw someone out of the corner of her eye who looked like a dream-version of the older sister she had never had, all long red hair and bright brown eyes. For an instant, she thought of the woman whom Draco had said was his first lover, the one named Marie-France who had mysteriously disappeared. Then she blinked, and recognized Tonks. Her hair was long and red today.

"You're awake!" Tonks said delightedly.

"Yes, I suppose I am..." Ginny shook her head, still feeling very disoriented. "We're in the Hogwarts Infirmary, right?"

"Got it in one! I knew you'd be all right." Tonks winked, then placed a hand on Ginny's arm when she tried to get up. "I didn't say you could go gallivanting about just yet, you know."

"But I have to know what's happened," Ginny said. "I have to find Draco. What's happened to him? Where is he? They haven't--they haven't--"

"Shhh, shhh." Tonks pushed Ginny back down to the bed with very little trouble.

I'm weaker than I thought, Ginny realized. Or she's stronger than I thought. Or both, most likely. "Tell me, Tonks," she said pleadingly.

"Draco Malfoy's perfectly all right. He was questioned by Moody all night, and as I didn't see any dead bodies fall out of the room, I think it's safe to say the answers were satisfactory. And he's been in with Dumbledore all morning."

"How long have I been here?" Ginny's stomach rumbled, as if in reply.

"About twenty-four hours."

"Why did I sleep so long? Was it just shock, or was there something--"

"Well..." Tonks twisted her fingers together. "You were in a magical trance for most of that time, Ginny. Madam Pomfrey wanted to give you time to heal. And also she wanted to, er... perform an examination, and she thought that it would better to do it while you weren't awake yet."

"What sort of... oh." The look on Tonks's face was answer enough. "You mean they thought--but why didn't they just wait until I woke up and then ask me?"

"Your mother was very afraid for you, Ginny," Tonks said in a quiet tone of voice. "Because of what Ron told her, she believed that Malfoy had... well, you know."

"He didn't! Well, I mean, he did, but it's not what she thinks, I swear--" She turned to Tonks suddenly, grasping the other woman's arm. "Please, Tonks--I have to tell them, if they think that Draco kidnapped and raped me or something, it's just not true--he didn't do anything to me. I mean--" she blushed. "Nothing that I didn't want. I can't tell my mother that. But you know, don't you, Tonks? You understand?"

Tonks nodded. "Yeah. I do."

Ginny looked at herself in the little standing mirror on the bedside table. She was pale and drawn, her eyes enormous. I look like a frightened deer. "Is that really what everybody thinks?" she asked.

"Some people do, some don't," said Tonks. "I never did." When Ginny struggled to sit up, she added, "Don't. I don't think you're quite strong enough yet."

"I'm not," Ginny admitted. She doubted she would have admitted that to anyone besides Tonks. "But, Draco--"

"Shh. Nobody's going to do anything to him. You should sleep some more, Gin."

"I can't until I know a bit more about what's going on," Ginny argued. "All I'll do is worry and think, and it'll keep me awake."

Tonks looked at Ginny, her eyes searching and kind. "All right. Luna Lovegood showed up at Hogwarts just before noon, along with Millicent Bulstrode. They announced that Pansy Parkinson wanted to tell Dumbledore everything she knew."

"Luna's lost it," Ginny said flatly. But even as she said the words, she remembered what she had seen at Madame Malkin's robe shop.

"Yes, well, that's what everyone else thought too. Only thing was, it turned out that they had Pansy with them. And Pansy really did tell Dumbledore what she knew about the Death Eaters' plans. So we knew that we had to find Draco Malfoy. Fast. And where he was, you'd likely be, too." A hint of iron entered her voice. "George told your mother some cockatrice and bull story about you and Harry buying special Christmas presents, and that's why you weren't at the Burrow for Christmas Eve. So nobody even thought of looking for you until today. I'm sorry, Ginny."

"Don't be," Ginny said quietly. She said nothing more, but she felt that Tonks understood.

"That's all I know." Tonks gave a long sigh, picked up a brush on the little bedside table, and ran it through Ginny's hair. Ginny lay back and closed her eyes. Questions still thrummed through her mind, but exhaustion was beginning to roll over her again.

"Your mother was here earlier, Gin," Tonks said. "She's talking with Dumbledore, but she'll come back."

Ginny didn't answer.

"You have such lovely hair, Ginny. I can't ever seem to get mine quite this colour. It always comes out too dark, like a tomato... "

The brush ran rhythmically through her hair, smoothing all the tangles. Ginny tried to think of what to ask next. She was so tired, so very tired... "Draco's your cousin, isn't he?" she asked, opening her eyes just a crack.

Tonks nodded.

"Did you ever know him? When he was a child, maybe?"

"Not really. I only saw him once, as a baby."

"Really?" asked Ginny, her eyes closing again. The feel of Tonks brushing her hair was a good one. It reminded her of what her mother had used to do when she was a child. Tears sprang to her eyes. She firmly repressed them. "How'd that happen, Tonks?"

Tonks sighed. "My mother and his are sisters. You know that. Not that dear Auntie Narcissa talks to us now... but she came to see my mother once. Only once. I was about thirteen years old, I suppose. She came in disguise, and she brought her baby for my mother to see. I suppose he was about three years old then... whiny little fretful thing... but Draco was such a pretty baby. There was something about him, you know. I just wanted to make him smile..." Her voice became wistful. "They never came again. I heard later that Lucius Malfoy found out, and that was that. I felt sorry for Aunt Narcissa then. Still do." She gave Ginny's hair one last crackling brush, and stood up.

"Sleep just a bit more, Ginny. It's going to be all right. I promise. When you wake up, you'll see Draco again."

"Will I?" Ginny asked.

"I think you will." Tonks squeezed her hand.

Madame Pomfrey bustled up to the bed wearing her customary frilly white apron, a bottle of some dark liquid in one hand. "Now, you're not to tire her," she firmly told Tonks.

"Madame Pomfrey, I have to tell you--" Ginny began.

"You're to drink all of this, dear," the mediwitch said in kindly fashion, pouring the contents of the bottle into a small glass.

"But listen, listen--" protested Ginny, even as the glass was raised to her lips. She swallowed and sputtered.

Madame Pomfrey smoothed the hair back from Ginny's forehead. "Sleep's the best thing for you just now," she said, her voice deep with sympathy.

"But I really do have to tell you--"

"There'll be plenty of time later. Lie back down now. Poor lamb, poor lamb..."

"I am not a poor lamb!" Ginny said indignantly. "Nothing happened to me--not like you think!"

Madame Pomfrey turned away and tried to exchange a significant look with Tonks. "The tests were conclusive, you know. Malfoy was definitely the one; they were sure about that as well," she whispered. Ginny rolled her eyes. Madame Pomfrey was beginning to go a little deaf, and was too vain to admit it. "To treat such a sweet child that way," she continued. "Azkaban's too good for--"

Ginny blushed to the very roots of her red hair, torn between horror and an awful desire to laugh. "I am not a child," she said with as much dignity as she could, considering that she could feel the sleeping potion about to hit her with the force of the Hogwarts train. "And I had sex with Draco Malfoy because I wanted to!"

Sleep did hit her then, and she slipped back into darkness. The last thing she heard was Tonks's snort of suppressed laughter.