Who Followed Who?

Ginny emerged from the fireplace without the slightest trace of soot on her. She watched, amazed, as Draco emerged behind her, also looking pristine. She supposed that it shouldn't have amazed her as much as it did; the Malfoys probably had their hearths cleaned by house elves at least twice a day. She turned at the sound of footsteps behind her, and was met by the smiling face of a woman who could only be Draco's mother.

"Ah, hello, darling," she said sweetly, giving Draco a quick hug. Draco gave his Mother an impish grin. "Were you able to procure all of the things I asked you to get?"

"No, I didn't," he said, shaking his head. He gave Ginny an odd look. "She did." Narcissa turned surprised eyes to Ginny, who gave her a curt, but not unfriendly, nod.

"Thank you, Miss-?"

"Weasley," she answered, her voice steady. "Ginevra Weasley, although everyone calls me Ginny." She took Narcissa's outstretched hand and shook it gently.

"How nice to meet you, Ginevra," Narcissa smiled. Draco arched an eyebrow at his mother. The look on her face was clearly indicative that she was up to something, and for some reason he couldn't explain, that thought was disconcerting. "Draco's told me all about you, of course."

"Nothing too bad, I hope," the redhead smiled. Narcissa chuckled, and Draco's jaw dropped. It was a rare thing for his mother to take to strangers; let alone one so down to earth as Ginny was. He knew that his mother would see from Ginny's appearance that the girl was poor and uncultured, two things that had always repelled his mother's presence. Yet here she was, against all odds, laughing with Ginny Weasley.

"Draco, darling, could you take the parcels and put them in my drawing room?" She wrapped her arm around Ginny's shoulder and leaned in to whisper something conspiratorially. Draco gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the laughter that followed him down the hall, wondering the entire way to his mother's rooms what on earth he had just done.

~*~

Several hours later, Draco was lounging in front of the fire in the library in his favorite leather armchair, reading one of his favorite old books. His Father strode in and went straight to a row of books on the top shelf that, until last year, Draco had been forbidden to touch.

"Everything all right, Father?"

"Yes... quite," his father mumbled, caught up in looking for his book. Draco smothered a laugh and focused on his own book again. His Father had always been one to lose himself in his research when the opportunity arose; he supposed that that was where he'd inherited the trait from.

Just then, loud giggling sounded down the hall, signaling the return of his Mother and ... he frowned. What was she to him, after all? He shook his head in an effort to shake the thought away, and caught his Father smiling at him. It was such an utterly knowing smile that it made Draco uneasy. He stood and followed his Father down the hallway, stopping at the door to the dining room, frozen to the spot with shock.

His mother was doubled over in girlish laughter, clutching the arm of a glowing woman with upswept red hair. He blinked, then sucked in a deep breath as he realized that it must be Ginny. She turned and flashed him a dazzling smile before her eyes fell on his Father. Her smile faded and her face paled; she was obviously expecting a less than warm welcome from Lucius Malfoy.

Draco was absolutely relishing the surprised look on her face as Lucius shot her a brilliant smile.

"You must be Ginny," he said politely, holding out his hand. She hesitated before taking it, and Draco noted that she was the first to pull away. He wondered why she had shown absolutely no fear towards his mother, but when greeted with his father, she clammed up immediately. She nodded, her lips pursed tightly together. Lucius seemed to take no notice of it as he turned to embrace his wife.

"Lucius, it was grand," she gushed, removing her hat and gloves. "Ginevra and I had lunch at the loveliest café, and we went into that little boutique that I discovered last year when we took our holiday! We even had our hair and nails done. It was such fun, I've asked her to accompany me again next week." Draco's eyes flew to his mother in shock; the wedding would be over by then, and his debt fulfilled. She couldn't possibly be thinking of keeping the girl's company past then, could she?

Ginny seemed about to make a run for the fireplace when Lucius shot another smile at her, effectively causing her to freeze where she stood.

"Crtainly you're not leaving, are you, Ginny?" he asked. She didn't move. "Have you any plans this evening?"

"N-No... no, sir," she said finally, clearing her throat.

"Then I insist that you stay and have dinner with us." With that, Lucius turned and steered his wife out of the room, smiling and chuckling at the comments she was making.

"This is the strangest week of my life," Draco murmured to himself. Ginny turned and eyed him thoughtfully.

"What time is dinner usually served?"

"Eight o'clock." She rose and nodded, making her way towards the fireplace.

"I need to go home and freshen up a bit, then. I'll be back before dinner starts." He watched as she disappeared into the green flames, and wondered what had suddenly happened to his family, allowing a Weasley so easily into the Manor.

When Ginny returned home, the first thing she did was bury her face in her pillow and scream as loud as she could. She'd been face to face with Lucius Malfoy, the same person who'd slipped her Tom Riddle's diary, and she'd frozen up like the same pathetic little schoolgirl that everyone treated her as. She'd wanted to speak to him; to nose around and see if... well, she didn't know what she wanted to see. Tom? Or Voldemort? And really, what was the difference?

She reached beneath her pillow and drew out her journal- a navy blue notebook- and flipped it open to the entry she'd made a few days after Harry had saved her from the Chamber.

Dear Diary,
Well, it turns out that Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort. I don't feel strange writing that now; I spent so much time talking to him that I feel I know him. He was so kind to me, listening to me and talking back to me. I suppose he just wanted me to lead him to Harry and do his dirty work as everyone else says, but somehow it felt like more than that. He told me things that I'm sure no one else knows. He told me all about his family and his Mum when things were good, then he told me about the Muggle orphanage he had to go back to in the summers. I promised him that I would never tell another soul what happened between us in the Chamber, and I haven't. I think Harry knows that more happened than what I let on, but he can bugger off. They didn't care about me before he took me, did they? Why should I be so bloody interesting now? The fact of the matter is that he introduced me to a lot of things that I hadn't known were there before. For a short while, I was his pupil, and he seemed to enjoy teaching me. He said I had a lust for learning that he found appealing. In any case, no one ever bothered to ask me whether or not I went down to the Chamber willingly, just as he'd predicted they wouldn't. He's gone now. Harry killed him, of course. But for a while, it was nice to have a friend, someone who truly listened without asking for anything in return.

She flipped over several pages.


Dear Diary,
I am going to have to hide you better. Hermione found you yesterday and laid into me good for keeping a diary, asking me how I could stand to after the Chamber. Thankfully she didn't read it, or I feel sure I would have gotten a more severe tongue lashing. Why don't they understand that I need someone to pour everything out to? They have each other. It isn't fair. They each have two other people to lean on, and I have no one. Perhaps I'm hoping that Tom will come back and take me away again, although I know it isn't possible. He would be proud of me; I have continued to learn and grow in what he taught me.

She flipped to a blank page and began her latest entry.

Dear Diary,
I went shopping today with Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother. She is an utterly magnificent woman, and a total delight to be around. I almost felt as though I was out and about with a sister, the way she talked to me. We tried on clothes together, gorged on sweets together at lunch, and got our hair done together. Draco bought me a new cloak this morning, too. I don't know why he did it. I wonder if maybe my idea of befriending him isn't going to backfire on me somehow. Already today I could feel myself changing around him, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the last reading I did. I was up late last night and when all was said and done, I was left with some very confusing results. I spoke to Narcissa about them, since she confided in me that she practices the Art as well, and she interpreted it the same way I had. It unnerved me, and visibly so- she offered to do a joint reading with me tonight because of it. I have the nagging feeling that the same symbols will come up - and then what am I to do? I have been invited to dinner at the Manor. I'll write more when I get home, assuming that I don't do something that will cause me to die of embarrassment.

She tossed her pen onto her bedside table and dropped her closed journal onto the bed, then went into the bathroom to wash up.

Quite a bit later, she emerged from the steam-filled bathroom feeling somewhat refreshed and ready to face the Malfoy family again. She pulled on one of the new dresses that Draco's mother had picked out for her earlier that morning and examined herself in the mirror. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth - Narcissa had been right; the simple black dress did wonders for her. She brushed her hair and swept it up in a loose knot at the back of her neck and slipped her black high heels on. Normally she wouldn't bother to get so dressed up for dinner, but these were not normal people that she would be dining with.

The Malfoys never did anything halfway.

She wrapped the cloak that Draco had gotten her around her shoulders and stepped into the small fireplace. Once she had stepped into the sitting room of the Manor, she was immediately greeted by Narcissa, who was radiant in the new pale pink dress she'd purchased. Lady Malfoy smiled at Ginny, who smiled back. Narcissa linked her arm through the younger girl's, and they began whispering conspiratorially as they walked through the corridor. When they entered the dining room, Ginny was pleased to note the surprised look on Draco's face, although she couldn't say why.

Both of the Malfoy men rose from their seats as the ladies sat down, and Lucius raised his champagne flute.

"A toast," he said jovially. "To new friendships."

"Hear, hear," Narcissa smiled, raising her glass to her lips. Ginny smiled and let her eyes flicker to Draco, who was openly staring at her. She could feel the blush creeping into her cheeks and quickly averted her gaze.

Within moments of their toast, a marvelous feast was laid before them on the table. Ginny thought as she was waited on by the house elves that she could get used to this kind of pampering. They had finished dessert (which had been some sinfully delicious chocolate creation) and were sipping coffee when Lucius smiled at Ginny.

"Tell us a little bit about yourself, Miss Weasley," he said, the smile still on his face. "Draco tells us precious little about his friends." Ginny arched an eyebrow at him.

"I'd hardly say that Draco considers me to be a friend, Mr. Malfoy." Draco's cheeks turned pink, but he said nothing, instead choosing to stare down into his snifter full of brandy.

"If you're not a friend of his, then how is it that you've come to be his date for the wedding?"

"The truth of the matter is that I sort of tricked him into it." Draco's eyes flew to Ginny, but she didn't look at him. Lucius' smile widened.

"Well, since you're being perfectly honest with me, I'll be perfectly honest with you. I already knew that the two of you had placed a wager of sorts, and he lost. But tell me, how do you mean that you tricked him?"

"I knew I was right," she said simply. Narcissa smiled into her coffee.

"Fascinating," Lucius said quietly. He stood and placed his empty brandy snifter on the table. "I must offer my apologies, Miss Weasley. It has been a long day, and I am rather tired. Thank you for accepting our dinner invitation. Perhaps you'd be so good as to return for dinner again tomorrow?"

"I would love to, Sir," she smiled.

"Please, call me Lucius."

"Only if you'll call me Ginny." The elder Malfoy was obviously pleased, which Draco wondered at. His father normally didn't permit his friends to call him by his given name- then again, Ginny Weasley wasn't a friend. She was a conquest - and his father adored a challenge.

"Done. I look forward to seeing you again, Ginny. Draco, please continue to entertain our guest until she's ready to leave." Draco nodded curtly and they watched as his father retreated.

"Darling, you don't have to entertain her," Narcissa said, putting her cup down. "Ginevra and I have some things to do."

"But Father said-"

"You may sit in with us if you like," she said hurriedly, missing Ginny's widened eyes. "But we're only going to be practicing the Art."

"In that case, I believe I'll retire to the study until Ginny is ready to go home. Will you fetch me when that time comes, Mother?"

"We surely will, sweet." Draco rose and dropped a kiss on his Mother's cheek before turning to leave the room. "Draco!" he stopped and turned at the reprimanding note in his mother's voice.

"Yes?"

"You haven't said goodbye properly to Ginevra." Ginny's cheeks immediately felt hot.

"Oh, please - he doesn't have to-" Draco smirked.

"But Mother is right; how terribly rude of me." With that, he made his way slowly towards Ginny, who was starting to squirm in her chair. The smirk on his face made her very uneasy. She was surprised when all he did was stop and bow deeply in front of her. "Good evening." His eyes flashed with something she couldn't identify, and he was gone.

She didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed that he hadn't kissed her, and it worried her that she felt a bit of both.