Forbidden Fruit

Chapter 4 - Of Secrets Revealed

Ginny wearily placed her head in her hands, trying in vain to smother the anguished sobs that wracked her frail little body. She had lost Harry; she'd seen it in his vivid emerald eyes. Hurt, disgust, loathing, anger... You name it; it was all there, staring Ginny in the face. Before he'd left anyway. She felt a hand placed lightly, almost comfortingly on her shoulder and jerked away in surprise and anger.

"Don't touch me," Ginny said, wanting the words to come out warningly, even dangerously, but even she could feel the palpable misery emanating from those three words. Draco looked at her and what she saw within the depths of his silver eyes made her cry even harder. The hurt she saw there was so hard for her to understand; wasn't the man before her Draco? Draco Malfoy? Evil Dude Extraordinaire? This was just super freaky. What was even harder to understand were the other two emotions swirling around within the depths of those eyes; Draco's eyes. She recognised one of them almost immediately - Fear. The other was harder to decipher. Her eyes narrowed in speculation before widening in sheer amazement. Surely Not? He was Draco, his family - he - hated her! Therefore, by logic, what she saw in Draco's eyes could never be love! Absolutely preposterous! The idea was laughable - until the boy opposite her sighed, rubbing his head wearily with one hand, and said the three words she never would have expected. Sure, she would have expected 'I hate you' or 'I'll kill you' even but never -

"I love you," he whispered, looking into her deep brown eyes.

"What?!" she gasped, the incredulity of the situation making her almost giggle like a madman - well, mad-woman.

"I love you," he said more firmly, as if he were drawing courage from the comfort of those words. Ginny thought for a minute and only a minute before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him soundly, the remnants of her tears only making the kiss so much sweeter. She pulled back only long enough to whisper:

"I love you too," before Draco pulled her lips back to his hungrily, kissing her as if it were a lifeline to cling to in such Dark times.

Draco sat back on his bed in the Slytherin dorm rooms, thinking over his new relationship with the esteemed Virginia Weasley. At first he had thought just to fool around with the Weasley girl, to tweak Weasel Senior and Potty wee Potter's noses, maybe steal Potter's girl out from under him and then leave her for dead perhaps, but Draco knew within his heart (yes, he does have a heart), that what he had said to Virginia in the clearing that morning was true every single word he had spoken, although it had not been many, (Draco acknowledged with a smirk) was entirely genuine. He'd never felt so happy in all of his born days and Draco now knew why that was.

He was head over heels in love.

With a Weasley.

Harry was angry. That was all Ginny's mind would register as he stood above her, yelling and gesticulating wildly. In fact, Ginny even thought that Harry would hit her and hit her and hit her until she was naught but a battered corpse. She was so afraid, so afraid of the man who was her former boyfriend, and she just wished she could be curled up in Draco's arms again, as she had been that morning. She and Draco had a bond, she knew that. She had known since she was a toddler. The only other four people who knew of her link with Draco were Draco himself, Ginny's mother, Molly, and Draco's mother, Narcissa; as Molly and Narcissa had been friends during their school years, though few remembered. It had been Molly and Narcissa who had linked their children in the first place. Oh, and Dumbledore knew, of course. Not many people knew that the former Narcissa Kensington had been in Ravenclaw, not in Slytherin, as many believed. Her marriage to Lucius Malfoy had been arranged by their parents, and was a loveless marriage from the first.

"Are you even listening to me, you little whore?!" Harry yelled, jerking Ginny out of her quiet reverie.

"Harry!" Hermione scolded, flashing a sympathetic look at Ginny, but Ginny knew Hermione could not take sides, and, if Hermione knew the full story she would never be supportive of the cowering little girl that was Ginny Weasley.

Draco! Ginny called across their strengthened bond.

What is it, love? Draco's sweet, melodious voice sounded within her head.

It's Harry! She mentally sobbed. I think he's going to kill me!

Oh shit! I'll be right there; what's the password?

Flibbertigibbet... and Draco?

Yes, Gin?

Be careful... I love you...

I love you too, sweet.

Ginny grinned in relief. Draco was coming to her rescue; he was going to save her from Harry's wrath.

"What the-" Hermione glared at him again as he spat the swearword out at Ginny "are you grinning about, you shameless, cheating trollop?" Harry finished, glaring at the terrified redhead.

"Do not call my girlfriend a trollop again Potter!" Draco spat at the Gryffindor boy, who was astonished to see a Slytherin within the walls of Gryffindor Tower. The entire common room stilled and went silent at this announcement, but Draco paid the Gryffindors no attention as he almost glided across the floor to the couch where his girlfriend sat, cowering, beneath her ex-boyfriend's stares. He sat next to her, placing his arms around her, the embrace both comforting yet possessive at the same time. Draco's embrace, coupled with his earlier statement, left no doubt that the blond Slytherin boy was he whom Virginia Weasley had chosen over the Boy Who Lived.

"Draco!" Ginny cried, burying her face deep within his robes and sobbing uncontrollably.

"How did you get in here?" Harry asked coldly as Ron and Hermione stepped up to flank him on both sides, the other girl's features now as cold as those of her two best friends.

"That is none of your business, Potter." Draco replied, his voice as frosty as that of the Gryffindor boy's. "There are some things between your ex and I that you need never know."

"Apart from the fact that you screwed her?" Harry's voice was getting shrill and Ginny whimpered in fear, cowering back into her new boyfriend's robes.

"You would have found out sooner or later." A feminine voice from the doorway sighed. Two women stood in the entryway of Gryffindor Tower, one a redhead, the other a blonde. Dumbledore stood behind the two, his expression serious.

"Mother," Draco and Ginny acknowledged at the same time. Narcissa and Molly stepped into the light of a nearby torch, the flickering light dimly illuminating the serious faces of the two women.

"Is there somewhere that we can discuss these matters, Albus?" Narcissa's whispery voice floated across the common room, the stunned Gryffindors looking around in confusion.

"Certainly, Narcissa, dear," Dumbledore smiled down at the woman, who, unbeknownst to all but Narcissa, Draco and himself, was his great grand niece.

"Molly," Narcissa smiled at her friend, "would you kindly bring Harry, Ron and Hermione, as it seems they would rather die than do anything a Malfoy says voluntarily," She grinned. "I know the feeling," She added before sweeping out of the room with Ginny and Draco in tow; Molly being forced to body bind the trio and levitate them after her.

"You might not have known this," Narcissa began in her oddly quiet voice, "But Molly White, now Molly Weasley, was my best friend all through my Hogwarts years. I was in Ravenclaw, not Slytherin, as many would believe." Her mouth quirked at this but she continued. "When my mother and father arranged a marriage for me with Lucius, I thought I was going to die of despair. But Molly helped me overcome my fears and I soon was wed to Lucius, and while not as dreadful as I had first imagined, it was bad enough. When Draco was born, it was the only happiness in my life since I had married into the Malfoy family. When I heard from Molly soon after, saying that she had borne a baby girl, my happiness doubled and I wrote back to her, proposing a plan. We linked our two children."

"It is a bond that cannot be broken, by any one or any means." Molly glared at the Trio, "It allows Virginia and Draco to share thoughts, feelings, powers, even to converse telepathically," Molly continued, looking to the pair for confirmation.

"So that's why the sex was so good..." Ginny murmured playfully, Draco lightly hitting her on the arm, a mock look of hurt on his face.

"And what are you implying, Miss Weasley?" he murmured in response, Ginny grinning up at him. Molly looked over at her daughter, a knowing smile on her face and a twinkle of merriment in her chocolate brown eyes.

"In a way this makes Virginia and Draco soul-mates of a type, so you cannot truly blame them for their actions. Ginny has known since she was three that some of the thoughts within her head were not her own, but young Draco's." Narcissa looked in sympathy to the young redhead who sat next to her son, a haunted look overshadowing her eyes and making her cling to Draco yet more. Harry sighed.

"I do not blame you, Ginny, but whether I will forgive you or not I will have to think on."

Ginny nodded in assent, knowing she could not ask for more than that, and leaned her head on Draco's shoulder. Draco himself looked down at his girlfriend with a smile, thinking how lucky he was to be so blessed. But he knew there was at least one other person besides the trio who would not be pleased by his union with Virginia.

His father.