Cold

Chapter Eight

(Ginny Weasley)

I stood, shivering on the Quidditch pitch, holding the Invisibility Cloak in my arms. I had just recently removed it, waiting for Draco to arrive. It wasn't cold out on the pitch-even if summer was almost over. There was just a scary feeling scattered over the grounds. It made me uneasy, but I continued to wait. Draco swooped down quickly on his broomstick and waved hello.

"How'd you get out here so fast?" he asked.

"Well, this," I said, holding up the silk fabric. "I snatched it from Harry's trunk earlier today."

"Really? An Invisibility Cloak... so THAT'S how he does it. I may have to borrow this sometime." He was obviously impressed.

"You'll have to be a friend of Harry Potter to get it," I grinned, swinging my leg over his broomstick. I grasped his back, prepared for take-off. I stuffed the cloak in the small bag I brought. "I hear these things are pretty fast."

"They are. You should see them in Quidditch. This is the latest Firebolt-hasn't even been used outside the actual games-The Firebolt Two-Thousand. Mum got it for me."

A chilling wind blew over us and I clutched his shoulders tightly.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he moved slowly into the air.

"Nothing... I just had a bad feeling just now..."

"I... I thought that was just me," he murmured, flying through the air.

"You feel it too?"

"I've felt it all day," he said, sounding a bit nervous. "Maybe it's just because my father was spotted here. I... I'm sure we'll be fine. The wards here are marvelous."

"Y-yeah..."

"Anyway," he said, his voice changing to a bit more mellow tone. "I'm glad you came. I expected you to stay inside. You do have school tomorrow."

"The Mark would have kept me up anyway."

"Good point. Does it hurt?"

"A little, but I'll be fine." I smiled at him, but I doubted he could see me over his shoulder.

We began to rise, higher and higher and higher, until the bright moonlight glistened off of us. It made Draco's hair silver, and his eyes even brighter than ever. Moonlight seemed to always compliment him. He pointed to the right, and I gasped as I saw the lake, in all it's glory, beautifully sparkling in the moonlight.

"Wow! It's beautiful!" I said, breathless.

"It is," he replied softly. "It's my favorite part of flying, seeing things like this. That, and the privacy of my own thoughts."

"Yeah," I said, resting my head on his back. "So, what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Heh, well, it's kind of stupid. Don't yell at me like Snape did, okay?"

"I won't," I said, smiling into his shirt.

"I thought about it... about joining Voldemort."

"You shouldn't," I said simply, pulling back to look at him better. "He'd kill you."

"I know. That's why I didn't do it. Haven't you ever thought about it?"

"Of course," I replied, gazing out over the lake. "Lots of times. When things got really bad, with Tom Riddle, or Harry, or Ron, or anything, I thought 'wouldn't it be easier if I just went to HIM?'" I closed my eyes in thought. "But I couldn't do it. He was an evil person, Draco. Look at all the people he killed, just to get what he wanted? Then I began feeling possessed again..."

Draco remained silent, listening intently. I felt my eyes become leaden.

"Tom Riddle started making me do things I never wanted to do. He started whispering horrible things in my ear, torturing me in my dreams... raping me in my dreams..."

"He what?!" Draco turned to gawk at me.

"It's true," I said, my voice shaking slightly. "And... and I could FEEL it happening. I woke up bloody."

"D-does anybody know?!"

"Only me, and him... and you, Draco," I said softly, making eye contact with those glistening, stormy gray eyes.

At that point, there was some sort of connection between us that I couldn't quite explain. I could see pain in his eyes, as much as he could probably read in mine.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I... I know the feeling. That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about..."

"Please tell me," I begged. "I want to know that you trust me."

"Well, you see, my father... he's... ashamed of me. That's putting it lightly." He held up his sleeve to reveal cuts and bruises all the way up to his shoulder. "That's just one arm, and that didn't happen in any fucking Quidditch match either."

"He... he BEAT YOU?!" I felt tears piling in the bottoms of my eyes.

"That's an understatement, but yeah. He did."

"Oh, my God," I shuddered. "I-I'm so sorry..."

"I guess we've both had our setbacks, hm?" After all that, he smiled.

Tears spilled onto my cheeks. "How can you smile when your father hurts you?!"

"I've got some help," he said, simply, smile not fading for once.

I flushed slightly, then leaned against his back again. "Let's fly."

"Yeah..."

We soared through the air on stray winds and his guidance. I had never felt as safe, but that wouldn't last long. Suddenly, an bright green glow exploded into the night sky, sending Draco and myself backwards. Opening one eye, I saw that this green glow was none other than the mark implanted on my chest. We gazed at it for a moment, not quite sure what to do. My eyes caught Draco's face. It was ghostly white, brought out even more in the night.

"No... we need to go back. NOW." He went to turn his broomstick and yelled out slightly. "No! Look below us!"

"Dementors!" I screamed, wrapping my arms around his torso. "FLY, DAMMIT! FLY!"

Draco didn't have to be told twice.

"Hold on, then!" He yelled out, kicking off and zooming through the air at top speed.

I gasped and gripped him as tightly as I could. The speed was exhilarating but horrifying. I could hear blasts whizzing past us.

"They expected us," I muttered.

"I know," came his reply. "I was so stupid to come out here..."

"It's too late for regrets! Put those Quidditch skills to use!"

"You got it!" He said, almost smiling, but obviously still frightened.

He had to do several spins and loops to avoid the oncoming blasts.

"HOW MANY ARE THERE?!" He exasperated.

I stared downward. The Dementors were filling up the grass below. My heart began slamming against my ribs at a rocket-fast pace. Then, a blast slammed into the back of the broom, sending us into a tremor and then a nose dive.

"No!" Draco yelled out.

Then, everything went into a wild blur-everything happened so quickly. We spiraled down, down, down, then BAM! There was a moment where only a flash of red filled my eye sockets as pain blazed through my ankle. I rolled over in the grass, my chest heaving. My vision slowly cleared to reveal the blurry figure of a cloaked man. He reached down and pulled me up with such brute force that my vision went cloudy again for moment.

"Hello there, Ms. Weasley," came a drawling voice that I knew.

"Get you're fucking hands off of me, Lucius Malfoy."

"My, my," he said, pulling me into an arm lock. "A bit touch, ne?"

"Draco! Where are you, Draco?!" I yelled, suddenly remember what had happened. Please don't be dead...

(Draco Malfoy)

My eyes flew open. My head hurt badly and I had a large scratch on my forehead, dripping blood into my eyes. I blinked out the crimson fluid and stared wildly around. I found what had caused the scratch. My broomstick had been snapped in two. If I had been in any other situation, I would have been quite angry. Quidditch wasn't my main focus anymore, however. I wiped blood away, staring at it on my fingertips.

"Draco! Where are you, Draco?!" Ginny's voice brought me out of my momentary trance. I turned quickly.

"Ginny!" I yelled out, grabbing my wand that had flown a few feet.

The moment my hands clasped around the wooden wand, I yelled out in pain as a Death Eater slammed his foot into my back. My breath caught in my windpipe, but I regained myself and stood slowly, eyes large and tempestuous and focused on one thing.

"Put her down," I said fiercely.

As my father took a moment to smirk at me, Ginny slammed her elbows into his ribs. He quickly released her, clutching his side. Ginny fell to the ground in a heap, but she began crawling away. I pointed my want at him.

"Get out. You know I have the advantage here. Dumbledore will be here any moment now, ready to attack. Do you want to go back to your Dark Lord with bad news? So," I growled, "why are you here? Come to send me a message? To take me back? To take her back? What? SPEAK NOW, LUCIUS!"

His name felt foreign on my tongue, but I absolutely refused to call him my father. I wouldn't give him such pride, even if I wanted to call him father. Death Eaters and Dementors began to line up in front of him.

"So... he's leading you all?"

"Don't worry, Draco. Lord Voldemort is still waiting for you at his base. Now, you can just come along."

"Fuck you!" I yelled, spitting on the ground. "I'll never go to you OR Voldemort! Send him a message! Tell him to KISS MY ASS!"

Dementors began to swarm around me and I felt a bit dizzy as whirling, horrid thoughts came swirling in my head. I repudiated giving up however. I steadied my wand, pointing straight at my father.

"Crucio."

My father gasped, a look of pain spreading across his face as humanly possible. The Dementors and Death Eaters quickly surrounded him, planning to protect him. I wasn't going to fight, however. I retreated to where Ginny was, grasping her wrist and pulling her upright. She yelled out in pain.

"What is it?!" I said quickly.

"N-nothing! Let's go!" She leaned her weight on me and began hobbling beside me.

Dementors began to follow at a quick pace.

"Damn it all!" I roared.

I turned to her quickly. "I've got an idea. C'mon-just follow me."

"R-right," she murmured, her face twisted in anguish.

I dragged her to the lake, the Dementors right on our tail.

"Quick! What's that spell Potter uses against these things! How do you do it?!"

"If I knew that, I would have done it already!" She retorted, reminding me much of her brother or Hermione Granger.

"Good point," I said. "Jump in the lake!"

"What?!"

"Do you want to die?!"

"No!"

"THEN JUMP!"

(Ginny Weasley)

We hit the water. Though it was warm outside, the water was still freezing for some reason. The pain in my ankle was excruciating. The last thing I had wanted to do was run on it, but, at the time, I had no choice. My hand still clutched Draco's as we delved beneath the water. I could see large lights above of attacks been sent across the lake.

Bubbles formed above my face as I stared at the surface. I was in such a daze, I didn't realize that it was my oxygen making those bubbles. Suddenly, with a jerk, I was pulled to Draco. His eyes were open and fiery compared to the chill of the water. I gurgled. The lights began to fade, being replaced by others, obviously from Dumbledore.

Draco pulled his arms around my waist and began swimming upward. My lungs had begun screaming and burning as they filled with water. Then, with a blast of cold air, we surfaced and I began coughing. The shore was empty, but I could hear voices in the Forbidden Forest. They had gone in search of more; they obviously would not be back for awhile.

(Draco Malfoy)

I swam to shore slowly-my legs felt like leaden concrete. I crawled up onto the grass and collapsed momentarily, out of breath. I sat up on my elbows and gazed sideways at Ginny. She began crawling up to the grass on her hands and knees, then halted, then wretched into the grass, her hair curtaining her face. It was at this point that I noticed her ankle and mentally kicked myself for dragging her on the swollen, bruised support.

"Why didn't you tell me that-"

"I didn't get much a chance to look at it either," she interrupted, sitting up and staring at her foot. "Guess it's worse than I thought."

"You okay?" I found I was still a bit short on breath.

"Just swallowed too much water," she choked out. "We... need to get back... inside."

"Yeah," I said, standing on wobbly legs. I found it quite funny that they could change so quickly from concrete to gelatin. I sat in front of her. "Get on."

"What?"

"Get on my back. There's no way in hell you'll be able to walk on that." I stared at her over my shoulder.

"Oh, er... okay." She wrapped her arms around my neck and hoisted herself onto my back as I stood.

"Snape ought to be able to patch that sprain up."

"You think it's a sprain?"

"Well, it doesn't look broken," I said, beginning to drag my soaked self toward the castle. I was exhausted. "Not like my... broomstick," I sighed.

"Oh, no! They broke it?!"

"Calm down. I don't care. I can't believe this is the most shocking thing to you right now!" I gave off a small laugh. She smiled tiredly into my shoulder.

"Do you think... we can ever be happy, Draco?" Her voice was strained.

"I don't know. By the looks of it at the moment, no, but things always get worse before they get better-not that I'm being optimistic or anything."

"I know that one day this will all be over."

"Yeah, thanks to Harry Potter. Tch. I'll probably be thrown in Azkaban by then. I don't know what the hell you guys see in him!"

"He's a hero, Draco. You know that."

"I guess I don't REALLY hate him," I said, tromping up the stairs. "I think... I think I'm kinda..."

"Jealous?"

"Well, yeah," I stopped for a moment to look back at her. "Look at him. Since he was a baby he was famous. People LOVED him. He was entrusted with everything. Everybody loved him. Everybody believed in him. Even if he lost his parents, he always had someone there to hold on to, no matter what. I, however, was forced into the Malfoy family, which is always considered stuck up, rude, and irritating. I was put into a family with a father who hates me and a mother that is too scared to help me! People may like me, but they never love me. What's not to be jealous about?!"

"I... I'm sorry you feel that way... but it's not Harry's fault," she replied softly.

"Don't you think I know that?" I snapped, trudging toward the dungeons, feeling like coughing or spluttering. "It's just... so much easier to blame someone like him."

"I guess I've blamed him a couple of times myself," her voice became even softer, and her breath tickled the hairs on the back of my neck. We were almost to the dungeons. "He... he's quite unobservant... that or he just doesn't care all too much."

"Yeah, I know," I said quietly. "I've seen the way you look at him..."

"The same way he looks at Hermione," her voice was barely audible.

"You can do so much better," I said, halting in front of the door.

I reached for the door, then saw blood soaked into my shirt sleeve.

"Damn," I whispered before opening the door.

Snape was standing in the door way, eyes wide. He was headed to fight the Death Eaters as well.

"P-professor," I sputtered, feeling nauseated.

Snape quickly grabbed me and pushed me through the doorway, slamming it behind him and latching it. I dropped Ginny on the couch and collapsed beside her.

"Her... ankle..."

"God DAMMIT, DRACO!" Snape exploded. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU WERE FOUND?! THE DEATH EATERS WOULD HAVE WRUNG YOUR NECK!"

"I KNOW! Why do you THINK we're so wet?! They attacked us in the air! We crashed and she sprained her ankle! I could have taken the Death Eaters because my FATHER was leading them, but the DEMENTORS were the problem! We jumped into the lake to get AWAY FROM THEM!" I took a large breath, wincing as blood began gush down my hand.

Snape looked even paler in the dark as he grabbed my arm and pressed a cloth to the Dark Mark, which was bleeding through the bandage.

"You used an Unforgivable Curse, didn't you?"

I was silent for a moment. "I-it was the only way to get away from my father. Sh-she was hurt and... and..."

"Draco," Ginny murmured, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. My entire body was shivering from the cold and after using so much strength.

"Hold on," Snape said quickly, disappearing from in front of me. I heard him murmur a spell. "Now, stand, Weasley."

She stood. "Much better. Thank you."

"Draco, lie down. You're losing too much blood. Draco?" Snape shook me, slapping me across the face. "What the fuck is the matter with you?!"

"I... I can't stop... shaking..." I said, burying my face in his chest. I didn't cry, but it felt so much better to rest my head. "A-and... I don't... feel good..."

Before I knew it, everything had gone dark and my body had relaxed into a form beyond sleep. I felt as if I was floating, breathing so faintly. Everything was just... dark...

(A/N: Wow... that is SUCH a long chapter. O.o Well, being that I am recently obsessed with this story, as I am with most of my fics at one point or another, the next update will probably be soon, even IF this chapter was so long. Hope you liked it, and please review!)