Stripped

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"Its half eleven, witches need to wake up and join everyone else who has started the day..."

"Bugger it all." Ginny woke up, her face red as she searched for her alarm clock. She groaned when she realized that it was clear across the room on top of her bureau.

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Wincing, Ginny scowled as she sat up in her bed. The sun was brightly shining into the room and in her doorway stood Hermione. She cursed a blue streak as she realized that she wasn't going to get to return to sleep.

Hermione raised an eyebrow but she didn't say anything considering that she was used to this reaction from Ginny. "The twins are here. Just thought you should know. I'll be serving lunch in 15 minutes," Hermione said before leaving the room.

Ginny shook her head, trying to clear the fog away. Right before she woke up, she had been having a rather hot, steamy dream of being in bed with Draco naked......

"Bloody hell," Ginny screamed; her face burning as she remembered every single detail from her dream. The way his body felt under hers, how sensitive he was and how good he felt inside her. Ginny covered her face with a pillow. She was not going to think of him; she was going to pretend that she didn't kiss him and enjoy it. Everything was going to revert back to normal.

"All right, Gin?"

George skidded into the room, concern in his eyes as he looked at his little sister. Ginny assured him, "I'm fine, George; I was just remembering a bad dream."

George looked at her as if he didn't believe her, but he let her go. Ginny sighed and finally got out of her bed. Pulling on a pair of sweats, Ginny left her room and walked over to the kitchen. Sitting at a table were the twins and Blaise Zabini. Raising an eyebrow, Ginny crossed the room and opened the fridge. While rummaging through it, Ginny casually said, "A visit from Blaise. I wonder what Hell froze for you to be here without Luna."

Blaise drawled, "I thought you liked me Ginny. You told me I was your favorite Slytherin. I guess I was wrong."

Ginny snorted as she grabbed the carton of milk. She summoned a glass and while pouring the milk, she said, "Compared to most of your housemates, its no question why you were my favorite Slytherin. You actually had a conscience."

"Were? Did something happen that I didn't know about," Fred asked. George nodded, his eyes intent on Ginny.

Sipping her milk, Ginny shook her head no. Blaise looked at Ginny like the cat that caught the canary. Hermione rolled her eyes as she brought out lunch. George exclaimed, "Bangers and mash... who'd have thought that Hermione finally learned how to cook."

Pinning George with a glare, Hermione hissed, "It is fully edible." Hermione was rather famous for her not too great cooking.

Ginny pulled up a chair to the table before reaching for some of the food. They ate silently until Blaise remarked, "I heard you visited Draco last night, Ginny."

Ginny forced herself to swallow the food in her mouth as all of the eyes in the room turned to her. She replied, "Yes, and?"

Fred and George exchanged a look. Bill had said that there might be something going on between Malfoy and their sister. If he was right, they would owe Bill ten galleons.

Tracing a pattern on the table, Blaise slyly commented, "Nothing really. I just find it a bit weird that Draco was rather loath to talk about it. It's as if something interesting happened..."

Ginny's wand hand started to itch as she stared at Blaise, her eyes telling him that if she had her wand, he would have been hexed. Blaise smiled, her reaction confirming his suspicions. He thanked Merlin; considering the hell that Draco put him through when he first fell for Luna, he was happy that Draco was getting a taste of his own medicine.

George and Fred shared another look. It was time to pay Bill.

******

Draco squished the urge to yawn as he sat through another meeting. Now that the Malfoy heir was back in England and here to stay for an extended period of time, the board of Malfoy-Parkinson decided to have a set of stakeholders meetings. Draco knew he should pay attention but every thought went back to Ginny.

She had invaded his dreams last night, teasing and taunting him. He could feel her lush body; taste her mouth amongst other things. With one kiss, all he wanted was her. He felt like wanking off right now, but he couldn't. Bugger it all.

But then, the owl he had received last night entered his mind. He scowled, giving the presenting wizard the thought that Draco was not pleased with him. Draco relaxed his features before anyone else could try and ask him what was wrong.

He was sure that he wasn't the only wizard with skeletons in his closet, but he didn't particularly care for them being aired to the public. He was a Malfoy and Malfoys preferred privacy. His mother may have been a Black and had the Black desire to be noted and admired; Draco used to want that adoration. However, life taught him that it was usually better to stay in the shadows and manipulate everything to go your way. He learned that from his short time in the Dark Lord's service.

He was a Death Eater for barely a month and a half, but he saw more than a young man of eighteen should have seen. Everything that he had been taught shattered as he saw reality; being a Death Eater wasn't glamorous. It entailed being a lackey for an insane, Harry Potter-obsessed Dark Lord, dealing with his moods and hoping that you didn't screw up. They were told that they were called Death Eaters because they would defeat Death with the Dark Lord, but to Draco it soon meant that to leave his service they would die.

Draco was a pureblood and proud of his purity, but something had felt strange about following a man who, himself, was a half-blood preaching purity. His father had followed him because Lucius believed that the ends justified the means. Draco was forced into it because he had delayed taking the mark for too long. He was a Malfoy and he was raised to believe that he was better than everyone else, especially Mudbloods and half-bloods. So, why was he supposed to pledge allegiance to a half-blood?

Then, everything shattered when the Dark Lord, himself, killed his father. Severus Snape had already been found as a traitor, but he was in Hogwarts which was off limits to the Death Eaters. Even though Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott still attended classes, it was already found impossible for the Death Eaters to infiltrate the school. The Dark Lord believed that his father helped Snape get to sanctuary at Hogwarts and Lucius would have to pay. Draco saw his father Crucioed, bound by his Aunt Bellatrix, then the Dark Lord used Dolohov's specialty on his father. After his father was lying down on the ground in intense pain, the Dark Lord finally used the Killing Curse on him. Then Draco was Crucioed himself just because he was a Malfoy.

At that moment, Draco's loyalty to the Dark Lord was severed. He was now the head of the Malfoy family and his first allegiance was to himself and to avenge his father's death. He still had an allegiance to the Dark Lord, but familial pride was the highest thing on his priority list.

Less than a week later, Potter killed the Dark Lord. The rest of the Death Eaters were in disarray; Lucius Malfoy would have been a logical choice as the Dark Lord's replacement. Bellatrix Lestrange was in no shape to be a leader to anyone, let alone a group like the Death Eaters. A good portion of the Death Eaters had died during battles leading up to the final fight between the Dark Lord and Potter. The remaining ones found it a more pressing cause to save themselves.

Draco watched from the sidelines as many people that he had known all his life; from classmates to men and women that his father had counted on as cronies; tried to leave Britain or turn in others to save their souls. He himself had quietly gone to Dumbledore and Snape and turned himself in to the Aurors. It wasn't feasible to try and escape and the idea of turning in his fellow Death Eaters was a bit reprehensible to him. Draco figured that either way, he was looking at Azkaban or the Kiss. He hadn't taken part in any of the last battles and there weren't too many deaths that they could ascribe to him. His father was dead by the hand of the Dark Lord and many wouldn't want to kill the last of the Malfoys and one of the few related to the Black family. It was a desperate time and he knew that unlike the previous time, the Ministry wanted to bridge a transition to more normal life as smoothly as possible. It would look good if there was a young Death Eater, still young enough to punish, yet rehabilitate but could still be used as proof that the Ministry wasn't going to be bloodthirsty as last time. He merely just wanted to use that to his advantage.

Of course, it helped that most of the other Death Eaters his age had died already (rather senselessly but to be expected by the likes of Crabbe and Goyle.) In addition, it gave him another weapon. If he was under the Ministry's house arrest at 12 Grimmauld Place, no one could link him to the shadier deaths of some of the older, more lethal Death Eaters who helped arrange his father's death. Of course, there had been a small hitch.

He had a distant cousin who had also become a Death Eater; Stephanie Joan-Marie St. Staen. She was eight years older and a poor relation. He barely knew her except for that he was expected to excel and be much better at Potions than her (she was the 2^nd best potions student ever at Hogwarts, second to Professor Snape.) During their time, Draco suspected that she was a bit more interested in getting her hands on the Malfoy money than on the Dark Lord's aims. Avery, himself, told him that St. Staen was the one who told the Dark Lord that his father helped Snape get to Hogwarts and safety. The Dark Lord, after suffering more setbacks and furious over that his potions master had defected for years and managed to delude him, was in no mood to be lenient or even check to make sure that St. Staen was right. His father died when he didn't even do it. Nott the younger helped Snape.

There was revenge to be had; normally, he'd find the ones involved and indulge in torture before killing them, but the ultimate revenge involved not getting his hands dirty. He just watched as they were each captured by the Ministry. Those who weren't captured, like St. Staen, were either killed by the Ministry, a victim of the Dark Lord, or showed up dead. Now, according to a recent owl from Pansy, Skeeter had decided to dig up dirt from the past on that death.

The cow was bloody lethal; she never shut up and she never went away. Before Draco could think of some way to eliminate her, the meeting ended. Putting a genial smile on his face, Draco seethed inside. If he didn't stop her, Skeeter would ruin everything.

******

Nearly a week and a half passed before Ginny saw Draco again. She was out at Fortescue's with Luna, eating a dish of chocolate ice cream with strawberry syrup after dinner at the Leaky Cauldron. They had spent the day talking about their lives and enjoying the fact that for the first time in a while, Ginny didn't have wizards coming up to her and accusing her of fraternizing with the enemy. However, every time Luna tried to turn the conversation towards Draco or Ginny's love life, Ginny firmly moved it towards less volatile areas. She had decided that the kiss didn't happen, that it wasn't that serious. She was proven wrong when Draco and Blaise Apparated next to their table.

Ginny jumped, startled with an annoyed expression on her face as she felt a prickle on her neck. Luna beamed upwards towards her husband, her ice cream forgotten as he bent down to kiss her. Ginny mocked gagged, causing Draco to snicker. Then, for some reason, Ginny started to blush. Why am I blushing, its just Malfoy, Ginny thought.

Blaise's eyes darted between the pair. Draco was smirking at Ginny while she did everything within her power not to look at him. He was sure something was going on and now, he was pretty convinced. Of course, getting information out of Draco would have to involve blackmail and some psychological torture, but it was doable.

Then Ginny started waving towards someone, exclaiming, "Hey, Katie, over here!"

A flushed Katie Bell came over to the table, a smile on her face even though her eyes kept darting towards Draco and Blaise. Draco drawled, "Shouldn't you be practicing? I thought the only thing Holyhead Harpies did was ride brooms all day."

Katie glared at Draco, deigning not to even give him a response. Then she beamed at Ginny and said, "I just decided to stop by the twins' shop with a gift for Alicia and the baby since I'm in the area."

Luna cooed, "What is it?"

"It's a box of Honeydukes' best chocolate since Alicia loves chocolate so much. I also bought a Harpies blanket if it's a girl and a Puddlemore creeper if it's a boy," Katie replied.

Ginny exclaimed, "That's so sweet, even though George hates Puddlemore."

"I couldn't have another generation of Weasleys even consider being fans of the Chudley Cannons," Katie commented with a twinkle in her eye.

The rest of the table laughed and Draco and Ginny's eyes met. Ginny looked away first, feeling stranger than usual. It felt as if Draco was hunting and she was the prey. A predatory smirk spread over Draco's face and Ginny felt a tingle run through her body. She thought, Bloody hell, why him?

Draco waved at Katie as she left their table. Despite all of the annoyances, Draco figured, Ginny Weasley would be worth it after all. But now, all he wanted was for her to look at him as he watched the women talk about the gifts. "It's rather obvious that you have some kind of feelings for Ginny Weasley, mate," Blaise said, amusement in his voice.

Draco dismissively said, "And?"

Chuckling, Blaise commented, "Your ancestors are rolling in their graves." Then he had a thoughtful expression on his face. "At least she's a pureblood and not one of your third cousins that your father wanted you to marry. Then you would have had blond, even more inbred-"

Glaring, Draco pointed his wand at Blaise's balls. "Not another bloody word about it."

Blaise nodded, knowing that he had went too far. It was time to lean back and wait for another opening.

Then Luna said, "Blaise, I'm tired. Let's go."

Ginny eyes shot up in alarm as she tried to decide if she should stall and get the couple to stay longer or let them go. Draco lazily smiled and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, 9 o'clock, sharp, Blaise. Have a good night."

The couple Apparated away and Draco slid into Luna's old seat. Ginny began to stab at her rapidly melting ice cream as Draco watched her with cool amusement. He commented, "Do I make you feel that like that? Ready to kill something?"

Ginny looked up, her brown eyes slightly stormy. "Somewhat like that. More annoyed than ready to kill."

Draco sighed as Ginny summoned her purse and stood up. He gave her a mournful look and said, "So soon? I just got here."

Ginny stared at Draco as if she wasn't sure of what ailed him. She slowly said, "Over a month has passed since we first met again at the Three Broomsticks. You're still an infuriating prat like you were at Hogwarts, but now, even though you are still an ass to everyone else, you've been nicer to me. I want to know what the bleeding hell you want from me, Draco Malfoy."

Leaning back in the chair, Draco looked Ginny over with cool grey eyes as if he was assessing her and finding her worthy. He replied, "I find you an interesting challenge. You're probably the most challenging witch I've ever met other than Pansy and Pansy's practically my sister. I like a challenge."

Ginny looked at Draco as if she wanted to laugh and it infuriated him. Then he realized; he actually cared about what she thought. He quickly masked that weakness with an insolent look.

Blinking, Ginny's mind swam. Harry had told her that Draco was probably just spending time with her just because he needed an in into the Wizarding society after being gone for so long, not to mention the circumstances of why he had left. However, she felt as if he had been telling her the truth just now. She put a hand to her head and closed her eyes. "I-I need to go."

Draco watched Ginny as she made her way to the Leaky Cauldron to use their Floo. He knew when to advance and when to retreat and this was the time to retreat. He could hear his father's portrait railing about blood-traitors and mixing their blood with a witch whose family was barely pureblood, but he didn't care anymore. He wanted Ginny Weasley and damn everything else.