Breaking All the Rules

Chapter Fifteen

Breaking All the Rules

Just Let It Be

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"Breakfast tables, as good as the breakfast eaten on it."

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Ginny made her way past various rooms wondering which one was Blaise's. She opened numerous doors to her brother's rooms finding an asleep Ron and Hermione in one room and smiling wondering if Molly knew about it. Harry had told her about Ron and Hermione and how they seemed to follow each other around lately. She had come over later in the day and her look when she saw the visitors and hearing about what they were doing there was almost indescribable. It showed many questions being answered and asked in her head with the occasional audible 'of course,' and but why's. No matter how much time passed, Hermione was still Hermione. She shut the door and then opened another door to Harry's room. He was sleeping on his stomach, something he had done since school if she remembered correctly. She had always wondered if it were safe to do that having just eaten. She shrugged as she closed the door carrying on in her search.

She came to Bill's room, the room that Julia was sleeping in. When she opened the door though, she wasn't there. Ginny raised an eyebrow, having a feeling she knew where the girl was, probably doing the same thing that Hermione did. She smiled shaking her head and decided to leave it for the morning. She passed Charlie's room not wanting to disturb it before walking straight passed the last three knowing that Draco was in one of them and she didn't want to face him right now, she'd be way too tempted to stab him twenty-four times before slicing him in two.

She had wondered why she kept thinking that twenty-four would be appropriate. The number seemed to be logical somehow. She shrugged and made way for the steps suddenly getting the urge for a glass of ice cold milk.

She padded down the steps wondering what she would say to Blaise when she saw him, and if he questioned why she hadn't told him tonight what her reply would be. Because you were shagging Julia and I didn't want to walk in and have the image scarred in my mind. She laughed quietly. He seemed to be the logical choice to tell of her dream as he was the one in her head before. He was probably the most sensible of the lot too, even if he did have a slightly unhealthy obsession with food. She frowned, it would do no good to think of such things now, and she too had an unhealthy obsession. Even if it weren't so edible, it was certainly tempting to look at.

She froze on the bottom step and almost gasped when the sight of said slight obsession lay on the couch in front of her as she passed the living room to go out in the garden. The kitchen was no place to be if he was right there, he'd wake up immediately with those stupid reflexes he had. She tutted loudly in her head and opened the door. The night sky was laden with stars and she closed her eyes breathing in the fresh night air. The sound of silence was more than comforting. She stepped outside and let go of the door. But when she let it go, it slammed loud against the frame. She mentally swore and looked around in a panic for somewhere to hide and ran to a tree to stand behind.

Five seconds into standing there, she wondered what the hell she was doing hiding in the garden. It was one of those spare of the moment things where stupid things are decided on in a bizarre state of mind. She stepped out of the tree laughing at her silliness and wound the robe tighter around herself as she made her way back to the house. It was three in the morning and she was busy hiding from Draco behind trees. If only her friends in her neighbourhood could see her now. She looked up smiling knowing that they'd probably laugh at her, actually running from a man.

When she looked up she froze, standing in front of her blocking the ajarred door from shutting was Draco wrapped in the quilt he was sleeping under on the couch in the living room.

"Do you usually wake people up and then hide behind trees? It would explain a lot about you if you did. Was this practiced here as a child or did you pick it up from your husband?"

She would have scowled if she hadn't noticed his hair. All disarranged and sticking up in weird places, it resembled a lot like Harry's. A blonde Harry, she almost burst out laughing.

"Can you refrain from laughing at me? That couch isn't so comfortable." He opened the door to allow her to pass. As she crossed the frame he stared at her. "It's your fault it's like this anyway." She stopped to look at him. "Bad dreams," he elaborated. Though they had been far from bad if what he had been feeling in it was anything to go by.

She narrowed her eyes searching his face. "I know how that feels," she said. "Just woke from one actually." She walked inside and went straight for the parlour. She took out a bottle of milk and opened another cupboard for some glasses.

"Oh," he said intrigued. "Do tell." He yawned and sat down at the dining table.

She cast a chilling charm on the bottle. "Why do you care?" she said sitting down opposite him. She glared at him.

He sighed. "Don't be like that. Anything out of the ordinary can be a clue to whatever that son-of-a-bitch husband did to you. No offence."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What makes you think bad dreams are out of the ordinary for me? None taken."

"You have them often then?"

She shrugged and filled the glass to the brim. "Sometimes, this one was different though."

"How so?" he asked as she drained the glass without coming up for air.

"I remembered this one. It's strange cos I've never done that before. Usually I wake up from them without any memory of them, but somehow I'm remembering this one. What else is, that it looks like the other half of the story that I read yesterday."

He shifted on his seat remembering what else had happened after she read it. He cleared his throat. "Do you remember what happened?"

She sighed. "He asked for my name, I gave it to him. Then they argued over whether to kill me or not. Then he Obliviated me," she said offhandedly.

He frowned and looked at her. "You seem awfully calm about this."

She raised an eyebrow and set the glass down. Leaning forward she said, "You're gonna kill him, aren't you?" she asked bluntly as if it was obvious.

"It's a plan among others," he said.

She shrugged. "Well what's not to be calm about?" she said sitting back. "Either way I'm getting rid of him. I don't want anything to do with him again. If you listen to me, perhaps you'll understand why you're such an idiot as of late." She poured another glass.

He sat back with his mouth open. He had not expected an answer like that. She was acting different than she usually did. Less concerned with what was going on. This was not the same person he had met two days ago; this was the person from last night who didn't give a damn. Girard was long gone and she was making it painlessly clear.

"I hope I'm there," she said looking at nothing with a smile on her face, "when he goes down. I hope I see his face and get to spit on it."

"Ginny, are you alright?" He began to wonder if the milk was spiked.

"Me? I'm perfect. I've been married to some man who Obliviated me first before he married me so I wouldn't bare witness to some kind of interrogation that was way less than legal. Then he wastes a year of my life that I could have spent looking for an actual husband that wouldn't try to kill me the second I start showing signs of remembering it."

"What?" he said a little shocked.

"Huh?" she said not knowing what she had said.

"Did you say that you've had these dreams before?" he said.

She nodded saying, "Ah." She drained the glass and set it on the table again. "Yep, but I didn't remember them. I just told you that weren't you listening?" She gave a sardonic smile. "Oh yeah, I forgot, you don't listen to anything I say do you?"

He gripped the bridge of his nose. If this was what she was like with Girard he was sure baring witness wasn't the only reason he wanted her gone. He'd seen worse reasons on a mark's form that's for sure.

She studied him. He seemed to be thinking of something, perhaps a witty comeback. She snorted and he looked up at her narrowing his eyes. "What?" she said defensively before draining another glass.

"If you didn't remember the dreams, how did he know that you were remembering it?"

"It was because of the daydreams. I used to pass out sometimes when I was under great amounts of stress. Like that wedding he held for me. There was this woman he was always hanging around, she had this horrid laugh that sounded like a dying giraffe. I didn't like it and I passed out at the reception. No one knew why but we went out to our honeymoon, very uneventful by the way. Few months later we go on holiday and when we get back he's never home and when he is he has no time for me. I once passed out in his office, it was funny actually. His secretary caught me and when I woke up I said... something and they freaked out. Later on Girard asked me where I heard the name..." She stopped.

"The name..." he prompted. "What name?"

She looked at him. "James Thomas." She sighed and set down the glass. "I knew I'd heard that name before. I knew I had heard that story before. I've seen it, more than once. I just couldn't remember it." She sat back. "Then he started taking me out more and smiling a lot. Stupid me, I thought he was finally changing. I didn't know he was sweetening me up to have me murdered. He took me to that restaurant to have me killed and he left me there to go home to that woman." She sat forward looking at the surface of the table as if she were working out a complex question.

She looked up at him coming to a rude awakening and laughed emptily. "She was the same bitch from the wedding. That laughter, she laughed that way when we were together planning it. I thought she was married. She was always wearing that god awful wedding ring that was two sizes too big for her and gleamed in the sunlight. I hated her-." She paused. "Wait."

"What?"

"The wedding ring." She wracked her brain for where it looked familiar. She stopped when she remembered being on the ground on a street in London. Flinching away from Girard and seeing the bright wedding band on his hand. "I saw it on her hand." She looked up at Draco with her mouth open. "She's his wife. He was already married." She stood up in shock. "That's absolute - pig faced - using - manipulative - most evil - unadulterated - fucking - bastard!" she yelled.

"Ginny, Shh!" he tried attempting to calm her down. "You'll wake everyone up." She eventually simmered down and sat in the chair. She rested her head in her hands as her shoulders began to shake.

She surveyed this sudden change in her mood. She seemed to do that often. "Are you crying?" He thought he had to make sure.

"No."

He raised an eyebrow. "That obviously means yes."

She raised her head angrily and he winced at her red eyes. "What do you know?" she said spitefully. "It's not as if you care. You're too stupid to know anything anyway." She got up and made for the stairs only to find his hand obstructing her from ascending them.

Apparently she wasn't the only fast one.

"How can you say that to me? Of course I care. I think I've proved it on more than one occasion."

"Saving your own arse doesn't count, Malfoy. If you actually cared you wouldn't have told me you wanted nothing to do with me this morning. You act as if I'm going to get hurt from this. The only one hurting me is you. You say you don't want to do that but you've done it anyway. That's why I'm calling you stupid. Because you are to not notice it." She glared at him. "Now move."

"No."

"What?"

The only answer she got was him pulling her toward him. She relented immediately as her arms made their way across his shoulders and snaked around his neck. They blindly stepped to the kitchen table and he lifted her onto it, causing the table legs to screech against the tiled floor. Her head went back and bumped lightly on the table surface as he kissed his way down her neck undoing the tie to her robe and reached for the few done up buttons of her pajama shirt. She moaned quietly as each button was undone with precision and the shirt was slid off expertly and tossed to one side. Her legs wrapped around his waist as his mouth found hers again. The table legs continued to screech along the ground as he pushed against her and they cracked up with laughter each time as they tried in vain to be quiet but continued anyway. They collapsed and the screeching stopped leaving the kitchen in silence. Relaxing against the table, Ginny hit her head a little less light than before and held her head realising she had hit the glass she had drank out of.

"Ow," she laughed. Draco rolled off her and did a good job of laying next her without falling off. She turned toward him and smiled with her hand still at her head rubbing. "That hurt."

He shrugged. "Be careful next time."

"Next time?" she said with a mischievous grin. She didn't know if it was the bump from her head but she suddenly realised where she was. "Oh no," she said suddenly sitting up.

"What? What is it?" he said.

Her hand flew to her mouth. "I cannot believe we did this here. My family eats on this table."

He shrugged. "Well, what they don't know can't hurt them." She carried on as if he hadn't spoken. She turned and pointed at various nearby chairs.

"Charlie sits there and mum sits there and Ron... oh poor Ron," she said pointing to where Draco's middle was. He burst out laughing before her hand flew to his mouth with a smile. "We have to move."

He removed her hand. "Where do you suppose we go?"

"Well, upstairs would be a good place."

"But I sleep downstairs."

"So?"

"I may have been stupid by telling you to stay away but I wasn't when I said, 'one against god knows how many is hardly fair.' I may be good but I'm not suicidal."

She sighed. "What do we do then?"

He looked contemplative. "Go to bed, we'll sort it out in a few hours."

She nodded and hopped off the table to retrieve her shirt and pulled the robe out from under him before putting it on. He went to pick up the quilt that still rested on the chair he was sitting at and threw it around him. She paused before going upstairs and turned to look at him.

"A few hours then?" she said.

He stepped toward her and kissed her lightly. "See you at breakfast." She smiled and went upstairs to her room.

Draco turned to the living room and sat heavily in his bed staring at the small fire as it burned away at the logs wondering how that had all happened. First they were arguing and then there she went just disrupting years of teachings and practice. She had a talent for it and he found himself not minding it as much as he should. He lay down, still thinking about her, and fell asleep shortly afterwards.

***

When Ginny woke up and made her way downstairs the next morning, Draco was already awake and dressed along with Blaise and Julia who seemed to be smiling, a lot. She watched them with the suspicion that Draco had been watching them in and sat down in the same seat she had at dinner. Ron was sitting next to her speaking to Hermione and Harry had taken the other head of the table next to Hermione and Julia.

She picked up her glass from the set table in front of her and poured herself some orange juice all the while stealing glances across from her and looking away with a bright red face. She heard when he laughed but was glad when no one else noticed. They spent the next few minutes in silence which all others translated as their previous feelings of hatred for each other as they suppressed smiles and slight laughter.

It wasn't until Mrs. Weasley brought in breakfast and laid it in front them, one namely being Ron, did the smiles become not so suppressed. They tried everything, biting their lips, covering their faces and even kicking each other.

But when he said, "Yummy," and dug into his breakfast they lost control.

Ginny laughed out loud and turned away from him, which caught everyone by surprise and Draco excused himself from the table and moved out to the garden followed shortly by Ginny who couldn't take the confused look on Ron's face any longer.

"What was that about?" Harry asked.

Blaise narrowed his eyes in suspicion and looked at Julia with a look that said, 'Something's going on.' She just nodded and they both tuned into the room. They first felt the confusion of the others and dug deeper to find a remnant of what they had felt at the house in Venezuela after they had slipped them the potion. They both tuned out abruptly and looked around the room wondering where it could have happened. When their hands touched the surface of the table, a sharp bolt went up their spines. They looked at their hands on the table and a look of understanding ran across their faces. They grimaced, pushing their chairs back from the table so far that they bumped into the counter behind them. They looked to the floor where they could see scuff marks in a long line leading to the rubber at the feet of the table legs.

"Eew," they said in unison and laughed.

Blaise looked up at Mrs. Weasley. "Molly, is there any possibility that I can eat your delicious cooking in the living room?" Mrs. Weasley smiled at his charm and nodded immediately.

"Of course dear, anything you want." She turned back to the kitchen counter as Blaise and Julia made their way into the living room ignoring the laughter of the two outside.

***

"Oh god, I'm going to hell I know it." Ginny rested on the grass outside casting a heating charm around her to get rid of the chill.

"If you're going to hell, I'm going somewhere so much worse." They sat in silence for a bit before he started to chuckle.

"What?" she asked.

He laughed again. "Yummy," he said containing himself, barely.

She laughed, "Oh no, please don't I only just stopped." She rested her head on his shoulder.

Just then a snowy owl descended onto the grass and stepped a few paces to Draco before holding his leg out and waiting for him to take it.

Draco frowned, who would be sending him owls? Anyone he ever knew he had either killed or they thought he was dead during the war. He took the small rolled up letter and the owl flew away without waiting for a reply.

He opened it and read it twice with a shock in his features before letting it drop out of his hands onto the grass. Ginny picked it up and looked at the bottom for a signature. It said G. E. Malfoy.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"George Edward Malfoy, my grandfather. It's a traditional English name, a muggle name. My great grandfather was a traditional Malfoy, no contact with anything muggle."

"So why did he name his son that?"

"He wanted a daughter," he said simply. "If he had something in his home that was muggle he hated it. He had a daughter eventually and my grandfather was cast away from the Malfoy home. He went away and married a pureblood and had my father. They lived in peace for two years before my great grandfather came after them and demanded that his grandson be taken back to the manor. My father had my great-grandfather's teaching. I, in turn, had my father's teaching. I kept in touch with grandpa when I could, at school sending owls and stuff but father found out and when I sent another letter, my eagle owl, Osiris, never came back. That Christmas, I received mail. My Christmas present was a feather from Osiris' wing and one of her feet and a letter from my father forbidding me to send mail to my grandfather again. I kept receiving them but I couldn't reply and soon they stopped coming."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah well, it happened and I can't do anything about it. I don't know what would make him write to me now though. I had totally forgotten about him, I thought he was dead. Everyone thought he was dead."

"Maybe that's what he wanted you all to think."

"Maybe. I have to see him."

"What?"

"I have to see him. He says that he has something to tell me. I have to find out what's wrong." He stood up and gave her a hand before walking inside.