Captured By A Dragon

Chapter Five: The First Detention

Feeling slightly bad for putting Malfoy in the hospital wing, Ginny slowly started ignoring him, rather than glaring at him every chance she could. Somehow she realized that perhaps she was being a little melodramatic about the entire thing.

After a couple of days, Draco was released from the hospital wing, not a scratch on him, but something odd was plaguing Ginny's mind.

On Saturday, the day that Draco was let out, she passed him on the way to Potions, and the look he gave her was indescribable. It was a look of shock. Surprise. Fear. What was that fear in his eyes? Was she scaring him? What could possibly scare Draco Malfoy?

Well, whatever it was, it sure scared Ginny herself. The panic in his eyes was so... intense. He had to be hiding something.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco couldn't forget the dream.

Being in the hospital wings for two nights with nothing to do, and no one to talk to, he thought about it for hours. The dream was weighing on his mind like a ball and chain, making him feel helpless and confused. What was its meaning? All he could figure out was that Ginny was in some kind of danger, and he had to protect her for some reason. But why? And how? And when exactly was this going to happen? And why did he have to be the one doing it? And what if-

"Malfoy?"

The voice was behind him. Draco whipped around, and was surprised to see Ginny. The way she always knew where he was was really beginning to creep him out.

"It's time to go to our first detention," she told him, looking at her wristwatch.

Draco swallowed. "Right," he said, nodding. He felt a trickle of sweat run down his forehead. Ginny noticed this and looked at him, puzzled.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, taking a few steps toward him and suddenly stopping, realizing what she was doing.

Draco looked up. He had no idea what to say or do. Act like you normally would, said the voice in his head. Eurgh. Why did he always have to pop in?

'How?' Draco questioned.

Be malevolent.

'Okay, malevolent. And that's...?'

Mean! Cruel! Nasty! I'm stuck with a moron...

'At least I'm cute.'

Draco whipped out his traditional smirk and narrowed his eyes at her. "Let's just go, okay? I want to get this stupid thing over with," he told her with malice. Ginny scrunched her eyebrows together, clearly confused.

"All right..."

She started walking in the other direction towards the Charms classroom. Draco let out a sigh and began to follow.

Five minutes later, Ginny and Draco were sitting in the empty Charms classroom, trying to find something to talk about. It wasn't so easy though, seeing as they had hated each other for five years.

"So..." said Ginny, not knowing how to start off with a good topic. Draco, however, surprisingly came up with something in a fleeting instant.

"Have you gotten over that bloody Potter yet?" he asked snobbishly.

Ginny glowered at him. It was as if he was obsessed with asking her about Harry all the time.

"Why do you keep bringing him up?" said Ginny, getting up from her chair. She started walking around, biting her nails.

Draco looked up at her, clearly taken aback by her sudden flare-up. "I was just trying to cover a topic, Weasley," he said with a small laugh. "Do you always take things so damn literal?"

Ginny scowled. She would have loved to just slap that face of his again and again... over and over until it was a dark violet. "So you think Harry's a topic now, do you?" she said loudly, stopping in her tracks and looking him in the eye. "What ever made you think I liked him in the first place?"

Draco laughed coldly, shifting in his chair.

"Let's see," he said, stoking his chin as if he were thinking deeply about something. "Hm... well... THE WHOLE SCHOOL KNOWS ABOUT IT!" he shouted. He waved his arms around dramatically.

Ginny was silent. She was thinking about what Draco had just said. Truthfully, the whole school did know that she liked Harry before, but evidently had not learned that she was well over him. Suddenly, she got her famous Weasley temper back.

"Well... then the whole school is wrong!" she yelled. "For God's sake, Malfoy, don't you ever use your head? Do you think everything is true?"

"No, but it's obvious that you do!" Draco exclaimed. He was now out of his chair as well. "I'm not the only one who can tell that you're fanatical about that scarhead!"

Ginny stopped walking once again and Draco was face-to-face with her. Oh, God, it was the glaring again.

"Fanatical?" she said, only a few notches above a whisper. "You think I'm fanatical about him?"

Draco didn't say anything.

"Well, what about you, Mister Death Eater?" Ginny continued, getting louder. "What about how -"

"How what, Weasley?" Draco interrupted her. "How I'm supposedly fanatical about my father planning out my entire life? Fanatical about the Dark Lord? Fanatical about becoming a Death Eater?"

Ginny stayed quiet, staring at Draco with perplexity in her eyes. Where had this outburst come from? Malfoy had never talked about his life in such a manner.

"God, do you think that I actually like the idea that I'm going to be this evildoer who chases around pathetic little wizards, hoping that the Dark Lord will rise to power?" he spat.

Finally deciding to speak up, Ginny opened her mouth, but found that she didn't know what to say.

"I - I didn't think -"

"No, Weasley, you never think," Draco hissed at her, shutting her up. "You have no idea what it's like to be me. How would you feel, knowing that all of your mates would be out getting married and making babies and being happy while I'm out in the mountains somewhere being tortured to kill people I don't even know?"

Ginny swallowed and looked angrily at Draco, finally reaching the end of her thread. She had had enough of his complaining.

"I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK!" she practically screamed, making Draco flinch. Her entire body was trembling. "For once, Malfoy, could we talk about something else? For once? All you ever do is bitch and moan about your perfect life! Well guess what? I don't care about your perfect life, I don't care about your father, and I really, really don't care about YOU!"

There was an odd silence after that. Both of them stood there without a sound, Ginny still slightly trembling, never taking their eyes off of one another.

Ginny had never shouted at anyone in such a way. Not anyone. Looking into Malfoy's hurt eyes she suddenly felt horrible about what she had said.

"Look," Ginny suddenly said as comfortingly as she could, inhaling and exhaling slowly, "your father may be some kind of dragon, but that doesn't mean he can make your choices for you. You shouldn't have to -"

Draco whipped his head in her direction, his eyes wide and full of the same fear he had looked at her with after his dream.

"What did you just say?" he asked in a soft and shaky voice.

"That you father shouldn't have to..."

Ginny was at a complete loss for words now. The fear in Draco's eyes was haunting, what was making him look at her like that? Was it something she said? Was she looking positively horrible?

"What's wrong?" she asked, her eyebrows knitted in concern.

"N-nothing," Draco stuttered. Suddenly he quickly turned to leave the room, but Ginny stopped him by the shoulder. Draco didn't take another step. He turned toward her.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked again, her voice anxious.

"I have to go," Draco told her. "You wouldn't understand."

"Well maybe I could if you just-"

"No," he interrupted. There was an eerie ringing throughout the room. "I have to go. Now. Goodbye."

And with that, Draco walked out of the room without another word.

&&&&&&&&&&

Draco didn't care if the hour was up or not. He was leaving, and that was that. He couldn't put up with talking to Ginny anymore. It wasn't because he didn't want to; she was beginning to scare him. She was saying everything that was in his dream, everything exactly how the Ginny in his dream said it (if it was Ginny, anyway). And not only that, but she was saying everything that nobody dared ever say to him, everything that Draco had never wanted to hear... everything that was true about his life.

He rushed to his common room and swept into his dormitory, not even bothering to change into his pajamas before drowning himself in a pool of bed sheets.

Everything was becoming so... real.