Awakening to See...

...The Trials and Tribulations of Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley

*

The noise of breaking windows woke Draco up immediately, but he kept his eyes closed as the intruders jumped through the windows. The sound of intruders rifling through the valuables echoed through the small room and Draco suddenly realized that there was someone standing above him about to bring something down to his head.

His eyes snapped open and he grabbed the frying pan, causing the man to jump back in fright. Draco knocked him out with the pan and then threw the pan towards a small group of thieves in the kitchen, but not before seeing a flash of white from out of the corner of his eye. The pan hit one man in the back, who gave a shout and toppled forwards into the sink.

"Stupefy," Draco heard Ginny cast from the other side of the room where her bedroom door was. One man fell down, stunned, but as Draco turned his head to look at Ginny, she was attacked from behind and Draco received a sharp blow to the head which knocked him off the couch and his head nearly hit the coffee table.

His attacker jumped over the side of the couch and was about to deal Draco many blows with the frying pan Draco had thrown at him, but Draco realized quickly that his wand was on the floor beside him. He grabbed it and stunned the man, who crumpled to the ground.

"Sorry, mate, but you had it coming," Draco muttered and took the frying pan. He saw that Ginny was being lifted up by her neck and threw the frying pan at her attacker. It knocked him in the head and he let go of her before falling to the ground. Once down, she grabbed the frying pan and started to attack her attackers with it.

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this," Ginny said triumphantly and Draco laughed before stunning a man who was trying to sneak up behind him. Soon, all of the intruders were stunned and Draco plopped down on the couch. Ginny joined him, still carrying the frying pan. She dropped it on the table suddenly and ran back into the kitchen.

"What are the chances that one day you hit me with your car, and then the next morning we are attacked by a bunch of filthy Muggles?" Draco asked, turning to see her gather up the basin and washcloth again. She brought them over to the coffee table and Draco noticed that she had refilled the basin with hot water which was steaming with aromas.

"Don't look at me," Ginny said defensively, sitting down beside him and dipping the washcloth into the basin. "It's not like I asked a bunch of Muggles to come and ransack my home." She paused as she applied the cloth to the wound on his head and he winced. "I mean, we're living in the middle of a forest where virtually anything can happen." He nodded as she redipped the cloth into the basin and brought it back up to his head. "Nothing as big as this has ever happened before, but weirder things have happened. I remember I woke up one morning and my bed was filled with frogs and toads. At first, I thought I was back home with my parents and the twins had been playing tricks on me again, but I realized I was in the bedroom of my cottage."

He nodded silently, wondering whether he should tell her he'd never been to her house before. Come to think of it, he didn't remember what the twins looked like or what the rest of her family looked like now. He had never had to meet up with them again so he simply forgot them or what he said or did to them when he was young.

Ginny suddely winced and let out a hiss of breath, drawing Draco to notice that her pajama top's sleeve was covered in blood. She put the cloth into the basin before peeling back the sleeves on her top. Her revealed skin was matted in dried blood and what looked like burns. She made to grab the cloth, but he beat her to it.

"Here, let me do it," he said and she nodded slowly with apprehension, holding her arm out to him. He dipped the cloth in the basin to rid it of his blood and began to pat it on Ginny's arm. She winced and pulled her arm back a little as the hot water seeped into the cut. "Easy, hold still now," he whispered. The blood began to disappear until he could see the cut on her arm clearly. It was long and deep and the skin was reddened around it. He patted the cut until it too began to shrink, along with the burns.

"Draco..." Ginny suddenly whispered, trying to point to something behind him.

"Hold still, I'm almost finished," Draco said in response.

"Draco..." Ginny breathed again and he was startled to realize that she was using his first name instead of his last name. He looked up to see her eyes wide with fear and turned to see what she was looking at.

A pearly mist like a cloud with a head and two hands was slowly coming towards them, a vicious grin on its face. Draco swore and grabbed the wands that were on the coffee table before half-pulling Ginny into her bedroom and closing the door, locking it tight.

"What was that thing?" Ginny asked, frightened.

"An evil spirit called dreshnok," he told her. "They go after weakened or bleeding people with diseases and feed on their pain and fear. Looks like our morning is about to get better."

"This is just great," Ginny sighed and leaned against a bed post, but not before looking at her arm in pain. Draco mentally congratulated himself for not leaving the cloth in the living room with the basin and sat down on the bed beside her. He used the rest of the potion in the cloth to fully seal up the cut.

Ginny had slid onto the bed beside him and was now looking from him to the cut to the door worriedly. The spirit had taken to banging on the door.

"Shouldn't it be able to get in by now?" Ginny asked, bringing her eyes to Draco's for only a second before going back to staring at the door. "I mean, it is a spirit."

"Yeah, but it probably just wants to frighten us, or more precisely you," Draco said, taking some amusement to her fright. At that moment, the banging stopped and he looked at the door with raised eyebrows. "Dreshnoks live off of pain and fear and right now you're feeding it a whole meal for two."

Ginny huffed and tilted her chin up away from him in defiance. He could tell he was still pretty frightened and chuckled.

"This is not a laughing matter, Draco!" she whispered, turning back to him. He grinned mischievously and she rolled her eyes at him. The banging on the door started again and she sighed in relief. "I thought he was going to do something."

"You're losing some of your fear, aren't you?" he asked.

"Why? Is that a bad thing?" she asked back.

He shook his head at her as if she had done the most stupidest thing in the world and pulled her over to the other side of the bed. He slipped underneath it and pulled her under so she was on top of him. Her body pressed down hard on him, giving him odd pleasures, but he focused on the spirit.

The door suddenly burst off its hinges and flew across the room where it landed with a thud by the burnt windows, causing Ginny to jump. Her leg fell between Draco's legs and he pretended not to notice, although this time it was even harder as he had started to sweat. But he didn't have to worry any longer as the bed was turned over and he was staring up at the evil spirit.

"Stupefy," Draco casted, using his wand. He shrugged nonchalantly when nothing happened. "Well, it was worth a try."

Ginny moved so she was lying half on Draco and half on the floor to see the spirit. Her eyes widened in fear and the spirit turned to her, laughing. "What's it going to do?" she asked Draco nervously.

He shrugged again. "Anything it likes."

Ginny whimpered at that answer. Suddenly, the spirit dived forward and went through Ginny before disappearing altogether. She slid off Draco and onto the floor, shocked and wondering what was going to happen next. But it was already starting.

*

The world started to get dizzy for Ginny as she looked around, then everything began to get blacker. She could feel her skin burning like she was touching fire and leaned up against something solid for support so that she didn't suddenly hit the ground. She started to shiver and hugged herself tightly to get warmer, but that only succeeded in bringing her temperature up higher.

"Oh shit," she could faintly hear Draco say, his voice an echo. Suddenly, she was being lifted and she thought she saw bright lights swirling around the air above her. Her head fell onto something soft and firm. Ginny tried to figure out what it was, but she couldn't. Her mind was slowing down.

*

Draco hurriedly picked her up and righted the bed before laying her underneath the blankets. He grabbed the washcloth and went into the living room for the basin. Bringing it back into the bedroom with him, he dipped the cloth in it and laid it on her forehead. She was overtaken with shivers and tried to get up, but Draco forced her back down underneath the covers.

When she closed her eyes, Draco went back into the other room for a thermometer, the Muggle kind because he hadn't been able to learn the special spell for taking temperatures. He finally found one in the bathroom and went back to Ginny, opening her mouth and putting it under her tongue. He watched the clock before pulling it back out again after a minute to read it.

He cursed and told her, "Stay here and don't move. I'm gonna make you a potion that will bring down your fever." He doubted that she had heard him since she was already snuggling up to her covers, but decided she couldn't really do anything with him being in the next room.

He went back into the kitchen to make a potion for the fever, a really strong one, since Ginny's fever was bringing her close to death. He had to bring her temperature down dramatically before she'd be out of the woods. Suddenly, he realized that her heavy blankets could bring her temperature up even more and ran into her bedroom only to find that she had already kicked the blankets off. Sighing in relief, he looked through her blankets and picked the lightest, but still warm, one and laid it over her. He walked back into the kitchen and noticed that all the stunned intruders were lying on the floor in his way.

"They'll have to wait," he said aloud. The thought came to him that he was free to run, free to escape back to his father. Ginny was sleeping in her bed and she didn't really need him. So why stay? "No, Malfoys keep their promises when they can't find a loophole to them."

"I keep my promises too," the dreshnok said, appearing out of thin air in front of him. Draco didn't blink and noticed that the spirit had been counting on him to be scared. "Why waste your time here when you can come back to your father? Hmmm? He needs you more than she does and your promise to him is even more important than a promise to a girl."

"My father doesn't need my help with anything," Draco told him, vaguely realizing that this spirit had been sent by his father to hurt Ginny. "He's survived years without requiring my assistance. Why should he stop now?"

"But it's not just your assistance that he wants," the spirit reminded him. Draco knew what the spirit was going to say next. "Remember, my dear boy, you were sent out on an errand for the Great One. You have something that is his."

Draco metally pictured the little bottle still in his cloak pocket with its green liquid bubbling inside. He shook his head and asked, "So?"

"If you want the Dark Mark, you have to obey the rules," the spirit answered, coming closer to Draco. Draco shook his head in disbelief and went back to making that potion for Ginny. The spirit clicked its tongue in disapproval behind him. "Looks like the little boy doesn't want to play with the grown-ups anymore. What are they going to say when they find out?"

"I don't really care," Draco said. "I'd sooner die than follow in anyone's footsteps."

"Oh, but you've always wanted to follow in your father's footsteps," the spirit told him, coming even closer so that he was talking right next to Draco's ear. "It was what you were born to do. Your destiny was mapped out even before you were conceived. Don't stop now. There'll be times that you'll regret it if you do."

The spirit suddenly stopped talking, and as Draco turned around in an icy fury, the spirit exploded, unleashing a tidal wave of cold air that nearly knocked Draco over. He grabbed hold of the countertop and waited for the air-wave to die down before starting on the potion again.

Half an hour later, he walked into Ginny's bedroom with a tall glass of the potion and shook her awake. She awakened easily, moaning, and let him pull her up into a sitting position to drink the potion. When she tried to spit the potion out, he held her mouth shut and tipped her head back before allowing her to lean back into the pillows.

"I'm going to be dumping those stunned guys somewhere in the forest," he said, heading for the door. "It won't do to have them wake up in the cottage, especially in your condition." She started to protest, but he held up his hand to quiet her. "I'll be back soon so don't leave that bed. Have plenty of rest, read, or do whatever you can do in bed, and drink plenty of water."

He left her bedroom and began to gather the stunned intruders. He shrugged a cloak on before bringing them outside. After getting a wheelbarrow from the shed next to Ginny's car, he piled the thieves on top and started to wheel them out into the middle of the forest. He dumped them in a clearing and was about to leave when it occured to him that he should wake the men up. He decided not to and went back to walking towards the cottage.

Then there it was again, that feeling that he was free to run back to his father. He shook his head and felt as if someone was watching him. The skin on the back of his neck prickled and he slowed his walk down, exciting his senses with the feeling of being watched. He shook his head again, as if to free the cobwebs inside, and regained his original pace.

He had to admit that this was the best time to escape back to his father. He had his cloak and his wand, and the potion his father wanted inside his cloak pocket. Add that to the fact that he was in the middle of the forest and that Ginny was sick and basically couldn't do anything to stop him from leaving.

But no, he made a promise and he intended to keep it, no matter how long it took. Ginny needed him to take care of her while she was sick and he wouldn't be able to leave until she said so, which was probably when her sickness left her. This meant that he should probably be at the cottage right now, taking care of her so she'd get better faster.

Draco quickened his pace and stopped arguing with himself. When he let himself in, he found Ginny on her way into the kitchen. She stopped dead in her tracks when she was spotted.

"Oi! What do you think you are doing up?" Draco asked, turning her around and leading her back into her room.

"I wanted water," she said as he settled her back into her bed.

"Then I will get it for you," Draco said, going back into the kitchen. He grabbed a glass and filled it with the pure, refreshing fluid before going back into her bedroom and handing it to Ginny.

"Thank you," she said politely before taking a sip. After a couple of mouthfuls, she paused and looked at him. "Why are you still here?"

"What?" he asked, her question coming out of the blue. He knew what she was talking about though, but didn't answer until she had repeated her question again.

"I mean, why are you still here even after all the chances you could've had in getting back to your father?" she asked again.

Draco sighed and started to pace about the room, thinking about what he should tell her. "I'm not what you would call honourable, but I gave you my word in not going back to my father," he finally said. He came to stand across from her position on the bed and stared back evenly at her. She didn't flinch when he held her eyes, just stared back at him.

"Thank you," she said again after a moment's silence.