Awakening to See...

...A Bit of Hero in Wolf's Clothing

It was Valentine's Day and I was still in my sixth year, the year Draco had kissed me at New Year's Eve. I had been watching him ever since and noticed that something weird was going on when he went out of his way to find legitmate reasons for picking on everyone.

Then the attacks on the castle started. He started to lose his cool more frequently when the other Slytherins badgered him about something. Sometimes, he started fights with the Slytherin boys. Then he would disappear for a couple of hours, or even a day. This morning I found him outside standing in the snow. He didn't even notice me, but kept looking at the lake with a sour look on his face. Apparently, he had had another one of his fights with the Slytherins again the night before.

This morning, I got dressed in my warmest clothes the moment I had woken up. It had snowed the night before and I was anxious to go have fun in it before everyone else woke up. Then I quietly ran outside, or at least as quietly as I could, and jumped into the nearest snow bank. I lay there for a moment, looking at the still-brightening sky with a smile on my face.

When I got up, I noticed the black dot against the snow standing at the lake. Draco. When I went closer, I found that he was angry. I watched him for nearly half an hour, but he didn't move. He didn't even notice me until I spoke.

"What's wrong?" I called, stepping out from behind my hiding place. He whipped around surprised.

When he saw who it was, he began walking back to the castle, saying over his shoulder, "Stay out of it, Weasley."

I ran to catch up to him. "No," I said simply.

"Are you deaf, or are you just a glutton for punishment?" Draco asked irritably. "I said stay out of it."

"Why should I?" I asked. He sneered at me, but I kept my ground. "I come out here and find you melting the ice with your glare. I think it's very much my business."

"Yeah?" Draco said, suddenly stopping. "Well, you don't know anything."

He continued on again and I stayed behind, glaring at his retreating back. Then, I ran to catch up to him again and immediately fell into step with him. We didn't talk until he suddenly veered away from the castle and pushed me into the snow.

"Do not follow me!" he yelled, before looking around to see where he should go. He decided to walk around the castle and started off, but I tripped him, causing him to fall into the snow on his face. He grabbed some snow and tried to push it down my top, but I fought back and threw a handful of my own snow into his face. We struggled for a little more before we found him on top of me, his face centimetres from mine.

He leaned down a little more as if to kiss me, but decided better of it and got off me before storming into the castle.

*

Ginny immediately woke up then. She found she had went back to sleep and that Draco was curled up on the bed beside her, sleeping as well. She studied his face intently, trying to figure out why she had even bothered keeping him there in the first place. She could've just gotten to Draco's father first and kept them from doing the ritual to go back in time. Or, she could've told Hermione, Ron, and Harry. But something kept her from doing that.

She quietly slipped from bed and into the kitchen, careful not to disturb Draco's sleep. She was still a little wobbly on her feet, but her fever had died down and the world had stopped spinning around her. She made herself some coffee and went back into her bedroom to sit on her bed.

Ginny looked at Draco's face again. He looked so vulnerable and innocent, it was actually kind of cute. She scrunched up her face at the thought of her mortal enemy being cute. She wasn't supposed to think he was cute. She was suppose to think he was nasty.

A strand of Draco's hair fell into his face. She leaned forward and brushed it back, trailing her finger along his skin. Her finger felt like it was on fire. She pulled back quickly when he moved his head and his eyes slowly opened.

"Better?" he asked.

"Much," Ginny replied. She leaned back into her pillows as he lifted himself up onto his elbow.

"Sorry about you waking up to find me in your bed," he said. "I fell asleep keeping watch."

Ginny shrugged and said, "It's okay. I kind of like it. It makes me feel safe somehow."

"I'll bet," Draco said sarcastically. "We're in the middle of a really weird forest. I think anybody taller than you would make you feel safe."

"You are not taller than me," Ginny protested.

"Just by an inch," Draco told her. She stuck her tongue out at him. "Being a little childish, are we?"

"Well, I just had a very high fever," Ginny told him. "I have a right to be childish." His face darkened at the mention of her fever. "I am alright, you know."

"Yeah, but for all we know, it could be temporary," Draco said, shifting so that he was lying on his back and looking at the ceiling. "Maybe two minutes from now you could go back into the fever and I might not be able to save you."

"Oh, so you want to save me," Ginny commented, grinning. "I thought you didn't save people."

Draco snorted. "You wish."

Ginny raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh? Who did you save?"

"Don't get all excited," Draco told her. "It was only once and I'm not sure if you could call it saving people. It was a little baby that was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck."

"So, you delivered a baby and saved him from dying all in a matter of seconds?" Ginny asked, impressed and weirded out at the same time. "And you, of all people, delivered a baby?"

Draco turned to face her again. "What? I can't have layers?" She gave him a look. He rolled his eyes at her and started talking again. "Yes, I delivered a baby and saved his life in the process. It was weird for me to do it, but I was the only person available at the time."

"When?" she asked. He looked confused for a second and she went on. "When did you deliver the baby?"

"About two weeks after that New Year's Eve we kissed," Draco answered. "It was during the trip to Hogsmeade that we were attacked. People were fleeing to Hogwarts from all directions and the mother of the baby bumped into me. We fell to the ground and she had a contraction there. I guess the impact had advanced the birthing process so I took her to an alley where she'd be safe. I was going to leave her, but the contractions got more and more closer together so I had to deliver it there. Then the baby nearly died, and I saved it by cutting its umbilical cord and directing air into its nose and throat. But I couldn't save the mother."

Ginny's eyes grew wide. "What? Why not?" she asked.

"She had been stabbed from behind," Draco told her. "I didn't notice the stab wound until after she had died. I had figured that all the blood she had on her dress was from having a baby, but then it turned out to be--" He sighed. "Remember that morning you found me by the lake?" Ginny nodded. "I realized then that morning that the reason why I had been rebelling against the other Slytherins was because of what happened. I was angry at myself for not being able to save the mother, and then being angry at myself for caring at all. Then I found that I actually liked saving that little baby." A bitter smile came on his face, like he still couldn't believe it. He got up and paced around the room. "Just think, Draco Malfoy, son of a Death Eater in the highest rank, enjoyed saving someone as opposed to killing them."

He stopped in front of the window, his face hidden from her. "Draco..." she said, willing him to turn around. When he did, he looked her straight in the eyes, challenging her to look away. She struggled for the words to express what she was feeling under his piercing gaze. "Maybe you just wanted to be a hero instead of being the bad guy all the time."

He laughed then and said sarcastically, "Yeah, that's right. I want to be a hero like Harry Potter and live in a shack in the middle of a forest! I want to be like you. You with all your heroic qualities! You coop yourself up here in the middle of the woods and never go out and expect that I wanted to be a hero!" His voice had started to rise and by the time he had finished, he was practically yelling. "That's rich!"

Ginny sat on her bed and didn't look at him. Her brain slowly processed what he had just said and she hated him for it. She suddenly felt bitter and ignored him when he came to sit on the bed.

"Have a nice rant?" she asked, her voice shaking. When he didn't answer, she said, "Yeah, I'll bet." She got off the bed and slowly walked over to the door with her cup of coffee, her legs still weak.

"I thought I told you to stay in bed," Draco said in a deathly calm voice from the bed.

She whipped around in fury. "How dare you!" she whispered. "You do not own me or my house or my life! You can't control me like you can your friends. I will do whatever I bloody like!"

"Ginny-" Draco started to protest, getting off the bed.

"No! Don't you start, Draco! Wait, why the hell am I calling you by your first name? It's back to the last name for you, mister!"

She turned and was about to walk out of the room when she was suddenly hit with a wave of heat. Her skin began to burn and her vision blurred. She vaguely remembered her legs collapsing out from under her and her coffee spilling all over her as the vision took full effect.

*

\"Damn it! Where is my son?!" Lucius bellowed into the nearly empty room.

"We must do whatever we have to, Lucius," said a man standing in a corner. His voice was hinted with malice and viciousness. The man turned around to reveal that he was Voldemort with the snake nose and red eyes. Voldemort smirked and the picture faded away to-

-a massacre. Hundreds of lifeless bodies strewn about the floor of the office building, their mouths open in shock and their eyes wide in fear. All dead, except for the robed figures pacing the long hallway, looking for anyone who was still alive and hiding.

The picture focused on a door. A nameplate hung on it, reading, 'Department for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts'. The door opened and inside could be seen a greying old man. But he was unmistakable to anyone who happened to know him. The red hair still stood out vividly against his paling, dead skin.//

*

When Ginny suddenly collapsed on her way out of the room, Draco ran forward to catch her. Her coffee spilled all over the two of them, but he barely noticed as he felt the rising heat of her fever on her forehead. He pulled her against his chest when he realized that she was having a vision at the same time as her fever.

She gasped in shock before he could do anything else. The red-head looked at Draco with wide eyes before gasping out, "Dad!" and immediately running from the room. He watched as she called her parents and told her father to stay at home that day and that a mass murder was about to happen at the Ministry. After telling him to get in contact with anybody he could, she hung up and remained motionless.

Uncertain, he laid a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him and he could see tears were gathering in her eyes. She told him everything she had seen while he made another potion to keep the fever down. After she drank the potion, he led her back to her room and settled her back in her bed. He checked her forehead for any signs of more fever before laying down beside her. She snuggled closer and he put an arm around her protectively. She fell asleep after a couple of minutes, but Draco remained awake. He came to a decision and left the bed, trying not to disturb Ginny's sleep. Then he grabbed a black robe and cloak to disguise himself and set off for the Ministry.