Bleeding Hearts

Why of all damn subjects did that stupid Weasley prat have to bring up Death Eaters? Draco thought angrilly as he stabbed at the too-salty food in front of him. It wasn't bad food, in fact it was very good food, except when he was angry he had a tendency to find fault in every little detail. He did catch Ginny looking at him every so often, which made him feel a little better, like he was being noticed, but then Potter said something.

Kui was taking up for his slacking off at playing 'host,' which he could only thank her for mentally. He wasn't that good at being grateful. She was flitting around the table asking if everything was fine and if they were all comfortable. He usually found that attitude annoying but right now he was damn sure he wouldn't have survived this long without somebody to distract them.

Not only that but his head was feeling woozy, which could be an after effect from drinking so much, or that he was sick again. Or that he had Potter, the stuck-up Weasley, Weasley, and Ginny all at his house at once, eating his food and drinking his drinks. The idea of Ginny wasn't as horrible to him as it was when the idea was directed to her stupid brothers and scar-head, he definitely preferred Ginny over all others.

Percy was giving a sermon on how every Death Eater should be thrown in Azkaban for life, and why he thought Verisaterum should be used in the trials, when Draco spoke up. "And what if the person had been under the Imperius Curse? If you ask 'Have you tortured people' he'll say yes becaue he had, and I don't know if you can get an answer for 'Were you under the Imperius Curse,' as they may still be under it."

"It doesn't matter," Percy snapped. "But the Ministry is thinking about using it. When that happens..."

"I owe my entire freedom to nepotism," Draco snapped. "Within the Ministry. Shut up."

"That's the way it's always been with the Malfoys," Percy replied. "All your father had to do was claim he was under the Imperius Curse and make tons of donations to skip out on it."

"And just whose fault was it that the son-of-a-bitch got away in the first place?" Draco said coldly. "Verisaterum would be a bad idea, because it makes you tell the truth, whether or not you did it of your own free will. In some doubtful cases it may be good for those who nobody is sure about, but not for the mainstream case. It may be a case of moral values in the end."

"Like you have any of those, Malfoy..." Ron muttered under his breath.

Later that evening, Harry and Ron were lounging in Draco's sitting room, talking about whatever they liked to yap about, and Percy was feverishly writing something to the Ministry over whatever obscure subject. In the nether regions of the huge mansion, Draco was for once in his life actually helping instead of being a little pill to the house elves.

His original purpose in going to the kitchen was to show Ginny, who was looking around at it all. Draco wondered if every host felt as if it wasn't good enough for his guest, and he couldn't help himself when he started to tidy it up a bit more. The house elves were confused but would tell him things from time to time, as in where something went and how to stack the dishes to use up the least space possible.

Ginny was watching him now, and was surprised to find Draco Malfoy, the boy who did as little manual labor as humanly possible, rushing around putting away dishes and cleaning. "Do you do this all the time?" she asked as he jumped down after putting away some funny looking tiered rack made out of china. He looked up at her.

"No, just tonight," he replied and pulled out his wand, magicking the rest of the dishes into the cabinets. "I'll never figure out how Muggles clean without magic," he muttered and put away his wand again.

"It's very long, and most of them hate it," Ginny replied and took the cookie one of the house elves held up to her. "I know Faith hates it. She'd prefer to blow it all up."

"You still like Potter?" Draco asked and led her back out into the hall. He winced at the challenging tone his voice took unintentionally.

"Yes," Ginny replied.

"Oh," Draco said absently. What a STUPID question! his mind roared at him. And an even more fucked-up comeback! "Don't know what you see in him, he's an idiodic prat," Draco said peevishly.

Ginny didn't reply, which somewhat startled Draco, but saved him the mental pain of her ire. Instead she followed him silently back to the sitting room, where Kui happily brought her a glass of water.

"What time is it?" Ginny asked as she looked out the window.

"Nearly midnight," Draco replied as he moved around her and went to stand next to the large french doors leading to the verandah. "Are you going to leave, or are you going to stay overnight?" he said.

Harry looked at Ron, who looked more than sick at the thought, poor Ron looked about to keel over dead. Percy had finished his writing and walked in. "Stay overnight? You've got to be kidding, Malfoy."

"Hell, I was only offering," Draco snarled, much more comfortable being a little brat than actually offering something to somebody without expecting a nice fat reward. "Personally midnight is too late for me to go anywhere, maybe it's different for Weasleys." You could hear his mouth snap shut when Ginny shot him an annoyed look. "...Well? Are you going to Apparate out of here or not?"

They decided to stay the night.

"And this, is your room," Draco said, and pushed open the door to a particularly nice room. Ginny walked in behind him as Draco turned on the lights. Draco had never quite understood how his father could hate Muggles so much yet use their invention of electric lights but Lucius was dead now so it really didn't matter, did it? No. Besides, fires could light only so much.

He'd led them to rooms one by one, the less he liked a person the less nice their room...which meant Potter got a bare, or at least by comparison, room. Ginny's, however, looked like it carried a net value of somewhere twice the revenue of a well-to-do government. She looked back at him, he was leaning against the door frame, obviously watching her and trying to figure out what was going through her mind.

"It's really nice, thank you Draco," she said and smiled.

Draco stiffened, but not because he was angry or nervous, but because she'd smiled at him.

"Umm, are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine. Ginny, just what do you see in Potter?" he asked, sharper than he meant to be.

"What do I see in Harry?" Ginny said, and smiled. "He's a nice person, he's really good looking and, well, he's Harry!"

Draco frowned. "Oh...and I guess I'm the antithesis of him, eh?" he asked, trying his best to force a smile onto his face. It only half suceeded and came out as a cold one. Stupid!! he screamed at himself.

"Um, not exactly the total antithesis," Ginny said. "Just to my brothers. You've never really done anything to me."

Whew. At least she knows that, Draco thought. And she doesn't hate me. Thank you God. "You're not as annoying as your weasel brothers," Draco said.

"They're my family, Draco," Ginny said. "You'd better be nice about them."

"Or what?" Draco asked, and grinned at her. "You going to make me be nice to Potter and the Mudblood and Weasley?"

"I'll leave it at your imagination, Draco," Ginny said almost playfully and then smiled sweetly.

"Ooh, scary," Draco said with a smirk, but was quite glad she was smiling at him, specifically, instead of that Potter twit.

"Now go away Malfoy, I'm going to bed now," Ginny said and began shut the door as he walked out. "Good night, Draco," she said and closed the door.