Fire and Ice

Midnight Musings

"No," Draco breathed, shocked, before recovering himself. Frowning, he asked, "Why would my father want you dead?"

Ginny slowly laid down, and put her head on Draco's chest. For a second, Draco was rigid, surprised at the intimate contact. A second later however, he found his arms wrap protectively around her cold body.

"I got your dad in a lot of trouble once," she murmured. "it was my first year at Hogwarts, your second. He gave me this... this..."

"The diary." Draco said suddenly.

"Yeah," she replied slowly. "How do you... of course. Your father."

"What, err... what exactly happened? With the... you know." Draco shifted uncomfortably. Ginny froze, hen exhaled. Fuck it, he heard her think.

"I started writing in the diary. It- he- wrote back to me. Tom." she spat, as if his name tasted bitter in her mouth.

Tom, Draco thought. Why does that sound familiar?

"The more I wrote into the diary, the more... the more I let him into my life. The more I let him into me. He possessed me, he... well, you know the rest."

"Not really," Draco said quietly, furiously racking his brains for the Tom reference. "What... what was the Tom like?" he asked, to keep her talking.

"Handsome," she hissed, jerking Draco out of his thoughts. He listened, frowning. "...tall, clever... flattering. Tom was... seductive."

"Stop," Draco muttered, hearing the pain in her voice. "Wait..."

Hearing her say Tom's name in the pained voice finally reminded him of why he found the name so familiar.

"You had a dream, a nightmare, about him. Tom."

"I... yeah. The night before we... yeah."

"You know, I thought you were having some kinky dream about some ex."

Ginny laughed out loud, a lovely, happy sound.

"Kinky? That's funny."

Stroking her hair, Draco continued.

"But yeah, you did get my dad in trouble. But I know for sure that he wouldn't want you dead because of it."

"What?" Ginny whispered, raising her head to look at Draco. "Are you sure?"

"Ginny," Draco said bitterly. "If my dad wanted you dead, you'd be dead. Merlin, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead. You have no idea how influential my family is."

"Oh, I think I do." Ginny said lightly.

"You don't. Trust me. If he wanted you dead, you'd have been killed before this. Probably the year... err.. the Chamber of Secrets was opened." In his head, Draco remembered the part in Granger's sheet, the CS, which he now realised must have stood for Chamber of Secrets.

"True," Ginny mused. "Well, one thing for sure. We need to talk to Harry, Ron and Hermione."

"We?"

"Yes, we. Your name is on the suspect list, and we need to scratch it off."

Grumbling, Draco pushed her off his chest, but Ginny merely clung on tighter.

"Tomorrow?"

"Fine."

"Good," she murmured, gently planting a soft kiss on Draco's chest. "Thank you."

Unused to shows of affection, Draco stiffened, before pulling her body directly on top of his.

"Don't thank me, I'm not doing this for you."

"Of course you aren't," Ginny whispered, as her lips touched his.