At Midnight - Prologue
Title: At Midnight
Rating: R
Genre: Angst, Romance
Characters: Draco/Ginny
Summary: “If there was one thing you could have,” she whispered, “what would it be?” Draco’s forehead dropped to hers. “You.” His eyes clenched shut, and he let out a shuttered breath. “Freedom,” he finally whispered.
Author's Note: Written before HBP. But, I thought it deemed worthy to be pulled out of the vault.
Prologue
June, 1998
Now was a better time than any.
Ginny folded her legs underneath her body, listening to the mattress springs creak beneath her shifting weight. Merlin knew how old her bed was; it had occupied her bedroom for as long as she could remember. She leaned against the windowsill and listened closely to the rainstorm outside her opened bedroom window. Although it was nearly impossible for her to see anything in the blackness of the storm outside, she could hear the steady pounding of the rain against the Burrow’s crooked rooftop, rattling through the gutters and into worn puddles in the earth below. It had begun drizzling around six o’clock that evening, and with each passing hour, the rain had steadily increased to a brewing rainstorm, not quite a full downpour.
She hoped that she would be able to hear it over the falling rain when he came. Ginny closed her eyes. The image of his face flashed across her mind.
‘At Midnight,’ he had said, ‘wait for me at your window.’
“Wait for me at your window,” she repeated his words softly, just barely above whisper.
‘I will help you down, and we will disappear.’
“We will disappear,” she sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, as though trying to find comfort in her own embrace. Her stomach fluttered lightly. She looked down at herself, hidden under a nice pair of soft black robes. She had been surprised that she had even been able to sneak the robes past her parents after they had picked her up from the Hogwarts Platform at King’s Cross Station earlier that evening. No one in her family would have been able to afford such fine robes, and if she had been caught with them, her family would have surely grown suspicious. If they had discovered that the robes had been from him... she pushed the thought away, not wanting to even finish it.
The sound of footsteps outside her bedroom door sent a wave of terror through her body. She watched as a thin beam of light blinked on under her door. There were two dark interruptions in the light; someone had stopped just outside her bedroom. She held her breath and mentally begged whoever it was to go away.
“Ginny?” It was Ron, her elder brother. She heard him try to turn the doorknob, and, amidst her violently pounding heart, she thanked Merlin that she had locked it, “Gin? Are you asleep?” He sounded concerned.
“I was,” she answered, trying to sound as though she had just been woken up. “What do you need?”
“Are you feeling all right, Gin? You didn’t eat any supper, and Mum was worried about you. I told her that I would check on you before I went to sleep.”
“Yes, Ron. I’m fine. I’m just really tired. You know how the end-of-term is,” Ginny closed her eyes and held her breath. It had been true that she was tired, and that she wasn’t feeling well. But it hadn’t been because of the end of term the school term. Ginny put her hands up to her cheeks; her fingers felt frightfully cold against her warm skin. She prayed that Ron didn’t ask to come in.
“All right then, Ginny,” he finally said, “Get some sleep. And promise me that you’ll eat some breakfast tomorrow morning. Mum will go bonkers if you don’t...”
“Yes, Ron, I will,” she managed, knowing that in truth, she wouldn’t. She opened her eyes and watched the shadows of his feet from under the door, “Goodnight, Ron.”
“Goodnight. Sweet dreams.”
Ginny tried to bid her older brother sweet dreams, but the words were lost in her throat. She wished he would show up soon; the waiting was making her nervous. She replayed the sound of Ron’s voice when he bid her good night, and felt a pang of guilt creep up her spine. Since when had it become so easy for her to lie to her family like that?
She listened to Ron’s retreating footsteps, and turned back toward her window.
Where was he? Shouldn’t he have been here by now? Wasn’t it midnight yet?
‘At midnight, wait for me at your window. I will help you down, and we will disappear.’
A snap! echoed through the sound of the rainstorm. Ginny felt her heart leap into her mouth. She swallowed hard, and strained to see something, anything, in the blackness outside her window. Her ears pricked, and she listened intently for a sound under the rain. Nothing. For a moment, she thought that her mind had been playing tricks on her. Perhaps what had made the sound was a fox, or maybe even one of the garden gnomes. She was about to turn her back to the window again, but she heard it.
“Ginevra?”
The voice was tentative and quiet, but sent a smile to her lips anyway. She felt her heart perform a somersault in her chest, “I’m here. But... I can’t see you.”
She heard him mumble something under his breath. A tiny light blinked on, illuminating his chiseled face. He looked scared, panicked even, as though he were about to be sick. Ginny’s brow furrowed.
“Draco… how are you going to get up here?”
Draco glanced over his shoulder, and dug his hand into his pocket. He pulled out what looked like a muggle matchstick (Fred and George, her twin brothers, loved to experiment with muggle matchsticks when working on another one of their many Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes) and balanced it in his palm. He waved his wand over it with his free hand and muttered a spell. From what she now realized had been a miniaturized state, his broomstick grew into its full size in his hand. He mounted the broom and kicked up off the ground, hovering outside Ginny’s opened window.
Although a skilled Seeker, he was rather clumsy trying to get in through the window. The window itself would not open wide enough for Draco to just fly in and land safely in the middle of the floor. Instead, he had to turn sideways and pull himself in, all while keeping his broom held firmly in his left hand. As he struggled to climb in without making too much noise, Ginny grabbed his arms and began pulling him inside, resulting in both of them tumbling off of her bed and onto the floor, Draco on top of her; the broom loudly fell from his hand and rolled under the bed.
Both of them froze, Draco poised steadily above her body. Ginny could feel the rain dripping from his soaked hair, his nose, and his chin. The hallway light flicked on outside Ginny’s bedroom door, followed by the sound of footsteps. “Ginny?” This time, it was Ginny’s mother, Molly. “Ginny dear, I just heard a loud noise. Are you all right?”
“Y-yes Mum,” Ginny called, her eyes never leaving Draco’s horrified gaze. “I... I just fell out of bed, trying to close the window that’s all. Did you know it’s raining pretty hard outside?” She felt foolish asking such an obvious question, but it sounded convincing.
Ginny heard her mother sigh in relief on the other side of the door, satisfied with her daughter’s answer.
“Oh yes, I know. Did you get your window closed? I would hate for you to get a cold on your first week back from school.”
“I did.”
“All right, dear. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Mum.”
The footsteps retreated, and the light flicked off. She looked up at Draco with scared eyes, “Are you all right?” she asked him. He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. He climbed to his feet, and held a hand out for Ginny to pull her up.
“Are you all right? Is the baby all right?” His eyes flickered with concern, steadying Ginny on her feet. Ginny felt his hand touch her stomach. She put her own hand over his, giving his fingers a reassuring squeeze. She wasn’t too far along, now, only a couple of weeks. In fact, the only way one could notice anything about the unborn child was her growth of appetite.
“I think we’re fine. Just a little startled, that’s all.”
He nodded, bringing his hand back and casting a weary glance outside the window they had tumbled through. He wrung his hands together nervously. Ginny drew the hood of her robes over her head, searching his face for answers he wouldn’t give to questions she wouldn’t ask.
“Do you have your things?” He asked, looking at her.
Ginny pointed to a small bag on her bed. “Right there.”
Draco waved his wand and muttered another spell. The bag shrunk to a size small enough that Ginny could fit it into her pocket. She thanked him quietly, feeling vaguely embarrassed. It wouldn’t be for another two months that she would come of age to be able to perform magic outside of Hogwarts.
“Are you absolutely sure that you have everything you need?” he asked her. His voice reminded her of her father’s before he saw the Hogwarts Express off at the start of the school term. She took one last look around her room. While she was sure that she had everything she needed sitting miniaturized in her pocket, she couldn’t help but swallow the lump of sadness welling her throat. This was the room that she had grown up in. She could remember times when she was a child, playing with her dolls, or pouting because her brothers wouldn’t let her play with them, or writing in her diary. So many memories had been burned into the walls of this bedroom. It was hard for Ginny to believe she was actually leaving it.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s everything. It’s too late to pack more now, anyway.”
“You might want to dress a little heavier,” he told her, “It’s really wet outside.” He cast another worried look outside her window. Ginny shrugged.
“I’ll be fine. I promise.”
He led her over to the window, and picked his broom from off the floor. Getting out the window proved to be slightly easier than getting in, although it was still clumsy. Ginny kept her arms wrapped tightly around his middle as they glided into the air and hovered above the Burrow.
“I can’t believe I’m really leaving,” she finally said, glancing down at the modest house below her. She could feel the rain beginning to soak into her hood on the top of her head. She looked at Draco, whose eyes were trained on the distant fields. He was nervous. Something was eating at him.
‘Or maybe chasing him,’ the thought horrified Ginny.
“Is something wrong?” She asked quietly.
His eyes swept over the fields one more time, his brow furrowing and his face darkening. “They’re coming. We need to move. Now.”
Ginny cast one last look at the Burrow, watching her childhood fade away before her eyes. She wondered what sort of state the Malfoy Manor was, now. Had it been burned to the ground yet? She buried her face into the back of his neck; his skin was warm despite the steady rain. He smelled of sweat and dirt, touched with a hint of peppermint. She nodded into his rain-soaked cloak.
“I’m ready,” her voice sounded strange as it echoed through her own ears.
She could barely feel the broom beneath her as it glided into the rainy darkness.
Rating: R
Genre: Angst, Romance
Characters: Draco/Ginny
Summary: “If there was one thing you could have,” she whispered, “what would it be?” Draco’s forehead dropped to hers. “You.” His eyes clenched shut, and he let out a shuttered breath. “Freedom,” he finally whispered.
Author's Note: Written before HBP. But, I thought it deemed worthy to be pulled out of the vault.
Prologue
June, 1998
Now was a better time than any.
Ginny folded her legs underneath her body, listening to the mattress springs creak beneath her shifting weight. Merlin knew how old her bed was; it had occupied her bedroom for as long as she could remember. She leaned against the windowsill and listened closely to the rainstorm outside her opened bedroom window. Although it was nearly impossible for her to see anything in the blackness of the storm outside, she could hear the steady pounding of the rain against the Burrow’s crooked rooftop, rattling through the gutters and into worn puddles in the earth below. It had begun drizzling around six o’clock that evening, and with each passing hour, the rain had steadily increased to a brewing rainstorm, not quite a full downpour.
She hoped that she would be able to hear it over the falling rain when he came. Ginny closed her eyes. The image of his face flashed across her mind.
‘At Midnight,’ he had said, ‘wait for me at your window.’
“Wait for me at your window,” she repeated his words softly, just barely above whisper.
‘I will help you down, and we will disappear.’
“We will disappear,” she sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, as though trying to find comfort in her own embrace. Her stomach fluttered lightly. She looked down at herself, hidden under a nice pair of soft black robes. She had been surprised that she had even been able to sneak the robes past her parents after they had picked her up from the Hogwarts Platform at King’s Cross Station earlier that evening. No one in her family would have been able to afford such fine robes, and if she had been caught with them, her family would have surely grown suspicious. If they had discovered that the robes had been from him... she pushed the thought away, not wanting to even finish it.
The sound of footsteps outside her bedroom door sent a wave of terror through her body. She watched as a thin beam of light blinked on under her door. There were two dark interruptions in the light; someone had stopped just outside her bedroom. She held her breath and mentally begged whoever it was to go away.
“Ginny?” It was Ron, her elder brother. She heard him try to turn the doorknob, and, amidst her violently pounding heart, she thanked Merlin that she had locked it, “Gin? Are you asleep?” He sounded concerned.
“I was,” she answered, trying to sound as though she had just been woken up. “What do you need?”
“Are you feeling all right, Gin? You didn’t eat any supper, and Mum was worried about you. I told her that I would check on you before I went to sleep.”
“Yes, Ron. I’m fine. I’m just really tired. You know how the end-of-term is,” Ginny closed her eyes and held her breath. It had been true that she was tired, and that she wasn’t feeling well. But it hadn’t been because of the end of term the school term. Ginny put her hands up to her cheeks; her fingers felt frightfully cold against her warm skin. She prayed that Ron didn’t ask to come in.
“All right then, Ginny,” he finally said, “Get some sleep. And promise me that you’ll eat some breakfast tomorrow morning. Mum will go bonkers if you don’t...”
“Yes, Ron, I will,” she managed, knowing that in truth, she wouldn’t. She opened her eyes and watched the shadows of his feet from under the door, “Goodnight, Ron.”
“Goodnight. Sweet dreams.”
Ginny tried to bid her older brother sweet dreams, but the words were lost in her throat. She wished he would show up soon; the waiting was making her nervous. She replayed the sound of Ron’s voice when he bid her good night, and felt a pang of guilt creep up her spine. Since when had it become so easy for her to lie to her family like that?
She listened to Ron’s retreating footsteps, and turned back toward her window.
Where was he? Shouldn’t he have been here by now? Wasn’t it midnight yet?
‘At midnight, wait for me at your window. I will help you down, and we will disappear.’
A snap! echoed through the sound of the rainstorm. Ginny felt her heart leap into her mouth. She swallowed hard, and strained to see something, anything, in the blackness outside her window. Her ears pricked, and she listened intently for a sound under the rain. Nothing. For a moment, she thought that her mind had been playing tricks on her. Perhaps what had made the sound was a fox, or maybe even one of the garden gnomes. She was about to turn her back to the window again, but she heard it.
“Ginevra?”
The voice was tentative and quiet, but sent a smile to her lips anyway. She felt her heart perform a somersault in her chest, “I’m here. But... I can’t see you.”
She heard him mumble something under his breath. A tiny light blinked on, illuminating his chiseled face. He looked scared, panicked even, as though he were about to be sick. Ginny’s brow furrowed.
“Draco… how are you going to get up here?”
Draco glanced over his shoulder, and dug his hand into his pocket. He pulled out what looked like a muggle matchstick (Fred and George, her twin brothers, loved to experiment with muggle matchsticks when working on another one of their many Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes) and balanced it in his palm. He waved his wand over it with his free hand and muttered a spell. From what she now realized had been a miniaturized state, his broomstick grew into its full size in his hand. He mounted the broom and kicked up off the ground, hovering outside Ginny’s opened window.
Although a skilled Seeker, he was rather clumsy trying to get in through the window. The window itself would not open wide enough for Draco to just fly in and land safely in the middle of the floor. Instead, he had to turn sideways and pull himself in, all while keeping his broom held firmly in his left hand. As he struggled to climb in without making too much noise, Ginny grabbed his arms and began pulling him inside, resulting in both of them tumbling off of her bed and onto the floor, Draco on top of her; the broom loudly fell from his hand and rolled under the bed.
Both of them froze, Draco poised steadily above her body. Ginny could feel the rain dripping from his soaked hair, his nose, and his chin. The hallway light flicked on outside Ginny’s bedroom door, followed by the sound of footsteps. “Ginny?” This time, it was Ginny’s mother, Molly. “Ginny dear, I just heard a loud noise. Are you all right?”
“Y-yes Mum,” Ginny called, her eyes never leaving Draco’s horrified gaze. “I... I just fell out of bed, trying to close the window that’s all. Did you know it’s raining pretty hard outside?” She felt foolish asking such an obvious question, but it sounded convincing.
Ginny heard her mother sigh in relief on the other side of the door, satisfied with her daughter’s answer.
“Oh yes, I know. Did you get your window closed? I would hate for you to get a cold on your first week back from school.”
“I did.”
“All right, dear. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Mum.”
The footsteps retreated, and the light flicked off. She looked up at Draco with scared eyes, “Are you all right?” she asked him. He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. He climbed to his feet, and held a hand out for Ginny to pull her up.
“Are you all right? Is the baby all right?” His eyes flickered with concern, steadying Ginny on her feet. Ginny felt his hand touch her stomach. She put her own hand over his, giving his fingers a reassuring squeeze. She wasn’t too far along, now, only a couple of weeks. In fact, the only way one could notice anything about the unborn child was her growth of appetite.
“I think we’re fine. Just a little startled, that’s all.”
He nodded, bringing his hand back and casting a weary glance outside the window they had tumbled through. He wrung his hands together nervously. Ginny drew the hood of her robes over her head, searching his face for answers he wouldn’t give to questions she wouldn’t ask.
“Do you have your things?” He asked, looking at her.
Ginny pointed to a small bag on her bed. “Right there.”
Draco waved his wand and muttered another spell. The bag shrunk to a size small enough that Ginny could fit it into her pocket. She thanked him quietly, feeling vaguely embarrassed. It wouldn’t be for another two months that she would come of age to be able to perform magic outside of Hogwarts.
“Are you absolutely sure that you have everything you need?” he asked her. His voice reminded her of her father’s before he saw the Hogwarts Express off at the start of the school term. She took one last look around her room. While she was sure that she had everything she needed sitting miniaturized in her pocket, she couldn’t help but swallow the lump of sadness welling her throat. This was the room that she had grown up in. She could remember times when she was a child, playing with her dolls, or pouting because her brothers wouldn’t let her play with them, or writing in her diary. So many memories had been burned into the walls of this bedroom. It was hard for Ginny to believe she was actually leaving it.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s everything. It’s too late to pack more now, anyway.”
“You might want to dress a little heavier,” he told her, “It’s really wet outside.” He cast another worried look outside her window. Ginny shrugged.
“I’ll be fine. I promise.”
He led her over to the window, and picked his broom from off the floor. Getting out the window proved to be slightly easier than getting in, although it was still clumsy. Ginny kept her arms wrapped tightly around his middle as they glided into the air and hovered above the Burrow.
“I can’t believe I’m really leaving,” she finally said, glancing down at the modest house below her. She could feel the rain beginning to soak into her hood on the top of her head. She looked at Draco, whose eyes were trained on the distant fields. He was nervous. Something was eating at him.
‘Or maybe chasing him,’ the thought horrified Ginny.
“Is something wrong?” She asked quietly.
His eyes swept over the fields one more time, his brow furrowing and his face darkening. “They’re coming. We need to move. Now.”
Ginny cast one last look at the Burrow, watching her childhood fade away before her eyes. She wondered what sort of state the Malfoy Manor was, now. Had it been burned to the ground yet? She buried her face into the back of his neck; his skin was warm despite the steady rain. He smelled of sweat and dirt, touched with a hint of peppermint. She nodded into his rain-soaked cloak.
“I’m ready,” her voice sounded strange as it echoed through her own ears.
She could barely feel the broom beneath her as it glided into the rainy darkness.