The Tapestry of the Red Horse: Chapter 14
- June - 2000 -
Anger is a brilliant motivator, especially when you're a scorned lover. Once my time of grieving for my own stupidity had ended, I set to work. I joined Harry at the ministry in Auror training. I worked harder than I had ever worked at school, learned more, did better, than I would have had I not had the image of his cruel smirk haunting my every moment. I was determined to see him in as much anguish as I was in, and with the knowledge I had of his work with the Death Eaters, I had a good chance of success. I worked diligently, stayed late nights, plotted carefully.
It was a two years before I saw him again, sitting in a café with his wife and what appeared to be their daughter. He was taller than before, his hair longer, and his features hardened. He looked arrestingly like his father. I was meeting with Hermione and Neville for lunch and passed him on the way to their table. I ignored him as I passed, but I could sense his eyes on me and cursed the warmth that spread throughout my body at his glance. My heart was racing and I could feel my fingers shaking slightly, but I straightened my shoulders and tried to ignore it as I sat with my friends. Hermione noticed my stiff posture and raised an eyebrow at me before noticing Malfoy and his family behind us. "Ron.."
"Don't. I don't want to talk about it. As far as I'm concerned, he does not exist."
She looked as though she wanted to say more, but one look closed her mouth. Neville had seen what we were talking about and had the good grace to change the subject. "Ginny says hello."
"Really? When did you talk to her?"
He avoided my eyes and his voice cracked a little, "Last night. We um… we went to dinner."
The prospect of Neville dating my sister took my mind momentarily off of Malfoy and I relaxed just a bit, "You did, did you? And did she stay over?"
His eyes went wide and Hermione and I shared a smirk. "She um… well, um… not exactly…"
"Neville, relax. I know you are sleeping with my sister. She told me last week."
His eyes remained the size of saucers, "And you don't hate me?"
"No, not entirely, although if you hurt her in any way you will die," I stated threateningly. Neville cowered in fear and took a drink of his water to settle himself. I let him squirm for a minute more before nudging him with a smirk, "I'm only joking.Other thanHarry, you're the best person I could think of to be with Gin. I'll leave you to it as long as you don't shamelessly break her heart, which I don't think you're capable of."
He slouched in relief and grinned at me. "Good, I'm glad, because I really like your sister, a lot."
"I know you do. And I'm glad that you do. You both deserve some happiness after this bloody war…" We all looked at our plates, but then Hermione perked up a bit and grinned. "What is it?"
"You know that guy I told you about that I met at the hospital?"
"Yes…" Not another boyfriend, please no. I was not in the mood to hear about another female close to me becoming attached to a man that potentially had a death warrant.
"Well, we were talking yesterday, and… he asked me to go to the Puddlemere game with him next Thursday. He's got box seats!"
"Brilliant, you can see Oliver." I forced a smile, mentally grimacing at the prospect of her dating another healer. The last bastard had apparently been sleeping with another medi-witch as well, and Harry and I had had to be physically restrained from putting our Auror training to use and killing the slimy git.
Neville seemed less apprehensive about her dating someone new and began to ask her questions about him. I sat back and half-listened, paying more attention to my food as my mind wandered to the man sitting three tables behind me. Our lunch went by peacefully, and before I knew it, Hermione had to get back to St. Mungo's. We said goodbye to her and Neville and I headed down the street to waste the extra half an hour we had before heading back to the Ministry. Five minutes into our stroll, he clamped a hand to his head and muttered a frantic exclamation that he had forgotten about paperwork that needed to be done. He was suddenly gone with a loud pop and I found myself alone in Diagon Alley, mind wandering back to a certain blonde wizard whose demise I was slowly developing.
I turned into a smaller alley somewhere between Diagon and Knockturn Alley and found myself in a hidden potions shop that specialized in darker ingredients than anything you'd find on a Hogwarts list. The shop was dimly lit and filled with shelf after shelf of peculiar objects in jars. I had wandered to the back of the shop and was perusing an isle of pickled animal claws when I sensed a presence near me and suddenly a familiar form was pressed against my back and lips curled around my ear. "I hope you weren't thinking that I was going to pretend not to see you in the café, Weasley, because you'll be sorely disappointed."
I stepped away from him and turned to face that calculating gaze that held something so familiar to me and yet so foreign, lust. I scowled at him in response. "I never even gave you a second thought, Malfoy."
He stepped closer, his smirk turning predatory, and I tried to step back again, but only met with the shelf. "You've always been a horrid liar, Weasley. You haven't been able to get me out of your head since you saw me."
I tried to scoff and turned to feign interest in a jar filled with badger paws. "I see you've produced an heir; your life's purpose should be about complete, shouldn't it?"
"Nice subject change, there, Weasley." He was pressed up against me again and my skin was tingling in anticipation of the lascivious activity his proximity always seemed to promise. I fought my body's urge to turn and ravish him, strip the expensive velvet from his body and shag him right on the shop floor with the owner hovering over the counter up front.
"How is Daddy doing, by the way? I imagine he's a bit antsy with the upcoming execution and all. Are you going to see him off to hell or stay home and count your money? Me, I'm planning on going. I can't wait to watch him writhe in agony."
His fingers slid up and around my waist, fiddling with the lowest button to hold my robes closed, his lips hot against my ear again. "As much as I can't wait to see the bastard die, I'll be in Italy seeing to the comfort of little Amelia and my wife. They'll be moving into the family villa on the coast. Pansy finds the Mediterranean more to her liking and I couldn't possibly leave England with my financial obligations…" He had managed to slide his hand into my loose trousers and was languidly stroking me through my under shorts. As soon as his voice stopped its husky massage of my earlobe, I snapped back into reality and took a hold of his wrist, pulling his hand from my slacks.
"That's lovely, Malfoy, good to know your marriage is going so well that your wife finds it necessary to leave the country. I can certainly sympathize with her desire to be rid of you." I pulled myself from him and stepped away, reaching into my pocket for my wand.
"Now, now, Weasel, I seem to remember a time when you were begging me to stay with you. It's hard to believe your sentiment could change so quickly."
"So quickly? It's been over two years, Malfoy. I don't consider that quickly by any means. I hope you don't think that anything between us is going to be rekindled just because your bloody wife is on the Continent. I meant what I said at graduation and I'm certainly not going to back down now." Before he could respond, I apparrated to the Leaky Cauldron and disappeared inside to Floo back to work.
August - 2000 -
Days were beginning to blend into each other as I worked with Harry to hunt down the remaining death eaters. The execution of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy had been my only day off in six months. Harry and I had had front row seats, Harry twitching next to me as he and Lucius shared a visual duel, and he didn't look away until both bodies were being pulled from the platform. We passed Narcissa Malfoy on our way out and I was surprised that, though tear tracks traced her cheeks, she still looked as relieved as Harry. She caught sight of my glance and followed me out the door with her eyes.
Draco conveniently ran into me three weeks later in a tiny bookshop in Knockturn Alley while I was looking for a Dark Arts book to study up on the latest curses. He shoved me against a row of shelves with this malicious little glint in his eye and began to kiss my neck while his hands wandered into my robes. I tried to shove him off, but he wasn't having any of it. "You're coming back to my flat with me tonight," he whispered hoarsely in my ear.
I close my eyes and fought my body's reaction to him. "You know the rules."
"Yeah, no wife, no one else, I promise. She's in Italy, remember?"
"Never letting you touch me again sound like it might be familiar?"
He sighed impatiently and clamped onto my chin, turning my face to meet his. "Weasley, it's been over two years. Can you honestly tell me you aren't dying to fuck me? Even if you were sleeping with someone else, which I know you're not, I am the best fuck you've ever had and we both know it."
"Either way, I'm fairly certain the definition of 'never' hasn't changed. Now step off before I curse you." He let out a puff of indignant air, but did not remove himself. He pressed further in.
"Curse me. Please." His hand slipped into my trousers and wrapped around my length, tugging roughly. I bit back a groan and shut my eyes to avoid his insistent stare. His lips found my neck again, teeth nipping at my pulse point as he stroked me. "You want this. You want me. Stop denying yourself what is right in front of you." His voice was raspy and harsh in my ear and he nibbled on my lobe as if to emphasize the statement. I was nearly butter melting under his hands. It took all of my inner strength to tear his hand away from my trousers.
"No." I opened my eyes and met his lust-filled gaze, determined not to wield. "You made your decision two years ago, you need to deal with it." I pushed him away and hurried out of the building, hoping to lose myself in the darkened shadows of the Alley and the crowds of dark wizards mulling about. Draco never followed.
-March - 2001 -
These encounters began to steadily increase as the months went by. I wasn't pleased with myself, but I found lips pressed hard against mine more often than I could push away from, and I eventually began to make excuses to myself about the encounters. They were feeble, but they allowed me an escape from the guilt my participation afforded me. I never mentioned the situation to Hermione or Harry, but I could tell that Harry suspected something when I conveniently dropped my case against Malfoy in favor of 'more pressing matters'. He gave me a reproachful look every time Raleigh mentioned Draco's name. Our run-ins went on for seven months before they stopped abruptly. He disappeared from radar for a long time, but I refused to allow myself to look for him. He was probably in Italy with the evil little bint he'd married.
I was spending the afternoon in Diagon Alley two months after my last encounter with Draco when I saw familiar blonde hair moving through the crowd. My heart began to speed up again and I slid into an alcove to keep from detection, curious to see what he was doing. I was surprised when the blonde finally reached my full view and I discovered it to be not Draco, but his mother, looking regal as ever in filmy pale blue robes, a stroller gliding on its own in front of her. In the stroller was perched a little girl of about two with lengthy, black hair and large blue eyes. Amelia, Draco's little girl. Interested, I slipped out of my alcove and followed a bit behind them. They headed for Flourish and Blotts and I followed them in. Narcissa was talking to the little girl, asking her what kind of books she'd like for her birthday. I didn't catch her response, but they made their way to the children's isle at the back of the store and I slipped into the next row, grabbing a book and pretending to be interested in it as I listened. Narcissa handed the little girl several books for her perusal, and read the titles out loud. There was a long bit of silence in which time I decided shadowing Draco's mother and daughter was a bit nonsensical and turned to leave only to find Mrs. Malfoy standing in front of me, giving me an appraising look. I could see Amelia through a gap in the shelves, kicking her feet in her stroller and giggling at pictures in one of the books.
"You're Ronald Weasley."
I would have been surprised to find out that she knew my name if it weren't for the fact that Harry and I had been the two key players in the execution of her husband. "Yes, ma'am." I was suddenly very nervous and a little shaky. Her eyes never left mine and she had a piercing glare that reminded me very much of Draco.
"You had liaisons with my son during school, didn't you?" I froze, unable to answer. Was I supposed to confirm or deny this? "Your relationship with Draco made Lucius incredibly angry. Angrier than he had been when the Dark Lord died. He and Draco fought for weeks over you. Right up until the wedding." Her eyes flicked to Amelia and the silver turned to a stormy gray. "Draco is not happy with this marriage, it isn't right for him, but he refuses to leave without an heir. He's in Italy right now trying." My heart dropped to my stomach at the thought that he was with his wife, allowing her to touch him, be with him, surround him, when it should have been me. But then I scolded myself for that thought. Her eyes returned to mine and a little of the storm subsided. "You were wondering; that's why you followed us. You love him, don't you?"
I swallowed and turned away, but she moved closer so that I had no choice but to look at her and I nodded. "More than I'll ever admit to."
A small smile graced her lips and she reached up a hand to touch my cheek. "I know it may not seem like it, but what he is doing is something that needs to be done. He will never be content if this is not done, it has been ingrained in him for far too long. Be patient."
I was unclear as to what she meant. Was I supposed to wait for him to return so that we could continue to grope at each other in the back isles of shops? Did she know about these encounters? She obviously knew something about our interaction if she knew about me outside the circle of her husband's death. My eyebrows knitted together to show my confusion. "Ma'am?"
Her smile grew and warmed with the uncertainty of my voice and she brushed a bit of fringe from my eyes. "My son does not talk of much to me, but I know him far better than he thinks and far better than he knows himself. He is stubborn and very much set in the tradition that he was taught, but he knows what is in his heart. He will come back to you. Don't worry." I could feel my hands quaking in confusion and nervousness, but she seemed completely at ease. Her hand wrapped around my wrist, tugging me down slightly to reach her, and she kissed my cheek in a way that could only be described as reassuring. Stunned, I watched as she turned down the isle and returned to her granddaughter, whispering something to her and taking the books the little girl had chosen. With a final glance back at me, she and Amelia made their way up to the front to pay and then disappeared from the store. I stood, frozen for much longer, and only came out of my thoughts when my wand started vibrating, indicating that Harry needed me.