Chapter Fifteen: A Responsible Wizard

Chapter Fifteen: A Responsible Wizard

Ginny tossed her heavy bag onto the floor. Draco looked up.

"Don't say anything. I know I'm late," she said irritably, plopping down on one of the cushions.

Draco, who hadn't even been thinking of saying anything of the sort, watched as Ginny impatiently dug through her satchel, muttering under her breath.

"Fuck. I don't have my Charms book with me."

Draco's eyebrows began to twitch upward before he mastered his expression, but Ginny saw it.

"It's been a bad day. And yes, sweet Ginny Weasley can swear. If you don't like it, you can just, just, just get lost."

Draco would have taken offence, but Ginny was pale and seemed close to tears as she pulled out some parchments and tried to put them in some kind of order.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong! Nothing!" Ginny stuffed the parchments back in the bag, hunted through it some more, only to pull out the same parchments again. She threw them on the floor.

"Something is wrong," Draco said. "Can I help?"

"No, you bloody well can't help."

"If you would tell me..."

"Just leave me alone. I never should have come tonight. Everything's a mess. I can't find anything. I'm just stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She shoved her bag and the strewn parchments away, then lay on her side on her cushion.

"Are you sick?" Draco asked. He didn't think she looked well.

"No! I am not sick! Why do wizards always think you're sick! I'm not sick. I just feel wretched."

"Oh." Draco thought a moment. He was fairly sure now what was bothering Ginny, but he didn't want to say something that would upset her more. "Do you have a headache?"

"A little." Ginny sniffed.

Draco moved over to sit behind her, and he began to rub her head. "Don't bite my head off, Gin, but, um, if you're not sick, but you aren't feeling well . . . is it, how do you want me to put it? Is it the time of month for you?"

Ginny frowned. "Sort of. It should be. Probably tomorrow. And I feel hideously awful. Nothing is going right today, everyone around me is completely stupid, and I just feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin. All my nerves are just jangled. And I have rotten cramps and a backache already. I'm sure all that information is way too much for you."

"No . . . except, well, at the risk of sounding like one of those stupid people, don't you have a potion or something that you take..."

"Yes!" Ginny sounded exasperated. "Or I would, but I gave mine to one of the first-years a couple weeks ago and I forgot and now I haven't any and I went to the infirmary but Madam Pomfrey wasn't there and I asked Luna but she didn't have any and I was late to see you..."

"I see. I get the picture. But one of the infirmary house-elves could have fetched Madam Pomfrey for you..."

"I didn't want to wait around. I went by the infirmary between Transfiguration and Charms, and then again just after dinner, but I was late to see you. I should have stopped Madam Pomfrey in the Great Hall, I guess."

Draco's fingers moved from Ginny's head to her shoulders.

"Mmm, that does feel nice. I'm sorry I'm in such a rotten mood, Draco. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

"Mother had a hard time a couple months when we first moved to Sweden. I finally spoke to the Squib whose cousins we were supposed to be, and his wife brought by some Muggle tablets that seemed to help. Mother liked hot water bottles, too."

"Mum used to put hot water bottles in our beds during the winter," Ginny said, blinking back tears. "She'd always charm the sheets warm, but she'd say there was nothing like a hot water bottle for real comfort." Ginny blinked again, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

Draco stroked her back for a moment, then he got up and dug deep into his book bag, pulling out a wool scarf in Slytherin colours. "Never took it out of my bag after the last time I used it," he explained.

He folded the scarf, then cast a Transfiguration on it, creating a small, soft cushion, then he cast a strong warming charm on it. He knelt and held it out to Ginny. "Would this help a little?"

Sniffing, Ginny took the warm green and silver cushion and held it to her tummy. "Thanks, Draco. Considering you're such a guy, you're being awfully nice. Especially when I was so rotten to you just now." She sniffed again and more tears rolled down her face.

Draco smiled. "Yeah, I am a guy, but I love you, Ginny, and I don't like to see you unhappy or in pain." He bent and kissed her salty cheek.

Ginny burst out crying and reached for him. Draco held her for a minute, then he said, "If I went to see Madam Pomfrey, would she know what potion you need?"

"You don't want to do that..." Ginny wiped her face with her sleeve.

"Yes, I do. You'd feel a lot better, wouldn't you?"

"Of course..."

"You just stay here. I'll be back as fast as I can!"

On his way down to the infirmary, Draco was struck forcefully by the awkwardness of asking the school matron for a potion for what his father used to refer to as "female troubles"...which seemed to encompass everything from menstrual cramps to miscarriage to menopause...but he also remembered what Professor Snape said about adult wizards behaving responsibly. This seemed responsible. And surely if he could mention to a Swedish Squib whom he barely knew that his mother was having "that time of the month" troubles without her usual potions from home, then he could go to Madam Pomfrey, a Healing professional, and ask her for a potion for Ginny.

What struck Draco as being even more awkward, however, was the fact that he'd told Ginny that he loved her. He hadn't meant to say it, and even though he'd known as he said it that it was true, it seemed early days to be declaring his love like that. Still, Ginny seemed to appreciate it, if the copious tears and tight embrace were any indication. At least she hadn't rejected it, which he would have feared if he had given any thought to the declaration before he'd made it.

Madam Pomfrey was just rounding the corner from the Hospital Wing as Draco approached. She smiled.

"Come to see me?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"How may I help you?" Madam Pomfrey asked, turning and heading back toward the infirmary.

"Er . . ."

"Why don't we go into my office and talk," she suggested. They reached the infirmary, and she flicked her wand, opening the warded doors.

"That's not necessary," Draco said hastily, thinking that his Head of House had probably told the matron that he might be coming to see her to discuss wizards' contraceptives.

"I have time..."

"I just need a potion. For Ginny Weasley."

Madam Pomfrey's brow furrowed. "She should come to fetch it herself, at least the first time. I need to speak with her..."

"It's not that sort of potion. At least, I don't think we're talking about the same thing," Draco said, blushing but trying otherwise to appear nonchalant.

"And what are we speaking of?"

"She doesn't feel well. She has, um, headache. And doesn't feel well, and, um, she gave her potion to a first-year a couple weeks ago. It's for her monthly, um, her time," Draco ended lamely, unable to maintain his attitude of nonchalance under the matron's sharp, blue-eyed gaze.

"Well, this is unusual," Madam Pomfrey said with a smile, "but I can give you a potion for her."

She crossed over to her large potions cupboard and waved her wand, removing the ward on the doors. She drew out a small blue bottle, then she glanced over her shoulder at Draco. "Does she have her period yet, do you know?"

"She said tomorrow, she thought. She just feels sick now...not sick, she said, but..."

"Yes, I understand." Madam Pomfrey reached into the cupboard and drew out another small bottle, this one, deep red.

"She's very emotional, too, and she says her nerves are frayed," Draco said.

Madam Pomfrey nodded. "She can take this one...the one in the red bottle...today, and the other when her period commences."

"And that's all?"

"That's all. She should be fine for the duration. If she isn't, she can come see me. A house-elf can fetch me at any time," the matron said.

"That's what I told her," Draco replied with a nod. "She came by before, and you weren't in the infirmary, but she didn't wait and ask for you."

"I was probably just around the corner in my rooms," Madam Pomfrey said, "but even if I were elsewhere, I can always return if someone needs me."

"I think she wasn't thinking as clearly as usual, and she said she was in a hurry."

"Well, these should fix her up just fine," Madam Pomfrey said, leading Draco toward the infirmary doors.

"That's good. She wasn't herself at all."

"The potions should take care of that. But if they don't do the trick, she can have me called for...or you can do it. It's quite gentlemanly of you to fetch her potions for her, Mr Newman."

"It seemed . . . expedient," the young wizard said.

Madam Pomfrey smiled brightly at that, as if hearing more in the word "expedient" than he had intended to imply. "Yes, dear, I'm sure it did." She patted his shoulder. "But Miss Weasley's a lucky young witch. Good evening, Mr Newman!"

"Good evening, Madam Pomfrey," Draco responded politely as she headed down the stairs. He turned and started back up to the sixth-floor classroom.

On arriving in the classroom, he found Ginny still curled up on her large red cushion, hugging his Transfigured scarf to her lower abdomen.

"Heya!" Draco greeted her, trying to sound cheerful and as though he fetched witches' menstrual potions every day. "Madam Pomfrey gave me two potions. The red bottle for today, and the blue one for, um, later. When it comes."

Ginny turned her head and looked up at him. "Thanks, Drake." She took the red bottle from his out-stretched hand. She wasted no time in swigging the potion down. She let out a sigh, closing her eyes. "Oh, much better already." Her entire body seemed to relax.

"Good!" Draco said. He sat down on his own Gryffindor-scarlet cushion and set the blue potion bottle beside her.

Ginny opened her eyes. "I feel normal now. Thanks very much, Draco."

He shrugged one shoulder. "Madam Pomfrey said that if the potions didn't help, you could come see her whenever and an elf would fetch her."

"Did she ask why you were getting the potion for me?" Ginny asked, sitting up and crossing her legs.

Draco shook his head. "I believe she thought it was simply expedient, since you weren't feeling well."

Ginny nodded. "I really appreciate it, and I'm sorry I was rude to you earlier."

"I assumed it was because you didn't feel well," Draco replied. "I'm glad the potion worked."

"I should have just waited earlier and had one of the infirmary elves get Madam Pomfrey for me, but I don't know . . . I guess I just felt too awful to want to wait around or something."

"Do you want to work on something now?" Draco asked, reaching for his book bag.

"No, not tonight, if that's okay with you. I'm feeling fine, but I'm really tired. Let's just talk."

"Okay," Draco agreed. "I've confirmed an appointment with Mr MacAirt for seven-thirty Thursday evening. I'm meeting him at the gates. Mr Rath will be there to let him in. I thought you could meet him with me and walk with us back up to the castle."

Ginny nodded. "All right. I don't know how I'll go about asking him for an interview myself, though. He's a very important man, and I'm sure he's very busy. He must have more important things to do than to meet with seventh-year Hogwarts students."

Draco shrugged. "He's meeting with me personally. He was very open to it."

"Yeah, but you . . . maybe you don't know exactly what you want to do, but at least you have some ideas. I don't have a clue. I suppose I could ask him if there's someone in his company I could speak to."

"Look, if he doesn't want to speak to you himself, I'm sure he'd refer you to someone else, but if he's willing to, I think you should talk with him directly."

"All right . . . he did teach Mum and Dad when they were in school, so maybe he'll remember them."

"I'm sure he knows who they are, anyway, Gin. You don't seem to remember that your Mum and Dad...your entire family...are heroes."

"I'm not. I had to sit in the infirmary with all the other underaged kids and just watch." She sighed. "Or that's what I should have been doing. If I'd been where I was supposed to be, Percy would still be alive."

"You don't know that. Something else could have happened to him later, you know. And the way I've heard it, and from what you told me, that sequence of events let Potter receive the Killing Curse...though I still don't understand why that was important, except that it had something to do with a prophecy that the Dark Lord believed...and things might not have turned out so well for everyone else in the end. Percy loved you, obviously, and he was also fighting against the Dark Lord. I'm sure he would have preferred to live, I'm not disputing that, but I think that if he knew he was going to die, that would have been his choice. Saving you and helping Potter."

Ginny nodded, looking down. "It doesn't really help, though, even if what you say is true and I believe it. I still feel guilty about it."

"I know . . . but you did act out of love. You didn't know what would happen. You didn't set out to have it happen that way." He reached out and stroked her cheek, then ran his fingers through her hair. "You have fire and passion, Gin. Don't lose that."

Ginny shook her head doubtfully.

"Don't lose it. Just . . . temper it a bit, maybe. But I love that in you. Being with you makes me feel really alive, you're so . . . intense. It's one of the many things I love about you."

Ginny gave him a small smile and blushed. "Well, I'm glad of that, I guess." She paused, looking at him thoughtfully. "I love you, too, Drake," she said softly.

Draco pulled her towards him and kissed her. She leaned into him, slowly pushing him down onto his cushion, her kiss growing in passion. Finally, she came to lie fully on top of him. Draco's hands trailed down to her buttocks, squeezing, but then he broke their kiss and held her tightly, his arms encircling her.

"I hope we can be alone soon," Ginny whispered in his ear. "Maybe another classroom somewhere..."

"No," Draco said. "I'll try to work something out, but not a classroom. Somewhere we can take our time and relax. Neither of us would ever feel completely relaxed in a classroom, no matter how deserted and out-of-the-way it was."

Ginny sighed.

"I thought . . . maybe my flat," Draco continued. "If we can get away from the school for a few hours."

"We can't do that. If you were caught..."

"Let me think about it for a while," Draco said. "I'll think of something."

"Otherwise . . . I guess the NEWTs will be here fast enough. It won't be too long before we leave school. We can just wait."

Draco nodded. "We could." He kissed her soft cheek. "We could wait . . ."