A/N: Thanks to all readers and reviewers! 😊 We're on the home stretch… I'm not going to say how many more chapters there are, but the end is in sight.

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Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water.
- Miguel de Cervantes

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Draco was still touching the scrape lightly with his fingertips, smearing the blood that was starting to bleed on its edges. I really do have awfully sharp nails now, thought Ginny.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," he said.

She looked down at the tightly wrapped sheet around her legs. The awkward silence stretched on and on.

"Did I fool you?" she asked abruptly. "I mean, did I ever really fool you into thinking I was Astoria?"

"I don't believe you did. Some part of me knew all along, I think," said Draco. "But I suppose that you came closest to doing so when you were simply attempting to seduce me. That's the sort of thing that Astoria might have done, although it's also why I immediately thought of lust potions and Desire spells."

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny.

Draco shrugged. "My response was all wrong. She shouldn't have been able to provoke anything in me."

Ginny couldn't prevent a little warm feeling from welling up somewhere in her chest, even though he still wasn't quite looking at her. "So when did you know it was actually me?"

"I can't say that I knew. But there was a time when… you see, the Cambio spell…" The strange, hazy look came into his eyes again.

The silence went on too long. "Malfoy? What is it?" She reached out to shake him.

It was only a touch of hand on shoulder, utterly innocent, or at least it ought to have been. It was a touch that could have been given and received on the dance floor of the Pureblood Ball an hour earlier, and it would have been proper and correct. But there was nothing proper about the fire that coursed through Ginny's fingers when she touched him now. Even through his cloak and dresscoat and waistcoat and linen shirt and gods-knew-what-else, his flesh seared her. She dropped her hand. She heard his intake of breath, and she knew that he had felt it too. Suddenly, she understood all too well why he had wrapped her in a sheet from head to toe and veiled her hair.

"Sorry," muttered Draco. His eyes had cleared, and they had turned very dark. He began to speak quickly. "The Cambio spell contains an element of concealment. It bewitches those who are… close… to the spell's recipient to behave as if they're under a Befuddlement charm. Everything and anything serves to distract them from realizing the truth."

That's why Theo Nott didn't realize who I really was, either, thought Ginny. She didn't dare to say it. Draco seemed as if he might lose the thread of his thoughts at any moment.

"Revealing spells have no effect, as you saw. The only antidote is a Disillusionment charm, and the observer must place it on himself. Because he is himself Befuddled, however… however…" Draco swallowed hard and did not go on.

"It just doesn't happen," said Ginny. "But this time, it did. You managed it, didn't you?"

"Yes," said Draco.

"So what was it that made you realize?"

He hesitated. "It was when you touched my cheek."

He was almost turned away from her. The sight alone sent a dart of pain through her chest. She crawled up to him on her knees and brushed the side of his face with her fingers. "Like this?"

She heard the change in his breathing at once. "Yes. I knew that it simply had to be you."

She cupped his cheek into her hand as if it were some precious thing; she felt his chin settle into her palm, as gently as an egg. Then she bent down towards him, her lips seeking his. He pulled back from her.

"What are you doing?" asked Ginny.

"We can't. We simply can't do this, Weasley."

"Don't—" she began. Then she stopped. What? Don't call me that? But then what was he supposed to call her? He knew that she wasn't Astoria; she couldn't endure being called by that name one more time anyway. And if he wouldn't call her Ginny on his own, then…

He gave a long sigh. "No."

Ginny moved towards him; he moved away. As she tried to follow him across the big bed, she saw a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked quickly round and saw a figure in a white sheet with long blond hair straggling over its shoulders. Astoria. Ugh, she thought in the split second before she recognized it as herself. Then she saw Draco's set, closed face.

It was simple, after all. So simple. She was wearing Astoria, the face and body and voice of the wife he had never really wanted. Now that the moment of madness was over, he didn't want her as Astoria. How could she not have understood instantly?

Pride stiffened her back. Ginny sat up and began pushing away the coverlet. For the first time, she was grateful that the sheet covered her so fully and was wrapped so tightly.

He wasn't even stopping her.

Slippers. Where were her slippers? She felt around for the gold-colored things. There was one. The other one was probably all the way under the bed. She felt around for it with her foot.

"Where are you going?" she heard Draco ask behind her.

"I'm finding both of my shoes," she said with as much dignity as she could muster. "Then I'm leaving."

"Don't be utterly stupid," said Draco. "You can't leave."

"Can't I?"

"No, you can't, and you're mad if you believe it possible," said Draco. Rather grimly, in her opinion. Not that the way he said anything was going to be the least bit important in a very few minutes, of course. Just as soon as she could find her other shoe.

"I'm not mad at all," snapped Ginny. "For your information, Malfoy, I happen to have a decent memory. That's all. I seem to recall your saying that if you knew I were Ginny Weasley, you'd throw me out!"

"It was a figure of speech," said Draco. "Get back on this bed."

She ignored him. She was fairly sure that she felt that edge of the shoe with her big toe. These feet were a bit longer, anyway, and it was coming in useful now. At least there's something about Astoria's body that I like!

"I mean it. You'd better get back here. You're falling off, and if you think I'm catching you—"

There it was! Ginny hooked the slipper under her toe and pulled upwards. Unfortunately, she was balanced precariously on a slippery green satin sheet at the time. She felt herself sliding to the floor.

Draco caught her just in time. The sheets snagged on his fingers, pulling snug. The wrappings were so tight, almost painfully tight, binding her breasts, rubbing at her nipples, chafing the sensitive flesh. He was pulling at the wrappings at her legs now. Only he could get them off, she realized. He would unwrap her, layer by layer, until she was completely nude before him. Next to him. Under him…

Ginny wriggled and wriggled. She heard him groaning; it was the same sort of groan he had given when he had been writhing between her spread legs and he had promised her all those sumptuous climaxes before pulling aside the last flimsy layers of cloth separating them, letting his throbbing erection spring free, and then—

Draco pulled away. She squirmed and fell sideways, and saw a flash of her own reflection again.

"I can't… I will not allow this to happen," he groaned.

"Yes, yes, I know that, Malfoy!" snapped Ginny. "You don't have to remind me! You've already made yourself quite clear, and I know exactly why, as well. Don't think I don't understand that!"

"Oh, gods, there's that tone in your voice- What are you talking about, Weasley?"

Ginny turned her head away from the glimpse of the mirror. "You don't want me because I'm in Astoria's body. Admit it, Malfoy!" She flung the words at him.

"You think that's why I won't allow this to happen? Because I don't want you?"

"Aha! So you do admit it."

"Wait, wait; first you accuse me of not wanting you, and then you get that triumphant note in your voice when I admit that I do—"

"Well, of course you do. You're responding to me. I already knew that! But you won't admit that to yourself because I'm still in Astoria's body and you hate Astoria so now that you know you don't have to do this, you've convinced your bloody stupid self that you can resist me, and if you're going to be that thick and stubborn then I'm going to sleep in the bathroom on the chaise longue just as soon as I can find this fucking shoe!" burst out Ginny.

Draco gave a choked laugh.

"I don't see what's so funny!"

"You're entirely wrong, Weasley."

"Are you really going to tell me that you want Astoria?"

"No, I don't want Astoria. But you're in there, Ginny. You're wearing Astoria's body. That's all. You're the one I would be—" He broke off.

"Then—we were so close," Ginny said painfully. "So why not? Why don't you want to follow through?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes. Yes, I do."

"I don't think I could begin to explain the reasons."

Draco's eyes were getting that far-off, silvery, mirrored look again, Ginny saw. It made her want to hit him. "I'll be the judge of that. Unless you're afraid to tell me anything, Malfoy! Are you?"

"More than you can know, Weasley."

He turned to look at her then, and she realized that she was wrong. His eyes were unguarded.

"You've seen me as I really am," he said.

"I've been seeing your real personality since you were twelve years old, Malfoy. If you didn't scare me off the first time outside Flourish and Blotts, then I don't think it's going to happen now."

"I think you know very well what I mean. You've seen what I've done to you, Weasley, when I thought you were Astoria."

Ginny gnawed on a red fingernail, not even noticing the bitter taste. "You said that you always knew it was me. Was that true, or were you just lying to me?"

"I can't lie," said Draco.

"You mean that you've still got to tell me the truth?"

"I do," said Draco. "Until morning. But some part of me truly thought you were who you pretended to be, as well."

An idea came to Ginny. "Malfoy, is Cambio always this strong? I mean, the Befuddlement part of it?"

"No," he said, looking rather confused. "At least… I don't believe that it is…"

"I wonder if maybe Astoria cast an extra spell on you when you were with her earlier."

Draco was silent for a moment, his face working. Then he nodded.

"I thought so," said Ginny, mostly to herself. "But that doesn't make any difference, does it? The point isn't how you would treat me- if you knew it was me, I mean- but how you'd treat someone you really hated. Someone who you thought had tricked you in the worst way possible. Draco, I was thinking about something. When you sort of had your hand halfway around my neck, well… if you really had strangled Astoria, could you have got away with it?"

"Yes," said Draco, in a very low voice. "But I'm not admirable or good because I held my hand from murder, Weasley."

"I know that," said Ginny. "But what about the way you treated me later? Did you do those things because you thought I was Astoria, or because you somehow knew I was Ginny?"

She waited, knowing that whatever he said to her would have to be true. She wondered if truth was overrated. She knew that she couldn't rest until she had it anyway, one way or another, because such was her nature.

Draco still did nothing, which gave her too much time to think.

Maybe it's easier to be more like Astoria, she thought. I'll bet she never cares about getting at the truth, unless it can benefit her. I doubt she ever wants to know the truth when she's half sure that knowing it will hurt her more than any lie could ever do. When is he going to say something? What's going on? It can't be that there's nothing to say… that can't be it… can it?

Draco grimaced and held both hands at his lower back.

Aha! I knew it! "You'd better answer me, Malfoy," she said.

"Perhaps it- would be better if—"

"It would be better if you answered me, unless you want to be using Anti-Inflammatory charms on a daily basis for the rest of your life," said Ginny.

"Enough!" said Draco, leaning against the back wall with a long, painful gasp. "I was angry. Not with you. Either as Astoria or as Ginny Weasley. With myself. But I found that I could not hurt you. I hadn't touched a woman in over a year. Except for you, of course. Always, always, excepting you."

It took him a long time to get his breath back after that last sentence, which gave it time to swirl round and round in Ginny's mind and body.

"I was afraid I might be rough and hard and savage," he finally went on. "And so I wanted to give you pleasure first, even as Astoria, because I didn't want to hurt you. Couldn't hurt you. I found that I couldn't hurt anyone. Even a woman I hated like poison. I hated myself for wanting to cause you any pain. Even when I thought you were Astoria. I am weak. I am weak. As my father has always told me. And I hated myself for my weakness. And you will never forgive me now." He collapsed against the wall and slid down to the bed.

"I don't know about forgiveness, Malfoy," said Ginny, wondering what it was in her nature that drove her to tell the truth even when she wasn't forced to do so. "But you're not weak." She reached forward and touched him. The fire was muted just for the moment, low enough so that she could feel him, the warmth of his skin, the feverish beating of his heart.

Draco pulled back after a moment. "But that's not all you saw tonight, Weasley," he said.

"I saw you with Prudence Johnson," said Ginny. This much, at least, was safe to admit. She still didn't want Draco to know that she'd seen him with his mother. "You know that now," she went on. "I suppose you mean the 'one true good pure thing' rubbish? "

"Yes," said Draco. "I did mean that."

"And let's not forget 'Malfoy property', 'tiresome scruples',or 'a bit of seduction'," said Ginny.

He sat against the wooden wall, his head drooping. She rather thought that if it hadn't been holding him up, he would have cowered in the same way he had done when Prudence had flipped the mirror that had showed him all the darkness in his own soul. "That as well," he said.

"And then you told Prudence that no matter what had happened to me, no matter what had been—" Her throat closed. She cleared it. "No matter what had been done to me, you would never reject me. Then you said that you had returned to England for me, and for your mother." She stopped, suddenly afraid that she had revealed too much. Should she let Draco know that she actually had witnessed that part? It had seemed so incredibly private.

"I…" Draco cleared his throat. "I did see my mother as well." His lips trembled.

Ginny blinked back a rush of tears. He was laying himself open to her, in some way at least. He had to be, in order to take the risk of letting her know that his mother was there.

"I am the only person—well, the only mortal being- left in the world who knows that she's alive," Draco went on. He tried to laugh; it was a choked sound. "No; that's not true, because you know that now as well."

Perhaps she should tell him what she had seen. But it was more than she could do at the moment. Ginny twisted round towards Draco. "Look at me."

He raised his head towards her, an unreadable look his eyes.

"I'm going to tell you the truth about something, and I want you to promise to not say anything until I'm done," she said.

"All right."

"Malfoy, a few weeks ago, I made a vow to Astoria. Never mind exactly why just now. First, I promised her that I wouldn't … uh…" She waved her hand over the bed. "You know. With you, before her. I knew how determined she was to consummate the marriage tonight, because Daphne told me, and then she ambushed me and tried to steal my body with Cambio. I figured out that the only way to keep that vow was to take over the consummation from her. Don't you see? It had to be in her body, and you had to believe I was really Astoria. But I was thinking that if we still do it now, uh… it would still count. Because we made the agreement when I was in her body."

"Mmm," Draco said in a non-committal sort of voice. "Is there more?"

"Well, yes, there is." She dug her nails into her palms, trying to hold off a sense of panic. "You see, uh… I made another vow, on the same day. Never mind how that happened either, all right? It's too complicated to explain. It did happen whilst I was in Loftia, though, so there were witnesses."

"You weren't joking in the least when you said that this was appallingly complicated," said Draco.

"I'm not done. I swore that, uh… well… that I'd take you as my first, and that I wouldn't shag anybody else before you. It was before the other vow, you see."

"Are you quite done yet? Because if you are—"

"No," Ginny said grimly. "I'm not. A little while before I saw you with—with Prudence Johnson, or whoever she really is, I had one of the visions."

Draco sucked in his breath. He understood, she thought.

"It was the same one," she said. "You were sitting on a cot in Azkaban. And that was when I knew that I had to find you, and that the night would need to end… you know… like this." She glanced around the bed, and saw Draco stiffen.

"So you maneuvered me into bed with you out of pity?" asked Draco stiffly. "The vision of my poor prisoner self in Azkaban preys upon your Gryffindor conscience, and you don't believe we've done quite enough to qualify for conjugal visits—is that it?"

"Oh, Malfoy, don't talk to me in that stiff sniffy voice. I wasn't going to do anything until I could somehow learn if you…" She bit her lip. "If I could keep the first vow."

"What do you mean?" Draco asked in a careful voice.

"There was a bit I didn't tell you before," she admitted. "The exact words of the vow were, I swore that I'd take you as my first only if it were safe to do so. When I saw you with Prudence- I finally understood what that meant." Ginny took a deep breath. "If you only wanted me in that one way, then it wouldn't be safe. But I heard… and then I knew. I just didn't think that it would happen like this." She glanced ruefully down at Astoria's body.

"But that's the only way I could think of to keep both vows," she hurriedly went on, when he didn't say anything in reply. "That way, I wouldn't do it with you before her, because I'd be her. But you'd be also be—um—my first, because, well, I wouldn't have done it with anyone else before you, even though Astoria's body obviously would have done. Don't you see what I mean?"

Draco nodded. Ginny saw just how reluctantly he did so, and her heart began to sink.

"Please just say whatever it is you're thinking right now, Malfoy," she said.

"I'm not sure," said Draco. "I did tell you that you'd cocked things up rather royally. I may have been wrong. But if it's honesty if you really want, Weasley, then I'll tell you that I'm beginning to think I may not have known the half of it."

Ginny wondered if her heart was going to sink all way through the bed. "But I don't see why."

"Look at it this way, Weasley. You believe that you can have it both ways where the vows are concerned. But can you? Why should you be able to? What if it's one or the other?"

"Oh, no," whispered Ginny.

"Oh, yes. If you're truly yourself and not Astoria, then you'd be keeping the first vow in this bed tonight. But…" He allowed his words to trail off.

She groaned. "But then you think that I couldn't keep the second one. I swore to her that I wouldn't… uh… well, you know, with you, before her. And then that wouldn't count at all if I were actually myself, because then I would, with you, before Astoria. That's what you mean, isn't it?" Ginny rubbed her forehead. "Malfoy, think about this for a minute. You said that a part of you knew all along that it was really me. Right?"

He shifted to face her fully. "Yes. That's true."

"But that means that most of you didn't. So I think that if it's got to be one or the other, then it's the other way, that the magic considers me to be Astoria and not Ginny Weasley. If we… uh… tonight, then I'd be keeping the second vow, the one where I said that I wouldn't do anything with you before she did. And we could maybe just keep the first vow tomorrow, after I get back into my own body again. Don't you see?"

Draco shook his head. "No."

Ginny steeled herself. "I know that—that this body isn't exactly very attractive to you, Malfoy. Do you think that I'd want my first time to be in Astoria's body if I had any choice? But if there isn't any choice—"

"That's not it at all!" His voice was harsh and low.

His eyes looked very sad, she thought. "All right," she said. "So it's not that. What is it, then?"

Draco sighed. "It's only this, Weasley. You believe that if I'm correct- if the fact that you're the one who's truly here and only using Astoria's body overrides everything else- then there's an insurmountable problem."

"I don't see how there couldn't be."

"But if I'm wrong, and you're right, then I think that it's far worse."

Ginny felt a chill creep up her spine. "How could it be? I mean… I would've already had my first time in Astoria's body, but not in mine. And if I'm right, then it would only count in my own body." She tried not to let her face droop at the end of that sentence. The thought of her true first time with Draco Malfoy taking place in any body other than her own was dreadful. At the thought of it being in Astoria's, the idea hovered somewhere between vile and heartbreaking. But there's no other way, she reminded herself.

He looked at her soberly. "Astoria has bent her mind to only one purpose since the day we were married, Weasley. She's done everything in her power to persuade, convince, trick, or force me to consummate this marriage. I could almost pity her for her desperation, if I didn't despise her so thoroughly by now. If she deliberately modified a Cambio spell, then she's grown desperate enough to use very Dark magic indeed. I believe that must mean that tonight is her last opportunity."

Draco waited. He was giving her enough time to figure out exactly what that meant, Ginny realized. Her brain was simply refusing to do it.

"That means that if the magic sees you as Astoria, and not as yourself," he said, "then anything that we do together tonight would ultimately benefit her. Tomorrow, the marriage will have been consummated."

Ginny let out a moan.

"Do you see what I mean, now?" asked Draco. She knew that she didn't even have to answer him.

He sat with his bright head down, and she looked at him, considering. They were caught in a trap. No matter which way she looked, she saw no exit. A horrid thought crept into her mind.

There had been so many lies between them, she thought. So little truth. He hadn't been able to tell her that his mother was here, somewhere; she hadn't been able to tell him that she had actually seen him with Narcissa Malfoy. She could let him move to the chaise longue tonight, and sleep by herself in the big bed, and let the lies continue. It would undoubtedly be the easiest way. If they both waited, the trap would simply dissolve around her, although he would still be caught in it, of course. Her unsatisfied body would whimper through the night without him for a little while, but bodies healed rather quickly. The vision of Draco Malfoy sitting on a cot in Azkaban would fade. She didn't even know if it was real to start with.

Ginny reached out her hand to Draco and touched his arm, feeling the solid, too-thin muscle and bone. He looked up at her, his eyes startled.

"I came here tonight," she said, "and I thought you'd recognize me right away, and you didn't. I thought it would be easy for us to change me back into myself. I found out that there wasn't any way to do it tonight. I realized that my first time with you would be in the body of a woman you hated. But I think I always knew that no matter what, when the time came, you wouldn't be able to hate me. It would be gentle and good and right, and the only thing that would matter would be that I was giving myself to you, Draco Malfoy. I still believe that's the only thing that matters. I believe there's got to be a way for this to work. I still want to give myself to you, more than I've ever wanted anything in the world."

He took her hand. He raised it to his lips; he pressed her fingers against his face; he closed his eyes, and he leaned his cheek into her cupped palm. He gave a shuddering sigh. His eyelashes fluttered.

"There's got to be a way," said Ginny. "I won't believe that there isn't."

Draco said nothing.

"Don't you think?" she asked.

He was silent too long, she realized.

"You do think there is," she said. "Or you know there is. What is it?"

"I used to think that I could hold out against any sort of pain," said Draco. "But some kinds are infinitely worse than others."

"What are you talking about?"

"I think that there may be," he said.

"Malfoy, are you going to tell me what it is, or are you going to make me guess and guess until you end up writhing on the floor and I get the right answer anyway?"

He shook his head slightly. "No. I'm not that strong, you see; not when it comes to this. It's a ritual."

"Theo Nott was talking about a ritual to Astoria tonight," said Ginny, remembering. "He thought she wanted to try it, and he told her that it would be too dangerous for her. That's the one you mean, isn't it?"

He nodded. But it wasn't as if she needed confirmation, thought Ginny. She'd already known that she was right, somehow.

"I believe I knew that her original plan was to appropriate your body before you told me a word about it," he said. "Although she wouldn't have fooled me for a moment. Yes, I can imagine her trying it, but it would have been incredibly stupid, even for Astoria. Don't ask me any more, Weasley."

"But Nott said that he was sure the ritual would be safe for me," said Ginny. "Tell me what it is."

"I'm weak," said Draco. "I warned you of my weakness. Don't say you weren't told." He lifted his head and met her eyes. He looked different somehow, she thought. He's given up the battle, she thought, without quite knowing why, or even what she meant.

"Do you remember when I last had you in this bed a week before the night of Samhain?" he asked.

Ginny nodded, not sure if she could trust her voice.

"Yes. I thought you would. Do you remember when I told you what I'd learned? It was near the very end."

"You—you told me a lot of things then." She found that she didn't really want to remember all of the things that Draco had told her before she'd refused his offer and left him in the Malfoy rooms at the Crystal Palace.

"I told you that I'd found a way to make us both safe." He curved her hand into his. Ginny suddenly had trouble breathing. "Do you remember what it was?"

"I—I think so. You said that if I… if we… in this room…" Ginny felt him cup her hand completely. He could still do it, even now that she wore Astoria's body. His hands were so very large.

"Let me help you," said Draco. "I told you that if a girl gave up her virginity in this room, tremendous power would be released."

"Yes. That's right," said Ginny. "Especially if it was on a night of power… oh! Prudence told me that tonight was one, too." Her mind clicked through the puzzle pieces. Draco was simply holding her hand quietly now, not moving his fingers anymore.

"Could it be enough to overcome the Cambio spell, do you think?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"I have no doubt at all," said Draco.

"It would overcome everything," she said. "Wouldn't it?" She felt his nod of assent, rather than seeing it.

"All right. Let's do it," she said.

"It's far too dangerous," said Draco.

"I don't care," said Ginny. "It's the only way. Anyway, I've decided that you're right. I'm a virgin, even though Astoria's body isn't, and that's all that counts."

"No."

"Yes. We're going to do it. I don't care if it's a bit dangerous to me—" Ginny gave him a suspicious look. "Wait. Is it dangerous to me, or to you?"

Draco could not quite look at her. "Ah… to me, actually. Nott wouldn't have understood the most ancient magic well enough to know that."

A cold fear settled in Ginny's stomach. She pushed it away. "So you wouldn't actually care if anything happened to me?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as light as she could.

"I wouldn't take any action if it involved any danger whatsoever to you," Draco said stiffly. "These noble moments are killing me. I can't abide them, but I seem to have become inescapably stuck with them since you became a part of my life. Or perhaps this is not noble at all. I don't have the slightest idea anymore. All I know is that I would rather have fifteen minutes' conversation with you on the most trivial subject than a lifetime of infinitely varied physical pleasure with the most skilled companions at the Crystal Palace. Do you understand me?"

He took both of her hands in his and held them so hard that she gasped. She hoped he didn't expect her to respond. There were no words she could use.

"No. No, you don't; you can't understand. I want you to take my hands and swear to me that you'll let me have you, that you'll lie down with me in this bed and give yourself—that you'll let me give you- damn it! These fucking wrappings!"

He seized her and pulled her down to the bed, tearing at the cloth bonds around her upper body, and she sobbed with delight. But when he had loosened them just enough so that he had bared her upper chest, he stopped. Ginny looked up at him, shaking her head. He didn't think she was frightened, did he? Surely he couldn't have thought that she wanted him to stop!

"No," he murmured. Quite deliberately, he took his head between her hands. Then he pressed his lips to hers, and for the first time, he touched her with tenderness in Astoria's body. She could feel him willing himself to pour everything into the kiss, and she answered him. For the first time, there was a balance of passion and desire, lust and fierce tenderness both, and she felt the stirring of a response deeper than anything that she had yet imagined. Then he pulled away.

"Come- come back," she stammered, reaching for him. It had only begun. She realized that already. Everything else they had ever done had been utterly unlike this. She knew that they couldn't, shouldn't continue, but that knowledge was very dim and far away at that moment.

"Not now," said Draco. His hands were on her lower back. "I need you to sit up, Weasley."

"But—"

His face was set into determined lines. Ominously determined, she thought. "We're performing the ritual," he said.

"No. No. You said it was too dangerous." Ginny ineffectually tried to wrap the slippery satin sheet around herself. Draco yanked it away.

"I don't really give a damn," he said flatly.

"I am not letting you—"

"Now you listen to me, Ginny Weasley." He took her chin in his hands, turning her face to him. "I am an utterly selfish bastard, as you ought to know by now. I've got to have you tonight, or I'll die. The ritual's the only way to make us both safe in the process. And it's really quite unlikely to kill me." He said the words quite calmly, as if explaining a principle of magic, she thought.

"But—" she began.

"Shh!" He put a finger to her lips. "I really don't care about any of the other rubbish. If I don't have you, I'll die. You do want me, correct?"

"Of course I do. How can you even think you need to ask—"

"And you don't want me to die?"

"Of course I don't! But what kind of argument is—"

Draco smiled at her, the gorgeous, heart-melting smile that had always made her shiver down to the tips of her toes in a remarkably unfair way. "So the choice is quite simple, Weasley. It's the ritual, or it's nothing. Unless you'd like to start picking out my tombstone?"

"Ooh!" Ginny beat her fist on the coverlet. He picked up her hand, and she felt it uncurl, finger by finger.

"Is that a yes, or a no?"

"Yes," she said. "You know it's yes."

"Ahh," he said. The word was a sigh, an exhalation of breath, of satisfaction.

Yes, thought Ginny. I've said yes. Not as Astoria, but as herself. She closed her eyes, trying to capture the moment, the elusive, fleeting instant that the two of them had finally reached after what felt like an eternity. It was the moment of agreement, when she knew that she would finally give herself fully and completely to Draco Malfoy. There would be no holding back this time, nothing left in reserve. Nothing would be sacrosanct. She would be opened to him as she had never been before to any human being. She could feel her hands trembling with excitement and fear.

"What do we do now?" she asked, flicking a glance up at him.

Draco took both of her hands and turned her towards him so that they were sitting across from each other. "Just follow my lead," he said.

I think I would follow you anywhere, thought Ginny. Should I say it? Is it safe? What he already said… and I… No. they had spoken words of desire to each other, but no more, she decided. She wouldn't risk it.

But when he smiled at her again, she was afraid that she would follow him anyway, no matter what she did or didn't say.