Ginny pushed her hair back, using her wand for light. After her training with Harry had been called because it'd started to get dark, she'd run home and showered, almost forgetting that she'd made this appointment with Draco for 8. She wasn't sure why she'd made it so late. She still hadn't had dinner, and wasn't sure how long this would take. But even the fact that her stomach was growling with hunger after her workout couldn't make her stop smiling. Now that she had a premises for her clinic, she felt lighter than she had in months.

She hadn't started in on the cleaning of the clinic. Not yet. She was taking a few days off, having quit Mungo's. She'd actually gotten to rest before meeting Harry. She felt refreshed and ready to try this thing with Draco again. She walked up the path to Malfoy Manor, shaking her head at the peacocks as they roamed the yard. She'd only brought her wand this time, knowing it's the only thing she needed.

She was smiling when she knocked on the door, looking back into the dark yard, the white glimpses of the peacocks the only points of light.

He was such a girl. The house-elves were looking at him like he was a loony because he been sort of hovering near the front door since getting back from Greg's. Even though he knew she wouldn't be here sooner than she was expected. Draco actually jumped when he heard the knock. He ran an unconscious hand through his hair before pulling open the door.

"Hullo..." Oh shite, what do I call her? Healer Weasley? Too formal. Weasley? Too much like how I used to speak to her in school. Ginevra? No, too much like someone who didn't know her at all. Ginny? Was that too personal for him? "... Ginny."

He smiled too. Like a damned girl. Draco held the door open for her.

Ginny nodded at him as she went into the interior of the house, not surprised when her eyes didn't have to adjust. It was almost as dark in here as it was outside. She turned back to Draco, still grinning. "Hi."

He gestured to the stairs. "Shall we?"

She didn't answer, just started up the stairs. Draco walked behind her and found himself staring so hard at her backside that he tripped up on of the steps and nearly fell. Thank Salazar he had a hand on the railing. Today his rooms were immaculately clean. There was no possibility of her finding the knickers. Those were hidden.

As soon as they were both in his bedroom, Draco took off his shirt and headed for the bed. If only it was going to be something besides therapy and healing.

Ginny walked after him slowly, enjoying the play of muscles in his back. She shut the door, separating them from the other rooms before flicking her wand at the curtains, drawing the thick fabric closed. She snorted at herself when the room went completely black. The last time she'd been in this room it'd been during the day, and closing the curtains had been necessary. Tonight? Not so much. She walked into the room slowly, trying hard not to trip over anything. If she remembered correctly, the bed was straight ahead. She put her hands out in front of her, fingers spread, completely forgetting about her wand for a second.

Draco frowned when she shut the curtains, bathing the room in darkness. He was used to it. He knew his way around his bedroom in the dark. He was pretty sure she didn't. Draco could hear her shuffling around and chuckled a bit. He started to move to the curtains to reopen them when her hands connected with his bare chest.

"Those aren't the curtains."

She pulled her hands back like he'd burned her. "Oh." Wow. That was- Oh. "Lights?" She turned, sticking her hands in her back pockets, keeping them from reaching out again and touching his skin to see if it had really been that warm.

"Incendio."

The wall torches sprung to life. He did love that dungeon feel. He also lit a lamp by the bed. He loved firelight. Hell, he just liked fire.

Draco strolled over to the bed and threw himself on it with a little hop. He tucked his hands behind his head, sticking his wand under his pillow.

Ginny tore her eyes from the fire along the wall and took in the view of him on the bed. It was a nice view, and she had a sinking suspicion he knew just how nice a view it was. She walked across the floor, going around to the left side of the bed before sitting on it. "This will be the same as last time. Quiet." She reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling it into her lap. "Except, this time, it's going to work."

Draco rose a brow at her pulling his arm into her lap. He needed to close off, shut down. He couldn't be acting this way when she was trying to help him. He closed his eyes and thought healing thoughts. Or what he hoped were healing thoughts.

She took a deep breath when he went quiet. She wasn't sure if it was because it was so dark or because she just felt better about things, but she was able to get to that place, her healing place, much easier. She let her fingers run over the scar tissue, surprised that she remembered the feeling of it under her fingertips. It took her a few minutes in the dark before she felt ready. "I'm going to start now."

Draco opened one eye and looked at her. She hadn't started already? But there was the touching. He sighed. He willed his body not to like what she was doing. He tensed a bit.

"All right."

Ginny kept her eyes closed and nodded. Right. She was going to start now. She was. She needed to start now and quit running her fingers over the bit of flesh at the bend of his elbow. There was no scar tissue there. She shook her head and focused on the task at hand. Healing. Healing.

"Deleo."

That same voice, the one that didn't sound like her own, came out of her throat. She shook her head when she didn't feel anything.

"Deleo."

That time she felt it, felt the magic as it rippled across his skin. Her eyes flew open. "Wow."

Draco breathed out and tried to hold still. She was using her sexy healer voice. It had startled him when he felt the magic ripple across his arm. It felt warm. His eyes flew open when she said wow.

"Well, don't stop," he said, then snickered at how that had sounded.

Ginny's hand reached out and slapped his shoulder. "Shut up or you won't let it work."

The slap had echoed loudly in the quiet room. Draco's eyes were wide. He didn't think she'd appreciate being asked to do that again. He pursed his lips together and shifted a little on the bed.

"I wouldn't hit me again." You might not like my reaction.

Ginny's eyes went wide. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" Idiot. Stupid. You're supposed to be healing him. He is not your friend. He is not familiar to you. You are not familiar to him. He is a client. You do not hit clients. Shirtless clients. Muscular, shirtless- "I won't." Goddess.

"You didn't hurt me," he said in husky tones. "I can take a bit of abuse." Like it, in fact. Like it a little too much. He wondered if she got what he was saying.

Ginny blinked. "Right." She let her eyes flutter closed again. Stop. Stop. "I'm going to try again."

She was going crazy. That was the only explanation because his voice had sounded- No. Crazy.

"I'm going to try again."

"You just said that," Draco said, willing himself not to start sweating. Her fingertips were tracing along the inside curve of his elbow.

He wondered if she ever used her sexy healer voice for things other than healing. Draco groaned and banged his head against the pillow. He was driving himself crazy here.

"Right."

She shook her head again and set her fingertips against the skin she wanted to heal. She could focus. She didn't have to notice how loud his voice was in the room or how she could feel the heat of his skin under her hands. "Mitigo." Another jolt of electricity. Her eyes flew open again. She'd felt his skin move. Had felt it flatten a fraction. "Did you feel that?"

In my pants. "Yeah," Draco said, not wholly trusting himself for more than that.

The firelight was catching her hair, and it was making a very fetching picture. Yep, he'd gone crazy. She was fingering the bend of his elbow again. He'd never thought of that part of his body of an erogenous zone, but apparently... yep, he'd gone crazy.

This is actually working. She screwed her eyes closed tighter this time. "Mitigo." She smiled to herself when she felt his skin jump under her fingers again. Spurred on by the fact that she felt like she was actually getting something done, she continued. "Lenis."

She opened her eyes when she breathed the last of the spells, her fingers running over the obviously smoother skin. "It's softer." She looked up at Draco with a smile. She probably shouldn't let on to the fact that she'd hadn't had much confidence in herself when it came to being able to do this. Not having confidence in your healer was never a good thing, but she'd actually done this. His skin was smoother because she'd done it. She'd done it. "Obviously it's not perfect, but if I keep coming once or twice a week..." She trailed off. She could do this. She could do this.

Yes, his arm was softer. Other parts of him definitely were not. And did she even hear herself? She was sitting on his bed and talking about coming. Yes, yes, she so did not mean it like that, but his perverted mind took it to a naughty place.

"If you'd like to come more than that, just say. I'm sure it could be arranged."

"Well, I don't think it'll be needed in all honestly, not to mention I wouldn't want to hurt you by accident. Things like this need to be taken slowly, not rushed." She looked up from his arm at his face. He was looking at her with a smirk. What? Oh. Oh! She was about to retort, had her mouth opened to in fact, when her stomach chose that moment to growl rather loudly. If she hadn't been blushing before, she was now.

"Hungry then?"

"Well, I..."

Draco sat up, grinning at her. "TINDY!"

She appeared with a pop. "Yes, Master?"

"Will you please fetch Ginny some food? It appears she's hungry."

Tindy nodded and apparated out.

Draco grinned at Ginny. "We can stay in here or there's a table in the sitting room."

Ginny frowned at him. "You didn't have to do that. I could have just gotten something when I leave." She looked around the room. "We can stay in here. This is fine. Though, I'm not used to eating on a bed." She looked back at him, eyebrow raised. "Do all the rooms look this dark? You weren't kidding when you said you have a dungeon, were you?"

Draco grinned.

"Just try not to get crumbs on my bed," he joked. "They tend to wind up stuck to my arse or my chest by the next morning. Malfoys like the dark. That way you can find our pale blonde arses in any room. Contrast, you know. Yeah, we have a dungeon. Wanna see it?"

Ginny rose an eyebrow. He sleeps naked. Guess Luna isn't the only one. "No. I'm alright." She stared at him, noticing how his hair was longer than it'd been in school, before jumping in alarm when his house-elf reappeared with a tray of small sandwiches. She took the hand away from her chest and relearned how to breathe. "Thank you." She watched as the small house-elf set the tray on the edge of the bed before popping out again. "My, people come and go so quickly here." She looked at Draco as she grabbed a sandwich, knowing he wouldn't get the muggle movie reference.

Draco grinned. "Depends on the people."

He took a sandwich himself and started eating.

"Let me know if you change your mind about the dungeon. There's chains and everything."

"I prefer something softer against my skin. Metal just doesn't do it for me." She bit into her sandwich and tucked her feet underneath her. She let her eyes wander the room. There were a few paintings scattered here and there, a few pictures in frames on his dresser, but other than that the room was rather bare. She was so used to the Burrow and having things shoved into every available space. The room was huge, but more than that it just felt empty. "Where are all the things from when you were younger? Didn't you have any stuffed animals?"

"Packed away. Father got rid of my stuffed animals when I went to Hogwarts." He blamed that entirely for him liking to sleep with people. Actual sleep. "The important stuff is... protected."

"That's sad." She chewed thoughtfully before finishing her sandwich and standing, brushing the crumbs off her jeans. She walked over to the bureau of drawers and picked up one of the picture frames. "Who's this? Wait." She brought the frame closer to her face. "That's-" Oh. OH! Merlin! She set the frame down.

Goddess, that made perfect sense now. Here she'd been thinking things that were incredibly stupid. She'd always been bad at being able to tell that about guys, and it was obvious that had been the case here. It was stupid really, and she felt incredibly embarrassed for even thinking that he'd- that he'd think- He was kissing Blaise Zabini in the snap, for Merlin's sake!

He's gay! He's gay and you thought- Circe, you really are a daft girl.

She cleared her throat and set the frame back on the dresser. "So you and Blaise are close?"

Draco knew exactly what she was thinking now. He snickered. "Very. He's my best mate. I care about him a lot. That was back when we were still in school. Before things got... intense."

Draco hopped off the bed and came to stand next to her. He turned the frame of his father face down. Draco touched the one of his mother from her younger days. She looked the same to him.

Ginny nodded, aware her cheeks were stained pink. She was utterly embarrassed. Not because he was gay, but because she hadn't figured it out sooner. And not having figured it out had led to her acting a bit... off... around him. He was a good looking man, and she'd been feeling unlike herself. Almost like she'd acted around Harry when she'd first started to- Oh, now that's ridiculous. Stop acting weird around him.

"Intense. That's an understatement." She walked back over to the bed and sat on it, grabbing for another sandwich. She sat back on her elbows, looking at him as she took a bite off the corner. "So I suppose I'll see you around the clinic then, going to lunch with him and what not."

Draco almost corrected her. Then he had a thought. If she thought she was perfectly safe around him, she might open up. He might actually stand a chance of getting to know her.

"And we always argue about who pays," he said with a smirk as he walked back to the bed and flopped onto it on his stomach. "So you'd let me steal your partner then? Or is my little boywhore an employee?"

Draco rolled onto his side and snatched another sandwich. He began eating... and not entirely in an appropriate manner. He was the master at accidentally getting things on his fingers and thumbs and having to lick them off. Of all the things about him he might like altered, his pointed pink tongue was not one of them. For some odd reason people found it fascinating when that thing made appearances outside his mouth.

Ginny sighed, laying down on her side. "I told him he wouldn't be an employee, and I meant it. Employees just don't care enough about the business, and I want him to care. Care about it as much as I do, and to do that, he needs to feel like he's really a part of it." She put her head in her hand. "He told me he would, but you obviously know him better. Will he really commit to something like that?"

This was so much easier. She didn't feel like she needed to pretend or be embarrassed. It was almost the way she felt with Harry, like she didn't have to be so... girlie all the time. It didn't work with her, not really, and she was usually fine with it. Now, she would be fine with it here too.

He could tell the instant she let her guard down. Draco smiled slightly. Now he he was lying here with the real Ginny Weasley. He had never been able to just shag a girl. Never. Sex could never be meaningless for him. He had to know a bit about who he was touching. It usually ended badly that way, but he was serious when he'd told her he didn't just go shagging anyone.

"Blaise is loyal. If he says he's in, then he's in. You must have done something to sway him. It's hard to say who or what he's going to be about, but once he's about it... you'll be hard-pressed to be rid of him no, so I sincerely hope you like his work."

"He talks a good game, but so did the Slytherin Quidditch team, and we both know how well that worked out." She grinned.

Draco's brows went up. She was talking shite now. He adored that. He snorted. "Slytherins always talk a good game. It's in our nature. Masks all around. Have to keep the facade going. Unless you're one of us, you're never dealing with the real person in there. Probably wouldn't like the real person."

She had this look.

"Please note that I said most of us. I've nothing much to hide anymore. My secrets were all splashed across the pages of the Prophet. Nothing left to hide." Well maybe one more thing, he thought as he resisted the urge to tuck a bit of her hair behind her ear.

"Yes, well, I think everyone has a shell they hide behind. It's a matter of life. If you show too much of yourself to someone, you get hurt. It's the way of the world." She sat up, crossing her legs. "You Slytherin's have just learned how to hide better." She looked at his arm, feeling that same surge of pride when she noticed it was minutely smoother. Knowing she could do something like that... This was why she'd trained.

"I should really get going. It's getting late."

"If you must," Draco said with a sigh. He wished she wouldn't leave. He liked talking with her. Surprisingly. When she was not trying to hex his face off his head, she was pleasant enough. It also might be that before returning to the country he'd only ever seen her when Potter was around. That tended to taint the situation. "When will I see you again?"

"Well, I'll probably want to try healing you at least once every four days. Too long and it might reverse the work. Too soon and it might be too soon, you know? So.. Tuesday? You can come take a look at the new premises." She grinned, unable to hold it in any longer. He was dating her partner, he'd find out sooner or later. "Hogsmeade. Used to be a smaller menagerie with lots of animals, but it got closed."

"Excellent," Draco rolled off of the bed, intent on seeing her to the door. "I think I recall what you're talking about."

When they reached the stairs, he smirked at her.

"Do I need to hold your hand? I can, you know. I'm an excellent hand-holder, or so I'm told."

She looked over at him with a smirk. "No. I think I'll be fine today." To prove her point, she took the stairs two at a time, gaining speed before sliding across the floor at the bottom and stopping herself against the door with both hands. Laughing, she turned back to him. "See? I can be graceful when I want to be."

Draco snickered. She made him want to slide down the banister. So he did. And nearly dumped himself on his arse when he got to the bottom. He was laughing like an idiot when he managed to gain his balance.

"See? Draco Malfoy knows how to have a good time."

Ginny put a hand on his shoulder and steadied him. "Alright, I know I'm your healer, but intentionally hurting yourself to give me more work is just plain mean." She shook her head. "And if sliding down banisters is your idea of a good time, you seriously need to go out more. Globe-trotting aside."

She reached for the doorknob, pulling her wand out of her back pocket and whispering a lumos charm. She turned back to him and smiled. "So, Tuesday? At my place?" Her grin widened. Yes. She liked referring to it as her place.

Draco nodded, smirking at the idea of hurting himself and having to go be healed by her. He'd get to hear her sexy healer voice again. "Tuesday."

If he could wait that long.


{SUMMARY} Round two of the healing hands of Ginny on Draco.