The importance of Being Virginia

Chapter Eight: We love muggles and non detachable sidekicks

I am not a pretty girlthat is not what I do
I ain't no damsel in distress
and I don't need to be rescued
so put me down punk
maybe you'd prefer a maiden fair
isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere
Not a pretty girl by Ani Difranco

It was three weeks later and neither Virginia nor Draco had broached the subject of Blaise. It seemed it was something that neither of them were comfortable talking about. Virginia had happily forgotten about Blaise, since they never mentioned her, and had been enjoying being able to see Draco everyday once again. She didn't know why she thinking about her now. It must be the alcohol. She squinted her eyes, trying to make out the time on her watch. Her eyes wouldn't focus properly, so she turned to ask Oliver. They had successfully thwarted a huge attack that the other side had planned, so they'd decided to celebrate.

"Can you tell what time this says?" she asked shoving her wrist in front of his face.

He squinted at it, much as she had. "Well I...no. I really can't." He smiled at her goofily.

"Well, I suppose I ought to get to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow."

"We have to get up early every morning," he said despondently.

"Exactly." She sighed, slowly rising to her feet and putting a hand on the table to steady herself. "Goodnight Oliver. I'll see you in the morning."

He looked up from his drink. "Oh, yes. Goodnight."

She was just at the door of the tent when his voice stopped her. "Virginia, you could stay, if you wanted."

She raised an eyebrow. "Goodnight Oliver."

He sighed turning back to his drink. "Goodnight."


She shook her head as she walked back toward her tent. She didn't know why she hadn't stayed. She hadn't had sex with anyone since Harry, and Oliver was attractive, but she kept thinking about someone else. Someone who was completely unacceptable. It was just to much to risk. She couldn't bear it if they were no longer friends, but she couldn't help these new feelings that she had. She'd walked in on him last week when he was getting dressed, and she just couldn't get the image out of her mind. He'd been zipping up his pants, and he'd yet to put his shirt on. He was lean and wiry, his skin was pale as marble, with only a light dusting of pale hair near his bellybutton. She'd apologized and exited the tent quickly. She'd tried to tell herself that this was Draco her friend. She wouldn't be attracted to him, because it was too complicated. After all she'd known him for a year and never had any problems thinking of him in a platonic way. But that trail of hair that disappeared into his pants, kept flashing in her mind, making her wonder about what it led to. She just couldn't go back to her old way of thinking.

Maybe I'll just go talk to him, she thought as she reached the tent. That seemed like a good idea. They'd work everything out and things would be back to normal, one way or another. She reached into her pocket for her wand and said Lumos as she entered Draco's side of the tent. She stood frozen with shock at the sight that met her eyes. Her eyes trailed down the line of his bare back and his bare backside. It was a nice firm backside and as pale as the rest of him and might have commanded her attention longer, if she hadn't seen the pair of thighs on either side of him. He whipped around at the sudden light, grabbing his wand. When he saw who it was he quickly grabbed a blanket and threw it over them, but she had already seen much more of her friend than she'd ever thought she would. She glanced from him to Blaise, who was breathing heavily, her black hair tousled.

"I.. I went in the wrong side, I'm sorry.. I'll just go. I'm sorry," she stuttered before rushing out of the tent.

Draco let his head fall back to the ground with a thud. He didn't know why it upset him so much that she'd seen them. He wasn't with Virginia and they had no obligations to each other. But it bothered him. He felt like he'd cheated on her, which was absolutely ridiculous.

Blaise sighed and started to get dressed. "I guess this means the entertainment's over for the night, now that your imaginary girlfriend's caught you cheating."

He looked at her sharply. "What are you talking about? Virginia and I are just friends."

"Right. I see how you look at her. And I know that when we're together you close your eyes and pretend it's her."

He started to deny it, then gave it up as a futile effort. "Does it bother you?"

"Not at all. Let's just say that we both imagine that we're running our fingers through red hair."

His jaw dropped slightly as he stared at her. "You like Virginia?"

"Of course not you idiot," she answered, rolling her eyes. "There are other people with red hair you know. I'm afraid that I'm attracted to her blind as a bat, idiot of a brother."

"Weasley?" he said in disbelief.

"Yes Weasley. And in case you've forgotten your obsessed with his sister, who is also a Weasley, so you have no room to talk."

"No I suppose I don't," he sighed. "What am I going to say to her?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something, you always do."

"Yes I always do." But it wasn't always the right thing, and it had to be perfect this time. It had to be.



Virginia slipped silently into her side of the tent an hour later. She'd walked all around the camp, trying to convince herself that it didn't matter. She had no reason to be upset. She buried her face in her pillow. Irrational as it was, she was upset. She felt like Draco was hers and she hated sharing him with someone. She hated that there was some part of him that she couldn't have. She turned at the sound of the tent opening. Draco came in and sat down beside her. He started to speak but she cut him off.

"I'm sorry I walked in on you and Blaise. I was drunk and I went in the wrong door."

He looked at her oddly for a moment. "No I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been with her. She was just a substitute, what I really want is to be with you."

"Draco I..," she started to say, but he cut her off with a kiss.

She had wanted to talk with him but the second his tongue entered her mouth all she wanted was to touch him. She pulled him to the floor beneath her, quickly unfastening the buttons of his shirt as he did the same to her. Soon they were both naked to the waist. She leaned forward pressing their bare chests together. It felt so good to feel his bare skin against hers. His mouth moved to her neck and he scraped his teeth down the length of it, licking along her collarbone. His hand, which had been working at the button of her pants, found it's way past her underwear and to the place she wanted it to be. His thumb rubbed softly against her, while his finger slipped slowly inside her. His finger curled and found that spot, pressing gently. She let out a moan, just as she heard Draco's voice, from behind her.

"Virginia I..," he trailed off as she whipped around, exposing her bare breasts. His face hardened as he saw the hand splayed on her back and he turned to leave, but stopped when his eye caught the head of pale white hair just barely visible over her shoulder. Before he had time to react the hand that had been on Virginia's back, had grabbed a wand and stupified him.

Virginia turned back to the man in front of her, but he already had his wand pointed at her. She had no time to react, and was soon slipping into darkness, with one word running through her mind. Tom.


She blinked her eyes open slowly. Frowning as she saw the dark silk sheets she was laying on. She didn't have silk sheets. Who would have silk sheets? She immediately thought of Draco, which triggered her memory of recent events. She sat up quickly and was unsurprised to find dark brown eyes trained on her.

"Hello Virginia. Have you missed me?"

"Hardly," she answered dismissively, while her mind raced trying to think of a way to escape. "Why did you take me? After all this time?"

"I was waiting for you to realize you loved me, but I couldn't keep letting you destroy all my strategies. Voldemort was very displeased with me. Besides I've been wanting to see you."

"You must be quite hard up for dates, if you've resorted to kidnaping."

He was out of the chair and lying on top of her in the blink of an eye. She'd forgotten how fast he could be.

"As you can tell, I'm quite "Hard up", care to help me out?" His erection was pressed against her stomach and she bit back a gasp as he moved down a few inches, rocking slightly against her. "We could finish what we were doing in your tent, before we were so rudely interrupted."

"The only reason I touched you was because I thought you were Draco."

His hands tightened around her shoulders, and she saw a spark of anger light in his eye. "I gathered from the way you talked that you'd never been with Draco. The only reason you wanted him tonight, was because it was me. And I know just where to touch you. I'm glad you haven't been with him, I'd be very upset. You're mine and no one else’s."

She let out a cruel laugh, pleased to be able to piss him off. "I hate to destroy your pathetic little illusions, but I was sleeping with Harry almost all of last year." She felt satisfaction when he drew in a shocked breath. "We've been together, hundreds of times. There's no part of me that's untouched or untasted."

He drew back his hand and slapped her. "You whore! How could you be with someone else? You're mine! Only mine. Forever." He got up and paced across the tent, his hands fisted. "I'll kill him..." he muttered to himself. He turned back to yell at her some more but stopped when he saw the wand in her hand, his wand. She must have taken it out of his pocket when he was on top of her.

"I'm going to tell you this once, and only once," she said as she pointed his wand at him. "Stay away from me. Get over this obsession you have with me. I hate you and I'd like to kill you right now. But I'm not a murder like you and I refuse to sink to your level. Just forget about me."

"Never," he replied, and the surety of his voice frightened her. She stupified him, performing a binding charm on him for good measure and then started looking around the tent. She found what she was looking for on a small table in the corner. She took the knife and cut a slit along the bottom of the back of the tent. She poked her head out and seeing it was clear, crawled out on her belly. She continued crawling slowly on her elbows until she'd reached the forest that was a few feet away. She slipped quietly among the trees and made her way South, hoping that she could find someplace she was familiar with. Hours later, body exhausted, she stumbled upon a small village. It didn't look familiar and she had no way of knowing if it was a wizarding town or muggle. She slumped wearily against a tree. What was she going to do? The words Knight Bus popped into her head and no sooner had she thought it than it was there.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus.." a skinny man started to say, but she cut him off.

"Where are we?"

He looked slightly put out that she'd interrupted him, but answered just the same. "We're in Pickering, Miss."

Pickering was just fifteen miles from were she was camped, just outside of Scarsbourough. That meant that Tom's camp had to be somewhere in between and very close to her camp. Now that she knew where she was, she could apparate back to her camp. She stood up, brushing off her robes, and nodded her thanks. She apparated, causing the bus driver to grumble.

Three hours earlier at the camp.


Draco woke to the sight of Oliver Wood's face looming over him.

"Malfoy? Malfoy what happened? Where's Ginny?"

He sat up quickly. "He looked like me, he must have used Polyjuice. He's taken her?"

"Who used Polyjuice? I don't know if she's been taken, but I can't find her."

Suddenly he had an idea and he ran to the apparition point, Oliver following right behind him. "Where are you going?"

Ignoring Oliver's question, Draco turned to him. "What's the password to get into Potter's camp?"

"It's we love muggles. Why?"

Draco didn't even think at all of how lame the password was, such was his worry. He apparated immediately and found himself at wandpoint.

"Password?" a gruff voice questioned.

"We love muggles," he said brushing past him, toward the camp. He stopped, realizing he had no idea where to go. He turned back to the guard. "Which tent is Weasley's?"

"Who?"

"Ron Weasley," he spat out. "He has red hair and freckles, and he's the non detachable sidekick of one Harry Potter."

"Oh it's the third one on the left. But it's four in the morning he'll be sleeping," he said to the darkness, as Draco had already left.

Draco stormed into the tent saying," Lumos." The light exposed Ron's sleeping form entwined around a very familiar dark haired girl.

"Wake up Weasley."

Ron's eyes opened slowly, and he shot up abruptly as he saw who it was, the blanket falling to his waist. He glanced from Draco to an obviously naked Blaise, and back again. "Look Malfoy, I know you and Blaise.."

Draco cut him off. "I don't care Weasley. Your sister is missing."

"Missing? What do you mean missing?"

"As in not to be found. I was hoping being the overprotective git that you are, you'd have placed some sort of tracking spell on her." Draco's chest tightened as he waited for Ron's answer. This was his only chance to save her. "Please say you did," he said his voice tight.

"Well Mum was worried when Ginny became and Auror, and she said it would make her feel better."

Draco closed his eyes for a moment, as relief filled him. "What did you use? Did you charm an object to track her?"

"It's a map. It shows where she is at all times."

"Well get it Weasley," he said impatiently. "Time is of the essence."

"In case you hadn't noticed I'm naked under here," he said gesturing to his bare chest and the blanket at his lap.

"Thank you for that reminder of something I've been trying desperately not to think of."

"Well turn around, so I can change."

Draco rolled his eyes, but complied. He didn't have time for this.

He heard Ron rouse Blaise and explain things to her, as they both dressed. Blaise apparently had guard duty in a few minutes and decided to leave early. She was a little uncomfortable being around Draco. It wasn’t as if they’d had any kind of relationship they’d just been sleeping together. But you never knew how Draco was going to take things, and she had just slept with him the night before. Although he didn’t appear to care about her and Ron’s new relationship.

Draco looked curiously at Blaise as she exited the tent and gave him a nervous glance. He wondered what was wrong with her. When he turned around, Ron already had the map in his hand, and was looking at it.

"Well where is she?"

Ron frowned at him. "I don't know why your so upset, she probably just got pissed off and took a ride on her broom. You know how she is sometimes."

"She didn't just disappear. I found her, with someone who had used Polyjuice to look like me. He stupified me when I found them, and when I woke up she was gone."

"What? Why the hell didn't you say that before?," he asked angrily.

"Because we don't have time for this," Draco yelled. "Who knows what he'll do to her. The more time we waste the more time he has to hurt her. Now where is she!"

Ron saw his point, and looked down quickly at the map."It says she's about twelve miles from your camp. Just a few miles from Scarsbourogh."

Draco snatched the map out of his hand and started for the door.

"Wait just a damn minute," Ron said, following him out of the tent. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I should think it would be obvious. I'm going to get Virginia," Draco replied calmly, all the while heading towards the apparition point.

"Not without me, you're not," Ron said, grabbing Draco's arm.

Draco ripped his arm from Ron's grasp. "I don't have time for this. Come if you want to."

"Ron what's going on? I heard you yelling," Harry said, stumbling out of the neighboring tent. "Malfoy? What are you doing here?"

Draco put his hand to his head, whispering quietly to himself, "Why me?" He looked up at Harry, disgust in his eyes. "I suppose that you're hero gene flared up and you sensed a rescue mission. Everyone knows that you can't have a proper rescue mission without Harry bleeding Potter."

"What? Ron what's he talking about?" Harry looked at Ron questioningly, clearly confused.

"Ginny's been taken."

"Taken? By who?"

"We don't know," Ron answered.

"Speak for yourself. I know exactly who took her."

"I thought you said that they used polyjuice potion."

"He did, but I still know who it was. Who else could it be?"

He saw the realization sink in on both of their faces.

"Come on. Let's go. Harry get your cloak."

Draco didn't even bother arguing. He knew it would take up precious time.

They decided to apparate to Draco's camp and then fly from there. They all thought it was best to keep it down to as few people as possible. They'd considered briefly, getting their camps to launch a full scale attack, but in the end they had decided it would be to risky. As a result, Blaise was left behind to explain Ron and Harry's absence. Harry was something of a national treasure and it wouldn't go over well if he just disappeared.

It was daylight by the time they reached their destination. As soon as they spotted the tents, they landed in the forest that was off to the right of the camp. The forest was perfect for cover, and masked their ascent quite well. They were able to get within a few feet of the tents, while remaining in the cloaking shadow of the trees.

"Which tent is she in?" Draco asked quietly. He heard a rustling and rolled his eyes. The invisibility cloak only fit over two of them, and Draco hadn't wanted to be that up close and personal with either of them. Despite being invisible, it was quite obvious they were there, and they were no less irritating. He had no idea how they'd managed to sneak around the castle so successfully. Although there weren't twigs to step on in Hogwarts halls. He winced as they cracked another twig under their feet.

"I don't know. It only gives a general location," Ron whispered.

"It will probably be the biggest," Harry said, scanning the tents.

Two other pairs of eyes joined his, all of them stopping on a tent not five yards from them. They started toward it, keeping to the trees. Draco stopped suddenly. "Where is everyone?"

Ron and Harry looked around, realizing they hadn't seen anyone pass by. It was early in the morning, so there shouldn't be to many people, but there should be some.

Draco's hand tightened around his wand. "I think we should..."

He was interrupted as someone yelled, "Expelliarmus." He saw that the invisibility cloak offered Ron and Harry no protection, as the circle of death eaters surrounding them obviously knew where they were. Seconds after they had all lost their wands they were stupified. Draco had time to mutter only one short expletive, before the darkness claimed him.