Draco thought dating Harry was the best thing to ever happen to him.

He was wrong.

So wrong, in fact, it was turning out to be the worst thing to happen to him. Living with Voldemort, even the weird wrathish version he is now, would be terrible no matter the circumstances. But living with Voldemort when Voldemort has declared that dating Harry Potter makes you a top tier enemy? Why, it's so much worse than he could've managed.

He spends his weeks being tortured by a cowardly man called only "Wormtail" on the orders of Voldemort. Ginny talks with the man like they're old friends... and, sometimes, Draco thinks they are. He's been calling her Voldemort from time to time. Five times out of ten, she'll respond. Ginny loves to boast that she's man such a good ally, she's done so on her own terms, oh, just look how in control I am.

But Draco gets the impression Ginny's ignorant to how wrong she is. There's more Voldemort influencing her decisions than Ginny nowadays.

It's worrying. For Draco, that is. He's the only stable person in the manor and it's an ideal situation.

His days go about like so: he's awoken from his corner, where he's tied up at all of the time, for food. Ginny applies a glamour and heads out into town to get food and supplies some days, but some days she stays at the manor and works on the curse for him. She and Wormtail takes turns watching over him while the other watches over Voldemort himself. He gets two meals a day and an hour afterwards is hit by a spell that clears out his bladder and such: a spell used commonly in the medical community. It's well casted but feels repulsive nonetheless. He gets tortured if Voldemort is bored or feeling particularly hateful that evening. He keeps his mouth shut, because the more he talks the more pain he'll be in for it. Listening is a common activity. There's not much else to do. Ginny tells him about the wards; they're thick, and even owls can't find this place. Draco thinks it's in an attempt to crush his hope (it might be working, he can't really tell.) He gets bits and pieces that carry from the other room-- something "big, monumentous" is going to happen at the end of the school year that'll "blow their socks off."

He's worried. For himself... and for Harry, because he's picked up on the strong implication that this big event is going to blow Harry's socks off. And maybe his head off, too.

He doesn't know how much time passes. He can tell it's a long time even as he loses himself in the monotonous days. There's a repetitive sense to everything-- you wake up, eat, you're tortured, you go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.

He keeps himself same by counting. Ginny's been on that page for five minutes. Ginny's tried this spell on him three times. Voldemort madly cackled twice. Ginny responded to the name Voldemort ten times. There's 42 tiles on the floor. Half are cracked or broken. There's thirty strands of ivy on the wall. He's been in pain ten minutes, fifthteen, twenty...

He counts to himself and tries to not think about Hogwarts or Harry or freedom. There's numbers in everything except hope, he's learned.

Nothing changes in this routine until, on a day that was months from his kidnapping, Ginny walks outside with a letter and doesn't return until a few days later. Draco thinks she went outside the wards to send it, maybe a town or two away, as not to give away their location. She returns with a response-- from who, Draco can't tell. She discusses with Voldemort about temporarily setting up a floo system open only to the fire place in Gryffindor tower, and only at the exact time and date listed on the letter. Wormtail is directed to set up a portkey, as if to have a quick way out.

Then, no change. Almost a week passed with nothing else out of the ordinary and Draco almost comvinces himself that the oddity never occurred at all. Maybe, maybe, after all this time his efforts of staying same were failing.

But then Draco wakes up to a roaring fireplace in the other room.

He listens closely as Ginny greets her brother-- Ronald Weasly-- who sounds distraught. He wants answers, has questions... there is also the part of him that's still a big brother, and is glad she's alright. A few minutes of back and forth and then Ginny blasts a spell at Ron and mutters something he can't make out. The fireplace goes cold and Draco's left wondering what the hell happened.

Over the course of the next week, Ron pops in to talk in hushed tones to Ginny, or Voldemort. Draco doesn't get it and doesn't like it.

It's by the end of the week that Ginny has her breakthrough. She claims she's "finally, finally" perfected her curse for Draco. She monologues about how it'll infect his "blood, and any children you have to follow" and how he'll "feel romance for everyone but Harry."

Draco watches her and thinks that while he might've remained sane, Ginny sure as hell didn't.

Ginny casts the spell at him and it's his last evening at the horrid manor that'll haunt his nightmares. The following evening he's shoved onto a broomstick and dropped off at Honeydukes. The magical restriction ropes are removed, his wand returned to him, but before he can so much as stun the bitch, she apparates on the spot. A bit of Voldemort's magic in practice again, he supposed.

He walks sluggishly to Hogwarts-- he hasn't walked in so long, the task is so difficult it's bordering impossible-- and is found slumped by the gate hours later. He's treated by Madame Pompfrey before being drilled about the events that occured, and figures out he's arrivies within a week for the Second Task.