AN: New chapter early, as the last one came out a couple days later than intended. I really hope to see more reviews. :)
---Chapter Four---
The Problem With Ex-Fiancés
Draco sat in his black leather chair looking out the window of his office. He sighed. He couldn't stop thinking about Ginny, and he needed his mind to be clear for the benefit tonight. 'Maybe I should send someone else to the damn thing. There really is no reason for me to go myself. Except that speech thing. And the fact that Mother would skewer me. Maybe I could fake sick…' Draco slipped his hand under his desk and took the letter out of the small drawer there.
Draco,
She's awake now. You need to talk all this out. You can't avoid this forever, Malfoy.
-Pansy
He had already read the short note many times, and now, two days later, he still had not made a move. He knew on some level that Pansy was right, that talking to Ginny was what he needed to do…but…he really didn't want to. Imagine telling her that he was still hung up for all these years. That he had never got over her. It would be utterly humiliating. He could see it in his mind: his confession, her laugh, his sudden death from embarrassment. It really would be a loss to the world if he died. Especially in such a way.
He slowly drifted off, and dreamed of Ginny crying at his funeral, bemoaning her cowardice at not coming back to him, and wearing a see-through, Slytherin green, dress in the rain. It was a good dream.
**
Pansy got ready for the benefit she was going to with Draco. The flooed to his office, where she knew he would be (like the workaholic that he was), and found him doing something she had never seen him do before. It was very disconcerting. He was…sleeping. And that wasn't even the weirdest part. He was smiling, too! Feeling as though she had stepped into some alternate universe where there was a Draco Malfoy who smiled and took naps, she quickly shook his shoulder.
"Draco! What the hell are you still doing here? We're already five minutes late!"
He jerked out of his sleep, frown in place.
"What?" he asked groggily. "Late for what? What are you doing in my office, Parkinson?"
"Getting you off your sorry ass, that's what."
What she had said earlier seemed to register as he smirked and said, "Pansy, darling, we'll just be fashionably late then, won't we?"
And they left.
**
The benefit was boring, as usual. The only interesting thing that happened was when Pansy had hauled him outside 'to talk'. They hadn't talked. From what he gathered, talking did not consist of one person yelling at the other for long periods of time. It had wasted lots of time, though, so Draco soaked up the excuse to leave at the time that was more appropriate than the beginning, and said he and Pansy had some important business that needed their immediate attention. It was only when they arrived at his office did he realize what Pansy intended him to do.
"What do you mean, now?! I can't just waltz in! I need to be prepared! Besides, Malfoy's are not supposed to beg. She's supposed to come to me."
"Well, sweetheart, I believe Malfoy's also always go for what they want. And she won't come to you. Especially with everything else that is going on. She'll use that as her excuse. You, however, have none."
Draco huffed, and Pansy ignored him. They finally reached a compromise twenty minutes later.
"So you'll go on Monday? You promise?"
"Of course, Pansy. I just need time. Two days from now will be just enough," he said smoothly. She looked at him suspiciously.
"Okay, but I better see you there, Malfoy. You know that there will be hell to pay if you do otherwise," she threatened, being menacing and cautious all at once.
"No need to worry, Parkinson."
**
It was Sunday afternoon when Oliver came to see Ginny again. He wasn't so embarrassed this time, as he had a purpose. She also had explaining to do, not just him. She was going to tell him all about her little fling with Draco Malfoy. And what the status was now. He still loved her, but he had to be sure she was over that bastard Malfoy before he worked on winning her back.
He apperated quickly to the designated area and quickly found his way through the hospital to her room. And he knocked.
"Who is it?" a voice called. Ginny's voice.
"Oliver." There was silence on the other side of the door for a moment. Then it opened and a nervous looking Ginny showed her face.
"We need to talk, Gin," he told her with a serious face. "I know you want to know what I wanted to say to you at the pitch," he closed his eyes, as the memory was painful, "and I am now ready to tell you. But you have some things to tell me, too."
She nodded and asked him to sit in one of the visitor chairs.
"How have you been?" she asked carefully. He reached forward and grabbed both her hands.
"Me? What about you?"
"I'm fine. You look a little worse for wear, though."
"Thanks."
"You know what I meant."
There was an awkward pause.
"So what was it you wanted to say?" Ginny asked him.
Oliver ran a hand through his hair nervously. He stood up and threw his hands in the air.
"What do you think, Ginny? I wanted to know why you left me! I wanted to know why I wasn't enough for you! I wanted to know why you chose that moment to break it off! There are lots of things I wanted to know! That I still want to know!" he took a breath. "And here's another question for you! What is with you and Draco Malfoy?"
She stared up at him and he automatically felt ashamed at his behavior. She was in the hospital because of him and he was yelling at her. But he said nothing and waited for her reply.
"Okay," she said. "I left you because I realized we'd never last long. And I guess I am not ready to take such a huge step as marriage. You are more than enough for me, Oliver, I just…well, I already said I just couldn't see us together forever. I didn't choose that moment; it just sort of popped out. And as for your last question, it would be what was there between Draco and I. To answer that…it's over. It doesn't matter anymore. Here's a question for you, how do you know about that?"
He sat and messed his hair up again. "Better one: why did I have to find that out by eavesdropping? Why did you never tell me about it?"
This time, it was Ginny's turn to be angry.
"What do you mean, why? I don't like talking about it! And what gave you the right to listen in to private conversations? This is why we wouldn't work, Oliver, I never felt like I could tell you about it! I never wanted to tell you all my deep dark secrets! And I'm sure you're not as clean a slate, as you seem, either! Everyone makes mistakes, Draco is mine!" She stood up as well, and he followed, anger beginning on his face. "I can't believe you! See! You don't have enough trust or respect for me! We might seem compatible, Oliver, but when you look deeper there is nothing more to our relationship! There is no depth, no passion! And I know I want all those things that we seem to have missed! This is why we don't work! And it's not fair to anyone to stay together just for the sake of it!"
Even though Oliver found some truth to her words, he still argued. "Maybe that's because you never gave me a chance to give you those things! You're always holding back! I never knew why! I thought you wanted to keep from getting hurt of something ridiculous like that! But now I see your just still hung up on some Slytherin slime! And I am glad you left! I don't want to be with a person like you! A person who has obviously been corrupted with evil like the Malfoy's, and like Dark Lords!"
Ginny was so furious that it took her a few moments to work up the words from her tight throat. And when she did, she began in a low voice that, true enough, wouldn't have seemed out of place on a Malfoy.
"If you don't leave in three seconds, Oliver, I'm going to do something I will regret. We can now both see why this is over, and why it will stay over. I want you out. And I don't want to see you again or so help me God…" she closed her eyes. "Get out. Now." She loooked away from him and he left.
AN: So Oliver and Ginny are now wrapped up, they are totally over. Well, in the romantic sense. I might stick Oliver in here later on. Hm… But, now it's time for Draco to come in! **does happy dance** Thanks to reviewers! Always appriciated.