Where Their Paths Divided

kumydabookworm

Rating: PG13
Genres: Angst, Romance
Relationships: Draco & Ginny
Book: Draco & Ginny, Books 1 - 5
Published: 04/08/2005
Last Updated: 04/08/2005
Status: completed

Sometimes, the world pulls two people together that the stars never foresee. But most of the time, destiny wins out. Because destiny is meant to be, and reality is just what happens. One Shot.

Chapters

1. Where Their Paths Divided

1. Where Their Paths Divided

Draco had tried everything to forget her and what she did to him. But he could not. He had left everything behind for her, most of all his pride, but she had turned him away…He supposed it was his own fault…but she never gave him a chance at redemption. His only mistake was that he loved her too much. That was why he was screaming inside when he saw the front page of Witch’s Weekly. The headlines of this tabloid…the most trustworthy in the market…read, “Cinderella finds her Prince – A Fairy Tale Love Story Come To Life.” So the rumors were true. His Fire, His Angel, was not his anymore…she was doing what was expected of her…she was marrying The Boy Who Destroyed Voldemort. Damned Harry Potter, the man who had everything that Draco wanted. He looked back on the day when she, full of fire, had turned him away forever.

He didn’t know how to tell her. What could he possibly say that wouldn’t make her turn him away. She had accepted him on the condition that he would openly defy the Dark. And he couldn’t do that. She would die, because she was his reason for defiance. Knowing her temper, she would never give him a chance to explain and probably would never talk to him again. Tears began to stream down his cheeks.

She came up behind him and held him close as he shook with pain. Finally he closed his eyes and pulled away, knowing that this was probably the last time she would hold him in her embrace. “Gin…Oh Merlin,” his voice strained with the pain of impending loss. He pulled up his sleeve and held his arm out as explanation. She looked at it and then at him with hurt in her eyes. He could not bear it and looked away, tears already burning tracks into his cheeks.

She whispered, “I should have never let myself hope, but I did anyways. Look where it got me. You went to the Dark Side as I thought you never would. I was stupid for thinking I could change you…guess love doesn’t break all bonds, does it? Goodbye Draco.”

He watched her and was unable to say anything on his own behalf. He had let her down, pure and simple. But…she would never understand. At least Dumbledore knew of his plan.

He had never received credit in the wizarding world. All they had seen were the mercury eyes beneath the mask of a Death Eater. They had never questioned where Dumbledore got his information on Voldemort once Snape was gone, or where Dumbledore managed to find a way for Potter to defeat Voldemort. They had never wondered who the Death Eater was who killed his allies to save Potter, hope of the Light. They only saw the dead eyes and the Malfoy name…they did not know the deadness was not because of the lack of love, but because of too much of it. He had shut down all emotions since his separation from Ginevra. He worked (as a undercover Auror…only the Minister of Magic knew about him), ate, and slept all by the clock. He was the most efficient Auror in the business because of that…he would do anything to get a mission accomplished.

There was no feeling behind his routine. He became a machine that was driven only by the promise of the bottle that would make him forget for a few precious hours. He bought Firewhiskey in 24-bottle packs once a week. He stopped reading the paper after a while. All he saw were headlines broadcasting Ginevra’s happiness without him to the whole world. Potter and she got married on February 16. He never had deserved her love, but he had always wanted it…and now, now, he knew what it was like to live without it. People began to whisper about the Malfoy fortune and the eccentric man that held the reins to the power it bestowed. He knew he was draining it with his alcoholism, but he found himself not caring. All he thought of was how radiant Ginevra would look in a gown, walking down the aisle to become his forever. All he thought about were the broken dreams that made his existence nothing but a shadow.

Ginevra had found out about his role in the downfall of Voldemort when Dumbledore, knowing everything that occurred in the school including their romance, pulled her aside and told her. Draco had stormed about his office and ranted at him when Dumbledore casually mentioned that to him. He did not want to hope for her. He wanted to know there was no chance. However, he had hoped, and now that there really was no chance, he found he preferred the futile hope that he had cherished. Draco had overheard Dumbledore explaining to McGonagall once how Ginevra felt:

“Ginevra has always found it hard to apologize. However, Draco had lied by omission and that had betrayed her trust. So now, it is not she who needs to apologize, but him. He could have explained with a single sentence, but had chosen not to, chosen to hurt her tremendously. She is angry with him for breaking her heart needlessly, and does not take heed of the fact that secrecy was of utmost importance to the mission at that point in time…before Voldemort had been destroyed, and I had told her the truth. Draco is too scared of being vulnerable again to go to her and ask her to join him again. So they remain like they are today.”

At this Dumbledore sighed and began to exit his room. Draco had stridden off quickly to avoid being seen. Yes, he was scared and this was his punishment. She would be happy and forget about him while he pined away for her for the rest of his life.

He was wrong to have hidden things from her. However, he had being living an emotionless life for the past 3 years. Wasn’t that enough? He had drunk down to the very bottom of countless bottles searching for hope. But a little voice in his head betrayed him every time with the words, “Without Ginevra, your life is nothing.” Now, months after the Cinderella Day, the papers lay unread at his doorstep. He missed the newest headlines.

u Potter Found With Chang /u - June 17 of that year

u Potter Blames Affair on Ginevra /u – June 20 of that year

u Ginevra Miscarries Potter’s Child /u – December 1 of that year

u The Fairy Tale is Over…Ginevra Files Abuse Suit /u – December 15 of that year

u Potter Found Guilty of 3rd Degree Murder (of his unborn child) /u – May 19 of the next year

u Evidence of Abuse Lands Potter in Jail /u – November 29 of the next year

u Divorce Ends The Horror /u – November 30 of the next year

Draco was being nostalgic again. He remembered the first day of doubting their love’s chance at survival so long ago. Being his love had nearly killed her, unbeknownst to anyone but himself. The day he said the words “I love you” to her, Lucius decided that he should kill the girl Weasley. Parkinson had told him about how Draco was “softening up” by not insulting Ginevra anymore. He had managed to deflect it, but since then had wondered whether it was too dangerous for them to be together. Doesn’t matter now, since they weren’t together. Back to the present…

Draco had finally found his father as part of a mission…in hiding all these years since Voldemort’s Downfall. After he killed Lucius, his name was the name appearing on the headlines and it was his picture in Witch Weekly. The Minister chose this time to take him out of his Undercover Auror position…after all, his face had been all over the world…he could not be undercover for obvious reasons. The Ministry had published all of his accomplished and dismissed him with a vast pension and an Order of Merlin, First Class, for all his work. There had been a ball in his honor and all the women were all over him. His only interest was the champagne…and red hair, if it was there (besides on the Minister’s head, you dirty minds, lol).

CHANGE TO GINNY P.O.V.

She saw his name in the papers…she had never forgotten him all these years, no matter how hard she had tried. He was mocking her for her choice…he was showing her that he would have been the right man for her. She had been stubborn…but he had broken her heart needlessly. It mentioned that in honor of his career a Ball would be held.

“Ginevra, I want you to attend this ball,” her father said to her, holding up a newspaper clipping…the same one she was reading.

“But Drac- I mean Malfoy will be there,” she protested.

More to himself than to her, Arthur Weasley murmured, “That’s the point, dear.”

So she went. And saw Draco surrounded by ladies with a disdainful look on his face. Of course, the women must be all over him all the time now. He was even more gorgeous than she remembered. She had told Harry that in all the good times with him, she had closed her eyes and pictured Draco after she filed for divorce. He had laughed at her so-called “attempt to make me jealous (in Harry’s words).” However, it had been true. Now, all her dreams were shattered. He would never want her when he had the attention of all the other women of the dance…many were more pretty than she was.

His eyes wandered, and sharpened when he saw her. She stumbled when she saw the i longing /i in his eyes. Then, a curtain snapped shut again, just like that dreaded night where she had pushed him away. He grabbed the nearest redhead and took her out to the dance floor. Ginevra was determined, now. She strode up to him – well more like stalked in her stilettos – and asked with a poisonous sweet smile, “May I take him from you for this dance?”

The redhead, seeing Ginevra’s expression, reluctantly handed him over. “Draco, I will see you i directly after /i this dance, do you understand?” she asked Draco.

“Huh…um, yeah, whatever…uh, Dahlia?” Draco mumbled.

The redhead flushed. “It’s Darcy, you twit.”

Ginevra settled herself in Draco’s arms and said, “So how’ve you been?”

Draco ignored the question. “So why aren’t you here with Potter. You two got hitched, didn’t you? Any black-haired, brown-eyed chits running around the dear old Burrow?” he hissed at her.

She stiffened and pulled away. “Where have you been? Potter cheated on me with Cho Chang, then got abusive and made me miscarry the child I was carrying when he pushed me into a wall. He’s in jail and we’ve been divorced for some months now.”

He stopped rocking her in his arms, and his jaw dropped as his shock took over. “What the hell are you on about?”

“You haven’t been reading the paper,” she said, stating fact.

“Not-not since your marriage announcement, no.” he said slowly, hope suddenly present in his face. And there, on came the mask again.

She said suddenly, “You smell like Firewhiskey.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty common knowledge I have a problem with alcohol. Just like the old man in that aspect.”

“Why?” was her reply. She didn’t know what to think. Harry had hurt her so much, but not at all. She had never loved him like she did Draco. Her thoughts had always been of the broken man in front of her.

“Cause of you,” was his cryptic reply.

Then she realized that her blatant rejection of him had left him a shell of the passionate man she once knew. Tears welled up in her eyes as he smiled weakly at her.

He pulled her up against his chest tightly. “No,” he said, his heart pounding and breathing ragged at the feel of her against him, “don’t cry because I failed you.”

She whispered against his satin robes, “I have cried for us since the day we parted. Why should today be any different?”

He gasped at the realization that she had pined for him too and then said in her ear, his hot breath making her shiver, “Because today I’m here with you.”

Then, just as suddenly, he pulled away. “I can’t do this again.” He rushed out the door and she just stared at him leaving. Coming to her senses, she followed him quickly after ripping off her shoes so she could go faster. When he finally came into view, he had collapsed against a tree trunk, hunched over with his head in his hands and his head shaking rapidly.

Without thinking, Ginevra gathered him in her arms and held him as he shook with regret, pain and the memories of broken dreams. Then he looked up and saw her and pulled away like she had the plague.

“No,” he whispered, desperately clinging at something.

CHANGE TO DRACO P.O.V.

He looked at the goddess before him. He couldn’t let her do this to him again. He couldn’t let her turn his world upside down and make him crazy. He couldn’t let her break his dreams again. He couldn’t be hurt again.

“What’s wrong?” Ginevra asked him, pleading in her eyes.

“You think- You think you can waltz in my life, turn it upside down and then shatter it and walk out like you did before. But I won’t let you. I won’t let you hurt me, I won’t let you make me hope. I want this so bad it is scaring me. But I can’t let this happen, not again. Once, shattered me. Another time, and I would die.” Draco said this looking her straight in the eyes.

She gasped with pain. “So I ruined it.”

He shook his head at her sadly, “No, i we /i ruined it. We were young and we both made mistakes. You didn’t wait for an explanation and I could not give one until it was too late. I was too proud to apologize for something, and you were too proud to ask what happened. We ruined it together, but whoever did it, it is ruined. It hurts, but I can’t let anyone have that much power over me, not after what you did to me when I finally let someone have that power.”

She looked at him and said, “You know we could make it work.”

He said noncommittally, “Maybe, but I don’t want to risk it. You nearly killed me when you left me. i You were my life. /i Don’t you understand? I tried to commit suicide i seven /i times. And now, my alcoholism – the thing that makes me forget you – is killing me anyways.”

She whispered, “I am sorry.”

He said unabashedly, “You should be. You ruined my life. But I ruined yours too. And for that I am sorry. We should have never hoped. The world would have never let us be. But now, we can keep living –“

“A half-existence, forever longing for the other half of our soul,” she said angrily, “I can’t live like that, knowing that my love wants me but does not want the insecurity I bring! I knew you, as a Slytherin, have self-preservation as your biggest priority, but I never knew that you had so little courage you would not risk yourself for love!”

He hissed, soft anger smoldering in his eyes, “How dare you? How dare you patronize me for not risking it all? I already did. You managed to live a life without me, but you destroyed mine…Forget happy, I haven’t been content for years. Your face haunted me and pushed me to alcoholism! I ruined my own life because of you…because I couldn’t forget how you made me feel! I RISKED EVERYTHING FOR YOU AND YOU TURNED ME AWAY WITHOUT SPARING A SECOND GLANCE!” He was yelling by the end.

Her tears scorched his soul and her eyes pushed him to hell’s edge. She said, “You’re right, I did. But don’t we all deserve second chances?” Then she turned and walked away from him. He could not bring himself to stop her…it was a replay of that day so long ago. The day their paths divided.

She turned back before she walked round the corner, hating herself for feeling so desperate yet knowing that she could not make the same mistake again. It may have been her destiny to marry Harry Potter but it was her reality that made her return to Draco Malfoy. She ran back to him and said, “No matter what you do, I am not letting you go. Not again.”

“Then, I guess I’ll never let you find me. Goodbye, Ginevra. You left me barely alive once…I can’t take the chance that you may do the same this time.” He walked away knowing that she could have never hurt him more than he hurt today. Partly because he was leaving her, but mostly because it was the best thing for her to live without him. Living with an alcoholic was a guarantee for pain…he couldn’t do that to her.

Sometimes, destiny is not always real. Sometimes, the world pulls two people together that the stars never foresee. But most of the time, destiny wins out. Because destiny is meant to be, and reality is just what happens.

Fin