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Something's Gotta Give
Mei Queen
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Authoress' Note: To anonymous on fanfiction.net, I need to reply to your review. You wrote:
I feel so bad for Ginny. And I can completely relate to her situation right now, with a few exceptions. For me, there is no friendly ex, or the chat room stuff. The guy was- is a friend. Said he liked me. We talked all the time. And then out of nowhere we stopped talking. And I got wind that some girlfriend or whatever was visiting from where ever she came from. And now, I'm guessing she's left, and he starting talking to me again. Its annoying, and it hurts, although I'm pretty sure I don't like the guy. And the more I think about this fic, mostly this chapter, the more I think it's weird how similar your made-up situation fits my current life almost perfectly. Kinda sad, huh?
Your review really got to me, and I just needed to tell you something that I've barely told anyone since this story was first written (but now I suppose you all are about to find out)-this story is based on something that really happened to me. SecretDragon was based on an online friend I had throughout 2006, someone I connected with on such a deep emotional level that I thought it was really meant to be. But, unlike Draco and Ginny, things weren't meant to be for us, and I met the person that I'm with now a month after I flew all the way to London to meet that online friend. It's funny how things work out, but I sincerely hope that, if you're reading this, anonymous, you don't give up hope. Don't close yourself off to the people around you. That guy might not be worth it, but there might be someone just as wonderful right in front of you waiting for your attention. And no, *chuckles*, I don't think it's sad the situation fits your life perfectly…it did fit mine like a glove at one time, after all.
Wishing you nothing but the best (and hoping you don't stone me to death for sharing your review),
Mei Queen.
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Mood Music: Shadow of the Day- Linkin Park. That song is where the lyrics featured throughout the chapter are from.
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RECAP:
SecretDragon: I miss you.
Ginny finished up her conversation with her mum, thoroughly irritated by how many times her mother had chastised the state of her living room. Like I bloody don't know it's not the cleanest it's ever been! She thought to herself, harrumphing with irritation as she walked back into the kitchen and desperately picked up her tea from where it sat forgotten on the countertop. Her laptop had since gone to Hibernate in the time she had taken with her mother, but the message Draco had sent was there waiting for her as clear as day when she touched the mouse.
Ginny's ninth teacup of the week fell to the floor with a crash.
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Chapter 11: The Sun Will Set for You
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And the sun will set for you
The sun will set for you
And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey
And the sun will set for you
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SecretDragon: Gin? Are you there?
SecretDragon: Ginny? Please talk to me.
Ginny stared wide-eyed at the computer monitor, unable to believe what she was seeing. After all that time spent wondering whether he was cursed or dead, Draco Malfoy was just waltzing back into her life like nothing was wrong. It was absolutely infuriating.
SecretDragon: I know I was wrong.
Well, he bloody well should know he was wrong, the redhead thought indignantly, performing a quick Reparo on the teacup she had broken earlier. He's made my life a complete misery for the past month!
But Ginny still did not reply. She stood watching the screen, watching Draco's attempts to contact her become more and more desperate.
SecretDragon- Please, Red. I really miss you. I'm so sorry.
Ginny sat down on the kitchen barstool for support, her heart beating madly. Part of her wanted so badly to just give in- to say, "Yes, Draco! Take me! We'll get married in fall and we can have our first baby by summer!" It would be all she ever wanted. Wouldn't it?
But time had changed things, she found. She no longer wanted the 2.5 kids and the Labrador she'd so desperately dreamed of before her divorce from Harry. All Ginny Weasley wanted now was true love…and the respect that went with it.
If Draco Malfoy thinks he can ignore a Weasley for a month, and just turn to me when his relationship with some buxom blonde goes sour, he has another thing coming, Ginny thought viciously, eyeing the flickering computer with disdain. While part of her honestly wanted to be with Draco, the other part wanted something more from him.
Respect.
SecretDragon- Ginny, Gods, please. Please talk to me. That's it; I'm calling your mobile.
Ginny rolled her eyes as her mobile began to ring in the living room. Like online contact isn't bloody enough, she thought, her lips pursed in annoyance. The ringing of the mobile and the incessant chat lines finally beginning to get to her, Ginny lowered her fingers to the keyboard to type a response.
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RavishingRed: I'm just…done, Draco. A month? What the hell were you doing? Never mind, I really don't want to know. I thought we had more. I thought I could expect more from you. I thought you'd changed from that bastard I knew in Hogwarts.
RavishingRed: But, obviously, you haven't changed. Please stop calling me.
Draco's shaking hand hit "End" on his mobile, severing the connection between their phones. Just like I've bloody severed any chance of being with Ginny, the blond man thought sourly, his entire body buzzing with nerves and anticipation. He'd never been in a situation like this. Was this what it felt like to be…rejected? Merlin, it sucked.
No wonder Neville Longbottom always had such trouble in school, Draco thought irritably. I'd have had trouble too if I got rejected as much as that poor sod did. I just can't believe that after…everything- after the conversations, the shopping for her mother, the dinner at Chez Maurice, the drama with Potter, it's just…over. It doesn't feel right. How can I throw away something like that, something that's had such history? But when you think about it, Draco thought, cocking his head to the side and propping it on his hand, we haven't even really had a proper date. We could be complete bollocks in person. We might not work together at all. I guess I never gave us the proper chance to figure that out…because of Daphne.
Suddenly, Draco felt something he hadn't felt since his Hogwarts days, since the night with Dumbledore on the tower-regret.
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In cards and flowers on your window
Your friends all plead for you to stay
Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple
Sometimes goodbye's the only way
As the weeks passed, Ginny Weasley began to withdraw. She withdrew from her friends, her life, and especially from Draco. She wrote more, sitting alone in a chilly, empty house on the barstool in the kitchen-the barstool she sat on through so many conversations with Draco. Ginny tried not to think about that. She tried not to associate her computer and barstool (the tools she used most for her work) with Draco, but she was finding it impossible. Finally, one blustery day in the beginning of December, Ginny gave up. Going to her old-fashioned writing desk, she began to switch to writing longhand, a transition she never thought she would have to make.
She simply couldn't bear to be near anything that reminded her of Draco anymore.
It was on that same day in December, as Ginny nursed her aching hand and continually crossed out errors on the unprofessionally splattered paper, that a visitor came by. Two visitors, to be exact.
Ding dong! the doorbell chimed enthusiastically.
Sighing, Ginny jotted down a few notes on the paper, so she could pick up where she left off, and got up from the rickety desk. Opening the door, she was met with her two best friends, and they weren't empty-handed: Luna had a market bag full of goodies-wine, microwave popcorn, and to Ginny's great joy, ice cream. Hermione, on the other hand, had a selection of DVDs and some board games.
"We're spending the night," Luna announced, stepping through Ginny's foyer uninvited.
Hermione nodded, backing up Luna's statement. Meeting Ginny's chocolate eyes with her own, Hermione murmured, "It's time we get you over this, Gin-girl."
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It wasn't that Ginny didn't want to see her friends; honestly, it wasn't. She was happy to see them. She was just tired, so tired of being babied and coddled. Ginny Weasley just wanted to be alone. It was bad enough sitting at home alone, trying not to think about Draco, but when her friends were over, friends that had just found happy, loving relationships, it was enough for Ginny to willingly commit herself to Azkaban.
Hermione had been humming (humming!) all evening, and it was driving Ginny completely mad. Luna, meanwhile, had taken to gazing dreamily into space (not more than usual), but with a dreamy, cat-got-the-cream sort of expression that Ginny found downright sickening.
Finally, she just couldn't take anymore.
"I'm going to bed," the redhead announced halfway through Pretty in Pink. It was around 9:30 at night, and a bowl of popcorn sat on the table, half-empty. The tub of ice cream with three spoons in had only a quarter left, and the girls had gone through a substantial amount of the liquor in Ginny's cabinet. Though perhaps a little tipsy, Ginny wasn't tired at all. When she decided to go to bed, it was just because she needed to be alone in her thoughts.
Hermione and Luna looked at each other with concern.
"Why?" Hermione asked, voicing the question both women were thinking.
"I'm tired," Ginny said, by way of answer. Then, with a last glance at Molly Ringwald in the pink dress, she murmured, "I don't like how this movie ends, anyway."
"Why? She ends up with the rich one," Luna chimed in, giggling, though from the situation or the vodka, Ginny wasn't sure.
"Duckie deserved her, not him," the redhead answered decisively. "Being rich isn't everything," Ginny elaborated, her eyes taking on a faraway look.
Hermione's mouth formed a round "o" as she realized something-the littlest Weasley wasn't talking about the movie.
Shaking off her reverie, Ginny murmured, "Thank you both for coming. You're free to use the guest rooms. Towels are in their usual place. I'll make coffee and a good fry-up in the morning. Good night."
Luna and Hermione returned the sentiment, watching Ginny walk away like mothers watching their children take those tentative first steps out into the world-nervous and wholeheartedly uneasy.
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As fate would have it, as the door to Ginny's bedroom quietly shut for the night, a new sound began-a soft knocking on the front door.
Hermione and Luna looked at each other, alarmed. "Who the hell would be visiting her right now?" Luna asked while getting up from the couch to answer the door before the sound woke Ginny up. "She's barely left her house in a month!"
"I know," Hermione murmured, shrugging. Luna shrugged back, rocking onto her tiptoes to look through the peephole of the front door. She snorted with laughter. Outside on Ginny's front porch was Draco Malfoy. He was talking to himself, if the frequent puffs of air materializing in the night were any indication. He was even pacing. Oh yes, Luna thought with satisfaction, Malfoy definitely looks nervous.
"Should we let him in?" Luna murmured, moving to the side so Hermione could look through the peephole, too.
Hermione sighed, one finger reaching up to twirl a strand of bushy hair. "I suppose we should. It's probably better for us to deal with it than Gin. Merlin knows she wouldn't be able to handle this right now."
Conceding the point, Luna sighed, reached for the door handle, and opened the door. "Good evening, Mr Malfoy."
"Can we help you?" Hermione asked, in a tone that indicated she'd rather do anything but.
Draco shivered a bit, whether from the cold or the frosty welcome, he wasn't sure. "I want to see Ginny."
"She's already gone to bed," Luna reported. "Was that all?"
"No," he snapped. "Well, it's not even ten, can't you get her up?"
"No, we bloody can't," Hermione replied, snapping right back. Putting a hand to her hip in annoyance, she murmured in a dangerously low voice, "Malfoy, you have been a pain in my arse since Hogwarts. I've sat back; I may have punched you a few times, but you did deserve it. For the most part though, I sat back and let you be a bastard. But if you think that just because of those times, I'm going to sit back and let you be a complete arse to my best friend," she growled, poking him in the chest, "you've got another thing coming."
He looked down at her. Part of her, the older part, wanted to tell her to get her Mudblood-filth hand off his chest, but the other part, the newer, better part of Draco, realized her point. As much as it killed Draco to admit, Hermione Granger was absolutely…right.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I wish I could take it back, all of it, but I can't. I can't change what I did. I wish I could make it up to her, but I don't even know where to start. If I were her, I wouldn't trust me again."
Luna's eyes softened. Poor bastard. "She will, Draco. She will trust you again. She just needs time. Right now she's not even comfortable writing the way she normally does, but soon, she'll find her rhythm. She's a big girl; she'll get over this."
"But will she get over this and still want me?" Draco asked, his grey eyes wide.
"I don't know," Hermione answered, shrugging helplessly.
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Draco Malfoy was on a mission. He had a gift to buy, but not your ordinary Christmas gift, oh no. This was special. Inspired by the girls' tales of the night before, Draco suddenly knew exactly what he wanted to get Ginny, the gift that would win her back.
His eyes glanced from option to option rapidly- he had to find the right thing, and he had to find it fast. Finally settling on an option, he nudged his way through the crowds, out the double doors of the store, and into the crowded street. Though he thought he saw Zabini and Daphne holding hands and walking toward him, Draco didn't stop to chat. Instead, he broke into a run, searching for an empty place to Apparate.
He was just hoping he could get her the gift before she closed herself off to him for good.
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And the sun will set for you
The sun will set for you
And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey
And the sun will set for you
"Damn it!" Ginny cursed loudly, slamming her fist down on the flimsy writing desk. Her coffee upended into the air, spilling everywhere. Groaning, Ginny reached for her wand to clean up the mess. "Bloody Draco Malfoy!" she muttered. "Not only has he made me regress to bloody longhand, he's even causing me to spill my coffee on the brand-new bleeding carpet…"
Ding dong!
Ginny rolled her eyes. After Hermione and Luna's visit, she was sincerely hoping she wouldn't be bothered for a long time with visitors. So much for that, Ginny thought wryly.
The doorbell rang insistently a second time.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Ginny muttered, scribbling a few notes on the coffee-stained parchment and cleaning up the carpet with Scourgify.
Hopping up from the uncomfortable stool, she made her way to the front door. Not bothering to check the peephole (it was probably Hermione or Luna, anyway), she flung wide the door.
She gasped slightly at the familiar sight of platinum blonde.
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"I shouldn't even invite you in," she muttered, flattening herself against the door to let Draco in to her home.
Keeping his eyes trained on the ground, he murmured guiltily, "I know you shouldn't. You have no reason to trust me."
"I know," she said evenly, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. "Tea?"
He raised an eyebrow at the hospitable offer.
"Mum says it's always polite to ask; I suppose it's just ingrained manners," Ginny said by way of answer.
He nodded, taking a seat in the living room, one hand still firmly grasping a large carrier bag. "Tea would be lovely."
Ginny nodded, heading into the kitchen.
"So why are you here?" she called to him as she filled the kettle and put it on the stove.
"I…I needed to give you something," he called back nervously, his gaze flitting around the pictures in Ginny's living room. It was the first time he'd ever actually been inside her home. It was truly lovely-the place reminded him of everything he'd grown to love about Ginny, about RavishingRed: a fierce protectiveness of friends and family, good values, and décor more personal than polished.
His eyes strayed to the bag in his hands. I hope she likes this, he thought frantically. I simply don't know what else to do.
Ginny entered the room with teapot, teacups, sugar, and creamer. "Here," she whispered, pouring his cup. "It helps calm the nerves."
He smiled gratefully, taking a tentative sip from the cup. "Thank you," he said, meeting her beautiful round doe eyes with his steely grey.
"You said you had something for me?" Ginny prompted, after the two had sipped their cups in awkward silence for a few moments.
"Oh, right," the blond answered, reaching down for the carrier bag at his feet. "Here you go," he said, handing it to her.
"Thank you," she replied. I wonder what the hell this could be. He just shows up on my doorstep with a gift after three weeks? What is it with Malfoy and disappearing? Though, I suppose, to be fair, this time I did basically tell him to disappear…
Opening the wrapping, Ginny's eyes were met with…
A new laptop.
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"I dropped by the other night," Draco began to nervously explain. "Hermione and Luna were here, and they mentioned that all because of me you had to switch to a different style of writing. I remember you mentioned in our chats once how much you detest longhand…and I thought…well, I thought it was the least I could do to allow you to keep writing the way you like to…with something that doesn't remind you of me."
She looked back at him, eyes glistening. "Of course it's going to bloody remind me of you, Draco; you're giving it to me! I can't accept this."
"Yes, you can," he murmured. "Please take it, Ginny."
"No," she replied forcefully, stuffing it haphazardly back in the bag. "I just…I can't, Draco. It will still remind me of us, and all the things that we might have been, and I just really can't deal with any of that right now. I can't. I can't let you use your money to find an easy way out again…"
"That's not what I'm trying to do!" Draco protested. "Please accept it."
"No, Draco," she murmured, shaking her head sadly. "I just can't. It's not right. You use your money to get out of every sticky situation you've ever been in! Can't you just, for once, try to solve something without relying on your damn Gringotts account? Would that kill you? Don't you realize I'm different from all the girls you've been with?"
She stood up, facing him defiantly, eyes glistening with tears that would be shed the moment he left. "Please. Just go, and take the laptop with you."
He got up, setting his teacup down gently on the saucer. "I'm not taking it. It was a gift. It's yours."
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Ginny stayed up late that night, eyes puffy with tears flowing more freely than they'd ever done in her life. She was crying even more than when she and Harry divorced; it felt like whereas she and Harry got a chance, she and Draco never did. It felt unjust- wrong, even. The laptop was still sitting haphazardly stuck in the carrier bag in her living room; Ginny couldn't even bear to look at the bloody thing. All it reminded her of were their different pasts, Draco's abuse of his money, the blonde he'd been with for the past month, and everything that had ever gone wrong between them.
She couldn't even stand the house she was living in anymore. Now that Draco had visited her here, it felt like even her home wasn't sacred any longer. She had no personal space left to retreat to. She needed to get away.
It was almost eleven that night when Ginny finally decided what to do. Picking up her mobile and dialling her agent, she waited patiently for the message. "Hello! This is Anna, literary agent at Magical Manuscripts. I'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now, but at the tone, just leave a message with your name and number, and I'll get right back to you!"
After the beep, Ginny murmured, "Hey, Anna. It's Ginny Weasley. Remember that worldwide tour offer you talked to me about last month? The one that you said would boost my ratings when the book was released? Yeah, well, I've changed my mind. I want to go. I want to get the hell out of here."
And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey
And the sun will set for you
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Authoress' Note: Drama, drama, drama. I know. But aren't you glad Ginny didn't just take his butt back? Haha, well, now that you've read, please review!