A/N: I've decided to deviate slightly from the Romeo and Juliet story. It won't be until the next chapter that things will change ever so slightly. Don't worry, though…the main stuff will still be there. I'm just letting everyone know so I don't get called out on it later on.
Also, thanks to everyone for reading and leaving such nice comments. :o) It makes my day, let me tell you. On that kind note, I hate to tell you all that chapters from now on will be few and far between as I resume college this week. Dun dun dun. I have been having odd urges to write some one-shot fics though, so watch out for so random (short) stories. I actually wrote one a few weeks ago under the James/Lily ship called "As the Seventh Month Dies" which I am actually very pleased with. You can read it from the link on my author profile if you're interested.
This turned out to be a long author's note. How rude. Don't you hate it when authors talk about utterly useless things in their notes? Just get to the story, already, right? Right?! Oh.
* * *
Draco had remained hidden amongst the thick, gnarled trees that surrounded the Burrow's garden walls. He could hear Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle somewhere off to his left.
"Come on already," Blaise said decisively. "This party is way past its prime."
"But we haven't found Draco," Crabbe piped up while viciously pulling off the three pointed hat of his jester costume. The hat's bells jingled merrily in response.
"Knowing him, I bet he slipped away earlier and went home to bed," Blaise said scathingly.
"But I saw him barely twenty minutes ago," Goyle gruffed.
"Either way, Draco's a big boy," Blaise said with a roll of his eyes. "He can take care of himself. Besides, there's no point in looking for him if he doesn't want to be found."
Crabbe and Goyle shrugged, but followed Blaise obediently as he trudged out from the trees and Disapparated.
Draco breathed a small sigh of relief. He did not want to have to explain to his friends why he felt so compelled to stay at the Burrow. He did not want to try to explain why the thought of leaving the place where Ginny was causing such a tight pang in his chest. He couldn't even explain it to himself at this point.
Maybe it was because he had felt so utterly dead for so long. It was like he had been drowning in the darkness, and then suddenly there was a breath of fresh air. Ginny had been the light that had made him feel, really feel, for the first time in a long time.
Still, a part of his head kept screaming at him that she was a Weasley, a poor blood-traitor. Yet at this moment, he didn't care. He couldn't leave the thing that had sparked such life and feeling in him.
* * *
"He's a Malfoy, Ginny," Hermione said sternly
"I am well aware of that, Hermione, thanks."
"He's Draco Malfoy," Hermione said again.
They were up in Ginny's room, finally done cleaning up from the party and just then getting dressed for bed. Hermione had not dared mention Ginny's mysterious suitor downstairs in front of the rest of her family while they tidied up, yet she had kept shooting her disapproving looks from across the room. And now she kept saying Draco Malfoy as if it were a disgusting fungus rather than the name of a person.
"I wonder why he was here," Hermione said carefully. "Lucius Malfoy is a clever sneak, parading around as if he was on our side all along. Draco always sort of just went along with his father."
Ginny merely shrugged.
"How are you so calm about this?" Hermione asked while brushing her hair. "I think I'd be washing my mouth out with soap if I'd found out I'd been tricked into kissing Draco Malfoy."
Ginny paused momentarily as she tied the strings of her pajama pants. "I'm not really sure," she answered truthfully. "It was actually sort of nice."
"Sort of nice?" her friend repeated incredulously. "Oh, you poor thing. He must have Confunded you."
Ginny laughed.
"I'm serious!" Hermione said dropping her hairbrush and reaching for her wand. "Come here, let me see what else he did to you. He might have slipped a Love Potion into your drink."
Ginny snorted. "Yeah, that was his whole objective for tonight: gate-crash and seduce that poor Weasley girl." She pulled on her slippers and crossed the room. "You're nutters, really and truly nutters."
"You say that, but I'm not the one who has just kissed Draco Mal-"
"Enough!" Ginny said throwing up her hands. "You're driving me crazy, Hermione, really." She turned to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" Hermione called after her.
"To the garden," she called back over her shoulder with a small grin, "so I can hear myself think without you constantly reminding me of who I kissed tonight."
The truth was, Ginny thought as she quietly walked down the narrow staircase of the Burrow, she wanted to be alone precisely because she wanted to think about who she had kissed that night. She had been in a slight daze ever since she had made it back to the Burrow, for her mind had been attempting idly to wrap her head around the fact that Hermione had constantly been reminding her of: she had kissed Draco Malfoy.
Yet the name carried no repulsive sound in her mind as it did when Hermione said it aloud. Quite the opposite, it came as a soft, tender, sound that filled Ginny with an inexplicable light-heartedness and hope.
Hope? Ginny wondered. What kind of alternate universe had she stumbled into where Draco Malfoy had given her hope?
It was well past midnight as Ginny made her way into the garden of the Burrow. She had found Crookshanks along the way and he scampered lightly in front of her, pausing every so often to examine an empty gnome hole here or there.
Ginny looked up into the waning crescent moon and sighed. There was no question in her mind as to what would happen now: she would not see Draco again. Whatever had happened tonight had probably been a pathetic joke or fluke at best.
"He probably doesn't even care," she murmured as she drew her cloak in closer around herself.
The large ginger cat at her ankles looked up at her, his large orange eyes shining incandescently in the moonlight.
"Draco Malfoy," Ginny answered, not feeling at all odd at the fact that she was speaking to a cat. She often spoke to Crookshanks or Pigwidgeon as if they were people.
"But why, why does it have to be him?" she said twisting strands of her long red hair. "It could have been anyone else but a bloody Malfoy, but no. I have to fall for the one and only Malfoy heir."
"Do you always talk to your animals, or is this a special occasion?" a voice said though the trees.
Crookshanks hissed and Ginny pulled her wand instantly.
"Calm down, it's only me," Draco said with arms raised in mock surrender.
Ginny was shocked. "How dare you!"
"How dare I what?" he replied with an eyebrow raised.
Her eyes flashed. Even though she was very much thoroughly annoyed, she felt an undeniable exhilaration at seeing him again. "How dare you lurk in the darkness like a common criminal and listen to my thoughts!"
"Listen to you talking to your cat, more like it," he smirked.
His hair was back to its normal white-blond, and now there was not mistaking it: Ginny's knight-in-shining-armor was indeed the infamous Draco Malfoy. He was slightly taller than she had remembered him, and his shoulders seemed broader than before. Even his face was slightly different, she mused, but then again he had always been attractive.
She shook her head. "Why are you here?" Ginny finally asked him after forcefully pushing the lingering thoughts of his attractiveness out of her consciousness.
"To see you of course," he responded unabashedly. "But you'd better get out of the open, unless you want your family catching us."
"Us?" Ginny repeated firmly. "There is no us, Malfoy. There is a you and there is a me, but there is certainly no us."
Draco ignored her comment and instead motioned for her to join him amongst the dark trees.
"You have got to be kidding," she said to him dryly.
Draco sighed. "I'll just have to meet you out in the open, then."
When he began clamoring out of the gnarled trees toward her, Ginny rushed forward to stop him. "Don't be stupid!" she hissed at him pushing him backwards into the darkness. "If they see you they'll murder you!"
Draco grinned, happy that she was now close to him again. "It would be worth it," he murmured as his face moved closer to hers.
Ginny stood firm as he leaned into her, as she found herself torn between the urge to either hit or kiss Draco. She resisted only for a moment when he finally kissed her, whimpering slightly before wrapping her arms around his neck and finally giving into the kiss. It was a sound that made Draco's chest purr with pleasure, and he moved closer to deepen the connection.
"Wait," Ginny gasped finally pulling away from him. "This is not happening again."
"And why not?" Draco challenged. "Don't tell me that you don't feel it."
"Because you're a bloody Malfoy, that's why not!" Ginny practically screamed, shaking herself out of his grip. "Your father was a Death Eater! He helped murder innocent people while serving Voldemort!"
Draco's eyes became hard. "That's not fair," he said swiftly. "I wasn't responsible for any of that!"
"But you are your father, Malfoy! You are!"
Draco turned away from her and walked a little away.
"I don't know what happened tonight," Ginny began again, "and I am sure that this was all a very amusing joke to you and your stupid friends, but I am done." She walked over to where he was now leaning against a tree. "You're a very cruel person," she said in an undertone, "and I don't ever want to see you again." She had already turned away from him to go back inside when she heard him speak.
"I hate being a Malfoy," he said quietly. The statement seemed to cut through the silence between them as effectively as a knife.
Despite herself, Ginny turned around to him. "What?" she asked. Her bold tone sounded oddly divergent against Draco's near inaudible one. "What did you just say?"
"I hate being a Malfoy," he repeated. He was still not looking at her, and instead was gazing off into the night sky. "It has become increasingly clear to me that the life I am living is not mine." He paused for a moment, sounding utterly defeated. "I will never be known as anything but Lucius Malfoy's son, the Malfoy heir."
"But isn't that what you want?" Ginny said pointedly.
"Who would want that?" Draco said harshly. "Be in a family where you're brainwashed into thinking that everyone but you is dirt? Be in a family that cares only about preserving their stupid name and so called honor. My parents don't give a damn about me or what I want."
Ginny was at a lost for words. If this was a trick, Draco was surely committing to the damn thing.
"I wish I was born as anything but a Malfoy," Draco said quickly, almost savagely Ginny thought. "Even being a Muggle would have been preferable." He paused to regain his composure. "As long as I am a Malfoy," he continued matter-of-factly, "everywhere and anywhere I go there will be whispers about my father and his allegiance to the Dark Lord."
Ginny stood rooted to the ground, her mouth clenched tight in consideration, her eyes focused intently on Draco's back. Was she really hearing this? The hope crept up inside her again.
"Look at me," she said finally. "Turn and look at me."
He did. His eyes seemed sullen, his face absent of its usual scowl or wayward grin.
"Why are you really here?" she asked him carefully.
"To see you," he said steadily. "I didn't lie to you before."
"You'll have to forgive me for questioning your honesty," Ginny said shrewdly, "but the Draco Malfoy I knew hexed first years in the corridors for asking the way to the Astronomy Tower."
Draco's eyes flashed. "I came here to see you, Ginny," he said clearly annoyed, "and if you can't accept the fact that I might not think that all Half-bloods and Muggleborns deserve to be exterminated, then--"
"You called me Ginny," she said cutting across him.
"Yes," Draco sighed tiredly, rubbing his right temple with his hand. "I am fairly sure that is your name."
"You've never used it before," Ginny said almost accusingly.
"I've also generally never kissed you before," he responded dryly. "You're more concerned with the fact that I've called you by your proper name?"
Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Even though Draco was several inches taller than her and her wand was no longer drawn, Ginny's intense gaze made him wary. "What did you mean, earlier?"
"Don't tell me that you don't feel it," Draco said straight away. "I felt something when we kissed, and I didn't even know who you were." He stepped closer to her.
"You know now," she responded, brown eyes still locked on him.
"And I don't care that you're a Weasley," Draco said ardently, pulling her close to him. "I don't care who you are--"
"Let me go, Malfoy," Ginny said harshly, pushing at his chest.
"Will you just listen to me," Draco responded nastily trying to hold her firm in his arms.
"I don't care that you're a Weasley or that our families hate one another. All I care about is the fact that when I'm with you, my life doesn't seem so unbelievably bleak."
Ginny's insides gave an odd squirm. "What are you saying?" she said, in what she hoped was an even tone.
The words tumbled out of his mouth before Draco even knew they were there. "I think I'm in love you, Ginny Weasley," he said determinedly, the corners of his lips turning up into a wicked grin moments later. "Do you think I'd come here and make a complete arse of myself for anything less?"
She blinked. Several questions zoomed into her head at once.
Was this really happening?
Yes, a little voice responded.
No, was this seriously happening?
Again, yes.
Did Draco Malfoy just say what I think he said?
Indeed he did.
His gray eyes looked at her intently, seeming to be searching her very soul. She thought of her mother, whose heart was so settled on her marrying Neville…her father, Lucius Malfoy's personal nemesis…her brothers, who would no doubt be horrified beyond comprehension…
The hope was too strong. She saw it reflected in Draco eyes too…eager, intense, and as all-encompassing as her own. He wanted this. And she knew, despite the fact that the world would be against it, that she wanted it too. She wanted this.
Ginny gave him a small grin. Knowing that he had caught her meaning, she reached up and pulled him down into a deep, slow kiss.
"I was afraid, so afraid it was all a trick," Ginny said finally. She shook her head against his chest. "I'm still afraid. Swear to me that this is real."
"I swear it is," he said resolutely, pulling her from his chest so he could look into her eyes. "I've never been more sure about anything in my life."
"But what about our families? When they find out that we're together we'll have another war on our hands."
"I could care less what my family thinks," Draco said scathingly. "Let them disown me, then they'll be screwed. The Malfoy line dies with me."
Just then Crookshanks appeared. They both watched as the cat licked his lips and gave them a minute meow before taking off back towards the house where Hermione had suddenly appeared.
"Shit," Ginny said immediately.
Draco looked at her rather bemusedly. "Is Granger your baby-sitter or something?" he teased.
Ginny whacked him lightly on the arm. "She's probably come out looking for Crookshanks."
"Good," Draco drawled as he moved in to kiss her again.
"No, Malfoy, not good," she countered turning her cheek to him. "I am currently lurking in these trees with you instead of in the garden, where I told her I was going to be."
Hermione gathered Crookshanks in her arms and scanned the garden, her brow furrowed. She lingered a few moments before disappearing back into the Burrow.
Ginny felt relieved, but not entirely so. "I'd better go before she figures out I'm not in my room."
"What time tomorrow?"
"What?"
"What time should I come back tomorrow?"
"You can't come back here," Ginny said sternly. "Mum's making me have tea tomorrow with Neville, and Hermione is already suspicious of us."
Draco's faced skewed up unpleasantly. "Longbottom?"
Ginny rolled her eyes. "It's a long and inherently ridiculous story. Suffice it to say that my mum is trying to play matchmaker."
Draco raised his eyebrows. "Is that so?"
"Extremely unsuccessfully though, I might add. You see, I sort of like this other bloke," she said to him seriously, "so poor Neville doesn't stand a chance."
Draco had a fleeting image of Pansy, his own betrothed, and his face suddenly reflected his troubled mind.
Ginny took notice immediately. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Draco said dismissively. "It's a long and inherently ridiculous story that I won't bother you with."
When Ginny open her mouth to protest, he pulled her hard against him, into another kiss, this one far more breathless and urgent than the last. They parted a moment later, gasping for air, and Ginny stepped back quickly, looking determined.
"Nine o'clock," she said. "I'll send word to you by nine o'clock tomorrow so we can meet."
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