Here is the next chapter, I hope you all like it. I have enjoyed reading all of your reviews and I hope to hear more out of all of you after this chapter. I will do my best and take in mind some of the suggestions you guys have put forth. Anyways, thanks again for all the reviews!! Please read, review, and enjoy!!
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Chapter 5: Rememberings and Letters
That night, as Arianna sat on her bed looking around her dorm room that she shared with Kayle and another girl named Magdelena (Maggie for short) Finnigan, she thought about all that had happened that day. She had left her family home, traveled a long distance with her cousins and brother, fought with Evan Potter, made a new good friend, and was sorted into the house which her father hated, all in one day. Arianna didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. After the feast, she had followed her prefect up to her new home in Gryffindor Tower. Then she went to the Owlery to send letters to her parents. She had written one for each of them, and she hoped they didn't compare notes. Arianna decided to quit worrying and go to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day and she needed to sleep, everything else would take care of itself.
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Ginny Malfoy sat on a sofa "reading" a book, but in actuality she was watching her husband pace back and forth in front of the fireplace. She was beginning to worry about the safety of the rug, because soon Draco would wear through and be walking on the wood floor. While it was mildly disturbing to see him anxious like this, Ginny always found it cute and somewhat endearing. It had always been a mild fear of hers that Draco wouldn't allow himself to get close to the children, because then they could be viewed as weaknesses.
Ginny knew how that kind of rejection could feel. When her and Draco had managed to stop fighting and throwing hexes at each other long enough to realize they felt something for one another, Draco had refused to admit it and give into it. He always kept pushing Ginny away when she began to learn things about him because he didn't want her to get attached. She vividly remembered the night they had had their knock down, drag out fight over it…
It was during the war, and Ginny had just had one of her hardest days yet. All she wanted was to curl up in Draco's arms and act like the wizarding world wasn't falling apart around them. So, she silently crept from her tent, which she shared with Hermione and Luna, and walked towards the back of the camp where the "secret weapons" had their tents. The "secret weapons" were a select group of Death Eaters and almost Death Eaters that the Order had convinced of changing sides or captured and made them change sides. Draco was a Death Eater but when the Order captured him he was not one anyone wanted to deal with it. He refused to listen to Harry and Ron, for obvious reasons, and he only mocked Hermione, so Dumbledore decided to employ a last resort, Ginny Weasley. Dumbledore thought maybe since Draco knew less about Ginny he wouldn't be able to put up good defenses against her.
Ginny went into their first meeting together with very little fear but also very little hope of converting Malfoy. He was right next to his father in the list of Voldemort's right hand men. There was no way this high ranking Death Eater would allow himself to just flip sides at the drop of a hat. Ginny knew this, but she also knew that she would try her best because she wanted to prove herself. She no longer wanted to be just little Ginny Weasley or Ron's little sister or the girl who always made goo-goo eyes at Harry Potter. She wanted to be Ginny Weasley, the one who converted a Malfoy.
The meetings at first were cold and full of verbal assaults, but just when Ginny began to give up all hope, Malfoy began to ask her questions. Not just any kind of question, but questions like, "Why do support the order?", "What do you think of Voldemort?", and "What was it like to have him in your head?" These questions puzzled Ginny, but she answered them anyway. She didn't know why but she did it, but she thought it might help him to understand. Ginny Weasley did not fight with the Order because of Harry, Dumbledore, her family, or Voldemort. She fought with the Order because she believed in keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Ginny knew Voldemort; he shared her brain for a year. Voldemort no longer scared her. No what scared her was the nonchalance of her friends and family over the whole situation. Ginny had been alone her whole first year at Hogwarts, Percy was busy with being prefect, Ron was busy hanging out with Harry and Hermione, and Fred and George were just causing trouble. Tom had been her only friend. Even after everything had happened and been revealed her family didn't care. They watched Ginny but never really saw the new her. Part of the little girl they knew had died in the chamber with Tom, her innocence. Ginny no longer feared evil because she had seen and been a part of the greatest evil. It was supposed friendship that she feared, because when she needed everyone the most they abandoned her - not in the chamber but afterwards when she tried to heal. It was this fact, that little Ginny Weasley did not fear Voldemort, that made Draco think about his alliances. He saw a strength in Ginny to stand up to the monster that even his father feared, and he wanted that strength too. Draco wasn't scared per say of evil, but he respected it and therefore had supported it for a long time.
It was after his switching sides that Draco began to see the true Ginny Weasley and liked it. It was that relationship that had Ginny creeping to the back of the camp that fateful night. Ginny was tired of not being able to hear how Draco truly felt about her, how she knew he felt but was too scared to admit. Tonight she would find out once and for all, or she would give up what she wanted most, Draco. Ginny moved through the flap to his tent and watched his reaction at seeing her.
"Gin, what are you doing here? It's not safe."
"I don't care, Draco. I want to be with you right now so I am. I don't care what could happen or probably will happen, I just need to be near you right now."
"Ginny, we can't do this anymore. It is too dangerous for you. Just go back to your tent."
"No, I will not leave. Why is it so dangerous? I know there is a war going on, but I am in a safe camp with a great fighter. Why should I feel danger?" Ginny demanded of Draco.
"I'm not saying you aren't safe in camp. I'm saying you're not safe with me," Draco responded his ire slowly rising. They had had this conversation before. It wasn't that he didn't care about her, but it was because he did. He had never told her that but had always changed the topic or left the room. She couldn't know how he felt, no one could, or she could die.
"So, what? Are you going to hurt me? Are you going to return to big, bad Death Eater ways and hurt me, Draco?"
"No!"
"Then what? Why am I not safe with you? I lov.."
"Don't say it. Don't you dare say it. We both know this has to be just a fling and nothing can come of it," Draco said, scared that she might actually agree with him.
"Why? Why is it so wrong for us to be together?" Ginny raised her hand to stop Draco's reply. "Let me finish, and don't interrupt. I fought hard today. I almost died a couple times, but luckily I got a counter curse off fast enough. But when I felt outnumbered or thought we wouldn't win, do you know what I thought about? You, Draco. I thought about how much I love you and how I owe it to you to stay in the fight, because I was the one that made you change sides. So, tell me please, how I am not safe with the man I love?"
"You can't love me."
"Why not? Is it because you have never been loved before or because you don't love me? Tell me, Draco. Tell me right now whether or not you love me. If you don't I will leave right now and never bother you again. Just tell me the truth."
Draco stared at Ginny and contemplated lying to her just to save her. The only problem with this logic was that by lying to her he would lose her forever - a thought which didn't necessarily appeal to him but would be in her best interests.
"Wow, maybe with that scintillating response I should just go," Ginny remarked with tears forming in her eyes as she turned to leave the tent. She hoped he would wake up from his stunned silence before she left the tent, but he didn't. She walked through the door and into the cold night without even a goodbye from him. Ginny cried as she walked back to her tent and then proceeded to cry herself to sleep.
In the early morning hours, before the sun even began to rise, Ginny was startled awake by something touching her face. Puzzled she tried to climb out of her depressed stupor, and when she fully came awake it was to the feel of someone's lips pressing against hers. Ginny moaned in her throat and opened her mouth on a sigh, which only allowed the captor of her lips to move his tongue in to touch hers. Ginny moved her hands up to run her fingers through her "assailant's" hair and hold him in place. After a while though, Ginny realized she needed air and reluctantly released her grip.
As his lips separated from hers, Draco murmured, "I love you, Ginevra. Without you I don't think I would ever be able to find happiness in this damned world. I pushed you away because I love you. If anyone knew that, they would come after you to get to me and make me pay for my transgressions. But after you left last night I realized that I had hurt you more than they ever could. I'm sorry."
Ginny opened her eyes and allowed her tears to fall again, only this time they weren't tears of sadness, but rather of joy. "Say it again," she murmured as she looked into the slate eyes she loved.
"I'm sorry. Please don't cry."
"Not that you prat. The other part. Say it again until you get used to it."
"I love you, you silly, little bint," Draco said as he smirked at her.
"That's better, and more like the wanker I love." Ginny laughed. She was too happy to do anything else. "Don't worry either. I can hex and protest myself with the best of them. We will just take things as they come."
"I should know, love," Draco whispered as he relaxed besides her. They stayed like that until the sun started to shine through the tent. Draco said his goodbyes and left before he would be noticed…
That morning was the morning of the final battle. Ginny knew some of the things that happened that day and then knew there were parts she would never be told about. That was something Draco had to decide if he would tell her.
Just then there was a pecking at the window. Draco rushed over to let the owl in, and Ginny sat back smiling to herself. Draco took the letters from the owl, gave it a treat, and shooed it away. He then turned to his wife with a huge grin on his face.
"Letters from Arianna," Draco said as he handed Ginny hers and tore into his own. "She's in Gryffindor!"
Ginny startled at this, but once she looked up and saw the pure joy on her husband's face, she relaxed. "Miracles can happen," she thought to herself. "A Slytherin who is proud to have a daughter in Gryffindor - hmm, stranger things have happened, I guess."
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Draco kept looking at the clock and thinking that the feast had to be over by now, so why hadn't he heard from Arianna? He was dying to know what house she had been sorted into. He was just about to floo McGonagall when he heard a peck at the window. "Those damn well better be from Arianna," he thought as he took the letters off the owl's leg. One was addressed to "Mum" and the other "Daddy". Draco walked over to Ginny, handed her her letter and said, "Letters from Arianna." He then proceeded to tear into his. The first three words made him extremely proud. "She's in Gryffindor!" he exclaimed at his overly complacent wife, and then went back to reading.
Daddy,
I'm in Gryffindor. Please don't be too upset with me. I know how much you would like me to be Slytherin, but I guess it just didn't work out that way. I love you, and I promise not to become a "pompous Griff" like you call Uncle Ron.
I also made a couple new friends, but their parents were also Gryffindors so I don't know if you know them. Kayle Longbottom, I met on the way to the castle while in the boats. Then I met Magdelena a.k.a Maggie Finnigan when she was the third girl sorted into Gryffindor. It's just the three of us. The cousins tell me to tell you not to worry because they will take care of me. Hogwarts is beautiful. I thought I had a good idea of what it looked like based on the descriptions you, Mum, and Damon have given me, but I was wrong. Well, I should send this off so you know I am ok and being well taken care of.
I love you,
Arianna.
P.S. Hagrid promises to keep me away from Hippogriffs.
Draco laughed at his daughter's last statement and then sat down to pen a reply.
"Draco, make sure you let her know you aren't made that she is in Gryffindor. She's scared about that," Ginny told him.
"I plan to love. I couldn't be more proud."
My little Angel,
I am so happy to hear that you are in Gryffindor. I could not be more proud of you my darling. Don't worry about me being upset. I am sure I will be happy with anything you do as along as it doesn't or shouldn't get you in trouble. Don't take notes from your brother and cousins in that area. I'm glad to hear you are going to be well taken care of. Take care sweetheart and write back whenever you want or when you get a chance.
Love you lots,
Dad
P.S. Stay away from all Slytherin boys except your brother and cousins.
Draco folded up his letter to go out on the owl in the morning, and then went to find his wife to find out why she hadn't said anything all night long.
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