Chapter 5 is back by popular demand of just about everybody! *Author blows kisses to crowd of adoring fans that only exist in imagination*
Heh…sorry about that…I can get a little wrapped up in my fantasies…
Hrm….it seems like just about everybody at Hogwarts is in love…Blaise included ! And with a girl two years younger! Scandalous. (Note: Alice's birthday is soon after the start of the school year, like mine, so she's always older than everybody else in her year. So in this fic, she's already fifteen.)
Enjoy le fanfiction!
Obligatory disclaimer #5: You know by now I don't own Harry Potter.
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Chapter Five: Choices Are Hard…
It wasn't that the plan was complicated. It was simple really.
Ginny just didn't know if she had the heart to go through with it. The first phase she didn't mind. It was the end result that made her guilty conscious catch up with her.
When she confided in Draco, his response was:
"Come on, Gin. A prankster can't have a conscience. Otherwise how would we do what we do?"
She rolled her eyes at him. He was always all about "a prankster can't…" and "a prankster can…" It really got on her nerves.
But he was so awfully goddamned cute.
Ginny wasn't sure when she started picking up on it. It was like it hadn't been there one day, and then POOF! The next day everything he did was adorable. His smile, his finely blond hair, so different from Harry's…every aspect of Draco Malfoy gave her this warm gooey feeling inside that she didn't particularly trust.
She trusted him. She just wasn't sure if she trusted herself.
Neville and Seamus continued to give her support as she geared up, unbeknownst to them, for the first phase of the plan. Ginny had to continue pretending to hate the Slytherins, which was really difficult because she liked them all so much as people. Once or twice, in the hallway, she caught herself smiling at Pansy or Draco or Blaise. (For the second meeting of the Slythendor Prank Committee, she had met Blaise. She almost liked him better than Draco.)
Since they had set up Phase 1 already, and it required a small amount of waiting beforehand, they really had no reason to meet as a Prank Committee anymore. Occasionally Pansy and Ginny would make plans to go to the Room of Requirement to study together after dinner, or Blaise would tutor her in Potions, but these visits were few and far between.
She tried to distance herself from Draco. Ginny couldn't let it slip how much she was obsessed with him, for fear of being rejected. Also, she was afraid of the whole Death Eater thing.
Ginny wasn't afraid of what he could do to her as Voldemort's servant.
No, she was afraid to find out what Voldemort could do to him if You-Know-Who ever found out that Draco was her friend.
So she tried her hardest not to be his friend.
But it was so hard…especially when he stared at her with those meltingly warm eyes, or smiled his frosty smile, or smirked at her like he knew something she didn't.
It made her go weak at the knees.
She didn't think about Harry or Hermione once in her daydreams. They weren't her main concern. The issue at the forefront of her mind was Draco, always Draco…
Ginny found herself returning increasingly often to the dream she had had over a month ago, the one in which they were married.
And to think it had once horrified her!
Now she was intoxicated by the prospect.
"Ginny…Ginny?" A pale hand waved in front of her face.
The redhead realized with a start that the very person she was trying so hard to avoid was standing right in front of her. And she had been doing such a good job too…if you didn't count daydreams.
All the blood in Ginny's body rushed to her head. She cursed herself for blushing. Could she be any more obvious?
"Are you all right?" Draco Malfoy asked her, concern evident in his face.
She glanced around; the library was deserted. Christmas break had done a number on the population of the school.
"Fine," Ginny said, forcing a smile to her lips.
He sat down next to her and she made no move to protest. His eyebrows quirked. "Could it be that Ginevra Weasley no longer cares that I choose to hang around her?"
She shrugged. Her face turned even redder, if it was possible.
"Do you want to know what I think?" She didn't really, but she nodded anyway. "I don't think you can stay away."
"Whatever," she muttered, choosing to ignore his second comment. "How can I be friends with a Death Eater?"
To his credit, Draco barely flinched. But something in his expression turned steely once the words were hanging in the open. "Do you want me to tell you something?"
"Depends on what it is." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Ginny really hadn't meant to flirt. There was just something about Draco that brought out that side of her.
"My father has been a Death Eater basically since he got out of school," the blond boy started, settling down in his seat. "All my ancestors before him would have joined up, if the Dark Lord had been in their time.
"I grew up in a house that taught only Dark magic. I learned cruelty from a young age, watching my father perform the Cruciatus Curse on our house-elf and our maid. He made me watch. I never knew anything else.
"So at the tender young age of eleven, I arrived at Platform Nine and Three Quarters armed with an arrangement of Unforgivables and illegal hexes. `Make us proud,' my father said as I got on the train.
"I still don't know who `us' is. He probably meant the family, probably meant him. But to me, `us' was always anyone and everyone watching, from your family at the train station to teachers to friends. So you can imagine my reluctance to accept that Harry Potter would be watching me too, not as a guiding force, but as a peer.
"God," Draco said, laughing humorlessly. "It sounds incredibly paranoid and self-centered when I say it out loud. But it was all I ever knew. You grew up around people who loved you. You were dirt poor, but at least you had friendship and happiness. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about."
Ginny said nothing.
"And then second year…you walked into the Great Hall. My world lit up. There was a goal, something to show off to the nameless watchers. You.
"But I soon learned that you were a Weasley, and the Weasley name was mud to my family. I already hated your idiot brother. But I didn't want to hate you too. So I couldn't decide between you or them. Torn by indecision, I watched for five years as you grew into the person you are. I could wait, I decided. I didn't have to choose."
"Choices are hard," Ginny murmured, laying a hand on his arm in comfort.
He laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. "Yes…I know that all too well. I could see by the end of your fourth year that it was Harry you loved, never me. I was always the bratty little Slytherin, who got everything except what he truly wanted.
"So you can probably imagine what my response was when the Dark Lord said he could give me anything. Anything! Just for a tattoo and a small task.
"`It's a small thing,' he told me. `One thing and then anything you want and more-it's all yours.'
"He wouldn't tell me what I had to do, but he assured me that it was trivial, that I could do it as well as anyone else. God, I was a fool.
"So he gave me this thing," he continued, pulling up his sleeve to reveal the Mark. It was a faint gray, like it had faded over time. The green-gray snake was slithering slowly. It made Ginny shiver to look at it. "And tells me I have to kill Dumbledore.
"When I didn't do it…the offer was revoked. Painfully. And Snape got all the power he desired, rising to the side of his beloved Dark Lord.
"And I was left with a tattoo I didn't want and a dream that I could never achieve. I told myself to leave you alone. But it's not possible." He lifted his face to hers; it was as white as a sheet.
"Anything's possible," she said quietly, gripping his hand.
Draco smirked, but it wasn't the cocky smirk she knew. It was almost…half-hearted. "You don't get it, do you?"
"Give me a little credit," Ginny murmured, cupping his cheek in her palm. He flinched. The gesture was a little motherly.
"Ginny, I want you. That's why I've been an angsty lump of wasted humanity ever since you came to school. Ginny-I love you."
The words hung in the air like a smell that lingers long after whatever has caused it is gone. "I honestly don't know what to say to that," Ginny said, stunned.
His face turned crimson. It was the first time Ginny had ever seen Draco Malfoy flustered. But then the moment was gone as quickly as it had come. "So you still have to make a decision."
"About what?" she said. She couldn't remember what he was talking about, what he had just said. All Ginny knew was that his green tee-shirt made him look positively gorgeous, and that she was literally speechless in his presence.
"Me or them. And I thought you might need a little help with that…"
Draco pressed his lips to hers, and her head was suddenly spinning.
Were those really her arms, wrapping around him?
Were those really his hands in her hair?
Was this just a dream?
If it was, it was a really, really good dream.
He pulled away all too soon. "Think about it, will you?" Draco said with a shadow of his old cheeky grin.
Ginny was left alone in an old library, with nothing but the lingering warmth of his arms and the memory of a kiss.
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Blaise was waiting for Draco when he came out of the library. The blond boy started. "I thought you were going home for Christmas," he said, feeling weirdly guilty.
"What did you do?" The dark-skinned boy's voice was flat, emotionless. Draco stared at him wordlessly. "What did you do?" Blaise's tone was more forceful this time.
"I-I kissed her," Draco admitted, staring at his hands. When he looked up, his friend was staring at him with a mix of horror and admiration.
"Come on, you idiot." Blaise grabbed the collar of his tee-shirt.
"Where the hell are you taking me?" Draco complained as he allowed himself to be dragged down the long corridor. As they turned a corner, he caught a glimpse of Ginny walking back in the general direction of Gryffindor Tower.
"We're going to see McGonagall," Blaise said grimly, releasing the blond boy as they approached the stone gargoyles. "Cockroach cluster," he said to the guard.
The gargoyle sprang away from the entrance. The two boys traveled up the moving staircase wordlessly. Inside, Draco's mind was roiling. What had happened? He hadn't done anything bad, had he? It was just a freaking kiss. Only a kiss.
Right?
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Thank you time!
Vera Bradley, for making those adorably wonderful handbags
God, for insisting that people need the day off on weekends
Things are about to get interesting…Sorry if it seems like I'm deviating from the plot a bit…and in case you're wondering, we never find out what the prank was. Sorry. If you're curious, you can ask Draco Malfoy. *Laugh*
P.S. If it seems like Draco gave the whole spiel all at once, I'm sorry…I know he wouldn't probably do that in "real life" but I'm playing around with character dynamics and stuff…Wow he actually ended up being pretty sappy in the end. Who woulda thought?
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