A/N: Hey guys, been a while since chapter one. But -come one, 438 hits and only 6 reviews? Not exactly encouraging… If you didn't like the first chapter, good news, I think this chapter is much, much better. This chapter is a little shorter. In chapter one I had Draco proposing to Ginny in the present, then I had a flashback to them at school and becoming friends etc. then I had another part of the present, from now on I'm going to be doing more of the school days, not as much of the now. Okay? But whenever I travel between the two, the paragraphs will be separated like this --- if you see this --- it is just the next day, or a little later that day. But anyways, enjoy and please, please review. Constructive criticism, it's what all authors thrive on.
Chapter Two.
Step right up Shoot an arrow at the target My heart is an easy thing for you to hit Don t worry if you miss I'll let you shoot again My heart is an easy thing for you to win -Step Right Up, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
"Mmm, Draco." She moaned softly throwing herself down beside him and kissing his chest, resting her head there.
Draco laughed leisurely placing his hands behind his head. They lay like that for a few moments then he sighed.
"I have to get to work." She declared, kissing him lightly on the lips and rolling off the bed.
"This is getting ridiculous!" Draco groaned.
"I know." Ginny agreed.
Ginny wished so horribly that neither of them had to work. Their hours were completely opposite. Ginny worked for the Ministry of Magic, a tedious desk job that didn't suit her personality at all, she worked from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday whereas Draco worked two casual jobs, one as a muggle bartender at a club 10pm to 4am Friday and Saturday nights and was doing physical labour, hauling supplies to building sites (for some muggle building company that paid poorly) from 5.30am to 8am everyday except Sundays. And with him training to be an Auror Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 4pm they hardly ever got to see each other.
For the past few months they had only been able to see each other for half an hour weekday mornings before Ginny had to go to work and Draco had to leave for his construction job. Ginny, who was still living with her parents, had told her mother that she had joined a weekly book club that ran on Saturdays between 4 and 6pm so that she wouldn't be suspicious and spent that two hours with Draco before disapparating home in time for the whole family dinner that her mother liked to host on Saturdays at 6.30. Sundays were a day of bliss, Draco worked at the club Saturday night and finished at 4am so Ginny apparated to his place at 12pm and made him lunch before spending the day with him.
"Well I become a fully-fledged Auror in two weeks, then we will work the same hours." He smiled at her.
Ginny was astounded, "Two weeks? I thought that the training was two years! This is only the end of your first year."
"Well I wanted to surprise you, but before I started the training I went to the Minister and asked him if I could do the training in one year instead of two, he told me to ask the Head of the Auror office if he would train me five days a week, instead of two and Robards said yes." Draco positively beamed, "But Gin, when are you going to tell your parents? If we lived together it would all be so much simpler!"
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They were still sitting at the base of the huge tree near the lake, watching a dragonfly skim the water of the lake.
"So can I ask you a question?" Draco inquired carefully.
"That depends what it is..." Ginny answered just as carefully, "But go ahead."
"Why do you need a friend? You seem to be pretty close with Potter's crowd."
"It's a long story." Ginny sighed, "Do you really want to hear it?"
"This might sound selfish, but being able to escape my problems, even by diving into someone else's sounds like heaven right now." Draco looked meekly at her.
Ginny sighed and began to tell him everything. About her old feelings for Harry, her Mother just about choking with satisfaction every time they touched, about Harry growing readily more distant and then the day that she found out Harry was cheating on her with Hermione, even though she only had sisterly feelings for Harry it still stung. She told him how badly it hurt when Luna's (the one actual friend of her own that she had) father pulled her out of school because he thought that the Ministry of Magic was reaching out to acquire Hogwarts in its scheme for global domination. And how she hated having to hang around her brother and his friends because everyone in her year teased her about her red hair and her family's lack of riches.
Draco just nodded solemnly, offering no other response. Ginny sat there confused; she wondered what he was thinking.
"Draco, I'm not..."
"Sssh, I'm trying to figure out how to say this," He interrupted holding a finger to her lips automatically before shying away from the contact. "Okay, this might come out wrong, but here it goes: I'm not so sure that I will be a good friend to you. You have to understand that the only friends I have ever had were the kids of Death Eater's, and they don't make for the nicest peer group. They were absolutely horrible and I used to be exactly the same way, if it wasn't for what their parents did to my Mother and Father I might still be that same way. I'm new at this Weasl… Ginny, but I promise to try if you promise to help me along the way."
"I will." Ginny vowed, watching him smile at her as she melted slightly.
She was melting? Not a feeling totally new to her, but a feeling evoked by Malfoy? Impossible. Sure, he might be beginning to redeem himself but he still had a long way to go.
"But please don't be offended if I don't trust you right away. Our families have a lot of bad blood and I'm not sure if I will be able to forget that, but I will try my hardest." She admonished.
"I understand."
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Ginny was finding it impossible to sleep. She lay in her four-poster staring at the ceiling in the pitch black, thinking about the unexpected friendship that had occurred between her and Draco Malfoy and the curious melting sensation that he had incurred. She was still awake when it started to lighten outside, giving up sleep as a lost cause; she changed and decided to take a walk.
She strolled out the oak doors and towards the lake, just in time to see the sun rising above the mountains and shedding its watery light on the breathtaking Hogwarts grounds. Glad it was only a Sunday, she stretched out on a patch of grass and watched the brightening sunlight play across the wispy clouds in the sky. All of a sudden she was overwhelmingly tired, she was having trouble opening her eyes with every blink. Eventually she succumbed to the peaceful sleep that stole over her, even though she was lying on slightly dewy, lumpy ground.
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Ginny awoke; the first thing she saw was that the sun was directly overhead. Midday. The second thing she noticed was the emaciated, pale figure sitting beside her. He was bone thin, with deep bruise-like shadows under his eyes and sunken, hollow cheeks. His hair was un-brushed and falling about his face. He had his hands wrapped around his knees, his chin resting heavily on top. She sat up, suddenly frightened.
She had seen him just yesterday; surely he hadn't looked like this then. She cast her mind back. Sure yesterday he was thin, but he always had been, thin but muscular. Now he just looked ill. Yesterday there were no shadows under his eyes, nor was that haunted look buried in the depths of those eyes. His cheeks had always been a little sunken, highlighting his perfect angular features, but not like this. Had his skin always been so sickly?
"Draco, what's happened?" She asked in a quivering voice.
He looked at her, startled. "Oh, glad to see you've rejoined the land of the living." He tried to joke, smiling fleetingly although it wasn't echoed in his eyes.
"Please, tell me. You look horrible."
"They sent me another photo." His voice was cold, emotionless -like he was reading the statistics of the number smokers in Britain off a sheet of paper. "This time it was of my mother and my father together. Scalped."
His voice gave way at the end, crumbling -his face following seconds after. She watched as he sunk into a personal hell. She watched as he retreated so far into that hell that she worried if he would ever come back -ever recover.
She threw her arms around him, trying to alleviate at least a little of his burden. Trying to convey to him in a simple gesture how much she was hurting for him and how much she wanted to make everything okay, although she knew that she could never make this go away, never fix this hurt. It ran too deep.
She felt his body begin to shake as he wrapped his arms around her and began to sob. He sobbed with so much anguish that she wanted, for the first time in her life, to kill someone. She wanted to kill the death eaters for doing this to her friend. He clutched at her robes and began to really cry. There was something horribly wrong about seeing Draco Malfoy cry. It was like seeing a peacock with a broken leg. The elegance, the carefully cultivated fa�ade was gone, it was terribly, terribly wrong.
It might have been minutes, hours, days later when he stopped shaking and became still, she was totally absorbed in his pain, she hadn't noticed the time passing. Even though he was no longer crying he made no move to untangle himself from their embrace, just as she made no move to untangle herself.
A/N: I hope you guys liked it. Please review letting me know what you think. If you aren't following the plot please let me know ASAP and I will try and fix that. Xoxo
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