Out of Our Control
Preface: The Beginning
Disclaimer: I do not own anything HP related in the past or present, blah, blah, blah…
"There are some things in this life that are out of our control: like who we fall in love with and when it's time to go." -Dusty Drake
He knew when he woke up the day would an interesting one. There just seemed to be something in the air that told him this. He felt it rush through his body and end in a shiver. It could have been the crispness on the beautiful fall day; or perhaps that there was good news in the letter he received from his parents the night before; it could even have been from the perfect breakfast his house elf had made him. Whatever the reason was, when Draco left his house that morning, his day only progressed.
It started out as a typical weekday morning: headed to café Pickles for his morning scone, then onto the sit on the bench in front of the London Eye to read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Being in muggle England, naturally it had a charm on it to look like the normal Oxford Gazette. And when the time that he normally checked in at work arrived, Draco strolled down Dartmouth Street to MalCorp.
He stood outside a moment, rather pleased with himself as he admired the building. It was the sixth installment he made after his parents went into retirement a couple years ago, leaving everything to him. He had made the decision then to readjust his outlook on life. Why kill all the muggles when you can simply take advantage of their naivety.
The company employed mostly wizards and witches for the upper management jobs and lowly muggles trying to make ends meet for the entry level positions. No muggle ever made it past a mere supervisor.
His company took off within the first six months. He had made a huge risk buying three dying corporations at once, regrouped them, reorganized, re-staffed and then let them loose on the public. Soon the gold was pouring in. This led to his buying branches four, five and six; named nothing but MalCorp and the street they were on.
He had made his personal office at MalCorp-Dartmouth (although he did have one in each building). Draco loved the old buildings and dark secrets surrounding this particular area more so than the others. Not to mention the views were phenomenal.
The day had streamed by pretty quickly and before he knew it, Draco was back out walking the streets of downtown getting ready to head home, when he heard a familiar name being spat like poison. "Do not touch me, Harry Potter!" With a slight narrow of his eyes, Draco turned to watch the scene unfold.
Draco leaned back on the corner of the building, out of direct view from the quarrelling duo with a smirk. He had turned just in time to see the small red-head push none other than perfect-Potter away from her. Had he not known better, Draco would have thought he could see loathing on her features, but that could not be. The little Weasley and Saint Potter were bound to be married by now.
"Come on, Ginny. Hear me out." He pleaded.
"I have nothing to say to you nor do I wish to hear what you have to say."
The words were like venom dripping from her lips. He half expected her to spit at him; that is what lowly blood-traitors do after all. But she didn't, instead she moved to start her escape only to be cut off by the boy again.
"Ginny, we really need to resolve this. It's been years. People are suffering." He said as he tried to hold her hand.
She snatched it away like he was fire. "Touch me again, Potter and I'll hex you right here in front of all these muggles."
Draco's eyes widened in surprise. Little Miss Weasley had referred to him as Potter?! Something was wrong and yet sooo right. He could feel a little spark in him that propelled him to move forward. Ginny had moved off to the side to get around him again but Potter was attempting to corner her. Draco didn't know quite what he'd do or say but a chance to make Potter even madder was hard to pass up.
He walked up behind Potter right as he was going to hold her shoulders in an attempt to make her listen without retreating. His left hand never made it so far.
"Is everything alright here, Ginevra?"
Potter turned in surprise that quickly boiled into anger. "Do not touch me you filthy snake." He said filching his hand back.
"I do believe the lady had told you the same thing."
"This does not concern you." He growled.
"Actually," Ginny started, slapping his other hand off her left shoulder. "It does. Thank you, Draco. You're timing is perfect, per usual." She stuck her nose in the air a little and pushed past Potter. Draco held out his arm for her and she linked her hand in the fold of his elbow.
"Evening, Potter." Draco said as he led Ginny away with a smirk.
She didn't so much as look back. Instead she continued to grumble about 'that damned Potter' until they were well around the corner.
Draco couldn't decide which part of this he liked more: the look on Potter's face when the two of them walked away together; the fact that the one girl he wanted attention from walked away on his arm; that same girl referring to him as Potter; or simply the looks he received from the passersby. All were a treat in one form or another and he couldn't keep the smirk from his face no matter how hard he tried to remove it.
He looked down to the small Weasley on his arm. She had grown in the years since Hogwarts. Her hair had grown long, a dark sleek fiery sheet of silk. Her eyes were hard and dark. She had turned rather thin as well, but he could feel the strength in her hand as she attempted to let her stress leave her. Her freckles still dominated her face but they seemed so dense that they made it appear that she had a darker skin tone than hundreds of freckles.
He was still watching her when she huffed, which to him sounded like a cross between a growl and a sigh. She stopped and looked up to him and his observations about her eyes were true. They were a dark, cold brown that seemed to go on forever. The liveliness that once radiated off her now came in chilling waves of defiance and hot waves of rage.
Her expression was bored when she spoke. "Thanks. I really didn't want to break our law of mixing magic with muggles. But oh, I would have."
Draco felt a smirk replace his coy grin. "Anything to piss Potter off is a pleasure."
"If that's the only reason you need, I'm sure you'd enjoy being in my shadow for a day."
"I see it wasn't the happily ever after marriage you thought it would be."
"Marriage?!" She scoffed. "Not a chance in this world! Not after the hell's he put me through."
Draco smiled. "May I treat you to some coffee? I know some silent charms to turn it into just about anything you can imagine. A little fire whiskey, possibly. Take the edge off."
Ginny only seemed to think about it for a second before nodding stiffly. "Alright. Perhaps if Potter things I'm involved with you, he'll back off a little. And I will never touch the stuff as long as I live." She said forebodingly. He could have sworn he had seen her eyes cloud over a little.
He brought her to the cute Café Noir on Palmer Street. They talked for hours and it seemed that she might just dislike The-Boy-Who-Lived as much as he, if not a little more. Every time he was merely referred to, a heat rose over her and her eyes would flash something he associated with a death glare. But it wasn't this night that he would find out the reason, though he was sure she had one.
-----
That was three weeks ago, seven dates ago. He had been out with her last night too but at the end he had asked her out for the following Saturday (it was now Friday) instead of waiting his usual two days before contacting her for another. And when she had answered she had given him a peculiar look; one he couldn't quite read. At first he thought it was pained but when she exhaled and nodded, agreeing with a sigh, he realized it was pained but not necessarily because she didn't want to.
But then he had received an owl from her at work asking for him to meet her for lunch. He had sent her a chocolate bar from Rococo Chocolates when he was visiting MalCorp-Marylebone. He knew her love for chocolate- she always ordered something layered in it or doused in it. So he had owled it to her on his way back. When he entered his office there was an owl there with a letter attached to it from Ginny asking if he'd meet her for lunch at noon at Café Noir.
So Draco walked back out of his office with parchment in hand. On his way he bought a single white rose, tied the small card containing his response and headed to his destination to meet her.
He walked in and she was enthralled in a book, sitting at a back table with nothing but a mug of something warm in front of her. She didn't look like she had been in a good mood today, in fact, she looked rather pissy.
The look made him smirk. There were certain moods on women that had a pleasant affect on him, and though her darkness was enthralling, it was her smiles and laughter he strived for. She was a completely different person than she used to be; one Draco couldn't seem to stop thinking about. That both captivated and irritated him.
Draco strolled over and dropped the rose in her book before taking a seat across from her. He saw a small smirk form as she read the simple 'yes' he had scrolled on the small card he had attached as his reply. Ginny closed her book without marking the page which led him to believe she hadn't really been reading at all.
"So, couldn't wait till tomorrow night to see me?"
"You figured it out. How ever will I hide it now?" She said with a pointed look.
He ordered himself a latte. When it arrived he charmed it into a Butterbeer. "To what do I owe this luncheon, my dear Ginevra?"
"Actually, its not necessarily pleasant business, if you want to consider it business at all."
"When with you, it's normally pleasure." He said sipping his beverage of choice.
She nodded, sadly he thought. "Today you might think otherwise."
Draco was about to counter what he thought was banter when she started rummaging in her cloak before pulling out a small photograph and placing it in front of him. Draco looked down at the black-haired, green-eyed boy who stared up at him blinking. He had a somewhat stoic expression for one so young- couldn't have been more than four. There wasn't much of a smile present either.
Draco looked back up to Ginny, who for once had a little bit of expression to her. Still he couldn't quite name what he saw in her features. "Why are you giving me a picture of Potter when he was young?"
Her eyes immediately told him that he wasn't seeing the point. It that moment he knew; he was ignoring what it really meant. She gave a slight shake of her head before asking him if he saw a scar.
He didn't and turned it over to see the name scrolled across the back read 'Daigen Weasley, 3 years.'
Dread clutched his stomach in a fist and began squeezing to the point of nausea. It was he shaking his head this time as he looked back up to her. "Tell me something I want to hear." He said very quietly.
She gave what sounded like a bitter chuckle and a sarcastic nod as she looked down. Then she shrugged before her eyes met his again. The things he had always read in her eyes didn't make sense to the fact that she had a child. With Harry Potter. Her eyes should be soft and warm oppose to hard and cold. She shouldn't be filled with so much hate and rage toward the family she had- or at least the father of her son.
"He's the reason I hate Potter. Or it may be the other way around; a combination of the both. That boy is the reason I hate everything with black hair and green eyes. He's the source of my misery and anger and depression."
It sounded as if she were talking about Potter but instead kept referring to the child. "Where is he now?" He heard himself ask, not sure of what his mind was trying to settle on.
"My mothers, as always."
"But I've dropped you off at your apartment. I've even been inside once-"
"He lives with her, I live alone."
"And Potter?"
"I don't know where he lives but it's not with me or my mother. He's forbidden to take the child outside of my mother's house."
"Why?"
"Because I say so." She said darkly.
There was a long moment of silence in which Draco stared at the picture of the child. What seemed like hours later he looked back to her, to her same bored hard look. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Had he been anyone else's I'd have simply told you I had a child. But he's not just anyone else's. Also, I've seen you more in the past three weeks than I've seen anyone related to me, including that child. I thought you had a right to know so your decisions to keep asking me out are based on all the attributes of my life, including the ones I didn't ask for or want and can't get rid of."
With that said she gave him a weary smile and stood. She placed some money on the table for her beverage before retreating, drawing her hood up as she walked out the door.
Draco was left staring at a picture of Potter's son. Ginny's son. And yet, something just didn't seem right. Not right at all.
-LC
