Now, Then And Forever

Now, Then And Forever

A/N: Argh! Evil attack of the D/G plotbunnies! They keep annoying me! I know I really shouldn't be starting new fics at the moment but... Hey, I just gotta write the ideas of they'll keep haunting me. shivers Featuring BadGirl!Ginny and GoodieTwoShoes!Draco. (Kind of, or as good as The Draco Malfoy can get at least!)

Disclaimer: The HP characters all belong to J. K. Rowling. Not me. Sad fact, but it's true. Didn't you know?

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"But I-"

"Mr. Malfoy, we believe that you would be the best man for this job. Every other Auror has their jobs to do and orders to follow relating the case. They follow their orders; I will not give you special treatment. You yourself know, too, about the... strained relationship between Miss Weasley and the rest of her family. It's more likely that she'll give it to you than to one of them," The stern-faced Auror looked down at Draco Malfoy.

"She bloody hated me at Hogwarts!" Draco burst out desperately.

"It's an order, Mr. Malfoy. No more buts. This is a direct order from your superior, so go!" Draco sighed resignedly and nodded. Stephan Collins relaxed and smiled. "Good. You will go as soon as possible. Take as long as you need to, but whatever else, bring back the wand!"

~*~*~*~*~

Draco looked down at the piece of paper in his had. "Number twelve," he muttered. "Number twelve, twelve, twelve." He simply couldn't find the house Ginny Weasley lived in. Looking down again at the paper, he walked straight into a lamppost. "Damn!" It was idiotic how he had to be the one to go on a bloody wild-goose-chase. Potter should have gone, or Granger. Or bloody Weasley. "You're the best man for this job," he mimicked his Superior.

Only a select few knew Ginny Weasley moved to a Muggle place in England, living solely as a Muggle, with no magic at all. How she survived, he didn't know. There was a huge mystery about her disappearance. All that the public was told about her was that after the big confrontation with Voldemort and Harry Potter in The Burrow, she left. Just went like that. Packed and Apparated away. No one except those who were there knew the reason she had left. The Weasleys didn't speak of her and when asked replied so coldly whoever had dared question them backed off immediately. It had been five years now and suddenly he had to find her.

Or rather, find her wand. The ministry had found out that there were some Dark Arts workers looking for wands that had been in the presence of You-Know-Who during his second downfall. Apparently they thought that they could use the wand to resurrect him, as it had been in the presence of his strength and therefore was powerful enough to make him rise again. It didn't matter which wand, as long as it had been there. All the other wands had been locked up in an extremely powerful safe and only Dumbledore knew where it was. Much to annoyance of their owners, although they were supplied with temporary wands.

Draco thought it was a load of rubbish. As if that could happen. He had been raised in a Dark Arts family and was sceptical that anything like that was even remotely possible. But orders were orders.

It suddenly started to drizzle. Then rain rather heavily. Soon it was pouring. "Argh!" he shouted, "Where's bloody number twelve?!" Later he supposed that someone up there must have been looking out for him, as (in Draco's words) 'In a stroke of bloody good luck!' a door some houses away swung open and a red-headed woman looked out.

***

"Draco Malfoy!" she laughed hysterically. "Draco Malfoy!"

"Oh gee, you know my name! Oh wow! You know my name!" Draco said in a false high falsetto voice before scowling. "It's dark, pouring and I'm bloody tired. You gonna ask me in or should I just come in anyway?" Though he was acting annoyed, he was actually consumed with amazement and shock.

He had almost gasped aloud when he got a closer look at the 'new' Ginny Weasley. She – for starters – was smoking. Her! And her clothing was a shocker too. She was wearing a very, very tight Muggle 'Hard Rock Café' T-shirt and – oh my god, was it leather? – leather pants, as well as a snakeskin belt. Had he been a girl he would have shrieked "Oh my gawd!" but he wasn't. He was a guy and Ginny Weasley was very, very hot.

"Come in," she coughed and stood aside. "You're wet." she commented, eyeing his sodden appearance.

"Thanks for telling me. I hadn't noticed."

She brushed past his sarcasm and merely replied with a casual, "S'okay. So. Why the hell are you at my house and how can I help you?"

"You have a highly original way of speaking."

"Thank you. Originality is good. Being normal is boring."

"And that's why you dress like that." He eyed her clothing again.

"How I dress is none of your business. But you find this outfit shocking? Look." She pulled her flaming red hair back and showed him the three pairs of earrings she had. All at the bottom, not the top. When he remarked on that she told him, "The top hurts. My friend told me. But you're avoiding the subject. What do you want?"

"Your wand," he said simply.

Ginny studied his face while he looked back nonchalantly. "Fine." She got up and went to the drawer close to them. She pulled out a box and fiddled with it until the top popped open. She drew out her wand and held it out, "Here."

Draco was shocked. He hadn't thought it would have been so easy. And he was also shocked by the fact that he didn't want to go. Ginny was original. She was unique and he liked her 'Don't-Give-A-Damn' attitude. Ginny was far from anything like all the girls he knew and had met. If he left who knew when he would ever get to see her again? But he reached out and pocketed the wand. He walked slowly to the door, feeling more and more unwilling to leave each second.

"Wait," she called out, "It's really pouring out there. You would get even more soaked then you are now. You can stay overnight if you want." He looked quizzically at her, wondering where this was going. "There's a guest bedroom. It's clean and all. It hardly ever gets used."

"Thanks," he walked back to the living room. "I'd like that."

Ginny smiled, "Yeah. Me too."

He could have Apparated. He would have gotten off relatively dry and he was already wet, so why did it matter? Ginny could have been away from magic so long that she had forgotten about Apparating, but Draco didn't think that was true. So he was staying over at her house. Who gave a damn?

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A/N: Please review!