Photographs
"Ginny!"
"Sod off, Malfoy!" she spat, disgusted, over her shoulder.
"It's not... Ginny!" he yelled, almost pitifully.
"Save it!" she screeched, rounding the corner.
"Hi, Gin!" Harry said, grinning.
'Oh, great! It's Saint Potter. The boy-who-lived. The boy-who-broke-my-heart. The boy-who-is-about-to-get-hexed,' she thought, fuming.
Slowly, but surely, his smile faltered. "What's wrong?"
Surprising enough to her, she was more upset than angry, and she broke down.
Sobbing, she tried to tell him. "I caught... D-Draco h-hugging... Pug-face Pansy in the hall!" Saying it out loud made it sound really stupid, but Harry, apparently, took it as seriously as Ginny did.
"Malfoy, that wanker!" he shouted, angrily.
'Oops!' she thought in part amusement.
"Harry, don't do anything... rash," she said, wiping her eyes.
"Ginny! He's cheating on you!"
"Cheating?" she asked. "Harry, please. I hardly qualify a hug as cheating."
"What do you call it, then?"
Ginny stared in disbelief at him. 'Honestly! He's thicker than Ron!'
"Exactly," he said, crossing his arms and looking as if he had just proven a point.
"Harry!" she exclaimed, trying not to laugh. She wrapped her arms around him.
"This is not cheating! This is called a friendly hug."
Harry stared at her, open mouthed. "Ginny! The signs are all around you! And all you can say is that they were friendly hugging?"
"Harry! You've really gone bonkers. You know that right?" She walked past him and went straight to the Gryffindor common room.
"Gin! Have you been crying?" Ron asked as soon as she came in through the portrait.
"What? Uh... no! Why would you say that?"
"Well, your eyes are all red and puffy. And girls cry a lot." Hermione took that as a perfect opportunity to hit him on the arm as hard as she could. Which was actually pretty hard.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his arm, as Harry dashed angrily into the room.
"I suppose she hasn't told you what's happened yet, has she?" he asked them, pointing accusingly to Ginny.
"Erm... suppose not..." Ron said, carefully.
"Draco's cheating on her!"
"He's what!" Ron and Hermione asked at the same time. Ron's face turned considerably red.
"Gin!" Ron yelled, turning on her. "Why didn't you tell us!"
"He's not cheating!" she said, putting her hands on her hips. "Honestly, Ron. People are staring."
"I don't care!" he roared, shaking his fists in the air.
"Don't make a scene," Hermione hissed, but glared at Ginny.
"Ginny. Why didn't you tell us?" She sounded hurt.
"'Mione. He's not cheating," she said, calmly. "He was giving someone a hug. Harry qualifies that as cheating."
Hermione stared incredulously at Harry. "A hug, Harry? A hug?"
"Hermione! A hug isn't just a hug!" Ron yelled. "Especially when it comes to my little sister!"
Blood rushed to Ginny's face.
"Ginny was crying!"
"I was being stupid. You two act as if he snogged another girl in a broom closet."
"He what!" Ron shouted.
"Ronald!" Hermione yelled. "She was being hypothetical."
He ignored her. "I'm going to have a talk with a young Mister Malfoy!" he yelled. Ron walked out of the portrait, Harry close on his tail.
"There. Now that they're gone, how do you really feel about the hug?" Hermione asked her, sitting her down on the couch.
Ginny buried her head into her hands. "Betrayed," she said honestly. 'I might as well tell her everything,' Ginny decided. She sighed and said, "That's not the only time I found him in another girl's arms."
"Oh?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah." The more Ginny thought about it, she got that much angrier and upset. Before she could explain, a black owl swooped into the common room and flew straight to Ginny.
"Malfoy," Hermione said, dully.
Ginny hesitated before opening the letter.
Ginny,
I was hugging a friend. I promise! I would never hurt you. Not in a million years.
Sorry for making you hurt,
Draco
"Are you going to forgive him?" Hermione asked.
"No," Ginny said bitterly. "That's an empty promise and an empty apology."
"Ginny, maybe all those other times you saw him with other girls were just friends. Like this one."
"I don't believe him. Every time I see him, he's surrounded by girls. Every time I try to get alone with him, there's always at least one of those hussies around!" Ginny just kept on making herself angrier. "I need a break from him, anyway. Plus, he's not boyfriend material. Thanks for your help, Hermione," she said, patting her friend's leg as she stood up. She scribbled a quick letter back to Draco:
Worthless Prat,
I don't believe a word you say. Oh and by the way, we're taking a break. I don't know if it will be permanent or temporary, but I'll let you know. Oh, and don't send me any letters for a while. They'll just be unread and ignored.
Ginerva
Ginny tied the letter around the owl's leg and sent it on it's way. She bade Hermione goodnight and ran quickly upstairs.
Ginny sat cross-legged on her bed, head buried into her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. She couldn't make her mind up about Draco, and felt terrible about what she had put in her message. Of course she believed him! She was just angry at the time. Curse that stupid Weasley temper!
She glanced up at the sound of a soft hoot. It was Draco's owl. She quickly wiped her eyes and opened the letter.
I can't believe you. I don't want to believe you, but if I don't get a letter back, I suppose I'll have to. Please be reading this. Please...
Ginny guiltily crumpled the letter and threw it into the trash. She prodded the black owl until it got frustrated and flew away.
She walked to the end of her bed and knelt down beside the trunk, opening it.
She came to face all of the pictures she owned and looked through each and every one of them.
She picked up one that Colin had taken on their very first day at Hogwarts. Ginny was looking at her feet, would look up, blush, and look back down. She rolled her eyes at the younger version of herself.
In another one, it was of her and Colin from this past summer on the beach. Ginny was leaning back on her elbows, waving at the camera, and Colin would suddenly tackle her. They both laughed as they wrestled on the ground.
This time, she came across one that made her feel as if she had been punched in the stomach. It was one Colin had secretly taken of her and Draco in the Astronomy Tower, when they first got together. Ginny was wrapped in Draco's arms and he kept whispering in her ear and kissing the top of her head. Ginny tossed this one down.
She found one of Ron and Hermione from this past summer that she and Harry had secretly taken of them. They still didn't know about it. Hermione had her hand, running it through his hair, and he was stroking her face. They were gazing into each other eyes, oblivious to the world around them.
Ginny set that one aside and picked another one. She gasped, dropping it. She shakily picked it up, staring wide-eyed and open mouthed at it. It was her and Draco, in the exact, same pose as Ron and Hermione was in the last picture. She picked up both pictures and held them side by side. If the pictures were black and white, you would think they were doubles of the same picture.
Ginny quickly rummaged through her pictures, finding more and more pictures of her and Draco that were identical to pictures of Ron and Hermione.
One had Draco with his arms wrapped around Ginny, they were both laughing, and he would give her a noogie. Ron and Hermione had taken the exact same picture.
There was another one where the two were in a booth at the Three Broomsticks, Ginny, who was laughing, accidentally spilling butterbeer in Draco's lap, who was scowling, with his arms crossed. Again, there was a picture that Ron and Hermione had taken, that was an exact replica of that picture (with the exception of Harry in theirs).
This was all too much for Ginny. She took a quick break from looking at pictures.
'Everyone knows that Ron and Hermione are mad about each other,' she thought to herself. 'But why are there so many pictures of me and Draco that look so much like their pictures?' Deep inside she knew the real reason, but she kept denying it.
Ginny started looking through the pictures again. She found one that made her involuntarily smile.
It was when she first knew that Draco was capable of human emotion. They were at a Halloween dance Dumbledore had organized earlier that year. Draco, surprising everyone, went as the Phantom of the Opera, a book that was written by a muggle. Ginny went as a cowgirl.
The picture, taken by a sneaky Colin Creevey, was of Draco bowing, taking her hand, kissing it, and leading her out to the dance floor, showing out his brilliant dance moves. They moved gracefully to the music, everyone around them staring in awe. Ginny blushed, remembering all those eyes following the couple.
-Flashback-
Ginny was having an awesome time at the dance. It was the first Halloween dance she had ever been to. She was dressed in Wranglers ((pants that muggle cowboys and cowgirls wear)), brown cowgirl boots, a pink plaid over shirt that was unbuttoned and tied underneath her chest, a white undershirt, and a pink cowgirl hat. To complete the outfit, she had her hair in low pigtails.
"It was nice of Dumbledore to let us have a dance!" Ginny exclaimed to Hermione, who, too, was dressed as a cowgirl. She was identical to Ginny, except she had on a light blue cowgirl hat and over shirt.
"Yeah! It really was!"
"Howdy," a voice drawled from behind them. They turned around, seeing Draco Malfoy facing them. He had on a mask over half his face and was wearing a dress suit with a cape.
"Malfoy?" Hermione asked, disbelievingly. "Phantom of the Opera? It... you..."
"Yes, it's muggle, I know. Hard to believe, huh?" Every since Draco's father had been killed by the Order the past summer, he had been surprising everyone left and right. This moment being one of the many.
"Weasley," he said, bowing. "May I have this dance?"
Ginny, being completely and utterly stunned by Draco's actions, nodded.
Draco took her hand, brushed his lips ever so softly against it, and led the startled girl out onto the floor. The strange couple received curious looks from spectators, but at the time Ginny didn't care.
Draco stared into the chocolate colored eyes of the littlest Weasley, not breaking the gaze, knowing that had his father been alive, he would have been in a rage. That was one of the reasons for asking the Weaslette to dance. But as he danced with the girl, he had soon felt differently about her.
Ginny stared into his grey/blue eyes, blushing the whole entire dance. She never knew he knew how to dance so gallantly. And he had a way of looking into her eyes that no one else ever had. It was like he was really seeing her.
Carefully, he lowered his head down, his lips softly brushing her cheek as he whispered into her ear, "Let's go to the garden, Ginny."
Ginny, dumbfounded, nodded and followed him out into the garden. All of the people that were watching them earlier had finally gotten tired of it, and went on with their dancing.
Whenever they reached outside, Ginny quickly plopped down onto a stone bench, her legs giving out on her. She stared disbelievingly at him.
"What?" he finally asked.
"You... you said Ginny. What happened to Weasley?"
He sighed, took her hand, and laced his fingers with hers. "Well, I figured we've gone to the same school for six years, so it's about time we were on a first name basis. I mean, unless you want to go back to Weasley and Malfoy..." He trailed off.
"No, no. Th-that's okay."
Ginny and Draco actually started making conversation, talking about all sorts of things: families, school, literature, etc...
"Do you think I'm like my father?" he asked, suddenly.
"I used to," Ginny admitted.
"So... now you don't?" He sounded hopeful.
"No. Not at all."
"Ginny?"
"Hm?"
He put a pale hand up to her freckle-splattered face and turned it so they were face to face. "I want you to be mine," he whispered, lowering his face closer to hers.
"Me, too," she replied meekly. She closed her eyes and felt their lips meet for a split second, before...
"GET YOUR FILTHY, BLOODY LIPS OFF OF MY SISTER, MALFOY!"
'Ron!' Ginny thought, frustrated. She looked up and saw him charging, Hermione had hold of his sleeve, while Harry looked as if he was just as angry as Ron.
Ginny quickly stood up, blocking Ron's path to Draco. Ron came to a halt, staring angrily at his little sister.
"Ginerva Ann Weasley! Move!" he demanded. His face was a deep red, clashing horribly with his hair and freckles.
Ginny felt Draco stand up behind her. He bent over and whispered into her ear, "We'll meet again, my love."
Knowing that he was fixing to leave, Ginny used all of her strength to push Ron down and hold him, Hermione and, though very reluctant, Harry came to her aid.
Draco swept passed them, and back into the castle.
Keeping his promise they met again. And again. And again. They quickly developed a relationship that everyone in Hogwarts knew about.
-End of Flashback-
Ginny wiped the tears that had shed while she remembered the dance. She finally made up her mind and decided that she wanted her man back.
She ran quickly down the steps and into the common room, finding that Ron and Harry had come back.
"We couldn't find that stupid prat, Ginny, but I promise as soon as we do..." Ron trailed off making a violent gesture.
"No need for that!" Ginny called after them, running through the portrait.
She ran everywhere she could think of, looking for Draco. After half an hour, she found him walking aimlessly through the halls.
When he saw her, he gave her a hurt look and turned around.
"Draco!" she called, running up to him, panting.
He turned around. "What?"
"I'm sorry! Of course I believe you! Will you forgive me? I was a... an idiot! A stupid idiot! Oh, Draco! I'm sorry!"
She threw her arms around his neck, having him to bend down, seeing as he was almost half a foot taller than her.
He hugged her tightly. "Of course I forgive you. Ginny, you're not stupid, but, yes, at times, you can be an idiot. It's not your fault, though. It's your brother's."
She laughed as she pulled away from him. Then, she opened a broom closet that they just happened to be standing next to.
"One question," he said, stopping her suddenly. "Why the sudden change of heart? I mean, besides the fact that you're naturally sweet."
"I was looking through my photos and found a particular one from the Halloween dance, and it brought back wonderful memories," she said, smiling cheekily.
"Thank merlin for photographs," he said, grinning, pulling Ginny into the closet and shutting the door.
The End
Author's Note: I would like to thank my beta: annavignola! Please review!