This is my humble Christmas gift for R3.0! I hope you like it!
Prompt words: Undress, finances, snow.
UPDATE: I corrected the "Flu" thing... (I'm still laughing about it XDD)
A few "warnings" before you start reading:
I'm not an English mothertongue, so you might find a couple of mistakes/horrors. This story is beta-ed (?), but still. (Please have mercy).
I might have slightly passed the 1000 words limit… oh, well.
The short phrases in Italics are from an ancient and, apparently, very powerful Spanish love spell. I thought it would be interesting to add it to the story.
Enjoy! (and Merry/Happy Christmas!)
She had never truly stopped to admire him… and now that he was there, sleeping like an angel fallen to a world ruled by chaos, everything seemed to make sense.
The golden and crimson lights from the fireplace reflected on his lustrous platinum hair, tossed to one side and slightly covering his eyelashes. She felt the urge to touch the rebellious strands, but stopped herself. He was so peaceful that way, she thought. And it had been a very long time since she hadn't stopped to contemplate something as beautiful.
He stirred and she jumped of surprise.
"I would say you can look but don't touch… Although I'm afraid you already broke that part of the deal", he drawled, his voice hoarse from the sleep. She was petrified, her eyes as plates as the boy sat on the shaggy couch and started taking off his dress shirt.
Damn him, even after that terrible hangover he looked superb.
Her eyes traced his entire body, from the back of his neck to his hips, ending just before the "V" shaped muscles under his belly button. Those trousers were the cruellest object in the world right now.
"How are you feeling?", she dumbly asked, hoping to control the sudden heat all over her body. She had seen it all before, just a couple of hours ago, the only difference now being the rush of adrenaline had slowed down and he wasn't drowning in alcohol.
"Much better now", he replied with his jaw clenched, though she realized it was because he must have a terrible headache. He sighed and rolled over to face her, his eyes glistering with the dancing flames like fireworks in the night sky. A short moment passed before he could relax and breathe slowly. "Your hands felt amazing when you were trying to undress me", he teased her with a smirk.
She looked away, feeling her cheeks glowing red.
"I'll get you some water", she said, suddenly getting up and heading to the kitchen, but he stopped her. She looked down to the perfect hand taking her wrist with much care, his long and elegant fingers barely applying pressure on her freckled skin. He held his icy stare on her. Had she ever seen him blinking?
"Stay", he asked, calmly. But there was more in those words, almost a plea for something beyond the physical need of company.
"Draco...", she hesitated, his name on her lips for the first time, as sweet as fresh fruit. He was surprised at first, but then relaxed and let her go.
"Sorry", he muttered. "You must be tired"
"It's not that..." she turned to the kitchen, feeling light-headed.
"I hope I didn't get you in trouble with… Potter"
She jerked her head towards the living room. He was sitting straight, his eyes fixed on hers. And it wasn't the first time she had felt that strange energy between them.
Her heart started pounding furiously against her chest, and just before he could say anything else, she turned around and gave him a faint smile.
"It was almost two years ago, and we ended in good terms. We never got to be that close, you know? If he can't get over it, it's not my problem… ", she was trying to look strong and unattached, but her body was betraying her by making her blush all over her face. Gods, even her hands were shaking a little. She had never felt that way with anyone before. Maybe it truly was the way his eyes seemed to hold furious snow storms when looking at her, or how the atmosphere changed and became heavier, warmer…
"I know. You seemed quite upset when we met that time at you brother's store", he said, a ghost of a smile trying to emerge from that smirk of his.
She looked down, trying to suppress her own grin. That had been a memorable day.
With one, I seize you.
"Hey, Gin-bug... Come in", George greeted while opening the door of the shop for her. She was so pleased to see his brilliant smile and his shiny eyes after such a tough morning.
"I missed you!", she replied, hugging him as strongly as her mum would, and followed him inside. The interior was marvellous, completely different from what she had seen it in past occasions. There were colourful candies and balloons everywhere, even edible items such as furniture and clothes. Her brother noticed her eyes staring at a particular new item in one of the flashy stands.
"Oh, this is a new release, special for Christmas…" He grabbed it in between his fingers, it seemed like some kind of powder in a tiny bottle.
"Fairy dust?"
"Even better", her brother replied with a smug grin."Look"
He took a pinch in his open palm and put it in front of her.
"Now, the instructions say you should light a candle and blow it into the fire at midnight, while making one wish."
Ginny stood expectant to wait for her brother to continue, but he remained silent.
"So.. What does it do?", she urged him.
George let his arms fall down, spreading the dust all around them.
"It's a mystery… You see, it only works on people, and it depends on the wish", he said in a flat voice, and she could see how his eyes immediately skipped to his brother's portrait on one side of the counter. "It was the last formula we tested together, you know? He was so anxious to make it work… To give us all the possibility to be happy" Ginny noticed the faint tremor in his words and with two steps she reached for him and took his face in her palms.
"It will be brilliant, brother, I promise you", she whispered.
"I hope it is, sis. We formulated it to work immediately after the wish is made. Only," he gave her a naughty boy look, "if the one who makes the wish does it with a bad intention, the formula turns him into a rabid kneazle. Of course, we don't tell that to our clients."
Ginny snorted loudly. "Why a kneazle?"
George blushed a little. "Let's just say at that time I was having this little tiny crush on Hermione and that hideous cat of hers wouldn't let me stay near her", he blurted.
She looked at his brother as if she never had looked at him before.
"You realize that's our sister in law who you are talking about, don't you?"
"Yeah, yeah… It was a short phase, it ended as fast as it started." She saw him doing that typical Weasley nervous gesture of rubbing oneself's hair, though she was more to curl a strand in her finger or chew on her lip. "I couldn't be happier for Ronnie, though. Now that I think about it, I couldn't put up with all her constant know-it-all attitude. I know she doesn't do it on purpose and it's just because she's always trying to help. She's probably the most generous, kind-hearted person I ever met. After you, of course", he winked.
Ginny chuckled and started walking around the store, absently grabbing flasks and boxes and looking at them without paying much attention to what they were.
"I'm so happy Ron finally got someone to put up with him, too", she finally said. It was unbelievable how the recent events had been forgotten, or better said, overcome. She was grateful George hadn't asked about Harry yet, and somehow knew he wouldn't unless she started the topic. It was such a relief to feel completely free with him from all of her family. Maybe it was because he didn't like talking about any kind of loss… Or he had grown to be too polite to ask. Either way, she was grateful and certainly would find any opportunity to show it to him. She took one of the small, stylized flasks with "Midnight Wish" dust in her hand and lifted the cap. It was strange. It smelled like old parchment and books, but fresh like wet flowers after a light rain… musk, gardenias, firewhisky…
"George, which potions did you sample in the formula..?"
The small bell at the door chimed, indicating the arrival of a new costumer. She looked up, eager to help her brother, but everything seemed to fade away when she found herself face to face with no other than Draco Malfoy.
"Oh...", she could almost listen the word shite being pronounced inside her brother's mind. "Gin, uh, well you know who he is..."
"Ginevra", he greeted, too polite even for his aristocratic self. There was something in those eyes she had always found fascinating.
She still remembered feeling mesmerized by such intensity the night she hexed him with those bat-bogeys… Oh, those silver orbs, how much she had hated them! Everything felt different when he was around, and it was more intense when he was looking at her. Sometimes she argued with herself, trying to understand if she had just hexed him to get rid of his vicious grip, or the intense look in those beautiful, terribly haunting eyes...
With two, I see you.
"Malfoy", she curtly nodded. She turned to her brother, ignoring the blond in front of her. "What is he doing here?"
She bit her lip. That question hadn't sounded nearly as sharp as she wanted.
"Draco has kindly offered his advice, since those Ministry notices arrived last month. I would be having a hard time is he hadn't been sitting with me for almost four hours a day this week, scanning towers of papers and calculating ridiculously complicated statistics. He is a bit of a genius with finances, did you know?"
"How lovely", she said. Don't look into his eyes. Don't look, don't-
"I heard you finished Hogwarts with remarcable grades", that baritone drawl penetrated her ears, cutting her train of thought. She snapped her eyes into is.
Dammit!
"We are all so proud of her", George quickly answered. "She exceeded in Astronomy, Defense against the Dark Arts and Potions"
The pale ferret seemed positively surprised by that last statement. His lips drew a perfect smirk, his eyes darkened a little, his head was tossed to one side, letting a platinum strand caressing his eyelashes.
"Potions?", he turned to George. "That's a surprise"
"Yeah, as I heard, the last one to get the highest grade had been you"
"Apparently not. Congratulations", he finished, giving her a charming smile.
That was strange. Her brain had decided she had to like that gesture, because immediately she felt the heat in both cheeks. The bloody git was beautiful, not only because of his eyes, or his height and broad shoulders, or his immaculate black robes and his charming smile… She also decided it was a rare occasion and she had to make the best of it, so she smiled in return. Anything could happen, it seemed. The Ferret being all the gentleman with her. George Weasley acting all buddy-buddy with him. She had broken up with The-boy-who-lived that same morning...
"I should probably go..." she hesitated, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable. She didn't want to be alone and it was certainly a sacrifice to tear her eyes from such a vision, but it was too much awkwardness to witness a former enemy being so polite with them… and feel so suddenly infatuated by him.
With three, I break you.
The third time they saw each other after that day, it was Christmas Eve. George had been attending the shop all day and she had helped him, her feet hurt badly and she really needed to have a bath before dinner. Malfoy had been the mastermind behind the offers and the advertisement. It had been a huge success; the store was almost emptied and there was too much money on the register that needed to be counted.
"Gin, tell mum I'll try to get home before the midnight toast", her brother told her, still in a bit of a rush, greeting his employees and saying cheerful goodbyes and happy Christmas to the last costumers. After everybody left, there were only the three of them in the store. "I would tell you to use the Floo, but I'm afraid it'll collapse and you don't get on time, either"
"We can side-apparate, if you want", Malfoy offered. She hesitated for a moment before agreeing.
"Are you sure?", George asked, and she wasn't sure if it was asked to her or the blond by her side.
"It is not proper for a gentleman to let a lady apparate alone at night, specially on Christmas Eve", he answered, as if it was an obvious statement. Then he looked outside through the shop window. "Besides, it's snowing"
Ginny gasped and run to the window. Indeed, big snowflakes descended from the skies, covering the street with a heavy layer of pure white snow. "Let's go!"
George chuckled and gave his sister a bear hug, before shaking hands with the former Slytherin.
"Take care of her, okay?", she heard him from outside the store. "I'm serious", he warned.
Draco gave him a polite nod before closing the door.
He stopped for a moment to contemplate the youngest Weasley, who was as happy as a child in a candy store, with her wide grin hanging from the corners of her full lips, those soft cheeks furiously red, her crimson hair, red as blood, sprinkled with snowflakes…
Those amber eyes, windows for her mysterious soul, shining like fire…
I drink your blood, I split your heart.
He heard it, a rumour at first, like a hum in the distance, then closer until he couldn't dare to close his eyes in fear of the illusion vanishing to oblivion.
Footsteps in the snow, the wind whistling through the tall buildings, the sun dying in the horizon and creating a beautifully purple painted canvas above their heads.
"Weasley", he called for her, but she seemed to be enjoying the moment as if she had never seen snow before. Her eyes were closed, her eyelashes caressing those infinite freckled constellations above her cheeks. She even had a bridge of tiny cinnamon dots above her nose, like a true resemblance of the milky way.
In that moment he could hear his heart pumping inside his ribcage, and the waves from the impacts crashing against his bones, making it almost impossible to stand on his feet, wishing everything had turned out differently between them, making the air heavier, giving his senses a subtle taste of old parchment and books… wet soil, wild flowers after a light rain… and this scent, the perfume of her skin… He needed to feel it closer.
Dominated in mind, body and spirit.
The footsteps were closer, maybe at her left, but she wasn't sure since she couldn't, she wouldn't open her eyes… They moved in a slow pace and when they felt too close, when the wind smelled of cold and silence and static death, she dared to open them…
A blurry figure towered in front of her. The air became humid, but still cold as it penetrated through her skin. It smelled earthy, wooden… and spicy. It reminded her of caverns and mountains with high, small waterfalls coming down from the eternal snows at the top.
She gasped. He was too close not to be totally intoxicated by his scent.
He chuckled and raised a hand from inside his heavy cloak. It started reaching her but it stopped just right in front of her nose. She frowned a little, only to come out of her brief trance and realize a shy snowflake had landed of her nose.
Then she felt it. Feathery, cold… the touch of his thumb on the tip of her nose.
"You don't need another freckle adorning your nose, Ginevra", he whispered.
Ginevra.
The way he had said it, like a sacred word too pure to be pronounced by undeserving mortals, the low tone and the raspy consonants… The way his lips parted. Gi. The subtle caress of his tongue under his palate. Ne. That last vowel almost whispered, taken by the wind to a place only she would find it. Vra.
"Ginevra", he called her once more. She had been lost in her thoughts again.
"Sorry", she apologized, and sat beside him. "I never was a good drinker...", she started, but all of a sudden he was too close.
"I blew the candle, Ginevra", he whispered, looking at her lips.
"And what was your wish?", she barely managed to say.
As soon as his smile emerged from the smirk that had been tattooed on his lips, something inside her just broke. Her eyes wanted to cry, her heart wanted to jump outside of her ribcage, her arms wanted to hug him and never, ever let go.
He gave her that handsome look he had given her only once, that last night she had apparated with him on Christmas Eve. The night she had taken all of him in her, the night she had gave him all of her in return.
"The only thing I ever wanted since I entered into that shop" He leaned closer until she could feel his hot breath caressing her lips and whispered:
To be subject to you as the sole of your shoe.
The End