Chapter Fourteen: Just You

"He wanted to talk to you about what?" Ginny asked.

"Sex. It was almost as bad as the time Father sat me down when I was ten and talked to me about Crups and where Crup puppies come from. I already knew about Cruppies, and I had no idea why he was nervous about talking to me about them. It was only the next day, when I came into my bedroom to find a book called 'What Every Young Wizard Needs to Know About His Body,' that I figured it out." Draco shook his head, but Ginny dissolved in laughter.

"Wha– wha– what every young wizard needs to know about hi– his body? Oh, oh, dear!" She collapsed back on her cushion and laughed uncontrollably. "I'm just trying to imagine that!" she said when she finally controlled her laughter, much to a red-faced Draco's relief.

"It is not funny!"

"It is. Just too. But I had six older brothers. And my mom and I always talked about all kinds of things. I mean, I'd seen her with her period, so I knew what that was years before I was ten. And I'm sure that all of my brothers knew where babies come from!" She tried to keep herself from laughing again, aware that Draco was uncomfortable. "Of course, you were an only child, so I'm sure it was different for you. And I was the youngest, so by the time I came along, I think my parents were more relaxed about all that stuff. They might have been different when Bill and Charlie were kids. But I still can't believe that Snape wanted to have a birds-and-bees talk with you, especially at your age."

"Well, it wasn't exactly that," Draco said. "He feels . . . I guess he feels a sort of special responsibility for me. He was trying to be fatherly, I think. To be fair, I don't think he's had much practice at it."

"Another brave act by the Wizard Without Peer," Ginny said, smiling mildly, but with no derision in her voice.

"Anyway, after seeing us together in Hogsmeade the other day, he wanted to impress upon me the responsibilities that adult wizards have in relationships." Draco's blush deepened. "That is, he hoped that if we were, um, engaging in more sexual activity than we actually are, that I would be responsible about it. Or at least, that I would talk to you and not just . . . just sow my wild oats, I suppose."

"I think you're very responsible, Draco. Did you explain that we're not? That the opportunity hasn't arisen, I mean? Not that I wouldn't with you, you know," Ginny said. "And I'm sure you'd be . . . well, responsible, as he put it."

Draco nodded. "Yeah. I did tell him that, too. But I thought that maybe I should mention it to you now. I wondered if you'd thought about it. I was wondering what you thought about it. We've only sort of talked about being alone together and having more privacy . . ."

"Well, I don't think you're just sowing your wild oats. If you were, I'm sure you know some corner of the castle where you could do your sowing without being caught, or try to do some sowing, anyway. As for me, I'd like it if we could get away and . . . well, I'd like it if we could get away and have some time privately together," Ginny said, this time blushing herself. "I'm not sure if I could, or that I would, or that . . . well, I'd like it to be sort of natural. Not like an appointment, you know—'now's the day we have sex for the first time.' I'd like it to sort of just happen. But I also think you're right about talking first. And I don't want it to sort of just happen without my having some idea that it might happen that day. And not in a corner somewhere."

"Of course not," Draco said, blinking and trying to comprehend Ginny's somewhat rambling and contradictory statements. "We're not some horny fifteen-year-olds who just want to do it. We're in a relationship."

"Yeah." Ginny smiled brightly. "We are, aren't we? And as soon as the Leaving Feast's over—well, not that very day, obviously, but that week, you're coming to dinner at the Burrow and we'll have dinner with my dad. He's very fair, my dad. Even if he wants to dislike you, he's promised me he wants to get to know you, and he will give you a chance."

Draco nodded.

"So, what about your parents? I mean, Merlin only knows when they'll be able to return to the country and the wizarding world. If we've been together for a long time when they finally return, they could be really surprised. Is there any way to write them a letter?"

Draco shook his head. "I can't have any contact with them at all. I suppose I could see whether someone in the Ministry could send them a letter for me . . . they must have a way of watching them and contacting them. But right now, that's not necessary."

Only if he and Ginny married, Draco thought, would he try to contact his parents about it. He smiled. He'd never thought about marriage as something he wanted to do, though he'd always assumed somewhere in the back of his mind that he would. Pansy Parkinson, maybe, or Daphne, or some other Slytherin of the right age and background. Daphne was apparently dating Neville Longbottom now, the two of them having got to know each other better after the Hogwarts battle. And Pansy . . . he wasn't even certain what Pansy was doing. Something in the Ministry, he thought. Her joining Blaise's group of Snape's Slytherins—regardless of what had motivated her—had been well rewarded. She had never seemed to him to have been interested in a career, but she was full of surprises. There was Millicent Bulstrode, too, of course, but she'd joined Puddlemere United, then been attacked by that vigilante and gone to America for some specialised treatment. He'd never really been interested in her, anyway. He thought he'd just been a notch on her broomstick to Millicent, but he hadn't cared at the time. He'd never really liked her, or even been attracted to her, but she had been an experience . . .

Marriage to Ginny, though . . . Draco gazed at her, and he felt that he could be happy seeing her every day, sharing everything with her, having her support, and giving her encouragement, himself. His smile grew.

"What is it?" Ginny asked, wondering why Draco was looking at her that way.

"Just you." He leaned forward and kissed her, then he lay beside her on her cushion and held her, smelling her hair, stroking her back, and holding her closely. "We'll have that day," Draco whispered. "Soon . . . but we'll take it slowly, too. And if it takes more than one day . . . however slowly you want it . . . we have a lot of time ahead of us, Gin." He kissed her, and he didn't understand when she buried her head in his shoulder and just shook, her arms tightly around him, but he didn't ask any questions.

They lay there in the silence of the dusty, barren classroom until it grew too dark to see, and when they finally left, Draco walked Ginny to Gryffindor Tower, holding her hand the whole way, and then, standing before the prying eyes of the Fat Lady, he kissed her gently good-night.

Next: "A Responsible Wizard." Draco helps Ginny when she needs him.