Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the amazing world of Harry Potter!
Chapter 20: Just Go For It
Draco trailed behind Ginny as they walked up the front walkway to the funny little house the Weasleys called The Burrow. He had only ever been here the one other time when Ginny had dragged him here with Hallie to break the news to the family that they were losing their baby girl to big bad Draco Malfoy... even if it were only for a short time.
Draco mentally smacked himself. For some reason his brain kept trying to discount that last part and the worst part was he wasn't all that upset about it.
He surveyed Ginny as she skipped up the steps. He forced himself to think normally and not focus too much on her perfect arse in the relaxed jeans that she barely had the opportunity to wear in the last few months.
Suddenly she spun around on the steps and smiled at him. "Come on." She said in a bemused tone. "You don't have anything to be nervous about this time. You've already broken the worst news that I was marrying you, and besides today isn't even going to be everybody."
"Psh, that's easy for you to say. We might already be married but they still hate me."
She flipped her long red curls over her shoulder and laughed. "That is true… but you're already here so stop worrying about it. If you're on your best behavior they will be too."
She held out her hand and he though he still wasn't sure this was a good idea he grimaced and took it as he climbed the three steps.
"Just remember I hate you." He whispered as she swung open the door and stepped through it in front of him.
When he followed he was immediately struck by the warm sweet smell that wafted throughout the cramped house. It smelled like cinnamon and apples and was filled with the joyous voices from an adjacent room. Draco thought that this was exactly how a home was supposed to be.
"Earth to Drae!" Ginny said suddenly shaking him from his musings. "Hey you, come on."
He smiled at her, nodded and followed her towards the din.
They entered the kitchen to find not the whole family was he expected but Ron, Hermione, Harry and his wife Allison. They were all sitting around the table with coffee and large plate of apple turnovers between them.
"Hey mates!" Ginny enthusiastically said to break into their conversation.
They all exchanged pleasantries with Ginny and the women even made an effort with Draco, although the men only nodded.
"Well I suppose now that you are here we should probably get to work." Harry said pragmatically.
"Yes we should. You boys go start; I have something I want to ask Ginny and Allie." Hermione said as she stood up from the table.
"As long as you actually come help." Ron muttered.
"Of course." Hermione assured, flashing him a grin and kissing him on the cheek. "This will only take us a few minutes."
The first two couples began to file out when Draco gave Ginny a desperate look.
"I don't know what the bloody hell I am doing!" he urgently whispered. "Can I just wait for you lot to be done?"
"No!" she hissed back. "Go out and socialize with them. It will be good for all of you!"
"I don't want to." He whined.
"Tough." She insisted quietly before raising her voice to call out to her brother, "Ron, show Draco what to do, please. He has never done this before… and if you mess with him you will have me to answer to." She added as an afterthought in response to both their repulsed faces and giving her brother a hard look as she allowed herself to be pulled up the stairs by Allison and Hermione.
Ron grumbled but did not protest his sister's command. He and Harry both had been reprimanded earlier by their own significant others that they had to play nice with Draco for Ginny or there would be sever consequences later on.
All three men dutifully filed out the back door, one after the other, and then headed out into the large expanse of the back yard.
"Alright, watch Malfoy, this is how it is done." Ron said in a gruff voice. He really was not pleased that he was the one who got stuck making sure the bloody little beasts didn't take the bugger's finger off. Gods know if they did Ron would never hear the end of it from Ginny… sometimes he just didn't believe that Ginny had only a passing interest in her husband. "Alright so first you grab one once it comes out of its tunnel," he demonstrated by yanking one of the small brown creatures that looked like a potato with spindly legs out of the ground. "Then you swing it around your head a few time until it is good and dizzy, then you launch it as far as you can out of the garden and repeat. You got that?" he asked as he brushed off his hands.
"Seems straight forward enough." Draco said nodding as at least two dozen or so of the creatures bursts out of their holes and began to run around to see what the commotion was.
Ron nodded back and then walked away from the blond man over to where his Harry was working.
Draco briefly watched him walk away before turning back to the task at hand. He had to admit to himself that he was slightly uncomfortable with the whole process. The gnomes seemed to be inexplicably menacing little creatures even though the whole family claimed that they were mostly harmless. He carefully snatched one from the ground at his feet and swung it around his head. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner Ginny would let them go home.
Ginny followed the girls up to what used to be her old room and shut the door behind them. "Alright, what is going on?" she asked.
Hermione was bounding and looking giddier than Ginny had ever seen her. "I think he is finally going to do it!" she squealed.
Allison and Ginny exchanged look of confusion. "Do what?"
Hermione sighed and tried again. "I think Ron is going to ask me to marry him! I found a little black box in his coat pocket the other day and that can only mean one thing right?"
All three girls immediately began to bounce and squeal. They were overjoyed for their friend even if a little black box didn't have to without a doubt contain a ring.
They all launched into future wedding details, all three overjoyed over the next few months.
After a few more giddy minutes, the girls all headed back down the stairs and out into the yard. They all had doubts that their men were behaving themselves.
Ginny also had the added bonus of feeling awful about leaving Draco alone with Ron and Harry, especially considering all their history together.
When they finally made their way out to the back garden what they saw took them by surprise. All three men had shed their outer layer and were sitting around on the grass, each with a butterbeer and not a gnome in sight. They were all sweaty and dirty but surprisingly they were laughing, even Draco had cracked what appeared to be a real smile.
"Did we just step into the twilight zone?" Hermione asked.
"What's the twilight zone?" Ron asked still laughing.
"It's a muggle tv show about a surreal universe that couldn't possibly exist."
"That seems about accurate." Ginny agreed.
"Well we had to do something since you lot managed to magically avoid all the work." Draco smirked. "We all decided that we deserved a drink."
"Well at least you did something for once." Ginny quipped back. "I hope it didn't hurt you, although who knows, all three of you seem like you might have gone through battle with the gnomes. You are absolutely disgusting."
"Oh really?" Draco said with a maniacal glint in his eye. He slowly got to his feet. "You don't like getting dirty Gin?"
"Oh no Malfoy." She said holding up her hands and slowly backing away. "Draco, I know what you are thinking and if you touch me…"
She didn't have the opportunity to finish her sentence because the next thing she knew Draco had pounced on her and dragged her to the ground to roll in the loose dirt that their previous work had turned up.
Ginny sprung up and away from her husband, still unsure whether she wanted to laugh or just punch him. "I hate you." She sputtered, finding she had somehow gotten dirt in her mouth along with her hair and all over her clothes.
Draco just sat up and started laughing. He was quite obviously proud of himself and was enjoying his handiwork. He slowly got to his feet and went to Ginny's side with his arms outstretched as if to hug her.
"No!" Ginny said trying to push his much larger frame away from her. "You are in serious trouble now! I'm going to tell your house-elf and then you'll have to deal with the wrath of Lilith."
Draco pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face into her hair. "I'm sorry." He said when he pulled back giving her an impish grin.
The other four watched all these proceedings with a sort of sick fascination. Ron and Harry were especially confused. They could not comprehend exactly what was happening in front of them. They thought they saw their little sister blatantly flirting with her arch-nemesis husband but they absolutely had to be crazy. Well either that or Ron's earlier suspicions were actually correct… but they didn't even want to consider that possibility.
Ginny pushed away from Draco and turned back to her friends. "Alright mates, we have to get going. I promised that we would be home for dinner and Narcissa will have both our heads if we are late."
The pair said their goodbyes and headed home.
Draco swung open the door to Ginny's room on Saturday evening and spotted her working on some charts at her desk.
He lightly knocked on the door to grab her attention. "Hey Gin, I just wanted to let you know that I am going to meet Blaise and Theo for a couple drinks at the Leaky Cauldron. Theo has literally been harassing us for a week now and Blaise and I both finally gave in."
She looked up and smiled at him. "Ok have fun. Give them both my love. I'll tell your mum you won't be around for dinner."
"Thanks." He smiled. then he headed down the stairs to the apperation point next to the kitchens and then apperated directly to the Leaky Cauldron to meet his friends.
When he arrived Blaise and Theo were both already there with a round already waiting for him.
"Hey mates." He greeted them in what could only be described as a cheerful manner for the Slytherin. He slid into the booth next to Blaise and took a swig of Butterbeer carefully spiked by Tom the bartender with red currant rum. Then he said, "Alright Theo, what is all this about?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh no, don't play dumb mate. You have been harassing us to go out for quite some time now, that's not normal for you Theo. What is it?"
"What? Can't a bloke just want to go for a drink with his mates?"
"No." Blaise and Draco said, almost in unison.
"Fine." Theo said looking a bit deflated. "I'm just confused. I was hoping you lot could help me sort through my…" He paused almost as if he was choking on the words. "Feelings for Hallie."
"That's it. I'm out." Draco said trying to slide out and escape. He avoided all and any dealings with own feelings and emotions, and thus he really felt uncomfortable with discussing other people's emotions, not to mention that he was in no way qualified to give anyone else advice.
"Not so fast." Blaise said, grabbing his arm to stay his escape. "He is our friend and you will sit and help him Malfoy."
"…Fine." Draco eventually conceded. He knew Blaise was determined and thus there was no stopping him. "Sometimes you are such a woman Blaise."
"Ah, you only say that because I have been in a stable and loving relationship for several years and thus I am not emotionally crippled like you are."
"Probably."
Blaise smirked. Rarely did Draco admit that he was wrong and it was a nice feeling to actually be right. "Go on Theo."
"Well mostly I just wanted to know how you knew that you were in love."
"I don't follow you." Draco said dryly.
"Basically, how did you know Ginny was the one?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked again. "I don't know that she is the one. Actually I'm fairly certain that she is not. I know about the girl I'm looking for and thus far it hasn't been Ginny."
"Although it's interesting that you aren't denying that you have feelings for her…"
"Shut it Blaise."
"I don't understand…" Theo cut in. "How can you be so certain?"
"It's hard to explain." Draco sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. He really didn't want to get into all this but he supposed with Blaise sitting here he had no real choice.
"Don't worry, he's going to try." Blaise assured.
"Well back in our seventh year, once Ginny had disappeared…"
Draco trudged into his last class of the day, two hours of NEWT level Potions. Finally a class he would enjoy. There was just something about taking all the right ingredients and making something completely different that made Draco feel that there might be some order left in the world.
Order was something he needed right now. It had been two weeks since Ginny had left and classes were the order that kept him from falling apart.
This class was also hazardous though. While all the mixing and chopping and stirring were being done by his body it gave his mind too much time to wander. If he wasn't careful flashes of red would begin to flash across his mind and then he would become pathetically incapacitated by the memory of his perfect first love.
Even this close to thinking about her was too much. As he approached the door to the potions classroom he pushed all thoughts of her into a vault in his mind to be safely locked away.
Draco walked into the Potions room, set his bag down and began to lay out all he would need for that days class. Once everything he needed was laid out Draco looked up and discovered that he was the only one in the room. He glanced at his watch and discovered that he had somehow made it to class nearly two hours early. How could he be such an idiot?
Just then he heard someone clear their throat at the back of the room. He twisted around to see Professor Slughorn standing there looking at him curiously.
"Mr. Malfoy you are aware that our class does not being for another two hours?" the large man inquired as he waddled his way to his desk at the front of the room.
"Yes professor, I actually just realized that. I must made a mistake. I think my friends may have magically changed all the clocks in my room as a joke." That sounded like a plausible reason for his own stupidity. When in doubt blame Blaise right?
"Well since you are here would you like to just do the assignment now? I have a meeting to attend but I think I can trust the head boy not to blow the lab up."
"Would you mind professor? I really wouldn't mind doing it now and getting a jump on my homework tonight."
"Of course not my dear boy, I trust you. Besides we are just beginning to review some of the old potion to get ready for you N.E. in June. Today I have planned for your year to once again brew Amortentia. Alright well I'm off. If you finish before class, which I'm sure you will, just place a vial on my desk and make sure it is clearly marked."
"Thank you professor!" Draco said to the large man as he waddled back out of the room.
When Slughorn was officially gone Draco turned back to this prepared work station. Well great not only was he alone with his thoughts of… Ginny but he would be making a love potion. Did the cosmos hate him or something?
It must. He decided to stop dwelling on it and just get this whole thing over with. He quickly gathered the ingredients and set about adding the correct amounts to the cauldron in the correct order with the required actions that insured the success of the potion.
After an hour or so the potion began to take on the familiar iridescent mother-of-pearl sheen with distinctive curling spirals. It was perfect, so perfect in fact that Draco could not resist waiting just a few more moments to enjoy the amazing smells that accompanied the potion which were so perfectly individualized to what attracted each person who came in contact with it.
He did not have to wait long. Soon a combination of overpowering scents washed over him. The first two were easily recognizable to him; there was the smell of the air after a rainstorm and the crisp scent of a perfect new broom. The third scent though Draco could not quite place. It was amazing and familiar but he did not know where he knew it from.
It was a light floral scent almost like a perfume that could only belong to a woman. Draco did not know how but he was sure that the scent belonged to the woman he would spend the rest of his life with.
One thing he knew for certain though, was that it did not belong to the girl who had vanished in the middle of the night. If it had been her he should have been able to place it immediately. No, the love potion was definitely telling him that… Ginny Weasley was not, in fact, the girl of his dreams.
From now on he would spend his time looking for the girl who smelled just like this and he would learn to push his last love far from his mind.
"So…. What does all that mean?" Theo asked.
"It means that the idiot has been sleeping around for the last three years so that he could be exposed to as many women's perfumes as possible." Blaise said matter of factly. He had always thought that this particular plan of Draco's had be absolutely idiotic. He and Luna both knew that Draco and Ginny were meant to be together but convincing their best friends had proved next to impossible.
"Oh thank you Blaise." Draco said dryly.
"What? You know I'm right."
"Ok…" Theo said slowly. He was still trying to process all that his friend was trying to tell him with his story. "So what do I do about Hallie?"
"Well obviously all this story means is that Draco is not the person to be asking for advice."
Draco rolled his eyes and sighed. "I believe I pointed that out at the beginning of the conversation and you were the one who forced me to stay and participate."
"You are both being useless to me right now." Theo cut in. "Blaise, how did you know you loved Luna?"
"Uh, she screamed at me on a beach and I just blurted it out. It wasn't really something I thought about, my mouth went around my brain on that one."
"Yeah, but there must have been some sign that you picked up on?"
"Oh bloody hell." Draco said, exasperated. "Theo do you love the woman?"
"Uh… I don't know because I have actually known Hallie for years and we were briefly together in curse breaking school but then my father caught wind of my whereabouts again and I was back on the run. I know that my disappearing without a word hurt her. She is very different now, more guarded and I think I am the one who did that. She bounces back and forth between sweet and affectionate and fiercely defensive and untrusting. I am never sure how to act around her."
"For gods sake Theo, don't think about it, just answer."
"Yes."
"Then tell her that."
"I don't think it's that simple."
It took all of Draco's will power to not just give up and go home in that instant. "Theo, it is that simple. Tell the woman you love her."
Theo took a deep breath and then threw the floo powder into the fire before clearly stating the name of the flat complex where Hallie lived. He made his way up to her flat and then knocked on the door patiently waited for Hallie to let him in.
He heard her bounce to the door and unlock it. The door swung open to reveal the slightly disheveled, crazy, beautiful blond object of his affection.
"Hi," Hallie said smiling as she stepped aside to let him in. "I didn't know you were going to come by tonight. I thought you were supposed to meet Draco and Blaise."
Theo couldn't help but watch her every movement as she flitted around like a fairy between the kitchen and the sitting room where he had already settled himself. This was part of the routine that they had unspokenly established. First she would self-consciously hurry about to try and find something for them to eat or drink and then in a few minutes he would capture her and force her to relax.
Until then he was perfectly happy to just sit back and enjoy.
Finally, Hallie did sit down and she turned and smiled at him. "I'm glad you came over. I wasn't expecting to get to see you until Monday at work. Now I can ask you what you're expecting to wear to the Malfoys' ball."
He smiled as she chattered. "I don't know… I figured I would just wear black dress robes because that should match whatever you are going to wear since I don't know the color of your gown yet."
Hallie stopped and looked at him wide eyed. "…You want to match me?"
Theo's smile faltered. "Well I just assumed after the last few months we would at least unofficially be going to the ball together."
"No… that's fine with me I suppose. I just didn't know that we were at that stage… or any stage in a relationship rather."
"Well…" he began slowly. It was now or never. He had to say something to her that much he had decided. "I wouldn't mind if we were in an official relationship of some kind at least."
"Theo, where is this going?" Hallie looked at him wearily. She was already terrified of where this conversation was going.
He was silent for a moment and dropped his eyes from hers. "I think… I love you." He said quietly.
Hallie balked. Surely she had heard him incorrectly. "What did you say?"
"I said I love you." He looked back up at her.
She turned completely white and sucked in a breath. He couldn't be serious.
"Hallie… Hallie please look at me love." Theo begged. He tried to reach out and take her hand but she quickly withdrew it, out of his reach.
"I think you should go now." She whispered.
"What?" he asked, distraught.
She said nothing more just stood up and walked back down the hallway before firmly shutting the door to her room.
Theo had no choice but let himself out though he felt like his heart was broken into a million pieces.
Sunday morning Hallie woke up feeling numb. She had cried herself to sleep the night before, torn by all the emotions swirling inside her. She did not know how she felt about Theo. She had never decided and then him springing his declaration of love was just too much for her. She had behaved poorly at the end with the way she asked him to leave but she was in too much shock to do anything else. If he ever spoke to her again she would have to apologize for at least that part of her behavior.
She rolled over in her bed and pulled the soft covers up over her head. She wondered if anyone would mind if she just died right there right now. Well, it wasn't a real question. She knew Ginny and Luna would at the very least be displeased… and then there was of course there was Theo but she really didn't want to think about that.
Besides she had to go shopping for the next random Malfoy ball and be allowed for the Malfoy family to foot yet another bill for her. She really hated that they always paid for her gowns but she really didn't have a choice. There was no way that she could afford the copious amount of gowns their lifestyle required and the Malfoy women had made it perfectly clear that with Ginny's marriage Hallie had been officially adopted and would be expected at all and any Malfoy extravaganzas.
Hallie let out a long and dramatic sigh and rolled out of bed. She made her way down the hall and forced herself to go through her daily routine in order to make herself presentable.
Once she was dressed she discovered that she still had over an hour before she was supposed to meet Ginny and Luna for lunch. There was just no way though that Hallie was going to be able to sit by herself without either going crazy or just going back to bed to die.
No, she had to leave now that she had gone through all the effort to get ready. She decided that she should apperate over to the Manor and pass the time with Ginny. She would have to catch her best friend up on all the crazy that her life was devolving into sooner or later so why not right now?
That was, at least, if she could pry Ginny and Draco apart for five minutes. For a pair who claimed to have so much hatred for one another, they sure did spend a lot of their time together nowadays.
Hallie apperated right to the front door of the Manor and then knocked on the door. She waited patiently for one of the houselves let her in. after a few moments a scared little elf, a female that was smaller than Draco's Lilith actually, allowed her entrance. She made her way up to Ginny's room behind the elf and then let herself in.
"Hi babe, it's me." She called out.
"Oh hey! I didn't realize that you were coming over early. I'll be out in a second." She heard Ginny's voice say from the direction of the bathroom. "Bloody hell, can you believe that we have to go gown shopping again? I feel like we need a new bloody dress every other day."
Hallie laughed once but it held no real mirth. She was barely keeping her emotions in check after the previous night. Pretending to be okay was a lot harder than she had anticipated. "I know, right? It feels like every ten minutes we are back in that shop. And then none of the clothes have price tags on them. That just scares me. It has to mean that it would be a number that is close to my monthly salary."
"Actually I think that Narcissa has them magic away all the tags before we get there so you and I don't put up any more of a fight than we normally do." She said sarcastically as she exited the bathroom while in the process of stabbing the last pin into the elegant everyday knot she had twisted her hair up into.
But all her laughter died immediately with one look at her best friend. "What happened?" she asked, her voice full of genuine concern.
Hallie tried yet again to laugh. "Of course you would just look at me and know I was upset. Couldn't you at least have the decency to pretend that my acting skills were fooling you for at least a few minutes?"
"Hell no. It doesn't matter how good of an actress you are love, I am your best friend so I would be able to tell anyway. Now again, what happened?"
"I don't even know… for some reason Theo decided to tell me he loved me last night."
Ginny looked at her confused. "And this is a bad thing?"
"Yes… no… I don't know! I need your advice. I don't know what I'm doing Gin."
"Just tell him how you feel Hallie. It is that simple! You know that you have serious feelings for Theo that you don't want to admit. Just tell him." She said matter of factly as she turned to face her mirror.
Hallie felt herself inexplicably bristle at her best friend's comment. "Well isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?"
Ginny spun around and raised an eyebrow at her, "Excuse me? What was that? I'm just trying to help you."
"Yeah but you make the whole thing seem like it is the simplest thing in the entire world when we both know for a fact that you have spent the last three months battling with the exact same thing and have not resolved you problems but in fact made then exponentially worse. So don't tell me to just tell him how I feel when you know good and damn well that you could never and would never do the same thing."
"Hey, my issues go a lot deeper than your thing with Theo…well not deeper just different. Draco and I had a real relationship and he is a completely different person than he used to be. You though, you got Theo back and he is not only just as good as you remember him but better and as an added bonus he is obviously head over heels in love with you and is trying to show you that. You are just scared baby."
Hallie sat down in the chair behind her and nodded her head. "I know." She whispered as tears began to silently slide down her cheeks. "God! I feel so stupid!"
Ginny crossed the room and kneeled down in front of her friend. "Hallie, love, don't cry."
"I just can't get close to him again. Last time I let myself have actual feelings for him I lost him. I only knew him for a few days but he broke my heart just the same. Now with the arrangement we have we both just have random, hot and slightly angry sex. It is emotionally charged and amazing but still just sex and though I always enjoy it, I want to make love to him. That is the one thing I can't let myself do because I can't trust him not to leave again."
"But Hallie," Ginny said, brushing a tear from her friend's cheek. "How do you know he's going to go anywhere? It sounds like he has been considering it to be more for quite some time and you are the one who chose to miss the memo. He has obviously stuck around this long for a reason; you should give him a chance."
"He said he loved me." She whispered.
"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"
"Because it is."
"No love, it is beautiful and amazing and I think you need to seriously consider letting him back in. make it a probational thing even. We both know you are well on your way to being fully in love but tell him you need things to be dialed back. Take it slow."
"I'll think about it." Hallie promised.
"Good." Ginny said getting up from her kneeling position. "Do you feel up to food and shopping today?"
"Well I'm not sure I have much choice do I? Christmas Eve is in less than two weeks."
"True story. I guess we better get this over with then."
It's back. I'm back. My semester is over. I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me. I promise I have another chapter that is nearly done. I will post it in a few days or so. My present to all of you who are so mad that I have been so lax in posting. It hasn't been intentional I promise! Writing and a full course load just didn't really mesh this time.
I love you all who reviewed and who have stuck by me! Some of you complements and even the threats should I not continue made me smile even amidst this awful semester. The end is in sight!
3 Care