25. Balloon [347]
If Draco had to categorize his relationship with Ginny Weasley, he'd immediately confuse the inquirer by stating, "She's ballast."
It was not quite a flattering term, equating his girlfriend (the more sociably acceptable response) as it did to a big bag of sand, but that wasn't quite how it was meant. Of course, the actual meaning was debatably no nicer.
To Draco, Ginny Weasley kept him from flying away. If he was a hot-air balloon, she was the ballast that ultimately tied him to earth, and only the knowledge that he'd have to jettison her had kept him from giving up and leaving long ago. She kept him connected with reality and what was necessary and she was real like only dirt and sand could really be; he didn't view 'ballast' as such a nasty term.
Of course, in the back of the mind he knew also why he called her that. Because ballast was always expendable, no matter how repellent the thought currently was. He could be a permanent flight risk and she'd be the only thing holding him back, and it was totally up to him – if he decided to fly away higher, he'd just toss her over the side and that was what ballast was for just as much as holding him down, so no need to feel guilty.
He never mentioned his reasons for thinking so, had only mentioned the term once in a joking manner, but she'd picked up on everything he'd not said and had gone quiet deep inside.
Because if to Draco, Ginny was the ballast keeping the balloon down – then to Ginny, Draco was the flame soaring it higher (flickering and rushing in the wind and always dancing and burning, hot enough to melt her down into glass).
Sometimes, she almost wanted him to toss her aside, if only to see how high he could go before being crushed by the atmosphere. If only to find out whether it would happen before or after she hit the ground and shattered out into a million motes of sand.