A/N: I have a strong appreciation for nature, so when I saw this challenge at The DG Forum, I couldn't resist having a go at it despite the fact I'm up to my ears with work. Oh well.
In any case, here are the basic rules of the challenge:
October is the month of transition: from summer to winter or from winter to summer. Seeing that we live in a world with two opposite hemispheres, October can either be a month of renewal and birth or a month of harvest and melancholy. In this challenge, you will be asked to write a short fic featuring the elements of fall or spring, depending on which hemisphere you live in. (e.g. If you live in the northern hemisphere, you will write about autumn).
Prompt: October (fall or spring)
Challenge: Find the beauty or the ugliness in the season.
Pairing: Any, as long as your fic features HP character(s).
Word Count: 800 words (limit)
Obviously, since I live in New Zealand, I will be writing about spring. Oh, and I'll apologise now for any typos. If you point them out to me, I can go back and fix them when I'm feeling more coherent.
Wind, Rain, and Draco Malfoy's Kisses
Every season has its own bouquet of scents, but spring was Ginny's favourite. There was something so earthy yet delicious about the scent of spring. You wanted to gather it in your hands and breathe it in like it was the most decadent of chocolates, already imagining the taste of that sweet cocoa melting on your tongue. But spring was not chocolate: spring was dirt and rain mixed together, blended with freesias and daffodils and all those other flowers that only revealed their face during this one special season. It was fresh and innocent, suggesting a burst of life that had nothing to do with the capricious wind who decided to show her face with more frequency.
But Ginny didn't mind. She liked the wind because it was drenched with the scents she loved, as if that goddess of air had surrounded herself with everything to do with spring like her own brand of perfume. Even when that changeable little goddess turned fierce and blew gale-force breaths Ginny's way, the redhead still couldn't find it in her heart to hate the wind. However, when the rain god joined in, Ginny was not so impressed. If there was one thing she hated about spring, it was the unpredictability of the sky. First it would be sunny, then it would be pouring with rain, and always one was left wishing one had thought to bring an umbrella.
Perhaps that's why she loved October so much. Since moving to the southern hemisphere for her work, she had learnt that October was the month of less rain and much more sun. The wind was still there, of course, but the sun had well and truly established itself by then. For the first time one could shed the bulky, dark clothes of winter and indulge in the warmth of a new season. Ginny loved that feeling of putting on a light dress for the first time. It was somehow liberating and, for whatever reason, it made her feel like a child again. Of course, the best part about October was that the sun was never too hot. Spring was perfect like that. It was summer that you had to watch out for.
Then there was the general visual splendour of spring. The trees, which had previously been bare, were allowed to adorn themselves with crowns of pink and white, whose jewels eventually crumbled to scatter the ground in coloured snow. The flowers, which winter had shrivelled to straggly stems, bloomed once again – not ostentatiously as they do in summer, but soft and fragile. To Ginny, there was a strange sort of innocent to spring flowers, as if they were still little children just developing their beauty. It reminded her that spring was indeed the time of new beginnings. It was a time to grow and discover oneself, and a time to renew those things that had been lost during the cold, barren season of winter.
In this sense, it seemed fitting that October should be the month she would put Harry Potter behind her and find new love, but Ginny had never thought it would be with him.
"So this is where you've been hiding," Draco murmured, wrapping his arms around her from behind and planting a kiss on her cheek.
Ginny smiled and leaned back into his chest. "I've been admiring the landscape. You should try it sometime; it's much more rewarding to look at than that musty old office of yours."
"I'll take your word for it."
She laughed and turned around in his arms to face him, meeting his grey eyes with a smile. "I know exactly what you're going to say, but even you can't deny that spring is the most beautiful season of all. Just look at the trees!"
"I don't really care about trees, Ginny," Draco said bluntly. "Right now, all I care about is you."
And as he placed his lips against hers, Ginny had to admit that however beautiful blossom-crowned trees may be, nothing quite compared to those spring-given kisses she received from Draco Malfoy.