Chapter 9: Away Together
Two years later
Ginny hastily scribbled down the last of the page numbers on the blackboard just as the bell ending the day echoed in from the courtyard.
"And don't forget," she added over the hubbub of her students packing up to leave, "the rules for tomorrow's team competition are on the back of the handout I gave you, so look over that in advance!"
She set down the chalk and dusted off her hands, glancing at the clock at the back of the room. Five-thirty. The school days here at the International Academy of Magic, Geneva, were much longer than Ginny had been accustomed to at Hogwarts, but the Ministry diplomats and other high-powered wizards who sent their children here expected a rigorous curriculum. She picked up her wand and said a quick spell to straighten up a bit, then grabbed her rucksack from beneath her desk. Draco would be arriving in about an hour – plenty of time to have tea with Alexandra and Joel in the teacher's lounge beforehand. At the doorway, she paused. Then strode quickly back to her desk and retrieved today's newspaper from her top desk drawer. She scanned the headline again – for the fifth time that day – and shoved it into her bag.
"Tea, Ginny?" Joel said over his shoulder when she entered the lounge. A tall lanky American, he stood at the far end of the room at the tea and coffee table.
"Yes, thanks," Ginny said, "Milk and two sugars, please."
"Ooh, two sugars today?" Alex said from one of the sofas, scooting over to make room for Ginny. "Need the sugar rush, do you?"
Ginny sank down into the seat. "Desperately," she said. "I'm exhausted, and Draco's taking me out to some fancy place for dinner."
Alex clasped her hands and gave Ginny a sappy grin. "That is just the sweetest thing!" Ginny snorted in response. Alex, slightly plump with wisps of curly blonde hair, was a hopeless romantic. Ginny was half-convinced that one of these days she was going to give herself a stroke cooing over the tales of Draco Malfoy's romantic exploits.
"Oh, yeah, it's your second anniversary, isn't it?" Dex said, setting a tray of tea down on the table before them.
"Mmm," Ginny confirmed, sipping her tea and sighing contentedly. "Oh!" she said, "How'd your exams turn out, Lex?"
Alex groaned in response and settled her feet on the table. "Absolute nightmare," she said. "From the average score, you would think these kids had never even heard of Muggles."
"That bad, huh?" Joel said consolingly.
"Worse," Alex continued. "Nearly three quarters of them mixed up telephones with televisions. And to top it off, I think there are only two kids in the whole class that care in the slightest about Muggle Studies at all! Was it like that at Hogwarts?" she said, turning to Ginny.
"Well, there were a lot more Muggle-borns than there are here," Ginny said slowly, "But it wasn't one of the most popular subjects, to be totally honest."
"Ugh," Alex sighed, "It's like trying to push a boulder up a steep hill."
"Nah," Joel said, "It's tough this time of year no matter what. All of the kids are obsessed with their summer plans. One foot out the door already. Hell, even Ginny, who teaches arguably one of the more popular subjects – Charms – is having a hard time keeping them interested, aren't you, Gin?"
"Definitely," Ginny said, "It's come to the point where I'm giving up on actual lectures and just letting them play a huge game in hopes that they'll pick something up along the way."
"Is that the competition thing you were talking about?" Alex said, slightly appeased now.
"Yep, that's the one."
"Good idea, that," Joel commented.
"Enough about my stupid exam nightmare," Alex said, sitting up straighter and affixing Ginny with a hopeful look. "Where's Mr. Dreamy taking you tonight?"
Ginny grinned at the nickname. Ever since Draco had come by the school for the first time a few months earlier, Alex and Joel had been teasing her non-stop about how "dreamy" he was. Ginny couldn't help feeling a little proud.
"Um, I think to that little bistro a few blocks from here," she replied, "You know, the one with the really good duck dish?"
"Oh, that one! He's really shelling out the big bucks," Joel laughed. "That promotion must have come with a big raise."
Ginny shrugged, blushing a little. Three months ago, Draco's boss had retired and he had been promoted to Head Portfolios Manager.
"And what are you wearing?" Alex said. "That's a fancy place, you know."
Ginny rummaged in her rucksack and produced her favorite little black dress and a pair of slinky strapped heels.
"Well, go put them on!" Alex said, gesturing toward the door to the private bathroom. Grinning, Ginny retreated into the bathroom and pulled on the dress and shoes. She'd found the dress in the city center when they had first arrived in Geneva, and it had been her favorite ever since. The collar dipped just enough, and the clingy fabric hugged her slim body in the perfect places. "Ta-da!" she said, coming out of the room, "What do you think?"
Half an hour later, Ginny emerged from the front of the school. Draco was already there, leaning cooly against the stair railing in his suit. Ginny stood for just a moment to watch him brush his hair back from his face and slide his hands back into his pockets. She was always struck by how effortlessly well-bred and dashing he looked. She figured it had to be something about his upbringing. She smiled a little to herself and strode over to him.
"Hello, handsome," she said, leaning up to give him a peck on the cheek. He turned his head at the last moment to kiss her deeply on the lips. Ginny's breath caught in her throat the way it always did when he kissed her this way.
"Happy anniversary," he said softly. "You look great," he added, stepping back and observing her dress appreciatively.
"Mmm, thanks," Ginny said, striking a pose.
Draco laughed. "Very sexy," he said, "We better get out of here before my girlfriend sees us and gets jealous. Maybe after dinner we could head back to my place?" He waggled his eyebrows at her.
Ginny grinned and grabbed his hand, leading him down the street and allowing her hips to sway provocatively. "If you're lucky," she said, smirking at him over her shoulder.
"Ever the tease," Draco said, laughingly following her toward the restaurant.
They were seated before one of the bistro's large bay windows, and Ginny admired the view of the quaint little street as they waited for their food to arrive.
"How was work?" Draco said, topping off her glass with a rich red wine.
"Oh, the usual," Ginny said, taking a sip. "Kids are getting restless, but that's understandable I suppose. I'm hoping the competition tomorrow will get them more excited."
"Explain that again?"
"Well, I've divided them into five teams of four, and I've set each team three fairly difficult tasks that they need to accomplish using the charms we've gone over this term," Ginny said. "The team that wins gets a ten percent bump on their final exam."
"That's quite a bump," Draco observed.
"I'm trying to motivate them here! The tasks are actually pretty difficult. For example, I've placed objects behind my desk where they can't see them that they have to levitate, and since the objects aren't in their direct line of vision, they're going to have to figure out how to perform pretty strong summoning and levitation spells simultaneously. Should be interesting."
Draco was regarding her with an odd smile on his face. "You're a really great teacher, Gin," he said. "It's pretty amazing, actually. All the ideas you have, I mean."
Ginny grinned under the praise. "Well gee," she said, "Thanks. I do try."
Their meals arrived shortly, and between bites of heavenly roast duck and buttery mashed potatoes, they discussed Draco's job.
"The Portland file is in absolute disarray record-wise," Draco sighed. "I don't know what Collins was doing. He did things and didn't write anything down about it. It's a real mess."
"Is Mr. Portland going to be really unhappy with you?"
"Well," Draco said, smiling ruefully, "I'm hoping he doesn't even find out the state it's in. There's a whole bevy of assistants working to sort it out before we meet with Portland on Monday."
Ginny snorted. "Bevy of assistants? Since when did you become so important that there's a bevy of assistants available to do your bidding?"
Draco grinned. "The many perks of the promotion."
"Indeed."
They lapsed into silence as the waiter came to take their plates away. "So," Ginny said when they had been handed dessert menus, "Did you read the paper today?"
"Yeah, that's the sixth Death Eater that's been killed with no retaliation in the past month, isn't it?" Draco replied.
Ginny nodded. "Yeah. This one was assaulting a muggle girl in West London and some wizard walked by and hexed him. The Death Eater ended up dead, but You-Know-Who hasn't done anything in response."
"It's a good sign, definitely," Draco said. "Add that to all the Death Eaters who have been disappearing, and I'd say…." He stopped short.
Ginny pressed on. "Well the paper reported rumors that Harry, Ron, and Hermione have succeeded and that You-Know-Who is actually dead. I guess the only thing is," Ginny added, the words streaming from her lips and only keeping her voice from rising in excitement with difficulty, "if they've really killed him, why haven't they contacted anyone?"
Draco shrugged. "It's possible they don't have access to an Owl."
Ginny nodded slowly. Draco always got curiously withdrawn whenever they talked about Harry's mission, and Ginny didn't want to press the issue over their anniversary dinner.
"Anyway," she said, "I think I'm going to try the chocolate souffle. What about you?"
By the time they had eaten dessert and walked the five moonlit blocks back to their flat, all trace of awkwardness was gone. Ginny flipped the light switch and slid off her heels, sighing happily.
"Why were high heels ever invented?" she mused.
"Because they make women's legs look fantastic," Draco replied. "Beauty is pain, you know," he added mischievously.
Ginny chuckled. "I'm gonna go change into my pajamas," she said, moving toward the bedroom.
"No, wait," Draco said, holding her arm. "I really like that dress on you."
"That great, huh?" Ginny joked, twirling playfully.
"You have no idea."
Ginny laughed. "I bet you use that line on all the girls, Mr. Malfoy," she quipped.
"I'm not joking, Ginny," Draco said, and his expression sobered her. "You really are absolutely beautiful." Ginny felt butterflies in her stomach. Draco had a way of doing that – teasing her and making her laugh one second, then catching her off guard with a comment like that the next. And she responded the way she always responded; she couldn't help it. She stood on her toes to kiss him.
His hand came up to brush a lock of copper hair behind her ear. The bedroom was only feet away, and Ginny gave herself up to it all.
The next morning, Ginny woke and tiptoed into the kitchen. She made two piping hot mugs of tea and a breakfast of eggs and slightly burnt bacon and set it all on a tray with a little white flower cut from the windowbox. When she brought the tray back into the bedroom, Draco was sitting up, yawning and rubbing sleep from his eyes.
"What's this?" he said sleepily.
"Breakfast in bed, you layabout," Ginny replied, pouring milk into the tea mugs. "But don't expect this on a regular basis," she added, "this is a very special occasion."
Draco grinned into his own mug. "I'm sufficiently awed," he said. "Thanks."
"Did you mum teach you how to cook all the things you make?" he added.
"Yeah," Ginny confirmed. "Except my meat pie – the one you say is like shoving an angry dragon into your arteries? That one is an original culinary invention of Charlie's."
"I should have known," Draco responded, spearing some egg with his fork.
Just then, there was a tapping on the window. Draco set aside his fork and stood. He opened the window to one of the haughty international post owls that Mrs. Weasley used to deliver letters to them. "It's from your mum," he said said, taking the envelope. "You're welcome to rest here for a while if you want," he added to the owl. "There's a bowl of food in the kitchen." The bird seemed to understand him – the international post owls were known for their intelligence – and flew straight to the kitchen.
"I'll bet it tops six pages this time," Ginny said, sipping her tea and settling herself back under the covers.
Draco grinned. Ever since they'd left England, Ginny and "Ron" had been receiving bi-weekly letters from Mrs. Weasley, who wanted to know anything and everything about how they were getting on and who reported family news in extreme detail. She referred to Order business in only the vaguest terms…they couldn't be certain that international post wasn't being intercepted by Voldemort's forces.
Draco flicked open the envelope and started to skim the page. "Is Fleur's morning sickness improving?" Ginny said, "I sent her that nausea charm last time."
Draco didn't answer. Ginny looked up to find him looking blankly at the parchment, a stunned expression on his face.
Ginny's stomach plummeted. "What is it?" she said, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper.
"No, no, nobody's hurt," Draco said quickly. "It's just…." He trailed off, and simply held out the letter.
Ginny grabbed it and read.
Dearest Ginny and Ron,
I can hardly write from excitement! I've spoken to the KS and the others in my club, and in light of all the Death Eater deaths and disappearances and other pieces of information, they all agreed that it would be safe for you to come home! I don't know what they've been reporting in the Swiss papers – I expect they're being cautious about being too optimistic – but we've hardly seen any Death Eaters at all over the past several weeks. They've all just gone! Many of the shops have opened again on Diagon Alley and there haven't been any checkpoints at transportation sites.
We think – well, we hope – that it might all be over. Really, truly over. We haven't heard any news – (whenever her mother referred to "news," Ginny knew she was talking about the Trio) – but our hopes are high. Your father and I know, of course, that you two have settled into jobs and a life away from home, but please do remember that this is your home. Please consider coming back to us. It would mean the world to have everyone together during all this.
Love, Mum.
The paper slipped from Ginny's fingers onto the duvet. She looked up at Draco. She couldn't speak for a moment.
"It's even better than we thought," Draco said finally.
"Well…," Ginny said slowly, looking searchingly into Draco's eyes. But his expression was inscrutable. "I think we have to go back…."
"We do?" he said softly.
Ginny nodded assent. "Yeah, we do. It's my family, Draco, and I'm sure they wouldn't be telling us we could come home if it wasn't safe…."
Draco sighed harshly and ran a hand through his hair. For a moment Ginny thought that he might actually refuse.
But all he said was, "You're right, of course. We were always going to go back. It's just so…sudden."
"I know," Ginny said, grabbing his wrist gently and pulling him down to sit on the bed beside her. "But I can look for teaching jobs at home, and I'm sure Bill knows about placements at Gringotts…."
"Yeah," Draco said softly. He turned to look her full in the face. "You're happy to go back, aren't you?"
Ginny couldn't help her mouth from breaking into a wide smile. "Yes," she agreed, "Yes, I can't wait to see everyone again…I really am happy to go home."
Draco smiled, and it only looked a little bit forced. He leaned forward and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. "We're going home," he said.
Ginny laughed aloud. They were going home.
Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long. A TON of stuff has been happening in my "real life"…my summer internship ended and I flew back to the States (goodbye, beautiful UK), I turned twenty (yesterday!), and tomorrow I'm off on a short trip with some friends! So lots of traveling and craziness going on. But I hope it was at least moderately worth the wait! It's mostly fluff to give you a little insight into their two years in Switzerland, but now they're heading back and next chapter will be the one you've all been waiting for – Harry's return! Woot woot!
Anyways, I'm a bit delirious right now – still on England time – so I had better get myself to bed. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter – please review! Love, mugglehugger.