At the beginning of June, Ginny was in the library getting ready for her OWLs. The Library had become a nesting ground for all fifth and seventh-year students, facing standard exams. How she did on these exams dictated what she could specialize in for her career. So far her two big ideas were to become a healer and try to go pro with Quidditch. They were very different goals. One required a very specific set of classes, the other demanded a light school load and lots of practice time. If she was to become a Healer she would need to do better in potions as well as take herbology more seriously. On this particular day, she stood reading an exceptionally detailed book on origanum dictamnus in a far row of the library.
Without notice, someone picked her up from behind and spun her around several rotations knocking the book from her hand.
"I did it!'' Draco whispered into her ear in an elated tone as he spun her.
Ginny turned to face him, his arms still circling her waist. He would have looked very unkempt for Draco had he not been so overcome with joy. Not fully understanding his words she stammered "Wh-what?"
"I did it!" He repeated, smiling down at her. "I finished the task, It's over… well just the part I didn't know how to do is done, but for now I'm done with it."
"You're done for now? There's more?" Said Ginny, Hardly believing the words. "when do you have to do the second part?"
"I don't know…. It doesn't matter, all that matters is I won't be searching through charms anymore, which means no more patching me up, which means you'll come back, right?" He asked, eyes as wide as galleons searching her face for her reaction.
"Yes Draco, if you aren't hurting yourself like you were, we can be friends again" conceited Ginny.
"No, not friends," said Draco, lacing his finger with hers "I realized after you left I needed more. I want to be more than your friend Ginny. You're my best friend, I'm whole when you are around. When I didn't have you there all I wanted was to finish so I could get you back, being with you feels more natural than breathing. Let me show you how it should have been from the start. I will show you—"
"Yes, Draco," Ginny interjected, beaming back at him.
"Yes?"
"Yes, I feel the same way, I don't want to just be friends either, I just couldn't support you hurting yourself. I had begun to give up hope there would be an end."
"No more, I promise." He said, eyes boring earnestly into hers. Then Draco quipped an eyebrow and asked, "You're sure you're not madly in love with Potter?"
"No," Ginny said, smiling.
"Good." Said Draco, smiling back and taking her face between his hands. He lowered his head to hers and kissed her. He wrapped an arm around her waist pulled her closer to him. His lips were warm and soft but his kiss had power and passion behind it. The kind that would have made her tip over had he not been holding her so tightly. Their lips matched perfectly, synchronizing naturally with each other's rhythms. Ginny snaked her fingers through the back of his overgrown blond hair. After not long enough she was forced to break away and come up for air. They stood there, heads resting together grinning wildly at each other, breath racing, not letting go of one another. Draco hugged her tightly, lifting her onto her tiptoes. Ginny's lips buzzed with numbness from rubbing against his five o'clock shadow. She guessed he probably didn't remember their first kiss, but his one was much better.
To her surprise, Draco whispered in her ear "Sorry I wasn't more engaged in the last one. You can blame Potter." Ginny just giggled in response, glowing with happiness. She felt as though she were in a dream right now, if she was, she didn't want to wake up.
The next two weeks were a whirlwind. Draco and she ate every meal together, sometimes in the courtyard, sometimes at the Slytherin table, and very rarely at the Gryffindor table. Draco caught her between every class, walking with her, carrying her books, and listening to every bit of nonsense drama the day had held. Then, he would send her off to her next class with her mind spinning and a knee-buckling, world-melting kiss. Not even Blaise's fake gaging could penetrate their passion for each other. Every night, he walked her back to her dormitory right before curfew. By the time she had reached her room, Dracos eagle-owl named Lux was waiting for her with a bouquet of never wilt flowers, a bottle of Veela perfume, a beautiful white bird in a gilded cage or a goblin made necklace with their initials embossed. Each card was folded into a bird or butterfly which fluttered until opened. Inside they held poems and excerpts from ancient texts on the magical powers of love and enchantment. Morsels of chocolate were included with each note and Ginny nibbled on them while she read the beautiful lines.
Draco would prepare a wildly different experience for them each night, bringing together anything that made her happy with delicacies from around the world. The first night he had brought her down to the boathouse, taking her into one of the rowboats he steered them deeper into the cavern rather than out to the lake. As they went into the darkness, Draco brought out a black top hat. Flinging it like a fanged frisbee into the center of the cavern. The hat spun faster and faster, light jetting out in all directions like a port key. Music tinkled from the hat and reverberated around the walls. The light from the hat began to form shapes of animals and people. The cave was transformed into a circus of lights. Towering elephants walked an arm's length from their boat. Trapeze artists swooped over them. Clowns peeked up from under the water and spit streams at each other. With every new act, Draco would draw her attention to a new part, she was captivated with awe.
So it was every night, sometimes they flew around the quidditch pitch, landing on the roof for dinner to watch the sunset. They had laughed so hard once they almost slid off when their dinner rolls rolled right off the roof. Another night he brought her down to the kitchens where he introduced her to the house-elves. After she had left the elves had found him and taken over caring for his maladies caused by his mysterious research. She thanked each of them for helping him and they spent the rest of the night sipping butterbeer and baking cookies.
One time he had brought her a box with a long green satin dress. He waited patiently while she slipped into it in the prefect's bathroom. She teetered a little in the strappy heels that had come with it until she found her footing. Taking her up to the room of requirements, Draco had made it into an old jazz club. Smokey cigar smells drifted through the dimly lit room. The piano and bass cello tinkled and hummed rhythmically in the background, playing themselves. A solo spotlight illuminated the dance floor and Ginny and Draco spent the whole night swing and slow dancing.
They star gazed, watched old movies, had tickle spell fights, critiqued art all along the castle (which often critiqued them back), read romantic novels to each other, and played gobstones, chess, and exploding snaps. As Draco saw it, they had a lot of making-up to do so not a moment was missed where he showered her with affection. He took every opportunity to kiss her, stroke her hair, and breath her in. He studied her face as if he would forget what it looked like, tracing each crease in her smile, every freckle across her nose.
Tonight, as the weather was warm and dry, they set up a bonfire on the lake's edge. Ginny taught Draco how to find the perfect round and flat skipping stone then coached him on how to skid it seven… eight… nine times across the calm water. His first few had hit the surface with a thunk and plopped under the water not skipping once. Eventually, he was able to get three or four skips in. When their arms got tired he took her to a beech tree set back off the bank and transfigured a slab of driftwood into a tree swing. Testing it himself first, he then offered the seat to Ginny and gently pushed gliding smoothly towards the dark rippling water. When the bonfire burned low with glowing red coals, they settled underneath the tree and talked as they neared curfew, enjoying a candlelit picnic prepared for them by the house-elves.
Ginny had taken off her sweater and rolled it as a pillow. She lay back on it, while Draco, propped up on his elbow, fed her grapes and cheese, only stopping to brush her hair back from her eyes. A light breeze perfumed with spring flowers floated across them making Draco's hair fall gently into his eyes. When Draco would laugh it came from deep within, shaking his frame and creasing the sides of his eyes. Ginny had never seen him so light-hearted. She was sure if she bottled his demeanor, it would sell for a million galleons. The night was perfect.
Suddenly, the calm was shattered, Draco tensed. Ginny looked up at him concerned. "Draco what happened?" She went to place her hand on his chest but before she could he leapt up and pulled her to her feet.
"The second part starts now" was all he said.
"Wh-what? Now? How could you possibly know that?"
"I just do Ginny, come on, I have to get you someplace safe." He said and began dragging her back towards the castle, leaving their peaceful scene behind. Once inside, Draco went right for the Dungeons. Ginny struggled to keep up as he pulled her quickly down the many flights of narrow stairs. Just outside the kitchen, they ran into professor Snape. He had the same worried look in his eyes as Draco. Was Draco involved secretly with the Order? He couldn't be, he was still underage. She got the feeling she was missing something.
Snape turned to Draco and said, "If you can't do this it's ok Draco, I can step in, you can stay and protect her."
"No!" Snapped Draco "It has to be me, you know that. It will be me." Resolve masking the fear in his eyes.
Ginny wondered if she had missed some updates from her parents. "Professor, what's going on?" She asked Snape but he ignored her.
"Be reasonable Draco." Snape pushed. "Take her to my quarters, the password is 'Doe', hide her there."
"I don't need your help" Spat Draco at his head of house. Ginny was shocked, she had never seen Draco speak to a Professor that way no matter how he truly felt. Snape saw he would not yield and passed them moving up the stairs with surprising speed.
As Snape fled Ginny turned on Draco demanding "What the hell was that?"
Draco too ignored her, instead, tickling the pear on the kitchen's painting and ushering her inside. He turned to her and dug something from his pocket. It was a ring. The ring was made of gold with a deep blue sapphire stone sided by two glittering diamonds. "It's been in the family for ages," Draco explained rapidly. "The band is made from Felix Felicis, so it's infused with luck and the sapphire comes from the same mine that Ravenclaw's diadem was made of which means you'll have slightly heightened cognitive skills. My mother gave it to me for tonight and that's the best I can do to protect you. Give it a few spins to start it." He said, pressing it into her palm. "Just don't take it off and don't leave this room and you'll be ok." He kissed her, his lips pressing hard against hers as if he kissed her hard enough they could not be parted. With a look that made it seem as if it were physically painful to let her go, he said "I love you, Ginny, no matter what happens, always remember that." His tone sounded more like an apology than a declaration of love. Then he sprinted from the kitchens, leaving her in the care of fifty house-elves.
"I love you too." She whispered after him.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. All characters, names and situations are the creation and property of J.K. Rowling and Universal Studios. I do not receive compensation for writing this story.