Dedication: This half chapter is for Leah who motivated me to finish it. (Actually, she threatened to chop off my head and cause other bodily harm but…that's not the point.)
Author's Notes: Ahhh it's so nice not to have to write a disclaimer anymore. Anyway, I took my time getting out Part 2 of Chapter 6, didn't I? Ah well, here it is now! I hope you enjoy it! Remember to leave me a lovely review and I'll love you forever and ever and give you a Draco plushie. But since I don't know where you live, I can't send you a plushie so you'll just have to live with my love. Hehe, anyways, hope you like this part.
Previously…Draco and Ginny kissed, lapsed into temporary insanity and brought back down to Earth by lovely witty remarks from Robbie. Ron apparently likes to hear himself talk while devouring food and it doesn't even matter that no one was listening. Draco decided to be sweet for once and bribed Robbie with chocolate to deliver a note to Ginny. Ron, being the marvelous git that he can be sometimes, proceeds to steal the note from Robbie and makes Ginny upset. Then Draco and Ginny go through a light bantering period as others watched on and Draco wonders if Ginny is trying to get him killed. Any questions?
Chapter 6, Part 2 – Provoking Feelings"Fate has it that they will possess elements,"
Under a lovers' sky
Gonna be with you
And no one's gonna be around
If you think that you won't fall
Well just wait until
Til the sun goes down
Underneath the starlight - starlight
There's a magical feeling - so right
It'll steal your heart tonight
- Leann Rimes "Can't Fight the Moonlight"
It had been a long tiring day for Draco. It didn't help that the Dream Team were on his trail. To avoid them, he had hid in the shadows throughout the school rather than dominating the hallways as he usually did. He'd had enough of an enraged Weasley for a lifetime; add that to a pissed off mudblood and an angry Potter, the results of that equation wasn't something to look forward to. But it was usually the same, whenever you try to avoid someone; you're bound to see them more often.
Draco flopped onto his bed and stared up at the canopy above his bed. The door to the dormitory opened noisily and Robbie came bouncing into the room. Draco groaned and turned over, burrowing his head under the pillows. Now was not the time for a hyperactive kid.
"Draco, are you asleep? Wake up!"
Sighing, Draco sat up and looked at Robbie. What he saw surprised him. Robbie was filthy. There were grass stains on his clothes and a bit of mud smeared on his cheek. His hair looked as if birds had built a nest there. "What have you been doing?"
Robbie smiled and clapped his hands, "Playing with the big doggie."
"What big doggie?" (A.N: Can you imagine Draco saying the word "doggie"?)
"The big man let me play with him." Hagrid. He should have known without asking. Who else owned a dog at Hogwarts anyway?
"Robbie, you need a bath," Draco said, his nose wrinkling at a smell that seemed to be coming from Robbie. "But I don't want one! You can't make me!" Robbie plopped down onto the floor and crossed his arms. He pouted and looked at Draco as if daring Draco to move him. "Sure I can. Just watch me." Draco walked over and picked Robbie off the ground and proceeded to take him to the bathroom. Holding onto Robbie with one hand and turning on the taps with the other, he asked Robbie if there was anything he needed.
"I'm not taking a bath."
Draco sighed. "Yes, you are. You can get into that bath by yourself, or I'm just going to drop you in there." Robbie stopped and thought about it for a minute and nodded. "Can I have bubbles?"
Draco sighed; he knew the answer before he asked, "Is it that important?" Draco sighed again as Robbie nodded. He slowly let go of Robbie, making sure that he wouldn't run away before reaching over the bathtub for the bottle of bubble bath. Draco never saw it coming. One minute, he was reaching for a bottle, the next; he fell into the half filled bath, fully clothed.
"Robbie!" The aforementioned child started to run towards the door but stopped short when it was suddenly slammed shut. Robbie glanced back at Draco, who had his wand out and looking mighty proud of himself, and again repeated his words, "I'm not taking a bath!"
"Fine," Draco said, as he picked himself out of the water, his robes clinging to his body (A.N: Wouldn't we all love to see that?), "We'll do it the hard way."
Draco took quick strides towards Robbie, snatched him up and proceeded to strip Robbie before dropping him into the water. Robbie immediately began to smile and splashed water at Draco. "Yay!"
Draco was beginning to feel the pressures of the day, a slight headache started to form. "Robbie…if you enjoy baths so much, why did you make me do all that?" Draco asked, almost afraid of the answer.
Robbie smiled at Draco, "Cuz it's fun and now you're all wet!" As if proving his point, Robbie splashed more water at Draco. He could feel his headache growing now, a loud pounding inside his head. At this moment, he felt like he needed a head surface to bang his head on.
After a couple more minutes of splashing, Robbie stopped and looked at Draco. Draco stared back and wondered why Robbie wasn't cleaning himself.
"I don't know how to get clean."
Where was that hard surface when you needed it? As Draco pushed up his sleeves, he started to wonder when he started to do such degrading chores. Before dragging out the soap, Draco made sure every door (which there weren't many, only one) was locked and every window was covered (this proved to be an easier task, considering the fact that this was the dungeons, there were no windows). He may possibly be doing something that he found degrading, but there was no way in hell that anyone would find out. He would never live it down.
Draco got to work, scrubbing Robbie clean. After rinsing off Robbie and going to retrieve a fluffy deep green towel, Draco wondered what he would do first; strangle Robbie, or hug him. Of course, neither would happen if his headache got worse; his brain wouldn't be there to help him function. Robbie must have noticed Draco's discomfort because after being wrapped in a fluffy towel, he asked Draco if he was all right. Draco just gave Robbie a small smile of reassurance.
(A.N: After looking over my notes, I've just now actually realized how long Chapter 6 is. *sigh* Hope I don't get boring)
They walked back to their dorm room. And Draco realized he had a problem on his hands. Robbie didn't have extra clothes with him, what would he wear now? He searched through his trunk for something that could remotely be worn by Robbie. Finally, Robbie was dressed in an old pair of drawstring boxers, pulling them as tight as it would go in an effort to fit Robbie and a T-shirt. Robbie looked even smaller than he already was in the oversized clothing.
"Now go to sleep," Draco ordered as he changed his own clothes. Now that Robbie's bath was over, his headache lessened. He couldn't wait til twelve midnight. He lay down on his bed and his eyes drifted shut. And soon, Draco was asleep.
On the other side of the castle, things weren't as peaceful. In fact, a battle was going full blast and everyone in Gryffindor Tower was smart enough to stay out of the way. After dinner, Ginny had gone for a walk on the grounds, her companion, a small puppy, following at her heels. Upon her arrival, she found her dearest brother, Ron, waiting for her. Ginny sighed as the portrait closed behind her.
"Ginny, I'd like to have a word with you."
This was a new perspective, Ron usually yelled out her name, really loudly, and proceeded to lecture her for a straight hour, barely even pausing for breath. But this quiet approach seemed dangerous and unpredictable.
"What is it? I'm tired and I want to go to bed," she said, starting towards the stairs to her dorm.
"No, you're not going to go anywhere until you tell me what's going on between you and Malfoy."
"Ron, you need a memory check. I remember that we've had this conversation already."
"And you told me that there's nothing going on. But why in the wizarding world did you kiss him in the Great Hall today?" Ron's voice was starting to get louder. Ginny held back a smirk; maybe it wasn't as unpredictable as she thought.
"Calm down, brother dear, I'm just having a bit of fun."
"Fun? FUN?!? You call kissing Malfoy in front of half the school fun?"
Yep, old predictable Ron. New tactics, old results.
"Sure, why not? You do realize that Malfoy is the most eligible guy under Hogwarts' roof? And let's face it, why wouldn't he be?"
"Malfoy…eligible…Hogwarts…He's a damn bloody git, that's why! For as long as we've known him, he's insulted us, framed us, tried to hex us and got us in deep trouble."
"Ron, that's only what he does to you, Harry and Hermione. He's never done anything to other people besides the insults. Not much anyway. Besides, those are all his negative points. He's also rich, charming when he wants to be, kind of cute in a needy way and well, sexy."
"Malfoy? Charming? Cute? SEXY?!?" Ron seemed to be at a loss for coherent sentences. His shock growing immensely. He stood there and looked at Ginny and blinked.
"If you have nothing else to say, I think I'll go get some sleep now," Ginny said before slipping away to her room. Her roommates were asleep, surprisingly. They even slept through Ron's yells and shouts. Pretty impressive, actually.
She slipped into her own bed and anticipated the coming hour. Despite her anticipation, she fell asleep, dreaming of a blond with a cute smile and a little boy with a puppy in his arms. The same puppy curled up next to her with a satisfied smile on the puppy's face, if it was possible.
A couple of hours later, Ginny suddenly awoke. She lay in bed wondering what woke her up. But her tired eyes drifted shut when she remembered. Draco! She sat up quickly, careful not to disturb the slumbering animal next to her. Slipping out of bed and grabbing her robe off her trunk, she quickly ran out as quietly as possible, down the stairs, and out through the portrait.
She was halfway there when she saw Mrs. Norris' shadow ahead. Ginny quickly hid in a dark, shadowy corner, hoping the cat would just pass by her. And it almost did but stopped after a few steps past. Mrs. Norris looked back and stared into that corner. Ginny could only stare back as her heart beat faster.
"Mrs. Norris!"
Ginny jumped when she heard Filch's voice call out. Mrs. Norris gave the corner one last look before returning to its owner. Ginny let out a sigh of relief. That was close! That cat was scary.
Finally, Ginny reached her destination. She pushed open a door and started to climb the steps, the door to the astronomy tower getting closer with each step. At last she was standing before it, leaning against it. She took a deep breath before pushing it open.
Draco paced back and forth across the tower, wondering where Ginny had gotten to. He felt as if he had waited for hours but in truth, if he had remembered his watch, it had only been fifteen minutes. But they were the longest fifteen minutes in his life. He had swung between so many emotions in that time period then he had in his entire life. Anger (the girl had some nerve to kiss me and not come tonight!), anxiety (what if she tripped and got herself hurt?), and various other feelings until doubt settled on him.
He wasn't really the kind of guy that someone like Ginny would like. He had never even made an effort to be nice to her until now. Still…
Draco turned around suddenly as the door of the Astronomy Tower started to swing open. He watched as the small figure of Ginny walked in quietly and closed the door in similar fashion. She turned around to face him.
"Draco."
"Ginny."
And no more was said as they practically ran towards each other. It was amazing that they hadn't slammed into each other. After a short but sweet (A.N: Yeah, I have that kind of romantic-y views.) kiss, they settled themselves down.
They sat staring at the clear night sky, stars shining down on them. Draco broke the silence when he finally spoke, "Why did you come?"
Ginny sighed, "For an arrogant guy like you, you're amazingly insecure."
"Just tell me, Ginny…please?" he tugged her hand a bit to get her to look at him and when she did, a look of pleading entered his eyes. He watched as Ginny's resolve crumbled away. Robbie sure had his uses. Where else could he have learnt it?
Ginny sighed again, "I'm here because no matter how annoying, how stupid, how irritating, how idiotic and how much of a prat you can be, I can't help but like you…a lot," she muttered the next part under her breath, "The fact that you're damn sexy helps a lot too."
"Sexy, huh?"
Ginny blushed, a light pink flushing her cheeks. Draco ignored it and continued, "Did you know that you only named three of my lesser qualities?"
"No! I named five!" Ginny protested.
"Prove it."
"I said you were annoying, stupid, irritating, idi…oh." The blush reappeared on her cheeks.
Draco just smiled and kissed her forehead before getting comfortable on his seat on the ground. (A.N: I'm totally contradicting myself here.) Soon enough, Ginny drifted to sleep, her head falling lightly onto Draco's shoulder. Wrapping one arm around her shoulders, he pushed her hair off her face with the other before pulling up his cloak that he had left on the ground. He covered Ginny's sleeping form with the cloak and then leaned back against the wall, pulling Ginny closer to him. Draco listened to her soft, regular intakes of oxygen (A.N: I totally ruined the slight fluffy sign with that sentence, didn't I?) before he too fell asleep, his cheek pressed gently against the top of Ginny's head.
The couple slept on without any knowledge of the fact that three pairs of eyes were watching them. One, belonging to Robbie, who was smugly pleased with himself, started to trek back down to the dungeons. Another pair, happily wagged her tail and walked back to the Gryffindor Tower. The last, glaring at the couple, radiated evil. His gaze seemed to lower the temperature a few degrees but other than that, you would never had known he had been there. He slowly swept away, his mind working over drive. This just can't happen. Fire and ice must be brought apart. His eyes widened as an idea came to him. He had spent years watching the silly teenagers of Hogwarts; teenage emotions should be easy to work with.
Author's Notes: And so ends part 2 of chapter 6. I took my good old time doing it too. And still, Chapter 6 isn't done. I'm sorry but it just didn't work. I outlined and planned up to chapter 8 or 9 in a notebook and I gave too much detail into chapter 6 so it's super long. But the next part will be the last you will ever see of chapter 6…I think. I'm pretty sure. Anyway, I thank everyone who still comes back to read this fic, no matter how much I neglect it. And guess what? The next part might not even come out too quickly…but I'll try, that's the best I can do. Anyway, I notice Draco is very, very out of character in this but…I don't know…doesn't it give you a warm fuzzy feeling when Draco acts all nice? I was just wondering…does anyone who reads this think I'm sugarcoating this a great deal? Just curious…
Thanks a lot to all my reviewers!
(And please give thanks to whomever up there is keeping me safe from Leah. I like my head, thank you very much!)