Part Two: Standing Outside the Fire

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters involved within. As Imogen once said… JKR's toys, I'm just playing with them. By the way… please read Imogen and Firebolt's stories, they are very VERY good. To continue, I do not own the song Standing Outside the Fire. Garth Brooks and Jenny Yates originally wrote it.

Author's Note: Since I got good reviews for the first part of the story, I thought it would be interesting to do a connected one, about Ginny finding love again… in an unexpected place.

Standing Outside the Fire

We call them cool
Those hearts that have no scars to show

Draco Malfoy wandered out onto the grounds of Hogwarts. It had been a very long time since he had last been here and he needed the time to familiarize himself with all of the changes that had probably been made.

He passed a group of fifth years and heard them giggling. He smirked and realized they were probably watching him, not knowing that he was there new defense against the dark arts teacher. Then he realized the full extent of that. He was doing Harry Potter's job.

Draco never let the feeling of triumph pass through him. Harry and he were enemies, but that did not mean that Draco did not feel his loss. The entire wizarding world felt his loss, especially the wife that he had left behind. The youngest Weasley was the one that Draco had never really met before. All he knew was she was the only girl of seven boys. Maybe it was the fact that he had never met her that made her so patient with him when her brothers were angry with him.


The ones that never do let go
And risk the tables being turned

There were other things that stuck out about Draco's time in Hogwarts. Now that he had started to reflect, he knew that the memories would not stop. All those times when he could have been Harry's friend, the person that offered a friendly hand instead of a nasty one. Draco settled himself beside the lake, pulling his knees up to his chest. He realized then that he probably did not look very much like a professor, but he didn't care.

Memories blasted through his pale face as he sunk deeper and deeper into ambivalence.

We call them fools
Who have to dance within the flame

Draco looked across the lake to see a small figure sitting with a small boy. He may not have known her personally, but that did not mean he did not recognize her. It was Ginny Weasley. Harry Potter's widow, and another boy who had lived. The one that had been the true destruction of Voldemort. Everyone had seen the body now. A body that was locked in a glass case, barring him from ever leaving.

She was a fool, he realized. She was playing with fire, dating someone like Harry Potter, someone who the greatest part of the wizarding world, knew would probably die before he was twenty. They were wrong he died at twenty-one.


Who chance the sorrow and the shame
That always comes with getting burned

As he continued thinking, he realized that he did remember a good deal about Ginny. He remembered her trying out for Quidditch in her fourth year. He also remembered her not making it. She had tried again in sixth year and had barely made it, only to be put of the season permanently with an injury to her arm after the first match… the match with Slytherin to be precise. A bludger, purposely aimed in her direction had knocked her forty feet off of her broom. She was ashamed to have gone that far, and only played five minutes of the game.

It had gone on, Ginny always took chances, and almost always got burned. Draco knew, that he would never take a chance like that. Never.

But you've got to be tough when consumed by desire
'Cause it's not enough just to stand outside the fire

And that was when he realized it. That was why his life was empty, because he never took the chance to love, turned it away at every moment it passed. That was why he never could make it.

We call them strong
Those who can face this world alone

Ginny was strong, stronger than he would ever be. She walked through the world alone, raising a son who would not have a father to look up too. Harry had faced the world alone too. They weren't fools, he realized. They were the strongest people he ever knew.


Who seem to get by on their own
Those who will never take the fall

"Why were they all so damn perfect," he muttered. "They never knew the reason I hated them was because I could never be like them. I was destined for the dark mark from the day I was born."


We call them weak
Who are unable to resist

He could never have resisted his father. He was the weakling, not the awesome dream team that no one could ever beat. Even McGonagal liked them, and McGonagal hardly liked anyone. No one ever knew, that all Draco really wanted was for them to either love him or leave him alone.


The slightest chance love might exist
And for that forsake it all

But he'd never take the chance of loving someone, it was too risky. Look at Ginny, she was torn to pieces. If she had just resisted it, not loved him, not needed him so much, then she would never be facing this terrible pain. Draco fingered the dark mark on his arm. He would never go back to Voldemort, but that didn't mean that he didn't believe he would be secure there.

They're so hell-bent on giving ,walking a wire
Convinced it's not living if you stand outside the fire

But they always gave, always; Draco mused as he stood up. He was halfway around the lake before he realized he was walking towards her.

He didn't know what he wanted to say, but he knew that he had to say it eventually. Ginny Weasley, charms teacher, with no more friends, and no one to love would except his offer of peace… if only he knew how to give it to her.

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire

No more than five feet away from her and her young son, Draco stopped. He wasn't sure he could do it. He was standing outside the fire, no chances, no leaps of faith and he would not be hurt, but he would also not live.


Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you're standing outside the fire

He couldn't take the chance of never having done anything that he was happy about. With as much courage as he could possibly muster he put one foot in front of the other and started walking towards Ginny.

Without thinking he offered his hand to her. Stretching it out directly in front of her in an unspoken gesture of reconciliation.

There's this love that is burning
Deep in my soul
Constantly yearning to get out of control
Wanting to fly higher and higher

Ginny looked up to see Draco standing right above her. She couldn't believe it. Why was he being so nice? She saw a small sparkle in his eye that had never been there before, but beneath the sparkle was also a deep fear. She knew inside what he was really asking her. He wasn't offering help as much as he was offering peace.

Ginny swallowed hard and reached up to take his hand. Draco pulled her up to her feet and they stood in silence for a few moments.

"Malfoy?" she asked softly.

"Please," he said, the hint of a waiting sneer on his lip. Instead, it turned into a smile. "Please," he repeated, "Call me Draco, Weasley."

"All right Draco," she said with a smile, "And it's Virginia, Ginny to my friends."

"Ginny it is then," he said making the most daring gesture in his life. Ginny smiled.

"Friends then."


I can't abide
Standing outside the fire

Draco and Ginny walked back towards the castle. As if by invisible prompt the young boy came up beside Draco and jerked on his robes.

"Up," he said simply. Apparently he couldn't keep up with them. Draco wasn't sure what to do. Ginny smiled and nudged him. Draco leaned down and picked the small Harry Potter up and placed him on his shoulders.

And they walked up to the castle, a new friendship and bond forming, between Draco, and the son of his worst enemy. Little Harry James Potter.

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you're standing outside the fire