((A/N: Wow! I thank everyone for all those reviews. Just stop buggin me, peeps! I can put in those damn wacky things and get off track if I want! It's my fic! :/ I'll probably get in trouble for being on the computer for half the day, but oh well. It's cold and dark outside. Major contrast to our little "island in de sun" we've got here. So here goes nothin. ^_^ Whoo, this is so much fun!!! That last chapter was my first try at writing bout characters smoochin, so bear with my horribly freakish style. ^_- Amen to that, now let's go. R/R!))
Chapter 7 Of Love and DenialDraco walked Ginny back to her hut that night. Most of the others had already retreated to bed, tired from the day's adventures. He gave her a goodnight kiss, then went to his own camp.
Ginny closed the door of her hut. She walked over to the mirror and looked at herself. A young, red-haired, green-eyed girl of fourteen looked back at her.
"What are you doing?" she asked the girl. "Why are you doing this?" She tore her gaze from the girl and paced around the small hut furiously. "No. You can't. You can't. You can't. You just can't." She ran her fingers through her hair. She had just kissed with Draco Malfoy.
And she had enjoyed it.
How could something feel so right, yet be so wrong? Weasley and Malfoy. No. Never. Never in a thousand years. She couldn't…
You might know that the heart frequently argues with the mind, as the mind is sensible and can evaluate a situation and predict an outcome. Whereas the heart does none of these things. It lives by the moment and trusts anyone it has feelings for. It follows love, and love alone. ((A/N: I think I've read The Call of the Wild too many times…))
"You know him. He's cruel and heartless," Ginny tried to tell herself. "He'll just hurt you. He'll chew you up and spit you out. He'll use you and lie to you."
But no.
She knew he wouldn't.
And her heart knew it.
But you love him, a voice in her head argued. You love him and he sure as hell loves you.
"No…I can't…" Ginny moaned.
What would her parents think? What would Percy and Fred and George think? What would Ron think? Harry? Hermione? Jessica? Sara?
She would be hated among the Gryffindors. She had fallen for the biggest Slytherin threat there was. Their constant nemesis. The snob. Professor Snape's pet.
But oh how wonderful it felt! To be in his arms, to just listen to his heart beating, the warm, strong comfort. And their kiss…nothing. Nothing in the universe could compare to it. So right. So perfect. As though it should have always been so. ((A/N: And that's the sappiest paragraph I've ever written. Eeew.))
She flopped down onto her bed, her mind and her heart still fighting, and was soon asleep.
Draco was likewise questioning his actions.
He sat on his bed, staring at the mirror.
Was he going mad? Like his mother? Had he lost all dignity? All common sense?
His mother would lose it if she found out. Her son in love with a Weasley! It would make her ashamed. She would lose what sanity and compassion she had left in her broken heart.
And knowing this tore Draco apart. His mother had been hit hard by her husband's murder. Maybe not as hard as Draco himself had, but hard. She barely ate, slept, or spoke to anyone anymore. Draco would not be able to live with himself if he hurt her further, but how could he not be with Ginny? She was the only being in the world who understood him and even cared what he thought.
Her soft touch made his heart leap as it never had before. And their kiss…incomprehensible. It was the greatest thing in the world. Ecstasy. Pure ecstasy. Even more so than Quidditch, flying freely on a broomstick, the thrill and danger of the game.
Their love was impossible, yet great. An awful paradox that left them both unsure of which to listen to: their minds-the reason, the logic- or their hearts, the compassion, the love. ((A/N: My god I must be tired…))
The next morning, Jessica and Sara came to wake Ginny up.
"Where were you last night?" they asked. Ginny sat up sleepily.
"I…er…I got lost…." She yawned.
"Oh. Well c'mon! Let's go swimming!" Sara yipped.
Ginny sat in the surf, more or less watching her friends play around in the waves of aquamarine. More than once they questioned her.
"Are you sure you're okay, Ginny?" Jessica asked. "Come on out here and play. We're on vacation, remember?"
Ginny nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired," she assured them. It was only half true.
The sunlight bathed in inside of Draco's hut through the window. He opened his eyes and squinted. Slowly, he sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around the hut. He was still dressed in the shorts he had been wearing last night. His limbs felt like bricks, but his heart was light.
Standing up, he looked into the mirror. His hair was messy in a stylish way. He felt too lazy to fix it, so he just folded a bandana and tied it around his forehead to keep it more or less out of his face. Then he stepped out of the hut. The other Slytherins were already awake and the bonfire (which was no longer a bonfire, but rather a campfire) was lit. They were being treated to tropical foods by some of the native people, who were kind of like room service people for the resort.
"Ah, the prince has decided to grace us with his presence," said Pansy Parkinson, who was sitting by the fire. "And how was your night?"
Fully aware that she was flirting with him, Draco answered, "Very nice." And it was true. He rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand once more, still trying to wake himself up.
"Why is that, honey?" she asked, obviously still flirting. Draco looked at her. For the first time in his life, he realized how trashy she looked. Like a snob. Especially compared to Ginny. ((A/N: Sorry. That's just how I imagine her.))
"Oh come off it, Parkinson," he said. He accepted some breakfast from a native woman. Pansy smiled at him, thinking that he was playing around.
I can't believe I went to the damn Yule Ball with her, he thought, rolling his eyes. She was annoying. And she seemed to think that he was hers, which was not the case in the slightest. He sipped at his tropical drink, which was made from various fruits of the island and tasted rather good.
He would have to find Ginny today, of course.
And Draco Malfoy always finds who he wants.
Ginny was with Jess and Sara. They were exploring again. This time in the jungles. Though there were no Kneazles here, Ginny found many magical creatures. One in particular that grabbed her attention. It was a butterfly, but its wings were unlike those of any other butterfly she had ever seen. The colors swirled and changed and sparkled the whole time. They also found magical lizards, birds, and small mammals. The whole experience was wonderful. But Ginny's mind kept wandering back to Draco. Her friends often questioned her when she lost herself in thought for a moment and didn't pay attention to what they were looking at.
But he found her. She was awakened in her sleep (as she had been unable to find him) by someone.
"Hey, wake up." Draco nudged her shoulder gently. "It's me."
Ginny groaned and opened her eyes. Blinking, she saw who had woken her up.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, stretching and rubbing her eyes.
"Looking for you," Draco whispered back. "Come on. Get up."
"Why? Where are we going?" Ginny yawned. The pale figure shrugged.
"Just around. To be alone," he answered. Ginny stood up, still dressed in her pajamas (Pull-on pants with little broomsticks on them and a silky tank top) and followed Draco out of the hut. He took her hand and led her to the shore of the beach and began to walk to the left. He was simply going anywhere. Simply wanting to spend time with her alone.
And Ginny followed without question. She was more than willing to follow him.
It was a full moon. It bathed the white beach and clear water and the two figures that walked along it. It felt perfect. So carefree. There was soft, white sand under their bare feet, a warm breeze and the only sound was that of the ocean.
Once they were away from everything else-all the huts and all the people-they sat down near the surf. It was truly the most peaceful place on Earth, especially in times where Voldemort was wreaking havoc somewhere, far away….
"Did you think about me?" Draco asked playfully.
"The whole bloody day," Ginny replied. "Sorry I couldn't come to find you."
"That's all right. I'd rather be alone when I'm with you than around other people," he replied.
"Yeah," the Gryffindor agreed. This was much better. Everyone would have disapproved of their being friendly towards each other.
Draco sat, looking at Ginny with his arms crossed over his knees, rocking back and forth slightly. He was still wearing the jean shorts and bandana, as he had been too lazy and preoccupied to change the pants and brush his hair. ((A/N: Hee hee. So silly ^_^)) Ginny didn't care, though. She sat, arms behind her, knees up a bit like Draco's. They watched each other. For no reason. Just because they were there and they could.
Then Draco reached out a hand to stroke her cheek, moved forward once again and kissed her. Ginny kissed him back, but then broke away.
"Shh," she whispered, "someone's coming."
They froze. Distant laughter was heard.
"Come on," Draco said. He took her hand and stood up, leading her over to the trees. They hid behind the trunk of a palm tree and peered around.
Two Ravenclaw girls that they didn't know walked down the beach, chatting quietly amongst themselves Draco and Ginny waited until the passed.
"Close one," Draco said. Ginny's quiet laugh was cut short by another kiss. Her back was against the tree. As they kissed, she took the bandana off his head and ran her fingers through his still-messy blonde hair. Draco's hands were placed gently on her cheeks.
It no longer mattered to them what their families thought. The Weasleys and the Malfoys had loathed each other for a long time, mostly due to social status, but the two children did not care.
They stopped, Draco's arm now tightly around Ginny's waist and her arms around his neck and shoulders. He moved his head to the base of her neck and kissed it. Ginny melted under the touch, her heart beat speeding up.
"You seem like you've had experience," she said quietly as Draco kissed her.
"No," he replied in between kisses. "Just male instinct."
Ginny smiled, keeping her arms around him. Her heart pounded against her chest, but she paid no heed to it. She simply stood, letting Draco kiss her.
The next day passed as the Hogwarts students enjoyed the sunny island. Ginny hung out with her friends (though she might have seemed a little giddy) and Draco with Crabbe and Goyal. They both waited for night to fall and dinner and the bonfire dances performed by the natives to finish to see each other again. Like Ginny, Draco had been in an unusually perky mood. When Pansy Parkinson flirted with him, he just smiled slyly and did not answer.
Night finally fell and the two waited until everyone else had gone to sleep. Then Draco came to get her at her hut. They crept quietly out of the village and this time went into the forest.
"Where are we going?" Ginny asked him.
"You'll see. I found this really neat place while I was looking around today," he explained. They traveled on for roughly fifteen minutes and were getting pretty far from the village.
"Are you sure you remember where it its?"
"Positive," Draco answered. "It's right over here."
They made their way through the thick underbrush and finally came to a clearing. It was the most beautiful place Ginny had ever seen. More beautiful than the island itself. There was a large natural pool with a small cascading waterfall. The water was sapphire blue and exotic plant life surrounded it.
Draco stood, smiling at the expression on Ginny's face. She gazed around, her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide with amazement.
"Wow…" she whispered. "It's gorgeous…"
She followed Draco over to a spot near the falls and sat beside him.
"How did you find this place?" she asked.
He shrugged and replied, "I was just looking around the place today and heard the water, so I came to check it out. Cool, huh?"
"It's wicked," the girl said, still looking around. There were all different sorts of birds and butterflies and flowers all over the place. It was like something out of a dream. She put her head on Draco's shoulder, gazing around.
They sat in silence, enjoying the serenity of the place. Then something caught Ginny's eye. She lifted her head and stared across the water.
There, a white unicorn cautiously stepped forward and took a drink. Draco and Ginny watched in silent awe as the creature, equally silent, drank its fill and looked up at them. It stared for a moment, then turned and walked away.
((A/N: Sadly to say, the next chapter will be the last of the island. L But there's much more interesting stuff ahead, so don't worry. J What did u think? Please review! See ya round!))