Chance Encounters

by Erica T

Draco is puzzled by Ginny. The fact that he only sees her every three years doesn't help.

This Story is hereby dedicated to the three people who guessed the right reporter for The Hogwarts A-Team: Suzie Croft, RoseFyre and Theresa D'Amore. You guys got it! Congrats!

Chance Encounters.

This thing began in my sixth year. I can't even describe what it is. But I do know that I can't really do anything about it. Nor can I change it.

It's an odd sort of relationship that we have, the baby Weasley and I. It's almost like a friendship, but there are added benefits, but dampened by the fact that I only run into her every three years. And every time I see her, she always manages to mystify me even more. Let me take you back to my sixth year at Hogwarts. She would have been in her fifth year, and being in different houses, we rarely had any contact. But once, just once, I ran into her alone in a deserted hallway. And that's where it all began.

****

"Hey, Weasley!" I shouted down the hallway at the little red-haired girl walking away from me. She stopped, and half-turned toward me. In the space of seconds, I noticed that she was neither afraid of me, nor annoyed at me. Instead she seemed to be impatiently curious, as if she had no idea why I would deign to speak with her. And it made me think. It made me think about why I was talking to her in the first place, why she was waiting, even if she had an idea about the kind of things I would say. Any insult I may have been planning to hurl at her died before it even reached my mind. Instead I approached her, watching as one of her eyebrows raised ever so slightly to disappear under her bangs. Only when I was standing right in front of her did she say anything.

"Yes, Malfoy? Is there something in particular you wanted to say that you feel you can't insult my brother with?"

The cultured ease with which she said her piece threw me off. I had just decided to settle with a general taunting, you know, the red hair, the lack of money in her family. Normal sort of stuff. But she threw me off my groove with her question. She threw me so far off my groove that all I could do was stare at her. Then she had the nerve to chuckle. She was laughing at me.

"What's the problem, Malfoy? Have you been out-smarted by one of the measly Weasley's? I never thought I would see the day."

Somehow the little Fireball had managed to turn the conversation backwards. Now she was taunting me. But she wasn't even doing it with malice, and that was the infuriating thing about it. The way she said it, it was like she was simply stating a fact. I tried to come up with something biting to say, but I was distracted by a sudden brightness that shone in her eyes. Then I realized that she was smiling.

"What are you smiling at? I see nothing funny." I growled.

"The look on your face, Draco. You've never been confused before, have you?"

I decided on not answering that question. Instead I grabbed her arm.

"You had better watch it, Weasel. I'm not someone to trifle with." I was expecting her to do something to get away from me. It's been my experience that girls tend to not like being grabbed. Instead, again she did something unexpected. She laughed. Again.

"Oh, I'll watch it alright. But, you better be warned..." She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. Then she whispered in my ear.

"I'm not someone to trifle with either." Then she pulled away from me and wandered distractedly down the corridor.

****

That was only the first time that she surprised me. And it was the only time we ever spoke while we were in school. At any other opportune time, either I was surrounded by Slytherins, or she was surrounded by Gryffindors. It was the same throughout my seventh year, and her sixth. Anytime I might have been able to catch her alone, she would conveniently wander up to a group of her friends and begin chatting. I would have almost thought that she was avoiding me deliberately, except that I saw her in the same predicament that I often found myself in, contemplating approaching me, but when Crabbe and Goyle appeared she would turn away.

But that didn't mean that I couldn't watch her. And I did, continually. I watched her converse with her friends, noticed how she was always very animated when it came to them, but whenever her brother, or Potter addressed her, she seemed to be subdued. Had I not spoken to her once before, I would have thought she still harboured her crush on Potter, but the subduedness that she exhibited to them was more of a dismissive type, like she wanted the conversation over as soon as possible. The way she acted with Granger was completely different yet again. It looked to me that she confided in the older girl, and in return Granger did the same. They treated each other as close sisters. She was an odd one.

It would be another two years before I would see her again, after I graduated. By then, the wizarding world was in a state of terror, due to the fact that so many of our cities had been attacked by Death Eaters, and so many people were already dead. Voldemort was back, and more terrifying than ever, and our side needed all the fighters it could get. I was nineteen at the time, and I had been an Auror with the Ministry since graduating, working closely with Potter and Granger. I had heard that Weasley was working in a department of the Ministry, deciding that the Auror position just wasn't for him. I had also heard that she was working as an Auror as well, but in a different division. She had some sort of ability that qualified her as special division. But it wasn't a chance encounter in the office where I met her again. It was on the battlefield.

****

I was on my way back from a particularly nasty encounter with the main coven of Death Eaters. Potter and Granger had gone a separate way, and we were set to regroup an hour later at the base camp. I, of course, had the slightly harder, and woodier route to take. I had only been walking for about ten minutes when I heard someone singing. Now, I thought that this was very odd. Most people who were smart enough were either far away from here, or, even if they were out in the field like this, they would not be singing. Imagine my surprise when I discovered who it was that was singing. It was her. If she was surprised when I grabbed her and pulled her into the bushes with me, she didn't show it. She just looked at me with her huge brown eyes, and smiled. I didn't get it. Why on earth was the girl smiling?

"Weasley! What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" I hissed at her. Instead of answering me, she just grinned and stood up.

"Well? Are you going to answer me, or not?"

"Shouldn't we be getting back to base camp, Malfoy?" I frowned at her. First she was wandering out in the hostile wilderness, alone, and now she won't answer a direct question. This was strange. She noticed my staring, and raised her eyebrow at me, for the second time in two meetings.

"You know, sometimes you just have to accept what is. Not what is supposed to be." She said, turning away from me.

"Whatever. Look what are you doing out here by yourself?"

"Working, Malfoy. I got lost, and now I'm not lost. Are we going back to base camp, or not?"

"We're going back to base camp. Come on, under the cloak." I held out my invisibility cloak to her, and we both ducked under it. We began our journey back to base camp, as silently as possible.

****

It would be another three years before her words made any sense, and I only really understood after I had run into her again. The War ended about six months after our sojourn in the forests of Wales. Many had been killed, but those who survived were determined to get on with life. After the memorial service, commemorating those who were lost, we all sort of mingled together in groups, discussing what we were going to do now. Potter and Granger were going to get married as soon as was conceivably possible, and they were going to send me an invitation as soon as they had a date. For some reason, they really wanted me to be there. Weasley was ignoring me, because he still hated me, and trust me, the feeling was mutual. I was expecting to see Ginny around the social somewhere, but I did not. And neither did anyone I asked. Colin Creevey, her best friend, hadn't seen her in months. Neville Longbottom, one of her other friends, hadn't even heard from her in months, let alone seen her. He and the Gryffindor Patil, whatever her name was, were looking awfully chummy, so I decided not to hang around. I even inquired of Professor Dumbledore if he knew anything, but his reply was an enigmatic 'I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps you should go and look for her.' His eyes were twinkling at me, so he probably wasn't telling me everything. It was very odd, to say the least.

I didn't hear a thing about her, until I went to Potter's wedding over a year later. I was expecting her to be Granger's maid of honour or something like that, considering how friendly they were. Instead, it was the Patil girl's other half, Lavender Brown, who had that position. Weasley was, of course, the best man. I had declined Potter's request that I be an usher, or some such nonsense. I was being kind enough to go to his bloody wedding. I wasn't going to humiliate myself by participating in it. I cornered Granger, no wait...Mrs. Potter, at the reception later, on her way to the dressing room to change into her honeymoon outfit. I asked her where Ginny was that she wasn't taking part in the wedding. She looked at me, sort of sadly, and told me that none of them had any idea where Ginny had gone after the end of the War. She hadn't spoken to any of them for two years now. Apparently, I was the last person who saw her.

I spent the time between that day, and the day I ran into her again wondering where a Weasley would have gone after a War. Not knowing the inner workings of a typical mind, it was rather difficult. Most of the time I was actually engaged in other activities for the Ministry at the time as well, so there wasn't a lot of time that I had to myself. And most of that was spent sleeping off the effects of being up two days straight trying to track down things like Death Eaters, and Dark Magic artifacts. It was grueling for awhile. When I finally got a vacation, I decided that I was going to get out of the country, and make sure no one could interrupt the few precious days that I had. I ended up in Ireland. And that was where I found her again.

****

I was wandering around an area of Dublin that was mostly Muggles, heading for the side street that would take me to the hidden wizard community when I heard someone singing. I thought to myself that this was very familiar, heading off somewhere and then hearing singing. What really hit me was that the singing was very familiar. It sounded just like Ginny when she had been singing in the forest. The song was different, of course, and there was something different in the way she was singing it, but it was her. It took me about two minutes to find the club she was singing in. It was a Muggle club, and all eyes were glued to her in awe. And there was a very good reason why. She was wearing an outfit that would give her brothers collective heart attacks. I will always remember the song she was singing.

You think I'm crazy or something
Always following you around
You say I'm a hopeless case
Run an obsession into the ground

You call me a loser
You call me a shadowing fool
Look over your shoulder
And you say I'm haunting you

So why do you call me
Why do you look for me
Why do your eyes follow me the way they do

You hold me responsible
Yeah, so I stand accused
Of causing all the trouble
After high school
Between him and you

You call me a loser
You call me a shadowing fool
But I was a good girl
Yeah, 'til you taught me
What it means to be true

Why do you call me
I know you look for me
Why do your eyes follow me the way they do

A lot of those words really hit me. She couldn't be singing to or about me, because she hadn't seen me enter the club, and there was no way that she knew that I had been trying to find her. It was just a song, but it made me appreciate her a whole lot more. She caught sight of me when she finished her song. Her eyes met mine for about three seconds, and again she raised an eyebrow. With a wave of her hand, she indicated for me to wait for her at the bar, then she left the stage. And so, wait I did. She reappeared a few moments later, having only put a small jacket over the revealing dress she was wearing.

"Hi." Was all she said.

"What are you doing HERE?"

"Singing."

"I can hear that. But why? Why haven't you written to your friends for three years? What are you doing in Ireland?"

"I'm here because this is where I got a job. I haven't written because I didn't want to. What are you doing here?"

"I'm on vacation. And believe it or not, I've been looking for you. But I never expected to find you here."

"Well, this is where I am. And if you dare tell anyone where you've seen me, I'll kill you myself." And then she turned to leave. I'd be thrice damned before I let her just walk away from me again. I took hold of her arm, just like I had six years previously.

"Ginny. Talk to me. I just don't understand you. Please?" She bit her lip, and stared up into my eyes.

"I can't, Draco. There are things about me that I just can't talk to you about. It isn't that I don't want to. It's just that if I do, I won't be able to stop what will happen next."

"And what will happen next?" She was trying to pull away from me, but I wasn't letting her. I wasn't being hurtful or anything, I just wasn't letting her run away again.

"Something that you're going to regret, when you discover the truth." She said, pulling at her arm harder.

"Ginny. Stop fighting me, please. I'm not going to hurt you." I told her. She looked into my eyes again, and I saw that there was something there, that wasn't fear, but something else that I couldn't identify.

"I know that, Draco. I'm just afraid of hurting you."

"How can you hurt me? No offence, I know you were a powerful Auror, but I really doubt that there is anything you can do to me that would be at all painful." I said, chuckling a little. She stared at me, a little dumfounded.

"Don't you have feelings? Don't you have the same human emotions as everyone else? And aren't they just as vulnerable as everyone else's?" She asked. I remember raising an eyebrow at her, and then I don't know exactly who kissed who first, but I do know that it was me who picked her up and walked into a deserted alleyway with her, then apparated to my hotel room. Little did I know that she would be gone by the morning.

****

When I woke up the morning after, there was an imprint in the bed beside me, three auburn hairs on the pillow beside my head, and a note on the night stand. The only other indication that I had brought her back there with me was a faint lingering of her perfume. The note was simple, and it explained many of the things that she had said in the past. And it made me think very hard about some of the things that I had seen, and heard.

Draco-

This is what I was afraid would happen. You should have let me go, and washed your hands of me before this happened. It's not that I didn't want it to happen. It's just that I didn't want it to happen like this. I'm a siren, Draco. Men are attracted to my voice, and if I choose, I can help them or destroy them. The only people immune are my own family members, and Professor Dumbledore. That day in the forest, I was singing to find out whose borders I was behind. I didn't want it to be you who turned up. The reason I was such a good Auror, was because I could lure the Death Eater men into a trap. Then my brothers would capture them. When I was much younger, I thought it was just something about me that made boys listen to me, I had no control over what my voice did. That's what happened that day when you caught me in the hall. After that, Dumbledore started working with me to control my voice. I shouldn't have asked you to wait after I sang last night. But, see, I've somehow managed to fall in love with you, and I just wanted to talk to you once more. But after I've been singing, it takes a little time to regain control of my voice, and I couldn't control myself anymore than I could control my voice. I'm so sorry that it had to happen like this, and I don't think I can face you again. You're probably thinking that this explains a whole lot of things, and I understand that you're a little confused. I didn't want to manipulate you, I really didn't. And I never wanted to hurt your feelings. But, just answer one question, for yourself, if nothing else. Knowing what you know now, if you had never heard me speak in the hall that day, would you still have slept with me last night?

-Ginny

Yes, it was a long note, but it was simple in it's function. My first instinct was to say, of course I would have slept with her. And then I thought about it. Perhaps she was right, perhaps I would have gone on, not noticing her. Maybe, if I hadn't heard her speak in the hall, before as she says, she had control over her voice, maybe I would have found some other girl to obsess over. But, it just didn't seem right. So I thought about it some more. What would I have done if she hadn't spoken. It was true that her words threw me off a bit, and made me forget quite what I was going to say, but something made me falter before she opened her mouth. I couldn't quite remember what it was, but it was something. Then it hit me. It was her eyes. The way she always raised one perfect eyebrow at me, giving her a perfectly unreadable expression. I had seen her eyes before I ever heard her speak to me. I had fallen in love with her eyes, not her voice. So, I had a perfect answer for her. I went look for her at the Muggle club she worked at, but I was informed that she had quit early that morning. No one knew where she lived.

That was three years ago. I figure that our next meeting will be sometime soon, if the pattern keeps true to form. I will likely run into her on the street, or in a restaurant somewhere. And I am keeping my eyes peeled for the telltale signs of auburn.

--------------------------

Draco Malfoy put down his pen, and glanced around the bar he was sitting in. It wasn't late, but as it was near dinner hour, it was still fairly active. He was expecting to inadvertently run into her at anytime. He'd told the Potters where he'd seen her, and made them promise not tell Ron, as he did not want to be torn apart by an angry female Weasley. They had kept their promise so far, but Hermione made him promise in turn, that if he didn't find her this year that they would send out a search party for her. He agreed. If he couldn't talk her into re-appearing, then he personally would sign the manhunt papers.

He got up from his bench, and threw down some Muggle money, for a tip. He folded his papers, and stuffed them into the back pocket of his pants. He wandered out into the sunshine, thoroughly enjoying his day off. He glanced at his surroundings slightly, and then made his way back to Diagon Alley, where he could safely apparate back to his home. And that was when he saw it. A flash of very distinctive auburn hair. It was heading into a Muggle Daycare Centre just ahead. He hurried toward that building, and discreetly peered in through the window. It was definitely her. A little older, she would be twenty four by now, but it was her. He grinned in triumph, and leaned casually next to the door, pulling out a magazine and burying his nose in it, but quietly charming it so he could see through it from his side. And so he began the most important wait of his life.

She came out of the building fifteen minutes later, scolding a small child.

"What on earth made you dump water on that boy's head? I swear, you are so going to be a Slytherin when you go to school." She said. The child had strawberry blonde hair, it must be one of her brother's, possibly one of the twins, considering the behaviour she appeared to have been engaged in. He dropped his magazine and stepped over to her, as she paused to tie the girl's sneakers.

"Hello, Ginny." He said, standing over her. She jumped up and stared at him, shocked and dismayed at the same time. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.

"We have to talk. Are you free?"

"I...No, I have to take Samantha home and get her dinner." She bent down and gathered the girl up into her arms, holding her protectively, almost...His eyes widened.

"She's yours. Isn't she?" He said, indicating the girl. Ginny bit her lip, and nodded. Draco sighed.

"Then I'll take you both to dinner. My treat, because despite how far you've moved on, I haven't. So we still need to talk." He gently took her elbow, and maneuvered her in the direction of Diagon Alley. Once she realised where they were headed, she tried to stop.

"Draco! I can't go into Diagon Alley! I'll be seen, and word will get back to Ron!" She cried. He stopped and faced her.

"Is that what you're really afraid of? Or is it something else?"

"Ron will have a coronary of he finds out about her from anyone other than me! Please, I can't go in there!" She tried to squirm out of his grasp.

"Fine. We'll go somewhere Muggle. But I am not going to let you walk out of my life again." He turned away from Diagon Alley, and ducked into the first restaurant he found.

When they were seated at their table for three, and had ordered themselves some drinks, he turned to her again.

"Yes."

"What?" She asked, looking up from her menu, her eyes questioning and still as gorgeous as ever.

"You asked me a question in the note you left. The answer is yes." He smiled as he watched her eyes widen.

"Y-You would have slept with me anyway?" She stuttered. He nodded.

"And I'd do it again, if I had the chance."

"But why? I'm not pretty. I'm not sexy. Definitely not now, but not even then, I mean I was small, and scrawny...the only reason those muggle men were salivating was because of my voice..." She stopped when he laughed.

"Ginny, you are very pretty. And I don't know what mirrors you've been looking in, but I think you are very sexy." He paused and took her hand. Samantha was playing with her spoon, so she was well occupied.

"Your question made me think, Ginny. And I thought back to that day in the hall, and wondered what made me notice you. First it was because you were the only one in the hall. And then it was because you raised your eyebrow at me. Nobody had ever done that before. I admit that what you said threw me off a bit, but I was off before you spoke. Ginny, I fell in love with your eyes before I even heard your voice. It wasn't the siren I fell in love with, it was the girl." He said. Ginny sobbed a bit, and looked at him through tears.

"But the siren was the girl then...how can you be so sure that you wouldn't have just ignored me after that?"

"Ginny, I know my own mind. I was obsessed with you for three years before I met up with you again. I was surprised when I discovered it was you singing. Maybe your voice did influence my decisions at some point, but it was all after I saw your eyes. Ginny, you once told me that sometimes you just have to accept what is. Not what is supposed to be. Well, you say that you are supposed to be a woman and a siren. I say that you are both. And it's both that I want to get to know better." She was really crying now. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let her cry.

"Oh sweet lady, what have I done..." She cried. He frowned.

"What do you mean?" She threw herself at him, still sobbing.

"Draco, Samantha's not just mine. She's OURS." His own eyebrows shot up to his hairline. He took her by the shoulders and pried her away from him, and made her look at him.

"She's what?"

"She's ours. Yours and mine. Samantha is your daughter. She's a Weasley and a Malfoy!" Ginny said, hysterically. He calmed her down, and thanked the powers that be that they were in a booth, where not very many people could hear them.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked quietly. She sniffed.

"Because, I figured that after you read that note, you would hate me. And I figured that if you hated me, any child that I had by you would be an annoyance. But, see that was my mistake! I assumed something that I should have stuck around and asked about it person. I'm so stupid...." She looked like she was going to cry again, so he enveloped her in his arms, and rubbed her back.

"Ginny, it's okay. Someone once told me that all mistakes, no matter how bad, can always be rectified in time." He pulled her away from him again and kissed her forehead. She stopped crying, and let him wipe her face clear of tears. She sniffed, and smiled shakily at him.

"Who told you that?" She said. Draco thought for a moment. Who had told him that? And when? Oh yes...

"It was Potter. The day he offered me a handshake." Ginny smiled at him a little wider.

"You're on good terms with Harry?"

"Good Lord, you have been away for a while. We've been partners at the Ministry ever since Hermione decided not to come back from maternity leave. That was, oh...five years ago." He said. Ginny's face burst into a smile.

"They have a kid? That's amazing!" She squealed. He grinned at her, and then she sobered. "What is it, Ginny?" He asked, brushing her face with the palm of his hand. She looked into his eyes again.

"I've come a bit unglued, Draco. I'm not quite as together as I used to be. Are you still in love with my eyes?" The side of his mouth quirked up.

"I am still very much in love with your eyes, Ginny Weasley. I am also still very much in love with you, I don't care if you've come a bit unglued."

"So you still want me?"

"I still want you."

"Oh good. Because I still want you."

And so marked the end of another set of chance encounters.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. The song belongs to The Bangles. The characters to JK Rowling. All is lovely then.