Disclaimer: I still do not own the characters, they're JKR's but hey, I can borrow them cant I? Oh well. Yeah. Laterz.
A/N: Hey hey peeps that are actually checking this, I think there is only like one of you, but hey! I've been off for a long time, so there has been the loss of my train of thought. Going back and reading this, I realized that I want Draco and Ginny to be together, and the way I was going they were going to end up dead. So I did a little re-write. This chappie gets angsty and then more fluffy! Hip hip hurray! Neway, have fun all!
The wind met them as they exited the castle. It was wonderful, that feeling of freedom, of power, one felt when the wind was egging forward, gently, though, not a hurricane, but a slight assistance, as though the wind was under the said one's control. Draco looked down at the weasel's hand, interlocked with his—an undying sense of intertwinement, a symbolic representation of the joining of two souls. Perhaps it was. Perhaps it was not. Had he been alone, the complete silence, save the slight secretive whispers of the wind, would be unbroken. But he was not. The youngest Weasley finally spoke.
"Draco, we have to talk." Something had changed within her. Something, though he could not exactly put his finger on it. Looking into her dark brown eyes, noticing for the first time the slivers of gold highlights that disrupted the otherwise smooth and even color. He did not want to break the comfortable silence, but he did.
"About what, love?" A haunted look took over her face now, something was wrong, conceivably the very thing that had changed within her.
"About—" she broke up, as if she was struggling with herself. "About what we're going to do, to Harry is, I mean that was good, he's broken. But I want him crushed! God damn it! I want him dead!" This outbreak was totally unexpected by Draco. It was so unexpected and sharp he actually recoiled. Virginia was looking like a crazed woman; her hands turned claw-shaped and eyes bulging. At some point she had fallen to her knees. Draco helped her up.
"Well, love. I don't think I can kill him, without going to Azkaban…. Sorry about that one. But—wait, why the hostility my dear? What did he do to you?" His heart had begun to pound faster and faster. This was the part in movies where the person in question comes, hears that last line, freaks out, and embarks in a wrath of destruction. No good could come of this. Why did he have to be the one facing away from the castle?
"Nothing, he just…" He tuned out. He thought that he heard the tell tale of Harry's entrance to this scene as a click sounded from behind him. He cut Virginia off, spinning around. Sure enough, here he was, looking pale and murderous.
"So nice of you to join us, Potter, but you weren't invited
to this little rendezvous." Thinking back to all the muggle movies, a struggle
was to take place between the two of them. The person Virginia wanted to win
would. That brought up an interesting point. Who did Virginia want to
win?
During his introspective moment, Harry charged at Draco, who looked down at his
hand to find that Virginia's hand was no longer in his, but grasping her wand.
Within a fraction of a second—less time than it takes to blink—she had disarmed
him, which ended up with Harry being thrown on the stairs of the castle. The
girl looked horrified with herself. He knew that an internal battle was being
waged within her, but going on what she had said only moments earlier, she
wanted him dead… did she not?
"Ginny, what's going on with you. I know that you hate me, that you don't want to speak to me, but please, tell me what is going on with you." Harry's voice came out pleading, yet dignified—a combination that Draco had not thought possible. He took this moment of calm—the eye of the storm—to study Virginia's face. Something had broken within it. She looked as if she her age had magically degenerated and she was once again a scared eleven-year-old. This, however, was not what struck him as odd. What did was the fact that he didn't mind her being eleven again.
He still loved her.
***
"I need to say this to the both of you. The person that has been here, been me, is not really me. I know you probably don't understand this, or don't want to believe it, or truly do not believe it, but it's true. In my third year, I had this sort of mental breakdown. All of you were too wrapped up in your tri-wizard tournament to notice, but it happened. I was at St. Mungo's for a while." She paused to take a breath, noting that both the men were listening.
"There were these… conflicting voices, you could say, that began to cloud my head. I was never there. There was this one that came out most prominent, the one that could almost be an entire person, the person that's been controlling me for the past few months—Virginia. Yeah, I'm a bloody schizophrenic. But I think I'm done with that now. So I'm sorry for everything." At this point she couldn't help it and she burst into tears. "I'm sorry for ever being born."
She turned and ran to the castle. Leaving two mortal enemies on the stairs—one towering over the other that had fallen. Not a good idea, but one she gave no thought.
Her feet were pounding on the floor, heart pounding in her chest, and her breath was coming in short puffs. She ran until she hit the fifth year girls' bathroom. She pulled out the knife hidden in the heel of her shoe and leaned against the wall, blade hovering bare millimeters above her wrist. Tears were streaming down her face. Standing outside with Draco had been the last straw. She couldn't let the Other win.
Everyone harbors a chest within his or her heart. It harbors all our darkest fears, all of our phobias, and all of our hidden thoughts. But most importantly, it harbors a small trunk that keeps what is shoved down—the love for a deceased that one does not want to remember, for instance.
This small trunk is neither good nor evil. As Shakespeare once said, "Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so." In this trunk was where Ginny had been hidden all this time. The thing with this small area is that what is in it can think live and breath on its own. It can look out and see the world as it is. But what is in it is almost powerless to stop anything. It is helpless, as was she.
Now, sitting with her tear-streaked face, head and back resting against the wall, the knife hovered over her wrist. It began its decline softly, almost undecidedly. Not it collided with the skin. She dragged it diagonally, severing the vein. She watched disinterestedly as her life's blood poured out onto the floor. There was a sense of rightness about this scene that comforted her. She had a feeling she would end up like Moaning Myrtle, stuck in a bathroom, scaring whatever girl had the misfortune of having to empty her bladder. But maybe not, maybe Harry or Draco would come looking for her. Yeah, they would come looking for her and find her dead on the floor. And they probably would laugh.
She opened her eyes and looked at the blade, still above her
wrist. How easy it would be, all would be ended, so why didn't she get on with
it? Wouldn't everyone be better off?
"No, Ginny, we wouldn't." Her eyes flew up, startled. Harry potter stood towering over her. "Now get up and come with me." Seeing her puzzled expression he clarified. "No I cant' read your mind. You spoke out loud. Now get up." He extended his hand, which she grasped, and led her out of the room.
As soon as they had exited the bathroom, he turned to her. "Now speak." His voice was harsh, but his face was kind.
"Well, back in third year, I- I had a really hard time. Everything was- just- bad. You three were always wrapped up in the tournament, and I really had no one to hang out with besides Colin. I never really liked him. To… clicky. That was when I still was 'madly in love with you.' When I found out that Ron had been the one that you would miss the most, I just kind of cracked. I only spent like two months there, but still, it was enough. When I came back, there were still the voices. They went away for a while, but they started coming back again this year. And…. Yeah. That's all." She looked up at Harry, expecting him to be furious, but his expression was blank.
"I- Draco left. He said to say something, but I don't remember what it was." Without any explanation, he turned and walked back towards Gryffindor Tower.
And she was alone.
But then again she always was. Now that Virginia was gone, she always would be. Even if someone managed to penetrate the shield she was even now forming around herself, she would be alone.
The hallway around her was freezing. She gave an involuntary shudder and began wandering around the castle. Minutes turned to hours. She had no idea how long she had been wandering, but she found herself in the dungeons sometime later. Her hand had almost rapped on the portrait leading to the Slytherin common room when it opened.
***
Harry had sat dumbstruck for almost ten minutes after Ginny had left. He had no idea what to believe. He found no real reason that could discredit her, but then again… did he really have a reason to believe her?
Malfoy was still standing over him, staring at where she had disappeared into the castle. "Well, Potter, are you going to go after her?"
That brought up an interesting question. Would he? Inevitable the hero in him took over and he stood. The second he did, Malfoy pushed him back down. "Don't try anything, Potter. Not a hug, not a kiss, not a friendly hand on the shoulder, do you understand? And tell her I love her."
"Why don't you tell her?" Harry was once again standing up. Malfoy was already walking into the castle robes swishing gracefully around his ankles.
"Because she won't listen to me." With that he left.
Harry found her in the fifth year girls' bathroom. He followed Malfoy's demands. Nothing. But he did not say the words for him. Never would he. Instead he returned to the common room and stared at the window overlooking the lake.
Apparently Malfoy had found his way back outside. He was sitting on the near shore of the lake, staring out at the ice. Not knowing what he should do, Harry sunk into a long sleep. So long, that when he finally awoke, a day and a half had passed and it was already time for class.
***
Draco looked out at the frozen lake. It was so much like him. He felt empty inside. The little weasel turned out to be more trouble than she was worth. But she held the answer to unlocking him, did she not?
He felt something brush the back of his neck, and jumped at the presence. Turning himself to face the intruder, he saw the Weasley. Before she could do or say anything, he covered her mouth with his, waiting for rejection. But it did not come.
"I love you."
