Thank you everyone who has reviewed! It really means so much to me. I'll try and keep Draco more in character, although I think it's been long enough after Hogwarts that he can behave anyway. J Make comments, whether good or bad, because I'll take them into concideration! Thanks everyone. And once again, I do not own Harry Potter or any affiliations. The characters of the wizarding world are mostly J.K Rowlings, and Songs of a New World is a real musical. *teehee*
That's Life
Chapter 3
By: Aly
The sounds of London streamed in through Ginny's window as she sat in her bed the next morning. She walked outside her flat door and sat a cement block that was outside and looked at the Thames. She couldn't help but think of her day with Draco. It had been so different that she had thought it would have been. He had been different then she had thought. She wasn't sure if she could handle liking someone from his background, because she did like him, but he was raised to be exact opposites. His family was rich and supposedly sophisticated, not to mention rather evil. Hers were poor, candid, and brutally honest.
'What if he can't even love?' she thought.
She rubbed her forehead and ran a hand through her hair. This was going to be a pain. Her family wasn't going to like him, just because he was a Malfoy. He wasn't even going to be given a chance. Another thought crossed her mind.
'What if he doesn't even like me?'
'He does. He acted like he did.'
'What if he was pretending?'
'Oh just shut up and let me be happy thinking that there is a slight chance of Draco Malfoy actually liking me, Ginny Weasley.'
'Just don't let him hurt you.'
She hadn't let that come to her mind, but it always came back. Ever since she had been dumped by Clark, she had had a hard time getting close to people. Men especially. They had this…power to make her become emotionally unstable until she thought she was close to falling for them, and then suddenly they dropped her. Never again she had promised herself.
Pulling her robe tighter around her, she jumped off the platform and went back into the house. Tonight was going to be a mess, she could already tell. She was going to have to explain to Draco that he couldn't act like a wizard, and had to hope that we would be ok with that. Plus she had to explain to Liz that he was only a date, not a serious boyfriend that would lead to marriage. She looked in her mirror.
"This is going to be hell." She told her reflection.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Draco lay in his bed and stared up at his ceiling. He hadn't realized how uptight he had been until he had met Ginny, and he had only really known her for a day. Sure he could crack jokes, but he wasn't the most spontaneous of people. Ginny was just refreshing. A breath of fresh air, you could say. He couldn't help but think of what would happen to her if his father found out that they had spent a day together, and would be on another date tonight. He couldn't help thinking about how much he was starting to like her, and that thought scared him.
'You've never liked anyone Malfoy. Not seriously anyway.'
'That doesn't mean you couldn't.'
'But could I love someone? I've never loved anyone…not even my own parents.'
'Ginny is different from all the other people you've dated.'
'You haven't dated since you miraculously changed.'
'Yeah well, there's no way I'm going to date girls like Pansy Parkinson.'
He couldn't think like this. It was madness. He had only known her for a day, and yet it felt like they had known each other for centuries. If he believed in fate or soul mates he'd have thought that would be a good explanation, but he never had. There had to be a logical explanation for the way he was feeling, maybe he wasn't feeling this way at all and it was just a passing illusion. Maybe he was just fooling himself so that we wouldn't feel guilty about the bet, who knew anymore. Things were getting much too complicated, and it had only been one date.
~~~~~*~~~~~
The day passed by agonizingly slow. It almost seemed as if time had slowed down so that it would be virtually impossible for the date to finally arrive. But even through the entire wait, Ginny couldn't wait to see Draco. It was a different feeling, and her family would be shocked if they knew what it was that she was doing. Going on one date with a Malfoy would be bad enough in there book, even if it was Harry who set them up. Two dates, however, was a sin and almost unforgivable.
Finally the time came for her to go and pick up Draco at Harry's flat. She wondered if he had ever driven in a muggle car, but even if he hadn't today he would. Hopefully he'd like it. But he was a male, and anything that went faster, especially if it went faster then a Firebolt 3X. After parking in front of Harry's flat, she took a deep breath and went up to the door.
"Please let this be as great as last night. Please let this be as great as last night." She mumbled to herself.
Draco answered the door and looked great. She had never really seen him in complete muggle clothing. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and looked fantastic. It wasn't fair. Guys shouldn't have been allowed to look like that.
"You can close your mouth you know." He smirked.
"Uh…I just didn't except to see you…uh…"
"You want me to not come?"
"No. No not that at all. I've just never seen you dressed like a muggle."
He smiled and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah well, I would have dressed nicer only Harry said this would be better for a muggle occasion."
"Well…you look very…nice."
He laughed. "Thanks. I'll take that as a compliment."
She smiled sheepishly and a red flush started to spot her cheeks.
"You look great too you know."
"Oh?" She looked up at him and cocked her head.
"Yeah." If this wasn't there second date he would have kissed her. He wanted to kiss her now…but didn't feel that it would quite be fitting for the time, place, and everything else that was involved. He was going to have to take a step back and think about whether he even wanted a relationship, or whether he just wanted to win a bet.
"So…eh…let's go."
"For an actress, you really don't say a lot."
"I'm not exactly sure what to say to you."
He looked at her oddly.
"I believe in being perfectly honest, because without honesty and trust there isn't much in life."
He was still silent, as if he knew she had more to say and was just waiting for her to say it.
"I've never gone out with a guy like you."
"You mean dazzling, handsome, charming—"
She cut him off and laughed. "Oh yes of course. But I haven't dated a wizard in a long time, I haven't even dated in a long time. But for some reason this feels different then anything I've ever tried before, and even though it's hard, I like it."
"Wow. When you say honest, you mean honest."
"I like things out in the open."
"That's good. So do I." He looked around for a moment and then cleared his throat. "Alright. No one's around. Are we aparating?"
"Actually, it would look kind of odd if we popped up in the middle of London."
"Yeah, I can see how that could be a bit controversial. So how are we getting there."
She patted her car. "My baby."
"We're driving?"
"Yeah." She grinned. "Have you never been in an automobile?"
"I haven't quite had that…er pleasure."
"Oh you'll love it. Maybe someday I'll teach you how to drive."
"I don't think that's something to look forward to."
"Do you trust me?"
"I've only known you for a day really."
"Do you trust me?" She repeated.
"Yeah, I guess I do."
"Great." She smiled and jiggled her keys. "Get in and we're going for a drive."
Once they were both in the car she went into the traffic, went through round-abouts, and speeded as much as possible in the London traffic.
"Seeing as we're going to visit muggle friends of mine, if you could not mention us being magical I'd appreciate it."
He laughed. "I thought you believed in honesty."
"I do. I also believe in keeping friendships and I can't see Liz jumping for joy if I told her that I was a witch. She'd think I was either crazy or a freak."
"I can see how that would make sense."
"So do you think you could do that?"
"Lie to your friends about what we are? Sure. I've spent most of my life lying. It won't feel any different than some aspects of my life."
"Like what?" She asked him.
He would have just shrugged off her question, only he could tell that she really cared. "My father. He doesn't know that I work with the Ministry and am working to get rid of Voldemort. He thinks I'm just taking time in getting my death mark."
"And you let him think that?"
"What am I supposed to do, Gin? Go 'Oh by the way Dad, I work for the Ministry of Magic and am hoping to kill your Lord as well as yourself eventually. Well, got to head off to work. I'll see you tomorrow.'" He laughed. "That would be a great thing to say at the Malfoy family reunions."
She chuckled. "I can see how that would be a problem."
The drove in a companionable silence until she parked as close to Liz's flat as possible.
"Alright, here we are."
He was actually nervous, and that was something he hadn't expected. All he wanted to do was make sure that Ginny's friends liked him and that he made a good impression. It didn't feel like a pressured date where he had to impress them, he just knew that he wanted them to like him. After getting out of the car to open Ginny's door, "I have seen muggle movies you know." He grabbed a hold of her hand as they walked up the stairs to the second floor and reached Liz's door.
"Don't be nervous. Liz might come across a little…eccentric, and her boyfriend isn't always the friendliest of people, but usually they're great."
"I'm sure I have friends that are much worse."
She laughed. "Like Crabbe and Goyle."
He looked at her like she was crazy. "Do you really think that I'd want to be friends with people like Crabbe and Goyle?"
"You were friends with them in school."
"I wouldn't call them friends, more like we were in the same house and were just stuck together." He looked at her. "I've changed since then. I have Ginny." For some reason this also was important to him.
"I know Dra. If I didn't I wouldn't be here with you."
"Did you just call my 'Dra'?"
"Yep. And you better like it because if you don't, tough luck."
Before he could answer the door opened.
"Aha! I thought I heard voices." Then she looked at Draco and looked at Ginny. "Good taste, Gin. This one's dreamy." She winked and then grabbed their free hands. "Come in. Come in!"
Draco looked questioning at Ginny, but she just shrugged.
There were pillows all over the living area. No couches. No chairs. Just pillows. Some were small, some were gigantic, but either way Draco had never seen so many pillows in his entire life. They weren't even matching. It was crazy. There was a table in the middle of the room and the food they were going to be eating was on plates there. Draco had never seen anything like it. It was like noodles, only not.
"Chinese!" Ginny said, sounding delighted. "Good choice."
Liz grinned. "There seems to be a lot of good choices going around." And then she nudged Ginny and looked pointedly at Draco. "So introduce me to your friend."
"This is Drake Malfoy." She smiled at Draco, and her eyes told him how sorry she was for slaughtering his name. "Drake, this is Liz Dormick."
"Very nice. Drake." She said his name as if she was almost going to eat it. The name, not him. But either way it was different.
"Adam! Get out here and meet Drake!"
There wasn't a reply, but you could hear grumbling. After a moment a man with long dark black hair came out wearing a leather vest, no shirt, and black pants. He stuck his hand out to Draco.
"Eh, nice to meet you Drake."
"You too." Draco said. Muggles were definitely odd people.
"So," Liz said cheerfully, "now that we're all acquainted, let's eat!"
Mostly the conversation went well,
until Draco mentioned something about Quidditch.
"Quidditch?"
Adam asked.
"Umm…" Draco looked at her, wondering what he could possibly say.
Ginny looked up and tried not to groan.
"Well…" Draco started. "It's this game some friends of mine made up. You toss balls around and things like that."
"Sounds fun." Liz said. "Maybe we can all play sometime."
"Maybe." Ginny said quickly and ate more of her food.
Eventually the dinner was over, but there weren't any mishaps.
"Glad you could find a date, Gin." Adam teased.
"I told her that I would and so I did."
"Yeah, it's amazing. Although he is too much of a pretty boy to not be gay."
Ginny just laughed. "He's not. I promise."
Adam looked at Draco. "What is it that you do exactly, Drake?"
Draco cringed. Ginny didn't know if it was at his name or at the question.
"Actually, I work with the government."
"Parliament?"
Draco tried not to look to confused. "Yeah."
"He's somewhat new. He doesn't have a seat yet, but he's working for a place."
"Interesting. What is your view on—"
Before he could finish Ginny grabbed Draco's hand. "Dra and I actually need to go. We'll see you later maybe."
"Yeah. For a game of Quidopolos or whatever it is you call it." Liz said.
"Of course." Draco said politely.
And then they said their goodbyes and left.
~~~~~*~~~~~
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