Author's Note: Wow… I love every single one of you, and every single one of your reviews, that means so much to me, to know people actually like my writing. BUT, I don't want to get sappy and bore you all to death, so here you have the 7th installment!

What does your heart say now 
Now that we've touched, now that we've kissed 
What does your heart say now 
Now that it's come this 
Is it the same, or has something changed 
Now that we've let our guard down 
I just want to know, what does your heart say now -What Does Your Heart Say Now ~Ilse Delange

Chapter Seven

~The Reunion~

They walked arm in arm around the terrace, greeting a few people that greeted them. Eventually, they were left alone and she let go of him, straightening her dress without need. She sighed and supported her chin on her hand, her elbow upon the stone railing as she looked down upon the family mingling and laughing slightly with each other. She felt terribly out of place.

"This is so boring," said Draco next to her, he had his arms folded on the stone railing and he too glared down at his family. "Every single reunion is this boring. Every Malfoy knows that and they dread the end of summer because of it. They just never say it because they all think that the others think this is the best event of the year. Sure… loads of money spent, but for what really?"

"You do know you're rambling?" she said smiling after he finished. He eyed her, an eyebrow raised. "It's not so boring, Draco," she said and looked down again towards the herd of blondes and a few brunettes. "They're just incredibly monotonous."

"Same difference," he said, sighing deeply. She straightened her dress again and he looked at her. "I would say you're nervous."

"I'm not," she said, looking at him, a few strands of ginger hair falling out of place. "I can barely breathe in this corset Teeny put on me… it's too tight."

"I can loosen it for you," he said and shrugged, she eyed him for a second. "Have it your way then." But she turned around, her back facing him. He undid the zipper slowly as she held her hair up. He undid the lace and tied it up less tightly than it was after he did all the things to put the corset properly. He then zipped up her dress and she let go of her hair, turning around to face him again.

"Thank you," she said, arranging her hair, which was in curls today. He nodded.

"I don't know why you women hurt yourselves like that," he said, resuming his position on the railing. She shrugged and leaned her back against the railing now, taking a glass from a tray a ghostly servant had brought; it had red wine with a cherry on the bottom. Draco, however, refused to take a drink and the servant soon left them alone again.

Ginny sipped idly on her wine, still leaning on the railing. There was a long silence in which Draco glared down the terrace upon the people, and Ginny concentrated her thoughts on her wine, which was deliciously sweet at the moment for her. When she finished the wine, she picked the cherry from the bottom and ate it slowly, enjoying it thoroughly and completely forgetting his presence.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw him gazing at her in puzzlement. "What?" she asked, placing the glass beside her.

"Nothing," he replied shrugging and placed a hand on the small of her back. Before she could protest he hissed in her ear, "Almost everyone is looking up at us; do act like you're enjoying yourself. They've noticed our distance this time… and they were already suspicious."

"Alright, then," she whispered back to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, looking up at him. He didn't say anything. "Well," she said, "If you don't talk, then how am I supposed to be enjoying myself?"

"Clever girl…" he said and smirked at her slightly, she blinked a bit and he shook his head. "Well, what do you call what I'm doing now? I'm talking, Virginia."

"Sure, whatever you say, Draco…" she said and smiled faintly. They were now dancing to the soft music that could be heard. They twirled on the same spot slowly and distractedly. Occasionally, Draco would twirl her or made a rather complicated-looking move, which was actually quite easy. She laughed to herself, seeing him smirk at her.

At the end, he did a classic move and dipped her; she laughed airily as he brought her back up slowly and shook her head slightly. "Well, that was fun," she said, a little out of breath from laughing.

"I guess," he said, a bit flushed in the face from the wind. They still had their arms around each other, and, out of the corner of her eye, Ginny could see a few Malfoys looking up at them.  She smirked at Draco and kissed him firmly. He was startled at first and it was a while before he started to respond to her, but he did.

It was a simple kiss; there was nothing deep, nothing passionate about it. They just kissed slowly. However, the wave of adrenaline this simple kiss brought was quite remarkable.

"Forgive me if I'm interrupting something, my dears," said a woman closing in on them. Draco and Ginny let go of each other, but Draco let his hand linger on Ginny's hand and twined her fingers with his quickly. Ginny, who was used to this, didn't do anything and merely smiled as the woman placed her hand on Draco's shoulder. "Draco, darling, your father has sent me to look for you." Draco nodded and squeezed Ginny's hand.

"I'll be back in a moment, darling," he said to her and kissed her cheek, she pulled one of her many smiles and nodded in agreement. Ginny was now left alone with the blonde woman.

The woman was very pretty and looked fairly young; she had short blonde hair that reached down to the middle of her neck, her eyes were intense blue, she was slim and had—so unlike many of the Malfoy women—a kind face. The woman smiled at her, "I think we have not been properly introduced, though you should already guess who I am." Ginny shook her head. "Oh… well, I'm Draco's mother, Narcissa Malfoy."

"Oh," said Ginny, shaking Narcissa's hand. She had seen her before but she had had longer hair then. She looked incredibly young. "My…" said Ginny fanning herself with her hand, "It's so hot today, wouldn't you agree?"

"No," said Narcissa shortly. Ginny raised an eyebrow. "It's considerably cooler given the other nights, my dear." Narcissa put her hands on the railing and looked down at the family members; she then gave a derisive laugh and flipped her hair with her hand, turning to Ginny. "Hypocrites… the lot of them,"

Ginny, who was gazing at the sky above, turned her dark gaze towards Narcissa. "Oh?" she said, tucking strands of ginger hair behind her ears.

"Yes," said Narcissa with a sigh and shrugged. "They only talk about money and jewels and dresses and hair, the women. It's fairly annoying."

"I agree," said Ginny curtly.

"Yes… I tell Lucius all the time I do not wish to come to this reunion. I've been coming to it for twenty years and it is still the same monotonous people… year after year…"

"You've been married to Lucius for twenty years?" asked Ginny, a bit amazed. "You do not look as such."

"Oh, my darling, I am just thirty-eight years old. I got married at the same age you have. And I had Draco a year later, too. So, you see, you and I are very alike. Not like these other women who really did want to get married only because of the money." Narcissa gave a disgusted expression that did not suit her at all.

"Oh, so you were forced to marry too?" asked Ginny, a bit eager with the conversation. Narcissa looked at her, a bit pityingly.

"No, dear… Me and Lucius did indeed fall in love, believe it or not," she added with a smile. "I guess it is not surprising that you were forced to wed my son, a lot of the women were forced to marry as well, but they saw it as a blessing. I can see you did not think as such."

"Draco does not exactly hold a kind spot with me… he was horrible to me at school." Ginny crossed her arms. Narcissa neared Ginny and put an arm on her shoulder.

"My dear, stop living in the past. What's done it's done. I'm sure you too have some aspects of your past that you would wish to change." At this Narcissa smiled kindly. "It is a new beginning now. Oh, if I had led myself go with the past all these years I am afraid I would not be here right now, perhaps in St. Mungo's, though. It is one thing my mother-in-law told me, and that I'm telling you: the past does no good in the present, as the present gradually becomes the past. So, stop thinking about how bad you have it, or you think you do. Draco is not so bad deep down inside, do believe me, I made sure of that. You should have seen the poor dear running around this week, looking for spells to put on a room he claims to be special for you. He's trying, just give him time. But, you have to try as well, as it is a mutual thing. You're married now, you better stop thinking about only yourself or in the end it will be bad for you, not for him. My dear, when you have a child, you will not have time to think of yourself at all. Please, just try and you'll see it is not as bad as you think it to be."

Ginny sighed and nodded, smiling weakly at Narcissa, who had resumed her previous position, a hand on the stone railing and the other falling gracefully at her side as she looked down again. "I would not want you ending up as them," said Narcissa, pointing with her head at the women that were in a bunch. "I can see that you are a great person and I wouldn't want you to waste yourself as they've done." She sighed deeply. "See the symbolism here, Virginia? Here we are, looking down upon them. We are on a higher level than them, not only physically, but mentally as well. Remember that."

"Thank you," said Ginny, smiling wider now. "And thank you for the dress."

"You're welcome, dear," said Narcissa, still looking down at the people. "It looks better on you than it ever did on me. Now, you better go fetch Draco, I see a cousin-in-law of his trying to cross the family boundary in more ways than one, and you can't permit that, now can you? He is your husband after all."

Author's Note: There we go. The button calls for you. "Press me, Press me!" You know, that button is very bossy… XD Nah, review if you want, if you liked, or if you hated it. Okay, the story has been going along with a slightly neutral relationship between Draco and Ginny, but you know me (and those who don't are about to) and I simply cannot resist the temptations of twists, and less when they come to me at 2 o'clock in the morning and I have to wake up and write them down!

Preview of the next chappy!

The cousin-in-law and Ginny have a quite charming encounter:

"…it does not show very good manners to interrupt two people when they are talking… but I must have forgotten… you were raised a Weasley,"

"Raised as one, still am one…"

Ginny and Draco have yet another close encounter…

"…just don't start anything…"

"I was not starting anything… I was merely following…"

There you go, people. Now, please, review!

~Blue