Summary: Ginny's got a secret admirer. Could he be that cute new teacher? Could he be her house team's seeker? Could he be someone whom she knew right from her very first year at Hogwarts? Or could he be one of the most unlikely person to even notice her?
Disclaimer: NOT MINE! Although I wish they were a product of my very own imagination, sad to say I only own the plot & the other characters that might pop up somewhere down the road here.
PhoenixRae's Notes: The end is near...yes, I'm afraid it is. I'm just trying to tie-up some loose ends here but sooner or later this fic is coming to an end. I'm not sure how many more chapters are in store for you wonderful readers & reviewers alike, but I can sense that I am ready to end this fic after...well, after a few months of not doing much to it. lol
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
XXI. Fixing A Broken Heart
Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months, and now it was only a couple more weeks to go before the end of the school year. Time passed by without Ginny noticing. Everyday seemed to be the same as the previous one that passed; dull and completely uneventful.
Quidditch season was coming to an end. Gryffindor will face Slytherin at the finals. It will be a nasty match between the two rival houses. And it will be an exceptionally hard game for Abby to watch as far as Ginny was concerned (she was sure the other girls from their house also felt sorry for Abby's predicament). She wouldn't know who to root for. Dating Blaise Zabini sure came with a price.
Yes. Abby and Blaise hooked-up shortly before the Christmas holiday. It came as a shock to everyone when the two admitted to everyone that they were seeing each other. But Ginny knew long before they came out that they were together; she caught them numerous times snogging in the library when Abby claimed to have been studying for a quiz or something.
When Ginny asked her friend why she kept her relationship with Blaise under wrap, Abby's explanation was she didn't want Ginny to be left out.
"Left out?" Ginny looked scandalized at her best friend's explanation for her behaviour. "Abs, Blaise is a great guy. I don't mind hanging out with him. Besides, it's obvious right from the start that you two liked each other."
"But he's friends with Malfoy, Gin. And I know the subject of Malfoy is a bit too touchy for you still," Abby explained.
"Oh please, Abs! Malfoy's history. He's obviously moved on from his so-called infatuation with me."
"How can you say that?" Abby looked appalled. "According to Blaise Malfoy was devastated when he told him what you said to tell him after reading his letter."
Ginny raised an eyebrow, "And you believed him? Please. Malfoy's ego was bruised. He wasn't able to add me as a another notch on his bedpost."
"I don't think so, Gin."
"Who are you kidding, Abs? Since that day I told Blaise that there's no chance in hell that Malfoy and I will ever get together, I've seen him prance around school with a different girl every week!"
"Maybe he's covering--"
"I don't care! Look, I'm happy for you and Blaise. But warn Zabini that if he as much as two-timed you, I know quite a few hexes I can use on him to make him think twice about messing with my friends."
Ginny went out of her way almost for the next couple of weeks after Abby admitted she and Blaise are a couple just to prove to her best friend that she doesn't mind her having a boyfriend while Ginny was apparently fixing a broken heart still. Ginny threw herself into her studies and spent most of her down time talking to Oliver either about school or just about life in general.
During one of their heart-to-heart talks Oliver confessed why he helped Malfoy land Ginny in detention.
"He knew something that he shouldn't have. And being the slimy git he's known to be, he blackmailed me until I couldn't take it anymore," Oliver began while sitting on a big boulder facing the lake. Ginny sat on another boulder beside him, her legs propped up and her chin pressed against her knees.
"And that is?"
Oliver took a while before he replied. Picking up a couple of flat-surfaced stones, he threw them into the lake, his eyes squinted as he followed the skipping stone until it stopped. He contemplated for a bit before replying, "Now don't flip out or anything, Gin, but for the past couple of years I've been keeping a secret that not even your brother knew about," he began.
Ginny's eyes widen as she stared at Oliver's serious face. "You're gay!" she exclaimed.
"What?" Oliver's serious face scrunched into a frown and turned to Ginny, his face aghast at her assumption. "I'm not gay, Virginia! And that wasn't even what I was about to say."
"Well you sound so dead serious that I automatically assumed that's what you're about to say." Ginny made herself more comfortable on the boulder she was perched on, her eyes watching her History of Magic professor closely. "If you're not gay, then how come I never see you out with anybody?"
"Because I'm in love with someone," Oliver admitted.
"Eh?" Ginny raised an eyebrow. So he was in love with someone, how come he hasn't made a move on her yet? Surely Oliver knew how to make a move on the opposite sex!
"It's complicated," he bent over and picked up a few more stones to throw into the lake. He was buying himself some time. He didn't expect his conversation with Ginny to turn out like this; it just happened.
"Complicated how?"
"She's not interested in me. And if ever she is, I'm just a friend to her."
"How can you be so sure, Ollie? Maybe she feels the same way about you too," she cajoled.
"Yeah, when hell freezes over she'll feel the same way."
Ginny made a face at her stubborn friend. What made him so sure whomever this woman was that he's in love with doesn't feel the same way about him? No woman in their right state of mind would turn somebody like Oliver Wood down. He may be an obsessive-compulsive kinda guy when he was on to something (she remembered back in her earlier years at Hogwarts and Oliver was the captain of the Quidditch team; he lived, breathed, and slept for Quidditch!), but that was part of what makes Oliver Wood unique and adorable. If he can give Quidditch his hundred percent attention, who says he can't give the woman he loves the same kind of attention?
"Who is she, Ollie? Do I know her?"
Oliver smirked, throwing the last stone in his hand and this time it skidded farther than the last couple of stones he threw into the lake. He didn't answer her right away. He took his sweet old time. He knew carrying a torch for Ginny Weasley was as futile as the Weasley twins taking life seriously, and yet at the back of his mind he kept a small flicker of hope alive that someday Ginny'd look at him one day and realize that he was the one for her. He wasn't sure if Malfoy succeeded in making the youngest Weasley offspring fall in love with him, and Ginny hasn't made any slight indication that she fancied the silver haired Slytherin. But Oliver was still uncertain of how Ginny Weasley truly sees him. Was he just a brother to her? A friend? A favourite professor? He doesn't know.
"Let's change the subject, shall we Gin?" he offered, wanting to drop their discussion of his private life. "Tell me how you're doing in all your classes? Finals are coming up. Are you ready for it?"
Smooth move, Wood, very smooth, Ginny silently applauded her History of Magic professor. She sensed that he wasn't ready yet to share with her everything that Draco found out and used against Oliver to make him succumb to the Slytherin's demands, but she knew when to stop asking questions.
"Oh Merlin, will you two please stop making that noise. It's not like I don't know what you're doing behind those books!" scolded Ginny who was slouched down so low in her seat in the library. Blaise and Abby were seated opposite her, a couple of large reference books propped up on the table, using the books as decoy to hide the couple snogging behind it.
A pair of chair legs scraped against the floor as Blaise and Abby straightened up in their seat. A bit flustered after being told by their friend to stop necking, Blaise and Abby tried not to show as much of their snogfest to whomever else passed by their table. Although they chose to sit at the very back of the room, still, there were those very few students who tend to wander that far back in the room.
"Jeez, Weasley, can't you raise your voice any louder?" muttered Blaise.
"You know Madam Pince has threatened to kick Blaise and I out after she caught us a couple of times snogging in here instead of actually studying," Abby hissed.
Ginny put her book down and raised an eyebrow at her two friends across from her. "And is that my fault, hm? You two snog so damn loud I betcha everyone in the library can hear you two."
Abby blushed. Blaise frowned. Ginny grinned from ear to ear. She agreed to accompany Abby to the library under the pretense of them studying for their finals, but as soon as she saw Blaise seated at the table Abby told her to go to while she made a detour down an aisle to grab a book Ginny knew she was going to be used as a decoy.
"You two better put in some study time as well in between your snog sessions. I don't want my best friend failing her finals all because she can't remember anything she's learned this year."
"I'm not going to fail!" Abby said haughtily.
"Yeah, right. I doubt that hickey you're sporting will bring you luck in tomorrow's exam." Ginny watched Abby scramble to hide the love bite Blaise gave her the night before under her robe. Abby sent Ginny a sharp glare and grabbed her textbook for Care of Magical Creatures.
"Zabini, you done here?"
Ginny's back stiffened at the sound of the voice that came from behind her. Her hands gripping the textbook she was reading was slowly turning to white as her grip on it tightened. It has been close to eight months now since she last heard Draco Malfoy's voice at close range. And this was the first time he's approached Blaise with her around. Keeping her cool, Ginny continued reading the paragraph in the book, but try as she might she kept on reading the first sentence and hardly made any sense of it.
Draco's presence was distracting her. It didn't help also that he was standing way too close to her.
"Why do you ask, Malfoy?"
"Wendy's got my History of Magic book. McGonagall caught us and we both made a mad dash for it before she landed in detention," Draco explained nonchalantly.
Wendy. Ginny clenched her jaw tightly. Wendy Appleton, a Ravenclaw seventh year. She was Draco's flavour of the week. Last week it was a Hufflepuff seventh year, and the week before that was a Slytherin sixth year. Every week it was a different girl for Draco, and Ginny was getting sick and tired of hearing about them and seeing him prance around school with a different girl in his arms every week!
"Then why don't you go get it from her? I have to study too you know," Blaise said irritably.
"I can't if I want to keep my head in tact," Draco answered.
"Like I care if your head's kept in tact?" Ginny snorted, flipping a page of the textbook after giving up on ever making sense of the page she was looking at.
Draco raised an eyebrow when he heard Ginny's remark. Looking down at the redhead seated on the chair in front of him, he took a couple of steps closer until the back of his thighs almost touched the back of her chair. Bracing his hands on the back of the chair and the table, he looked down at the petite redhead.
"What did you say, Weaslette?" he demanded.
Ginny was surprised by Draco's action. She nearly jumped off her seat when he towered over her, making her cran her neck almost all the way to the back just to meet his gaze. He was leaning down at her so close their noses were barely inches away from each other's.
"Did I say something, Malfoy?" she replied back, matching his glare.
For a brief instant something flickered at the back of Draco's ice-cold gray eyes, making Ginny blink twice to clear her vision. But as soon as she did whatever she saw in his eyes was gone. Instead she saw something akin to hatred burning at the back of his irises.
"You made a comment about me losing my head."
"I did?" Ginny feigned innocence, batting her eyelashes at him. "I don't think so, bleached boy."
"You lie," he replied but the words came out as a whisper as his head kept on moving closer.
Ginny's breath got caught in her throat, anticipating what Draco's next course of action will be. If she goaded him he might do something drastic and she'd regret it. On the other hand, if she doesn't goad him he might think she was a weakling.
"At least I never made any silly promises and made a fool of myself."
Something snapped inside Draco and the next thing Ginny knew his lips were crushing hers--hard. Blaise and Abby sat back in awe of what was happening right before their very eyes. Since Draco stepped up closer to Ginny's chair they both held their breath for whatever might transpire between the two, but nothing prepared them for this surprise snogging!
Shock made Ginny immobile for the first couple of seconds. She didn't know what happened. Draco was swift. His mouth claimed hers before she can say something. The pressure of his lips against hers almost knocked her teeth back down her throat, and she refused to respond to him. But after a couple of seconds she sensed a change in Draco's kiss. He eased some pressure off, his tongue flickered out and ran over her slightly parted lips. Cajoling her lips to welcome his tongue, Ginny parted them and allowed him access into her mouth, his tongue finding and mating with her eager tongue.
Seconds ticked by to minutes. Ginny didn't care. Draco Malfoy was kissing her. Finally the man who drove her wild with wanting that night has a face now, and his kiss was every bit as she remembered from that long ago night. Warm, gentle, and caressing. Oh hell, she was drowning in a pool of lust at the moment.
A book feel on the floor a few aisles down and broke the magic between them. Pushing away from one another, their eyes wide from shock, Draco straightened up and without saying another word to her or Blaise he walked away from their table and left the library. Ginny, who was still trying to catch her breath and stop the dizziness that consumed her after that mind blowing kiss, turned a pair of wide, brown eyes at her friends before gathering her stuff.
"I gotta go," she told them and without putting her books in her bag she walked out of the library.
Blaise and Abby were silent for the longest time, watching Ginny's back disappear from view before turning to each other.
"Those two needs to get together soon!" they said in unison.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
A/N: Well, how do you like this chapter? grins Phew! The last scene kept on playing over and over inside my head as soon as I started writing the second part of this chapter. lol We need to get some D/G action there -- an action where we know Draco's the one kissing Gin and not her mysterious APC! lol
PhoenixRae's THANK YOUs: Again there's too many of you to thank, but I appreciate all your input, comments and whatnots. Thanks for pointing out some stuff to me that otherwise I wouldn't have noticed.