Kissing The War Goodbye
Ginny Weasley sat alone in the attic of her childhood home, the Burrow, surrounded by various mementos of her years at Hogwarts. She was flipping through a photo album, smiling at a picture of the infamous trio. Ron (her loving, overprotective big brother), Hermione (the cleverest witch that the wizarding world had ever seen), and Harry Potter (the renowned Boy-Who-Lived) waved happily at her by the lake. As she turned the page, a bundle of letters tumbled out onto her lap.
She untied the twine that bound it and fingered the well-worn parchment, yellowed with age. A single tear escaped her eye and made its way down her cheek as she looked back at the page to which the album was opened. A sad smile found its way on her face as she glimpsed one of her favorite photographs. A pale, handsome young boy smirked at her, his silver-blonde hair falling into his stormy gray eyes, which held a certain playfulness that contrasted the cold image he used to hide behind throughout his years at Hogwarts. Ginny closed her eyes as she remembered their first official conversation...
"What the hell are you doing up there, Weasley???" Draco Malfoy cried.
"Could you BE any LOUDER??? Shut up before he comes over here!" Ginny called out as quietly as she could from the tree to which she was perched.
"Before WHO comes over here? And why should I do YOU any favors?" Draco's eyebrows furrowed incredulously at the thought of helping a Weasley.
"I'm avoiding Neville, who's trying to ask me to Hogsmeade this weekend. If you be quiet, I'll pay you any price you ask," Ginny knelt down below the branches and begged. Draco admired the way the sun glinted off her red hair, the way her crimson waves cascaded down to frame her face. As he realized where his thoughts were leading him, he quickly shook his head. 'Snap out of it, Malfoy,' he thought to himself.
"What makes you think you could pay me? I mean, look at you, you can't even afford decent robes!" Draco sneered, secretly noticing that the little Weasel was actually quite pretty, and even more stunning when anger ignited in her chocolate eyes.
Ginny ignored the urge to growl and shouted desperately, "Look, Malfoy, I'll do anything, ANYTHING, if you just pretend I was never here. Why don't you just sit right back down and continue brooding as you were before?"
"Anything, eh?" Draco grinned slyly. Ginny inwardly sighed and melted as he flashed a wolfish grin at her, but shook her head, disgusted with herself, as he continued. "You know, since you gave your word, your offer's as binding as – ... HEY, I was NOT brooding, I was – " Draco scoffed indignantly but was cut off by Ginny's frantic pleas.
"He's coming this way! Please, Malfoy, I already told you I'll do anything you want!" Ginny bellowed pleadingly.
Draco sat back down without a word, not able to resist the earnest look in her cinnamon eyes, and Ginny nestled back into the refuge of the tree. As Neville came into sight, Ginny squeezed her eyes shut, praying that Draco would not give her away. Draco eyed Neville as he scurried nervously along the path past the glaring Slytherin. As Neville disappeared, Ginny gave a sigh of relief.
Leaning back to rest against the trunk, she shrieked as her back was met with air and as she found herself falling towards the ground below. Screwing her eyes shut tight, waiting for the inevitable to occur, she found that her body did not make contact with the hard ground, but actually with a pair of strong arms. She opened her eyes, which widened at the sight of the look of concern on the usually cool and collected face of Draco Malfoy. The look quickly flickered and passed, back to his usual smirk as he set her back on her feet.
"Guess you can add 'clumsy' to your rather lengthy list of attributes, although I'm quite puzzled. Aren't weasels supposed to have a keen sense of hand-eye coordination?" Draco drawled.
Ginny stepped up to him, her head tilting up to meet his eyes (which was quite difficult, considering his 6-foot frame), her own narrowing as she smoothly replied, "You seem to be forgetting that weasels are also known for their fierceness and ruthless ability to attack those much larger than themselves."
Draco chuckled, "Indeed, they are. I guess ferocity is another quality you can add to that list. Feisty little thing, aren't you?"
Ginny scowled and turned to walk away, but Draco stopped her by grabbing her arm. He quickly let go at the look on her face and continued, "As for your payment, I won't be asking for money."
Ginny raised an eyebrow at that, "Oh? What will it be then? A week of being your personal slave? Or is it information that you want? Or if it's a certain something else you want, I'm afraid I'll have to draw the line at sexual favors."
Draco raised an eyebrow as well. "As tempting as all that sounds, I had something else in mind..." he trailed off.
"Well?" Ginny asked, impatient.
"I'd like you to accompany me to Hogsmeade this weekend," Draco announced, quite dignified for such a ludicrous request. 'What the hell do you think you're doing!?!?!?' his head screamed to himself.
"What???" Ginny exclaimed. "Are you insane!? That's ridiculous!"
"So is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?" Draco inquired.
When Ginny realized she was still gaping at him, she quickly shut her mouth and slowly shook her head. "You've got to be kidding me... well, I guess I have no choice..." Ginny shrugged in a resigned tone, though inside she wasn't as reluctant to acquiesce.
Draco looked into her eyes and intently murmured, "If you must know, this is merely a request. Forget the deal, I want a straight answer: do you or do you not want to go with me?"
Ginny's eyes widened and lowered back to the floor, unable to meet his intense gaze without timidly biting her lip. Draco gently tilted her chin up to him, silently urging her to look at him. When Ginny looked up into his eyes, she found nothing but true sincerity. She couldn't believe it. First, he covered for her from Neville. Then, he caught her when she was falling out of the tree. And now, he's asking her to Hogsmeade! Was she in some alternate universe???
Draco took her silence as a refusal, and crept back into his protective shell. "Look, if you don't want to go with me, then all you have to do is just say so. Why would an innocent little Gryff go for an evil, horrible Slytherin? Talk about preposterous," he muttered as he turned around to walk away, but stopped as a small, slender hand grasped his shoulder.
"Malfoy, wait..." Ginny trailed off in a small voice as he turned back around to face her.
"Well, what?" Draco huffed impatiently.
"I... I... well, that is... oh bloody hell! Yes, Malfoy, I'd like to go with you to Hogsmeade," Ginny stuttered, blushing furiously.
Draco smirked and inwardly smacked himself for thinking about how cute she was when she turned red. "See you then," he said, hoping she didn't catch him smiling. Ginny looked up, practically dissolving into a puddle at the sight of his real smile. He turned around and headed towards the castle, leaving Ginny to watch him dazedly as she looked forward to the coming weekend.
She and Draco had gradually become good friends. After a while, they confided in each other with their darkest secrets and deepest desires. Ginny told him about the Chamber of Secrets, and Draco could tell that she was still haunted by the events that transpired in her first year. He was immediately ashamed to find that his father was the one who was responsible for the whole thing. In return, Draco told Ginny about life at home, if one could even call it that. It was more like a prolonged nightmare, his own personal living hell.
Although he admitted that he loved his mother, Narcissa, she was the only one he cared about. Unfortunately, Lucius was very controlling and demanding, which didn't allow Narcissa to have any freedom or happiness, especially when Draco was in school. When Ginny discovered the Dark Mark on his arm, she was shocked when Draco told her his most guarded secret: he was a double agent. He explained how it was too dangerous for him to go to the other side openly while he was still living at home. When he finished school and got out of the house, he'd take his mother with him to live in seclusion, escape the Death Eaters, and become a full-fledged Auror.
Ginny revealed that in her family, as the youngest, she was overshadowed by her older brothers. She told Draco of her ambition to make a name for herself. She had been training to become a Healer in the Hospital Wing, under the tutelage of Madame Pompfrey. Seeing as she frequently cared for her brothers when they were ill or injured, Ginny seemed to be a natural born Healer. Indeed, she treated Draco himself when he broke his arm playing Quidditch.
As they confided in each other with their secrets and life-long dreams, they started caring for each other. Unbeknownst to the other, they started developing feelings other than friendship for each other. One day, they revealed how they truly felt. It all started on an ordinary afternoon in the library . . .
Dear Diary,
Well, here I am in the library, in which I'm supposed to be working on an essay for Snape that's due tomorrow, only I can't bring myself to write such mundane things when my mind is elsewhere . . .
You see, diary, I can't seem to stop thinking about a certain someone. I never thought I'd be saying this, but I think I've fallen in love with –
"With whom, may I ask?" a familiar silky voice drawled from behind her. Ginny
gasped as she shut her diary closed and whipped around to face the one she'd been dreading to see. "Malfoy, what're you doing here?" Ginny's eyes widened.
Draco scowled at her and continued, "Answering a question with another question? Alright then, Weasley, I'll play your little game. Why have you been avoiding me?"
Ginny blinked and stuttered, "I... I d-don't know w-what you're t-talking about." It was true. Ginny had been avoiding Draco, too ashamed to face him when she discovered her true feelings for him.
Draco's eyes narrowed, "You don't? Well, I'll take a stab at my own question, since you supposedly have no idea what I'm talking about. Let me guess. Have you run off with Corner? I heard he and Chang broke up last week. Did you find that to be your opportunity?"
It was Ginny's turn to narrow her eyes, "You know as well as I do that Michael and I are over. As for he and Cho, I couldn't care less."
"Oh? Well, it must be someone else then. Well, I don't think you'd stoop down to Longbottom . . . How about Potter?" he spat.
"First of all, I've been over Harry since 4th year. You know I only consider him as a brother, now, I already told you that!" she exclaimed indignantly.
Ginny quieted down when Madame Pince said, "shh!" and gave them a murderous look for disturbing the peace of her precious library. She continued on in a lower voice, "Now, what's this about, Malfoy?"
"What you wrote in your diary, of course. Who is it that you're so in LOVE with?" Draco sneered.
"None of your business," Ginny said quietly, trying to hide the blush that was steadily surfacing to her cheeks. Draco seemed to have not noticed this as he bantered on, "I thought we told each other everything, Ginny. I've been nothing but honest with you, and I thought you trusted me enough to open up to me, too. So why won't you tell me?"
"Because it's YOU, you stupid prat!!!" Ginny exploded. Draco blinked once, twice, and on the third blink, he found her getting over her own shock. She got up from her chair, knocking it over in haste, and rushed out of the library.
Quickly getting over his surprise, he yelled at everyone else in the library, "What're YOU looking at!?" Everybody went back to their own business, secretly looking at him out of the corners of their eyes. He got up and swiftly strode out, ignoring the reproving glare of the ruffled librarian.
He ran through the hall, opened the doors, and stepped out. He spotted a small redhead making her way towards the lake and ran after her. Ginny looked back to see Draco running after her. She whipped her head back to face ahead of her and sprinted to the tree where all of this had started. As Draco stopped in front of the tree, she scrambled up to a branch just in time.
"What the hell are you doing up there, Weasley??? Come down, I need to talk to you!" he shouted up to her. All he got was, "No! I'm not coming down until you leave!" He huffed, "I refuse to come up there, and since you refuse to come down, I guess I'm just going to have to sit here and wait for you to get over your own stubbornness!"
"Well, we'll just see about that. You're going to have to wait an awfully long time . . ." Ginny crossed her arms and leaned back to rest against the trunk, getting ready for a long night, when her back was met with air. 'Not again!' she thought to herself in dismay as she shrieked and started falling out of the tree. Hearing Ginny's scream, Draco got up and swiftly caught her in his arms. Ginny tried to scramble away from his hold, but Draco refused to let go.
"I hope you don't make this out to be a habit. It really is quite tiring," Draco smirked down at the furious, fiery-tempered girl in his arms. "Let me go!" she shouted. "Not until I get an explanation," he put her on her feet but quickly backed her against the tree trunk. "Did you mean what you said?" he quietly questioned her. When she looked down, unable to answer him, he gently tilted her chin up to look into his eyes, "All I want is a 'yes' or 'no.' If you give me either one, I'll let you go."
She finally met his eyes, unable to hold back the tears coursing down her cheeks. "Yes, I meant it," she sobbed, humiliated. Draco took her face into his hands, his thumbs wiping her tears away. "Would it make you feel any better if I told you that your feelings were reciprocated?" he inquired silently. Ginny's eyes widened. "What?" she said, shocked.
Draco chuckled and said, affectionately, "Silly little girl. That means I love you." Ginny blinked, and before she could get a word in edge wise, he claimed her lips with his. All coherent thought left her head as she closed her eyes and eagerly responded. She reached her arms up around his neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist. At first, the kiss was soft and gentle, perhaps even chaste. However, as he deepened the kiss, it turned passionate. When they finally broke away for air, they rested their foreheads against each other.
"Well?" Draco said. Ginny's eyebrows furrowed, but a look of understanding passed over her face. With a wistful look in her eye, she sighed, "That was amazing." Draco laughed (to which Ginny gave him an indignant look) and said, "As flattering as that is, and as much as I agree with you, that's not what I meant."
"Well, what DID you mean?" Ginny asked, confused. "You're supposed to say, 'Draco, you're the most charming and best looking man I've ever laid eyes on and I'm madly in love with you,'" he said, simply. Ginny smirked and said, "I love you, Draco Malfoy, as much of a pompous, arrogant git you can be at times."
"Well THAT'S a nice way to declare your undying lo-" he was cut off when Ginny silenced him with another kiss.
Ginny smiled at the memory. She and Draco kept their relationship a secret, deciding that it would be too dangerous to go public before Draco and his mother were under the protection of the Order. It was quite hard, considering the fact that he used to frequently grab her in the corridors and pull her into empty classrooms or broom closets to snog her senseless. She remembered that one time, she and Draco were almost caught in the Astronomy Tower when none other than Ron and Hermione came for a little midnight rendezvous of their own. Luckily, Draco managed to put his invisibility cloak over the both of them before they were discovered. After they quietly made their way out, Draco blanched, aghast, and all Ginny could do was laugh.
Ginny sobered as she thought ahead to Draco's last day of school, the last time she ever saw him . . .
At the final feast, Dumbledore made his end-of-the-year speech, but then went solemn. The hall was silent as he announced that the war had begun. As all the students gasped and whispered among themselves, Draco caught Ginny's eye and subtly motioned over to the doors. Ginny gave a small nod and left a while after him. When she stepped out the doors of the Great Hall, Draco pulled her into a deep kiss. When they broke apart, she smiled sadly. He took her hand and they walked out of the castle and to their tree by the lake.
"Does this mean that you'll be joining the war as an Auror?" Ginny inquired silently. Draco nodded and said, "Yes, as soon as I get back home, my mother and I are leaving. She's already set and packed." Ginny nodded sadly, casting her eyes to the floor.
"Ginny, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you," Draco said nervously.
Ginny looked up at that. 'Could it be?' she thought to herself. "Yes?" she asked. "Ginny, this war is going to be a long one. It's going to be nothing but hard times. You and I both know that. What I want to know is . . . will you wait for me?" he asked earnestly. Ginny gave him a small smile and said, "Of course I will." 'Is that all?' she thought to herself.
Draco seemed to have read her mind when he said, "Oh yes, and one more thing . . ." Ginny's eyes widened as he knelt on the floor on one knee, an emerald and diamond engagement ring twinkling at her from a small blue velvet box, and said, "Ginny Weasley, I love you madly, and I can't live without you. You're going to be the only light getting me through this war. You are my strength, and you are my world. I can't imagine how I could ever live without your love, and if I have to die fighting in the process, then so be it. Ginny Weasley, will you marry me?" Tears were coursing down Ginny's cheeks as she nodded emphatically and said, "Yes, Draco Malfoy, I will marry you." Draco slipped the ring on her finger, which fit perfectly, took her into his arms and kissed her. When they broke apart, Ginny embraced him, never wanting to let go.
"Promise you'll come back to me," she whispered.
He refused to meet her eyes. "I have to go now," he said.
"Promise me, Draco," she said, desperately urging him to look at her.
He finally met her eyes and said, "I love you, Ginny. Goodbye." He was about to turn and leave when he heard her shout.
"PROMISE ME!!!" she cried.
He turned back to her and said, "Damn, alright then, woman, I'll come back."
Ginny smiled and gave him a kiss. "You better come back to get another one of those," she said teasingly.
Draco smiled and said, "I'd certainly Avada an entire mob of Death Eaters if I could have another one of THOSE, alright."
Ginny laughed and kissed him again.
"I miss you, Draco," she whispered, and, unable to hold her tears in any longer, she broke down and sobbed on the attic floor.
As Draco had predicted, the war had been a long and dismal one, lasting for two miserable years. Everyone was participating in the war, even Ginny. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were Aurors, of course, and her father and all of her brothers fought alongside them. Ginny and her mother were Healers, and took care of injured soldiers. When her family found out about all that he had done for the Order, they had come to respect Draco. Over time, Ginny finally told them about her engagement with him. At first they were angry, as predicted, but only because she had kept it a secret for so long. However, they all eventually gave her their blessings, even Ron. As soldiers came and left her emergency tent, Ginny prayed that she would see Draco, just to know if he was alright, but she never saw him again. The last image she had of him was that day, under the tree by the lake, when he had proposed to her.
When the end of the war was announced, everyone rejoiced, but Ginny couldn't help but grieve. She had stopped receiving letters from Draco six months before the war ended, and she was terribly worried.
The war had been over for three months, and still Ginny didn't receive word from him. Her fingers traced her only photograph of him. She didn't even have a picture of the two of them together, since they kept their relationship a secret, and couldn't ask anyone to take a picture of them. After a while of quiet reminiscence, she gathered all her things and put them back in the trunk. She levitated the trunk downstairs and into the living room, where the rest of her things were packed into suitcases. "I'm ready, Mum," she called out to the kitchen.
Her mother, Molly, emerged, tears streaming down her face. "Ginny, dear, are you sure you can't stay for a little while?" she pleaded. "Mum, you know as well as I do that I've stayed here much too long. I can't live off of you and Dad forever. You said yourself that I was lucky to find that nice flat on Diagon Alley," she reminded her. Molly nodded and hugged her daughter, "Now, you'll pop by and visit now and then, right?" Ginny smiled and said, "Of course, Mum. I couldn't live too long without your homemade cooking." Molly smiled back and said, "Goodbye, Ginny." "Bye, Mum," she murmured. Checking to make sure she had everything, she raised her wand in the air and apparated to the front of the new apartment building. She opened the door and levitated her things upstairs. After she got in her apartment, she decided to go to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch and maybe buy some quills and parchment before unpacking.
As she stepped out of the apartment building, she saw a blonde-haired figure standing in the middle of the alley. She blinked and shook her head. 'No, that's impossible. Don't get your hopes up, Ginny,' she thought to herself as she went down the stairs and onto the street. The blonde man turned around and looked Ginny right in the eye. 'It couldn't be,' she thought to herself, shocked. It was.
Standing just ten feet away from her was Draco Malfoy, the man whom she had never stopped dreaming of and loving for all this time. He smiled and ran up to her, swooping her in his arms and kissing her with all his might. She held onto him, never wanting to let go. He was the only thing keeping her from crumpling onto the floor. When they broke apart, he swept her off her feet and twirled her around. She laughed, not caring that all the passersby were staring at them. When he stopped and set her back on her feet, she took his face in her hands, caressing it and going over his features, as if she were trying to memorize every inch and curve of his face. "I've missed you so much," she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. His thumb wiped it before it could trickle all the way down, and he smiled, "I've missed you more." She smiled back and said, "I don't think that's possible." He touched their foreheads together and closed his eyes, reveling in the moment.
She kissed his forehead and said, "I thought I'd lost you." He opened his eyes and smiled at her, "You know as well as I do that I'm not one to break promises, especially with you. Besides, I came back to get something that belongs to me."
"Oh, and what's that?" she laughed.
"This," he said before claiming her lips with his once more.