Satisfactory Independence
By: The Darkest Kreacher
Summary: Will Ginny's lust for Draco develop into something more? DMGW one-shot with a search for Ginny's independence. Rated R for non-explicit sex.

A/N: I don't know where this came from… I was just doing the dishes the other morning and this just popped into my head. Enjoy!

Independence was something that I had been searching for for a long time. I'm not sure where it originated, whether my mother instructed them to or whether they did it on their own, but my brothers never left me alone. I was always guarded by one of them, whether it made a difference or not. Sometimes they would baby me, sometimes they would comfort me, and sometimes they would play with me. In fact, they each had their own way of taking care of me. Bill would make sure that I wasn't hungry, that I wasn't confused, that I wasn't hot or cold, and Charlie would encourage me to play with his toy dragons that would really breathe fire. They were actually helpful and rather fun, whereas Percy would just freak out if he didn't know where I was and loved to stick books about the history of cauldron bottoms under my nose. Fred and George were… well, they were Fred and George. They played pranks on me, and they were nice to me – occasionally. I don't think they've changed since the day they were born. Ron wasn't much more mature than I, so he and I never got along.

In my first Hogwarts years, Ron began to worry about me every freaking moment of my life, Fred and George were still Fred and George, Percy made sure I behaved and he acted as a role model, and I saw Bill and Charlie less and less – which is partially why I started to respect them.

After awhile everyone sort of ignored me. My dorm mates never really became my good friends, just acquaintances. I only truly grew to know people older than me. I usually followed Hermione – she was my only good friend, and was always with Ron and Harry. She looked after me, but didn't over protect me as much as Ron did…or, how he used to. He used to protect me from everything at Hogwarts, whether it was just some stupid spider that had freaked him out or another sighting of death eaters. Later, Ron just always told me bugger off and leave them alone. Ron was head over heals for Hermione, and it seemed as though everyone knew but Hermione. Or, she did and she just didn't say anything.

And then there was Harry; Harry Potter, the savior of the world; Harry Potter, Ron's idol; Harry Potter, my former crush. Yes, my former crush. I, like most other girls around my age, had fallen for Harry Potter; but as I knew him better, I realized that he wasn't really different than most people. He ignored me most of the time, and when he did talk to me, he talked to me as a sister, not even as a friend. And I, like a sister would do with a brother, found him annoying. He was very full of himself, even if he was rather advanced for his age in Defense against the Dark Arts. At least I can actually brew a potion. It became that Harry ignored me, Ron didn't enjoy my company and preferred me to leave them all alone, and Hermione never left Ron and Harry's side. I had independence – something I'd been striving for my whole life.

Yet, the more independence I had, the less I wanted it. And one day, I found myself walking through the empty halls of Hogwarts alone just before Halloween in my sixth year. I had been on my prefect duties with a Ravenclaw and was heading down to the kitchens for a snack before I went to bed when I heard a crash from what sounded like a few corridors over. I ran. I found the source of the noise – someone had tripped over the missing stair. I walked down the dimly lit corridor to the staircase trying to figure out who fell. Though I felt rather sorry – at the time – for whoever was caught in the stairs I prepared myself to dock points (hopefully nicely) for being out late without permission when I heard a sneer.

"Well, well, well… if it isn't the miniature Weasel herself!"

It was none other than the has-a-new-girl-friend-every-week, shows-up-out-of-nowhere-to-insult-people, sarcastic but clever, Head Boy – Draco Malfoy! (Absolutely delightful, right?) Yes, he was the Head Boy. Most people thought it would be someone cliché like… HARRY POTTER, but Draco Malfoy got the job – something Hermione, obviously Head Girl, was very angry about, by the way – and acted as though he ruled the universe. And the sad thing was, most people treated him as if he ruled the universe, something that made me nearly sick.

I rolled my eyes and searched my mind for a witty retort, but didn't exactly find one. "Pleasure bumping into you, eh Malfoy?" Sarcasm was never something I was very good at succeeding in… but I tried.

He smirked. "'S that the best you can come with, Weasel?" I didn't respond. "Okay, now that the "formal" conversation's over, help me out of here, will you?"

I snorted with amusement. Why would I help him when he was treating me like a dog? I didn't respond, just stared at him appraisingly.

"Cat got your tongue, Weasel? C'mon, help me out of here!" he said. But he wasn't pleading; it wasn't good enough for me. I wanted to make him beg.

I attempted (key word attempted)to smirk and acted as though I was going to walk right past him. I had barely lifted my foot off the ground when he spoke again.

"Gonna leave me here, Weasel?" I glanced at him carefully, showing no emotion, when he sighed. "Alright," he said, "I'll just get out on my own."

He placed his hands on either side of the hole and pushed himself out of the missing stair with incredible strength. He stood up and brushed off his robes, which were less dirty than mine were in the first place, and grabbed his bag from in the hole. I just gaped at him, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Well, thanks for nothing," he said and made to go, but turned around. "Although," he said pointedly, "it wouldn't have been to my benefit, but yours."

I glanced at him sideways and he smirked. "You know, how you would've had the chance to touch my incredibly sexy body?" He always was full of himself…

I glared at him, but managed to say nothing. Malfoy turned around and walked down the remaining stairs towards the dungeons, and when I couldn't see his silhouette any longer, I turned and went up the stairs to my dormitory, anger clinging to me like lint clings to a freshly dried sweater.

A few weeks later, I ran into another encounter with Draco Malfoy, just as (if not more) unpleasant as our first incident, though this was after the second match between Gryffindor and Slytherin of the year.

I had been showering in the Gryffindor GIRLS' locker room (alone, once again) when I heard the door open and close. I figured it to be one of the other girls coming back to get something they had forgotten, and stepped out of the shower area to get my towel. I had just wrapped it around my body when none other but Draco Malfoy came storming in from one of the other locker areas. I gaped and turned to see a seventh year girl I didn't know very well but recognized as a Ravenclaw Prefect storming through locker room.

"I'm so- Carrie!" he called. "Carrie! Come back!"

The girl who I supposed was Carrie came back into the room, hurrying to put a shirt on, looking very angry.

"Oh, Draco, come on! You actually think that I'll forgive you? That's so cruel!"

"I'm- I'm sorry," he said. "I mean, it's not my fault-" he smirked, "-if there are too many name to keep track of."

"DRACO! You sick creep! You're such an inconsiderate bastard! You said Lavender's name! How humiliating?! Did you even think that you could possibly think about my feelings and not your non-existent ones?!You are such a bastard! No Draco, I'm not going to keep sleeping with you if you can't even realize who you're with!"

I grimaced. That was harsh – I doubted Draco Malfoy had ever been yelled at so harshly. Though, I thought, I didn't know how many times he said the wrong name while, well, with someone.

Malfoy was silent (for once) and she was yelling at him again. "I can't believe you would even follow me in here!"

"You're not supposed to be in here either. You're a Ravenclaw, and you don't play quidditch!" he said triumphantly.

"Well, you're a Slytherin," she said despicably, "and you're not even FEMALE! And if Harry Potter can catch a snitch faster than you can, then I say you don't belong in ANY of the freaking locker rooms! OUT!"

Malfoy smiled. "Alright…I'll go. But, please, come with me?" he asked seductively. I couldn't believe he'd say that to her. I tried to tiptoe out of the locker room but Malfoy saw me. His eyes widened and he stepped towards me. Carrie took this as a chance to put her brown hair into a bun and sneak out of the locker room – lucky her.

Malfoy stepped closer to me and I could hear his heart beating and his ragged breathing. He took a deep and unsteady breath before saying huskily, "You will not repeat anything to anyone!"

I trembled.

"ANYONE!" Malfoy pushed me up against lockers. I trembled, and squeezed my eyes shut. I was in a thin, stringy towel half draped around me. He apparently noticed as well, seeing as I saw him checking me out. I trembled again. He stepped away from me, and spoke again, though this time his voice was … strange. I couldn't place what it was at the moment, but I realized it later.

"You should go, Weasel," he said. "Go…go change and just… erase the memory from your mind. This never happened." I realized what it was – pity.

I edged farther away, growing red more with anger more than with embarrassment, and I said softly, "Shut. Up."

"Whatever you say, Weasel," he said sarcastically, "whatever you say." I came closer to him, still smoking, and he stepped towards me too. I don't know why it happened, but it did. He kissed me. Goddamnit, I kissed him. And I liked it. I stepped away, still shaking, and he slithered out of the room, looking rather concerned himself.

Throughout the next few weeks, I grew afraid of him, and grew afraid of being alone; although, I still traveled throughout the halls alone after prefect duties. I did my homework alone, studied alone, and practiced after quidditch practice late into the night alone. My independence had slowly grown into something that I had never considered and finally feared – loneliness.

We didn't say a word to each other over those few weeks, until he was assigned my Potions partner in late November. I didn't even know why we had to have Potions together, besides the fact that he and I were both taking it for N.E.W.T.'s; though, I realized later that there was only one other N.E.W.T.'s Potions class, and I was STILL upset that Malfoy was in my class. And then there was the question of why I had to take potions to be a Healer. I knew a lot about potions; I didn't need two more years of it!

"Looks like I'll be working with you, Weasel," he said, with his classic sneer in his tone and smirk plastered over his lips. I had been looking up to glare at him, but instead I watched him. I think it was then that I actually saw Draco Malfoy. I mean, I had looked at him before, but looking at him while cowering in fright and actually seeing at him are two totally different things. I looked at his eyes; cold and gray, but with a look that could be softened. The depth that those eyes went was incredible – I could almost read his thoughts through the emotions in his eyes.

His silvery blond hair shimmered even in the smoke of our Strengthening Solutions, and his lips were pale and slightly moist. But what intrigued me the most about him was his eyes. As I looked over his features of his face, he saw me doing so, but he turned back to his cauldron. I blushed slightly – just slightly – and went back to my work in silence.

Over the next few weeks as partners we ignored each other. Or rather, he ignored me; something I was quite accustomed to, but I looked at him any chance I had. I constantly looked at him and each time I did I scolded myself for conforming. It was something every single girl in our school had done. He was the Head Boy, he was sexy, not to mention handsome, intelligent in a clever sort of way, and just had the bad boy attitude to him. I had developed a petty schoolgirl crush on Draco Malfoy, and was angry at myself for that.

During Potions, he glanced at me while I was staring at him a few times, and he never said anything until one day when we were working on perfecting the Draught of Peace - something that had been in our O.W.L.'s in fifth year and would normally be quite simple to me, had Draco Malfoy not been sitting on my left. I caught myself staring at him again, and when he glanced at me that time he opened his mouth to say something.

"Weasel, look at your cauldron-" I glanced at it nervously and buried my face in my hands, "-it's giving off pink smoke!"

I'm sure that if I looked at his face then that he would have been smirking – again - but remember, my face was in my hands. I heard him speaking.

"…and we should probably put some of my Draught of Peace in your cauldron so that good old Snape doesn't come around here and give us detention."

He vanished my Draught and transferred some of his to my cauldron, and as the bell rang he tossed a piece of paper at me. I shoved it in my bag and left the classroom utterly humiliated. After completing my essays and research for Herbology, I reached into my bag to find my diary – one that was NOT possessed by Tom Riddle - and instead pulled out a piece of crumpled parchment. I smoothed it and read the message written in sharp even letters:

Weasel –

Meet me at the edge of the Forbidden Forest tonight at midnight. Use Potter's invisibility cloak, located at the left bottom of his trunk. Don't ask how I know that. See you there if you truly are a Gryffindor.

-DM

I stared at the small hastily written note for sometime, and then thought about what he wanted. I knew boys liked me; I had known that for a long time. In my third year I had been seeing Colin Creevey, who was actually not as annoying as he seemed, and then Neville Longbottom asked me to the Yule Ball which was quite surprising, and I ended up seeing Michael Corner for nearly all of my fourth year. Dean Thomas was a summer fling afterwards – something my brother quite appreciated – and then in my fifth year I went out with a few older Gryffindors, a Ravenclaw, and two Hufflepuffs. I was obviously something boys looked for, but I wasn't quite sure why. In fact, just thinking about the relationships I'd had made me feel rather like a whore. Though, I was never in a huge group of popular girls that boys were attracted to almost immediately and I didn't wear anything but jeans and t-shirts when I didn't have my robes on. And though all the boys I dated were generally nice, caring, and a little protective, I wasn't satisfied with any of them. I gave Draco Malfoy a chance that night, and I met him in the Forbidden Forest.

"Malfoy?" I said as I saw a silhouette leaning casually against a tree.

"Yes," he said softly, "come here." I obeyed him, though I wasn't sure why. He had power over me.

I took off the invisibility cloak that I had nicked from the seventh year boys' dormitory and Malfoy looked me over carefully then turned and waved his hand to signify me to follow him. He opened the broom shed and pulled out his broom. He got on.

"Well… get on, Weasel." This time I didn't obey him.

"If I'm going anywhere with you, first I need you to call me by my name," I said smoothly, shocking myself. Malfoy looked half shocked half impressed but whispered back just as smoothly, if not more.

"Well then, get on, Ginny." Why was it that he could seduce me so easily? I got on the broom, and he soared into the sky. The wind ruffled my auburn hair as we rode over the Forbidden Forest. He landed in a clearing that he was apparently familiar with. I remember that night like it was yesterday. The moon was just over the castle, making it glow, and the stars above us in the sky were absolutely beautiful. I smoothed my auburn hair and smiled at Draco. He didn't smile, just pulled me into a firm but chaste kiss.

It was short lived, though, because after he pulled away I pulled him back in for a not-so-innocent kiss. Kissing Draco was like letting all of my emotions into someone else's body, which just happened to be my archenemy. We just stood there kissing for awhile, and he broke away after some time and stepped towards his broom. Before I could kiss him anymore, he pulled his broom to him, pulled me on, and flew over the forest once again. His face was very flushed and his lips were swollen and bruised, and I was sure I looked the same with more ruffled hair than him.

We didn't hold hands on the way back to the castle, just stole a few kisses here and there. When he got to the door he put the cloak over me and said, "Good night," very softly. I left smiling.

The next few nights started the same as before, but each night our kisses grew steadily more urgent, until one night when I found myself wearing much less than Draco had ever taken off me before. I didn't stop him from undressing me any further, and undress me he did indeed.

Shagging Draco was wonderful, and like the kisses, each night was more urgent. There was more touching, more biting, more… more everything. And it was my release from the day. If I failed and essay, everything would be more intense. Draco and I rarely said anything to each other. I didn't ask him why he wanted me; he just did, and I wanted him just as badly if not more.

It was lust… pure lust. And I liked it. I liked the way he touched me, and I loved his firm kisses. Nothing was innocent anymore, it was just sex. I couldn't stand being away from Draco, and if we missed a night, we'd ditch a class and meet. We didn't care about temperature, but when it snowed we'd have to find empty rooms. His owl started to find me at breakfast with small notes and reminders – like I needed reminders – but I loved them all the same. Over Christmas Holiday, I refused to go home to the Burrow, and instead of Draco going to the Malfoy Manor, he stayed at school. And over Christmas Holiday, I fell in love.

That was my mistake. I wasn't supposed to love him; I was supposed to lust for him. And somewhere along the way, I think he fell in love too. I didn't know when it started, but when I guess I first realized that he loved me too was… well, was on Christmas Eve.

We had been shagging – as if we ever did anything else – and we were lying on the couch of the empty Gryffindor Common room. After we climaxed he held me and kissed me softly. There was one sign of a difference; he had never ever before kissed me softly. Our first kiss was innocent, like this one, but it was still firm and lip-bruising. This was soft, sweet, and loving. And the next sign was what he did next.

"I love you," he murmured softly. I must have stiffened in shock and disbelief, because he held me tighter. I writhed out of his grasp and turned to him. Draco looked very confused and uncomfortable himself as if he didn't realize that he had said that out loud, but his look softened at my next words.

"I love you too."

-

Epilogue

Harry and Hermione got together at their graduation party and haven't been seen separated since (they engaged shortly after my graduation). Apparently Harry had a crush on me in my fifth year without my knowing, but got over me as soon as he caught on that Hermione was a girl! Hermione… well, no one can really tell with Hermione. She tends to keep her feelings to herself. They're both working together as Aurors, something that they're very proud of, and they're both still very good friends with Ron.

Ron seems to have his life figured out; he ended up getting over Hermione and is currently dating one of my close friends that I made in later sixth year: none other than Luna Lovegood. He's currently Keeping for Pride of Portree (and is doing rather well if I do say so myself). He and Draco still can't stand each other, though Ron seems to believe that Draco is on the "light side" now, but mainly because Draco's in the Order of the Phoenix and working at the Department of Mysteries.

And I… I'm me. I'm a Healer at St. Mungo's, mother of three children, wife to Draco Malfoy, and avid member of the Order of the Phoenix. I finally found my place; I realized that I was too human to be able to do everything on my own, but I still needed my own time occasionally. I'm Ginevra Malfoy, completely satisfactory with my independence level, and Draco and I still carry on with our nightly ritual - though not in the Forbidden Forest.

Edited 1/5/05