A/N: And, once again, I am well aware that it has been ages. But this is what happens when you are a busy college student trying to write three stories at the same time and find a job. Ack, Ah well, another update is here and, if all goes well, the end of the story is near. Hey, that rhymed! Sort of . . . anyway, sorry if the explanation of the labs is confusing. I tried! Oh, and I couldn't remember if they take their N.E.W.T.s at the end of sixth or seventh year. And all my HP books are two hours away at my family's house so . . .
~ For the Best ~
Draco sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He had been working on this essay for the past two hours and it was nowhere near finished. It was nearly midnight and all he wanted to do was go to bed. He had been up early that morning working on another essay and now this one! The teachers were certainly not joking about getting their students prepared for the N.E.W.T.s.
Yawning, Draco raised his arms above his head and stretched. His arms were halfway back down when he let out a small yelp. Lucius Malfoy's head was in the fireplace and he did not look happy.
"H-hello father," Draco stuttered slightly. He didn't usually have this reaction to his father. But then, he had a feeling he knew why his father was here (in a sense) and that it was going to be a nasty conversation.
"Draco," Lucius replied in a cold voice, "tell me, son, why do you think I decided to pop in at this ungodly hour?"
"Father, I've told you. I am not going to join the death eaters." Draco knew this wasn't the reason for his father's visit, but he found himself more willing to discuss that than what he was sure his father wanted to talk about.
"That's quite all right, Draco," Lucius replied with an unnerving smile. "I highly doubt you deserve the honor anyway. What I am here to talk to you about is some very displeasing news I received this afternoon. Do you know what it was?"
"I really couldn't say, Father," Draco replied, not even trying to hide his disdain as he uttered the last word. "As far as I know, my grades are excellent."
It was clear that Lucius was getting frustrated with his son. His eyes glared at his son maliciously as he continued to smile. "You can play dumb as long as you like, Draco," Lucius snapped, "but the news I received this afternoon is that my son is dating none other than Arthur Weasley's daughter! Tell me, Draco, is this true?"
Draco sighed and rubbed his face. He had known this moment would come when he had started dating Ginny. He just hadn't expected it this soon. He wondered who had told his father. No doubt it has been Pansy or one of the other Slytherins.
"Yes Father," he replied, maintaining his calm façade, "it is true that I am dating Ginny Weasley."
"That's what I thought when I received the letter. No son of mine would ever . . ." Lucius stopped as he comprehended what Draco had just admitted. Rather than exploding he merely tightened his lip and nodded. "So, as if declining the honor of serving the Dark Lord wasn't enough, you have decided to disgrace your parents further by dating a poor, muggle-loving fool who is none other than the daughter of your father's enemy?"
Draco scowled as if in thought before nodding his head. "Yup, that's pretty much it."
Now Lucius exploded. "Insolent boy!" he yelled before suddenly returning to his calm self. "Very well," he said through clenched teeth, "but I'm sure you will see the error of your ways soon." Before Draco could reply, his father's head disappeared with a pop leaving his son to ponder what had just happened.
Draco leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh of relief. He couldn't help but be glad that that was over with. And it hadn't been nearly as awful as he had expected it to be. True, his father was obviously upset, but other than that it had been easy. Suddenly Draco's relief was replaced with worry. No, it had been too easy. What was his father plotting to do?
* * *
Ginny ran a hand through her long red hair as she sat in defense against the dark arts listening to Professor Krebs teach shielding spells. She had been up late the night before reading up on dragons. Charlie had invited her to spend a couple of weeks with him in Romania during the upcoming summer. She was so excited that it was more than a little hard to concentrate.
She knew she really should pay attention to what Professor Krebs was saying. After all, with the return of Voldemort, Professor Dumbledore had added a lab to go with this particular class in order to help prepare the students should they have to participate in the war against the evil wizard. The labs were made up of six or seven students and a teacher. The lab was more in depth and hands on, but it nearly always involved what she had learned in DADA that day. If she didn't already know the material when she arrived at the lab she would most likely fall behind. And, judging by her lack of attention, she doubted she would know the material.
Finally, the professor dismissed the class and she hurried to the great hall to meet Draco for lunch. Upon entering the great hall, she immediately spotted him. His back was to her and he was gazing in the direction of the Gryffindor table. No doubt he thought she had beaten him to lunch. A mischievous smile crept across her face as she sneaked up behind him and placed her hands over his eyes.
"Guess who!" she muttered in a low, gruff voice.
"Pamela?" Draco immediately replied.
"Hey," Ginny said, taking her hands off his eyes and walking around to him to face him. She whacked him on the arm. "Who's Pamela?"
Draco's eyes widened in mock horror. "Oh, uh, Pamela? I-I don't know any Pamela." He flashed her an innocent smile.
"Good, keep it that way," she grinned and reached up to give him a light peck on the lips.
"Come on," Draco said, grabbing her hand, "I need to talk to you." Before she could respond, he was pulling her out of the hall, out the front doors, and down to the lake. He didn't stop until they were hidden from any onlookers by a tree. Without a word, he dropped to the ground and stared off into the distance.
"Draco?" Ginny asked after a moment of silence. She plopped down in front of him and looked into his eyes. "What is it?"
It was if he was looking right through her and it sent chills through her. What could have possibly happened to give him that look?
"Draco?" she repeated when he didn't answer. He glanced at her as if just realizing she was there. "What is it?" she asked again.
"I think we should break up," he suddenly blurted out. It took a moment for it to register to Ginny what he had just said, but when it did, it felt as if her entire world had just come crumbling down.
"Y-you want to what?" she yelled, quickly standing up. She felt her eyes water, but held back the tears.
Draco sighed and stood up as well. "Ginny," he said softly, "I didn't say I wanted to break up, I just feel that it would be for the best if we did."
Ginny shook her head in anger. "You're making no sense, Malfoy! Feeling that it would be for the best is just another way of saying you want to." She gasped as a thought hit her. "Is Pamela real?" she asked shakily.
"What!" Draco exclaimed before pulling Ginny into his arms. "Of course Pamela isn't real. I was just joking about that. Ginny, I would never dump you for someone else."
"Then why do you feel that we should break up?" she asked, pulling away from him. Her voice was soft, but the look in her eyes was deadly. How could he be doing this to her after spending so much time trying to convince her that he wasn't the prat she had always taken him for? The prat he was being right now.
"Because," Draco replied, running a hand through his hair. It was clear that he was getting frustrated. "Look, it's none of your business! I just think we should stop seeing each other. Completely."
Ginny was about to inform him that it was indeed her business seeing as she was the one being dumped, but his last comment stopped her. "Completely?" she asked quietly. True, she had no plans of being friends with him after this, but that word made it all sound so final.
"Yes," Draco said equally as quiet, "completely. Believe me, Ginny, it's for the best . . ." he stopped for a moment as if about to continue, but instead, took a step back. "I've got to get to class. Goodbye Ginny." Without another word he turned around and walked back up to the castle.
Watching him walk away, Ginny felt her anger dissipate and be replaced with emptiness. The tears finally spilled over and poured down her face. Leaning against the tree for support, she began to sob.
* * *
Draco sighed heavily and sat down on his bed. He had been planning on going to class just as he had told Ginny, but he found that he couldn't face his peers. No doubt they would be able to tell something was wrong. The feeling that had overcome him as soon as he had told Ginny it was over was an emotion he had never experienced before. For the first time in his life, Draco Malfoy felt on the verge of tears.
But it's for the best. If I hadn't dumped her there's no telling what Lucius might have done to her. It was for her own safety. Sighing again, he ran a hand through his hair. After Lucius's "visit" the night before, Draco had stayed up for some time. But instead of working on his essay, he had been pondering what to do with this latest development. He had fallen asleep in the common room still wondering and woken up that morning still trying to decide what to do. It wasn't until right before Ginny had snuck up on him that he had decided that dumping her was the best option. True, it hurt both of them immensely, but at least this way he didn't have to worry about Ginny's safety. And when Lucius was arrested or killed-as he was sure he would be soon- maybe they could back together.
It would have probably been better had he explained all this to Ginny, but he knew that she would have told him to quit worrying and insisted that they stay together. And that would have put her in significant danger.
He groaned and felt a few tears slip down his face. Lying back onto his bed, Draco cried himself into a fitful sleep.
* * *
"Ginny? Earth to Ginny!" Chloe said into her friend's ear that night at dinner. After sobbing for what must have been an hour, Ginny had washed her face in the lake and had prepared to brave the world. After all, she couldn't mope the rest of her life away just because Malfoy turned out to be the prat everyone had said he was could she? Of course not, that was utterly ridiculous and pathetic. She was not going to be like the heroines in Chloe's romance novels who made themselves sick over men, literally. Besides, what was the point in that? Even if she did become bedridden the only thing it would affect would be her grades. So after telling herself all of this, she had gone to her classes and made it a point to talk to people and participate. But she still felt empty inside and as the day went on it only seemed to get harder to cope with. And so here she was, eating dinner with her friends, but alone, engulfed in her own depressing thoughts.
"Ginny!" Chloe's voice finally penetrated her thoughts.
"What?" she snapped. She was in no mood to talk to her friends, or anyone for that matter.
"Gin, are you okay?" Amber asked, leaning forward to look around Chloe and at her gloomy friend. "You've seemed a bit . . .off all day."
"I'm fine," Ginny said a little too cheerily. "And do you know what would make me even better?" she asked, rising from the table and dropping the happy voice, "If everyone would LEAVE ME ALONE!" Without another word to her friends, she headed for the door of the Great Hall. She was almost there when she accidentally knocked someone over. She was about to apologize when she realized who it was.
"Why don't you watch where you're going Malfoy," she said in a dangerous whisper. She was well aware of everyone's eyes on them and the last thing she needed was to have insult added to injury.
Draco gave her a small smile and got off the floor. "I was watching where I was going," he replied in a friendly whisper.
"Oh?" she hissed, "Well then, I guess you must not have seen me." Giving him a small smirk that shadowed his own, she pushed pass him and out of the great hall. She needed to get to her dormitory before anyone could see her crying.
OOC: Well that was certainly an eventful/depressing chapter, and really hard to write. Poor Draco, crying himself to sleep . . . *sniff* REVIEW!!!! And I promise to try and be quicker about updating.