Title: Withering Rose
Disclaimer: No infringement of copyright is intended, all characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling. I only own the plot
Chapter 5
In the beginning they were opposites, and so in the end, it was only fitting that they be opposites again. Hot and cold, fire and ice; that is the way it always was with them. In the beginning, Ginny was very emotionally open. She wore her feelings on her sleeve and had little experience in the pain that people can cause others, and therefore had no reason to feel guarded. Draco, on the other hand, was icy and distant and hid behind his biting sarcasm and closed his emotions behind a façade, never knowing what it was to be loved or cared about and knowing all too much about the pain and humiliation that others could cause him if he let them. He had resolved to let no one in and to let no one break down his barriers.
But they changed each other. Without trying to, and without realizing it, Ginny had slowly taught Draco what it was to love, what it was to be cared about. He hadn't realized it at first, but when he did it overwhelmed him with emotions he had never experienced, and that scared him. Scared him more than he could imagine. And when he realized that he had chosen the one girl, one woman, that he couldn't be with to feel this way about, he didn't know what to do. So he ran and hid behind his cold exterior. Pushed her away in what he viewed as a selfless attempt to save her from pain further down the road. But what he caused was more pain in her than she had ever experienced.
Ginny waited all summer to hear from him, and didn't. She was reminded of him in everything she did, yet still he didn't come. And that is what broke her. Now, just as Draco learned how to let himself go, Ginny was forced to block herself up. So as the days went on, it felt to Ginny that she was existing rather than living, just going through the motions of eating, sleeping, waking, and eating again. She pretended to be happy behind her mask, and pretended to have fun with her family on their outings, but it wasn't the same. She feared that it never would be.