It took Ginny twenty minutes to get off the phone. She couldn't get a clear answer from Fred. Ron was just a "Mess" plain and simple, and Ginny had to come home. Like now.
Tomorrow at the latest leaving without a divorce if she had to.
"So can I speak to him?" she finally asked.
"If he wants to talk but I'm not sure even you can help him over the phone Gin" Fred sighed.
"Well try him, I want to know what really happened." Ginny said.
After five minutes of Fred yelling in the background and some odd thumping noises Ron finally picked up. The first thing Ginny heard was a long, shuddery breath.
"Hey" she said.
"Hey, yourself" He said and Ginny's heart broke at the sound of hurt in his voice.
"Ron tell me what happened," she said brushing the tears that started to form.
"Well I called her again and she was busy, so I went to her house." He sighed.
Ginny gasped "Ron you didn't. Did you tell her you were coming?"
A few seconds of silence went by before he answered her "No… but I didn't want to give her a chance to cover her tracks."
"Cover her tracks? Ronald Weasley you have to stop this nonsense. Just because Hermione chose Harry over you, doesn't mean they all will hurt you." She said.
"This has nothing to do with Mione sis. This is about Luna. She was my heart gin. My heart" he cried.
"Was that fair? Kind of condemning her without a trail, don't you think?" she asked.
"Did you tell Draco you were going to see him? He barked. Two points for Ron.
"That was different. I wasn't planning to accuse him of anything, I was just…" she stopped.
Asking for a divorce. Am I still doing that? She wondered.
"Okay it's not relevant, anyhow," Ron cut in on Ginny's silence. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it. We're talking about Luna. Who had a man in her flat when I arrived."
"Fixing her plumbing? Having a meeting? Her cousin?" she asked.
"Oh, come on Ginny! I knew it," he yelled.
"Hon, did you ask?" she said dismissing his angry tone.
"Okay, one I heard laughing before I even rung the bell. Two, there was no one else in the flat. Three she looked shocked and a little guilty. Four the man left without speaking to me beyond one little, tiny, insincere hi" he explained.
"And what did Luna say?" Ginny asked.
"That she didn't know what my problem was, lately. Can you believe that? He scoffed. "And I told her I'm not the one with the problem. And then she said fine neither was she, so obviously our feelings were mutual and we'd both be better off not seeing each other anymore."
Which is where the relationship stood right now, apparently, although Ron took a few more minutes to outline this fact, and of course he didn't agree with not seeing Luna.
He was close to tears by the time he finished talking, taking another piece of Ginny's tortured heart with every sniff he gave to keep from crying.
And whether Luna really cheated on Ron, or his insecurities had driven her away, the bottom line stayed the same. She left him and he was hurting and he wanted his sister.
Big question… Would his sister go?
"I'll call you in the morning, okay Ron?" Ginny told him. "Let's sleep on it and see how everything looks then."
"How is it going to look any different?" Ron answered, and it took another few minutes of listening and understanding before she could put down the phone.
She sat there fiddling with the hem of Draco's shirt. It felt soft, like his arms, and it was enough to keep her warm, the way his body would have done.
It made her think of him, but it wasn't him, and she wished it were.
He'd disappeared into his study and the door stood firmly closed. Light seeped from underneath it along with the faint sound of music. He might as well hung up a do not disturb sign on the door.
Ginny wasn't stupid, and she knew him pretty well. He heard Fred's voice and part of her own end of the conversation with Ron.
He knew the decision she had to make, and he was telling her loud and clear, "Make it on your own".
Her stomach felt heavy and she was torn. She didn't want to let Ron down, and yet she knew Draco would consider that she was simply repeating the same old pattern.
The same old destructive pattern that was going to turn her into a spinster aunt not too many years from now, according to him.
They'd had a long day and she was tired, her emotions were ragged and her mind filled with too many thoughts. Not the best state for making decisions of nay kind.
Not going back home, and not about how she felt now that she'd let herself and Draco renew the deepest intimacy of their marriage.
Sighing she passed by his office heading to her room when she felt movement behind her and Draco was there.
"So, are you heading back tomorrow?" his matter of fact tone caught her by surprise. She turned to face him, not sure how much of his voice showed his level of anger.
"I'm not going to decide until the morning." She answered.
"No?" his eyebrow rose in mock surprise. "I half expected to find you packing your bags ready to leave tonight."
"Credit me with some common sense Draco." She spoke shortly, trying to snatch back a small amount of pride, after betraying herself to him so completely.
"I'm sure you will do whatever it is you need to do once you have a good sleep. Your probably tired and that isn't good for any decision making mind." He said.
"Um, yes, okay. That makes sense." She said.
"Well I'm heading into the bank around six-thirty tomorrow," Draco said. "So I can wake you as early as six if you want to get a good start."
"The clock in my room has an alarm, doesn't it? I don't need you to wake me." She whispered.
"Whatever works for you. See you in the morning." He paused, and then shrugged. "Or not."
"Draco, I'm not just going to sneak out without letting you know!" she gasped in disbelief by his comment.
"And I'm just letting you know that it's your decision. No pressure." He returned.
"But plenty of unstated opinion." She huffed out folding her arms.
His eyes narrowed at he looked at her. "My opinion doesn't have to count. Doesn't count, in fact, does it? On this issue, it never has."
Ginny looked horrified. "That's not!"
Fair? True?
But he already left. So even if she chosen a final word, and had spoken it to his retreating back as he strode along the hallway, she would have had to almost yell it in order for him to hear.
She slept the night wrapped in his shirt with the smell of him. She didn't sleep well, and woke at six with no clear decision to make.
Draco heard Ginny moving around upstairs when he was already in the kitchen sipping his coffee at ten after six. Since she was up this early, he drew the obvious conclusion, she was going back.
And he was astonished actually at how much it ripped at his gut, when he'd been expecting exactly this, which meant he should have been prepared.
Damn his sense of honor and pride, last night. He wanted to yell at her. Tell her she had to stay. But he wanted it to be her decision not his.
Damn fairness and principles and this stubborn belief of his that if he blackmailed her or confused her into choosing him over her family, then they victory wouldn't mean anything.
He should have done it anyhow, because he didn't want to lose her.
Not again.
Not when he knew down to the numbness in his fingertips and the lump of his stomach just how much it had hurt last time, and that it wouldn't be any different the second time around.
In fact, it would probably be worse.
He was leaning on the counter when she appeared in the kitchen. "I can make you some breakfast. No need to leave on a empty stomach." He offered.
"I haven't decided yet if I'm going…" she sighed running her fingers through her hair.
"Okay then" he said evenly, as if the sudden wash of complicated, breath-bated relief in his body hadn't happened. "In that case, no need to make a decision on an empty stomach."
"No. But thanks anyway." She said hugging herself.
"Are you going to wait until you hear from one of your brother's again?" he asked. "Is that what's holding up the process?"
She didn't answer him only stared at him. "Talk to me about it Gin," he prompted.
"I guess it's about needs," she answered slowly, pausing after the last word. "I'm trying to work out what's best for Ron. If he needs me to go back or you said if it would be better for him, in the long run, if I stayed here as planned."
"I mean, my heading back home isn't going to get Luna back for him. It's just a question of…"
"Needs" he said.
"Yes" She looked up at him through her lashes, with a caution, hopeful, questioning look on her face that he didn't understand, and that maybe she didn't as well.
"Some people do have them, Draco. You know that." She sighed.
"You have them," he answered quickly. "And you ignore them, which is why everyone else ignores them too."
Sighing she moved to the fridge. "I think we've had this talk before"
Now it was his turn to sigh. "Yeah. We have."
"I'm going to call Ron" Ginny finally said. "But it's too early now. He won't be up."
Draco smirked. "Then why are you up?" he asked.
"I couldn't sleep. If you leave your dishes. I'll clean up for you. I know you wanted to leave early today." She said grabbing his bowl."
He leaned back "Planning on saying goodbye before I go?"
"Don't say it like that, Draco as if it's a challenge." She spat.
"Well it is a challenge so…" he began but she cut him off.
"No" she said shortly. "I'm not planning on saying goodbye."
Draco didn't know if that was good news or bad news and he sure as hell wasn't going to ask, when the temperature in the room seemed to be dropping by the second.
He left the house five minutes later.
Ginny listened to him leave and knew she didn't need to wait until she talked to Ron before she made a choice. This wasn't about Ron's needs or her own.
It was about Draco. Just a few minutes ago she gave him the chance to tell her he needed her to stay. Needed her…wouldn't be whole without her.
Like she wouldn't be whole without him. Apparently he didn't see that and it hurt. She went up to her room to pack, and there was his shirt still draped across her bed.
She reached for it and buried her face in it and it was almost like burying her face against Draco's body. It still smelled like him, and her. Like their whole history together, in one long breathe.
Ginny felt this aching need to lay it in her suitcase on top of the rest of her clothes and take it home with her so she could- oh, lord! - Sleep with it, or something.
No. She thought. Don't do this to yourself.
She packed her things, left Draco a note which took her forever to write even though it didn't say much. She called home but nobody answered.
She didn't leave a message even though it would have been easy to say "I'm on my way" and she didn't call Ron's cell incase he was at work and it left him yelling in the middle of the ministry, so then half of the people would know by lunchtime that Luna dumped him.
She was heading home and as she felt she hoped she would be okay in the future. But how long would that take? She wondered.
So. Had Ginny gone back to the burrow, or hadn't she?
The question colored the first part of his morning in such a way that he couldn't concentrate and completely wasted his early morning start in the little office at the bank.
At eight thirty he gave up and called the house, hanging on his hope of hearing her pick up at the other end. She didn't.
He got his own message on the machine and drew the obvious conclusion. Still, he said her name "Ginny?" then waited an embarrassingly long time.
He would most likely hear his own breathing later when he played it back. Juts incase she might grab the phone after all.
Shoot!
Why was he doing this to himself? Hadn't he learned long ago that it wasn't safe to count on anyone but himself? Yeah all very nice in theory.
When Ginny had come into his life at the start of the war, she'd blown the idea right out of the water within a few months of their talking.
His only pathetic hope had always been that if he didn't admit to how much he ached for her, how much more he felt himself when they were together than when they were apart.
Then it might pass unnoticed by anyone, leaving him safe. Confrontation time. He couldn't pretend to himself any more. He'd noticed. He wasn't safe. He was vulnerable. And he wouldn't have to pretend to Ginny about any of this, anymore, if she'd been here.
Only she wasn't. She'd gone. Back to square one for both of them.
He3 was so angry and so powerless to do anything about it, he felt as if his insides had turned to glass. Bachelor of the Year, huh? Hell, if only it was true! If only he he'd pushed through their divorce years ago, so that she never had to come here!
If he'd hadn't been so pigheaded about it, he could have spared himself this second raging fever of loss and pain and failure.
He barely heard the phone ringing and only snatched it up after several rings. It was Becky, who never phoned. She only yelled down the hall.
"Draco, I have a Rita Skeeter here at the front. Are you available?" Becky asked.
Sighing between gritted teeth, he answered, "Sure show her in" because his current emotional state didn't seem like a good enough reason for saying no.
Rita was here to say goodbye, it turned out. It seemed like way more than four days since she'd shown up and let him know she was back in town.
"Will there be a second article?" he asked her.
"On further consideration, Mr. Malfoy, no there won't" she said. "My editor doesn't feel that there's been enough sustained interest in the story. I'm sorry if that's a disappointment"
He laughed "Trust me, it's not! I'm not hungry for my fifteen minutes of fame."
"No. Okay" Rita smirked.
"But thanks for all the work you put in, and for the…uh…effort you made to bring the issue of helping people to public attention." Draco said.
"You're welcome." She stood, as polite as an etiquette book, just the way he had been. "Please give my best regards to your wife."
And that was it.
Draco was done with being the Bachelor of the Year. Now he just had to get himself through the divorce of the century. Which ought not to be so hard for a man who'd built a company like Malfoy Holdings almost from scratch in just eight years, right?
He went walking down the hallway and heard Becky pouring water into the coffee maker, and came in to order the biggest mug in their collection.
Then he told her, "I'm going to pull out every account and go through it one by one today Becky," as if this was brilliant move on his part.
Becky just finished giving him a very confused, are-you-sure-you're-feeling-quite-well-today-boss look when the door opened ringing the bell and Ginny walked in.
Draco's head felt like it was going to explode.
"What are you trying to do to me?" he yelled at her. "I called home and you obviously weren't there. I thought it was over. Again. I thought…"
"That I left" she finished for him. "Yes, I had"
"Unh!" He didn't like being right on the issue. It felt like a punch in the gut.
"But then I came back," Ginny told her husband simply.
There it is people the next installment. Hope you liked it and please review. Can't wait to hear what you think. Chapter 8 out soon.
Thanks to all who reviewed. Writrfreak15, Fredsgurl, Louey31, beckysue2, plzkthx101, BeckiSoup, Angelique Collins, Morwenna the Magnificant, Swimchick1614, Madame S Butterfly, Not so sour Lemons.
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