Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Something There, from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. I don't own Beauty and the Beast, the Disney movie or The Ring (the movie)
Indecision
New and a bit alarming
Who'd have ever thought that this could be
True that he's no Prince Charming
But there's something in him
That I simply didn't see
-- Something There, from Beauty and the Beast
Draco stared at Ginny. She had her hand clasped over her mouth in shock.
"Ginevra?"
Draco's voice brought her back to the present and she blushed. Gods, she's beautiful, Draco thought, watching her. Then he shook his head. No, bad Draco!
She became businesslike. "So you need to find another woman, right? Because of your mother?" Her eyes softened as she thought of Draco's predicament.
No, I don't. "Yes, yes I do." Truthfully, Draco didn't want to see another woman from the bloody matchmaking ever again, but he just couldn't refuse Ginny when she looked at him like that.
"Okay then. Um, how about we meet tomorrow and look through the profiles again?"
"At Starknuts, again?"
She laughed. "Only if you promise to buy me coffee."
Draco went up to his flat. He needed to think. To his surprise, he found a slightly annoyed Blaise in his kitchen, rummaging through the pantry.
"Hey Draco. Don't you have anything to eat besides crackers?" He mumbled, crumbs spilling onto the floor. "By the way, where were you? I was waiting for hours."
Unluckily for him, Draco wasn't in a good mood. He snapped, "I was with Ginevra, okay? And I just broke up with Charlene. So hush."
Blaise's mouth dropped and more crumbs fell out. Then he clenched his fist in anger. Swallowing, he yelled, "What the hell do you think you're playing at?"
Draco turned around. "What?"
"You know what I mean! How could you just dump Charlene like that and get another girl?" Draco couldn't even get a word in edgewise. "You're no better than the player the tabloids say you are."
Before Draco could even retaliate to this unfair statement, Blaise shouted, "Your mother is pretending she's dying so you can get a move on with your life. Don't you think you can give her this one thing?" Then his eyes widened. "I didn't say that," he whispered.
"What did you say?" Draco was stunned.
"N-nothing." Blaise stuttered.
"My mother isn't dying?" Draco felt an odd mixture of happiness and anger with his mother. "She lied to me." Betrayal was written across his face before he set it in an icy mask. He glared at Blaise. "When did you find out?"
Blaise decided that it would be easier to answer his questions than face Draco's wrath. "Before you started dating Charlene."
Draco looked out of a window. "So that explains all the 'is Charlene suitable for marriage' stuff then?"
He looked at Blaise as Blaise nodded shamefully.
"I'm going to go to my mother and find out more."
Blaise panicked. He grabbed Draco's collar. "Draco, just listen to me. I promised her that I wouldn't tell you. You should have seen her, she was practically begging me on her knees not to let you know."
He threw Blaise off him. "So it's to save your own hide?" Draco's anger had not subsided.
"No, it's to save your mother's. She would be devastated if she knew you knew."
"But then I can't stop looking for woman, right?" Draco's wrinkled his nose like a little boy as he thought of Charlene.
Blaise nodded. "Just pretend or something. Pretend that you're still in the matchmaking, but just quit. You didn't tell your mother about Charlene, did you?"
Draco had to admit Blaise had a point. But then he thought. If he left the matchmaking so suddenly without explanation, and that explanation isn't even very good, he thought, what would Ginny think?
Why do I care anyway?
Ginny was thinking exactly the same thing a floor below. She kept thinking of Draco with some other woman, and she felt a wrenching in her gut.
She sat at her kitchen table, playing with the pink rose Draco gave her the night before. She had placed an anti-wilting charm on it, like she had with the orange one. She always preferred to do that instead of the conventional way of the vase and water.
It was like everything had changed, but then everything was still the same between them. She smiled as memories of Draco came back to her.
Why did she offer to find him another woman? He hadn't asked, and he probably wouldn't have if she didn't mention it. Or at least, that's what Ginny wanted to believe.
She buried her head in her hands. This was ridiculous. Think of something else, she ordered herself. Okay, Christmas shopping.
She took a quill and a notebook and started to make a Christmas shopping list. Harry and Ron would get their customary Quidditch paraphernalia, and Hermione would be delighted with some books. I can just get those at Diagon Alley. She would have to shop at Hogsmeade for Fred and George's prankster items, while Percy could always use something for his baby girl. Charlie needed new dragonhide gloves, Ginny noticed that he had burned himself because his old pair was wearing out. Bill's boy could get some toys, but Bill and Fleur, well, their presents needed some thinking.
She doodled while she thought. Some snitches and books appeared on the paper. A few minutes later, a train and dragons were drawn. The dragon was funnily shaped but it would do. Dragons were fun to draw. Dragons? Her head came up sharply. What about a present for Draco?
Before she could think of something to give him, there was a knock on the door.
"Let me get this straight. You hate this matchmaking thing, but you're staying because you can't lie to your mother? Something's not adding up. I'm pretty sure you can lie to your mother Draco, like that one time when you went out and got drunk, or the time that you had that girl over and she kept giggling so your mother came up to your room to check or – "
"Enough! I just want to stay in it, okay?"
Blaise scrutinized Draco. He knew him well enough that he could tell Draco wasn't telling him something. Then he remembered something Draco had said. "Wait a bloody minute! This doesn't have anything to do with Ginevra, right?" He emphasized Ginny's name.
Draco simply continued drinking his coffee.
Blaise raised an eyebrow and grinned, looking very Slytherin.
"Ron?"
Ron's face was red, from where Ginny stood. It was as if he had run all the way up the stairs. He panted, "Ginny, can I talk to you?"
Ginny was puzzled, but let him in. She got him a glass of water and set it in front of him. When he finished gulping it down, he asked Ginny in a rush, as if he just couldn't hold it in anymore. "Are you dating Malfoy?"
Before she could even register what he had just said, he rambled on. "Because me and Harry and Hermione saw you two dancing at Shock a few weeks ago and they told me not to bother you but I just can't help it! I mean, what were you thinking?" His voice rose and got louder. Ginny started tuning him out. "It's Draco bloody Malfoy, for heaven's sakes!" he finished.
"Look, Draco is – "
"So it's Draco now, is it? Not ferret face or even Malfoy?"
"Ron, I'm not dating him."
Ron glared at his sister. "You haven't gone to a club in years and now I suppose you just met him there and decided to do a tango?"
Ginny closed her eyes and opened them, taking a deep breath. "No, he's my client."
"You're dating your client?" Ron's jaw dropped.
"I'm NOT dating him, Ron!" The Weasley temper started to emerge.
"Then why were you dancing with him?" Ron said exasperatedly.
"He lives in the flat above mine and one day we just wanted to go clubbing, so we did."
"He lives ABOVE you?" Ginny nodded. "MOVE OUT!" Ron was slightly hysterical by this point. "You don't know what he wants to do to you! He's a death eater, for Merlin's sake!"
"He's NOT a death eater! He's changed, he couldn't have been a death eater – "
Ron exploded. "How would you know? He was gone for nearly half of the War – "
Luckily, a knock on the door interrupted their argument. Ginny answered it and Hermione rushed in saying, "I'm sorry Ginny, but I just couldn't hold him back. He was so worried these past few weeks about you and Malfoy so – "
"Hermione, it's alright. I'm not dating him, as Ron already knows." The last few words were said dangerously calm.
Ron blabbered, "Hermione, Malfoy lives above her! Above her! Why didn't we know that?"
Hermione sighed. "Ginny, just be careful. We just don't want you hurt again…" Her voice drifted off as she stared at Ginny's bookcase. "Gin, did you throw out Seamus' stuff?"
Ginny tried to act casual. "Yeah, I did."
Hermione understood the significance of it, but Ron clearly didn't. He started whining to Hermione, "So what?"
She shook her head and started dragging Ron out. "It's nothing." Turning to Ginny, she said apologetically, "Sorry Ginny, for bothering you. But I want to remind you that we're going over the flowers for the wedding tomorrow, okay?"
Ginny nodded as Hermione and Ron disappeared, Ron still demanding to go and interrogate Ginny again, while Hermione tried to shush him.
Ginny looked back at her Christmas list. She could always go shopping for gifts next weekend, though it might be rushed, since Christmas was next week. Right now, she just wanted to forget all her problems.
She found herself in front of the Rent-a-Video store in the muggle part of the town. Hermione had got her something called a television. To Ginny, it was amazing, watching all the little people on a screen.
Ginny went in and looked through the stacks of videos on display. She shuddered as she passed the horror movies section, remembering something called 'The Ring' that Hermione recommended which scared Ginny out of her wits. Walking by the children's section, she caught sight of Beauty and the Beast. Picking it up, she smiled as memories of Draco reading the story to the children came to her mind.
She decided to rent the movie, and quickly walked back to her flat. Putting it in the VCR, she made herself a cup of tea as the introductory credits played.
A haunting melody started, and Ginny sat herself down on the sofa. Then the movie started.
"Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a castle. Although he had everything his heart desired…"
Ginny loved this story. She found it in the muggle section of the library at Hogwarts and fell in love with it. It was wonderful. This movie version differed from the original story, she discovered as she continued to watch, but it was great, all the same.
Meanwhile, Draco was upstairs, pacing in his bedroom.
He muttered to himself, "Why did I do that? Am I bloody crazy? Malfoys don't chase after girls, girls chase after Malfoys. Not that I'm chasing after her, of course."
Then the million dollar question came to mind, Am I falling for Ginny?
His first response was to deny it wholeheartedly, and then he would remember the way Ginny looked when he gave her the rose, the surprise and the gratefulness in her eyes. The way she had asked him to go with her to the orphanage, the way…hell, the way she was Ginevra.
He had to see her again.
The next thing he knew, he was standing outside her front door, trying to think of an excuse. But his hand knocked on the door of it's own accord.
Ginny was still enchanted by the movie and didn't hear the first knock. She did, however, hear the next few knocks, beating a rapid tattoo on her front door.
She groaned as she left her comfortable spot. "Alright, I'm coming, no need to break down my door."
She opened the door to find a flustered Draco on the other side. "Yes?"
"I, um, I need to talk to you." Oh, that was smooth, Draco told himself, cringing at this ineptness.
Ginny supposed the polite thing to do would be to invite him in and she did so, pausing the movie on the way. Draco noticed.
"You were watching a movie, weren't you?"
Ginny was astonished. "How do you know about that kind of stuff? Not that you are – I mean, it's a muggle thing."
"I lived in the muggle world for a while, during the War."
That's what Ron had said, that he had disappeared for part of the War. But Ginny was surprised, just the same. "So you hid then?"
Draco chuckled. There was once a time when he would have blasted the living daylights anyone who asked him that, but that time had passed. "Yeah, you can say that, and I had to pass the time somehow. Watching TV was fun, I must admit."
They stared at each other for a while, looking at each other, Ginny wondering how much she didn't know about Draco, and Draco admiring the picture she made, standing there in her own flat. It was like she fit in anywhere she was.
"So, what did you want to tell me?"
Draco recovered his wits. "Um, I can't make it tomorrow. I forgot about this thing I had to do for work." He had made that up only a minute before.
Ginny raised an eyebrow and Draco's eyes followed it. "You're working on a Sunday?"
That's stupid of me. "Of course, lots to catch up on." he said loftily.
"Alright then, so when do you want to meet?"
Never, if I'm supposedly searching for another woman. I just want to stay here, with you. Thanking the gods that didn't come out, he said, "Is Tuesday okay?"
Ginny nodded and said, quite impulsively, "Do you want to watch the movie with me? I just started, so…" She drifted off in uncertainty.
Draco titled his head. "Sure."
They settled on the sofa, which was big enough for one of them to stretch out if they wanted to, but not both. Draco got another mug of that spectacular tea of hers. He seriously considered asking her for her recipe, but if Blaise, who'd he'd known for years, wouldn't give it to him, Ginny certainly wouldn't.
Draco, at first sight of the cartoon, scoffed inwardly, but he was drawn into it just as Ginny had when she started watching. It was about halfway, as Belle and the Beast were falling in love and dancing together, when Draco couldn't keep his eyes open and fell asleep.
Certain as the sun
Rising in the East
Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast
Ginny didn't notice, engrossed in the singing and dancing. About five or ten minutes later, Belle had left the Beast and returned to tend her father. Gaston tried to shut his father in an asylum, blackmailing Belle to marry him, when Belle came out with the magical mirror, to prove that the Beast was real and her father wasn't ranting about nothing.
"Show me the Beast!" Belle was saying to the mirror. When the Beast's visage appeared, the townspeople yelled and screamed, as children buried their faces in their mothers' skirts.
"That's him!" Belle's father confirmed.
"Is he dangerous?" A lady asked in terror.
"Oh no! No, he'd never hurt anyone! I know he looks frightful but he's really gentle and kind. He's my friend."
"If I didn't know better," Gaston mused, "I would say that you have feelings for this monster."
Ginny's eyes widened. Similar words came to her mind.
"You don't know what he wants to do to you! He's a death eater, for Merlin's sake!"
"He's NOT a death eater! He's changed, he couldn't have been a death eater – "
Was she defending Draco from Ron's harsh words? Like how Belle had with the townsperson's?
Did she, like Belle, have feelings she was unaware of?
She turned and looked at him, only to find him asleep. He had leaned to the other side of the sofa, laying there, looking like one of those Roman gods, slender and strong. His hair looked so soft, so fine, if she would just run her fingers through it.
Did she have feelings for Draco?
That's impossible. She couldn't. She wouldn't. It wouldn't be right, she was supposed to be finding him a wife. She had told him that she would. Yet…
Could she help it?
She looked at him again, peacefully sleeping there on the sofa. Memories and words flashed. Everything was so confusing, spinning in an endless circle between reason and emotion. And there was one thought that made more sense above all the rest. One thought that was the light amongst the darkness. One thought that could change everything in her life.
I'm falling for Draco Malfoy.
Author's Notes: So Draco finds out the truth about his mother. I hope that wasn't too confusing, because the way I would explain it would be that Blaise really loves Narcissa, like a mother almost, and to have Draco just keep on brushing off woman and taking another (as he had thought when Draco told him that he was with Ginny and just broke up with Charlene) made him angry. And we all know that when we're angry things just tend to spill out of our mouths. So I hope you understood that. And Blaise's reasons for holding Draco back when Draco wanted to see his mother.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEAE READ EVEN IF YOU SKIP ALL THE REST OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTES Since school is starting on Wednesday (weird, I know) I will be updating on Saturdaysor Sundays from now on. I sorta plottedout(i don't know if that's a real phrase...) the storyline, and we're about halfway throughright now, there are approx.10 + more chapters. So this will be finished around winter break, I guess. I'll do the best I can. :)
And Ginny is now discovering what we all know...that she's falling for Draco. AWWWW, how sweet. :) That was hard to write though. Basically, she had her epiphany from watching Beauty and the Beast. I just thought that was kinda unique? I dunno. Btw, if you hadn't noticed, I absolutely LOVE that movie. In fact, I changed the song lyrics at the top from Just the Girl, by the Click Fiveto Something There, because I thought it fit better with the chapter.
Kayla, thank you for noticing the roses thing. I actually like looking those things up, so it was fun for me. But I'm glad you enjoyed it.
zugey, you ARE the zugey that goes to Troy right? In marching band... Thank's for reading...though I don't know how you found out about the story ;)
sunflowerchild, I like to think that Charlene has her own motives that are not exactly conventional and ethical...but if you want to call her a bh that's fine. ;)
BlueBerriRain, I adore symbolism...one of the reasons why I liked Lord of the Flies by William Golding so much
THANK YOU FOR READING and/or REVIEWING. IT MAKES MY DAY :)
falling into you