"To the new students, welcome to Durmstrang, and to the old students, welcome back. I see that the first year students have realized the small school population. As Peter has already told you, Durmstrang only takes in the best. Each year, we take only about 20 students, hence you must have been the cream of the crop to be able to enter our school, and I hope you maintain your standards. We shall first proceed with the sorting," Harry nodded his head up and down as he recited the headmaster's speech flawlessly.
"He says the same thing every year. Makes me wonder if he recorded his speech and replayed it over and over again each year," Harry drawled as he watched his two best friends who were speaking to each other in low voices.
"Harry to red and blond. I know you're together, but could you guys leave some time for me?" Harry complained as he waved his hand at their faces.
"Sorry mate," Draco shrugged.
"Yeah, sorry Harry" Ginny echoed.
"Oooh…this is getting on my nerves" Harry groaned and turned around to focus his attention on the sorting ceremony.
"Eagles, practice will begin tomorrow and I…" Tai Ho started to speak but the rest of the team chose to finish it for him
"DON'T WANT ANY LATE COMERS"
"Right. Dismiss." Tai Ho said as he nodded his head.
"Sheesh, he says the same thing every year too. Maybe he too recorded his start-of-practice speech" Harry shrugged.
"Don't worry mate, things always get a little routine like over here in Durmstrang, it'll be over in a flash. For all you know, Tai Ho is in his final year now and the next team captain will be chosen soon. I'll bet it's Draco." Rajan (from India) said as he placed his arms around Harry and Ginny's shoulders.
"Nothing is for sure. It could be Harry," Draco said as he pried Rajan's arm away from Ginny and situating himself between Ginny and Rajan. Ginny laughed a little internally.
"He's so cute when he gets jealous" thought the little red head with a smile. Unknowing to her that her greatest fear was about to happen.
Ginny had a little secret of her own. She had been practicing her moves on her broom when the rest of the team had headed off to the bathroom. On this faithful day, Ginny was flying around on the quidditch pitch alone again, maneuvering her broom like a professional quidditch player. When she thought that everyone had cleared the bathroom at near the pitch, Ginny descended from her broom and headed off for her own shower, as usual.
Just as she had expected, the bathroom was empty. Peeling off her quidditch robes, Ginny stepped into the huge bathtub situated right in the middle of the bathroom. The water was warm and can up to her chest, barely covering her breasts. But Ginny knew she was safe because the guys have returned to the castle. Humming a little to herself, Ginny began to wash herself clean.
Team captain of the Eagles, Tai Ho, entered the bathroom in search of his lost school badge. Then he heard it, a soft humming. A familiar voice. Xavier Weasley's voice. Tai Ho had always wondered why Xavier never joined them for their mass bath sessions but never bothered himself to ask. But this was a rare opportunity to find out what the little red head was hiding from the others. Without second thoughts, Tai Ho tiptoed quietly towards the huge bathtub.
"Right, I'm done," Ginny said to herself before getting out of the tub, drying herself and putting on her clothes. She was about to button up her shirt when suddenly.
"BOO!!"
"Ahhhh!!!!" Ginny screamed as she turned to flee but not before giving her team captain a full frontal view of her assets.
Tai Ho froze in his position from shock. It was too great a shock. Xavier Weasley, the smartest kid in school, one of the star players on the Eagles was actually a girl.
"Oh no…I've been discovered. What am I to do?" Ginny thought as she paced around in the Pegasus common room.
"Xav, what are you doing? Is it Draco again?" Harry asked as he looked down at the pacing red head from the top of the stairs.
"I…I'm fine, I just…" Ginny started to speak, but then Tai Ho emerged from the Pegasus dormitory doorway and pulled her out without uttering a word.
"Xavier or whatever your name is. Do you care to explain?" Tai Ho asked as he motioned for Ginny to sit when they entered a classroom with the prefect of Pegasus already in it.
"I…I…I'm sorry." Ginny spoke, her voice shaking badly. Unknown to her, a certain blonde was standing outside the classroom, listening to every word she uttered.
"You mean to tell us that all these, everything were all a pack of lies? That you weren't supposed to be here? What about those spectacular goals you scored?" Tai Ho asked calmly.
"I never meant to lie. I am a girl. My name is Ginny Weasley. But I really enjoyed quidditch and every minute I spent with all of you," Ginny said, tears threatening to fall.
"Why? Why did you hide your true identity and enter Durmstrang? Is it because of it's reputation or quidditch or anything else?" Tai Ho asked.
"I…I truly admire the Eagles, and particularly, Draco. I wanted to come here, to get to know him, to get a chance to play on his team, and if possible to be his friend, to be someone he can trust. I don't want to lose any of these. My friends, my team, Draco." Ginny spoke as tears fell from her eyes.
Draco clenched his fists, until his knuckles turned white, he hated when she cried, it broke his heart especially when he knew her tears were for him. He hated himself for not being with her as she faced persecution.
"Anyway, the matter is too serious. We'll have to report it to the headmaster and you will be duly dealt with. You'd most likely face expulsion from Durmstrang as well as the wizarding world." The Pegasus prefect spoke haughtily. Draco was so irritated he was tempted to hit that guy for making Ginny cry even harder than she was already crying.
"I think it would be better if the matter wasn't exposed. It would reflect very badly on Durmstrang's image and the wizarding world would question Durmstrang's strictness in choosing it's students" Tai Ho interrupted. Some where deep down in the Team Captain's heart, he was a little unwilling to let this talented quidditch player and a fellow team mate leave the wizarding world.
"You've got a point there but what should we do about her?" asked the Pegasus prefect.
"Firstly, does Draco know about this?" Tai Ho asked.
"No…No he doesn't. I've never dreamt of telling him. He'd hate me for lying" Ginny shook her head hard.
That was the last straw for the blonde, pushing the door of the classroom open he looked around at the stunned faces and spoke.
"I knew. I knew that you're a girl, Ginny" Draco blurted out.
"You knew? Even before you heard to me say that…" unable to meet his eyes, Ginny took off, running as fast as her legs could carry her out of the classroom and through the corridors of the castle. Suddenly, she felt her legs go limp and started to fall, but a familiar arm grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close.
"We'll talk somewhere else. It's not safe here" Draco whispered into her ear before pulling her towards the quidditch pitch.
"You knew that I was a girl long ago?" Ginny whispered as she pulled away from the blonde who simply nodded at her question.
"How? When?" Ginny asked as she turned to look at him.
"When you first entered Durmstrang. During your first quidditch game with us, you fainted and I carried you to the infirmary, like this," Draco held up his hand, "and when my mother was treating you, she told me to turn away and then, I knew."
"He knows everything, and at the very beginning too," Ginny thought as she felt knees weaken and she ended up sitting on the pitch.
"Why? Why didn't you tell me anything?" Ginny asked as she looked up at the blonde who was trying to look away from her.
"Why?" Ginny asked again, tears threatening to fall again.
"Because if I had said anything then, you'd have to leave Durmstrang didn't you?" Draco said softly but firmly, blushing at the same time. Ginny felt her heart warm up at his little confession, but she knew it wasn't over yet.
"I'm sorry. I had wanted to tell you about it, I really wanted you to know. I didn't want to lie, I swear. But I was scared, the words never came out of my mouth, I was afraid that you'd hate me if you'd known the truth. I never expected things to turn out like that. You must really hate me now that you know. I'm really sorry for lying," Ginny said as she tried to stop her tears from falling and pulling her knees closer to her chest.
"I'm sorry for…" Ginny kept apologizing on and on.
"Stupid!" Draco cried as he pulled her into his arms.
"I don't care about any of these. They don't matter to me. It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl or if you've lied or not. Whatever ever happens, I will do everything to protect you, so all you have to do is to be with me," Draco cried as he hugged her tighter.
"Can I? Can I really be with you?" Ginny asked as she looked up into his eyes that were a little wet. In reply, Draco bent his head and kissed her hard, showing her how much he needed her by his side.
Draco held Ginny's hand tightly as they made their way back to the classroom. Ginny shivered a little at the thought of confronting the people who were going to persecute her again, but Draco gave her hand a little squeeze to assure her and she felt better.
"I didn't expect Draco to know this either. This is going to be tough," the Pegasus prefect said as he watched the team captain.
"I guess the only thing we can do is turn a blind eye to the situation. We would be risking Durmstrang's reputation if anyone else finds out. What do you say, Ginny?" Tai Ho asked.
Ginny jumped a little at the sound of her real name coming from the lips of her team captain. Mustering her courage, she let go of Draco's hand and spoke, "I…I want to play every single quidditch game with the Eagles, I want to graduate with Draco and Harry too."
"Very well then, we shall keep mum about this. But it is too unbecoming for a man and a woman to share a bedroom, what do you propose we do?" Tai Ho asked. Ginny and Draco looked away from each other, knowing that they were guilty of most of the unbecoming behaviour.
"We'll move her out of that room immediately" said the prefect.
"But then again, tongues would wag if we were to make such an abrupt change" Tai Ho pointed out.
"Oh well, it's they would be in separate quarters in their final year, so I guess it can wait" muttered the prefect, knowing fully well that the captain was actually for the couple.
"We'd better get back to the dormitory, it's near curfew hour." Tai Ho said before getting up from his seat.
"Draco, can I speak with you for a moment?" Tai Ho said as he gestured for Ginny and the prefect to go off first.
"I know what it's like to be deprived of certain pleasures, but the dormitory strictly forbids hanky-panky and we wouldn't want our star chaser to drop out of the games due to unforeseen circumstances would we. So kindly refrain from doing anything drastic and irreversible," Tai Ho grinned like a Cheshire cat as he whispered into Draco's ear. Draco blushed but resumed his composure quickly and elbowed the team captain in the stomach before walking off to find his little red head
'Find' was the word because the little red head had suddenly disappeared. Then he saw her sitting at the bottom of the flight of steps leading from the Pegasus common room to their dorm rooms.
"What happened?" asked the blonde.
"I sort of felt too relieve and my legs lost their will to move." Ginny said as she grinned sheepishly at the blonde.
"What should I do with you?" Draco asked as he picked her up bridal style and carry her up the stairs to their room.
"You shouldn't, we'd be seen, put me down" Ginny struggled.
"There's no one around. It's past curfew hour." Draco smirked as he bent to kiss her on the lips.
"Now I can safely say you're mine," Draco smirked at the blushing red head.
"WHAT? COULD YOU REPEAT THAT AGAIN?" Narcissa Malfoy stared at her future daughter-in-law in disbelief.
"I've been discovered and Draco knows," Ginny grinned at the older woman.
"Are you out of your mind my dear? How could you still grin like this? What did Lucius say?" Narcissa asked still utterly shocked.
"Only Draco, Tai Ho and the Pegasus prefect know about it. Besides, Draco knew it long ago. Why didn't you tell me, Aunt Narcissa?" Ginny asked.
"If he mentioned anything, you'd have to leave, and that's what he wouldn't want." Narcissa said softly.
"I promise I'd be careful. But I'm really glad Draco's not mad at me" Ginny grinned.
"Why would he be? You're the best thing that ever happened to him since I left Lucius," Narcissa smiled lovingly at the little red head.
"Thank you so much, Aunt Narcissa" Ginny said as she hugged the older woman.
"I'm going to marry you once we graduate. Just think, Ginny Malfoy, sounds really good to me." Draco declared one night as they were huddling together on his bed, listening to the Weird Sisters' recording.
"When was that decided?" Ginny asked as she eyed him.
"When you took matters into your hands and entered Durmstrang in search of me." Draco smirked.
End of Chapter
There you go, two chapters at a go. How's this one? Drama enough? No? Try Chapter 18(Just when you thought things couldn't get more complicated). Even more drama. Lemon in Chapter 19 (I need help with the descriptions, anyone care to email me some samples that are not too sour and crude?). Epilogue for chapter 20 (I've got this one thought out). I need sleep, I'm turning into a tiny panda (dark rings round my eyes). Till next chappie.
tgimd