Take A Deeper Look

Chapter Fifteen: The Best of Me

Draco stared at the spot his apparent daughter had been standing in. What the hell did she just do? She was too young still to Apparate, not that you could inside the school, so what was that little flashy trick she had just done? He stood up quickly, pocketing the photograph, and made a decision that he would go talk to the elder first.

"Yes, what – Draco?" Ginny stared out her portrait at him, wondering why he looked so strange. "Are you okay?"

Draco stood in the portrait-way; "might I come in?" he stepped inside once she moved out of his way, beckoning him to enter. "I was just visited by Abigail."

Ginny sat down on her couch, folding her legs under her. "Why don't I like the sound of that?"

He pulled the photograph out, handing it over to her. "She tossed this on my desk about the same time she was yelling at me for not being there, or at least I'm sure that is what she wanted to say, but she had more elusive ways of speaking."

Ginny let her eyes graze over the photo, smiling a bit as the Draco in the picture smiled up at her. She lifted her eyes back to the real Dracos' waiting for him to continue.

"I always thought I had the connection with her. That I did because she was your daughter, and therefore she was a lot like you," Draco kept a quiet voice as he spoke. "Why did you never tell me?"

She turned away from him enough to hide her face as she placed the photo on her coffee table. "I tried once, ten years ago. But you refused to let me speak. You Apparated out of the Burrow faster than I thought possible."

Dracos' eyebrows furrowed in confusion before the memory flowed back into his mind. "I suppose I didn't."

"Suppose? You didn't, Draco, that's the fact of the matter!" she calmed herself, looking to him once more. "What do you really want, Draco?"

"You," he replied simply, watching as her cheeks turned red. "And the truth. The entire story."

Ginny turned her face away from his, trying to hide the redness of her cheeks, but knowing he had already seen them. "It's a long story . . ."

"I've got time."

She looked up at him; taking in the serious face he was showing her, and the pleading look hiding in his gray eyes. "Alright, then," she slid her legs out from underneath her, watching as Draco sat down next to her on the couch. "Where would you like me to start?"

"How about you start from the beginning, that being when you left from Hogsmeade, and end right here," Draco said as he looked at her.

Ginny took in a deep breath, letting it out noiselessly and slowly. "When I left Hogsmeade, I flew south to where the Scholars had set up a Port Key for me. I could barely see through my tears, but I found the Key anyway.

"When I got there, I was told by the Scholars – they were a group of seven people who, all who had started the Program, that anything to hinder my work would put me on paid leave from digs, but I'd still be doing deskwork. I thought they were just telling me that, I thought they told everybody that, but I found out not too long after that I was pregnant, and that the woman who had told me about that rule had known. I thought that they were going to toss me out of the program for it, and from what I heard later on from my friend Thomas, it was a four to three vote to boot me.

"But then I took a bad fall in my fifth month – about the same time they were going to tell me to leave – into one of the pits; I was in pretty bad condition. The excavators did all they could to stop the blood, but there was just so much of it. They were calling for a Medi-wizard when she did it. Abigail closed my wound from inside the womb – at least that was the only explanation everyone could come up with. They say that I was engulfed in a light just as the Medi-Wizard got there, and when he went to check me, there was no long the large gash in my side.

"After that, the Scholars watched me like a hawk. They all wanted to know how I had been healed to such an extent that I don't even have a scar. And with so much blood – they thought that even if the wound had been closed, I would have died because I lacked so much. So they kept me around, wanting to know if what they thought was true." Ginny looked up at him to see if he still wanted to hear the story, and seeing that he did, she continued.

She thought back, her face contorting into a strange look. "I remember that when she was maybe five or six months old, she had been making noises for me to hand her a toy, but I couldn't because my hands were full with papers. Then the oddest thing happened, or at least it was at the time, the toy dematerialized from its spot and appeared in her hand. She had called for it without saying a word . . .

"That was what the Scholars seemed to have been waiting for, because they were all ecstatic to hear about the strange ability. Soon, they became her babysitters when I had to work; they loved her, and loved to see what she would do next even more.

"When she was two, that was when I first told her about you. She was wondering where her father was all the time then, because her playmates all had fathers around them. I gave her that photo of you, telling her the condensed version of our history together. That was when she decided quite firmly, for a two year old, that she just had to meet you. She wanted a father to play with her like her friends had. So I went to the Scholars.

"I told them that I wanted to write you a letter – since Fudge didn't support the program, they controlled all things leaving and entering the Programs' area – but they told me that they couldn't risk it. You were too high profile a person to be sending a trivial letter to. I came back the next day, pleading with them again to let me send you a letter, this time because Abby wanted to meet you. Everyday that week I went to them and everyday they told me no. Until the last day . . . That was the day that they told me I was never to contact you in any way until I was out of their Program.

"I hated that I couldn't contact you. One being that I didn't know if you were okay or not, and two being that Abby was growing and advancing in her powers and you had no idea about it. When she was seven, I finally was allowed to take a vacation of sorts from the Program – for Rons' wedding.

"We went to Lohelm and Dumbledore to see if either of them knew what she was doing, and how she did it. Neither of them knew. And then I saw you here, and you were so angry with me because of Abigail. I wanted to tell you right then and there the entire story, but I just couldn't get past that look of pain and hatred in your eyes, so I didn't say anything other than confirming she was mine.

"I was trying to tell you the truth when you came to the Burrow the next night, but you refused to let me say anything besides what you had already come up with in that thick, stubborn skull of yours. Abby came up just after you left, and told me that I didn't have to cry because her daddy hated her, because she still loved him," Ginny stopped, sighing.

"She thought you hated her, Draco. Do you know how hard that was for me to take? She was seven years old! I remember just staring at her in shock when she said that she knew you hated her. Somehow she had gotten it in her head that the reason you never came to see us was that you didn't want to see her. I spent the entire night telling her that you didn't hate her, that you were just mad at me.

"We went home the day after that, and she went back to being her normal cheerful self – but that was when I noticed she carried your picture everywhere with her. I asked her why she did, and she just told me that it was so you could be with her when she was playing. I told her that was a good idea, and said that she'd always have you around for important moments in her life if she kept it with her." Ginny laughed slightly, "I ended up having to place a charm on it to make sure that it would get ruined because she had it with her so much."

Ginny brought her leg up and rested her arm upon it. "She only asked about you maybe twice a year after Ron and Hermiones' wedding. It was always on Christmas and her birthday. She eventually figured out that the presents that supposedly came from her father were really just gifts I had picked up and said you had sent to her.

"I tried to tell her time and time again why you couldn't be there, but she gave up wanting to know. Every year, though, she always asked if she could go to Hogwarts for school. I think it was so that she could be close to you – and I'm pretty sure that was the only reason she wanted to go here. Eventually I gave in, on her sixteenth birthday, seeing as the Program had finally lost all of it's funding, and there was nothing more that we could do there.

"I bought a house with the money I had earned from working in Egypt next door to my friend Joan – I didn't even know she lived there until Ewan just about killed Abby when she was flying. That girl is insane on a broom – I can't watch her when she flies. I'm sure you saw that lovely little Standing Nosedive trick she's finally gotten. She gets it from you, I was never crazy on a broomstick," Ginny pointed at him accusingly. "I swear she is so lucky she gained the ability to Flash. That's what we named it anyway. It allows her to be in once place at one point, and another the second later. It's so annoying when I'm trying to send her to her room."

She shrugged, "I told her that she could this year, and you pretty much know how that has gone. She wrote me a letter to tell me what she had said to you on the third day of school and I sent her a Howler, I was so mad. But I ended up telling her that I was sorry about it, that I just hadn't wanted her to say anything. I got a Howler myself back from her saying that whatever she had said, you probably wouldn't have understood anyway."

Draco just watched her as she told the story, condensing it quite a bit he could tell. "She thought I hated her?"

Ginny nodded, "I finally convinced her that you didn't hate her, don't worry. But she wasn't asking for stories about you after that. I tore me apart that she didn't want to know anything more about her father, about the things he was doing for everyone. I just had to deal with it, and I did. I stopped mentioning you to her."

"Is that why she caused that trouble the second day of school? So that I would give her a detention?"

She shrugged, "probably. Did she act odd to a fault and pretend she was in a band?"

Draco gave her a look that clearly said How'd you know that?

Ginny laughed, "it's what she does to test peoples limits. She always does something to make sure that she knows just how much a person can take before really getting to know them."

The blonde haired man shifted in his seat. "She came to talk to me all the time throughout the school year. Even when I told her to leave, she just stuck around, chatting away. I take it that's another one of her little quirks? Being as annoying as you were."

Ginny stuck out her tongue childishly at him. "She gets it from you too, y'know. No one but you can get on my nerves like her."

"Glad to be of service," Draco mocked bowing to her, causing a smile to spread across her face. "If I had known –"

Ginny held up her hand, "I know, Draco. I know. But how could you have? You didn't know where I was. And going to my family to find out wouldn't have worked well either – they would have killed you for even asking and they didn't know either."

Draco stood up from the couch, "I think I should go find –"

"No."

"Pardon?"

Ginny stood in front of his path, hands on her hips defiantly. "If there is one thing I'm tired of being, it's patient."

Draco smiled a bit as he looked down at the redhead. "Then what are you going to do about it? Patient is a virtue, y'know."

She shook her head, "nah. It's a burden most of the time. Now you just going to stand there and let me hug you because I deserve it with the way you've been skillfully avoiding me these past few months." Draco did as he was told, letting the short woman wrap her arms around him, he reciprocating the action happily.

Ginny lifted her head off his chest, "I'm glad your not avoiding me anymore."

"Well, we seem to have created a very forceful child," Draco said, liking the way it sounded that he had made a child with her. "Want another?" he gave him a cheeky smile as he spoke, earning himself a smack in the arm.

"Draco Malfoy! That is no way to talk to a lady!" she smiled, laughing as she scolded him. "I can't believe you said something –" she cut herself off, wondering what that look in his eyes meant. She was just about to question him when he leaned forward, kissing her lightly on the lips. Ginny opened her eyes slowly, not even realizing that she had closed them and looked up at his faintly smiling face. "That's the best you've got? After seventeen years that's all –"

Draco pressed his lips on hers once more, smiling a bit when her head her intake of breath. They were slightly breathless when he finally severed the kiss. "I'm never letting you go anywhere again."

"You're going to have to let me go again, Draco," Ginny said in a sad voice.

"Why?"

She grinned, "because I have to pee."

Draco laughed outright, kicking her lightly on her rear as she made her way to the loo.

Abby opened the next present, smiling broadly at her friends. "I'm not going to have some strange creature jump out at me, am I?"

Ewan shook his head, "that's mine, I didn't do that this time. Don't you worry."

Abby winked at him, opening the present quickly. "Nice one, Ewan!" she pulled out the mini replica of the Quidditch Cup.

"That's just to keep you happy, y'know, since you're going to loose the match and everything."

Abby threw up her fists in defiance. "Bullocks! Gryffindor is way better than Slytherin this year! Remember, I am the UBER FREAK and I shall prevail!"

Ginny laughed at her daughter, "okay Uber Freak, this one is from Draco. And this time, I didn't pick it out to give to you."

She smiled at her mum, "about damn time," watching her mother give her a mock stern look. Abby took the lid off the box; digging threw thin strips of paper until she reached the bottom. She looked up at her mother curiously, who just urged her to keep going. Abby grabbed the sheets of paper lying at the bottom of the box, reading them over once she could see them.

Ginny looked to Draco briefly before the both of them were tackled by Abby, who was laughing happily. "Are you serious!"

"Yes, Abby, we're serious," Ginny said as she laughed. "Get off, I can't breathe!"

Abby pushed herself off them, looking at the papers once more. "This is the best present I've ever gotten from you," she looked at Draco, giving him a teasing look. "Bloody hell! I can call you dad legally now! Oh god Mum – Uncle Ron and them are going to want to kill him for – well y'know!"

Ginny laughed as her daughter hugged them again, the papers dropping to the floor. The seven confused students looked down at them, then all smiled when they read Marriage License at the top of each sheet.

Delirious – Deeper

Norah Jones – Don't Know Why

Avril Lavigne – Anything But Ordinary

Jimmy Eat World – Sweetness

Switchfoot – Dare You to Move

Avril Lavigne – Falling Down

Evanescence – Taking Over Me

Vitamin C – Graduation

Hoobastank – Too Little Too Late

Boomkats – The Wreckoning

Evanescence – My Immortal

Superchick – One Girl Revolution

Leslie Mills – Good Life

Last Week – Beautiful Girl

The Starting Line – The Best of Me

Not the best ending ever when I first wrote it, but it has grown on me. Sorry that it took so damned long for me to finish this! A lot has happened in the past year that has deterred me from my writing. Hope you enjoy this!

Love,

Leap of Faith