I Still..

A/N Hey everybody. Here's chapter three! I'm pretty excited to have it out as quickly as I have. I'm slowly but surely working on all of the old chapters first which may take me a little longer to do than actually writing the chapters anew. Anyway, I really appreciated the reviews I got from chapter two. Keep them coming!

Oh and goodness before I forget, I have a tiny little favor to ask of you guys. I was thinking about changing the title of this story and I want to know what you guys think, but it would involve a little bit of homework on you guys. Go on over to youtube and listen to I Still by the backstreet boys, and then Siberia, also by the Backstreet Boys. Once you're completely done with that, come back and leave a review about which title you like better. The options are I Still, or My Heart Did Time In Siberia. Keep in mind that I Still has the story's general theme in mind, and Siberia is kind of her opinion on the situation, and how she feels about it. Thanks a ton, it means a lot!

Well, read and enjoy! (And a review or two wouldn't hurt anybody hehehe)

The lightest fluttering of eyelashes against his neck made him open both eyes wide as he could. He wasn't at all used to sleeping next to anyone, so the feeling of this soft body laying next to him left him more than startled. Usually as soon as the fucking was over with he would kick the girl out of his bed, but this was very different…

He turned to his right and realized with a smile that it was the littlest Weasley girl who had her whole body wrapped around his. Before he could stop himself, he leaned in and gave her forehead a gentle kiss.

"How are you feeling Sugar? Are you still sore? Is there anything I can do for you?" He rubbed a coarse thumb across her cheek, tilting her head up so she was looking at him.

She, instead of looking at him, rubbed her face against his chest and shook her head, quite obviously nervous.

"I'm fine," Ginny said, in barely a whisper. She was too nervous to even look up, but she was sure that she could feel his eyes against the back of her head.

He realized with a sly grin that she was blushing, and took this opportunity to pull her whole body on top of his. They were both still bare underneath the blankets, and as their skin touched, Draco realized that he had no desire to be as rough with her as he generally enjoyed being with other women…

But she wasn't just any other woman…

"Come on sugar…You're better than fine, right? I heard all those little squeaks and squeals coming from you." He leaned in to tickle her and gave her neck a few gentle kisses. Gentle hadn't quite been in his vocabulary before her…

Ginny bit her lip and leaned her forehead against him. "Come on Draco…"

"Well doesn't that phrase sound familiar?" He took her cheeks in his hands and looked deep into her face. "You know Sugar, I really do lo-"

"Auntie! Where are my socks? Have you seen them? Mum will be here any minute and if I'm not ready she'll take Abbers to go and get ice cream without me! She told me so last time!"

And when I'm looking back
How we were young and stupid
Do you remember that?

-I Still, BSB

"Thank you so much for taking care of the two of them, Ginny dear! This means more to us than you could ever really know. I know you don't have very much time these days, what with all of your training, and hardly seeing your husband as much as you should and all but Ron and I are trying to manage getting the book store all set up and started you see… It's not easy running your own business you know!"

Ginny smiled and strapped the tiny, struggling Abigail into her light pink stroller. She leaned in and gave the little girl a very unwanted kiss.

"It's perfectly fine Hermione. I absolutely adore them as though they were my own children and you know that. Really, it's absolutely no trouble."

Hermione took a deep breath, and instantly Ginny knew that her choice of wording had been a mistake. Hermione reached out to cup her face in her hand, exploring the younger woman's eyes.

"You're twenty-five Ginny. If you plan on having children, now would definitely be the time. You know, the older you get, the harder it is for your body to handle the stress."

"Hermione… He doesn't want children. I've told you that a million times at least…"

"And you've also told me how much you want to have seven children of your own! If you want children this badly…" She took a deep breath. "There's something about Darby that has me on edge. I'm not sure what it is but I feel like there's somebody better out there for-"

Ginny swatted her nephew Alex on the rump as he slid beside his mother.

"Good luck at Hogwarts my favorite lad. And remember, if all else fails-"

"Remind the hat of the fact that I am a Weasley. I know Aunt Ginny. I know. You've told me a million times before."

"Ginevra Molly Weasley! Let the hat pick which house he's to be in! He shouldn't be a Gryffindor just because of the fact that he's a Weasley!"

"Would you rather he be in Slytherin?"

"Ginny, Ginny, Ginny!" came the screams of the thousands of fans in the bleachers.

"Come on Smucker! You can do it beautiful!"

Draco slid past nearly everyone so he could be in a seat that was right at level with the game. He was searching for Ginny and grinned when he caught sight of red hair as it flew past him before he could pay much more attention. He clapped and gave a noncommittal shout with no real words, just a sound.

"Get the Snitch Ginny! You can do it!"

"Marry me Ginny Smucker!"

That one made Draco roll his eyes. She was good, that was for sure, but a marriage proposal based on her Quidditch skills? He was pretty sure that the attraction of said males had nothing to do with her sportsmanship. He shrugged and watched her go.

When he realized that the individual had called her Ginny Smucker, he winced. 'Smucker… Ugly as hell name…'

It was only then that he realized that there were hundreds, beyond hundreds of people wearing the same red and gold tee-shirts with Ginny's face on them. Some were wearing wigs. Others were holding flags. Either way, Draco was now quite certain that they were not here to see the Chudly Cannons. They were there to see Ginny. Tall, beautiful, brilliant Ginny.

Ginny did a back flip off of her broom that made Draco's breath catch in his throat. Just a split second later, he saw a bludger zip past the place where her head had just barely been. Within seconds, Ginny was back on her broom.

'Wow…That was impressive… Was she always this good?'

Ginny's eyes suddenly locked on something not too far from the other team's seeker. She leaned in close to her broom and zoomed forward, smashing into the other seeker and knocking him off of his broom. She reached out and caught the Golden Snitch between her tiny fingers. She held it up and thrust her head back.

"And the Chudly Cannons win yet again!"

Ginny flew in a wide circle, eating up the applause. She put the snitch in her mouth and clapped her hands hard. She pulled her dark red scarf off of her neck and tossed it into the audience, just two people to the right of where Draco was sitting.

She flew to the ground and wiped the sweat off of her forehead before disappearing.

"Gin, don't you think you're getting a little cocky?" asked Ron as Ginny walked less than gracefully into her childhood house.

"What do you mean?" she asked, picking up a green apple all the while taking a deep sip of her mother's famous pumpkin cider.

"All those back flips and turns…One of these days you're going to snap your neck you know!"

"You're starting to sound just like Hermione," she said with a chuckle, lifting Abigail from her stroller. "Is she staying here? I won't be home to take care of her tonight so she can't come with me, as much as I would love to have her. It's probably a good idea to keep her with mum rather than the twins after what they did the last time they had her…"

"Nope, we're actually going to take her home tonight. I feel so guilty… I haven't gotten to see her much since Hermione opened the book store… It's a load of hard work but Hermione is so happy with it that it breaks my heart to tell her it's too much. I just wish we could bond with her better..."

Ginny nodded and kissed the little girl on the forehead before placing her down on her feet so she could run around and play.

"Don't feel bad Ron. She still knows who mummy and daddy are. She loves you guys and she gets to know her Auntie Ginny so there's no harm. All this is, is one more person to love her."

Ron nodded and shrugged. "I know she loves us but… I feel like we got to know Alex so much more and now Abby is sort of losing out."

Ginny kissed her brother on the top of his head. "Things will all work out for the best. Just let her know how much you love her. Everything that you do is for her, and Alex."

"Merlin... Is that really you? Draco? It's been way too long!" The look on his face was mixture of shock, disbelief, and childlike excitement. His eyes were wide, his jaw had fallen, with a huge and wide smile.

Draco gave Blaise the most masculine hug he could manage given the heartache he had felt while he was alone for all those years. He wanted to hug his childhood best friend as tightly as he could, but he knew it would have been considered slightly inappropriate.

They spent hours upon hours in the Zabini drawing room on the huge black couch they had spent many a summer day on during their youth. They talked about everything they had missed from one another throughout the years Draco had been gone. It had been a rough nine years, but he knew that now that he was back home, he had his best friend by his side to keep him sane. They talked about school, career goals and successions, everything except for where Draco had been.

"I heard through the grapevine that you got married Zabini. You dog you. I'd love to meet the woman who was finally able to tie Blaize Zabini to his bedpost in a non-sexual manner. Do I know the lucky lady?" he asked with a chuckle.

Blaise grinned and nodded. "I think you do. Actually, I'm fairly certain that she had quite an impact on your Hogwarts experience."

Draco raised an eyebrow as Blaise pulled out his wallet. He opened it and inside was a wedding photo of Blaise Zabini and…Pansy Zabini?

"You absolutely detested Pansy back in school! Remember? Pug Faced Parkinson? What would posses you?"

Blaise chuckled and then spoke a sentence that summed up every feeling going through Draco's body for the past ten years.

"Sometimes your heart just doesn't listen to your mind. You tell it which direction to go in but it just can't keep away from the one place it wants to be the most."

"So Ginny, my sweetest child and only daughter…No news on the baby front?"

Ginny sighed and after taking a sip of her tea, she slammed the cup down harder than she had meant to. "Mother…I have already told you time and time again that Darby doesn't want any children." She knew she sounded pitiful. She knew it was obvious that she wanted children and that she was unhappy about the fact that she wouldn't be able to have any with him but…

"Ginny, you've wanted children since you were a child! Why should you have to give up on something like this for a man who has given up nothing for you? This is ridiculous and I beg you to reconsider before it's too late for you to change your mind on the subject."

Ginny shook her head. "Why have you never even tried to look at it from the other angle too mum? Why should he have to have children when he so obviously does not want to? That would be unfair to him and he would resent me for the rest of our lives. I would rather have no children than a huge, preventable rift in my perfectly healthy marriage."

Molly reached out and brushed a strand of long red hair from her only daughter's face. "As much as I hate to admit it, that makes sense. You're right but… I still don't understand why you're so willing to let go of everything for one silly little boy. And how is it a perfectly healthy marriage when the one thing you've always wanted is being taken away from you?"

"Mother, I'm not a child anymore! I'm 25. And he's not a boy, he's my husband. It's not as though I'm a little 16-year-old girl again and I'm losing my heart for the first tim-" She stopped right in her tracks, realizing she was treading in her own dangerous territory.

Molly could almost read her thoughts.

"Ginny, that was a very long time ago. Your first love always leaves a lasting impression…"

Ginny felt her face go completely white. She hadn't thought about him and years, and now, all of the sudden he kept running through her mind, over and over. "Mum... I really don't want to talk about him."

"Well why the hell not? He was the only man to ever treat you the way you deserve to be treated! I know you were children, and I know he was a Malfoy, but I've never seen you nearly so happy before or since! It's not healthy to repress memories, and why bother when those memories were full of happiness."

Ginny stood up and shook her head. "Mum, first of all it was a two month relationship that was never meant to be much more than a fling. Second of all, he's gone. After nine years, I think it's time to finally let him go. It is time to accept the fact that he either has been alive all of this time and just never bothered to contact me, or he died in the war. What is the point on dwelling over a silly childhood romance that meant nothing?"

Okay sure, she knew that it was hypocritical to tell her mother to let go of the only boy that she herself had never found the ability to allow her heart to release.

"What is the point on dwelling over a silly childhood romance that meant nothing?"

She sighed, knowing that that was a complete lie. He was not a silly childhood romance that meant nothing. Perhaps he should have been... He was her first real love, and in her heart of hearts she knew that he would always have a place within her, much as she would deny it if asked.

Draco paced back and forth in front of the jewelry store. He was waiting ever so patiently for the doors to open, and yet for some reason he felt like ripping his hair out.

Suddenly, the door creaked open and a hand reached out, grabbing Draco by the arm and pulling him inside so roughly that he hit his head on the wall.

"I know why you're here young Malfoy, but it's been far too many years for me to be able to give you the answers that you seek. You may ask me anyway."

Draco raised an eyebrow in confusion, but he decided to ask anyway. "I'd like to know about a ring that I bought from here a few years ago. I'd like to know its location."

The little man put a hand out against Draco's forehead. "Silver…Emeralds… Engraved? It was for a lady you loved for a very short period of time...One that you never intended to love..."

Draco nodded, a bit of lush in his cheeks. "Yes. That's the one. I bought it nine years ago."

The man nodded. "You gave it to a woman…"

Draco raised an eyebrow. "No. I gave it to a llama I met before the war. I wanted to make sure he would still be here waiting for me when I came back. Of course I gave it to a woman!"

The little man chuckled. "Well you never know in this day and age. Some of the most attractive men are with each other you know."

"Can we please focus? Is the ring still with her? Where is it? Does she wear it?" He began to wring his hands nervously.

The man shook his head with a hand on one hip. "I can not give you all of this information as I have already told you. I can however let you know that she hasn't sold it to anyone else, and she has not lost it or given it away. It is in her possession although if she wears it or not I can not say."

A/N This is one of my favorite chapters. It gives all sorts of answers that you won't really understand until you finish reading the whole story, but this is a really important one.

On a more personal note, I have been feeling pretty stressed lately. Someone who means a lot to me was murdered pretty recently so I have been focusing a lot of my energy on that. This chapter may not be as well edited as some of my others because of that but if you catch anything negative in here PLEASE let me know in a review so I can fix it. I want this story to be great and it can't be if it's really messed up, so let me know!