You're The Only One I Need
I submitted the last chapter of Angel Eyes. Obviously that won't be uploaded for a while but I've decided to post it here anyway purely for christl, who has waited so long and patiently *loves*
It was strange being back at Hogwarts in his own skin. The Slytherins, naturally, were overjoyed that he was back and Draco had woken up to piles and piles of flowers, chocolates, get-well cards and a stuffed basilisk toy from Goyle that was rather cute.
There was just something that was bothering him immensely. He was extremely glad and relieved to be back, of course... Something just seemed different now. Or maybe it had always been different and he’d just never seen it that way.
Draco was having trouble sleeping. In a way he was afraid of waking up on the Founders’ beach again, but mostly he couldn’t stop thinking about all the things he’d been told. There was a reason, an answer almost in his grasp like the sensation of not being able to recall a word just on the tip of your tongue.
It was to help you, too, and the rest of the Wizarding world. You don’t have a choice
They might have to fight to defend the castle…I’m not showing you, Draco, she is.
They’ll never get the Slytherins on their side.
You’ll figure it out, eventually.
*
The first time he saw Ginny again, he thought of running after her. They were in a hallway full of students going into class and thankfully, Draco stayed where he was. He’d only seen her long enough to catch a glimpse of her fiery ponytail before she disappeared into Charms, anyway.
He took to watching her during mealtimes; one morning she sat between Seamus and Neville pouring out the pumpkin juice. Neville clumsily tried to transfigure a goblet into orange juice for her, and instead ended up knocking the whole thing over. He saw as she laughed, while Neville apologised with a red face and Seamus deftly cleared up the mess with a wave of his wand. He thought she looked happy.
That shouldn’t have made him sad, but for some reason it did.
It was a second later that her gaze flicked towards him and for an instant they stared at each other. After that he began to notice that she was watching him.
They accidentally bumped into each other between Draco’s History of Magic lesson and Transfiguration. Ginny bit her lip, almost as if she was going to speak to him but instead muttered, ‘sorry,’ and disappeared before he could say anything.
The whole entire thing was bloody irritating. Before, Draco wouldn’t have noticed her if she was the only other person in a room with him. Now he was deliberately seeking out her flame-coloured head in a crowd of hundreds of people.
After a couple more accidental meetings, Draco still hadn’t mentioned a word of his plans. Now that he knew what he needed to do, it was easier to get to sleep at night. Sort of.
He decided to take matters into his own hands. Which meant stalking. Which kind of sounded bad. But it wasn’t as if he wanted to…to do anything to her (not anything she wasn’t willing to do, in any case), and besides he was a Slytherin and they could stalk people if they wanted to.
Charms was Ginny’s last lesson on Wednesdays, according to Bianca Zabini who shared the same class. Bianca was a Ravenclaw and a sweet girl, which was probably why Draco had never really warmed to her much. In potions, Draco told Snape he had to leave early to send an urgent owl because he’d forgotten his Mother’s birthday and realised that he wasn’t lying. He had, in fact, forgotten his mother’s birthday. Her present would have to wait, though because right now Draco was headed for the Charms corridor.
Ginny was the ninth person to leave the classroom. Hidden behind a row of Suits of Armour, Draco listened carefully as the fifth years passed him.
‘-But I have so much homework to catch up on,’ Ginny was protesting to someone.
‘We’ll stay in the library with you for a bit-’
‘Yeah, I’ve got a bit of research to do.’
‘I hate this year; the workload is so bloody impossible…’
As they rounded the corner, Draco followed from a distance.
*
He lurked in the library for ages, while Ginny and her friends finished up their homework. A group of Hufflepuffs were shooting him suspicious looks on account of the fact that Draco had been hanging around for over half an hour, hidden behind a row of shelves and had yet to pick up a single book.
He’d stayed so long now that he was sure that the blonde on the left had started flirting with him (which wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, but it was a guy who was winking at him) and Draco was on the verge of giving up altogether for that day when the scraping of chairs and goodbyes from Ginny’s table alerted him to the fact that her friends were finally leaving.
It was pure luck. It had been a while since Draco had thought of himself as lucky.
‘Afternoon, Weasley.’
Ginny looked up. She didn’t appear shocked to see him there.
‘I was wondering how much longer you were going to wait behind there.’
Draco wondered if the burning in his cheeks was showing up much. Probably. Stupid pale skin.
‘Is that why you stayed?’
She didn’t say anything, only narrowed her eyes. ‘What do you want, Malfoy?’
‘To help.’
This time Ginny did look shocked. ‘Help with what?’
‘The war. You know, vanquishing Voldemort and all that.’
Her expression had turned to horror. ‘I…how…what do you mean?’
‘In a few months, a lot of Slytherins are going to leave Hogwarts. Most, in fact, for whatever reason. Hogwarts will be targeted by the Death Eaters, I promise you. The rest of us…we want to help.’
It was a few more moments before Ginny could speak. ‘What are you saying, you want to join Dumbledore’s Army?’
Draco shrugged. ‘What, you have an initiation? We have to earn our shiny badges, or something?’
‘No,’ she scowled. ‘You’ll have to talk to Harry.’
‘Unfortunately.’
There was a scrape of her chair being pushed back and Ginny stood up. ‘Let’s go find him then.’
Draco hid a smile. She was trying to see if he would seriously go through with it, that he wasn’t just up to something sneaky. Unfortunately, Draco was very serious.
‘All right.’
They walked through the corridors in silence, Ginny leading quickly and never once glancing back. Just before they entered Gryffindor tower though, she made a decision to stop and face him.
‘If you’re actually going to help, along with your friends, how do we know to trust you?’
He stepped closer to her. ‘I think you do trust me.’
Draco brushed a strand of bright copper hair behind her ear as she stood, shocked into stillness. Unable to move as he leant in to say, ‘I believed you, remember?’
She breathed in sharply. ‘I didn’t know that was-’
‘Real? You’re not insane, Weasley.’
‘Yeah, but I’m starting to think you are,’ Ginny retorted.
He kissed her, a soft press of lips, just enough to taste that familiar scent. Apples and sunshine. Somehow they found their hands had moved after pulling away; his ended up tangled in her hair and hers resting on his shoulders.
‘You’re going to have to explain yourself,’ she said a little breathlessly.
That was when the portrait door swung open.
‘What the bloody hell is going on here?’ cried Harry.
*
Draco sighed. They were standing alone in the room of requirement, since after the proposal had been made clear to Harry he had insisted on speaking with Draco alone. Ginny, had grudgingly left them together but not before insisting they both give up their wands. No one needed to die quite yet, she’d said.
‘And why should I agree to this?’ asked Harry.
Gryffindors. God, were they dense. Obviously Draco was going to continue to be the rational one about all this. Dying could force you to really grow up.
‘Look, this is important. The war affects us all, it’s not like I just woke up one morning and thought Hey, you know what would be fun? Quality time with Potter.’
It had been a bit like that though…reflected Draco inwardly.
‘You realise that essentially you’re putting all your lives in my hands.’
‘Well, you’re the saviour, aren’t you?’ he drawled.
Draco put out his hand, and Harry just stared at it blankly.
‘I offered once before,’ said Draco pointedly, ‘and I meant it then too, but in a different way. I’m not asking you to be my friend now, Potter, I’m asking you to give us a chance. You might find us Slytherins come in useful at some point.’
This time, Harry’s hand grasped his.
‘Okay, Malfoy,’ he said. ‘You’re in.’
Draco raised an eyebrow. ‘That was a lot easier than I expected. I didn’t know you were so desperate.’
‘To win, yes,’ scowled Harry. ‘Although, there is one condition.’
‘You’re not going to give us awful matching tattoos, are you?’
‘No,’ he replied, disgusted. ‘Just…I have no idea what’s going on, and I really don’t want to know…but I think you should stay away from Ginny-’
‘WHAT!’ Draco grabbed the Gryffindor angrily by the collar of his robes. ‘Listen to me, you obnoxious prat-!’
‘You didn’t let me finish!’ protested Harry angrily. ‘Let go, would you!’
Draco released his grip without apologising.
‘What I meant,’ said the other boy with a glare, ‘was keep away from her when Ron’s around. Because I don’t think the other Slytherins would react too well if he ended up murdering you.’
Harry shot him a withering look that bugged Draco tremendously because it made him feel a little foolish.
‘…All right.’
‘What are you two-how did you? Oh, forget it.’ Harry shook his head and muttered, ‘Can’t understand what she sees in you...’
Draco smirked. ‘What are you talking about, Potter? I’m perfectly divine.’
He thought he heard a very faint bark of amusement from somewhere in the room.
~Fin~
Also, last night's VM episode was so great. I'm still smiling because of the brilliance of Logan/Veronica. Gotta love it when your OTPs are canon :D
It was strange being back at Hogwarts in his own skin. The Slytherins, naturally, were overjoyed that he was back and Draco had woken up to piles and piles of flowers, chocolates, get-well cards and a stuffed basilisk toy from Goyle that was rather cute.
There was just something that was bothering him immensely. He was extremely glad and relieved to be back, of course... Something just seemed different now. Or maybe it had always been different and he’d just never seen it that way.
Draco was having trouble sleeping. In a way he was afraid of waking up on the Founders’ beach again, but mostly he couldn’t stop thinking about all the things he’d been told. There was a reason, an answer almost in his grasp like the sensation of not being able to recall a word just on the tip of your tongue.
It was to help you, too, and the rest of the Wizarding world. You don’t have a choice
They might have to fight to defend the castle…I’m not showing you, Draco, she is.
They’ll never get the Slytherins on their side.
You’ll figure it out, eventually.
*
The first time he saw Ginny again, he thought of running after her. They were in a hallway full of students going into class and thankfully, Draco stayed where he was. He’d only seen her long enough to catch a glimpse of her fiery ponytail before she disappeared into Charms, anyway.
He took to watching her during mealtimes; one morning she sat between Seamus and Neville pouring out the pumpkin juice. Neville clumsily tried to transfigure a goblet into orange juice for her, and instead ended up knocking the whole thing over. He saw as she laughed, while Neville apologised with a red face and Seamus deftly cleared up the mess with a wave of his wand. He thought she looked happy.
That shouldn’t have made him sad, but for some reason it did.
It was a second later that her gaze flicked towards him and for an instant they stared at each other. After that he began to notice that she was watching him.
They accidentally bumped into each other between Draco’s History of Magic lesson and Transfiguration. Ginny bit her lip, almost as if she was going to speak to him but instead muttered, ‘sorry,’ and disappeared before he could say anything.
The whole entire thing was bloody irritating. Before, Draco wouldn’t have noticed her if she was the only other person in a room with him. Now he was deliberately seeking out her flame-coloured head in a crowd of hundreds of people.
After a couple more accidental meetings, Draco still hadn’t mentioned a word of his plans. Now that he knew what he needed to do, it was easier to get to sleep at night. Sort of.
He decided to take matters into his own hands. Which meant stalking. Which kind of sounded bad. But it wasn’t as if he wanted to…to do anything to her (not anything she wasn’t willing to do, in any case), and besides he was a Slytherin and they could stalk people if they wanted to.
Charms was Ginny’s last lesson on Wednesdays, according to Bianca Zabini who shared the same class. Bianca was a Ravenclaw and a sweet girl, which was probably why Draco had never really warmed to her much. In potions, Draco told Snape he had to leave early to send an urgent owl because he’d forgotten his Mother’s birthday and realised that he wasn’t lying. He had, in fact, forgotten his mother’s birthday. Her present would have to wait, though because right now Draco was headed for the Charms corridor.
Ginny was the ninth person to leave the classroom. Hidden behind a row of Suits of Armour, Draco listened carefully as the fifth years passed him.
‘-But I have so much homework to catch up on,’ Ginny was protesting to someone.
‘We’ll stay in the library with you for a bit-’
‘Yeah, I’ve got a bit of research to do.’
‘I hate this year; the workload is so bloody impossible…’
As they rounded the corner, Draco followed from a distance.
*
He lurked in the library for ages, while Ginny and her friends finished up their homework. A group of Hufflepuffs were shooting him suspicious looks on account of the fact that Draco had been hanging around for over half an hour, hidden behind a row of shelves and had yet to pick up a single book.
He’d stayed so long now that he was sure that the blonde on the left had started flirting with him (which wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, but it was a guy who was winking at him) and Draco was on the verge of giving up altogether for that day when the scraping of chairs and goodbyes from Ginny’s table alerted him to the fact that her friends were finally leaving.
It was pure luck. It had been a while since Draco had thought of himself as lucky.
‘Afternoon, Weasley.’
Ginny looked up. She didn’t appear shocked to see him there.
‘I was wondering how much longer you were going to wait behind there.’
Draco wondered if the burning in his cheeks was showing up much. Probably. Stupid pale skin.
‘Is that why you stayed?’
She didn’t say anything, only narrowed her eyes. ‘What do you want, Malfoy?’
‘To help.’
This time Ginny did look shocked. ‘Help with what?’
‘The war. You know, vanquishing Voldemort and all that.’
Her expression had turned to horror. ‘I…how…what do you mean?’
‘In a few months, a lot of Slytherins are going to leave Hogwarts. Most, in fact, for whatever reason. Hogwarts will be targeted by the Death Eaters, I promise you. The rest of us…we want to help.’
It was a few more moments before Ginny could speak. ‘What are you saying, you want to join Dumbledore’s Army?’
Draco shrugged. ‘What, you have an initiation? We have to earn our shiny badges, or something?’
‘No,’ she scowled. ‘You’ll have to talk to Harry.’
‘Unfortunately.’
There was a scrape of her chair being pushed back and Ginny stood up. ‘Let’s go find him then.’
Draco hid a smile. She was trying to see if he would seriously go through with it, that he wasn’t just up to something sneaky. Unfortunately, Draco was very serious.
‘All right.’
They walked through the corridors in silence, Ginny leading quickly and never once glancing back. Just before they entered Gryffindor tower though, she made a decision to stop and face him.
‘If you’re actually going to help, along with your friends, how do we know to trust you?’
He stepped closer to her. ‘I think you do trust me.’
Draco brushed a strand of bright copper hair behind her ear as she stood, shocked into stillness. Unable to move as he leant in to say, ‘I believed you, remember?’
She breathed in sharply. ‘I didn’t know that was-’
‘Real? You’re not insane, Weasley.’
‘Yeah, but I’m starting to think you are,’ Ginny retorted.
He kissed her, a soft press of lips, just enough to taste that familiar scent. Apples and sunshine. Somehow they found their hands had moved after pulling away; his ended up tangled in her hair and hers resting on his shoulders.
‘You’re going to have to explain yourself,’ she said a little breathlessly.
That was when the portrait door swung open.
‘What the bloody hell is going on here?’ cried Harry.
*
Draco sighed. They were standing alone in the room of requirement, since after the proposal had been made clear to Harry he had insisted on speaking with Draco alone. Ginny, had grudgingly left them together but not before insisting they both give up their wands. No one needed to die quite yet, she’d said.
‘And why should I agree to this?’ asked Harry.
Gryffindors. God, were they dense. Obviously Draco was going to continue to be the rational one about all this. Dying could force you to really grow up.
‘Look, this is important. The war affects us all, it’s not like I just woke up one morning and thought Hey, you know what would be fun? Quality time with Potter.’
It had been a bit like that though…reflected Draco inwardly.
‘You realise that essentially you’re putting all your lives in my hands.’
‘Well, you’re the saviour, aren’t you?’ he drawled.
Draco put out his hand, and Harry just stared at it blankly.
‘I offered once before,’ said Draco pointedly, ‘and I meant it then too, but in a different way. I’m not asking you to be my friend now, Potter, I’m asking you to give us a chance. You might find us Slytherins come in useful at some point.’
This time, Harry’s hand grasped his.
‘Okay, Malfoy,’ he said. ‘You’re in.’
Draco raised an eyebrow. ‘That was a lot easier than I expected. I didn’t know you were so desperate.’
‘To win, yes,’ scowled Harry. ‘Although, there is one condition.’
‘You’re not going to give us awful matching tattoos, are you?’
‘No,’ he replied, disgusted. ‘Just…I have no idea what’s going on, and I really don’t want to know…but I think you should stay away from Ginny-’
‘WHAT!’ Draco grabbed the Gryffindor angrily by the collar of his robes. ‘Listen to me, you obnoxious prat-!’
‘You didn’t let me finish!’ protested Harry angrily. ‘Let go, would you!’
Draco released his grip without apologising.
‘What I meant,’ said the other boy with a glare, ‘was keep away from her when Ron’s around. Because I don’t think the other Slytherins would react too well if he ended up murdering you.’
Harry shot him a withering look that bugged Draco tremendously because it made him feel a little foolish.
‘…All right.’
‘What are you two-how did you? Oh, forget it.’ Harry shook his head and muttered, ‘Can’t understand what she sees in you...’
Draco smirked. ‘What are you talking about, Potter? I’m perfectly divine.’
He thought he heard a very faint bark of amusement from somewhere in the room.
~Fin~
Also, last night's VM episode was so great. I'm still smiling because of the brilliance of Logan/Veronica. Gotta love it when your OTPs are canon :D