♥ "Autograph" for baroness_black ♥
Title: Autograph
Author: paradise_loved
Rating: Light R
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: Post-DH, but none really.
Summary (if fic): Draco Malfoy begins to show up to some of Ginny Weasley's professional Quidditch games looking for something more than just an autograph.
Autograph
Ginny Weasley, to some degree, was always a little surprised when there was a line of fans waiting to meet her after Holyhead Harpies games. Sometimes little girls. Usually little girls, but sometimes some younger men, looking to ask her for a drink. Sometimes "far-removed" cousins. Sometimes her mother, checking up on her, just wanting to know if she needed anything in her flat.
And one time, Draco Malfoy.
He waited in line, behind all of the children and young men and other miscellaneous fans. The top of his very blond hair peaked over the crowd, but Ginny had been too distracted to notice. But when he looked her straight in the eye for the first time in two years, the look on his face was so devious that Ginny was more than a little surprised.
"Are you going to sign it?" he asked slowly. Draco held out a sheet of paper and a quill.
"I - "
"So you're not going to sign it," he answered, rolling his eyes.
"Look, what the hell are you doing here?" she snapped, unsure of anything else to say.
"I don't want to keep your fans waiting," he said, turning around so Ginny could see the line of little girls standing behind him. A small smile crept onto his face. "Besides, it's clear that you're in a rotten mood because you didn't score that winning goal. If you're going to be rude, I'll just go home."
Ginny felt her face grow bright red - almost the way Ron's used to when he was flustered or angry or both - and in a sudden bout of panic, exclaimed, "Yes! Go home. Please!"
Draco Malfoy grinned quite obnoxiously, and with a slight bow of his head, turned around and left the stadium.
Ginny paused for a moment, extremely put off, before bending down to finish signing the autographs. She finished relatively quickly, barely paying attention to anything anyone was saying, and hastily made her way to the showers. She let the warm water pour over her as she contemplated what had just happened. Aside from seeing Hermione and her family from time to time, she had been avoiding contact with most of her friends from Hogwarts. Post-war life was a little hectic, and there was no reason for her to make it worse by starting up new friendships and relationships.
Once she was clean and dressed, Ginny grabbed her uniform bag and purse, and walked quickly out of the locker room.
"Oy, Gin, want to get a victory drink?" one of her teammates shouted.
"No, sorry," she called back, avoiding eye contact. She made her way through the gates of the stadium, squinting at the bright summer sunlight. "I've got some things to do at home."
"Oh? Like what?" said a voice.
After startling so fiercely that she jumped nearly half a meter into the air, Ginny composed herself to turn and see Draco Malfoy yet again. He leaned against the outer stone wall of the stadium with a mischievous glint in his eye that couldn't help but remind her of Fred. Now that she noticed, he was in a thin sweater and a nice pair of dress pants.
"Don't worry about it," Ginny finally told him, readjusting her grip on her bag, as she continued to walk down the road. She tread softly, as she heard his shoes pounding on the ground behind her. "What do you want from me?" she called back to him.
"I just wanted an autograph," he said.
She whipped around to face him. "Really? You came all this way for an autograph?"
"No, I came all this way to see the game. Mind you the stands were a little less clean than I expected, but I assumed I could get an autograph for knowing the Holyhead Harpies' star Chaser to make up for that. I had no idea that within the last two years, you've become so awful to put up with," he explained, gesticulating obnoxiously. "Now then," he added, clapping her on the shoulder, "what's say you sign your name for me?"
Ginny stared at him for a moment: his eyes had grown softer since she had last seen him, and he looked much older in appearance. His blonde hair looked much less well-kempt. Well - his appearance in general looked much less well-kempt. He may have been dressed nicely, but it couldn't hide the fact that it look liked clothing Ron used to wear.
"Sod off, Malfoy," she sneered.
Ginny turned back around and started to walk away, but he grabbed her arm with such force that she reached for her wand. They stood for a few moments in that awkward position, as his hand didn't let go of her wrist, and her other hand gripped her wand.
"You probably should just call me Draco," he said.
"That's not necessary. I don't think we're that close," she joked.
"Listen - Weasley - I'm being serious now. Not all of us had our names go down in the History of Magic books when the war was through. Some of us don't exactly have the cleanest of reputations, all right? Draco is much less… suspicious than my surname, all right?" Draco explained earnestly.
"We're not in London, though," Ginny pointed out.
"It's all the same."
She put her wand back in her pocket, and he let go of her wrist.
"Well," he said, brushing off his pants, "this has been duly awkward. We should do this again sometime." Without another word, he turned around and walked away.
Ginny didn't give it another thought, and hastily made her way back to her flat down the road. She rushed into her flat and dug through her cabinets until she found her unopened bottle of Firewhisky. She poured herself a bit in a small juice glass and sat up on her kitchen counter. Ginny took a long, shuddering sigh and leaned against the wall behind her. "Well," she said, after a few more small sips, "that was bizarre."
*
Two games later, he showed up again, waiting in the exact same line for an autograph.
"Hello there," he greeted her cheerfully.
Ginny's eyes widened and she took a deep breath. "If you don’t get out of this line, I'm going to ask to have you banned from these games."
He looked at her.
"I'm serious," she added.
"Oh, well - in that case - I'll be on my way. Have a lovely day, Weasley," he told her, and walked away. "Oh!" he called back, turning around as he continued to walk backwards towards the entrance. "You played an excellent game."
Ginny grit her teeth and continued to sign the rest of the autographs. As she had expected, when she came through the entrance, he was standing against the stone wall waiting for her again.
"Really, now, this is just getting ridiculous," Ginny muttered to him.
"Only for you, maybe. I just came to see the game," he told her, throwing his hands up in the air.
Again, he was dressed in nice clothing - a nice collared shirt and all - and this time he had a binder with him. Draco didn't look quite as messy as he had the time before.
"Look, Draco, I'd really like to go home and enjoy a nice supper before going to bed early. I do have practice tomorrow morning, and I don’t have time to play these stupid games," she explained curtly. Ginny waited to see if he had anything to say, and when he didn't, she paused before adding, "Good night."
She began to walk away, before she heard him call out, "You know, I haven't actually had supper yet. Room for one more at your flat?"
"Will it get you to leave me alone?"
"It'll help."
"All right!" Ginny exclaimed. He caught up with her on the sidewalk and she turned to him. "This is exactly what I don't need at this time. You know that, right?" Draco simply grinned. "And you're going to carry my bag."
When they got back to her flat, he dumped her bag down with a fair amount of force that she was almost a bit surprised.
"They never made me carry things back at home, you know," he pointed out.
"Well, it doesn't hurt to start now," she quipped.
Draco walked over to the wall across from her kitchen table and stared at it. It was filled with clippings and articles from the Prophet about everyone they used to go to school with: Harry, Hermione, all of her family, Neville Longbottom, and all sorts of people. The articles ranged from headlines after the war to small marriage announcements. He glanced over them curiously, and finally turned around to see Ginny staring at him from across the table, her arms crossed.
"Are you through?"
"I was - er -I was just looking," he stammered. "Very interesting."
"What do you want for supper?" Ginny asked him softly.
"Are you actually asking what I want?"
"I thought I would do you a courtesy," she said. "Apparently that was a poor idea. I suppose I'll just make some chicken. I don't have a lot of food or anything. I usually eat out or just go over to a teammate's house."
"Oh, right," he said offhandedly, as he still looked back at her wall of articles. "So, chicken?"
"What do you want with me? What the fuck are you doing in Holyhead of all places?" Ginny said, frustrated.
"Look, why don't you," he paused, pointing towards the stove, "start cooking or something and then we can talk about this?"
She made some sort of unintelligible noise of disgust, and then made her way over to the oven to warm up some chicken she had bought the previous day. The two ignored each other as she cooked, though the occasional question came up about food preferences. Ginny was beginning to realize what a poor idea this had been, and it was making her efforts to distance herself from people like him seem rather pathetic.
"Do you have anything to drink that isn't water?" Draco asked.
"I have orange juice, water," she mentioned, taking the chicken out of the oven. A small pot with some day-old potato stew sat on the stove, simmering lightly.
"Anything a little - "
"Oh," Ginny realized. She decided to keep the Firewhisky a secret, but she told him, "I have some cheap Muggle wine on the counter over there."
He poured two glasses while she set the food on the table.
"You didn't have to pour me a glass," she told him. "I try not to drink."
"Oh, lighten up, Weasley," Draco laughed. "You can have one glass of wine. I'm sure it's not going to do anything to you. You were so much feistier back at Hogwarts when you used to hang off of Potter's arm. Whatever happened to you?"
"Maybe I'm just not as stupid as I was then," she replied, biting her lip. "Besides, I never drank at that point in my life, either. I don't understand how Harry is relevant to me not wanting a glass of wine."
"Good," he said with a grin. "I'm pouring you a glass then."
"Just one," Ginny warned him.
"Of course," he agreed.
The two served themselves and sat across from each other awkwardly.
"So what actually brings you to Holyhead?"
"Oh, you know, " Draco replied, waving his fork around, "just wanted to get away from London for a bit. I mean. I'm still living there and all. But I come here on weekends now - stay in the inn down the road - to see games and get a bit of country air."
"Is that so? Draco Malfoy, coming to enjoy the country? Holyhead could barely be considered proper country," she laughed, bemused. She took a few sips of the Muggle wine, which she found to be all too sweet and bland tasting.
"Actually, when I was growing up, I had quite a few more privileges than, say, someone like you. And my family had a small home out in the country. It brings back some lovely memories, being back here, you know, be it 'country' or not. It's much less metropolitan than London, and sometimes, you know, that could be appreciated," he explained.
"You're absolutely full of it."
"Am not."
"You are," Ginny insisted. "This wine is awful."
"So's your cooking," he snapped. "Do you have any stronger liquor?"
"No! I told you that I don't drink," she said, shaking her head.
"You don't even have Firewhisky? God, what kind of witch have you become?" Draco said, rolling his eyes. He got to his feet and began to rummage through her cabinets. In no time at all, he took out the nearly full bottle of Firewhisky with a triumphant shout. "You are incredibly full of shit! You tell me I'm full of it and you've got a clearly opened bottle of Firewhisky in your cabinet!"
"Stop!" Ginny shouted, jumping up from her chair. She attempted to wrestle the bottle out of his hands.
"So you drink?"
"Just - sometimes - with the teammates," she stammered. "It's nothing, really."
"Oh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "With your teammates? Ever get a little interesting? Some Chaser-on-Seeker snogging?"
Ginny scowled at him. "You're disgusting."
"You need to lighten up," Draco told her. He grabbed some juice glasses from a nearby cabinet and poured two glasses. "Now we can talk."
*
An hour later, she jumped up on the counter, her legs casually dangling over the side, and drank another small glass of Firewhisky.
"What is that, your fifth?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Fourth!" Ginny laughed. "How dare you suggest more than that!"
Draco walked over to her and stood between her two legs. He set his glass of wine down on the counter and placed both of his hands on her legs. She was surprised with the force that he held her thighs with, but chose not to say anything about it.
"You're a lot less rude when you're drunk, you know," Draco sneered.
"You're always rude," she pointed out. She looked down at his hands on her legs. "What are you doing?"
"Hm?"
"Touching me. You wouldn’t have dared trying that earlier."
"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just making sure you don't fall off that ledge and embarrass yourself."
"I'm not going to sleep with you," Ginny warned him, resting her arms over his shoulders.
He glanced to his right to see her hand lightly touching the back of his neck. "I wasn't planning on it."
She nodded slowly. "Good."
Without thinking in the least, she leaned forward and kissed him softly, but the moment her lips touched his, he tightened his grip on her thighs and took her mouth forcefully. He pulled her slightly off of the counter and closer to him, as her legs straddled his torso. His mouth tasted bitter and warm from the alcohol, but she didn't let it distract her for too long. Ginny let her hands brush through his hair, and Draco let out a slight groan when she did so. He moved his mouth from her lips to her neck, and slowly sucking and nipping at her skin.
"Shit," she said softly. "Draco - I - "
"Shut up," he told her, biting her neck softly.
Draco slid his arms under her legs and slowly lifted her into his arms. She tightened the grip of her legs around his waist as he carried her over to the table and, after hastily brushing dishes and wine glasses aside, set her down. Ginny sat up on the table and looked around. "Why is this any better?"
"Do you think your table could hold the weight of us both?" he whispered.
"I - you could just charm it," Ginny pointed out.
"Right," Draco said, shaking his head. He murmured some unintelligible charm and crawled on top of her as she lay back beneath him. His hands fumbled with the edge of her short-sleeved shirt, as Draco awkwardly slid it off of her. He pressed his mouth to her navel, licking and sucking at her stomach, slowly working his way up to the bottom edge of her bra.
"You are wearing quite a lot of clothes compared to me," she exclaimed, sitting up suddenly.
"Sorry," he apologized, leaning down to kiss her again.
She fell back under him as his tongue trailed along her bottom lip. Ginny's hands came up to cup his face, pulling his lips to hers. It was warm and drunken and bitter, but it was the realest thing she had felt since moving to Holyhead. It was in that realization that Ginny felt if as though she was coming to from a long sleep.
"Shit," she murmured again. "Draco."
"Just stop speaking," he instructed her, breathing warm air onto her ear.
"No," Ginny told him, sitting back up. She looked around on the table and grabbed her top, hiding herself behind it. "This was a stupid idea. You should go."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't even like you," she said, shaking her head. "No, this is really pathetic, Malfoy." She wrestled her way past him and off of the table. She threw her shirt back over her head and walked towards the door. "Seriously."
Draco backed away towards the door. He took his binder from desk by the door and gave a small wave. "I'm sorry. No need to have a fit, yeah? I didn't do anything to you."
"You know exactly what you did," Ginny told him.
"Fine, all right, bye!" he said, and slammed the door behind himself.
Ginny leaned against the side of the table when he was gone and took a deep breath. This had been exactly what she had been hoping to avoid.
*
For at least three weeks, she attempted to have things go back to normal. She threw away her Firewhisky, and rearranged some of the furniture in her flat (something that had become a hobby whenever she was angry). Ginny continued to go to practices and games, and thankfully, Draco Malfoy stopped showing up after those games.
It wasn't until the fourth week since the incident that Ginny swore she saw him holding that same binder and walking out of the entrance. She instructed the fans to find some other players, while she ran outside after him.
"Draco!"
He continued to walk, ignoring her completely, so she chased after him. Rain started to pour from the sky, but he stopped suddenly after she called his name for the third time. As soon as she latched onto his arm, there was that sickening squished feeling and they had Apparated away somewhere.
"Draco?" she asked, when she came to in some random apartment.
"What?" he asked, whipping around, nearly hitting her with the binder. "Oh, you didn't just Apparate with me, did you? Why can't you just go back to Holyhead?"
"Where the hell have you taken me?" Ginny asked, looking around. She noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a wall of newspapers much like her own. This one, however, had posts about former Death Eaters and other prosecuted Voldemort supporters. There was little on the actual victory that had occurred two years ago, but more on the loss his people had faced. There were photos of mugshots of his parents and all sorts of images like that.
"London… where I live?" He watched her as she stood staring at the clippings. "Ginny," Draco said shortly, "please get out of my home."
"Fine! Sorry!" she yelled, pinching the bridge of her nose the way Percy always did when he was stressed. Draco simply stared at her, his eyes wide and his face unreadable. Ginny almost asked him about the newspaper clippings, before insisting, "I'll just Apparate back!"
She closed her eyes and began to focus on the entry to the Quidditch stadium, but just as she felt her body tighten up, his hand grabbed her wrist.
The next thing Ginny knew, she was on her back in the empty and now-muddy Quidditch pitch of the Holyhead Harpies' stadium with Draco Malfoy awkwardly on top of her. Rain was pouring heavily, and Ginny could feel her back sinking into the soft, wet grass. Draco tried to grip the grass in order to push himself up, but he slipped and fell on top of her again.
"Gerroff," she groaned, finally clambering her way to feet. She began to walk out of the muddy stadium, arms crossed over her chest, as he raced after her.
"Look, we should probably talk about things, like why you decided to latch onto me and come back to my flat in London," Draco told her.
Ginny nodded slowly. "All right," she agreed, "but I'm not going to cook anything for you."
*
"I was trying to get you drunk, you know," Draco began, sipping at the tea she had made for them both.
Ginny stared at him.
"You were much too boring without Firewhisky. Much too uptight. A bit like the way Granger used to be, you know," he elaborated. Pausing, he added quickly, "And you kissed me."
"What were you even doing here?" she asked, avoiding eye contact by this point.
Draco shoved the wet binder towards her. "I'm investing, you see. I work for a company now. Yes, that's right," he said, noticing her expression of surprise, "I actually did get a job after the war. You see, I work for a wizard company who was interested in buying the Holyhead Harpies and bringing them to London. It's not an easy task, you know, but I told him I actually knew one of the players and I would see if I could convince her that it might be a good idea."
"And you got me drunk? And tried to seduce me?" she asked, growing more incredulous by the second.
"The plan was to get you drunk and just make you sign an agreement form saying that the team would look into it."
"Oh," Ginny realized. "You had just wanted the autograph?"
"Exactly."
"And then you were supposed to seduce me?"
"Er - " Draco chuckled, " - no, actually, I wasn't. Look, I came here with all the wrong intentions, and then I saw that brilliant wall of Prophet clippings that was quite similar to my own. I discovered that you were just like me. You cut off most of your connections with your old schoolmates, and you moved somewhere they could find you if they had to, but they rarely ever did. And you were content, just like me, to read about them as if you still knew them, without worrying about any of the old social dramas. I realized what I was doing was stupid, and I was going to back out my plan."
"I just didn't want to see them anymore. I wanted to get away from everything I had before the war, so I came out here. I was sick of all the romances and the strained friendships. I wanted to be on my own for a few years," she added. Suddenly, Ginny threw her arms up in frustration. "But you didn't back out of your plan! You still talked me into finding the Firewhisky."
"Oh, well, that was more out of pure curiosity. You were always quite attractive, and I was always a bit curious to see what exactly you had been giving Potter all those years," he added, smirking.
She bit her lip.
"Are you angry?" he asked, seemingly concerned. "What I actually meant was that I was simply physically attracted to you, but now I think you have an interesting personality too. Sometimes. More now than before."
"Angry?" Ginny laughed bitterly. "No, I'm absolutely the most confused witch on the planet right now. I do not understand this at all."
Draco thought for a moment. "I can draw you a picture?"
She scowled at him.
"Why aren't you hitting me right now?"
"You're sitting across the table. I don't feel like standing in my wet jeans."
"Let's try this, yeah? I'll come back a week from now to your next game, and maybe after the game, we'll go for supper. And then, if luck has it, we'll have some Firewhisky and actually shag on this kitchen table. Fair?"
"How is that even related?"
"All right," Draco said, nodding, "I can see I'm moving too quickly. How about I come back a week from now to your next game and ask you to supper? And you can say no. But I'll just keep coming back until you give me a fair shot at sleeping with you." He paused again. "You look like you haven't been shagged in a while."
"Thank you," Ginny said sarcastically.
"So it's a date?"
"It's not," she snapped. "I'm going to say no next week."
"All right," he said, standing from his chair. "I should get going back to London. I need to tell them to find another women's team to invest in for now. I'll see you in a week?"
"Please leave," Ginny begged.
Draco grinned again and grabbed his soggy folder from the table. He walked towards the door and turned the handle slowly. Before leaving, he dashed back and gave Ginny a quick kiss on the cheek, adding, "You'll get over yourself one day, hopefully." With that, he ran back out the door with a friendly wave.
Ginny glanced over at her wall of clippings and thought that perhaps, next week, she might actually say yes.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Briefly describe what you'd like to receive in your fic: A fairly happy, post-war fic depicting adult Ginny and Draco who really get to know each other for the first time because of some misunderstanding. They should discover some unusual and shared habit or hobby, but it doesn't need to be what brings them together and they share no previous relationship. An outdoor adventure or two would be great!
The tone/mood of the fic: Light on the angst, heavy on the humour. If they could poke fun at each other or be really sarcastic that'd be fun! Some post-war trauma or lingering unrest in the Wizarding World is cool but remember it's a happy little fic :)
An element/line of dialogue/object you would like in your fic: At some point they should
end up drenched, filthy, or splattered in something. Double points if it happens in public. Triple points if they fall to the ground in a tangled messy heap! :)
Preferred rating of the the fic you want: Anywhere between PG-13 and NC-17 is fine but please no PWP or extreme kink.
Canon or AU?Canon, but feel free to change or ignore details so long as Voldemort loses the war.
Deal Breakers (anything you don't want?): No HP/HG pairing, I really don't like that one... And no cross-over anything or song/poem fics, please.
Author: paradise_loved
Rating: Light R
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: Post-DH, but none really.
Summary (if fic): Draco Malfoy begins to show up to some of Ginny Weasley's professional Quidditch games looking for something more than just an autograph.
Autograph
Ginny Weasley, to some degree, was always a little surprised when there was a line of fans waiting to meet her after Holyhead Harpies games. Sometimes little girls. Usually little girls, but sometimes some younger men, looking to ask her for a drink. Sometimes "far-removed" cousins. Sometimes her mother, checking up on her, just wanting to know if she needed anything in her flat.
And one time, Draco Malfoy.
He waited in line, behind all of the children and young men and other miscellaneous fans. The top of his very blond hair peaked over the crowd, but Ginny had been too distracted to notice. But when he looked her straight in the eye for the first time in two years, the look on his face was so devious that Ginny was more than a little surprised.
"Are you going to sign it?" he asked slowly. Draco held out a sheet of paper and a quill.
"I - "
"So you're not going to sign it," he answered, rolling his eyes.
"Look, what the hell are you doing here?" she snapped, unsure of anything else to say.
"I don't want to keep your fans waiting," he said, turning around so Ginny could see the line of little girls standing behind him. A small smile crept onto his face. "Besides, it's clear that you're in a rotten mood because you didn't score that winning goal. If you're going to be rude, I'll just go home."
Ginny felt her face grow bright red - almost the way Ron's used to when he was flustered or angry or both - and in a sudden bout of panic, exclaimed, "Yes! Go home. Please!"
Draco Malfoy grinned quite obnoxiously, and with a slight bow of his head, turned around and left the stadium.
Ginny paused for a moment, extremely put off, before bending down to finish signing the autographs. She finished relatively quickly, barely paying attention to anything anyone was saying, and hastily made her way to the showers. She let the warm water pour over her as she contemplated what had just happened. Aside from seeing Hermione and her family from time to time, she had been avoiding contact with most of her friends from Hogwarts. Post-war life was a little hectic, and there was no reason for her to make it worse by starting up new friendships and relationships.
Once she was clean and dressed, Ginny grabbed her uniform bag and purse, and walked quickly out of the locker room.
"Oy, Gin, want to get a victory drink?" one of her teammates shouted.
"No, sorry," she called back, avoiding eye contact. She made her way through the gates of the stadium, squinting at the bright summer sunlight. "I've got some things to do at home."
"Oh? Like what?" said a voice.
After startling so fiercely that she jumped nearly half a meter into the air, Ginny composed herself to turn and see Draco Malfoy yet again. He leaned against the outer stone wall of the stadium with a mischievous glint in his eye that couldn't help but remind her of Fred. Now that she noticed, he was in a thin sweater and a nice pair of dress pants.
"Don't worry about it," Ginny finally told him, readjusting her grip on her bag, as she continued to walk down the road. She tread softly, as she heard his shoes pounding on the ground behind her. "What do you want from me?" she called back to him.
"I just wanted an autograph," he said.
She whipped around to face him. "Really? You came all this way for an autograph?"
"No, I came all this way to see the game. Mind you the stands were a little less clean than I expected, but I assumed I could get an autograph for knowing the Holyhead Harpies' star Chaser to make up for that. I had no idea that within the last two years, you've become so awful to put up with," he explained, gesticulating obnoxiously. "Now then," he added, clapping her on the shoulder, "what's say you sign your name for me?"
Ginny stared at him for a moment: his eyes had grown softer since she had last seen him, and he looked much older in appearance. His blonde hair looked much less well-kempt. Well - his appearance in general looked much less well-kempt. He may have been dressed nicely, but it couldn't hide the fact that it look liked clothing Ron used to wear.
"Sod off, Malfoy," she sneered.
Ginny turned back around and started to walk away, but he grabbed her arm with such force that she reached for her wand. They stood for a few moments in that awkward position, as his hand didn't let go of her wrist, and her other hand gripped her wand.
"You probably should just call me Draco," he said.
"That's not necessary. I don't think we're that close," she joked.
"Listen - Weasley - I'm being serious now. Not all of us had our names go down in the History of Magic books when the war was through. Some of us don't exactly have the cleanest of reputations, all right? Draco is much less… suspicious than my surname, all right?" Draco explained earnestly.
"We're not in London, though," Ginny pointed out.
"It's all the same."
She put her wand back in her pocket, and he let go of her wrist.
"Well," he said, brushing off his pants, "this has been duly awkward. We should do this again sometime." Without another word, he turned around and walked away.
Ginny didn't give it another thought, and hastily made her way back to her flat down the road. She rushed into her flat and dug through her cabinets until she found her unopened bottle of Firewhisky. She poured herself a bit in a small juice glass and sat up on her kitchen counter. Ginny took a long, shuddering sigh and leaned against the wall behind her. "Well," she said, after a few more small sips, "that was bizarre."
*
Two games later, he showed up again, waiting in the exact same line for an autograph.
"Hello there," he greeted her cheerfully.
Ginny's eyes widened and she took a deep breath. "If you don’t get out of this line, I'm going to ask to have you banned from these games."
He looked at her.
"I'm serious," she added.
"Oh, well - in that case - I'll be on my way. Have a lovely day, Weasley," he told her, and walked away. "Oh!" he called back, turning around as he continued to walk backwards towards the entrance. "You played an excellent game."
Ginny grit her teeth and continued to sign the rest of the autographs. As she had expected, when she came through the entrance, he was standing against the stone wall waiting for her again.
"Really, now, this is just getting ridiculous," Ginny muttered to him.
"Only for you, maybe. I just came to see the game," he told her, throwing his hands up in the air.
Again, he was dressed in nice clothing - a nice collared shirt and all - and this time he had a binder with him. Draco didn't look quite as messy as he had the time before.
"Look, Draco, I'd really like to go home and enjoy a nice supper before going to bed early. I do have practice tomorrow morning, and I don’t have time to play these stupid games," she explained curtly. Ginny waited to see if he had anything to say, and when he didn't, she paused before adding, "Good night."
She began to walk away, before she heard him call out, "You know, I haven't actually had supper yet. Room for one more at your flat?"
"Will it get you to leave me alone?"
"It'll help."
"All right!" Ginny exclaimed. He caught up with her on the sidewalk and she turned to him. "This is exactly what I don't need at this time. You know that, right?" Draco simply grinned. "And you're going to carry my bag."
When they got back to her flat, he dumped her bag down with a fair amount of force that she was almost a bit surprised.
"They never made me carry things back at home, you know," he pointed out.
"Well, it doesn't hurt to start now," she quipped.
Draco walked over to the wall across from her kitchen table and stared at it. It was filled with clippings and articles from the Prophet about everyone they used to go to school with: Harry, Hermione, all of her family, Neville Longbottom, and all sorts of people. The articles ranged from headlines after the war to small marriage announcements. He glanced over them curiously, and finally turned around to see Ginny staring at him from across the table, her arms crossed.
"Are you through?"
"I was - er -I was just looking," he stammered. "Very interesting."
"What do you want for supper?" Ginny asked him softly.
"Are you actually asking what I want?"
"I thought I would do you a courtesy," she said. "Apparently that was a poor idea. I suppose I'll just make some chicken. I don't have a lot of food or anything. I usually eat out or just go over to a teammate's house."
"Oh, right," he said offhandedly, as he still looked back at her wall of articles. "So, chicken?"
"What do you want with me? What the fuck are you doing in Holyhead of all places?" Ginny said, frustrated.
"Look, why don't you," he paused, pointing towards the stove, "start cooking or something and then we can talk about this?"
She made some sort of unintelligible noise of disgust, and then made her way over to the oven to warm up some chicken she had bought the previous day. The two ignored each other as she cooked, though the occasional question came up about food preferences. Ginny was beginning to realize what a poor idea this had been, and it was making her efforts to distance herself from people like him seem rather pathetic.
"Do you have anything to drink that isn't water?" Draco asked.
"I have orange juice, water," she mentioned, taking the chicken out of the oven. A small pot with some day-old potato stew sat on the stove, simmering lightly.
"Anything a little - "
"Oh," Ginny realized. She decided to keep the Firewhisky a secret, but she told him, "I have some cheap Muggle wine on the counter over there."
He poured two glasses while she set the food on the table.
"You didn't have to pour me a glass," she told him. "I try not to drink."
"Oh, lighten up, Weasley," Draco laughed. "You can have one glass of wine. I'm sure it's not going to do anything to you. You were so much feistier back at Hogwarts when you used to hang off of Potter's arm. Whatever happened to you?"
"Maybe I'm just not as stupid as I was then," she replied, biting her lip. "Besides, I never drank at that point in my life, either. I don't understand how Harry is relevant to me not wanting a glass of wine."
"Good," he said with a grin. "I'm pouring you a glass then."
"Just one," Ginny warned him.
"Of course," he agreed.
The two served themselves and sat across from each other awkwardly.
"So what actually brings you to Holyhead?"
"Oh, you know, " Draco replied, waving his fork around, "just wanted to get away from London for a bit. I mean. I'm still living there and all. But I come here on weekends now - stay in the inn down the road - to see games and get a bit of country air."
"Is that so? Draco Malfoy, coming to enjoy the country? Holyhead could barely be considered proper country," she laughed, bemused. She took a few sips of the Muggle wine, which she found to be all too sweet and bland tasting.
"Actually, when I was growing up, I had quite a few more privileges than, say, someone like you. And my family had a small home out in the country. It brings back some lovely memories, being back here, you know, be it 'country' or not. It's much less metropolitan than London, and sometimes, you know, that could be appreciated," he explained.
"You're absolutely full of it."
"Am not."
"You are," Ginny insisted. "This wine is awful."
"So's your cooking," he snapped. "Do you have any stronger liquor?"
"No! I told you that I don't drink," she said, shaking her head.
"You don't even have Firewhisky? God, what kind of witch have you become?" Draco said, rolling his eyes. He got to his feet and began to rummage through her cabinets. In no time at all, he took out the nearly full bottle of Firewhisky with a triumphant shout. "You are incredibly full of shit! You tell me I'm full of it and you've got a clearly opened bottle of Firewhisky in your cabinet!"
"Stop!" Ginny shouted, jumping up from her chair. She attempted to wrestle the bottle out of his hands.
"So you drink?"
"Just - sometimes - with the teammates," she stammered. "It's nothing, really."
"Oh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "With your teammates? Ever get a little interesting? Some Chaser-on-Seeker snogging?"
Ginny scowled at him. "You're disgusting."
"You need to lighten up," Draco told her. He grabbed some juice glasses from a nearby cabinet and poured two glasses. "Now we can talk."
*
An hour later, she jumped up on the counter, her legs casually dangling over the side, and drank another small glass of Firewhisky.
"What is that, your fifth?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Fourth!" Ginny laughed. "How dare you suggest more than that!"
Draco walked over to her and stood between her two legs. He set his glass of wine down on the counter and placed both of his hands on her legs. She was surprised with the force that he held her thighs with, but chose not to say anything about it.
"You're a lot less rude when you're drunk, you know," Draco sneered.
"You're always rude," she pointed out. She looked down at his hands on her legs. "What are you doing?"
"Hm?"
"Touching me. You wouldn’t have dared trying that earlier."
"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just making sure you don't fall off that ledge and embarrass yourself."
"I'm not going to sleep with you," Ginny warned him, resting her arms over his shoulders.
He glanced to his right to see her hand lightly touching the back of his neck. "I wasn't planning on it."
She nodded slowly. "Good."
Without thinking in the least, she leaned forward and kissed him softly, but the moment her lips touched his, he tightened his grip on her thighs and took her mouth forcefully. He pulled her slightly off of the counter and closer to him, as her legs straddled his torso. His mouth tasted bitter and warm from the alcohol, but she didn't let it distract her for too long. Ginny let her hands brush through his hair, and Draco let out a slight groan when she did so. He moved his mouth from her lips to her neck, and slowly sucking and nipping at her skin.
"Shit," she said softly. "Draco - I - "
"Shut up," he told her, biting her neck softly.
Draco slid his arms under her legs and slowly lifted her into his arms. She tightened the grip of her legs around his waist as he carried her over to the table and, after hastily brushing dishes and wine glasses aside, set her down. Ginny sat up on the table and looked around. "Why is this any better?"
"Do you think your table could hold the weight of us both?" he whispered.
"I - you could just charm it," Ginny pointed out.
"Right," Draco said, shaking his head. He murmured some unintelligible charm and crawled on top of her as she lay back beneath him. His hands fumbled with the edge of her short-sleeved shirt, as Draco awkwardly slid it off of her. He pressed his mouth to her navel, licking and sucking at her stomach, slowly working his way up to the bottom edge of her bra.
"You are wearing quite a lot of clothes compared to me," she exclaimed, sitting up suddenly.
"Sorry," he apologized, leaning down to kiss her again.
She fell back under him as his tongue trailed along her bottom lip. Ginny's hands came up to cup his face, pulling his lips to hers. It was warm and drunken and bitter, but it was the realest thing she had felt since moving to Holyhead. It was in that realization that Ginny felt if as though she was coming to from a long sleep.
"Shit," she murmured again. "Draco."
"Just stop speaking," he instructed her, breathing warm air onto her ear.
"No," Ginny told him, sitting back up. She looked around on the table and grabbed her top, hiding herself behind it. "This was a stupid idea. You should go."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't even like you," she said, shaking her head. "No, this is really pathetic, Malfoy." She wrestled her way past him and off of the table. She threw her shirt back over her head and walked towards the door. "Seriously."
Draco backed away towards the door. He took his binder from desk by the door and gave a small wave. "I'm sorry. No need to have a fit, yeah? I didn't do anything to you."
"You know exactly what you did," Ginny told him.
"Fine, all right, bye!" he said, and slammed the door behind himself.
Ginny leaned against the side of the table when he was gone and took a deep breath. This had been exactly what she had been hoping to avoid.
*
For at least three weeks, she attempted to have things go back to normal. She threw away her Firewhisky, and rearranged some of the furniture in her flat (something that had become a hobby whenever she was angry). Ginny continued to go to practices and games, and thankfully, Draco Malfoy stopped showing up after those games.
It wasn't until the fourth week since the incident that Ginny swore she saw him holding that same binder and walking out of the entrance. She instructed the fans to find some other players, while she ran outside after him.
"Draco!"
He continued to walk, ignoring her completely, so she chased after him. Rain started to pour from the sky, but he stopped suddenly after she called his name for the third time. As soon as she latched onto his arm, there was that sickening squished feeling and they had Apparated away somewhere.
"Draco?" she asked, when she came to in some random apartment.
"What?" he asked, whipping around, nearly hitting her with the binder. "Oh, you didn't just Apparate with me, did you? Why can't you just go back to Holyhead?"
"Where the hell have you taken me?" Ginny asked, looking around. She noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a wall of newspapers much like her own. This one, however, had posts about former Death Eaters and other prosecuted Voldemort supporters. There was little on the actual victory that had occurred two years ago, but more on the loss his people had faced. There were photos of mugshots of his parents and all sorts of images like that.
"London… where I live?" He watched her as she stood staring at the clippings. "Ginny," Draco said shortly, "please get out of my home."
"Fine! Sorry!" she yelled, pinching the bridge of her nose the way Percy always did when he was stressed. Draco simply stared at her, his eyes wide and his face unreadable. Ginny almost asked him about the newspaper clippings, before insisting, "I'll just Apparate back!"
She closed her eyes and began to focus on the entry to the Quidditch stadium, but just as she felt her body tighten up, his hand grabbed her wrist.
The next thing Ginny knew, she was on her back in the empty and now-muddy Quidditch pitch of the Holyhead Harpies' stadium with Draco Malfoy awkwardly on top of her. Rain was pouring heavily, and Ginny could feel her back sinking into the soft, wet grass. Draco tried to grip the grass in order to push himself up, but he slipped and fell on top of her again.
"Gerroff," she groaned, finally clambering her way to feet. She began to walk out of the muddy stadium, arms crossed over her chest, as he raced after her.
"Look, we should probably talk about things, like why you decided to latch onto me and come back to my flat in London," Draco told her.
Ginny nodded slowly. "All right," she agreed, "but I'm not going to cook anything for you."
*
"I was trying to get you drunk, you know," Draco began, sipping at the tea she had made for them both.
Ginny stared at him.
"You were much too boring without Firewhisky. Much too uptight. A bit like the way Granger used to be, you know," he elaborated. Pausing, he added quickly, "And you kissed me."
"What were you even doing here?" she asked, avoiding eye contact by this point.
Draco shoved the wet binder towards her. "I'm investing, you see. I work for a company now. Yes, that's right," he said, noticing her expression of surprise, "I actually did get a job after the war. You see, I work for a wizard company who was interested in buying the Holyhead Harpies and bringing them to London. It's not an easy task, you know, but I told him I actually knew one of the players and I would see if I could convince her that it might be a good idea."
"And you got me drunk? And tried to seduce me?" she asked, growing more incredulous by the second.
"The plan was to get you drunk and just make you sign an agreement form saying that the team would look into it."
"Oh," Ginny realized. "You had just wanted the autograph?"
"Exactly."
"And then you were supposed to seduce me?"
"Er - " Draco chuckled, " - no, actually, I wasn't. Look, I came here with all the wrong intentions, and then I saw that brilliant wall of Prophet clippings that was quite similar to my own. I discovered that you were just like me. You cut off most of your connections with your old schoolmates, and you moved somewhere they could find you if they had to, but they rarely ever did. And you were content, just like me, to read about them as if you still knew them, without worrying about any of the old social dramas. I realized what I was doing was stupid, and I was going to back out my plan."
"I just didn't want to see them anymore. I wanted to get away from everything I had before the war, so I came out here. I was sick of all the romances and the strained friendships. I wanted to be on my own for a few years," she added. Suddenly, Ginny threw her arms up in frustration. "But you didn't back out of your plan! You still talked me into finding the Firewhisky."
"Oh, well, that was more out of pure curiosity. You were always quite attractive, and I was always a bit curious to see what exactly you had been giving Potter all those years," he added, smirking.
She bit her lip.
"Are you angry?" he asked, seemingly concerned. "What I actually meant was that I was simply physically attracted to you, but now I think you have an interesting personality too. Sometimes. More now than before."
"Angry?" Ginny laughed bitterly. "No, I'm absolutely the most confused witch on the planet right now. I do not understand this at all."
Draco thought for a moment. "I can draw you a picture?"
She scowled at him.
"Why aren't you hitting me right now?"
"You're sitting across the table. I don't feel like standing in my wet jeans."
"Let's try this, yeah? I'll come back a week from now to your next game, and maybe after the game, we'll go for supper. And then, if luck has it, we'll have some Firewhisky and actually shag on this kitchen table. Fair?"
"How is that even related?"
"All right," Draco said, nodding, "I can see I'm moving too quickly. How about I come back a week from now to your next game and ask you to supper? And you can say no. But I'll just keep coming back until you give me a fair shot at sleeping with you." He paused again. "You look like you haven't been shagged in a while."
"Thank you," Ginny said sarcastically.
"So it's a date?"
"It's not," she snapped. "I'm going to say no next week."
"All right," he said, standing from his chair. "I should get going back to London. I need to tell them to find another women's team to invest in for now. I'll see you in a week?"
"Please leave," Ginny begged.
Draco grinned again and grabbed his soggy folder from the table. He walked towards the door and turned the handle slowly. Before leaving, he dashed back and gave Ginny a quick kiss on the cheek, adding, "You'll get over yourself one day, hopefully." With that, he ran back out the door with a friendly wave.
Ginny glanced over at her wall of clippings and thought that perhaps, next week, she might actually say yes.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Briefly describe what you'd like to receive in your fic: A fairly happy, post-war fic depicting adult Ginny and Draco who really get to know each other for the first time because of some misunderstanding. They should discover some unusual and shared habit or hobby, but it doesn't need to be what brings them together and they share no previous relationship. An outdoor adventure or two would be great!
The tone/mood of the fic: Light on the angst, heavy on the humour. If they could poke fun at each other or be really sarcastic that'd be fun! Some post-war trauma or lingering unrest in the Wizarding World is cool but remember it's a happy little fic :)
An element/line of dialogue/object you would like in your fic: At some point they should
end up drenched, filthy, or splattered in something. Double points if it happens in public. Triple points if they fall to the ground in a tangled messy heap! :)
Preferred rating of the the fic you want: Anywhere between PG-13 and NC-17 is fine but please no PWP or extreme kink.
Canon or AU?Canon, but feel free to change or ignore details so long as Voldemort loses the war.
Deal Breakers (anything you don't want?): No HP/HG pairing, I really don't like that one... And no cross-over anything or song/poem fics, please.